NOVEL NEXT Chapter 383: Standing Face-to-face with a Mutated Zombie
One of them, a burly man with no powers but a strong arm, swung an iron rod so hard that it shattered a zombie's jaw and sent its teeth scattering across the pavement. He roared, as if refusing to give up.
This was the spirit needed to fight zombies, otherwise, humanity would perish.
Li Kun finally broke through the last wall of zombies. He now stood face to face with the leader.
He was covered in black blood and rotten flesh. One couldn't even tell the original color of his fatigues and his face was unrecognizable.
Looking at the zombie up close, it was far more grotesque than he'd imagined.
Its skin was pale and leathery, patches of flesh eaten away to expose gray muscle. Its eyes glowed with some intelligence, and its elongated claws glistened with black ooze.
Li Kun wondered why it had not regained any semblance of a human physically since its brain was starting to function?
The zombie leader tilted its head, as if studying him.
Then it let out a guttural roar that reverberated like a command. Immediately after, the zombies behind Li Kun went berserk, hurling themselves at him with reckless abandon.
"Not today buddy." Li Kun said with a hardened expression.
He raised his submachine gun and unleashed a full burst straight at the leader. Bullets tore into its chest, splattering chunks of flesh and bone.
But to his horror, it didn't fall. Instead, it staggered back a step, snarling, before straightening again.
The wounds were closing.
'Regeneration? Damn it, this one's mutated further than I thought.' Li Kun couldn't help but curse when he saw this.
No time to hesitate. Li Kun dropped the gun, drew his combat knife, and threw himself forward.
His aura flared, the spiritual energy of a cultivator wrapping around the blade and creating a small space around himself.
He slashed diagonally, aiming straight for the head.
The zombie shrieked and swung its claws. Metal screeched against bone as knife met claw, sparks flying. The force of the clash sent a shockwave rippling through the air.
This zombie was stronger and more cunning than any he had ever seen.
Li Kun gritted his teeth, forcing his knife downward. He twisted his body, dodged another swipe of the black claw, and stabbed upward into the creature's chest. Spiritual energy surged, exploding inside the wound. He hoped this would give him a second or two to go for the head.
The leader screamed, stumbling backward. Its glowing eyes dimmed slightly, fury twisting its already hideous features.
Li Kun didn't care about its anger, he followed after it and roared, "Die." As he leapt high, spiritual energy channelled through his knife, and brought it down in a vicious arc.
The blade cleaved through rotting flesh and severed the leader's head from its shoulders.
The body convulsed, then collapsed with a heavy thud.
At the same moment, the surrounding zombies froze. Their movements became sluggish, their coordination collapsing.
Without the leader's commands, they reverted back to their instinctive hunger for human flesh, losing the terrifying organization they'd displayed moments before.
This gave the others the opening they needed.
"Push forward now." Seeing how the zombies became disorganized, one of the soldiers realized that Li Kun had succeeded in killing the leader and shouted for the others to intensify their attacks.
Flames, water, and bullets erupted again, cutting through the weakened horde.
One by one, the zombies fell until the ground was littered with corpses and the survivors finally broke through the encirclement.
This was the most ferocious battle any of them had ever fought in their lives. In fact, they never thought that they had so much potential.
This was so, especially for those ordinary people without superpowers. They had used crude weapons and mere physical strength to keep themselves alive to that point.
Li Kun wiped the black blood from his face and retrieved the leader's crystal core from its split skull.
Unlike the usual murky cores, this one pulsed with a faint red light, larger and purer than most.
It was obviously not a fire-type zombie, but the color was red. It looked like everything about such mutated zombies was different.
When he returned to the others, they were panting heavily, clothes torn, but their eyes burned with the fire of bathing in blood.
He could see that they had become more battle-hardened and would be a significant addition to their sect.
"Captain, this battle was different from the others we have fought with zombies before." One of the soldiers commented with a serious expression.
Li Kun nodded. "Yes. But this proves something we didn't know.
Zombies are evolving, faster than we expected.
And they're leaders with intelligence are emerging among them. If we don't eliminate them quickly, humanity won't stand a chance."
His words made everyone's hearts sink like a hammer in a muddy ground. The future would only get more dangerous.
"Once you've rested enough, collect the crystal cores before we leave. We already have what we came for." Li Kun ordered while regulating his breath.
Everyone looked at the carnage around them and also found a relatively clean place to meditate and recover a little.
None of them said a word out aloud, but in that moment, they all knew that following Li Kun into the sect would be the right decision.
After everyone had more or less recovered, they spread throughout the battlefield they had created and inspected every zombie to harvest crystal cores.
Those were their spoils of war and could not be left behind.
Once all the crystal cores were collected, Li Kun divided them equally among them all and gave everyone an equal share.
The newly recruited team members thought that they didn't kill as many zombies as the soldiers, so they didn't deserve so many crystal cores, but Li Kun insisted.
Seeing him like this, they had a better impression of him and firmed their decision to go to the Garden community the following day to join the sect he talked about.
They would not regret it no matter what happens in the future.