89: Chapter 89 F-rank versus E-rank, difficult

"This is a Fire Ability zombie. Everyone, retreat into the room and close the door. Uncle, Zhou Ke, Chen Lei, Zhao Kai, and Shen Yue, stay behind. Don't hold back," Xu Wanning shouted sharply.

"Yes!" The group moved quickly. The door closed, and the five of them, including Zhou Ke, stood behind Xu Wanning.

At the end of the corridor, at the stairwell thirty meters away, a tall figure slowly appeared. It was nearly 1.9 meters tall, its entire body shrouded in dark red, with flames coiling around its entire right arm.

Flames dripped from its fingertips onto the floor, burning charred indentations into the tiles. Its eyes had no pupils, with two fireballs leaping within them.

"How could this be? This Supernatural ability zombie is at least E-Rank, and it's only the second day of The Apocalypse!"

Xu Wanning's mind raced, but her hands didn't stop. She clenched her right hand into a fist, and the residual water vapor in the air, obeying an invisible summons, spun and condensed rapidly above her palm. In the blink of an eye, it formed three arm-thick Ice Spikes.

The tips were sharp, emitting a bone-chilling cold.

"Go." She whipped her arm, and the three Ice Spikes shot out, tearing through the air and nailing toward the Fire Ability zombie's head, chest, and right arm.

The Fire Ability zombie didn't dodge. It raised its burning right arm, fingers splayed, palm facing the incoming Ice Spikes. A ball of fire exploded from its palm, and the moment the three Ice Spikes rushed into the flames, they began to melt rapidly.

By the time they passed through the flames, they had shrunk from the thickness of an arm to the thickness of a finger. They collided with its chest and shattered directly into ice shards, leaving nothing behind.

Fire and ice are mutually destructive; it just depends on which one is superior.

Xu Wanning never expected three Ice Spikes to take down an E-Rank Supernatural ability zombie; her goal was merely to distract it. The moment the Ice Spikes were launched, the five people on both sides moved immediately.

Five shields were arranged staggered behind the ice wall, while a large number of Metal Ability throwing knives pierced the air, attacking the opposite side.

The throwing knives stabbed into the zombie's body, but the effect was negligible; they were melted as soon as they pierced in.

F-Rank vs. E-Rank is difficult.

The zombie was thoroughly enraged by them. It swung its right hand violently in their direction, and a pillar of fire as thick as an arm erupted from its palm. The tip of the flame pillar glinted with blue light, and even through the ice wall, Xu Wanning could feel the heatwave.

The walls on both sides of the corridor were warped by the high temperature, and the ice wall emitted cracking sounds under the impact of the flames.

Xu Wanning gritted her teeth and held on, pressing her hands against the ice surface and continuously injecting new Supernatural ability, constantly refreezing the parts that were melted.

Melting and freezing alternated on the surface of the ice wall, and the steaming water vapor condensed into a thick fog.

Zhou Ke picked up the metal shield in front of him with one hand and strode past Xu Wanning's ice wall.

The shield changed shape in his hands, spreading along the floor toward the zombie's feet and covering the ground.

The tiles under the zombie's feet turned into a metal plate. Zhou Ke clenched his right hand into a fist, then suddenly splayed his fingers. The metal plate flipped up, wrapping around the zombie's legs from all directions.

The metal plates overlapped, one layer, two layers, three layers, instantly wrapping the zombie's legs and fixing it in place.

It looked down at the metal restraints that had appeared on its legs, and the fireballs in its pupils flickered.

It raised its right hand, attempting to melt the metal clinging to its legs.

Xu Jingping quickly provided support, placing his hand on the wall to the right. The stairwell door emitted a harsh, twisting sound.

The entire door was ripped off, and the door panel rapidly dissolved, gradually turning into a solid sphere nearly 50 centimeters in size, smashing toward the zombie's head with a whistling wind.

The moment before the solid sphere was about to hit it, the Fire Ability zombie's crimson flames suddenly expanded outward from its center.

The solid sphere was knocked off course by the shockwave and smashed into the wall on the side of the corridor. The entire wall collapsed with a roar, creating a large hole, sending bricks flying and revealing the bed in the bedroom separated by that wall.

"Ah!" The survivors in the room screamed and fled the bedroom.

The metal restraints on the zombie turned red and soft at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zhou Ke kept adding layers and reinforcing them, but the zombie's rank was higher than his. Finally, the zombie struggled violently with its legs, tore through the metal restraints, and took a step forward.

The corridor space was too small; the six people couldn't fight simultaneously and were quite cramped.

A ball of fire rapidly expanded between the zombie's hands, its color changing from the initial dark red to orange-red, then bright orange, and finally, to a dazzling blue.

"Shield," Zhou Ke growled. Xu Jingping and the other three quickly moved to combine their efforts, forging a solid metal shield in front.

Chen Lei pressed his hands to the floor, and something surged beneath the corridor tiles. Dozens of thumb-thick metal spikes suddenly thrust out from the ground, forming a bed of nails under the zombie's feet.

Shen Yue stood in the back, hands held in front of his chest, pulling hard. A huge metal net suddenly appeared above the zombie's head, descending from the sky and covering the zombie's head.

Zhao Kai was agile. While others set up layer after layer of obstacles, he climbed directly across the pipes on the ceiling, hanging upside down directly above the zombie.

Holding a metal longsword formed by his Supernatural ability, he dropped down silently, the tip of the sword aimed at the zombie's head.

Layered attacks, sealing it off from above, below, left, and right simultaneously.

Xu Wanning stood in the back, guarding. At this moment, it was not appropriate for her to intervene, as it would easily be counterproductive.

Facing attacks from all directions, the zombie didn't dodge. It stood in place and spread its arms, its entire body once again becoming the core of a fireball. Endless flames surged out from every inch of its skin, and the crimson flames swept out in all directions, causing the temperature in the corridor to continue soaring.

The metal shield began to soften and warp in the high heat, the metal spikes on the ground were burned until they glowed red, and the metal net covering down from the ceiling was directly burned straight.

Zhao Kai's longsword, while piercing into the flames, was impacted by the high-temperature airflow and knocked off course. The tip of the sword grazed the zombie's shoulder, leaving a shallow wound.

Zhao Kai himself was licked by the flames; the sleeve of his right arm was instantly burned away, and blisters rose on his arm.

The five of them chose to retreat simultaneously. Metal Ability Users have a lower tolerance for high temperatures compared to other types of Supernatural ability users; they themselves are metal conductors, and fighting continuously in a high-temperature environment is equivalent to roasting themselves on a fire.

"You guys go back, swap in Zhiyu, Uncle Lu, Zhang Shan, and Cheng Xu!" Previously, Xu Wanning had only thought about their stronger combat power and forgotten the issue of heat conduction. Now that she realized it, she swapped in the four people with Water Ability and Earth Ability.

Zhou Ke and the others quickly knocked on the door and went in, while Xu Wanning held the line for the time being.

As soon as the five disappeared, the zombie's eyes turned toward Xu Wanning.

At this moment, Lu Zhiyu, Cheng Xu, Lu Mingyuan, and Zhang Shan came out together.

Lu Zhiyu and Cheng Xu launched the attack first, with water columns striking toward the zombie.

Xu Wanning commanded from behind, "It is an E-Rank zombie, its Supernatural ability reserves are greater than ours, everyone, fight a war of attrition."

"Yes!" The four responded loudly.