The Innkeeper

A few minutes into the chase, the crowd started diverting their attention to the other participants. At first, it seemed that the others were just doing their own form of recon, until someone noticed that Alexander and his army were moving too quickly in a straight line for it to be reconnaissance. Unlike the actual participants, the guests had access to a map which showed the location for each of the participants. When someone finally realized that Alexander was moving directly to intercept Pramod, excitement filled them and they spread the word.

Alexander was coming from Pramod's left, and based on the distance would intercept them only 1 and a half miles away from the main zombie horde. The fact that the previously mentioned horde was also slowly moving outwards made the point where the two would clash uncomfortably close, but only for the participants. For the guests, the possibility of a larger clash only made it more thrilling.

One would think that Alexander's family would be worried for him at this point, as the other Nascants slightly were - though their reasons were different. No, the Morrisons could be seen sitting together, casually chatting amongst themselves. Brandon would sometimes whisper something in his wife's ear that would make her chuckle, while Ragnar and Hillary - Alexander's mother - seemed to be discussing the details of the other armies.

A few moments of peace filled the time, but instead of boring the guests, it only served to build the anticipation. Alexander's clash would be extremely dangerous, especially considering that he was outnumbered almost two to one.

He was aware of this fact, as his satellites gave him the most detailed information amongst the participants. He knew he only needed to hold them long enough for the Jotun soldiers to catch up. He was not doing this because of some agreement with the Empire, or because his family told him. This was simply the best course of action for him. Numerically, this was the smallest target and also one with the greatest return in terms of weakening his enemy.

The wait was not long - in only a few minutes, the two armies came within sight of one another. If he did not move into position to block them, Alexander would have employed a long range attack, but that would only slow down their speed. So at this moment, he urged his troops to move even faster while the enemy had not noticed them.

This was a drawback of having zombies as subordinates. They could not warn Pramod of the approaching army, even if they spotted it due to their lacking intelligence. But they were fighting in a plain - the view was largely uninterrupted. Pramod finally noticed the army when they were almost directly in their path, and without hesitation, passed out a command. The army of zombies split in two, one continuing to move in a straight line and another turning right and moving that way.

Alexander had no way of knowing which of the groups Pramod was in, as his satellite was not capable of providing such detailed information, not that he could have done much even if he knew. In a few moments, Alexander got into position to block the incoming horde.

"Lay down suppressive fire!" Alexander commanded into a mic, prompting a barrage of artillery fire. But even as bullets tore through the air, they were unable to deter the oncoming horde. The zombies launched their own counterattack as they neared, ready to directly tear into Alexander's army.

Yet the spirit tech used by the Morrison family, while unable to match the quality of the Empire, was extremely imaginative. Some of the soldiers were wearing an unusual backpack out of which hundreds of mini-drones kept flying out. Flying in front of Alexander, they seemed to form some kind of formation. They remained unreactive as friendly fire passed them by, but whenever an enemy attack neared, an electric field was formed between the drones that zapped the attack.

Unfortunately, while the field served to destroy some of the attacks, some of them were only weakened. As the soldiers suffered the attacks, the stark difference between their armor and gear compared to the Jotuns once again became evident. Although there were no casualties so far, many soldiers were already injured in the first volley.

But since the two forces were different in many ways, there was no need for them to use the same tactics. Alexander was not planning on taking on a direct collision of a charging force. He was planning on tearing them apart!

"Penetration tactic 1," Alexander calmly commanded, as if he was not under attack. Behind him, his 6 blades became airborne.

The defining difference in combat between Foundation realm cultivators and those below that realm were the spiritual techniques that one could use. They became more versatile, and a wider array of options were available to you. While most techniques served a single purpose and were driven by the energy a single person could provide, such techniques were less common in war.

One hundred of the soldiers behind Alexander wielded unusually heavy weapons that had the shape of a rocket launcher. The fact that, despite their cultivation, the soldiers were struggling to hold it demonstrated their weight.

But while there were only 100 soldiers with such weapons, a thin blue line was formed in the air, connecting the weapons to the rest of the surrounding soldiers. They were all using an energy build up technique. Such a spiritual technique was usually the buildup for a larger attack, but this took things one step further. In the presence of another person using the same technique, a blue line made of spiritual energy connected them, multiplying the speed at which they gathered energy. In the presence of 1000 people using the same technique, a web was formed and the energy buildup was so quick and massive it threatened to blow up the very people using the technique.

Then, via the blue lines, the energy was transferred to the weapons, which had already been aimed. It barely took a few seconds for all of this to happen, and just as the zombie horde was about to crash into the soldiers, the weapons fired!

100 blue balls of flames launched with the ferocity of a bolt of lightning and roared like a continuous clap of thunder. Completely eviscerating the zombies in their path, the blue flames traveled fifty feet before destabilizing and exploding. The force of the attack launched the zombies in the air, the heat of the flames burning those in its path to a crisp, the shockwave of the attack causing them to fall over.

Yet this was not meant to be Alexander's main attack. This only broke the momentum of the charging army. Sword in hand, blade hovering behind his back, Alexander was the first to charge into the zombie horde, followed closely by his soldiers.

Originally, Alexander would have liked a long range battle where he could use his spirit tech to destroy the zombies before they even got close. But since they were already too close to the horde by the time they blocked their path, he would not shy from doing things up close and personal.

Considering his recent entry into the Foundation realm, Alexander should have been at a disadvantage. But someone forgot to tell that to his blades that were ripping through enemies like paper. He could not act with the flexibility and precision he liked, and so often only cut off limbs instead of beheading zombies, allowing them to survive. But his soldiers would take care of the weakened zombies, he only needed to guide them and lead them on the path to victory.

His blades carried a red hue, a visual effect of the spiritual technique he was using: Unending Solder. Its effect was simple yet powerful, it gave his blades a massive increase in cutting power. A zombie that had somehow turned invisible suddenly latched itself onto Alexander with octopus like tentacles and bit at his throat. Yet before the zombie could succeed, a blast of spiritual energy emerged from Alexander's body and ripped the tentacles away and threw the zombie far away. This was the effect of a defensive body technique Marlo had gifted him when he entered the Foundation realm: Magnetic pulse.

Unfortunately, Alexander's grandfather got his hands on the technique and changed it just a bit before Alexander learned it. As a result, Alexander's hair was not standing up straight as his body was surrounded by a visible, golden aura - looking very much like a certain anime character.

The 100 students from Troy academy who were watching their senior fight were losing their minds as they screamed and shouted. This was the pride of their academy. This was the pride of Earth. And this was the pride of the weeb community.

Alexander himself did not notice his peculiarity and continued to ruthlessly cut down his enemies, which only kindled the passion in his fans' hearts. Even some of the Jotun soldiers who were watching the fight were attracted to the literal golden child of Earth.