Not ready to be lunch yet!

Crouching in the shadows created by a collapsed house, John waited. The zombie horde hadn't reacted at all, just stumbling left and right without apparent pattern or motive.

No, the problem was the hounds. At least 5 of them were on the prowl. John, hidden and using stealth, was repeatedly trying to escape the barrier, but each time he got the same message.

error: impossible to exit the dungeon while engaged in combat.

Apparently having these creatures hunting him counted as being engaged in combat, even if they didn't knew where he was or hadn't hit him yet.

If the five hounds attacked him at once, he would probably die. His only hope was to manage to fight them one on one or two at most.

He finally got a clear view of one of them. The Carrion Hound looked like a very skinny, flayed dog. It wasn't muscular but very tall and probably bred for speed rather than strength; it looked a bit like a greyhound.

Carrion Hound lvl 4 creature. (Undead)
This ghoulish dog roams the wastes in search of living or recently dead prey to feed on. It likes to hunt in a pack, relying on speed and numbers to get the advantage.
150/150 hp.

It had less hp than a zombie, but would probably hit more easily and do more damage. But, contrary to the other undead, it had weak spots. The back of its neck and under the sternum were marked red when he focused on it.

From what he could see, only three of the five were looking in the right direction, the others getting far away from him.

They had their noses to the ground, probably a remainder of instincts from their past life. John had seen that at least one had no nose, probably lost with its skin, and, with the horrible smell coming from them and the whole place, he doubted their ability to smell him out.

He had no clue on how good they could see, their bloodshot eyes looked more lively than the dead eyes of the zombies, but one thing was sure: they could hear pretty well.

"Maybe I could turn this to my advantage? I could use it as a distraction," he realized.

He took the slingshot from the pocket of his hoody and loaded it with one of the metal balls he had crafted for it. Once sure, using his stealth indicator, that nothing knew he was here, he picked a target and fired a shot into an empty metal trash can, as far from his home as he could safely aim.

The metal ball bounced many times in the trash can, ringing like a bell and pulling his hunters to it. Once the last hound reacted to the sound and began running toward it, John waited for him to pass in front of his hiding spot before striking from the shadows.

80 dmg crit! sneak attack! Weak spot: stunned 6 seconds.

He had just hit on the back of the neck as hard as he could, and it had worked perfectly. He hit it again, using its confusion to aim once again at the weak spot. The hound was barely coming to its senses after losing the debuff when John struck one last time to end him.

18 xp

John picked the loot without a look at it and crouched down in cover to go hide in another dark corner of the ruined street. He was focusing on his Stealth.

He still couldn't leave; he really hoped the combat status was only because of the hounds and not because of the whole place as he couldn't afford to try to kill all these zombies tonight. One down, four to go.

John saw one of the hounds looking in his direction, but the stealth indicator remained at zero. Could he really do this? Strike from the shadows and retreat? It seemed that he could gain experience on top of xp from the fight. He was using the tactics that the junk rats used on him, and they were pretty effective.

He waited for a moment until no hound looked his way and cast Magic Projectile on two of them before hiding back in his spot.

36 dmg
48 dmg

The hounds that were hit started jumping around, but, because none of them saw him casting the spells or where they came from, they could only continue looking for him.

John waited a bit and did this again two times, often unable to target the same hounds.

Luck was still on his side; another hound hurt by his spells came by in front of his hiding spot; thankfully, without the sense of smell, John's Stealth skill made him invisible to the creature as long as he remained in the shadows and didn't make any sounds.

Once sure of the success, he launched a sneak attack, but he got a bleeding debuff on it, useless on a monster that would die in the next two hits, and it left it the time to bark. Before it died, the three remaining dogs were looking at him and running in his direction. Stealth would be useless if they knew where he was, and the sound they made was attracting some zombies in his direction.

John wouldn't have enough mana to kill everything coming his way, and, if he got swamped in melee, he wouldn't bet on himself.

After little time to think, he was surrounded by the hounds; the zombies shuffling far away couldn't keep up with the slender dogs.

Three attacks at once, he had no chance to dodge and could only parry one. He could feel the fangs of the beasts burrow into his right leg and left arm. The slight armor on his forearm prevented the hit from hitting an artery, but the wound on the leg seemed dangerous.

-12hp
-27hp

Thankfully, with his new weird body, he wouldn't bleed out unless he got a debuff to do so. John hit the dog he parried with his saber and used a spell at point blank range on it. It took him another spell and three hits to kill it during which he got hurt again by the other two hounds.

He had still a bit under half his mana left, and it was the same for life, but the crowd of a dozen zombie was still moving toward him. Even with the dogs dead, he would still be in combat, with crappy regen and no way to get out.

John managed to dodge an attack, it was easier with only two opponents. Somehow his sneak attack could also work as backstabbing, and his attack on the hound that passed him when he dodged did double damage without it being a crit.

John had just unleashed a spell on each of them, so this heavy hit was enough to finish it. The last hound, without the distraction that a group fight offered, wasn't up to task and died quickly with a few swings of John's blade.

With the zombies barely 10 feet away, John only had time to quickly pocket whatever loot was on the ground before running away. He still had the refill from his bracelet for the moment his mana would go out. But apart from food, which was seriously nerved in combat, he would have little chance to complement his 47 hp to get back to full.

His rush to safety was cut short. The empty space he had farmed zombies in behind him, well ...

It wasn't so empty anymore.

"Come on! Seriously a respawn? Fuck this place!" cursed John.

He would have to find a new strategy and quick.