38: First-tier agility

These five zombies, each with a different form, all exuded an oppressive aura far exceeding that of ordinary zombies!

Huge and bloated like a mountain of flesh, with grayish-white, rock-like skin covered in disgusting pustules—a Fatty Zombie!

An Agile with long, slender legs and 10cm bone claws!

A Butcher Zombie, holding a rusty but exceptionally sharp giant cleaver, reeking of blood and putrefaction!

And an Acid Throat Zombie, with a bizarre form, constantly dripping highly corrosive mucus!

And a never-before-seen zombie with a metallic sheen all over its body.

Ordinary soldiers' bullets striking the Fatty Zombie and the Butcher only sparked and left shallow white marks, producing a clinking sound! Most bullets aimed at the Agile were dodged by its ghostly speed! The corrosive liquid spat by the Acid Throat forced the soldiers to scramble and dodge!

"Li Wei, Chen Hao! Follow me! Stop them! Everyone else, continue the mission!" Zhang Lei's pupils contracted as he gave a sharp order! Without hesitation, scorching flames instantly erupted around him, targeting the most threatening Agile!

He knew that, besides him, no one in the team could keep up with this monster's speed! Although Zhang Lei wasn't a pure speed enhancer, he possessed a powerful physique forged by Divine Fire! His speed was not inferior to a speed enhancer. With a sudden burst of strength from his feet, two golden-red flames instantly erupted from his soles!

"Boom!"

Like a rocket igniting! The powerful recoil propelled his body forward at a terrifying, abnormal speed! The air was torn apart, emitting a sharp roar! His speed, at this moment, even surpassed that of the Agile, which was known for its swiftness! Moreover, his body, continuously tempered by fire elements, was far stronger than others of the same rank, so the Agile's bone claws, capable of tearing steel, posed little threat to him! A battle of peak speed against rampant flames instantly erupted!

This Agile was far more ferocious than the Agile Zhang Lei had encountered before! Its height reached an astonishing 2.5 meters, its skeleton twisted and full of explosive power, its leg muscles bulging, their length taking up nearly two-thirds of its body, presenting an insect-like, reverse-jointed form. Each step left web-like cracks on the concrete ground! Its drooping claws gleamed with a metallic cold light, ten centimeters long, like ten poisoned daggers! Even more unsettling, sharp, hook-like claws also extended from the front of its feet, creating an ear-splitting scraping sound with every movement!

Zhang Lei's pupils slightly contracted; he didn't underestimate it in the slightest! He let out a low growl, and a chilling aura instantly condensed around him. Water molecules in the air rapidly froze and attached under his will! A layer of crystal-clear ice armor, covered in fine frost patterns, quickly formed on his vital areas such as his chest, abdomen, shoulders, elbows, and knees! The cold sensation transmitted through his clothing, bringing a sense of solidity. Unfortunately, his current strength was not enough to support full-body ice armor.

With a thought, Zhang Lei stomped his left foot heavily on the ground!

"Boom!"

A golden-red fireball, compressed to its extreme, instantly exploded beneath his foot! The powerful recoil propelled him like a cannonball towards the ferocious Agile! Its speed was so great that it left a scorching afterimage in its wake!

The Agile Zombie's scarlet compound eyes flared with malevolence. Facing Zhang Lei's active assault, it let out a furious, ear-splitting roar! Its strong hind limbs pushed off the ground, and its massive body rushed forward with a foul wind, its ten deadly bone blades on its right arm tearing through the air with a piercing shriek, aiming straight for Zhang Lei's neck! The angle was tricky, and it was as fast as lightning!

"Good! Frost Fist: Break!" Zhang Lei's eyes burned with battle intent. Facing the bone blades that could tear through anything, he neither dodged nor evaded! As he charged, he clenched his right fist, and layers of dense ice, like living things, spread upward from his knuckles, thickening and solidifying! In the blink of an eye, his right fist transformed into a massive ice fist, the size of a washbasin, radiating bone-chilling cold! The surface of the ice fist was covered in sharp, angular ice spikes!

"Clang—!!!"

A loud clang, like metal striking metal, erupted between the two!

Ice shards and bone dust splattered!

Zhang Lei's ice fist, imbued with terrifying power and extreme cold, solidly struck the Agile's swinging bone blade! A pure, overwhelming burst of power! The Agile Zombie's boasted speed gained no advantage against Zhang Lei, and its strength was even more its weakness!

"Awoo—!"

The Agile let out a painful howl, its massive body sent flying backward as if struck by a high-speed train, crashing heavily into a broken wall ten meters away, sending bricks and stones scattering!

However, Zhang Lei's ice fist also developed web-like cracks on its surface during this head-on collision, eventually shattering in half with a "crack," scattering cold air.

"Tsk, ice's defense still isn't as solid as earth's!" Zhang Lei shook his slightly numb right hand, sighing inwardly. Ice originates from water; its strength lies in its endurance and versatility, overcoming hardness with softness, endless and inexhaustible. But in terms of pure impact resistance and physical defense, it is indeed not as solid as the earth element, which symbolizes the land. In terms of offense, metal and fire are the best. Unfortunately, metal-attribute Superpower users are extremely rare, and that one in Kyoto only had hardened skin, with limited offensive power.

Opportunity was fleeting! Zhang Lei didn't hesitate, rapidly crossed his hands in front of his chest, and let out a low cry: "Cold Current!"

A visible, icy blue Cold Current, like an arctic storm, instantly surged from his palms, precisely engulfing the Agile Zombie that had just struggled to get up!

"Crack... crackle..."

The bone-chilling cold instantly invaded the Agile Zombie's joints and muscles! A thick layer of frost, shimmering with blue-white light, covered its entire body at a visible speed! Its movements instantly became stiff and sluggish, as if put into slow motion! Its unsettling speed advantage was completely frozen by this extreme cold!

"It's over!" Zhang Lei's eyes sharpened, and his feet once again erupted with scorching flame propulsion!

"Boom!"

His figure transformed into a streak of fire, instantly covering ten meters and appearing before the Agile Zombie, which was bound by frost and slow in its movements!

A cold light flashed in his hand, and an Ice Blade, condensed from pure ice with an incredibly sharp edge, appeared out of thin air!

"Slash!"

The blade light, like a bolt of silk, carried a soul-freezing chill as it precisely sliced across the Agile Zombie's frost-covered, thick neck!

A massive head, covered in ice crystals and with an expression frozen between ferocity and astonishment, flew into the air! The headless, massive body swayed once, then crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of ice dust... Meanwhile, the fierce battle between the other four first-order mutated zombies and the experts in the team also entered a white-hot stage.

The Fatty Zombie was like a mobile fortress, shrugging off the soldiers' dense bullets, swinging its giant, barrel-thick arms. Each smash shook the ground, forcing the soldiers to dodge frantically. Chen Hao (Company Commander of the First Company) used his 3-star enhanced Exoskeleton Armor to contend with it, continuously bombarding its weak joints with rocket launchers and armor-piercing rounds, finally bringing it down.

The Butcher Zombie wielded a rusty but exceptionally sharp cleaver. Each swing produced a tearing shriek through the air, cutting through walls like tofu! Li Wei firmly held it back with his shield, sparks flying from the shield with an ear-splitting screech of friction. Eventually, the Butcher was restricted by the Stone Spikes and Meteorites summoned by Li Wei and was riddled with holes by concentrated fire from the Snipers.

The Acid Throat continuously spewed highly corrosive dark-green mucus. Wherever it landed, the concrete ground sizzled and smoked with a pungent white vapor. The soldiers were forced to retreat and reposition, only resolving the threat with precise sniping and grenades.