Combat

With five freely allocatable attribute points, she could add them wherever she wanted, increasing her strength according to the growth tree she had planned.

Of course, not Intelligence. Aside from biological chips and perhaps the Hundred-Year Dream, there seemed to be no other way to raise that... Maybe there was, but she did not know.

Her original Strength of 1.8 had already risen to 2.0 through constant adaptation. Speed and Endurance had not changed, but Coordination had increased the most, also reaching 2.0.

Then she would focus on Speed and Endurance. She swiftly allocated her attribute points, raising Strength to 3, Speed to 3 as well, and Endurance to 2.8... Terrifying physical capabilities!

She could clearly feel the improvement in an instant. The Steel Katana in her hand now felt far too light, and Kurumi even had the illusion that she could snap it in half! But reason told her that was impossible. Her somewhat weary body had returned to its peak condition.

After hurriedly glancing at the Charm Mark at the bottom of her status panel, she ran toward Shizuka Marikawa. The situation was getting critical!

The explosive force brought by her Strength pushed her speed even further. The gust of wind she kicked up sent Shizuka Marikawa's already tattered pencil skirt flying, exposing the purple panties beneath.

Before she could react, the dead body that had been flailing its claws in front of her had already been severed from head to body!

On the other side, the Nail Gun Hirono Toda had just tied back together was knocked to the ground by a dead body beside him! It wildly flailed its arms as it lunged at him!

The handgun was not much use over by Komuro Takashi, and he was desperately fending off the dead bodies himself. He had no time at all to draw it and toss it to Hirono Toda!

Whoosh—splat!

Kurumi threw the katana in her hand. Like an arrow loosed from a powerful bow, it tore through the air, its tip piercing directly through the dead body's open mouth and driving it to the ground. Even the concrete-paved surface was blasted open with a crack!

By the time it emerged from the back of its skull, it had been dyed blood-red. The two colors gleamed against each other on the katana, sending a chill through the soul.

Hirono Toda dropped onto the ground in fright. A few splatters of blood dotted his round, chubby face, making him look especially comical. A cold gust swept past, and he immediately shuddered.

Kurumi, meanwhile, did not stop moving. Going by how things usually played out, there would be somewhere to rest soon enough. When that happened, she could finally throw away her school uniform. The bloodstains on it were simply too disgusting!

Her delicate hands curled into fists. Already white as jade, they gleamed even more brightly beneath the moonlight, as pure as exquisite works of art carved from mutton-fat jade.

"Hirono, stop standing around! Throw the sword to Saeko! And Takagi, get as close to me as you can!" She punched through the temple of a dead body that had come before her, then turned and shouted toward Hirono Toda.

"Yes!"

"Got it!"

Takagi Saya carefully dodged one dead body after another, doing her best to run toward Kurumi. It was not that she did not want to retreat, but these dead bodies were deliberately—or perhaps unconsciously—surrounding them!

Hearing Kurumi's uniquely enchanting voice, Hirono Toda jolted upright from where he sat. He hurriedly picked up the Nail Gun from the ground, then yanked the Steel Katana free with all his strength. "Busujima Senpai!"

Busujima Saeko, whose situation was growing unfavorable, was using her Oak Sword to smash the heads of the dead bodies one by one. Yet every strike required precise control of her force, lest the Oak Sword fail to endure the impact and shatter.

But after so many blows, even with her exceptional stamina, she was beginning to feel exhausted.

She swung hard in front of herself, fighting for a brief chance to catch her breath. Looking toward Hirono Toda, she saw a gleaming silver katana stained with blood flying toward her!

Her body spun, and her right hand instantly caught the hilt. Borrowing the momentum, she slashed downward, sending a string of bloody blossoms bursting forth!

With a sharpened weapon in hand, Busujima Saeko's combat ability soared! Techniques she had not dared use with the Oak Sword were now all unleashed upon the dead bodies!

After throwing the katana, Hirono Toda began shooting at the dead bodies surrounding Komuro Takashi and Miyamoto Rei, helping the two relieve the pressure while observing the number of dead bodies and... their escape route!

The density of dead bodies here was growing higher and higher. The sounds of battle had drawn over all the dead bodies not far ahead.

The number of dead bodies here had even surpassed the average density of the school athletic field!

Hirono Toda did not believe they could win this battle of "vastly unequal strength." Although they had Tokisaki Senpai and Busujima Senpai... people would eventually tire. Even if those dead bodies stood still and let the two girls kill them, it would still take them quite a while!

With his military awareness, he believed that finding a breakthrough point was the most important thing right now. The bridge entrance had already been securely blocked off, and going to the other side was completely unrealistic. So... should they jump into the river?!

It had to be said that Hirono Toda's plan was flawless. If Kurumi had not increased her strength, she probably would have chosen to escape by jumping into the river in the end. But clearly, he had underestimated Kurumi's true strength!

She had wielded a katana with uncanny skill all this time, but Kurumi was not actually an expert in cold weapons! Her true Mastery of Firearms and Mastery of Combat had yet to display their dazzling brilliance!

Even when Kurumi used her revolver to blow the bald leader's head apart from afar, hitting him right between the eyebrows, he had only considered it luck.

He had his own pride. Although Kurumi, as a girl, was far stronger than he was, he would not bow his head to anyone here when it came to firearms!

The branches unlocked in Kurumi's Mastery of Combat included free fighting, joint locks... Wasn't a combination of them the most suitable approach right now?

Her beautiful round-toed boots had long been stained blood-red. The many corpses lying around her proved that they had made no small contribution.

The dead bodies had no intelligence. This was simply their greatest weakness, because at a time like this, it meant that the moves used against them could be completely standardized!

Unlike fighting humans, where she had to account for all kinds of factors and make her attacks unpredictable. Unless there was an overwhelming gap in strength, every fight consumed not only stamina, but also terrifying amounts of mental energy and concentration!

She kicked one dead body in the knee again. Her Strength of 3 instantly shattered its bones! Its body, which had already been swaying back and forth, dropped directly to its knees. If Kurumi had not grabbed its head with both hands, it would likely have collapsed with the motion.

With a twist, the dead body's head made a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn, its neck completely snapped. The flesh around its grayish-white neck stretched taut and red. If she twisted it a few more times, its head would probably separate from its body outright, splattering blood everywhere!

By the bridge, the enormous bolts anchoring the steel cables protruded from the ground. They had long since turned blackish-red, speckled with grayish-white pulp. The cold night wind kept blowing, yet the smell of blood did not disperse in the slightest. Instead... it grew stronger and stronger!

This had become Kurumi's second-to-last step for efficiently dealing with dead bodies in batches. Before their necks could even finish that great rotation, their heads were already slapped down like balls.

Bang!

This dead body had its head pierced through from the side. Another "ball" had been deflated, and Kurumi had no desire to even spare it a glance. She kicked it aside, then shattered the knee of another approaching dead body and repeated the same routine.

Bang! Another dead body became a true corpse. The whole process took less than three seconds, simple and convenient. The blood around Kurumi's feet had even started seeping into her shoes!

Like a small waterfall deep in the mountains, blood flowed from the bridge into the river. From a distance... a curtain of blood seemed to hang from the bridge, falling straight toward the river's surface!

It dyed the nearby waters crimson. Fortunately, this was not one of those famous major rivers, or else no one knew what kind of horrible things might be lurking within.

Ripples occasionally spread across the blood-red water, bubbles rising one after another. Freshwater fish that would normally be edible swam joyfully through it, utterly unconcerned by the thick stench of blood.

Splat, splat—

Beneath the water, which Kurumi had not paid attention to, those fish began to grow agitated. A closer look would reveal that their eyes had turned blood-red.

They suddenly began madly tearing into the companions around them!