*huff* *huff*

Letting out quiet, yet slow pants. Aurora, could be seen standing at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the roof.

She had exhausted so much of her ice powers that it had frozen part of her feet and hands. A frosty, snow white texture could be seen sperading up her body.

It was so cold that she could see her own breath.

In front of her, there was a trail of risen ice spikes going along the hall, blocking up the staircase and preventing the zombies passage.

A few zombie could be seen completely frozen from parts of their body either being submerged in the ice or pierced by the ice spikes. It was quite the scene.

"Knowing Gray... He should be able to use his skill to climb up the building from the sides like before... He's also not the type to die easily so he's fine... I'm sure of it..." She muttered, her voice slightly trembling with worry.

Whilst staggering, she slowly made her way up the stairs towards the roof. The only thing on her mind was reaching the top and finding out whether or not Gray and the kids he entrusted her with were safe.

'Please... Please be-'

Her thoughts were interrupted however, as a loud screech suddenly came from behind her. Confused, she turned around and at that moment, she was face to face with a zombie which had lunged at her.

It's shattered teeth, bloodied mouth and white dilated pupils, all reflected against her Gray pupils. Having no time to react, she could only watch as it drew closer and closer. However, before she knew it, her ability was activating on its own. This created a shield of ice to block it.

The problem was, it wasn't fast enough-

*CRASH!*

Her eyes widened, time seemed to stand still as a figure emerged from beside her. In that instant, the Zombie was hit by a kick from above, slamming it down into the ground, cracking it in the process.

Looking at the person from behind, she easily recognised who it was. Gray.

*Crunch*

In order to make sure it was truly dead, Gray further pushed his feet down on it's brain, crunching it even further just to make sure it was truly dead.

[You have slain a mutated abnormal zombie]

[You have earned 4 XP]

[XP required to level up: 6/300]

Gray's attention suddenly shifted from the notification to Aurora who suddenly jumped to hug from behind.

Having forgotten that the two were on the staircase, her sudden added weight onto him, resulted in him losing balance.

"Ah-"

[Pause]

Thankfully, Gray was able to react just in time with his ability.

"Aurora...? I'm kind of covered in blood right now, not a good idea to hug me." Said Gray.

Without saying anything, she simply tightened the hug, as she kept her face buried in his chest.

"Sorry..." She apologised.

"For what?" He asked.

"Freezing the path up... There was a chance you could have gotten stuck down there with them... I thought you could climb up from outside but if you hadn't then because of me you would have-"

Gray interrupted her as he said.

"Nope, you did great. If you hadn't we would have all died as they would have reached the roof." He replied, patting her with his clean hand on the head as he did so. "More importantly, we need to go check on the kids, waiting up there."

Gray glanced back, at the bottom of the staircase, the figure of quite a hefty sum of zombies could be seen, frozen. From seeing such, Gray could tell that she had truly waited until the last moment before freezing the path.

After getting a closer look, he also noticed that cracks were slowly progressing on it. The horde was simply too big, even more were entering the apartment from the streets.

As durable as it was, the ice wasn't going to last.

Without saying anything, Aurora slowly nodded.

The four regrouped on the roof. Just as Gray had expected, the kid had dealt with the very last flying zombie.

Others were probably on their way, but this apartment wasn't the only one producing sound in the city, so it was unlikely that they had much to worry about.

Gray and Aurora, carried the hiking bags which had been left on the top of the staircase. It held all their things, meanwhile the young boy was still holding on tightly to his sister.

Gray was surprised by his determination, the kid looked no older than ten and yet his will was nothing like his age.

As the cold wind blew by and the rain drops splashed against their faces, their figures could be seen standing on the edge of the apartment building.

'A platform big enough for four. A two by two horizontal should be enough, if they stick close.'

"Does your sister tell you where the refugee is?" Gray asked.

The young boy took a few moments to think about it before replying. "Yeah... She pointed in that direction."

He pointed south.

"Do you know what it looks like?"

He shook his head. "She does."

Gray nodded.

"Alright, stick close to me, otherwise you'll fall. Time your jump as I do, understood?" Gray asked.

Aurora, nodded and so did the young boy after adjusting his sister on his back.

"Good, let's go."

Although things were going smoothly so far, a typhoon approached, one which no one could have predicted.

As mutations gathered throughout the continents, new war was dawning.