System, are you messing with me? - Chapter 41: Chapter 41

After another few seconds of regarding each other, the zombie attacked again. In a quick jump the undead catapult itself close to Shu Ning's throat, it's claws already extended. With only the barest space left between them, he let himself drop down to the floor and rolled off to the side.
He hurriedly raised the knive above him while still lying with his back to the floor and a breath later the creature was back on him. It's teeth grabbing on to the blade of the weapon and the hands trying to digg into his shoulder.
The fabric of Shu Ning's shirt ripped as he lifted his torso out of the way, still having those sharp nails catch the edges of textile. With a curse he jumped up onto his legs and ran towards the metal shelves tipped on it's side. Except that he didn't make it that far.
The zombie had followed after him and was quicker on it's legs than it was possible for a human. So before he could take cover under some of the debris he was already flying through the air, hitting the far end of the wall with a grund of pain.
Shu Ning's head throbbed from the impact and the knive, which he unfortunately couldn't hold on to anymore, fell somewhere between the chaos on the floor. He cursed himself for not listening to his own instincts about this place and the world for not granting himself any powers. There was still the option of buying something from the system store to awaken them but unfortunately his points were not enough for even the cheapest potion. Now only luck could help him survive this level two zombie.
A shadow fell over Shu Ning's body and when he looked up he was suddenly eye to eye with the undead. The others teeth were bared in a snarl, with red salvia dripping from the corners of it's mouth and the pointed nails were slowly liffted above the creatures head. As if it was trying to draw out the moment as long as possible.
Shu Ning was breathing heavily, not from fear but from exertion and continuously tried to come up with a solution for this mess. But with the knive beeing gone and his head still hurting there was not much he could do. Still, he kept his eyes stubbornly fixed onto the undead's form and watched as the claws decended towards his unguarded chest.
Shu Ning could mentaly already feel the sharp blades piercing through the soft flesh of his torso and the slow drain of his own life. He grit his teeth in frustration and glared at the other's face, while the clawed fingers dissapeared out of his view frame. Yet before any blood could be drawn from his body the zombie's fingers suddenly stopped with a dull 'clang'.
His eyes widened in shock when he gazed down. It looked as if the creature's hand just stopped in mid air. If it weren't for the slight glimmer of something between those nails and Shu Ning's  skin or the obvious bewilderment coloring the zombie's expression, he would have thought the undead changed it's mind about killing him.
Shu Ning: "What is that?"
Alpha: "I do not know? Looks like a trick of light."
Shu Ning: "No. There was a sound when the zombie hit this flimsy thing. It must be something more solid than it looks. A kind of barrier."
Shu Ning glanced at the glimmering air again and hesitantly reached out his hand to touch it. Before his fingers could make contact with anything though the 'thing' moved further away from his body. Another try in grabbing it resulted in the same occurance and when the zombie snarled in impatience on the other side of the glimmering air, he pulled back his hand in preparation for another attack.
When the undead crouched down and then swung it's body around the offending barrier, Shu Ning got a sudden idea of what the flimmsy light could be. Gathering all the concentration he could, he willed the transparent ward forward and was rewarded for his efforts when the zombie was blocked by thin air again. The nails slowly receded backwards, no matter how the creature groweled in frustration there was no breaching the offending barrier between them. With the safe distance now created, Shu Ning carefully climbed back onto his legs, swaying a bit from a sudden bout of dizziness. Seemed like the hit to the head was stronger than initially thought.
The zombie still stood there snarling and growling in irritation, but finally stopped and instead turned to glaring at the perpetrater of his foul mood. Shu Ning took a deap gulp of oxygen in preparation of what was to come next, his body aready posed for another fight. He didn't have to wait for long as the creature tensed the muscles of it's legs and jumped up high into the air and before he could so much as blink, the undead landed beyond the barrier and back into his personal space.
But this time Shu Ning wasn't helpless. In one flurish motion, as if he did it on a daily basis, he erected another barrier above his colarbone and watched with satisfaction as the zombie's teeth grunched on thin air. Then he kicked out his legs and drove the other back by a few stepps. This gave him the oportunity to slip past the zombie's form and dive into the mess of cardboard boxes and strewn about food.
It took a bit of rummaging and warding off the incoming blows of the undead with his barriers before his hand finally grabbed the handle of his knive. Shu Ning tightly held onto it, keeping it covered by a blancket of white powdery flour until his enemy sprung towards him again. This time he did not save himself with his newly awakened ability but drew his body closer together and just let the other's nails barely graze his hair. Then, with a collective bout of strength, he jumped past the others defenses and plunged the knive deep into the undead's guts.
The zombie screamed from anger as the green, brown blood dripped from the blades handle and onto the ground. With a swing of it's hand the knive was dislodged again and the creature could twist out of Shu Ning's reach. Then there was a long moment of stillness between them both. Neither was moving a single muscle, except for the constant rise and fall of Shu Ning's rib cage.
With a twitch of the zombie's neck it's head suddenly swiveled in the direction of the stair. It's nose flared as if it smelled something irresistable and it was as if it's ears perked up as well. Soon after Shu Ning heard a low shuffling sound from the lower ground and both the undead and human simultaneously darted towards the upper step of the stair. Though the other was already flying down the rest of them before Shu Ning even reached the first.
When he did finally reach the bottom floor the zombie was standing in front of the cashiers desk, lifting the table up over it's head and throwing it to the side. The place that was now free of furniture revealed a small child, a young boy no more than four years old. The kid had opal green eyes, that were widened in shocked horror, a pair of chubby white cheeks, stained with tear tracks, and was only wearing a pair of short brown trousers. All in all it was a very heart wrenching sight.
Shu Ning just barely took in the sight of the small human being when the undead moved again and hungrily pounced on the young boys form. The child did not move from the spot he was sitting on and only widened his eyes even more, his mouth opened in a silent scream.
With a curse Shu Ning sprang forward as well to intersept the zombie's path but was still too far away to reach the boy in time. Instead, he intensly focused on the space still left between the two until he could see the air slowly starting to shimmer. With a triumphant feeling in his heart he grabbed onto the sight inside his heart and was revarded with a heavy bang when the creature hit the invisible barrier with the full force of it's jump.
There was no hesitation this time as Shu Ning pushed the undead back from the young boy and used the undead's momentum to pierce the knive into the soft flesh of it's neck. A disgusting crunching sound reverberated inside of the room as the tendons and muskles were severed and the zombie at last fell dead to the ground.
By this time Shu Ning was panting wildly and his body was trembling slightly with the effort to keep upright. His hands were completely numb and the weapon remained inside his clenched fist no matter how much he tried to loosen the grip. With a sight, he instead wanished it back inside of the system space after listening intently for any other zombie's lurking about. Nothing more happenned though, which he was very thankfull for as the last of the adrenalin left his body and his legs buckled underneath him.
"Hey, little one. My name is Shi Wei. I'm a human so you don't need to be scared of me. You are safe now."
Shu Ning internally cringed at his words. No place was trully safe in this world anymore. He was also unsure how the kid would react to his sudden presence. Especially because he probably looked like an outright mess. With the zombie's fluids dripping down the lines of his hair and face, the torn fabric barely covering his chest and hips and the grimace he tried to form into a reassuring smile.
The child seemed to not mind all of this though, or was already used to such sights, because he visibly relaxed. Shu Ning carefully made his way over to the kid and slowly reached out his less filthy hand to touch the boy's face.
"What is your name little one?"
"....."
"Can you speak? Do you know what your parents always called you?"
"......"
Shu Ning furrowed his brows when the boy continued to stay silent. He wasn't really an expert with children and this situation troubled him a bit. The kid was just silently sitting there staring at him with his big green eyes but wasn't forthcomming with anything at all.
Shu Ning took back his hand that was still toughing the younglings cheek and was ready to stand up when way smaller fingers grabbed onto the hem of his sleeves. A frightened look passed over the boy's face when he guardily looked up at Shu Ning.
"I won't abandon you here. Do not worry. Can you stand up? Are you injured somewhere?"
The boy just stared at Shu Ning for a short moment longer before hesitantly reaching out his other hand and presenting it to the older, palmes up. An ugly cut ran along the inside of it, bleeding profusely. This at least explained the sudden interesst of the zombie in the child.
"I see. I'll put something on the wound to stop the bleeding and then wrap some cloth around it ok?"
The child nodded and Shu Ning got to work dressing the injury. The child did not make a fuss the entire time, just twitched a few times in pain. When all was done the kid took his newly bandaged hand back and stared at it in awe.
"We have to get out of here, all right? I'll take you with me to a safe Base. There someone can take care of you. Everything will be fine, you just have to stay close to me."
A sharp nodd answered Shu Ning's directions and the kid slowly got to his feet. It looked a bit clumsy, nevertheless in the end the youngling stood straight on his own legs. A slight smile hooked up the corners of Shu Ning's mouth and the pickture of a newborn fawn entered his mind, making Alpha flash a bright white light in amusement.
"That reminds me. I can not continue calling you kid in my head. Mind as well give you a new name. Let's see..... Yong. How abou Yong? That would make you Shi Yong."
The child grinned brightly at that, mouth open and teeth showing and all. He seemed pretty excited by the new name. Shu Ning crouched down in front of the boy and slowly lifted him onto his hipps.  Shi Yong automatically slung his arms around his new caretakers neck and tightly held on to it.
With a quick glance out of the supermarkt's door and deeming it safe, Shu Ning let the wings slide open and carried Shi Yong out onto the street. He quickly selected a functioning car and placed the kid onto the passenger seat before sitting behind the steering wheel and driving off. The bag with his gathered supplies was placed on the back seat, not before Shu Ning took out a container with crackers though that he gave to the kid to munch on during their trip.