Apocalypse: King of Zombies

At that moment, Ethan—disguised as Umbradrake—strolled over from a short distance away and said casually, ”There are plenty of powerful Xenobeasts lurking in Razorback Ridge. It’s actually a great chance to hunt for high-grade crystal cores.”

”Huh?... You’ve got a point,” Ragnar raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself: If that’s the case, I definitely don’t want to hunt with him. Better to go solo and keep those high-level cores for myself. Plus, this is the perfect time to take down some Xenobeasts. ”Then I’ll head out first. You guys can stick together.”

”Ragnar, Razorback Ridge isn’t like the places we’ve been before. It could be seriously dangerous,” Bloodveil warned, his tone heavy.

He knew that even someone as powerful as the SSS-ranked Voidborn Undying could fall here.

But Ragnar just shrugged it off. ”Danger? What could possibly threaten me? Relax. If anything unusual comes up, I’ll send you a signal.”

”Uh... alright then,” Bloodveil nodded reluctantly. He didn’t agree with Ragnar’s plan, but he had no authority to stop him. Ragnar would do whatever he wanted anyway.

”Cool. I’m off then. Wait for the good news,” Ragnar said with a smirk, then turned and headed into the vast expanse of Razorback Ridge, flanked by a few of his loyal undead followers.

Their zombie silhouettes slowly disappeared into the distance.

Ethan, still wearing Umbradrake’s face, stood silently, watching them go. His expression was unreadable, like everything was unfolding exactly as he’d planned.

Bloodveil glanced at him, a flicker of suspicion in his eyes. Something felt off. It was like Ethan had deliberately nudged Ragnar into going off alone...

”My friend Umbradrake,” Bloodveil said, his voice low, ”with enemies this strong, we need to stick together. Otherwise... we could all be in danger. There are SSS-level Xenobeasts in Razorback Ridge—probably more than one.”

”Of course,” Ethan replied with a faint smile. ”I’ve always been a team player.”

”...” Bloodveil couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Team player? Yeah, right. He almost believed him for a second.

Ethan went on, ”Razorback Ridge is huge, and Xenobeasts are crawling all over it. How do you plan to clear them all out?”

”That’s easy,” Bloodveil said confidently. ”We just keep killing them, force their leaders—like the Overmind Queen—to show themselves. Once we take her down, the rest will fall apart.”

”Hmm.” Ethan paused, considering the idea. It wasn’t bad—assuming they could actually find the Overmind Queen. ”Then sending Ragnar in first might work out perfectly.”

”...” Bloodveil was speechless. If Ragnar got taken out, they’d lose a major asset, and the enemy would only grow stronger. That kind of shift in power could throw the whole battle into chaos.

”If Ragnar dies, the Xenobeasts will keep pushing into Eastreach.”

”Oh...” Ethan had clearly figured that out already. He didn’t care about Ragnar’s fate—he was just worried about his own territory.

”Don’t worry,” Ethan added smoothly. ”We’ll take down the Overmind Queen.”

”Let’s hope so...” Bloodveil muttered. For a moment, Ethan almost seemed... trustworthy.

After some quick discussion, they decided to move into Razorback Ridge.

But they weren’t sending the entire Zombie Horde charging in. With no clear idea of where the enemy was, a full-on assault would just waste energy and risk disaster.

So Bloodveil made the call: only a few of the Zombie Kings and their elite squads would enter first. Once they located the Overmind Queen of the parasitic monsters, they’d signal the rest of the horde to join in for the final showdown.

”Also, Razorback Ridge is massive,” Bloodveil added. ”If we want to find the Overmind Queen, we’ll need to split up. You guys should form smaller teams—watch each other’s backs.”

The Zombie Kings started growling and snarling among themselves, discussing how to divide up.

Snout Zombie King waddled over, his rolls of fat jiggling as he trotted up to Ethan with a pack of elite zombies in tow.

”Boss Umbradrake, I’m sticking with you! Let’s go kill some Xenobeasts together!”

”Sure,” Ethan replied with a grin.

Free muscle? No reason to say no to that.

The rest of the Zombie Kings, hearing this, quickly shuffled over as well.

”Boss Umbradrake, take me with you too!”

”Yeah, me too… I wanna stick with you.”

”Let’s all go together—it’s safer that way.”

”...”

Not far off, Bloodveil watched as nearly every Zombie King tried to latch onto Ethan, and the corner of his eye twitched uncontrollably.

He’d just been thinking Ethan seemed reliable. Now? That illusion had shattered into a thousand pieces.

”Hey! I just said to split up!” Bloodveil snapped, clearly irritated. Sure, sticking together was safer, but at that rate, they’d never find the Overmind Queen in this massive place.

The Zombie Kings, hearing the scolding, reluctantly backed off and scattered in different directions.

Only Snout kept inching closer to Ethan, practically glued to his side.

And so, the Zombie Kings finished organizing their squads and began their descent into Razorback Ridge.

Ethan led the way with Hammerhead, Snout, and Snout’s personal squad of several hundred elite zombies.

The other Zombie Kings broke off into small groups of three to five.

Though they were spread out, they stayed within range of each other’s brainwave signals—close enough to communicate instantly if anything went down.

Each group had a decent number of underlings too.

It was like the massive Zombie Horde had been broken into dozens of smaller strike teams. If something unexpected happened, they could regroup fast and hit back hard.

Ethan had to admit—Bloodveil’s strategy was actually pretty solid. The guy wasn’t just some mindless corpse; when it came to battlefield tactics, he had real skill.

By now, Ethan, Hammerhead, Snout, and their squad had crossed into the boundaries of Razorback Ridge.

The cold night wind howled through the canyons, echoing like the cries of wolves—or the wails of the damned. Mixed in were faint, guttural roars from distant Xenobeasts.

Jagged rocks jutted out in every direction, forming a natural maze. Towering cliffs loomed overhead, and brittle, blackened plants clung to cracks in the stone—lifeless and dry as bone.

”Boss, this place is huge,” Snout grunted, his voice thick and dopey. ”We could walk for months and still not find the Overmind Queen. Where the hell do we even start?”

Ethan’s eyes were calm, unbothered. ”We just keep killing her spawn. Sooner or later, she’ll show herself.”

”But she’s SSS-level,” Snout said, scratching his head. ”She’s probably got crazy disguise skills. What if she’s already pretending to be one of us? Hiding in the zombie ranks? Even if we search all of Razorback Ridge, we’d never find her like that.”

Ethan chuckled. ”Even you thought of that, pig-brain?”

Snout blinked, confused.

Ethan continued, ”Then we don’t need to search the whole ridge. We just investigate the zombies around us. That narrows things down a lot.”

”Uh…”

Snout froze, his brain clearly lagging behind. He stood there, mouth slightly open, trying to process what Ethan had just said.

After a few seconds of mental buffering, it finally clicked.

”Hey… you know what? That actually makes a lotta sense.”

...