Mutant Core[1]

Mutant Core[1]

[Third person POV],

Ace's eyes narrowed as he pumped more strength into his hands and pushed the Zombie further away from him.

The zombie's strength was lesser than its speed.

However, it was still higher than Ace, who was four levels lower.

As the other zombies approached, Ace turned to Anna and yelled;

"Leave this Zombie to Chris and me and deal with the others," he shouted as he charged towards the zombie in front of him that posed the most threat.

Anna may be the weakest member of the team in terms of personal fighting prowess, but she is undeniably the most damaging in group battles.

Aside from scouting, Anna summoned crow can also attack by exploding its clone at the adversary.

One clone crow explosion may not make much of a difference, but if there are several, it is a different story.

During the period before the end of stage one, when everyone was rushing to raise their levels, Anna discovered something else about the shadow crow's capabilities.

When the shadow crow clone explodes, its blood exerts a coercive effect on everything it touches.

Perhaps this is because the shadow crow is a creature called from an Epic Grade Skill stone, or perhaps it is due to its attribute.

[Shadow Crow Level 13],

A creature summoned by the entity; Annabella Dark from the shadow world.

A mid-rank monster who excels at scouting and can attack with dark magic.

If contracted, will have the ability to grow with the contractor.

........

However, the others in the group understood how much damage she can bring with the dense quantity of crows she has from the time they spent together fighting monsters, and the reason she doesn't have much presence in their group fight is that she was constantly in the back supporting.

Her primary flaw is her own combat prowess.

And the part of her crow's explosion attracting more zombies?

Even if she doesn't do anything, the battle between Ace and Chris and the zombie they're fighting will.

....

Back to Ace fight,

Due to their inability to acclimate to its speed, the zombie arrived in front of them before the two could even get there, catching them off guard.

And because Ace was in front, he was the first to come into encounter with the zombie, and because he never had time to launch an attack, he could only defend himself with the twin blades as he watched the zombie fist in the shape of a punch arrive.

When the fist connected, Ace was unable to remain still as he shot back a few meters with a trickle of blood streaming down his lips.

An indication of internal injury.

Perhaps it was the speed with which it struck, or the strength that came with its level, or both, but the attack just now was different from the sneak attack it launched on Ace previously, causing him slight damage.

But, as a result of the zombie's previous attack, Chris was able to launch his own attack on it, releasing a fast red light straight from the sword at the zombie.

When the zombie saw this, it lifted both hands to shield its head against the attack, and when the attack connected and pushed the zombie back a few meters.

However, the zombie was simply left with a white mark or scar on its hands as a result of the attack.

Apart from the speed, Ace and Chris were able to see the zombie's defense, which increased its threat level.

Aside from that, the move it took to defend its head from Chris' blow demonstrated that its intelligence was not low, but rather higher than the monsters they'd faced thus far, adding difficulty to an already challenging opponent.

But, in the heat of battle, both parties charged at each other.

......

[Ace POV],

After spitting out the little blood in my mouth, I charged toward the zombie alongside Chris.

I realized we had to engage the zombie in close battle after seeing its defense.

'However, it's another thing if we can keep up with its speed.'

Fortunately, we are in an open area, so the danger that the zombie's speed would have presented did not appear.

Because I was behind Chris due to the zombie attack, Chris was the first to reach the monster.

Even if his moves were better than before, it was evident he lacked experience.

There's also the fact that he's 5 levels below the zombie.

While Chris and the monster were still engaged in combat, Chris was already knocked away by the monster's attack before I could approach it.

Unsurprising.

But, because of the harassment caused by both of us on it, I was able to land an attack on it when I eventually got within attack range.

Though the monsters still blocked my strike, I was able to draw a line of blood from its hand, indicating that my method of attack is successful.

Perhaps infuriated by my attack, the zombie grew violent and began attacking me with quick punches, reducing me to simply defending.

Well, barely defending.

I dare not say I've become accustomed to its pace since I could only defend myself due to the twin blades in my hands.

After discovering that I could inflict damage on it with my blades, despite it remained aggressiveness in its attacks, there was a hint of caution mingled in, making it more tricky.

Here we are, just barely surviving the attacks of these creatures, but they are growing stronger than us.

To me, the prospect of the majority of humanity surviving these events appears poor.

As the zombie forced me back, I noticed something moving quickly in our direction.

The zombie sensed it as well and was momentarily distracted from attacking, leaving a gap for me to attack as I slashed with the blade in my hand.

Unfortunately, it was quick to defend, and all I could do was push it back and add a little more damage.

But the attack wasn't ended yet, as the 'thing' that had been going in our direction earlier dashed to the zombie's side and struck with the sword in its hand, which the zombie could only resist with one hand due to it not being stable and recovering from my blow that had driven it back just now.

The 'thing' that attacked was Chris.

Though I knew there was a slim chance he wouldn't die from the zombie attack, I was expecting him to be injured to the point of being unable to move for a while.

I was confused until I saw the breastplate I had once given Anna since it had little value to me on him.

However, given the status of the now-useless object, he has little chance of survival if he is struck again.

I ignored the item and Chris as I prepared for the next round.