Chapter 54

Pfft!

Lin An spat out a mouthful of blood, and a punch imbued with terrifying power blasted through his chest.

His body, like a cannonball, was directly blasted into the corpse horde, and the blood made the horde even more frenzied.

Dense rotting arms tore at his limbs, as a swarm of zombies engulfed him.

Weak, cold.

Massive blood loss caused his consciousness to begin to blur.

He gave a bitter smile; with all attributes suppressed except strength, trying to kill a higher-level foe was still too hard.

The Stitcher, truly a peak Second Level existence, was the nightmare of all survivors in Linjiang in his past life.

It's hard to imagine; if it were to advance after devouring all the zombies here and reach Third Level, how terrifying that would be.

The corpse horde tore and bit, rotting arms reaching into his opened chest to try to eat his heart, just like the memory of his past life before death.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

The ground trembled; the heavy, violent charge was heart-stopping.

Although the corpse horde blocked his view, Lin An could feel through the trembling ground that the Stitcher was madly charging at him.

Under the mound of piled-up corpses.

He couldn't help but sigh, slowly raising his right hand.

He had thought he could save it for last, but now he must use his final trump card against the Stitcher.

Soul.

Shriek!

Hum~

The air twisted and distorted for a moment.

The Soul-devouring Hand on his right hand instantly burst forth with bloody radiance, illuminating the entire hall through the corpse horde; then an invisible wave suddenly exploded in a ring.

Bang bang bang bang!!

Like a string of exploding lightbulbs.

In an instant, the heads of the thousands of zombies nearest Lin An exploded into clouds of blood mist, their rotting bodies annihilated into fragments by the invisible impact.

One strike cleared the field!

The corpse fragments littering the ground were as if sliced by the Grim Reaper's scythe; centered on where Lin An fell, all zombies within a roughly 40-meter radius perished.

The Stitcher charging madly was also instantly stripped of nearly half its flesh and blood by this mental impact, its massive body flung backward.

On its broad shoulders, the third head that Lin An had already split open was also completely blown into blood mist.

Roar!!!

Perhaps because the remaining heads of the Stitcher each possessed consciousness, the soul shriek comparable to Third Level power dealt him triple damage.

Fallen to the ground, the Stitcher clutched the central head with both hands, while the other head's eyes were tightly shut as it wailed.

Agony, a tremendous roar capable of shattering glass spread outward like a shockwave.

Taking advantage of the brief respite granted by the soul shriek, Lin An struggled to his feet and took out a bloodstone from his Space Ring.

Beep, used successfully 2/3.

Rich life energy surged from the bloodstone into his body, and the granulation tissue around the previously transparent wound began to grow rapidly.

Lin An felt somewhat fortunate; if he hadn't obtained restorative items beforehand, his current injuries would leave him utterly unable to fight again.

Not far away, the Stitcher seemed to have fallen into madness under this mental impact and did not continue its attack.

It's just unknown how long this effect will last.

What a pity...

The original plan was to locate the Stitcher and launch a surprise attack, with Zhang Tie blocking the zombies.

He alone, under Wen Ya's mental power sharing, dueled with this monster.

When the damage dealt reached the Stitcher's tolerance threshold, they would then unleash the soul shriek to seize the opportunity and kill it.

But now, severely wounded, he can only wait for his injuries to heal, wasting in vain the time when this monster cannot retaliate.

Captain Lin!

Zhang Tie, who had jumped down from the fourth floor, sprinted desperately toward him, with a dense horde of zombies closely following behind.

First hold off the corpse horde, wait for me to recover.

Lin An, weak and breathless, directed Zhang Tie; just now the soul shriek had instantly killed thousands of surrounding zombies, yet many zombies still remained inside the mall.

Zhang Tie hastily responded and rushed to meet the corpse horde, buying him time to recover.

However.

Like rain, after the mall's three floors' flooring was broken open, zombies without fear jumped down one after another from the holes.

In the blink of an eye, the first floor of the mall again gathered a large number of zombies.

Wen Ya, activate the mental power barrier again!

Wen Ya, hiding on the fourth floor, had not been attacked by the Stitcher, so her concealment effect remained intact.

Lacking close-combat ability, she could handle a small group of zombies, but in such a cramped mall, once she acted she would be drowned by the corpse horde.

Nodding repeatedly, she hurriedly focused and activated her skill.

Forget it, no need to waste it.

Suddenly, Lin An, with a grim expression, spoke up to interrupt Wen Ya's casting.

Blown away by the mental impact, the Stitcher, now fallen into madness, had already regained its ability to act.

The central skull opened its eyes; Zhang Tie's face turned just as grim at a glance.

"This monster... is so fucking disgusting!"

On the huge skull, eye sockets the size of fists were packed with dozens of pallid eyeballs.

The monster swayed.

0.1 seconds later, the Suturer locked onto Lin An and charged again like a high-speed train.

Lin An drew a deep breath, holding his spear horizontally before his chest.

His wounds healed extremely fast; though not fully recovered, he barely retained the ability to keep fighting.

Seeing the second impact imminent, Lin An spoke rapidly in the team comms.

"Zhang Tie, in two seconds rush to my side and create an opening for me!"

"Received!"

Zhang Tie slapped dead the Corpse Horde trying to get past him, then turned his full attention to Lin An, gathering power.

"Thud!"

"Thud!"

The Suturer's strike came instantly; unlike before when he was unprepared, Lin An quickly crushed the test tube and swallowed the potion.

The potion's effect hadn't faded, but he couldn't afford to waste it.

The attribute bonus allowed no gaps.

"Boom!"

A thunderous roar; affected by the previous mental shock, the Suturer's impact this time failed, its massive body merely shattering the pillars inside the mall.

The opportunity flashed by.

"Now!"

"Leap Strike!"

"Down Thrust!"

Lin An desperately dodged, leaping into the air to land behind the monster, gripping the bone spur with both hands and channeling all his strength to thrust at the monster's skull.

"Hiss!"

The bone spur sank entirely into the skull, instantly eliciting a painful howl from the Suturer's final head.

"Zhang Tie!"

A black bear appeared; Zhang Tie's face twisted with ferocity as he charged straight into the Suturer, which was reeling from pain.

Bear and monster, two massive bodies collided instantly; the heavily wounded Suturer was knocked to the ground in an instant.

"Die, old man!"

The huge bear paw rose like a hammer, brute force smashing toward the monster's head.

"Bang!"

With all his might, Zhang Tie's face turned bluish and his hands ached.

Another head of the Suturer was merely slightly dented; the full-force blow couldn't even breach its defense.

"Roar!"

The Suturer let out a roar; its last remaining head directed the body, and a massive hand slammed down on the black bear pressing upon it.

"Pfft!"

His back collapsed instantly, the entire shoulder crushed into a pulp of blood and organ fragments.

"Move!"

Hearing that, Zhang Tie strained to turn his body, exposing the Suturer's final head beneath him.

"Step Down Thrust!"

Lin An let out a low shout; he only needed Zhang Tie to knock the Suturer down to buy him time to gather power.

A strike condensing all his strength—victory or defeat hinged on this blow.

Target, the final head.