The school Kael attended was called Westbridge Academy, though calling it an academy often made outsiders laugh.
Not because the school lacked reputation.
Quite the opposite.
Even in this forgotten corner of the continent, the name Westbridge carried weight. Parents from nearby towns and villages were more than willing to send their children there despite the school's remote location.
After all, the academy was merely a branch campus.
The true headquarters existed far away in one of the prosperous regions of the world.
Still, even as a branch, the school was impressive by the standards of the backwater city.
The entire campus sat on a large rectangular piece of land surrounded by tall cement walls topped with barbed wire, with a black iron gate serving as the only official entrance.
Beyond the gate stretched a wide open field nearly seventy meters long, leading directly to the main building.
A massive three-story concrete structure nearly ninety meters wide stood at the far end of the field like a silent guardian watching over the school grounds.
Two identical three-story buildings stood on either side of it, forming a rough U-shape around the field.
The right side of the field was taken up by a long sandy stretch used for sports. Students often played football there during break periods, the loose sand kicking into the air beneath their feet.
At the far end stood a raised basketball court, its concrete surface slightly higher than the surrounding ground and connected to the main building by a short ramp.
Beside the sports ground sat the vehicle parking area, where cars rested in neat rows alongside two large yellow school buses.
A line of ornamental shrubs separated the parking lot from the girls' dormitory building, their green leaves adding a rare touch of beauty to the otherwise practical campus design.
The main academic building housed the classrooms. The first floor belonged to the primary school pupils, small desks and colorful posters filling the rooms. Staff offices occupied the far end of the floor.
The second floor was used by the high school division, the stairway splitting the level into two halves—junior students on the left, seniors on the right.
The third floor contained the school's laboratories.
To the left of the main building stood the girls' dormitory. Its first floor served as the school's Great Hall, where assemblies and important announcements were held. At the far end of the hall stood a stairway leading to the upper floors where the girls lived, its entrance sealed by a barred metallic gate, thick iron bars with gaps running vertically across its frame.
On the opposite side stood the boys' dormitory, whose first floor housed the school canteen and a modest library used during study periods.
Under normal circumstances, Westbridge Academy was a quiet and orderly campus.
But today…
The peaceful school grounds had turned into something far darker.
Screams echoed between the buildings.
Blood stained the once-clean pavement, and almost everywhere within the campus, the dead were walking.
'There!'
Moving toward the edge of the roof, Kael sent the remaining three units of Energi into his Strength stat, boosting it by 6 points.
-Bang!
The roof tiles beneath Kael shattered, a small crater forming as the powerful rebound force sent him flying several meters high into the air, the distance between him and the roof of the adjacent girls' dormitory building swiftly closing.
Without lingering for a moment, Kael broke into a sprint as he kept the countdown of his Energi enhancement in mind.
His body moved at an inhuman speed, the swarm of birds surging toward him.
-CAW! CAW! CAW!
The air itself trembled beneath the sheer force of hundreds of wings beating in violent rhythm.
Their black feathers reflected streaks of crimson under the bright sunlight, and their eyes…
Their eyes glowed with a dull, unsettling red.
-FWHAP! FWHAP! FWHAP!
Another swarm moved in the opposite direction toward Kael, the thunderous beating of their wings swallowing the campus in silence.
But Kael kept his cool, as he had noticed them long beforehand.
'4 more seconds for agility, and 6 for strength!'
Taking note of the remaining time he had, Kael gathered more strength in his legs and moved at the peak speed his current boosted stats could afford him.
Dents were left on the roof, enemies flooding from behind, another approaching from ahead.
In what felt like a blink of the eye, the distance between the incoming tide and Kael closed, as the storm of feathers and claws descended toward him from the sky.
At this distance, Kael could clearly see the unnatural red tints in the crow-like birds' eyes and feel their foul breath on his face, yet he pressed down the panic that was about to set in as he gritted his teeth and—
'Let's hope this goes well.'
Kael slid forward, his body passing beneath the cloud of monsters descending on him.
Some talons barely missed him by inches, and in what felt like a mere instant—yet an eternity with his heart nearly bursting from his chest—Kael moved past the birds.
His body arrived at the roof's edge and dropped.
At the last possible moment, he twisted his body and quickly grabbed the roof's edge with his strength-enhanced hand, just for a moment—enough to slow his momentum—before releasing it.
His body free-fell for a few seconds as he approached the third floor.
Without hesitation, he reached his good hand toward the metallic railing, gripped it with all his strength, and pulled his body up and over as he crashed onto the ground before quickly springing to his feet.
With a quick survey, Kael found himself at the end of a long hallway running through the middle of the building, with rooms on both sides of the corridor.
He noticed three figures a few feet ahead of him staggering forward.
'Zombies!'
As if sensing something, the undead stopped in their tracks before turning, causing Kael's eyes to shrink into pinpricks.
'Only one more second for agility.'
There were about twelve doors on each side of the corridor, and Kael noticed the first one on his left was open.
Before the thought could even form, his body responded as he dived sideways into a roll, entering the room at the same moment his agility boost wore off.
"Huff... huff!"
Kael panted heavily on his knees, his body already soaked in sweat.
-GRR!
Before he could even get a moment of rest, the still figure standing on the other side of the room turned toward him.
'Bloody hell!'
*****
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