Chapter 53: Death Battle

The sealed fourth floor of the mall was dim.

Lin An brought Wen Ya, carefully avoiding the corpses underfoot, and after repeated searches they saw no trace of the Suturer.

The dense Corpse Horde was hard to get through, so the two could only sneak slowly along the mall corridor.

"Watch the floors below, be careful."

"I just sensed something huge moving; it's very likely the Suturer."

His face grim, Lin An focused his senses on the surroundings for a moment.

Judgment Eye!

"Hum~"

The mental power ripple spread outward in a circle for a hundred meters, almost covering half the mall.

Moments later, the data was transmitted back.

"Beep, detected zombie count: 27899"

"Mutant count: 1 (???)"

"Player count: 24"

I never expected there to be any players still alive in the mall; I just don't know where they're hiding.

He was somewhat surprised.

As for the mutant marked with a question mark.

It seems the vibration he sensed earlier was correct; that moving giant must be the Suturer.

With his current willpower attribute, only a monster of the Suturer's caliber could suppress him in attributes, preventing him from obtaining accurate information.

Wen Ya nodded with a pale face; not far away, several zombies crouched on the ground greedily gnawing at a corpse's fingers.

As the two passed the zombies, the severed hand held in a zombie's hand suddenly dropped at his feet.

"Snip"

Lin An had no time to dodge; the broken finger underfoot snapped under his step.

"Roar!"

The sound of shattering finger bones triggered the zombie.

The zombie that had been gnawing on the fingers suddenly rose and let out a frenzied howl at the two.

The person and the zombie were only a few centimeters apart.

Lin An could even smell the corpse stench spraying from the zombie's mouth.

A sudden change made the two tense up; not far away, the dense Corpse Horde seemed to respond with a frenzied howl.

"Roar!"

"Roar!"

In an instant, the entire mall was filled with the zombies' howls.

Lin An's heart tightened sharply; the zombies' howls were likely to expose their position.

Damn it!

"Boom!"

Lin An's pupils contracted sharply; under mental power detection, a huge black shadow shot up from beneath his feet!

The marble-covered, steel-reinforced concrete three-story structure was instantly blasted through, a tremendous force like a heavy artillery shell striking.

Power burst!

Pale golden spiritual energy enveloped his whole body, boosting all attributes.

His muscles bulged all over, and the long-lost peak state reappeared.

If he doesn't dodge... he'll die!

"Step!"

Mental power highly concentrated, in a life-or-death instant time seemed to slow. Then, in this short reaction time of less than 0.1 seconds, Lin An forcibly leapt and changed direction.

"Boom!"

The huge black shadow, after blasting through the second floor, shot straight to his feet without obstruction, shattering and exploding the concrete.

The flying stones, facing this tremendous impact, shot outward like bullets.

A knife-like violent gust swept past his body, a breath of death surging into his chest.

Smoke and dust rose everywhere, billowing upward.

The second and third floors of the mall largely collapsed under this blow.

Lin An landed in a hall on the first floor five meters away from his sudden shift, before him lay a scene of chaos.

Originally hard and 40 centimeters thick, the floor was completely destroyed, leaving only a huge black hole where he had stood.

When the smoke and dust cleared, a huge black shadow appeared in the darkness under the Judgment Eye.

"Beep, detected Second Level Mutant (Peak) 【Suturer】!"

"Danger assessment: Terror level."

"Wen Ya, hide! Activate Spirit Sharing when I need it!"

"Zhang Tie! Come at full speed!"

Lin An issued the command at top speed through the team channel, his eyes locked on the monster that had suddenly attacked yet eerily remained still.

The monster before him stood five meters tall, its entire body completely covered in large amounts of deathly white muscle, its flesh like severe burns.

On shoulders as wide as tank armor, three heads were crowded together; the central one was a closed-eyed male head, while two female heads had been forcibly sewn together.

On its huge torso, two thick arms were crossed over its chest, while the remaining dozen or so baby-sized hands were scattered all over its body like tendrils, slowly swaying.

That strike just now definitely exceeded 30 points of force! Its speed was also at least over 35 points!

Lin An's heart pounded wildly; if not for his quick reaction just now, the monster's sudden attack could have smashed him to pieces.

Pure physical strength comparable to a tank's main gun, instantaneous burst speed approaching 300 meters per second!

This is already approaching the critical point of sound speed!

His heart sank; the strength now displayed by the Suturer already exceeded his expectations.

The Mental Power Barrier had already been detected and breached by the Suturer; tens of thousands of zombies inside a nearby mall instantly turned their heads.

Countless scarlet eyes surged forward like a tsunami.

Can't drag this on!

0.5 seconds later, Lin An decided to launch the first attack.

Since the plan for a surprise attack has been disrupted, might as well strike directly!

Charge forward!

The floor beneath Lin An's feet instantly cracked, and he surged toward the Suturer like a black afterimage.

"Forward Step Slash!"

Bone spurs whistled; with full force exerted, the sharp bone spurs broke through air resistance, emitting a sharp whistle that stabbed straight toward the central skull.

Extreme Stillness Rotation; the Suturer, originally stationary, suddenly raised one arm to blast!

Muscles swelled explosively; a punch imbued with terrifying force collided with the bone spur.

Side-body reverse slash!!

"Crack!"

Glass shattered.

Lin An's expression turned grim as he directly crushed the potion he had held in his mouth beforehand.

"Ding, Strength +1, Constitution +1, Agility +1"

"Ding, Burst Power increased 10%, Stamina, Strike Resistance increased 30%, Attack Speed increased 20%."

Strength and speed increased again; with a 20% boost from all enhancements, his might grew even greater.

As the fist wind neared his body, Lin An instantly shifted direction at the critical moment; his original straight charge turned into a sidestep to dodge.

Slash!

Sharp bone spurs flashed like lightning, fiercely chopping toward the Suturer's right-side woman's skull.

"Hiss!"

The blade pierced flesh; with the burst power increase, a strength of 28 points successfully broke the monster's defense.

Like piercing an abscess, the woman's skull, whose eyes had been tightly shut, instantly flew open, emitting a shrill, resentful wail.

A blood line extended from her crown to the Suturer's waist, revealing the internal muscle tissue constantly writhing.

"Howl!"

The monster let out a painful roar; unexpectedly, Lin An's instant speed increase let him dodge its punching blast.

Smash!

The skull that Lin An cleaved with all his strength seemed not to have caused him much harm; instead, it thoroughly enraged him.

The Suturer's arms, moving at superhuman speed, turned and slammed violently toward Lin An.

No way to avoid.

At such close range, Lin An could only desperately dodge to the side, his bone spur colliding with the giant fist in an attempt to block the terrifying blow.

"Boom!"

Bones shattered; the right hand that had been blocking the giant fist snapped instantly, going limp like noodles to one side of his body.

Lin An barely dodged, but merely grazed by the giant fist, his right side turned into a bloody mess.

This kind of power...!

Can't go head-to-head!

The giant fist's residual force undiminished, it blasted toward the ground he had stood on, punching through the entire floor in one strike.

Before he could catch his breath, the Suturer's second attack had already been launched again.

The Suturer's slender, childlike arms suddenly shot out toward his body, binding him in place in the blink of an eye.

The giant fist was pulled from the ground and continued to blast toward Lin An's head like an afterimage.

Power Burst!

To activate the brief recovery effect after Power Burst, Lin An reactivated the ongoing skill to try to break free.

"Open up!"

With an angry shout, the arms binding his upper torso were forcibly broken a few, but only delaying by 0.1 second.

The giant fist arrived.

But the binding from the arms was too strong; even with his strength pushed to the limit, he could barely avoid a vital blow to the head.

Nearly ten thousand zombies also howled as they rushed to his side.

"Lin Dui!"

Zhang Tie, transformed into a black bear from above, his eyes nearly bursting, leapt straight down from the fourth floor regardless of cost.