Chapter 59: Twilight Bloodbath
A torrent of bullets, carrying tremendous kinetic energy, streamed from the rifles towards the charging Armored zombie.
But after penetrating the layers of scrap metal and car doors attached to its body, the bullets merely chipped away at the Armored zombie’s bone armor, unable to pierce through.
The bone armor alone couldn’t withstand gunfire; the metal plating provided an additional layer of protection, like a bulletproof vest.
Three of the six Type 95 rifles jammed during the sustained automatic fire, and another one exploded, plastic fragments narrowly missing Lin Jiayao’s eyes.
“Damn it…”
Did these gang members never maintain their weapons?
As the massive metal behemoth closed in, Lin Jiayao aimed her scorpion tail at the streetlight behind her and fired the bone chain hook.
The hook accurately hit the top of the streetlight. As Lin Jiayao retracted the chain, her body was pulled upwards, dangling from the light.
“Thump—Thump—Thump—”
The massive Armored zombie, unable to stop its charge, slammed headfirst into the streetlight. With a deafening clang, the slender pole snapped.
Before being thrown off, Lin Jiayao fired the bone chain hook again, embedding it in a nearby billboard and pulling herself towards it.
Discarding the jammed and exploded rifles, Lin Jiayao quickly reloaded the remaining two while the Armored zombie struggled to regain its balance.
After reloading, she hung the burlap sack and backpack on the damaged billboard, taking only a few magazines, and then, using the billboards as anchor points, rapidly changed positions.
“Thump—Thump—Thump—”
The heavy footsteps echoed again, accompanied by the clattering of metal plates on the Armored zombie’s body, sparks flying as they scraped against each other.
Lin Jiayao, glancing back, saw the terrifying sight.
Good thing it’s so slow…
Damn it… why didn’t Bone Spike Lurker detect its approach? It seemed to have fallen from the sky?
Looking up, she quickly understood.
Where she had just been, there was a half-collapsed, unfinished building.
Since it was mostly rubble, she hadn’t paid attention to it.
Now, she saw that the sixty-meter-tall building was like a hive, several Armored zombies of varying sizes clinging to it, dormant.
And this one must have been on the outer layer, jumping down and attacking her when she passed by.
Why were they gathered on that building? Armored zombies weren’t known for their pack behavior.
“Crack—”
As Lin Jiayao was analyzing the situation and formulating a plan, she heard a familiar sound.
She instinctively raised her bone spikes to protect her head, but the bone shield was pierced.
She felt something snag her bone spikes and then a powerful force yanked her backward.
Lin Jiayao’s eyes widened as she looked at the Armored zombie.
It had also evolved an ability similar to her bone chain hook.
The lower half of the zombie’s head emerged from its metal-plated body. It opened its massive jaws and fired a thick, blood-streaked bone chain, hooking onto Lin Jiayao’s bone spikes and pulling her towards its mouth.
“Rat-tat-tat-tat—”
Ignoring the risk of damaging the rifles, Lin Jiayao aimed them at the Armored zombie’s mouth and opened fire.
“Roar—”
Blood splattered within the zombie’s mouth, but it just roared, seemingly unaffected by the bullets.
Too late.
Seeing the massive jaws rapidly approaching, Lin Jiayao quickly extended several bone spikes and, like crab pincers, severed the ones that had been hooked.
The pulling force disappeared, but her momentum still carried her towards the Armored zombie.
She extended her bone legs, trying to dig into the ground, but she couldn’t stop. She rolled several times before coming to a stop.
This was pure brute force.
“Crack—”
Lin Jiayao’s scorpion tail fired the bone chain hook again, anchoring her to a nearby billboard and pulling her to a safer distance.
The Armored zombie chewed and swallowed her severed bone spikes.
Mask’s hardened bone spikes were as brittle as biscuits to its powerful jaws.
While it was chewing, Lin Jiayao quickly took the 20g of blood crystals she had just acquired and stuffed them into her mouth.
She felt a burning sensation as the crystals melted, a warmth spreading through her, repairing her broken legs and bone spikes.
She was consuming blood crystals to regenerate her damaged bones.
Feeling the burning in her mouth, Lin Jiayao looked at the Armored zombie, its eyeless face now turned towards her.
I can’t outrun it.
Comparing her hook’s firing speed and her own movement speed, Lin Jiayao reached this conclusion.
Even if she ran, the Armored zombie would just pull her back with its bone chain.
She needed a new strategy.
Lin Jiayao quickly scanned her surroundings and then lunged towards the toy store on her right.
“Crash—”
Smashing through the already damaged glass doors, she entered the eight-story building, once filled with wholesale toys.
Inside, she quickly scanned for moving zombies with Bone Spike Lurker. Her eyes lit up as she spotted a Sprinter on the fourth floor.
“Boom—”
“Clatter, clatter, clatter—”
The massive Armored zombie crashed through the glass doors and charged after her.
Locating her, it extended its head from its metal plating and opened its jaws.
“Crack—”
Before the Armored zombie’s bone chain could fire, Lin Jiayao raised a bone spike to block it and then, before being pulled in, severed her own spike.
With practiced fluidity, she then scurried towards the stairwell.
Lin Jiayao moved nimbly through the stairs, but the Armored zombie wasn’t so agile.
This wasn’t the unfinished building; the stairwell was too narrow for its massive frame.
It crashed through sections of the stairs as it climbed.
And it could even leap, using its thick bone spikes to grapple onto higher levels, ascending with brute force.
Like an unstoppable tunnel boring machine, smashing through any obstacles.
“Click, click, click—”
Lin Jiayao, thanks to her smaller size, reached the fourth floor first.
She could have taken the stairs in the main lobby, but they were too wide, making it difficult to shake off the Armored zombie.
She had deliberately led it into the stairwell to buy some time.
She spotted the Sprinter on the fourth floor.
This Sprinter was clearly more evolved than the ones she had seen in Haixin District.
Of course, the weaker ones would have been killed by the Armored zombies.
“Roar—”
The Sprinter noticed Lin Jiayao, its bloody muscles bulging, and roared through its mangled mouth.
Then, it turned and, using one hand to grip the railing, prepared to jump down.
Trying to escape?
It would actually run? Had it been chased by Armored zombies before, developing an instinct to flee from bone-type zombies?
Looking at its torn mouth, Lin Jiayao thought her guess was probably correct.
But although its reaction was fast, it wasn’t fast enough.
Lin Jiayao raised two of her bone spikes, each gripping a rifle, and aimed at its head.
“Rat-tat—”
“Rat-tat-tat—”
As the Sprinter turned, Lin Jiayao fired, the remaining bullets hitting its head.
The Sprinter lost control of its body and slammed into the glass railing.
Lin Jiayao didn’t waste any time. She quickly reached the Sprinter’s corpse, severed its head, and attached her own.
Her bone spikes connected to its spine, rapidly spreading through its bones, and she gained control.
“Crack, crack, click—”
Lin Jiayao stretched the Sprinter’s arms, its bones cracking.
She felt a surge of muscular power, greater than Mask’s.
“Boom—”
The stairwell door on the side was smashed open by the Armored zombie, the metal door flying into a store, shattering glass.
But Lin Jiayao ignored it. She climbed over the railing and jumped down from the fourth floor.
“Thump—”
The Sprinter landed heavily, the tiles cracking beneath its feet.
“Roar—”
Seeing this, the Armored zombie roared in fury.
It charged through the glass railing, curled itself into a ball, and hurled itself towards Lin Jiayao.
But this time, it wasn’t Mask it was facing, but the Sprinter controlled by Mask.
“Thump—”
Lin Jiayao controlled the Sprinter to dodge the attack, only a few shards of debris hitting her.
“Crack—”
Before she could regain her balance, she heard the familiar sound.
Turning, she saw the Armored zombie extend its lower jaw, firing its thick bone chain towards her.
This time, she didn’t dodge.
She controlled the Sprinter to jump slightly, her head avoiding the bone chain hook.
The Sprinter’s body wasn’t so lucky.
The hook pierced its heart, barbed bone spikes extending from the tip, securing it firmly.
Forcibly pulling free would tear a chunk of flesh. Even if it wasn’t fatal, it would be debilitating.
Barbed spikes, huh? A good idea… I should learn that…
Lin Jiayao briefly considered the mechanism, and then she was pulled towards the Armored zombie.
“I was waiting for you to expose yourself.”
Lin Jiayao, having found a sacrificial pawn, felt no fear. As she was pulled closer, two mantis-like bone blades extended from her neck, their sharp edges aimed at the Armored zombie’s exposed head.
The Armored zombie seemed to sense the danger and quickly retracted its barbs, preparing to withdraw its head and bone chain.
But Lin Jiayao wouldn’t let it.
She extended all her bone spikes and legs, hooking onto the thick bone chain, jamming it.
A moment later, she was right next to the Armored zombie’s jaws.
“ROAR!!!”
The Armored zombie, sensing the imminent threat, raised its bone-covered fist, like a meteor hammer, and slammed it into Lin Jiayao’s chest.
“Thump—”
It hit the Sprinter’s body, the force caving in its chest, the bone spikes on the Armored zombie’s fist tearing away chunks of flesh as it retracted.
Thick, dark red blood splattered everywhere.
Even so, Lin Jiayao’s bone spikes still clung to the chain, preventing the Armored zombie from retracting its head.
And she felt the force on the bone chain increase. Even her bone spikes, wedged between the chain and the metal plating, started to crack and break.
Being so close to the Armored zombie’s grotesque head filled Lin Jiayao with fear.
But the fear fueled her, replaced by a thrill of adrenaline.
She swung her mantis blades, slicing through the gaps in the metal plates, bone spikes, and flesh, severing the connection between the head and the body.
Dark brown blood spurted like a small fountain, staining Mask’s pale face and white hair.
“Roar—”
Sensing the mortal threat, the Armored zombie flailed wildly, its massive arms smashing into Lin Jiayao.
“THUMP!!!”
“THUMP!!!”
Blow after blow, the Sprinter’s body was mangled like a rag, only some muscle and skin still connected below its waist.
“Crack—”
Finally, a blow landed squarely on Lin Jiayao’s chin, shattering it.
The blow not only shattered her jaw and half of her neck but also the rifles she had been carrying.
Lin Jiayao felt dizzy, her senses dulled, as if drunk. Even her consciousness began to fade.
But she quickly snapped out of it and started frantically twisting her mantis blades, still embedded in the Armored zombie’s neck, thick blood and the zombie’s gurgling roars spraying her face.
A blood crystal materialized in her half-shattered mouth.
She pressed a bone spike against it, feeling a burning, melting sensation.
Fueled by this energy, a bony jaw regenerated beneath her broken face, sharp bone teeth gleaming coldly.
“Crack—”
Lin Jiayao lowered her head and bit into the rusty metal plate on the Armored zombie’s chest, her sharp bone teeth piercing through.
She ripped off the entire plate, revealing the bone-covered skin beneath, studded with spikes.
Ignoring the sharp spikes, she bit down again at the joint between the head and chest.
This time, she tore through the bone armor.
“Thump—”
The now completely frenzied Armored zombie, in a desperate act, slammed its fist into its own chest, hitting the back of Lin Jiayao’s head.
Everything went black. For a moment, Lin Jiayao thought she was returning to the consciousness space.
But Mask’s life was saved by the blood crystal she held in her mouth.
The back of her head shattered, fragments of her skull, along with brain matter and blood, sticking to the Armored zombie’s fist.
Lin Jiayao’s teeth, driven by the force of the blow, sank deep into the exposed flesh of the Armored zombie.
The Armored zombie, reeling from its own near-fatal blow, stumbled backward.
But as it retreated, it seemed to lose control, collapsing limply onto the ground with a metallic clang, raising a cloud of dust.
Lin Jiayao’s bone spikes, through the openings created by her mantis blades and teeth, finally pierced into the Armored zombie’s body.
Her head, as if losing consciousness, slumped against the zombie’s metal-plated body.
The blood crystal in her mouth continued to dissolve, repairing her body.
Slowly, Biters, attracted by the blood and the blood crystal’s scent, shuffled towards the massive, fallen Armored zombie.
They greedily tore at the metal plates, lapping up the blood and gore.
After an unknown amount of time, under the blood-red twilight sky, a head-spider slowly rose from the mass of feeding zombies.
The dried blood on her face, stained by the crimson sunset, took on a deeper, more sinister hue.
Standing tall above the feasting zombies, blood still dripping from her shattered head, the scene resembled a court of ghoulish subjects bowing before their emperor.
Lin Jiayao slowly raised her mantis bone blades, swept aside the heads of a few Biters, and then, with a mighty swing, severed the Armored zombie’s head.
A bundle of bone spikes extended from the back of her neck and connected to the Armored zombie’s spine.
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