Author's Note: Hey guys I'm extremely sorry for the long wait on this chapter. I got surgery as I planned, but the breathing tube ended up cutting my throat and it got badly infected... and I mean it was very bad. Just breathing felt like drinking acid and I couldn't eat for an entire week (I'm still limited to yogurt and even that is extremely painful) and I lost a ton of weight which I could not afford to lose (10 pounds in the first 5 days alone). I'm lighter than I was in middle school now and on the border of being underweight. Anyway, I slowly worked on this despite the massive headache, throat pain, and constant bleeding and it is finally finished! Please excuse the quality, it was the best I could do in these conditions. Enjoy!

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Rodger stood dumbfounded at the two.

"The heck do you mean we're leaving the mall, lads!? We just fought those kids over it!" he shouted in confusion.

Jimmy pointed over to the collapsed security guard not too far away.

"When we were fighting, Dylan took a look and it turns out the guy is actually still alive. If we can get him a crystal fast we might be able to save him with a potion," Jimmy explained, "plus, we still need to get Dylan a crystal too".

"Yeah, this freaking hurts! That whip made it ten times worse too," Dylan complained with his hand on his ribs.

"Save your groans for later, kid. Let's get those crystals fast- if that lad really is still alive, he won't last much longer"

The group hastily made their way to the exit following Rodger's assertion. His intense figure was still hard for Jimmy to process; he had only ever seen Rodger with some degree of injury. He must have already been insanely strong before he became a Crystal User because he was like a mammoth in that last fight despite only absorbing a single crystal. 

Jimmy was sincerely grateful he got someone so strong on his team, but they reached the exit before he could dwell on those thoughts for long.

"Alright just a warning, Rodger, I can help weaken these guys, but you're gonna have to deliver the final blow so I don't absorb them"

"Sounds good. Don't crush any of the crystals until we're back inside, lad. You'll pass out and I really don't feel like carrying your scrawny figure," he spoke after turning to Dylan who nodded in return.

They stepped outside to see that the parking lot was still relatively vacant by the creatures, meaning the likelihood of getting caught in a massive horde like earlier was extremely low. As quiet as they could, the group snuck up behind the nearest one who was wandering around aimlessly. Jimmy quickly struck it as hard as he could in the back of the head, causing it to fall limp to the ground. Luckily, the creature was barely able to survive the impact, so Rodger simply pried the crystal out of its chest with a kitchen knife.

Looks like they did a bit of shopping while I was gone.

Rather than trust Dylan with holding onto the crystal, Rodger told Jimmy to keep it in his storage after hearing about the purchase. Whispers of admiration were let out upon seeing its disappearance into his wrist, but they quickly fell silent after a creature began wandering in their direction. Though Jimmy attempted to replicate the previous success with the quick skull bash, the creature turned to face him mid-swing and its bulky arm moved in front of the shield's path- instantly breaking from the impact. With a roar mixed with pain, the creature slashed at Jimmy with its claws, but they could not even scratch the shield. Driven from rage at the failure, the creature lunged directly towards him.

Slam!

A massive yellow object crashed into the side of the midair creature sending it flying across the lot and skidding violently into a lamp-post.

"Looks like Babe Ruth got another home run."

"For the last time, I'm not -"

"Hey guys, we got some company!" Dylan interrupted the two nervously.

It appeared that their attack did not go unnoticed by the creatures nearby who were alerted by their companion's battle cry. Creatures from all corners of the lot dashed towards them. Though their numbers were scarce in density, the large area covered by the lot still left for a herd of around fifty creatures to deal with.

"Okay... this is still nothing compared to the city. We need the crystals so I'll try to focus on defense while you do the hitting, Rodger. You stand in the middle of us, Dylan; you can't afford to take many more hits." Jimmy ordered as the herd approached.

The group took a formation where Rodger faced into the parking lot and Jimmy turned towards the side. Dylan was simply sandwiched between them keeping an eye out for any creatures attempting to flank.

Thanks to the fact that the creatures were coming one by one due to their different starting distances from the group, the first few were easily dealt with by Rodger. Of course, they could not be instantly killed, so a mini horde gradually began to appear. Though some tried to go around to the other two, Jimmy was able to force them into a bottleneck by moving his shield in a nearly complete circle. The one section not in the path of the giant flying rock was being covered by Rodger and his giant hammer. Unable to get close to the group without being whacked by the shield, most creatures focused on getting through the opening only to get launched by the massive weapon.

By the time the herd was nearly halfway dealt with, the creatures began to catch on to the limitations of such a strategy and stormed the shield's path as a group, ironically using each other as shields and completely breaking the formation. Seeing this coming, Rodger dropped back and moved towards Jimmy's side. Instead of the sandwich formation, the two Crystal Users now faced the creatures together with Dylan behind them.

This... may be difficult.

Not only did he have to hold back the horde while protecting Dylan, but Jimmy also had to block any creature attempting to lunge at Rodger's blind spots. The sound of thuds was far too commonplace in this gory battle. Nearly every impact with the shield caused painful cracking to be heard from the bones of the creatures, but they continued to attack relentlessly despite it.

"Oi, Jimmy! We got three coming around back!" Dylan called out beside him.

After quickly blocking a punch aimed at Rodger from the crowd, Jimmy swung his shield in an arc and slammed the closest creature in the head. Though no particles came off of it, it was promptly trampled by its two companions and laid motionless soon after. They were also both quickly dealt with by Jimmy, but one got an unlucky hit to the neck and was instantly killed.

The battle continued on for just over 10 minutes longer before Jimmy brought down the final creature. He successfully managed to protect Dylan but was forced to kill a few creatures in the process. Rodger had a few cuts and bruises that he was rubbing, but luckily all of his injuries were relatively minor- especially when compared to earlier.

"Man, I wish I still had my R5; I could've mowed down those guys in just a few minutes," Dylan whined.

"Even if you still had it, there's no way the rifle would work after those beams. I gotta admit, you were destroying those guys with it though"

"Wait- this kid had a gun? I'm sorry but you're the last lad I'd ever expect to have one. The heck did you need a Remington for?" Rodger questioned while beginning to collect some crystals.

"Well, I've always been obsessed with zombie movies so I was thinking that I might as well be prepared in case my grandma popped out of the ground and tried to bake me some cookies of death. I had a bunch of cool supplies too, but I was barely able to even grab the rifle before these guys broke through my window," he explained

"... that might be the most idiotic reasoning I've ever heard, but I can't deny it fits you perfectly, kid" 

"To be fair, Dylan was kind of right. There's no way he could've held out like he did without that rifle, so I guess there's some method in his madness. By the way, the shop had a whole bunch of things we can buy with Crystal Points. I didn't see any guns, but do you think you could handle a crossbow?"

"Hmm..." Dylan paused to think, "I think so. I never used one before but my aim has been pretty killer in everything I've used. Even got recruited to the basketball team after a coach saw me in gym class. Obviously, I passed on that officer so I could focus on my zombie survival club."

The two Crystal Users stared blankly at Dylan. Rodger soon broke the awkward silence by saying:

"Back when I was in school, the nerds were so weak that you could blow them away with a heavy breath. You got some muscle, so I didn't expect that from you, kid"

"Oi, I'm not a- well... I guess I am. Geek is probably more accurate, sadly," Dylan stopped himself mid-sentence before reluctantly correcting himself in shame.

"So you got in shape to fight zombies?" Jimmy asked jokingly.

"..."

"What... dude is that actually-"

"Listen, I can't build cool survival bases if I can't carry the stuff I need! What's the point of designing a bunch of cool shelters if I can't make them!?"

"Okay okay, I know we are somehow in the one situation where that stuff would be useful, but it still hurts knowing you were that obsessed with it"

"It worked out, so who's laughing now!?"

"I wasn't laughing, but whatever"

"Hey, kid," Rodger called out tossing a black crystal towards Jimmy, "We're wasting time right now, this lad and I will finish collecting the stuff out here; you go hurry and save that security guard. We'll join you in a few minutes."

Shoot, I can't let myself get distracted like that.

Jimmy nodded after catching the crystal and left his backpack out for them to carry them in before dashing back inside.

"Send Dylan to get me if anything happens. I'll see you two soon!" Jimmy called out as he went back through the doors.