Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Chapter 171: Slaying the Juggernaut

The Juggernaut was an exceptionally large and dreadful monster, one fully capable of destroying entire settlements of awakened survivors. A Tier II Horde King like Bartholomew had very few of such powerful servants to call forth into battle. And to lose one would be a significant blow to the stability of his reign.

Normally, such behemoths would be accompanied by a variety of lesser undead minions. But Zane and the girls had made quick work of those who dwelled in their immediate vicinity. And it was perhaps because they had killed so many undead so quickly that a juggernaut was dispatched to deal with them.

After all, barring Zane and his party, what survivors within this world had the strength to take on a Juggernaut? They were few and far between, to say the least. Zane did an excellent job of keeping aggro on the monstrosity, using his superior speed and agility to kite around the creature, leading it to the others who would attack it with all their strength.

Immediately Elena cast her skill. Though she was not yet powerful enough to fully slow the Juggernaut to a stop, she did manage to lower its speed significantly. And in doing so, allowing Olivia to cast her terrifying thunderclap upon it.

The lightning fell from the sky like a pillar, dropping onto the mighty Juggernaut, and though it scorched the creature's rotting flesh black, it did not manage to fully turn it into ash. At the same time, Lily manipulated the local wildlife to grasp onto the Juggernauts limbs, restraining it in place while Zane's small undead horde launched an offensive against the clearly superior foe.

Zane himself took a step back as he stood on the edge of a building, switching to his bow, drawing back the arrow and aiming it directly to the beast's eye. The arrow flew through the air, striking the behemoth directly in its eye, and blinding one of the two it had.

The monster's howl of pain was long. After all, it was slowed down in everything it did, including how it reacted to the repeated attacks it was suffering, which, from its own perspective, were happening far faster than they should be.

After shooting all of his arrows into the mighty creature, lowering its health significantly in the process, Zane switched to his two short swords and jumped after the monster, cutting up its body with his rapid movement.

The sheer volume of coagulated blood which oozed from the fresh wounds would have been enough to flood the streets, that is if it wasn't already congealed like gelatin. Elena also assisted Zane, leading the undead Swordsman that Zane had temporarily lent her control over to attack the legs of the Juggernaut which were bound by Lily's flora.

Eventually, however, Elena's skill wore off, and time reset itself for the Juggernaut. Causing it to violently flail about, breaking free from its restraints as it lashed out with overwhelming violence. Pounding the streets below. And in doing so, smashing several dozen of Zane's undead servants into meat paste.

The juggernaut then howled so loudly that it echoed across the city's streets. Clearly, it was calling for reinforcements. And knowing this, Zane understood they did not have much more time until they were overrun by the undead.

Thus, after checking on the condition of his party members, who were quick enough to escape the Juggernaut's viscous attacks Zane launched another series of strikes, in fact this time he leaped from one roof top directly towards the monster's large and broad chest.

Zane's plan was to simply create a whirlwind affect with his short swords as he barreled straight through the creature's heart, dealing significant damage to it as he did so. And just like a living bullet, this is exactly what Zane did.

He had pierced through the chest of the monster so quickly, that Elena and the others did not witness the sheer volume of carnage he caused as he dug his way through the body of the beast, covering himself in blood and bile as he did so.

When Zane emerged on the other side, he looked as if he were a reaper who had bathed himself in a river of blood. The giant hole in the chest of the juggernaut was the final blow. The creature fell to the ground, suffering its second death.

After so much damage inflicted upon it by Zane, the girls, and Zane's undead servants, the mighty juggernaut had finally fallen. Luckily for Zane, his system was set to auto-loot, where he looted not only the Tier V blood crystal of the monster but also his arrows, the equipment of his fallen servants, and a variety of crafting materials.

While his horde had taken the brunt of the damage, the girls who fought by Zane's side were practically unscathed, at most suffering minor lacerations from the chunks of pavement and cement that went flying when the Juggernaut smashed the earth beneath its feet.

However, Zane and the others did not have time to celebrate, instead they had larger problems to worry about. The death of a Juggernaut alerted Bartholomew to Zane's presence, and the Tier II Horde King himself was coming directly to find the man responsible for the death of one of his most powerful servants.

It was at this moment Zane received a warning. The familiar voice in the back of his head warned him that he and the women by his side needed to flee, and Zane was not one to disagree with the voice.

"He is coming… Flee now if you wish to survive!"

Because of this, Zane ordered his surviving Undead Servants to disappear, which they did so in a flash of purple fire. Once they had done this, Zane yelled at the girls, already sprinting away towards their vehicle, which was parked nearby.

"We need to go now!"

The women did not question Zane and instead sprinting off after him. Well, all of them except for Lily did. After all, she was the newest, and did not quite understand Zane's so called "sixth sense" or its repeated ability to save them from impending doom. Instead, she looked dumbfounded as the group ran towards the car.

At least for a few seconds before she realized she was left alone. When that happened, she quickly followed the group while panicked and screaming at them not to abandon her.

"Wait! Wait for me!"

Lily just barely got inside the armored Humvee in time for them to take off and escape from Bartholomew. Who arrived at the scene afterwards, gazing at the destruction that his own forces at suffered at the hands of Zane with a look on his face that made it appear as if he had just eaten something foul.

---

Once Zane and the others were long beyond Bartholomew's means of catching them, Zane decided to look at his own system. Where he saw how many of his Undead Horde Remained. In truth, most of them were completely obliterated by the Juggernaut's tantrum.

Out of his three hundred undead, he had roughly fifty remaining. But the experience he had gained for the incident that could be used to upgrade the Undead was applied to the party, not the individual servants.

Because of this, Zane had earned enough XP to upgrade all fifty surviving Undead Spearmen to level three. Which while this wasn't exactly much, it was two levels away from being able to upgrade them to Tier II.

Zane honestly did not know if, when they were upgraded to Tier II if these Undead Spearmen would suddenly become Howlers and Leapers, or something else entirely. But he desperately wanted to see what they would evolve into.

And while Zane was reflecting on this, Olivia finally spoke about the battle they had just concluded moments prior.

"I never thought we would be able to kill a Juggernaut…. Somehow I thought the fight would be far more fearsome…"

Zane, however, did not agree with Olivia's statement, despite the rest of the women in the car agreeing with it. In fact, he lectured her about why it felt so easy compared to how they perceived it should have been.

"Back when we first encountered that thing, we were all much less powerful than we are now. I myself am at a level roughly on a par with the Juggernaut. With the five of us combined, we should have no problem killing such a monster. Albeit we would probably suffer some damage.

But thanks to my second skill, we can effectively use my servants as meat shields, forcing the juggernaut to focus its damage on them. It's only natural the battle would be easy, even if it was a little bit drawn out due to how tanky that thing was…

Besides, we were lucky to have cleared the area of the undead beforehand. Can you imagine if we had to fight that thing while worrying about thousands of lower tier undead? Including Abominations, and Stalkers? That would have been much more difficult.

I think the local Horde King did not expect us to be able to take on a juggernaut, and thus sent it without reinforcements because he expected it would make short work of us. That is, however, a mistake I doubt they will make twice…"

Zane's words made sense to Olivia and the others, and because of this, they could only silently reflect on what the man had said for the rest of the trip back to Gravestone.