Chapter 179 - 118: Support

Chapter 179: Chapter 118: Support

The middle-aged man in the lead, with a stern expression and eyes as sharp as a falcon’s, had to be the captain, Lu Chuan. He wielded a long, narrow military blade. A faint aura of air seemed to wrap around the sword, and every slash left a deep wound on the agile zombies. However, their sheer numbers and speed were wearing him down.

Next to Lu Chuan was a young woman with a beautiful yet frosty face. Her short sword danced with a bone-chilling cold that slightly slowed the zombies’ movements. On his other side stood an exceptionally burly, bald man wielding an alloy Shield and a short-handled battle-ax, mainly responsible for blocking the heavy blows from the Strength Zombies. Each collision produced a dull, booming sound that left his arm numb. The other two team members, one with an Electric Short Staff and the other using dual spikes, were also injured, their breathing ragged.

Farther away, about thirty meters out, a hunched figure stood silently on the roof of a derelict car, coldly observing the battle below.

It was an extremely bizarre-looking zombie. Its bald head and skin were an ominous light blue. Its build was similar to a regular zombie, but it was severely hunched over at the waist, as if it couldn’t stand up straight.

The most eye-catching feature was its neck—or rather, its complete lack of a normal one. Its entire head seemed to have retracted into its chest cavity. In its place was a huge, throat-sac-like organ, similar to a frog’s vocal sac, that pulsed faintly. The organ was Deep Blue, its surface covered in twisted blood vessels, and it rolled up and down rhythmically, as if brewing something.

’A Tier 2 Venom Zombie!’ Xu Mo’s gaze hardened. Right now, it was like a commander calmly waiting for the right moment, directing its "soldiers" to wear down the prey’s stamina while it gathered its strength, preparing to deliver the fatal blow.

In the few short seconds Xu Mo was observing, the blue zombie moved. Its massive throat sac contracted sharply. It then opened its mouth, which was filled with fine, sharp fangs, and instantly formed a fist-sized, viscous ball of dark green venom.

It spat the viscous ball into its hand, then swung its arm and hurled it directly into the center of the battle below.

"Move!" Lu Chuan, who had been keeping a wary eye on the Tier 2 zombie, roared as his pupils contracted.

The five people locked in a desperate battle below reacted as if they had drilled this countless times. Hearing the command, they didn’t hesitate for a second, diving hard to their left.

The venom ball grazed their afterimages, slamming viciously into the ground just behind where they had been standing.

"HISS—!"

A plume of acrid white smoke erupted as the concrete ground was instantly corroded, forming a pit the size of a washbasin. The edges of the pit continued to bubble and expand. However, while they had dodged, Zhou, who lay motionless on the ground, was now completely exposed to the venom ball’s splash zone!

"Zhou!!!" Lu Chuan’s eyes practically split with rage as he let out a heart-wrenching roar, but he was pinned down by two agile zombies and completely unable to help.

The dark green slime splattered, with most of it landing on Zhou’s already lifeless body. His combat uniform dissolved at a visible rate. The flesh beneath made a horrifying "SIZZLE" sound as it quickly turned black, rotted away, and exposed the stark white bones... In the blink of an eye, the young body was mutilated beyond recognition, a truly gruesome sight.

This scene deeply provoked every member of the Sharp Sword squad, and an air of grief and indignation spread among them. Meanwhile, the blue zombie’s throat sac began to pulse again. Its cold, compound eyes scanned the five survivors, whose formation had been broken by their evasive maneuver, as it prepared to launch its next attack.

All of this, from the moment Xu Mo stopped to observe until Zhou’s corpse was destroyed, had happened in the span of just a few breaths.

Xu Mo’s eyes instantly turned as cold as a blade. He glanced at the overwhelming black tide of regular zombies about to encircle him from behind, then back down at Lu Chuan and the four others, who were in grave danger and filled with grief and fury.

’I can’t wait any longer!’

A cold glint flashed in Xu Mo’s eyes. With a reverse grip, he slid the Triangular Spike back into its sheath on his leg. His right hand reached behind his back and swung forward—bringing the heavy Barrett to his front in a single-handed motion. Xu Mo stood his ground, steadily holding the nearly one-and-a-half-meter-long "heavy cannon" with just his right arm. He supported the body of the rifle with his left hand, pressing the stock firmly into the hollow of his shoulder.

This posture, one that would be impossible for an ordinary person to hold steady, seemed effortless in his hands. The strength of the Cowhide Realm and his precise control over his muscles allowed Xu Mo to handle the recoil of this vicious weapon.

The crosshairs settled steadily on the Tier 2 zombie’s huge, pulsating throat sac—which was very likely its core or weak spot.

Without hesitation, Xu Mo’s index finger squeezed the trigger, steady and firm.

"BOOM!!!"

The Barrett’s distinctive roar suddenly exploded over the ruins, its immense recoil causing Xu Mo’s shoulder to dip slightly. A fiery line spat from the long barrel as the .50 BMG Armor-Piercing Bullet tore through the air with terrifying, supersonic kinetic energy, crossing the distance of several dozen meters in an instant to strike its target.

In the exact instant the bullet left the chamber, the blue zombie on the bus roof seemed to sense the mortal danger. Its hunched body twisted sideways with a bizarre speed that defied the laws of physics.

"SPLAT—!"

Blood erupted!

The Armor-Piercing Bullet didn’t hit the intended throat sac. Instead, it slammed into the blue zombie’s left shoulder, right where the arm connected. The immense kinetic energy was released in an instant. The venom zombie’s entire left arm was torn from its body as if by an invisible, giant force, exploding into a shower of blue flesh and bone fragments. Dark green, highly corrosive blood sprayed out like splattered ink, riddling the entire roof with holes and producing a dense "HISS" sound.

"SKREEE—!!!"

A shrill, distorted, and utterly inhuman shriek erupted from the blue zombie’s mouth, a sound filled with pain and fury.

The venom zombie whipped its head around. Its cold, venomous compound eyes stared fixedly in the direction the shot had come from, locking onto the masked figure holding a long rifle behind a ruined wall.

However, Xu Mo gave it no time for hatred. The instant the first shot rang out, he had already used his powerful arm strength and body control to suppress the immense recoil. His right hand moved like lightning to work the bolt, ejecting the spent casing and chambering a new round in a motion as smooth as a machine.

Almost at the exact same moment the blue zombie turned to look, Xu Mo had already lined up his second shot.

BOOM!!!

The second deafening gunshot followed close behind. This time, the venom zombie couldn’t dodge. Like an invitation from Death himself, the .50 BMG Armor-Piercing Bullet precisely penetrated its light-blue chest. The bullet’s terrifying kinetic energy ravaged its insides. Its hunched upper body suddenly swelled like an overinflated balloon, and then—"POP!!"

With a muffled bang, a huge, gaping hole blew clean through the venom zombie’s chest. Dark green blood, shattered organs, and twisted bone fragments sprayed backward like fireworks, painting the entire rear half of the bus a grotesque shade of blue-green.

The venom zombie’s hate-filled eyes instantly glazed over and dimmed. Its ruined body swayed for a moment before tumbling limply from the roof. It hit the ground with a "SPLAT" and lay completely still, unable to even twitch.

This Tier 2 mutated venom zombie was utterly destroyed with just two shots from the terrifying power of the Barrett Anti-Material Sniper Rifle.

The two sudden gunshots and the shocking scene of the Tier 2 zombie being instantly killed brought a momentary, dead silence to the entire battlefield.

All the Tier 1 mutated zombies besieging the Sharp Sword squad froze in unison. They seemed unable to comprehend why their "leader’s" presence had suddenly vanished.

As for Lu Chuan and the four others, who had been locked in a desperate and hopeless battle, they were completely dumbfounded. First, they stared in disbelief at the ruined blue corpse in the direction of the car. Then they whipped their heads around toward the source of the gunshots and saw the masked figure slinging the Barrett onto his back, drawing the dark Triangular Spike from his waist with a reverse grip, and sprinting toward them at an astonishing speed.

It wasn’t that Xu Mo didn’t want to use the Barrett to deal with the few troublesome Tier 1 mutated zombies. The problem was that the Armor-Piercing Bullets were too powerful. At such close range, the remaining kinetic energy and ricochets after killing a zombie were highly likely to accidentally injure Lu Chuan and his team, who were engaged in close-quarters combat. He was here to save people, not to get them killed.

’Now, it’s time to clean up these small fry in the most direct way, with no risk of friendly fire.’

Xu Mo’s eyes were cold. Unleashing the full power of the Cowhide Realm, his speed increased yet again. He shot forward like a black arrow, straight into the chaotic heart of the battle.