The hawk was really big, the largest bird that Kang Lan or probably any other human being had ever seen with their own eyes outside of a movie screen.
Its wingspan was over thirty meters and it had a height of around 30 to 40 meters. Its body was covered with silver-colored feathers that seemed to glitter like precious gems under the glare of the lightning that illuminated the almost completely black sky, as well as the faint rays of sunlight. However, what caught Kang Lan’s attention the most when she looked at the giant hawk was nothing of the aforementioned nor was it its legs covered by sharp emerald green claws, but rather, it was those two large golden eyes similar to those of an owl.
Kang Lan’s brain froze as she felt imminent death looming over her, yet, her body that had been trained in the worst environments and tens of thousands of fights reacted on its own. She stopped her steps and instead of continuing to approach the Second Order zombie, she kicked the ground beneath her feet, jumping backwards and trying to put distance.
It was also at that moment that the silver hawk attacked.
Yet in a backward motion, Kang Lan’s pupils trembled when she saw how the golden eyes of the hawk at an altitude of over 500 meters lit up; the two eyes glowed like lanterns and in the middle of the sky looked like two small, extremely bright and beautiful suns. But Kang Lan was not happy about the beautiful sight, quite the contrary.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Just as Kang Lan expected it to happen as this kind of image was very normal even in movies, two bright beams of light that looked like laser beams shot out from the two eyes of the silver hawk, and even though Kang Lan was backing away, it was not difficult for her to realize that the beast in the sky had even understood her trajectory and trajectory speed to hit right at the precise spot where she would be in the next instant.
Just as Kang Lan was about to be hit by the skill of the silver hawk, a golden-colored barrier appeared around her body.
Bang!
The golden barrier only resisted for a second before shattering into pieces. However, before the golden beams could continue advancing, a second golden barrier appeared around Kang Lan and stopped them again.
Bang!
The second barrier was also destroyed and the two bronze bells that had floated above the head of Kang Lan protecting her from danger returned to the inside of her bag.
Although the two objects only resisted for one second each, those two seconds was enough time for Kang Lan to change her trajectory of movement and move away from the place she believed would be the place of impact. However, the worst thing that could happen, happened.
“Hahahaha!” The Second Order zombie laughed as he watched the two golden laser beams hit the ground and carved deep holes the width of a fist before moving and chasing after the human woman. The creature sneered as he tried to suppress the poison that was still attacking him inside, “Human woman, I fell for it before too so don’t worry too much!”
The expression on Kang Lan’s face was serious and her face was beginning to fill with small beads of sweat as she tried to move away from the two golden laser beams that were chasing her. She heard the soul evolvers around her crying out in concern but she had no time for them now as her Agility didn’t seem to be enough to compete with the magic skill of a Second Order beast.
Just as she was in real danger, Kang Lan felt her entire body become much lighter than before and an electrifying but pleasant current coursed through every cell of her body. In just an instant, she noticed how her Agility stat and the rest of her stats received a boost that she considered tremendous.
‘Thank you, my dear Leader!’ Kang Lan couldn’t help the corner of her lips lifting slightly as she realized that this was the result of the lifesaving effect of her Loyal Follower subclass.
Bang!
Kang Lan kicked the ground under his feet using all her Strength, and taking advantage of the increased stats, she burst out with new movement speed, moving away from the two golden-colored laser beams and leaving them further and further behind.
“Uh?” The Second Order zombie’s laughter stopped and his eyes widened in shock as he watched the human woman flying away.
What happened? The zombie was puzzled but couldn’t find an answer no matter how much he thought about it.
The hawk in the sky also began to decrease the power of its attack after leaving two long and deep trenches over 400 meters long as it realized that the human woman was suddenly out of its reach.
When the danger passed, Kang Lan immediately noticed how her stats returned to normal and she also stopped her run while looking back cautiously. Do you want to read more chapters?
“Hey, are you okay?”
Fu Xuefeng appeared beside her like a ghost and asked in concern and at the same time slightly surprised.
He had seen the events unfold, and had been running in this direction to support Kang Lan, but it was too far away so Fu Xuefeng knew it would take longer than the time he had to get to her and give her help. Fortunately, it seemed that Kang Lan was hiding some of her strength and that allowed her to escape.
“I’m fine.” Kang Lan replied with her eyes moving between the Second Order zombie and the silver hawk. The appearance of the hawk had ruined her plans completely.
Fu Xuefeng scanned the surroundings and frowned heavily as a glint of worry flashed in his eyes.
The war was continuing, except that this time a change had occurred; a huge change.
The beasts that had been killing each other were still killing each other, as well as attacking humans, however, the beasts and zombies were no longer fighting between themselves. Except for the still 50% uncontrolled beasts, the two races were attacking the human settlement.
The pressure on the soul evolvers increased exponentially as the proportion of enemies they had to face grew. With little space to move, the Agility stat had been partially sealed and the level of risk of being scratched by zombies increased.
In fact, the only reason the human evolvers had not yet fallen was thanks to the weapons that allowed them to keep their enemies at a distance and their armor that not only served to mitigate some of the damage received but also prevented the claws of normal zombies from touching their skin.
Nangong Yi had been carried by Lu Yan back to the walls and Lu Yan had joined the fight immediately after. Because Fu Xuefeng and Kang Lan were currently tied up by the two Second Order existences in front of them, no one had time to rest at all and they had to do their best to survive.
“Kang Lan, this is bad.” Fu Xuefeng whispered softly, covering his mouth with one hand to prevent the enemy from being able to read the movement of his lips.
Kang Lan nodded imperceptibly without saying a word. She understood that the current situation could hardly become worse than it already was.
“You two should be the leaders of this establishment, shouldn’t you?” The Second Order zombie finally broke the silence after regaining approximately 70% of his strength. He could now suppress the poison with considerably more tranquility and ease.
Neither Kang Lan nor Fu Xuefeng answered the zombie’s question, both were focused on the surroundings and the sky, therefore, they could not afford to be distracted.
But the male zombie didn’t mind the other party’s lack of response. Instead, a fierce smile appeared on his face, a stark contrast to his suddenly soft and calm voice: “How about this? If you guys surrender, then we promise we won’t kill anyone else. That’s not a bad deal, is it?”
The Second Order zombie’s voice was not loud at all, and amidst the constant explosions and roars of war that enveloped the surroundings, it could easily have been ignored. However, the creature’s words sounded as loud as the beating of war drums in Fu Xuefeng and Kang Lan’s ears.
They both jumped in surprise and their eyes widened in shock as it was hard for both of them to believe that what they had just heard was true. In fact, the shock Fu Xuefeng and Kang Lan felt was so great that for a moment the two forgot not to take their eyes off the two enemies before them and looked at each other as if to make sure they had just heard correctly.
The male zombie seemed very satisfied with the reaction of the two humans, and when he saw that neither of them said anything, he began to speak again: “Even though I have eaten many human brains and absorbed countless records of this race, I still do not understand very well how the strange hierarchy of power among you works. Let me tell you that for my zombie race, when one breaks into the Second Order, the mental block that limits our ability to think and reason is removed. With the ability to think and reason, we Second Order zombies gain the skill to lead an army of up to 1 million normal or First Order soldiers with approximately 70% freedom.”
Screeee…!
Kang Lan and the others raised their heads skyward as the hawk began to flap its wings and let out a thunderous screech.
“I know, I know!” The Second Order zombie shouted back. He looked at the human duo and continued, “Unlike that beast in the sky that can’t speak despite being in the Second Order and barely being able to lead an army of up to 100,000 mutant beasts with only 50% freedom, we zombies are different. So, as long as you guys surrender, I promise that at least 90% of you won’t get eaten tonight. How about that?”
Surrender? The zombies wanted the humans to surrender? Kang Lan and Fu Xuefeng were in shock. This was the first time they had heard of such a thing!
It was normal for zombies to eat humans or anything that crossed their path regardless of race. Even the intelligent zombies Bai Zemin had faced so far were no different in this respect.
In the sky, inside the Sky Destroyer, the expression of Bai Zemin was thoughtful while the expressions of Shen Mei, Xia Ya, and his mother Ye Linger showed that they were just as shocked as Kang Lan and Fu Xuefeng.
“Th- That zombie talked about a male mermaid…” Shen Mei looked at Bai Zemin as she said these words. She, unlike Xia Ya and Ye Linger, knew that Bai Zemin was in alliance with a female mermaid.
Suddenly, Bai Zemin stood up and attracted the attention of the people in the command room.
“Leader?”
Xia Ya looked at him in surprise and stepped back to make some space for him to walk past her.
“Kong Jun, follow me. The rest of you all wait here.”
Bai Zemin commanded and his body suddenly disappeared without giving anyone time to say anything. Along with Bai Zemin’s disappearance, the weaver ant covered by a thick dark cloak also disappeared from the room like a ghost after being enveloped by a faint white light.
On the ground, Kang Lan and Fu Xuefeng’s expressions were ugly. The Second Order zombie didn’t look anxious but the hawk in the sky clearly didn’t have such patience.
Besides, for every second they stood there doing nothing, the danger for the human troops increased. More than 300 soul evolvers had lost their lives so far, along with more than 2200 other armed soldiers, as well as the explosion of 3 battle tanks, 7 IFVs, and more than 40 military or modified vehicles.
Even though the number of enemies killed was countless times higher, such kind of loss was too much for the not yet fully established humanity, and both Kang Lan and Fu Xuefeng knew that by every minute the death and loss count would increase more and more.
“You guys can take your time hehehe…. Although, I’m afraid many might die in the process. Besides…” The male zombie laughed slyly. A large-sized fluctuation of mana and magic rippled across the sky and the zombie said quietly, “I’m afraid my teammate might not be as patient and wait as I am.”
At a little over half a kilometer high, the silver hawk’s eyes glowed again. But compared to the previous time, the glow in its eyes began to grow brighter and brighter with each passing second.
The expression of Kang Lan became even uglier when she realized that the attack the beast was going to launch this time was several times more terrifying than the previous one, and the worst of all was that she could do nothing to prevent it from launching it!
Fu Xuefeng clenched his dagger tightly and a flash of anger, as well as helplessness, shone in his black eyes. He was an assassin and his range was even shorter than that of a normal warrior. While he could leap and attack the hawk, that would leave him exposed to the attacks of the beast that could move freely through the air.
Just at that moment, the glowing eyes of the hawk shut off and the beast abruptly raised its head to the sky. A curious sound came from its peak but before anyone could understand what was happening a flash of red light fell from the clouds with a mighty thunderous boom.
The hawk’s body was hit right in the back even before it could move away from the object’s trajectory. The beast didn’t even understand what was happening when its body was brought to the ground.
Booooooooooooom!!!!
The ground shook, causing everyone within 2000 meters around the impact center to stagger. Amidst the powerful rumbling, a large cloud of dust rose into the sky and covered the sight of everyone in the vicinity to the point where if one were to look from afar, they could see bright lights of the different magic skills amidst a blanket of darkness.
Kang Lan and Fu Xuefeng were just like the others and had no idea what was going on, but they both raised their guards to the maximum and even began to panic a little.
Bang!
An explosion followed by a strong gale blew all the dust away from the surroundings, and when everyone’s sight cleared, they saw the male zombie finishing a diagonal slash.
However, what caught the attention of everyone was the center of the crater which was more than 300 meters deep.
The hawk that a moment ago was hovering in the sky and looking down on all living things with disdain, flapping its powerful wings covered with beautiful silver feathers, was now stuck in the ground. Its back had been split in half and red blood along with fragments of inner organs bathed the creature’s back, staining its silver feathers in crimson.
On the beast’s back, a sword approximately two meters long crackled with constant lightning flashes of bright red dancing around it.
At the sight of that sword, Kang Lan and Fu Xuefeng’s eyes sparkled. They both looked at each other for a second before looking back at the greatsword, letting out sighs of relief simultaneously.
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