The Final Battle Draws Near

The stairwell between the twelfth and thirteenth floors was packed with all kinds of zombies: common living corpses, mutated living corpses, and even bloated female zombies with huge bellies.

They had not continued their attack downstairs to surround the mercenary team. Instead, they remained on this floor, as if they had some purpose, blocking the entire stairway leading to the thirteenth floor!

This only proved further that something they were protecting was definitely on the thirteenth floor: the Living Corpse King, who had never once shown himself!

When they saw Xia Leng approaching alone, they seemed stunned. How could this human be so eager to die? They immediately let out a bloodcurdling roar at him!

Faced with the crowd of corpses filling the narrow stairwell, Xia Leng's expression remained unchanged. There were quite a few of them, but compared with the mass of zombies crowding the square at the Street of the Living Dead, they were no more than a puddle by the sea.

So he stepped forward, heading toward the stairs to the thirteenth floor, packed with living corpses.

At that moment, Xia Leng's eyes changed once more. Darkness swallowed them again, until not a trace of white remained!

His violent hidden personality took control of his body once more, bringing a long-missed, feral grin to his face as he approached the roaring "delicacies" step by step.

At last, seeing the human still coming closer, the zombies grew restless and attacked as one!

Aaoo!!

Several ordinary living corpses that could crawl along walls lunged straight at Xia Leng. Their razor-sharp claws gleamed coldly in the dim light!

Just as their blades were about to meet, Xia Leng tightened his grip on the Titanium Blade and swept it across with blinding speed!

Whoosh!

The two living corpses leading the charge collapsed instantly. The upper halves of their heads flew off, leaving smooth, cleanly severed edges!

As several other ferocious corpses lunged close, Xia Leng casually leaned to one side, effortlessly dodging their claws!

His eyes, now completely consumed by darkness, were like those of a high-speed camera. The zombies' swift movements seemed to slow down several times over in his vision!

As he dodged their attacks, he struck back in the same motion!

The Titanium Blade in his hand traced a dazzling flurry of cuts, a violent beauty born from the fusion of strength and speed!

The living corpses were instantly hacked into pieces amid the chaotic dance of his blade. With a wet slap, they collapsed at Xia Leng's feet in heaps of flesh!

As for the Blacklight Virus, it had long since grown ravenous. Tendrils emerged and began greedily devouring the remains on the ground.

The more it consumed, the darker Xia Leng's pupils grew, and the more feverishly excited he became!

Now, with a savage grin on his face, he charged straight into the horde!

For a time, Xia Leng's silent slaughter blended with the zombies' roars as severed limbs flew in every direction!

Even when the living corpses' sharp claws wounded him, or a Zombie Fetus bit him with its fangs, he could quickly heal by devouring them!

Every living corpse he consumed brought Xia Leng, in his berserk state, an indescribable sense of pleasure. It also granted him inexhaustible energy and stamina!

Anyone who witnessed this would have seen a human fighting the zombies with an even more frenzied assault than theirs, holding his own without giving an inch!

Xia Leng's body was like a bottomless black hole. One living corpse after another vanished into him, leaving only thick, dark-green bloodstains on the ground...

Boom!!!

At the same time, a deafening explosion suddenly erupted on the floor above. Flames and a shock wave swept across the entire eleventh floor, swallowing everything in fire. The screams of zombies and humans rang out amid the flames!

A few seconds later, several figures still burning ran out of the inferno and frantically rolled on the ground to put out the flames.

Gilbert's earlier order to detonate the explosives had cost two demolition specialists their lives. They had rushed into the horde and set off the powerful explosives, blowing the many female zombies and the stairs on the eleventh floor to pieces. Some mercenaries who had been badly wounded and could not escape the flames were caught in the blast as well...

Now, including the two captains, only seven or eight mercenaries who were still able to fight remained. They stumbled out of the burning wreckage behind them, looking utterly defeated.

But without an order that had all but cut off their retreat, everyone would have died in the mouths of the Zombie Fetuses on the eleventh floor...

"Where is that guy?! Did he get blown up?"

Captain Philip gasped for breath and shouted hoarsely. His burly body was now covered in wounds, with not a single uninjured spot. Even his right hand, gripping the Titanium Dual Blades, had begun to tremble.

Gilbert was in no better shape. A large chunk of muscle had been torn from his right arm by a Zombie Fetus, and blood poured from the wound. His face was deathly pale from blood loss.

The medical soldier who had survived by sheer luck hurried over to give the captain a painkiller and bandage his wound. For an injury this severe, with bone almost exposed, all he had to do was make it back safely to the Fortress. The Komodo headquarters would arrange for a Baptized One with healing abilities to treat him.

"He already went upstairs alone. That's why I came after him..."

Gilbert's lips were pale as he answered. He did not have the Apocalypse Warrior's formidable stamina, and by now he could barely muster the strength to speak.

"That bastard really is up to something!"

Philip immediately flew into a rage, swearing that the next time he saw that cold man, he would kill him before anything else, no matter what happened!

"Why have the zombies upstairs stopped roaring?"

At that moment, Captain Gilbert noticed something. He clearly remembered how the zombies' roars from above had left a deep impression on him while they fought the horde on the eleventh floor. But now, the sounds had completely disappeared?!

He pushed away the medical soldier supporting him, steadied himself, and headed upstairs. The others followed close behind.

As they neared the thirteenth floor, they caught a powerful stench of blood and saw the thick, dark-green gore on the ground growing deeper!

It seemed a brutal battle had just taken place. Flecks of flesh clung everywhere—to the walls, the railings, and the stairs!

Yet, strangely, they could not see a single intact corpse!

What was more, Gilbert's danger sense as an Apocalypse Hunter detected an unprecedentedly threatening presence upstairs!

They stepped through the sticky blood, their hearts pounding faster as they continued upward. Just before they reached the thirteenth floor, the two captains saw a figure leaning against the wall around the corner!

The two mercenaries still carrying the searchlights aimed their beams at the spot. The figure was Xia Leng, leaning against the wall and watching them with a cold expression!

"Those bloodstains on the stairs just now... were they all your doing?"

Gilbert asked in disbelief. He had never seen the mysterious man fight with his own eyes, not from beginning to end.

Xia Leng glanced at him but did not answer. Instead, his brow suddenly furrowed as he said, "The Living Corpse King you wanted to see is on this floor. You can turn off those useless searchlights, too..."