Apocalypse: King of Zombies

After securing another crystal core, Chris activated Ethereal Form again and fled into the distance.

He did find it strange. The Galeborn knew he was nearby, yet they had still killed another Stage SS Outland Beast and let its corpse fall so far away.

Whatever. Getting the crystal core came first. Even if they had laid a trap, capturing him wouldn’t be easy.

Sure enough, just as he was about to leave, dense ranks of Galeborn fighters appeared from every direction and sealed off the entire area.

Then they unleashed a barrage of abilities at his position.

Chris shook his head. Before he gained Ethereal Form, an attack like this might have forced him to reveal himself.

Now, they couldn’t stop him. Their abilities couldn’t touch him either.

He strolled straight through layer after layer of their blockade and left the battlefield.

The Galeborn fighters bombarded the empty ground for some time without hitting anything. Confusion quickly spread among them.

Vaelor and the elders, however, weren’t surprised.

The two elders had already tested the thief’s invisibility and discovered that it could somehow ignore attacks.

But the effectiveness of any ability was tied to its user’s strength. If an ability performed far beyond what the user’s strength should allow, it had to come at a cost.

If this human were stronger than all of them, he wouldn’t need to sneak around.

If he was weaker but could withstand attacks from so many fighters, then his invisibility was anything but ordinary. An ability like that had to consume a terrifying amount of energy.

It wasn’t invincible. Once he exhausted his mental energy, they could do whatever they wanted with him.

As for whether they could find him...

A dark smile spread across Vaelor’s face.

”Elders, how strong do you believe this human is?”

”Reports claim that every member of the human group is Stage S, but I don’t believe that’s the whole truth. He broke open a Stage SS Outland Beast’s skull far too easily. He should be at least Stage SS.”

Vaelor nodded.

”Then we won’t act yet. Wait until the other elders have finished off their opponents. When we make our move, we won’t give him any chance to escape.”

”Understood!”

After two Stage SS Outland Beasts were killed in quick succession, the remaining Stage SS beasts finally panicked. They abandoned their allies and fled.

They had only come to provide reinforcements under the Beast Sovereign’s orders. They had no intention of dying here.

The battle was clearly lost. If they stayed, they might all be killed.

The Galeborn weren’t about to let them leave and immediately gave chase.

In the end, three flying Outland Beasts escaped, along with one that could burrow underground. The remaining two were surrounded and beaten to death by the Galeborn elders.

They had fled too far for Chris to catch up, so both Stage SS crystal cores fell into Galeborn hands.

When the elders finally extracted those two cores, they nearly burst into tears.

After fighting themselves half to death for so long, they had managed to claim only two Stage SS crystal cores.

It had been way too damn difficult.

Once the Stage SS Outland Beasts were dealt with, the elders exchanged glances and flew together in a particular direction.

At that moment, Chris was hiding in the forest, absorbing a crystal core to recover his mental energy while lamenting the cores that had gotten away.

He had come all this way and only secured two Stage SS crystal cores. It wasn’t enough to satisfy him.

Unfortunately, the remaining beasts had already escaped, and speed had never been his strength.

I’ll grab a few high-Tier Stage S crystal cores, then head back. There’s no point wasting more time here.

Just then, sharp whistles cut through the air. Eleven figures flew toward him at incredible speed.

Chris calmly remained invisible and perfectly still among the trees.

He assumed they had just returned from hunting the escaping Outland Beasts and happened to be passing through, so he paid them little attention.

Then they did something that made his eyes widen.

The Galeborn elders stopped directly above his hiding place and surrounded the entire area.

”Come out,” High Elder Aeron said coldly. ”We know you’re here.”

What?!

How do they know where I am? Do they have an ability like Ethan’s that can see through my invisibility?

Impossible. If they could see through it, they would’ve spotted me a long time ago. I never would’ve had the chance to steal anything.

Are they guessing?

Chris frowned but didn’t move.

”Hmph. If you refuse to come out, we’ll drag you out ourselves.”

High Elder Aeron gave a cold snort. Several elders attacked at once, raining abilities down on Chris’s hiding place.

Chris’s expression changed, and he immediately activated Ethereal Form.

The abilities passed through his body without harming him.

They know my exact position?!

His heart sank.

If they could track him this precisely, he was in serious trouble.

Ethereal Form consumed too much energy to maintain for long. Once his mental energy ran too low, the ability would deactivate on its own. Then he would be in real danger.

Several of these elders were Tier 39 or higher. He couldn’t fight them.

I’ll move somewhere else and see what happens.

Chris quickly fled.

After breaking through their encirclement, he looked back and discovered that they were still bombarding his former hiding place.

That confused him.

They don’t know I left. That means they can’t actually see me. So how did they find my location?

Once he was out of sight, Chris deactivated Ethereal Form and returned to ordinary invisibility, putting more distance between himself and the elders.

After running for over ten minutes, he hid in another patch of forest.

The Galeborn elders arrived moments later.

This time, they didn’t even bother speaking. They immediately unleashed another barrage at his exact location.

Damn it!

Chris’s face darkened. He activated Ethereal Form again and fled.

By now, he understood that something on his body was leading them to him.

Whatever it was, it stopped working while Ethereal Form was active. The moment he deactivated Ethereal Form, they could track him again.

The problem was that he had no idea what they were tracking.

Could it be the crystal cores?

No. I dug them out of the Outland Beasts’ skulls. They have nothing to do with the Galeborn. Besides, if it were the cores, they would’ve tracked me after the first theft.

It must be some kind of secret technique. When I went after the second Outland Beast, they either placed something directly on me or planted it on the corpse so it would transfer to me when I took the core.

Chris quickly pieced together the only plausible explanation.

But even after figuring out what had happened, he had no idea how to deal with it. He didn’t even know what the Galeborn had put on him, much less how to remove it.

I’ll find a pool and try washing it off first.

Chris raced toward a nearby valley.