Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”Are we really giving up now?” The fighters frowned.

”Of course not. We’ve finally almost caught him. We can’t quit now. In his current state, a high-tier Outland Beast might find and eat him the moment he goes in. Then we’ll get nothing.

”Our superiors made it clear that these humans are extremely important. We have to bring them back!”

”We’ll only be entering the outskirts. As long as we don’t go too deep, we should be fine. We grab him and leave.”

”Exactly. If we don’t kill any Outland Beasts, the Netherfang Tiger shouldn’t attack us outright even if we draw its attention. Our backgrounds still carry weight. It’ll have to think twice.”

”Make a decision already. If we wait any longer, that human really will be gone. There are plenty of high-tier Outland Beasts in there.”

Their leader hesitated, then gritted his teeth.

”We’re going in!”

He fixed the others with a stern look. ”But remember, no one attacks the Outland Beasts inside.”

”Understood!”

The group nodded and rushed into the Netherveil Range.

They had placed a tracking mark on Ethan, so they weren’t worried about losing him.

What they didn’t know was that Ethan had spotted the mark long ago. He had deliberately left it in place.

He moved swiftly through the Netherveil Range, using True Sight to avoid group after group of Outland Beasts.

The beasts seemed to be searching for something. Chris and the others had clearly succeeded.

A smile tugged at Ethan’s lips as he continued deeper into the mountains.

He needed to kill some Outland Beasts and make the conflict between the two sides even worse.

Killing low-tier beasts wouldn’t accomplish anything, though. It would only alert the enemy.

He needed a Stage SS target. That would send their hatred through the roof.

After traveling for several minutes, Ethan finally spotted a Tier 38 Outland Beast leading a group of Stage S beasts through the area.

”You’ll do.”

He teleported directly in front of it.

Before the beast could react, Ethan activated Absolute Stasis and brought his poleaxe down on its head.

Thud!

Its skull shattered. It died without ever knowing what had happened.

Ethan flicked his poleaxe, pulling its crystal core into his hand. Dozens of daggers then appeared behind him and killed the other Stage S Outland Beasts in an instant.

He deliberately spared one.

Absolute Stasis ended, and everything returned to normal.

The surviving Outland Beast stared blankly at the bodies around it. It opened its mouth to roar, but Ethan grabbed it by the throat.

”Not yet.”

The beast stared at him in terror.

Are you some kind of demon?

Ethan ignored it and used True Sight to watch the approaching figures in the distance.

The pinnacle-race fighters had already been spotted by the Outland Beasts. They ignored the creatures and continued following the tracking mark, while a large group of beasts trailed behind them.

When Ethan saw that they were almost there, he smiled and released the beast’s throat.

”All right. You can roar now.”

”???”

The Outland Beast stared at him in confusion.

What the hell is wrong with you?

Still, it threw back its head and roared as loudly as it could. Of course it needed to call its fellow beasts for help.

”ROAR!”

The deafening sound echoed across half the mountain range.

The beast wasn’t particularly large, but its roar was thunderous.

”Not bad. I knew I picked the right one.” Ethan smiled, then killed it with a single slash. ”Your job is done.”

The Outland Beast’s eyes widened. Even in death, it looked utterly baffled.

If you were going to kill me, why didn’t you do it earlier? Why make me go through all that?

It would never get an answer.

Ethan peeled the tracking mark from his body, then used several consecutive Teleportations to hide in a dark corner before entering the Deadlock Dimension.

The pinnacle-race fighters arrived soon afterward. They stopped and frowned.

”The mark disappeared!”

Then they saw the corpses scattered across the ground. When they spotted the dead Stage SS Outland Beast among them, their expressions changed.

”This is bad. We need to leave!”

They immediately turned to flee.

But countless Outland Beasts were already rushing in from every direction. It wasn’t long before the fighters were completely surrounded.

The beasts looked at the bodies on the ground, then fixed the outsiders with bloodthirsty stares.

”Um… would you believe us if I said we didn’t kill these Outland Beasts?” one of the young men asked weakly.

The beasts’ eyes only grew more vicious.

Do you think we’re idiots?

”We really didn’t kill them! This is all a misunderstanding!” another man tried to explain.

It was useless.

The witnesses and evidence were both right there. No amount of arguing would help.

They had obviously snuck into the mountains to collect Stage SS crystal cores. These hypocrites didn’t even have the courage to admit what they had done!

They had come all the way to the Netherveil Range to hunt for crystal cores.

They were finished.

The Outland Beasts glared coldly at them and maintained the encirclement, but didn’t attack. They could sense how powerful these outsiders were. The beasts present weren’t strong enough to defeat them, so they could only wait for their ruler to arrive.

”What the fuck is going on?” The pinnacle-race fighters’ faces had gone green.

”Isn’t it obvious? That human played us!” their leader snarled.

”That can’t be right. He was already at the end of his rope. He shouldn’t have had enough strength left to kill a Stage SS Outland Beast.”

”That’s exactly how he played us! He was pretending from the beginning. He’s perfectly fine! That bastard lured us here so the Outland Beasts would kill us for him!” The leader ground his teeth.

The others finally realized what had happened.

”Damn. Now that you mention it, you’re right. Every time he looked ready to collapse, he somehow kept going. It was all an act!”

”That fucking snake! If I catch him, I’ll make him wish he were dead!”

Their fury soared.

”This isn’t the time for that. We need to figure out what to do!”

”What else can we do? We’ll have to wait for the Netherfang Tiger and explain everything.”

”You think it’ll believe us?”

”That…”

”We only have two options. Either we find that human, or we leave before the Netherfang Tiger arrives!”

”We’re completely surrounded. Neither one is possible!”

”Try talking to them again!”

A tall man stepped forward and addressed the surrounding Outland Beasts.

”We’re not the ones who killed these beasts. It was a human. Some of you must have seen him. Search the area. He can’t have gone far.”

The Outland Beasts looked at one another and passed the question through their ranks.

In the end, they all shook their heads.

None of them had seen the human he was talking about.

”ROAR!” Do you really think we’re stupid? We haven’t seen any outsiders except you!

”ROAR!” Save your excuses. You can answer to our ruler!

The fighters were about to keep arguing when an enormous black tiger came striding through the air.

As its terrifying presence washed over them, their faces changed dramatically.

”We’re screwed.”