My OP Minion System in the Apocalypse

Chapter 44 A Night In A Different Settlement

With much less manpower than normal, I had to think of a different strategy for the night.

This settlement was quite large, meaning there would be no way to stop the zombies from coming in entirely—so patrolling the border was not an option. The only other option was to allow the zombies to come in and to fight in and around the various huts that they had. It would be like guerilla warfare except against zombies.

I decided to keep Chloe and my Elites close by at all times to minimise the amount of space we would take up. Our best plan was to either continuously whittle them down until they eventually die out or to just stall until daytime. There was also a chance that a special zombie might appear, however, that would actually be beneficial for us as it is much easier to fight one decently strong enemy than to fight a hoard of weaker zombies.

As night came along, I quickly cooked some meat on a fire and we had a very brief dinner. There wasn't really much reinforcement we could do since the huts were so weak that it would hardly make a difference. It was very likely that we weren't going to be getting any sleep tonight.

As the area got darker, I lit the biggest fire I could in their central firepit to provide the entire with light. The huts cast large menacing shadows on their opposite sides, however, aside from that, the fire was enough to illuminate most of the settlement. Eventually, the sound of zombies in the distance became louder and louder.

I ordered Knight to start shooting at them, however, I wasn't going to engage them in close quarters combat until they were really starting to pile up and overrun us. It wasn't worth the energy to try to cut them down while they were just around the border.

"Are we going to wait for them to come to us?"

"That's basically the strategy."

Chloe also pulled out her [Platinum Bow] and began shooting at the zombies. Her aim had drastically increased since the first time I got her to use a bow. Her growth was scarily fast, she was almost as skilled as Elrich with the bow. Nearly every single one of her shots hit a zombie in the head, splattering their rotten heads and causing them to tumble to the ground.

"Hehe, how am I with the bow now?"

"You're pretty good."

"Thanks~"

With more motivation, she continued to shoot down the zombies, slowly whittling away at their front line. However, with just bows alone, they were eventually going to reach a density where we can't stop them.

I still had two grenades in my inventory that I collected from the man who was living with us for a little while. They could be used in an emergency but I wanted to keep them for as long as possible, such grenades are really valuable in such a place, especially with no modern weapons.

After a few minutes, the zombies began closing the distance between us.

"Alright, let's get a move on."

As a group, we began sneaking through the settlement. If possible, I wanted to lure as many zombies as I could into a single and try to cut them down with [Mayuri-Luc-Ei]. My arms were already somewhat stiff from the first time I used her power but I could probably sustain another without suffering too much.

We snuck around the side of the huts, carefully observing our surroundings. I ordered Knight to shoot any zombies which were too close for comfort.

We managed to move around the camp, luring the zombies behind us. With Rook and Bishop taking care of any zombies which may be lurking in front of us, we were relatively safe for the time being.

Suddenly, I was ambushed by a crawling zombie. It immediately jumped up at me, aiming straight for my neck. Its disgusting body and decaying flesh were extremely pungent up close. It moved erratically and lunged straight for me.

Reacting quickly, Chloe cut it down with her [Platinum Sword], slicing the zombie in half, the rotten blood splattered all over the ground.

I decided to stop around the back of several huts. There were a few paths for zombies to close in but the relatively narrow paths should make it easier to cull them. The zombies were definitely strong enough to break down the weak, fimble huts if they really wanted to, however, if we didn't actually stay inside them, there was a good chance that they would just try to go around.

I stationed Bishop and Rook at a channel each and Chloe and I watched the other few. Knight continued to shoot away at the zombies as they gradually approached.

There were a few more crawling zombies which rapidly approached us. Chloe drew her sword and so did I. As the zombies got closer, I raised [Mayuri-Luc-Ei] and cut them down as quickly as I could. It was still somewhat difficult to hit the unpredictable crawling zombies however the lightness of the sword meant that I had time to recover even if I miss the first shot. Eventually, we managed to clear the first wave of crawling zombies which bought us some more time. Without them, the battlefield felt a lot less urgent.

However, several minutes later, the zombies once again began grouping up and began pushing in at a rate faster than what my Elites could handle.

"Chloe, I'm going to swing, watch out."

"Okie~"

As she moved out of the way, I concentrated my thoughts and tensed my body as I held [Mayuri-Luc-Ei] in front of me; I held onto the grip as hard as I could.

Cut them down, Mayuri.

A thick aura gathered around the blade.

I aimed as precisely as I could to try to hit as many zombies as I could. I assumed that it was strong enough to cut them down in a single strike. As the shockwave of air travelled towards them, an entire row of zombies was sent crashing to the ground, taking with them some zombies behind.