CHAPTER 26 (1/1)

Dara found her strength slipping away. Her body wasn't used to exertions that involved fighting off undeads with a broom! Not that she could fight, she simply shoved off the undeads Jaejoong had hacked to the fire they had built upon reaching the top of the hill. Though in pieces, the undead still moved and clawed. The only thing that could permanently stopped them was fire. "Take a rest, Dara. I can't have you fainting. I'll just kick these undead off the hill," said Jaejoong as he disposed off three more rotting undead. "They would still come crawling back!" she retorted as she kicked a dismembered head into the fire. "By the time they had crawled back here, you have rested." She stopped arguing with him. She was too tired for that. She sat herself beside the fire. The pieces of wood they used to start the fire were now all gone. But the bodies of the undead kept the fire burning. She stared at the broom in her hand. It had broken off two hours ago when she used it to crush a skull trying to bite her foot. All that was left was half of the wooden handle. Coming to the City of the Dead, Dara had discovered she had an unreasonable fear of the dead, now she had a lot more reasons to fear the dead. But that fear had to be controlled and buried deep inside her. Allowing fear to overpower her now could lead to her death. She took several deep breaths, calming herself. Her body craved rest and sleep, but she needed to find a way out of this nightmare. But her power of foresight couldn't show her how to survive the onslaught of the undead. Without the Oracle, her visions were severely limited to a look, ten minutes into the future. She wanted to cry. All her bravado in the forest before about dying was gone. Now that she was facing death, she realized she wanted more than ever to live! She would gladly accept living the life of an ordinary woman than dying from the rotting hands of the undead! If she lived through this, she swore, she would find a way to become stronger! All her life she had used the power and strength of the Oracle. She never had her own strength and was always protected by the fireshadow and comforted by the presence of her sister Oracles. She wanted a strength of her own, a strength that could never be taken away from her! Dara stood up. She had not yet recovered her strength, but Jaejoong could use another pair of eyes. She began using her powers to see into the immediate future. "There’s two more coming on your left!" she warned Jaejoong. Jaejoong swung his sword, and the two climbing undead shattered into pieces before rolling down the hill, joining the burning pile of bones and rotting flesh below. Aside from the fire on top of the hill, Dara had also instructed Jaejoong to create several fires around the hill. She saw such scenario from one of her visions. The fires around them had helped them survive up to now. Though Cloud had remained invisible to her eyes, she had seen what his thunderbolts could do to the undead, so she had Jaejoong assign him to guard duty below the hill. Cloud had been busy hitting and burning every undead that came near him with his thunderbolts. Though these undead quickly caught fire, Cloud could only send one or two thunderbolts at a time, and he wasn't fast enough to quickly burn all the undead. But his thunderbolts had proven useful several times whenever Jaejoong was almost overpowered by the sheer numbers of undead climbing the hill. Despite not hearing or seeing Cloud, Dara had no choice but to believe in his existence. Because that's the only explanation for those sparkling thunderbolts and the information Jaejoong had acquired about her life before she became an incarnation of the Oracle. Dara was also forced to admit that Jaejoong possessed no magical powers. If he was indeed the Lord of Darkness, he had yet to manifest the powers the Oracle had foretold he would use to destroy Haldor. Kim Jaejoong right now was nothing more than a tired young man who, like Dara, could die at any moment. "Conserve your strength, Jaejoong," she warned him. "I’m trying to." His voice sounded tired. "Can’t you extend your vision to more than ten minutes into the future? You could at least glimpse a more permanent way for us to stay alive." "I can’t. My vision of the future before was only enhanced by the fireshadow." "So Ji-sub's idea was to build a magic school. To train people to further enhance their magical abilities. And increasing your power is possible! I didn’t start out a good fighter, I trained myself hard to become a champion fighter. I learned how to become strong by facing stronger opponents, by challenging myself. Start challenging yourself, Sandara Park! Look into our future!" he demanded. Dara didn't like being ordered by the young man, but he was right. She should try looking further into their future. Pushing the limits of her power to seek out a future that would show her how they could escape from the City of the Dead. She sighed and sat back down. She closed her eyes and began concentrating. She tried to look farther than the ten minutes her power allowed her to see. "No one will bother you, Dara. Cloud and I will keep all these undead from you until you have found a way out for us," promised Jaejoong as he continued fighting the undead. The crunch of broken bones, the crawling and moans of the eerie undead began to fade from Dara's mind. She shouldn't concern herself with the danger around her. She needed to see the future, a future where they could live through the night and escape this nightmare. The future she saw ten minutes from now was no different from what was currently happening. She pushed herself to see twenty minutes into the future. Darkness greeted her. She continued concentrating, trying to see beyond the darkness. "Twenty minutes from now," she murmured. She kept saying these words to aid her in seeing. She felt sweat trickle down her brow. A headache was also starting to form. She kept on. "Twenty minutes from now..." The light that broke through the darkness in her mind surprised her! She was now seeing twenty minutes into the future! She saw Jaejoong barely able to swing the sword. All his strength had drained from his body. She again willed her mind to see more, further into the future. She almost gasped when she saw Jaejoong still fighting, yet his left arm was now wounded. He was tired beyond tired. His hair had become a tangled mess. He kept his feet firmly planted on the ground as if moving would cause him to fall. Yet his arms kept moving and keeping the hordes of undead away from her quiet form. She also saw Salamander fall to the ground from sheer ex