"Sensei!" Rei shouted, rushing toward him. But Nach knew she didn't have time to help him.
Since the high school girl had become an undead and was lurking inside the store, it only meant her undead lover was likely still here as well.
"Don't worry about me!" Nach shouted back, stopping her from approaching.
"Why…?"
Right then, Nach saw the undead high school boy appear at the far end of the aisle and rush toward Rei without her noticing.
Nach tried to shove aside the undead high school girl straddling him, but holding it back with its jaws crunching on his baseball bat was already taking all his strength. Making things even worse, the strong grip of the undead on both of his arms—tight enough for him to feel pain like his muscles and bones were being slowly crushed—was locking his arms in place.
Dammit, why the heck is this undead so strong? he panicked, knowing he wouldn't be able to protect Rei.
"Rei, behind you!"
Rei frantically turned around—"Ekk!"—and shrieked in terror upon seeing the undead rushing toward her. She had fought and killed a lot of undead just yesterday, but this was the first time she had encountered an aggressive undead face-to-face.
Her body trembled in fear, her legs shaking as she instinctively took a step backward, her hands barely holding her makeshift spear—thinking that the undead rushing at her was as strong as the one that had slammed Nach and was straddling him.
"Fight, Rei!" Nach shouted loudly, jolting Rei's mind out of fear and forcing her body to stop trembling.
If the undead high school boy was indeed as strong as the undead high school girl attacking Nach, then he wouldn't bother telling Rei to fight. Running away would be hopeless too. The two of them would surely die right here. But that wasn't the case. At most, it was at the level of the aggressive undead he had encountered and fought during their escape from the school.
"Aim at its chest!"
Believing in Nach and following his command, Rei took her stance, steadying her feet on the floor and gripping her weapon tightly as she thrust her makeshift spear.
Aiming at the head—its eye, mouth, or under its jaw—to pierce through and reach the brain was a risky move considering how unsteady the undead was running. Rei could tell that much as she stopped its charge and pushed it back, the knife of her makeshift spear piercing its already unbeating heart.
"Now shoot it in the head!"
While holding her makeshift spear with her dominant right hand, Rei quickly drew her gun with the other hand. At this short distance, she was confident she wouldn't miss, even if her left hand was the one holding and firing the revolver.
—Bang!—
—ROARRR!—
Rei put a hole between the bloodshot eyes of the undead high school boy, killing it instantly as its blackened blood and brain matter burst out the back of its head following the bullet.
In that instant, the undead high school girl let out another loud, terrifying roar. It let go of Nach, freeing his arms from its grip, and rushed crawling toward Rei.
Whether it got angered because Rei killed its undead lover or was simply agitated and attracted by the loud gunshot, Nach set aside those thoughts and quickly grabbed the undead by its ankle with his left hand, then lifted and hurled it with all his strength, throwing and slamming it into the shelf hard enough for its upper body to get stuck into the frame.
"Are you okay, Sensei?"
Rei pulled her spear out of the corpse of the undead high school boy, letting it fall to the floor as she rushed toward Nach to help him stand.
"I'm fine, Rei."
His hands were trembling and numb, but Nach just shook them off, throwing a few reload punches in the air.
"Stand back and let me handle this one," he said as he let go of his half-broken baseball bat and yanked his axe from the right strap of the backpack.
—ROARRR!—
The undead high school girl let out another roar as soon as it pulled itself out of the shelf. Its face—almost broken from the impact—peeked through its unkempt long black hair.
It rushed at Nach with inhuman speed, closing the distance in a blink. But his eyes were already accustomed to its speed from seeing it once; his mind was anticipating its movements, and his body reacted just in time.
Gripping his weapon with both hands, Nach made a quick, powerful stride, kicking off the floor to build momentum, then halted his charge as he swung his axe—its blade cutting through the undead's body from the left flank, slicing between its exposed breasts, and exiting through its right shoulder.
The undead high school girl was cut apart. Its lower body fell to the floor with blackened blood and organs splattering everywhere, while its upper body flew into the air, staining the ceiling before crashing down.
That ended the fight—but to Rei and Nach's surprise, the head of the undead high school girl, with only half its chest and its left arm attached, was still moving.
It was crawling on the floor, pulling itself with its left hand and leaving a trail of blackened blood behind.
"Sensei… Is she..." Rei murmured, her voice trembling—not from fear of the gruesome sight, but from the sad realization of what was happening:
The undead high school girl was crawling, trying to reach the corpse of the undead high school boy.
"You've only got yourself to blame," Nach said as he drew his revolver from behind his waist with his left hand, intending to kill it swiftly out of sympathy.
"If you two had just continued your intimacy and let us leave, your lover wouldn't have been killed—and neither would you."
—Bang!—