This Hero is Sleeping!

The group had found themselves standing in front of another warehouse, this one much larger than the last.

Erika raised her hands and stopped them at the entrance.

"We'll be going in now. Puzo, let me handle the conversations, you have the thing, right?"

"Safe and sound," Puzo answered, sweeping a glance over at Elric and Claude.

"You two, since you're adventurers you must know a thing or two."

Claude's brows twitched at her remark. What did she think of herself again?

"It shouldn't, but the tension between my backers and the ones we're meeting is unnaturally high, so it can devolve into a fight." Erika looked at the three of them one at a time. "Take Puzo and run. Leave any fighting to me, and don't even think of helping, you'll only get in the way."

"Sure," Claude said. If she said all that, she sure must be something at the very least.

Erika went to the service door and knocked thrice, after a beat she knocked four more times.

She stopped and knocked on the door three more times.

Then twice.

And twice again.

"My god is this childish," Elric said, the knocking still going. Erika seemed to have heard it as Claude felt her sighing in embarrassment.

"I thought you'll be all over something like this?"

"I would have, but it's interfering with the beat of my theme song."

Claude pumped his brows. He didn't think Elric was still composing that stuff.

"Alright, we've announced our presence. Let's go…"

A creak resounded as the door opened, the moonlight spilling in could brighten no more than two tiny steps.

Claude found it weird that there was no response, but it was likely what they had set up.

Erika took the lead and the three followed behind. As he passed, Elric closed the door, making the place dark again.

Their every step resounded faintly in the warehouse.

Small slurps rang out.

Elric curiously looked around the place. Neither the howling of the wind came in nor the distant din of the festive city.

Everything was quiet.

Eerily quiet.

"A-are they not here?" Puzo posed, his voice a whisper.

"Could be," Erika answered without batting an eye. "Stay alert—"

A loud clang boomed.

All of them flinched and turned to the top. Through the dusty windows that showed the cramped alleyways between the two buildings, a small creature was red eyes was constantly hitting itself against the glass pane.

"W-what is that…?" Puzo muttered.

Nothing was visible in the dark apart from the red eyes.

"It's a bat…" Claude said. "Don't mind it."

Erika nodded and their footsteps boomed again. The bat kept smacking at the window, reverberating through the entire warehouse, but there was still no response.

Right then, Elric sniffed the air.

"I smell blood."

Nervousness draped over the four at Elric's words.

Blood.

The lack of responses.

Something was greatly off here.

"[Light]"

Claude muttered and a sphere of bright light appeared in front of them. Erika turned to Claude with a frown.

"What are you—"

"We protect Puzo. That's our deal. I don't care about your item or your life."

Claude didn't have time to bother with Erika's words. He gently gazed around the place, not even sparing her a glance even as she bit her lips and cast her gaze downward.

"Sidekick, there," Elric pointed further into the vast warehouse and Claude shifted the light in that direction. At the place where the furthest rays landed, a grimy red liquid flowed.

Blood.

Claude cautiously eyed his surroundings before walking closer to the blood. As light swept over the darkness, a clear trail of blood was formed.

Soft slurps sounded, followed by the faint smell of chewing.

The bat pounded into the window.

Near the walls of the warehouse, sat a figure. Its clothes a rag and its hair a mess, and below it…

"M-m-my…" Puzo was about to say something, but Elric covered his mouth before he could.

The three combatants stiffened up at once.

Below the figure… laid a limp body with its stomach torn open… and its contents dangling from the figure's mouth.

Puzo stepped back.

The figure stopped in its tracks.

The bat hammered the windows.

Slowly, very slowly, it started turning back.

Eyes redder than a sea of blood, lips tore all the way back to the ears, numerous wounds filling scathing at its body. With flesh and blood stuck in its teeth, the monster held a liver in one hand and an intestine in the other as it looked back.

"A-ahh… M-monster!!"

The monster jumped off the ground.

"GRAAAH!!"

A feral scream. The monster hopped off its knees and charged ahead at the group.

Erika and Claude took to the front while Elric pulled the Puzo back.

The two raised their hands high and chanted their spells.

"[Mana Spear]"

At the same time, dozens of gears turned into Elric's head. The goblin.

"It's a zombie!" Elric shouted. "Go for the head!"

Erika's eyes widened, but it was too late.

The spear made of pure mana dug into the zombie's chest and tore through it, but other than slightly pushing it back, it did nothing.

"[Fire Arrow]"

Right then, a single arrow swallowed by flames appeared in mid-air and lodged itself inside the zombie's head.

The zombie croaked and fell limp on its back.

"Haah… haah…"

Puzo held his chest and sighed, while Erika wore a deep frown.

Undead.

The people she thought were the worst to deal with had somehow exceeded her expectations and had turned into literal zombies.

"This is such a fucking mess…"

Claude ignored her mutters and moved toward the dead bodies. Leaving Puzo on the ground, Elric hopped over to Claude's side to inspect the zombie as well.

"These guys don't look cool unless it's a full apocalypse, right?"

"I mean, is an apocalypse worth anything in a magic world?

Erika was stunned at their nonchalance. Shaking her head, she decided to check the corpses as well, she could use whatever they were using to report to Volfram.

"Uglies…" Elric spoke up again. "It's been pretty quiet for a while."

Their eyes widened.

A second.

Two…

"KIEEEEK!"

With a loud shriek, the bat came crashing into the warehouse.