by Believer 29th October 2022, 12:20 pm
Tad grabbed the mallet and stepped up to the machine. His smile never left his face as he raised the mallet up to his chest, still peering over it into the field of zombie holes. The first zombie started coming out of the middle hole on the left side and Tad began to swing his mallet. Even before the zombie's head could fully escape the hole, it was hit back inside. The next one began coming up in the bottom right hole and once again the lightning mage hammered the undead back into the hole that it was coming out of. Tad had watched enough of the other contestants to know that the machine started slowly and sped up, so he was barely even trying at this point.
The third, fourth, and fifth zombies were quickly returned to the earth that they'd been attempting to climb out of when the machine began to make noticeably more noise than it had before. Tad knew the noise from the last person who played, the machine was speeding up and Tad would have to do the same if he wanted to continue his zombie hammering domination. The next zombie started coming out of the top left hole and Tad began to hammer it down, but as his hammer went downward on the zombie, his eyes noticed another zombie already trying to escape its hole at the top right of the zombie field.
Rather than lifting the mallet back to his chest as he had been doing, Tad slid the mallet towards the emerging zombie, barely lifting it up. As the zombie came up, Tad pushed the mallet back down onto the zombie's head. It didn't make as nice of a sound as his other thwacks had, but the game was entering the middle stages and the sounds weren't nearly as important to Tad as succeeding in demolishing the zombies that were trying to invade his space. For some reason, Tad had begun to see himself as the protector of the space outside of the holes, so he was doing his duty by smashing them back into the holes that they attempted to get out of.
The next round of zombies were rising from their holes at decent speeds, but the lightning mage had no trouble keeping up. A crowd began to form as spectators saw Tad's actions and began slowing and stopping to see what was going on. As more people stopped to watch, others wondered what was going on so they also began to move over to see what all the commotion was about. Tad, zoning out all the spectators and whispering, kept his mallet moving, slapping those undead back into their holes.
The machine once again began making a noticeably louder whirring noise as it seemingly was about to kick into a higher gear. This was the real test as Tad hadn't seen any other participants reach this stage of the game. He had no way to gauge how quickly these zombies would pop up except to experience it himself. With the back of the hand that was still holding the mallet, Tad wiped some sweat from his brow. Despite the movement, his eyes and focus never wavered from the holes and tops of zombies' heads that he could see within them.
While the zombies had come out in multiples during the last stage, they were always delayed by a moment. Now, Tad realized, two zombies on opposite sides of the field were coming up at the same time. A double whack followed, smacking both zombies back into their respective holes, but the zombies weren't going to give up so easily. A multitude of undead grey heads began to emerge and a torrent of mallet strikes followed. The noise coming from the crowd began to cease as they were now too enthralled in Tad's game to keep up their conversations. The machine's whirring noise and Tad's frequent mallet strikes were the only noises within that vicinity. Even Tad had to admit that the game's speed was likely too much for any regular person to keep up with, but he enjoyed the challenge and was seemingly rising to meet it.
The machine's noise got louder again; all the spectators had assumed the game was on its top speed so when it got louder once more, they, seemingly as a group with one mind, stepped back as if the machine might attack them at any moment. Tad was also surprised and his focus wavered slightly. Then, a plume of smoke erupted from the top of the machine and the whirring noise declined before eventually stopping altogether. Everyone watched, even Tad, wondering what would happen next.
"Ok, sir, well done," said the attendant as he stepped forward, holding a golden skull token. "This is for you and we're going to take a short break before resuming the event. Thank you everyone for your patience." Tad took the token and turned around, surprised by the crowd that had amassed behind him. A grin formed on the mage's face as he walked away.
"I could do that."
"Me too, if the machine weren't broken." The kids talking just made Tad's grin get a little bit bigger. The lanky summoner merged back into the crowds as he was no longer the center of attention. While the zombie smashing game had been manageable for Tad, he'd still worked up quite a thirst, so when he came to a place with punch, he got in line.
WC: 917
Total: 917 + 448 + 233 = 1598
Last edited by Believer on 29th October 2022, 12:33 pm; edited 3 times in total