As he watched the ten Valkyries take the children into the sky, Randall slowly closed his eyes and remained there for a long while.

When he opened his eyes again, there was a newfound resolve in them.

Back in the main hall of the clock tower, Randall avoided the remaining children and went to his comrades who had fought alongside him, saying softly, "We need to hold out until they come again."

Kellogg wagged its tail and said, "The horde of zombies has entered the slums. We don't have much time left."

Bulville weighed the massive wooden pillar in his hand and said in a muffled voice, "Standing here, I can even hear the howls of those corpses."

Carol suggested, "Perhaps I can go and act as bait again, which could buy some time."

Randall immediately rejected the suggestion: "The number of zombies is too large; the bait simply won't be able to lure away too many enemies."

"Then what's your solution?"

Randall said, "We'll block all the doors and windows of the clock tower hall, making no sound or light, and then wait."

Carroll asked doubtfully, "Block all the doors and windows?"

"Um."

"When the Valkyrie lands on the hills, how should we get out?"

Randall pointed to the ceiling: "We're not going out, we're going up."

"Go up?"

Everyone looked in the direction Randall pointed and saw a spiral staircase that went up along the cylindrical hall wall and disappeared into the top of the tower.

"It won't be long before the zombie horde reaches these hills. If we choose the flat ground outside the gate as our landing site, there's no way we can stop such a huge number of enemies."

"Therefore, we have to choose another location for the Valkyrie to land. There is a small rooftop on the top of this tower, which used to be used for ringing the bell. The bell frame is broken now, but the platform is still there. The Valkyrie can land there to pick us up."

After thinking for a moment, Kellogg said, “There’s a problem… I’ve seen that rooftop platform; it’s very narrow, and can only accommodate one griffin at a time. This means we’ll need a lot of time to take the griffins up and down.”

Randall nodded: "You're right, that's why I blocked the doors and windows before. It will buy us some time. If the zombie horde breaks through the door, we can fight our way back and retreat to the roof using the terrain advantage of the stairs."

After thinking it over carefully, Carroll said, "This might work."

Seeing that no one else had any questions, Randall began to assign tasks.

“Carol, Aldenan, and Bulville, you and I will be responsible for collecting the supplies and blocking the doors and windows.”

"Barbara, take all the children and tell them to make no noise and quietly go to the roof."

“Kellogg, you go up to the roof too. You have two tasks: one is to choose a suitable landing site, and the other is to send a signal to guide the Valkyries to land on the roof when you spot them arriving.”

Soon, everyone began to get busy with their own work.

Twenty minutes later, Aldenan’s voice rang out in the clock tower’s hall.

"They're here."

The ground trembled slightly as a deafening roar erupted.

Randall hid behind a raised table and made a concealed gesture to his teammates.

A huge shadow enveloped the entire clock tower, and the light coming in from the doors and windows was blocked by the constantly swaying figure.

Looking through the gaps below the gate, countless feet could be seen lingering and wandering outside the clock tower, as if searching for something.

Carroll lay on the ground and whispered to Randall, "I've always found it strange."

"strangeness?"

"These resurrected corpses, though devoid of consciousness, seem to possess a fixed purpose, just like..."

Randall added in a low voice, "Puppet."

"That's right, they're puppets. These corpses are like a group of puppets being manipulated. They first attack densely populated but poorly defended places, and after they grow to a certain strength, they attack military buildings or noble mansions."

Randall shook his head and said, "If someone is really controlling these corpses, then who is it?"

"No matter who it is, this is not a good thing."

Aldenan pricked up his wolf ears and suddenly exclaimed, "Listen! It's a whistle-blowing arrow!"

Bulville gripped his weapon tightly: "Kellogg saw the Valkyrie."

Randall drew his sword: "They're here earlier than expected. Everyone, prepare yourselves!"

Kellogg's signal not only caught the Valkyrie's attention, but also caused a complete upheaval in the horde of zombies near the clock tower.

Tens of thousands of parasitic corpses shrieked as they charged toward the clock tower's gate, the enormous impact resounding through the sky.

Seeing the gate, blocked by debris, teetering on the brink of collapse, Randall nodded to Carol beside him.

The two approached the gate from the left and right, and when the gate was forced open, they chopped the first parasitic corpse that rushed in into three pieces.

"Don't get your hands on the corpse's blood or bits of flesh!" Randall used his toe to pry the pieces of corpse aside, then used his shield to shove away the second parasitic corpse that squeezed in.

Aldenan leaped onto the wall of the hall, lifted a boulder half a person's height from the ground, and forcefully crushed a parasitic corpse that had broken in through a window into a pulp.

Dodging the black parasites scurrying across the ground, Aldenan shouted, "Don't just focus on the gate!"

Bulwell lifted the wooden post and forcefully shoved the parasitic corpse that had crawled into the window out, saying in a deep voice, "I'm watching."

Hearing the sound of griffins flapping their wings in the air, Randall perked up: "They've seen the signal! They'll be on the tower platform soon!"

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!