the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

these are the kinds of conversations one of my kids likes to ask. so I figure RSF has the answer.

how many 10 year old zombies can you fight before you're just over-run and eaten?

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

So many variables. But first a few assumptions, more or less in line with the standards of the genre...

-The defender is fighting solo and using some form of cold steel, as opposed to being comfortably ensconced in a fully fuelled and ammo'd Leopard II tank together with a few colleagues.
- The 10-year-old zombies are of the classic Romero shuffling variety, not those dubious sprinting zombie-come-latelys.
- The defender is on open, firm and unencumbered terrain, therefore able to move around at will and in no danger of being trapped in a corner, falling into a pit etc.

With those givens, we can equip the defender with a hand-and-a-half sword, the corresponding well-trained skills of the Liechtenauer school and a generally fit, athletic physique. The sword of modern high-grade steel and very well sharpened. Plus a pair of sturdy boots with a good, deep profile on the soles, to avoid slipping on all the blood. Okay, and something like a kukri as a back-up.

I think that the defender, as long as he is able to keep moving/relocating as he fights and hence avoid a build-up of small-sized corpses that will ultimately trap him on one spot, should be able to kill an unlimited number of 10-year-old zombies.* Until, of course, simple fatigue starts to overwhelm him (or existential despair), and also the sword edges become increasingly blunted. Then the game will be up.

* Adult zombies will be slightly faster because their legs are longer and above all they have greater mass, hence requiring more time and effort to disable/kill each individual. Cumulatively this might well make a difference to the time the defender can keep going.

very impressive assumptions!

"unlimited ... that is, until the limits are hit" is a great answer for this question!

somehow I knew RSF would have the answer.

The main thing is not get bitten by the little zombie flesh eaters, in case they pass on the brain freezing virus. The 8 year olds are even worse.
Just passed a swarm of them by Sainsbury's.

I quickly used my "wave hand like cloud; fall down like truck" training to dispatch two of the irritating blighters.
That will teach them to mess with a tai chi master.

@ everything:
You're welcome. Hope the young one wasn't too disappointed with the forecast. You could cheer him up by giving him the non-armed, trapped-in-a-corner variant: Dr. Zombiekil writes that here an adult can handle a maximum of 7 such small-sized zombies before going down, screaming and dying horribly.....!!!!!

@ cloudz:
Sainsbury's. So it least it's middle-class zombie kids. Naaaice! Or maybe actually worse.... ??