Chapter 259: Corpse Walker
Jacob couldn’t begin to fathom the size of the dead body lying in front of him. His brain hurt simply trying to imagine it alive and moving around the land.
"This whole time we’ve been walking towards a corpse?!"
Slimo crossed his arms and tried to stare at the highest point he could find.
"Seems like it. It looks like its head was propped up on something when it died. The highest point will most likely be up there."
"I don’t think this is a good idea guys."
Everyone turned around and stared at Maria.
"Why?"
"It’s just a little odd to me that there can be something this massive just lying around without any creatures nearby."
Maria brought up an excellent point. Giant corpses for monsters meant giant feasts. If that was the case, where were all the creatures? Slimo took a moment to respond.
"We’ll risk it. Everyone, stay close to each other."
"Is seeing the landscape really that important?!"
Slimo nodded his head.
"Yes. After seeing this body, I’m even more convinced. What do you think could have taken out someone this large? Do you think a measly monster or beast could have done that? No. This person had to have been killed by a leviathan at minimum. And as we are right now, we don’t even come close to defeating such a creature. The only reason we survived the worm attacks were because they turned on each other."
Maria wanted to argue, but she decided against it. It was clear that no one would be capable of changing his mind.
"However, you brought up a good point. I don’t want anyone wandering off for any reason. Understand?"
Everyone nodded their head in response.
"Good. Now let’s not waste any more time and start climbing. I hope you all rested those muscles enough because this may take a while."
Jacob dreaded having to climb the side of a giant corpse. It wasn’t that he wasn’t strong enough to do so, it was simply because something felt wrong about disturbing this corpse. He knew that he wouldn’t want someone to climb his dead body like some sort of landmark when he passed. However, their options were too few to try another way. After reaching the side of its body, Slimo was the first one to throw two daggers into the rotten flesh and use them to climb its side. Everyone followed his lead with small knives of their own.
Jacob gagged as he continued throwing his knives into the flesh. The smell emanating off the corpse was an otherworldly kind of gross. It felt like his brain could someone taste what the flesh smelt like. It was taking a lot in him to not vomit.
’I should have made myself some nose plugs. This is rancid.’
After about thirty minutes of climbing, everyone reached a small portion of broken cloth that the dead person was still wearing. The hole was just large enough for every person to squish together to rest their arms and back.
"Slimo, I understand this was one of the only options, but I think I’m going to kill you if we somehow survive this. My nose is stinging from this smell."
Slimo patted Maria on the head playfully.
"Relax! It’s not even that bad! Just try not to think about it and you will be fine."
Maria grabbed him by his collar and pulled him close. Somehow, even with her Zalo gone, Maria would manage to find an extraordinary amount of strength when it came to threatening Jacob or Slimo.
"I promise you I will break your nose if I hear you say that again."
Slimo raised his hands and slowly squeezed himself closer to Lidia.
"I’m sorry."
Suddenly, a muffled screeching could be heard from somewhere around them. Slimo raised his hand and looked below them to see where the sound was coming from. It continued to screech, but the more Slimo looked over the vast landscape, the more confused he got. There was nothing but the empty river and beach in front of them.
"Anyone see anything?"
Jacob lifted his head when another screech sounded. He looked at the wall of flesh close to his head and pressed his ear against its mushy surface. Suddenly, a thin claw shot out of the flesh and wrapped around Jacob’s face, pulling him into the body. Luckily, he was holding on to Maria, so he wasn’t going in alone. Slimo turned around and saw what had happened. However, before he could jump in after them, dozens of claws shredded through the flesh and wrapped around everyone, pulling them into the pitch-black corpse.
Jacob landed into a squishy pile of an unknown substance. Maria landed on top of him, causing another splatter of goo to shoot all around. Whatever had grabbed hold of him was now somewhere in the darkness. Jacob panicked slightly when his left eye couldn’t see anything, but luckily, his right eye wasn’t normal. And that went for Maria too. Both of them shot up and took out their weapon. Maria’s spear hummed with power, readying itself for another slaughter. Jacob reached for his sword and grasped at air. He looked at his waist in horror.
’Wait a moment... when was the last time my sword was in my belt?!’
Unfortunately, Jacob would have to take on this fight with nothing but his hands. Their eyes didn’t necessarily give Jacob and Maria night vision, but there was something that seemed to have change with how their eye worked. It was now able to read the data of monsters as well. However, this didn’t mean they could see the creatures, only the words that appeared next to them. So, they were still at an incredible disadvantage. Jacob and Maria walked back-to-back to cover the most amount of space possible so neither of them could be blind-sided.
"What the hell kind of creature lives inside a corpse? This is disgusting."
"You can say that again. We just bathed too."
"You better not get injured again. Lidia and I will both be pissed. At least wait until we have a proper doctor with us!"
"We may not be afforded that luxury. And by that, I mean both avoiding getting injured and finding a doctor."
Suddenly, words started showing up in front of Jacob. It was moving very slowly towards him, almost indicating that whatever was in the dark was preparing to pounce on them like a wild tiger.
Name: Corpse Walker
Class: Elder Beast
Description: These beasts hide inside of giant dead creatures and use their rotting flesh as both a diet and a shelter. Stronger variants tend to use the corpse itself as bait to find and kill a larger creature for its food.
Weakness: Light of any kind weakens them severely.
Jacob read the words as it approached him.
’Damn it. Having Lidia with us would have been useful.’
"Do you think you can kill these things? Are they too powerful or too weak?"
"They should be more powerful than me. I can kill them."
"But how many do you have to kill before that changes?"
"Only one way to find out!"
Maria grabbed the shaft of her spear and threw it as hard as she can in a certain direction. All that was heard in the darkness was a loud screech along with a big squashing sound. It seemed like Maria’s throw had hit its mark. However, Jacob still had to deal with his creature in front of him. He kicked off to close the distance and tried sending a kick in the spot he thought the creature was. However, his leg was met with nothing but air. Something grabbed hold of his leg as he tried to set it back down to balance himself, but this turned out in Jacob’s favor.
’Now I know where you are!’
He sent a fist flying down by his leg, allowing it to crash through something soft, splattering an unknown substance all over himself. Jacob gagged after it happened, trying his best not to throw up. Being inside a dead, rotting corpse was infinitely worse than climbing on the side of one. It was like no matter where he went, he was suffocating in filth.
"Maria, I think this is turning me into a germaphobe."
"Hurry and come back by me. Lidia and the others can’t be too far."
Suddenly, an explosion of light surrounded the entire inside of the corpse, allowing Jacob and Maria to not only see one another, but also see the area they were just fighting in. The entire inside of the corpse was completely hollow except for the bones supporting the outer structure of the body. It was like they were all pulled into one giant flesh cave. Even though the light was just a burst, it allowed Jacob and Maria to gauge how many enemies they were dealing with, which was not a lot. As the darkness consumed them once more, Jacob and Maria threw their backs against one another again.
"I only saw one on my side. After I take him out, I’ll help you."
"Okay."
Seeing the words jump towards Maria, her spear appeared in her hand, allowing her to thrust it upwards where she thought the creatures head should be. However, just before it could reach its mark, a strange force completely stopped her spear in its tracks. Maria had been completely frozen, allowing the Corpse Walker to slash across her face with a mean swipe. Maria winced and fell to the ground holding her face as blood gushed off her chin.