Becoming a Monster

Chapter 176: Chapter 176: Its Always the Small Ones

Currently, the city was experiencing the sensation of a series of rumbles. The silhouettes from before weren’t just mindlessly heading towards their direction; there was an eerie sense of purpose in their movements, as though something feral had awakened within them.

Their pace quickened, their lifeless eyes wide with hunger, delirium burning in their vacant expressions. Growls and guttural sounds escaped their throats, giving them a heavier sense of madness that they have never shown before, their bloodlust even stronger than when under the aftereffects of Noah’s control ability. Out of all of the zombies, not one in sight was under leveled. If one observed the way they ran, they could tell that each and every unevolved zombie were at the edge of ascending into their evolution.

Despite the overwhelming numbers of closely evolving zombies in the horde, it was the presence of the evolved zombies that made the ground tremble.

If Noah were to see the group, he would know why there weren’t any evolved zombies during the earlier fight before reaching the station. Among the throng of ravenous undead, five, no, eight evolved zombies were running in the midst of the same horde. The number of evolved zombies was staggering, almost unbelievable. With almost each evolved zombie that Noah had run across, an evolved zombie would seemingly have the ability or potential of gathering and ordering lesser zombies to its calling.

With such a trait, it was abnormally odd for such a large group of evolved zombies to not just be traveling together, but to be traveling together in a synchronized behavior. Not one zombie outpaces the other, while even the lesser zombies maintain a consistent distance from the rest. It was a terrifying sight to behold and a more pressing matter to address.

Out of the evolved zombies, three of them were counterparts of the towering zombie that Noah faced at the school. Each one had small unique features that set them apart. Two of them actually had all of their facial features; one had beady eyes that barely passed for eye sockets. Its body was extremely thin, its arms were more limber than the others while its fingertips were deftly sharp. The other had a mouth that stretched unnaturally wide, almost splitting its face in half. Its arms and legs were freakishly proportional to its body, unlike its other counterparts, but within the palms of its hands, a mouth that covered the entirety of its palms existed.

The third, however, was far more unsettling; it had no eyes or mouth at all, just decayed, ashen skin where its features should have been, giving it a hauntingly blank expression. It held the same exaggerated limbs as its predecessors, but unlike the others, its entire body had decaying skin that emitted a horrible, putrid stench.

And just like the freakish giants, four other of the zombies withheld their normal size, but their appearance each differed. One in particular had the abnormal curved legs that bent backward at unnatural angles, resembling those of a predatory animal. Its hunched posture as it ran deepened the impression of its animalistic nature, while its arms dangled at its sides, its fingers twitching as it moved, creating an ominous clang as if knives were scraping against each other.

Another zombie among the four had a torso riddled with jagged spikes protruding from its spine, sharp and twisted like broken bones forcibly growing outward. Its movements were jerky, as though each step caused the spikes to dig deeper into its flesh, yet it didn’t seem to feel any pain.

The third zombie stood out because of its entirely skeletal appearance. Its flesh had deteriorated, leaving exposed bones that were studier than ordinary bone. Its skeletal density was as dense as steel, while the makeup of different bone structures took on the appearance of a form of armor, as its bone genetics took on the color of a more grayish hue. Its forearms resembled arm guards, while his shoulders took on the shape of padding that was as thick as armor.

The rib cage was as complex as a spiderweb; no longer did it just end at its midsection. A maze of thick bones was centered in its torso. The bone structure was made up of three segments of bones making up its sternum, but due to the extended rib cage, its sternum also was made to extend down into its pelvis. Its collarbones extended out to connect with its shoulder padding, flaring out to perform as shoulder guards.

Its face withheld no gaps like a skeleton should. Any lack of bones was filled with the extension of a layer of bone that was treated like a layer of skin. Instead of teeth inside its mouth, the upper and lower jaws were made up of tiny bones that were embedded into its ’skin’.

Within its rib cage and collarbone area, which should consist of nothing else but bone, a secondary layer existed. Underneath all the exterior of bones was a dark purple, muscle-like substance that wasn’t entirely muscle. The substance had a solid physical makeup but moved as if it was a gas. It was hard to the touch, but on the surface, silver streaks of mana swam across it.

And last but not least, a core laid behind the layer of gas. But the core wasn’t as simple as the average core. If anyone was to lay eyes on the object, they would notice the size was larger than normal, while every few seconds, the core would pulsate while releasing a subtle gleam.

Unlike its undead counterparts, the skeleton was equipped with a long-chipped sword that it held in one hand while it held a similar chipped and battered shield in the other. There was no telling the reasons why its weapon and shield were in such a condition, but the skeleton wielded them with an eerie sense of purpose, as if it had an uncanny sense of how to effectively use them.

What made it more terrifying was the faintly malevolent crimson glow that sparked within its hollow eye sockets.

The final figure appeared deceptively human, almost too normal, save for its sickly pale skin and blackened veins that crisscrossed its entire body like a web, accompanied by black veins that thickly etched themselves into the cross on its forehead. The cross itself glowed faintly with a malevolent silver light as though it was cursed. Its vacant eyes stared straight ahead, unblinking, while it moved with a disturbingly smooth gait, as if it was aware of its surroundings in ways the others were not. The eerie calmness it exuded only added to the growing sense of dread.

The figure was that of a small, petite girl, barely above the age of ten who was less than 5 feet tall. The zombie was still wearing their pj’s, dyed in blood red, unknowing what its original color was. Her dull eyes were big and round, seemingly almost far too large for her face, making her vacant eyes give her a creepy doll-like appearance.

Just from the sight of the horde, it was more than just a coincidence that the horde’s speed evenly matched the speed of the little girl. She was clearly not just a mere evolved zombie, but a unique one, one that even had the capability of commanding other evolved zombies just like her.

And out of the rest of the evolved zombies, the skeletal creature was unclear whether it was an evolution, or a unique creature mutated from a zombie. However, its behavior was different from the rest; its gaze was uncaring about the goal they were headed to, it only loyally followed along behind the small child, staring blinking into her back.

As they traversed the streets, the horde ignored any other signs of life that would normally cause each of every one of them to investigate. There were times when one of the lesser zombies, who lacked any self-control, deterred from the path at the first hint of food nearby. Yet, the moment the zombie was about to branch off of the path, its eyes flickered with a silvery gas; a gas that was oddly similar to the energy within the skeleton, causing it to immediately halt its movements and fall back into line.

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As Fenrir still bravely and stupidly rushed towards the horde, Arachne traveled nearby, jumping across the nearby buildings knowing full well that trying to fight alongside Fenrir would only be a hassle. However, as the zombies’ appearance became more clear, and the small leader of the horde took notice of them, Arachne’s senses blared warning signs to her of the danger. Her eyes immediately shifted to the small girl in the rear.

Just from a glance, Arachne understood that the source of the danger emanated from her. Her eyes dangerously narrowed, already she was planning on how she could take out the little zombie before it could showcase its powers. However, the moment she began to harbor hostile thoughts, an even heavier warning sounded in Arachne’s mind, more intense than before. This new danger was coming from the skeleton directly behind her, whose eyes were now staring in her direction.