Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 190

Chapter 190: The Battle For Fallon Begins
After a brief conversation about his plans, the girls seemed surprisingly interested in carrying it out. The reasons for this revealed themselves. Like Zane, Elena and the others were also becoming worried about the stagnation of their skills.

They had effectively mastered their current skills, bringing them up to the highest tier possible. If they wanted to continue to grow more than just physically and mentally, then there were really only two ways to do so. First, they could improve their gear, but as Zane had proved, that was a very costly effort.

Second, they could hunt Tier I Horde Kings, and take their blood crystals, which would grant the one who consumed it a second skill. Something that they were all eager to get their hands on. Because of this, Zane and the girls made a plan.

They would ride into the outskirts of Fallon, where they would disembark from their Humvee. After that, Zane would summon his Horde and order it into formation with the intent to attract the attention of the local Horde King.

With the Horde King’s attention drawn to the battle, Zane would make sure that his companions led their own individual units, ensuring that they were properly executing the orders they had been given, and racking up kills of the Horde King’s army.

When that happened, Zane would silently stalk the Horde King, and when the time was right, deal a decisive blow to it. Once he had done so, he would hand over the Blood Crystal to whichever of the girls racked up the most kills.

This plan was solid, but it also caused Angelica to pout, knowing that she would not be getting the blood crystal today. Either way, once the group had eaten their breakfast, they quickly embarked on this journey. Where they sat in silence on the car ride the entire time.

Maya had been left behind, but she was not misbehaving herself, nor did she cling to Zane like she normally did whenever he tried to leave the bunker without her. Instead, she sat idly by, staring into space, seemingly waiting for their return, almost as if she knew exactly what they were planning to do, despite them not mentioning it to her.

—

The moment the car reached the outskirts of Fallon, Zane did exactly what he said he would do. He turned off the Humvee’s engine and jumped out of the vehicle, where he summoned his horde of 1,000 Undead Servants.

The moment these Undead appeared, they kneeled before their king, who silently gave them the commands that they needed to follow. As if a well-oiled machine, the Skeletal Hoplites immediately formed their shield wall, splitting into their centuries as their Swordsman, Archer, and Caster counterparts followed their own orders.

As for Zane himself, he seemingly vanished into thin air. His stealth ability was so good with the improvements in his equipment’s stats that he was quite literally invisible, and only a Horde King would be able to detect his presence.

But for a Tier I Horde King who was the same level as Zane, they would have to be actively looking for him, and would have to be within a certain range to detect him. Because of this, Zane stalked the battlefield as if he were an apex predator biding his time to strike at the most opportune moment.

—

For some time now, Zander had been rather bored. His horde was small even among his fellow Tier I Horde Kings, but he had filled his time conquering the other nearby towns and villages within Northern Nevada, adding their miniscule populations to his horde.

However, on this day, he was back in the seat of his power. The small town of Fallon. It existed roughly an hour out from the Reno-Sparks Metropolitan Area and was not exactly what one would call a fortress. Nor was it really a city by any stretch of the imagination.

Still, his Horde had nothing to really do other than wander about aimlessly, while he himself sought how he could take over the territory of his Sister Tabitha, who resided in another nearby town called Fernley, whose horde consisted of roughly 25,000 undead.

Naturally, Zander was aware that Eliza was dead, and that the humans had taken up residence in her former territory. Despite pleading with Bartholomew to rally the Horde Kings of Northern Nevada to avenge this loss, Bartholomew did not make a move.

And because of this, Zander, Tabitha, and the others were forced to sit idly by and fight among themselves for a chance of expanding their own territory and power. But before Zander had the opportunity to do so, somebody came to him looking for trouble.

A Horde had randomly appeared out of thin air within his territory. But there was something strange about this horde. It was far more organized than the one he and many of his siblings possessed. And the Undead among its ranks were unusual, insofar as they sported armor and wielded weapons. Hell, they even marched in formation.

Yet no matter how much Zander looked upon this small army’s ranks, he could not find one of his siblings leading it. Instead, there appeared to be a small number of living women commanding the various units that this horde was composed of.

It was a truly baffling affair, and it was then that Zander remembered what Bartholomew had said in the convention of Horde Kings that had occurred a month or so ago. There was someone among the living who had their mother’s scent around him and whose abilities were similar to that of himself and his siblings.

Had this mysterious individual come to Fallon to take his meager domain from him? How dare he! Yet, where was he? After careful consideration, Zander decided to take this challenge. After all, he suspected that he could force this mysterious man out of hiding if he managed to kill the women who he employed in his horde.

Because of this, Zander smirked as he issued a decree to his horde to attack the enemy who had appeared in their own territory.

“You are underestimating me if you think such a paltry sum of undead will be capable of defeating my horde! Minions! Go forth and destroy those fools who have intruded upon our domain!”

Immediately 15,000 or so Undead which Zander had gathered here in Fallon from among the local population, and that of the other nearby towns such as Silver Springs which Zane and the girls had passed through on their way here, began to sprint towards the front lines of the formation that Zane’s horde stood within.

With this, the battle for Fallon had just begun.