Apocalypse: King of Zombies

With a plan in place, it was time to put it into action.

After downing dozens of Tier 22 crystal cores, Ethan’s mental energy finally refilled to the brim.

He gave Henry and the other guy a quick nod. Then Teleportation flickered into existence in midair—Ethan stepped onto his poleaxe like a board and shot straight toward the battlefield.

”Hey, winged freaks. Remember me?” Ethan greeted them with a grin, like he was dropping in on old friends.

His sudden appearance made the Winged Clan powerhouses jump.

”You actually dare show your face here? You’re asking to die!” Several massive Cyclone Blades cleaved toward him at once.

”Holy shit! We can’t even talk first before you start swinging?” Ethan said, deadpan. Seriously—these guys didn’t do warm-ups.

He Teleported out of the way, then his voice went cold. ”Fine. If you’re gonna be rude, I’ll be rude too.”

The moment he finished speaking, he activated Absolute Stasis.

His figure blinked into the middle of their formation. The poleaxe in his hands flared with a black glow as he swept it in a brutal arc—

Eight Winged Clan experts lost their heads in a single slash.

Ethan didn’t hesitate. He Teleported away immediately.

It wasn’t that Ethan didn’t want to use Absolute Stasis to rescue Dopey right now. The problem was Dopey’s body was wrapped in hundreds of strands of Gale Bind—and even under Absolute Stasis, those bindings still clung to it.

If Dopey couldn’t break free, Ethan sure as hell wasn’t going to. So for now, all he could do was thin their numbers first.

When time and space snapped back to normal, the Winged Clan experts stared as the eight headless bodies tumbled down toward the ground. Their faces drained.

”Vaerion,” an older Winged Clan powerhouse barked, face livid, ”take some people and kill that human first. We can still hold here!”

”Understood.”

In a flash, a group peeled away from the main fight and dove straight for Ethan. Before they even reached him, all kinds of terrifying Wind Cutters were already shredding the air around him, turning the space near him into a killing zone.

”Hmph. Your boss couldn’t kill me, and you think you can?” Ethan snorted—and then…

He very decisively used Teleportation to run.

He talked the toughest talk and did the wimpiest thing.

No choice. He couldn’t win head-on.

”Let’s see where you run!” the pursuing Winged Clan experts roared, accelerating after him.

And while everyone’s attention was dragged along by Ethan—

A silent white fog had somehow risen around Aerisara’s position.

One Winged Clan expert glanced that way and his expression flipped instantly.

”Oh no—they’re doing it again!”

Several Winged Clan members beat their wings hard, whipping up a fierce gale that blasted the fog apart.

But there was nothing underneath.

Aerisara was already gone.

”Damn it!” The older Winged Clan powerhouse’s face turned ashen with rage. He wanted to chase—but he couldn’t spare the manpower.

They’d already split off a group to kill the human. With what they had left, controlling that soulless thrall was barely holding together. If anyone else left, the thing would break free for sure.

And once it did… they were finished.

”The real culprit is back—why isn’t Lord Aeralon back yet?!” the Winged Clan experts were practically frantic now.

But at this moment, the Lord Aeralon they were praying for was having a much worse day than they were.

The newly reborn roc had its rage maxed out—and its combat power right along with it.

A terrifying storm rolled across the sky as Cyclone Blades tore through the heavens like guillotines.

Aeralon had reunited with his subordinates, but out of the several thousand he’d had before, the roc had slaughtered half. Now he had barely close to eight hundred left.

How could that possibly be enough to stand against a roc?

This kind of battle wasn’t even comparable to Dopey.

Maybe in a one-on-one, it was hard to say who would come out on top between the two. But in a group fight? A roc—with its extreme speed and wide-area attacks—was obviously in a completely different league than Dopey.

Same wind-type ability users. Both could fly. But the roc was faster.

If those Winged Clan experts thought they could handle the roc the same way they’d handled Dopey… that was a fantasy.

Dopey was a soulless thrall, after all. In a fight, it only knew how to charge in and beat the hell out of things. It didn’t really dodge, and it didn’t know how to avoid getting controlled.

But the roc was different.

It had its own mind. And it was extremely sensitive to wind-type abilities—so of course it knew how to respond.

That was why, even with the same number of Winged Clan experts—and even with Aeralon on this side—the whole fight looked completely different.

Still, if you said the roc was stronger than Dopey, Ethan would be the first one to argue.

If they really fought, the roc might not even be able to crack Dopey’s defense.

Dopey’s body had been tempered in that underground space to a completely ridiculous degree. It was just… wrong.

On this side, the fight had only lasted a few minutes, and the roc had already slaughtered nearly half of the roughly eight hundred Winged Clan experts.

When Aeralon saw that, his face turned ugly. He ordered his people to keep pouring on the pressure—

Then he quietly pulled back.

The moment his subordinates realized even their boss had run, they finally snapped. Their morale collapsed on the spot, and they scattered in all directions.

The roc’s eyes sharpened. It beat its wings once, ignored everyone else, and shot straight after Aeralon’s escape route.

The one who’d ambushed it—who’d left it grievously wounded and on the verge of death—wasn’t getting away. Not a chance.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a pack of Winged Clan experts chased Ethan like bloodhounds.

They weren’t as fast as Aeralon, but Ethan couldn’t shake them either.

Not that he was trying.

He dragged them around in circles.

Their speed didn’t exceed his Teleportation. As long as Ethan kept blinking away, they couldn’t close the distance. And if something went sideways, he could always pop Absolute Stasis to save himself.

So Ethan stayed calm.

Because as long as he kept this group occupied… the moment Henry finished healing Aerisara, Aerisara could free Dopey.

And once Dopey was out?

Then the ones who should panic would be the Winged Clan.

Everything went exactly the way Ethan expected.

Henry healed Aerisara much faster than he’d healed the roc. Before long, Aerisara’s figure reappeared over the battlefield.

No hesitation.

She immediately hurled out two massive Death Tempests.

With Aeralon gone, Aerisara’s strength—practically Stage S—was more than lethal to the Winged Clan experts. Facing her Death Tempests, they couldn’t just ignore it. They had no choice but to peel off more people to hold her back.

And that was the breaking point.

Their already-fragile control shattered the instant they diverted manpower again.

Dopey surged with force—its body snapped free as it tore through the Gale Bind. It launched off the ground and appeared in front of a Tier 29 Winged Clan expert in the blink of an eye.

No tricks.

No flourish.

It threw one straight punch.

The Winged Clan expert’s expression changed. It was too late to run. He could only slap an energy shield over himself and cram a storm of wind-element power in front of him, trying to block the blow.

Useless.

In front of absolute strength, all that fancy crap was just decoration.

Dopey’s fist came down.

Every layer of protection shattered. The punch drove straight through the expert’s body, punching a hole clean through him. He died instantly—dead beyond dead.

”Damn it—get higher!” The Winged Clan experts blanched and shot upward in a scramble.

After killing that one, Dopey’s body did start to drop—

And that was when Aerisara flew in.

Dopey landed with both feet on Aerisara’s shoulders. Then Aerisara carried it straight toward the cluster of fleeing Winged Clan experts like a living missile platform.

The Winged Clan weren’t helpless, either. Countless terrifying techniques surged toward the two of them, filling the air with slicing wind and crushing pressure.

Dopey sprang up again, taking the hits head-on—soaking all the damage—then smashed the nearest Winged Clan expert with one punch.

The guy popped.

At the same time, Aerisara unleashed several massive Cyclone Blades, cleanly lopping off the heads of a few more Winged Clan experts.

Two soulless thralls working together—

It was vicious in a way that made your scalp go cold.