The moment those words left his lips, a huge dome of darkness covered the entire street, stretching for hundreds of meters into the distance. The darkness swallowed his surroundings completely. It wasn’t pitch-black, but dark enough to be mistaken for a night illuminated by dim moonlight.
Once it reached a thousand-meter radius, Leon felt it stop. He was a little surprised, but that was all. More zombies kept pouring into the dome, which wasn’t surprising. It wasn’t a defensive skill after all.
The zombies close to him didn’t even pause despite the change in the atmosphere. There was only one command in their rotten minds—kill.
The switch wasn’t going to stop them. However, something else did.
Before they could reach him, the darkness moved. From the ground, several copies of the Titanbreaker Spear rose and stabbed into their bodies, skewering several zombies and killing them on the spot.
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
The rising spears didn’t stop. After skewering the zombies, they dissolved back into the ground, then shot up again. The zombies that were stepping over the corpses of their comrades were immediately skewered too, joining the pile of bodies on the ground.
This was happening in every area of land the dome covered. No zombie could escape, and as time passed, the death toll increased.
From a hundred to three hundred, then to nine hundred, before crossing a thousand...
It kept rising.
Leon’s face paled slightly as he felt his mana getting drained heavily. However, it was worth it. Without having to move a single muscle, he was killing thousands of zombies. He felt a little ecstatic, but soon frowned.
Indeed, he was killing a lot of zombies, but compared to the real number of zombies in the horde, they barely counted. If he assumed correctly, there were close to a million zombies in the Manhattan horde.
’I definitely can’t kill them all. I just have to stall them for a while, and hopefully, reduce their numbers.’
He remained still, his concentration stretched to its limit as he repeatedly spawned the shadow spears, ensuring no zombie moved more than five meters before it died.
After ten minutes, the pile of corpses had grown so much that the zombies who wanted to enter the darkness dome had to climb over the corpses of the others.
Seeing the sight before him, Leon sucked in a cold breath. Corpses stretched from one end of the avenue to the other, and blood flowed through the gutters like rivers.
There were at least tens of thousands of dead zombies.
’What a crazy feat for a university student, hm? Classic Demon Lord plot,’ He thought, a pale smile on his lips.
Finally, when his mana reserves dropped below half, he cancelled the Darkness Descent skill and stopped spawning shadow spears.
Darkness Descent greatly reduced his mana consumption. Instead of creating spears from the shadows of physical objects, the entire domain itself served as an endless source of shadows. If he hadn’t used the skill, then he might have run out of mana by now.
After all, just as Thyra had taught him, creating an object from the shadow of a different object drained more mana than usual.
When the darkness receded, he held his breath. The sight before him was breathtaking. Although he had seen the pile of corpses while the skill was still active, it was different now.
Now, with daylight illuminating the streets, it really looked like a scene from a horror movie Clara loved watching.
Shaking his head, Leon stepped on the dead bodies, his gaze focused on the end of the streets. Surprisingly, the zombies had stopped charging, as if their leader had commanded them not to.
They were all cannon fodder, after all.
Leon’s eyes narrowed as he noticed some zombies moving within the horde, making their way towards him.
Only when they broke out from the horde did Leon see them properly. The elites of the zombie horde.
’Berserkers, Killers, Mutants... it’s been a while I saw them, huh?’
There were about thirty of them, and each one was Tier One with a yellow crystal on their foreheads.
Holding his spear tightly, Leon let out a short laugh. It seemed the commander of the zombie horde was indeed very smart.
After realizing that Leon couldn’t be brought down with the unranked zombies, they chose to send the elite zombies.
’Not bad. But it feels a bit unfair. Thirty against one? Truly shameless.’
Before the zombies could reach him, Leon dashed forward to meet them.
Bang!
A mutilated corpse exploded under his feet as he shot forward like an arrow let loose. He appeared before a Killer Zombie, their faces mere inches apart.
However, before the zombie could even move to attack him, its head was pierced cleanly by the Titanbreaker Spear, and it died on the spot.
[You have slain a Level 31...]
Before its corpse hit the ground, Leon already removed its soul crystal and sent it into his storage ring. The zombies barely paused when he abruptly appeared in their midst.
With savage expressions, they lunged at him, claws, fists, and weird appendages swinging towards him.
With a flick of his wrist, Leon sliced off a disgusting tentacle that was reaching towards him. His spear darted like a striking serpent, punching through the mutant zombie’s eye before instantly retracting.
With its brain crushed, the zombie’s tentacle limbs twitched for a few seconds, then dropped after the body.
Leon had barely taken the soul crystal when the huge fist of a berserker zombie came close.
He rotated the spear, letting its shaft catch the blow. He was pushed back, directly onto the encroaching claws of a killer zombie.
Despite the danger, Leon didn’t panic. His arm snapped back swiftly, beheading the zombie with a swing of the spear. However, he couldn’t avoid getting scratched by the claws.
Slice!
Unsurprisingly, his combat gear failed to block the sharp claws, and even his Silver Hide trait barely helped. He still got a small wound on his arm as he retreated, breaking out of the encirclement of the elite zombies.
Sadly, while he wished for a little break to assess his wound, they didn’t. The zombies lunged after him again, with two berserker zombies aiming for his head.
Leon’s expression darkened, and he switched the spear to his left hand. Curling his fists, he threw out his own punch, slamming into the first zombie’s oversized fist.
Bang!
Its arm snapped back and bent in odd angles with bones jutting out of the flesh. Before the zombie could attack again, he stabbed straight at its skull, killing it instantly.
This time, he didn’t dare reach for the soul crystal, as the other berserker zombie was already upon him.
Leon hastily dodged its punch, which flattened a corpse beneath it, then stabbed at its neck.
Surprisingly, his spear met a slight resistance before the blade completely severed its neck. It seemed the zombie possessed a defensive ability. However, it wasn’t enough.
A second later, the zombie’s head flew into the air as its body joined the pile on the ground.
’Ugh!’
Even though he had killed one more elite zombie, Leon wasn’t happy. Pain flared from his back as he felt sharp claws tearing through his armor and flesh. These claws were even sharper than the ones that had injured him earlier.
’These zombies are annoying, goddamnit!’
Regardless of his feelings, the zombies pressed forward, forcing Leon to respond with deadly strikes.
He was determined to kill the zombies and harvest their crystals. Besides, he still wasn’t sure if the scratch marks would infect him with corrupted mana.
Hopefully, his adaptation trait would be able to save him from turning.