Apocalypse: King of Zombies

The Glacial Bear stared at Ethan, still sliding back from the impact, and for the first time its face actually showed shock.

It hadn’t expected Ethan’s strike to be that brutal. That kind of force… it was already beyond what a normal Stage S should be capable of.

The bear licked its tongue, and its aura surged—pure, boiling battle intent.

”ROAR…!”

With that roar, it launched itself at Ethan like a white avalanche. Another massive ice pillar formed in its hands, and it swung down hard, aiming to crush Ethan in one blow.

Ethan blinked away with Teleportation, dodging the strike by a hair, and his poleaxe came whipping back toward the bear’s head.

But the Glacial Bear’s reactions were unreal.

The ice pillar snapped sideways in a sweep that made no sense for something that big—fast enough that if Ethan committed to the chop, he’d eat the counterblow.

Ethan’s reflex was to trigger Absolute Stasis.

He stopped himself.

This wasn’t a life-or-death fight. No need to go that far.

Instead, he drove his poleaxe—still burning with black light—straight into the oncoming pillar.

THUD—!

The clash wasn’t as explosive as before, but it hit like a truck.

Ethan got launched back over a hundred meters, boots carving trenches in the snow.

The Glacial Bear also staggered, forced back a few steps.

Ethan steadied himself, forcing down the blood surging in his chest. His gaze sharpened, heavy now.

Under Annihilation Strike, his attack power really could match a Stage SS.

But it came at a price—an ugly one.

The first hit had cost him fifty percent of his mental energy. He’d shattered the ice pillar and driven the bear back dozens of steps… but he still hadn’t broken that Frost Armor.

This second exchange, he’d spent thirty percent.

And all he’d managed was pushing the bear back a few steps—he didn’t even break the pillar this time.

Meanwhile, he’d still gotten flung like a rag doll.

Two clashes were enough for Ethan to fully feel it.

Stage S and Stage SS weren’t ”a little different.”

They were worlds apart.

At his current level, Stage S enemies were basically free kills. But against a true Stage SS… it was hard.

If he measured by the Glacial Bear, then yeah—killing a Stage SS wasn’t impossible. But he’d probably need to pour eighty to ninety percent of his mental energy into a single Annihilation Strike to have a real shot.

And if he wanted to play it safe?

Ninety.

Add Absolute Stasis on top, and he’d basically drain himself dry just to secure the kill.

Still…

Being able to kill a Stage SS while only at Stage S was already insane by any standard.

A Stage SS wasn’t just ”a stronger opponent.”

It was the kind of monster that could serve as an entire race’s trump card.

Right then, the Glacial Bear came charging again, ice pillar raised like it was about to finish the lesson.

Ethan’s eyes widened. He threw both hands up.

”Alright, alright—stop! We’re done!”

He was down to twenty percent mental energy. If the bear kept going, Ethan was about to start taking real damage.

”ROAR!”

The Glacial Bear roared back—and kept coming anyway.

Skinny Pete yelled, translating fast, ”Boss! It says you don’t get to start whenever you want and stop whenever you want. There’s no such good deal!”

”…!”

Ethan’s mouth twitched.

”This guy’s seriously stubborn, huh?”

He exhaled, eyes narrowing.

”Fine. If you want to keep going… I’ll give you a little lesson.”

He shot Emily a quick look. A silent signal.

Emily took the hint immediately and cast Energy Link on Ethan, his mental energy surging back at a visible pace.

The Glacial Bear’s ice pillar crashed down again—no hesitation, no mercy. It was going all out.

Ethan’s eyelid twitched. He teleported away on instinct.

The Glacial Bear chased, the pillar swinging again.

Ethan kept blinking out of range, refusing to meet it head-on.

The bear’s brow furrowed. It snapped a hand upward, and the sky suddenly filled with dense ice awls, raining down to blanket Ethan’s entire position.

They never reached him.

The moment the ice spikes entered the three-foot zone around Ethan, they vanished into nothing.

Nullspace Domain was practically built to humiliate wide-area attacks. As long as the individual spike wasn’t strong enough to exceed what the domain could erase, AoE like this was meaningless.

The Glacial Bear’s eyes darkened.

It waved again. A tide of cold surged from every direction, so dense it seemed to crystallize the air itself, trying to freeze Ethan in place from all sides.

Same result.

The freezing force reached Ethan—and disappeared, swallowed clean by his domain.

That did it.

The Glacial Bear snapped.

It went into a full berserk state. The ice pillar in its hands swelled bigger, longer, thicker—like a siege weapon growing in real time. Then it grabbed the thing with both hands and started whipping it around, hammering down again and again in a savage frenzy.

Ethan went fully focused. He teleported nonstop, dodging by inches—one swing missing his head, the next one missing his ribs, the next one cracking the ground where he’d been standing a heartbeat ago.

After pounding the air for a while without landing a single hit, the Glacial Bear finally had to abandon the brute-force approach. It roared at Ethan, furious.

Skinny Pete shouted the translation, almost laughing as he did it. ”Boss! It says you’re playing cheap. If you’ve got the guts, fight head-on—stop just dodging!”

”Head-on?” Ethan’s lips curled. ”Sure. If that’s what you want.”

He teleported straight in front of it.

Black light exploded around the poleaxe as he swung down at the bear’s head without holding back.

The Glacial Bear’s eyes flashed with disdain, like it thought Ethan only had that one trick.

It started to sweep its ice pillar up to counter—

And then the world stopped.

Everything froze.

The bear’s motion locked mid-swing. Snow hung in the air. Even the rage on its face seemed stuck in place.

Absolute Stasis.

”THUD—!”

Ethan’s poleaxe smashed down with a dull, heavy impact.

The Glacial Bear got slammed into the ground and skidded more than thirty feet, carving a long furrow through the snow. The Frost Armor around its head shattered, and a deep gash split across its skull, blood immediately spilling through the cracked ice.

A breath later, the world snapped back to normal.

The Glacial Bear rolled, sprang up, and the moment it felt the burning pain in its head, it reached up on reflex. It pulled its hand back—palm smeared red.

Its expression changed.

Shock. Then wariness.

Off to the side, the roc’s eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop.

The Glacial Bear…

Had actually been hurt.

Ethan stood there smiling, like he hadn’t just dumped most of his reserves into that one exchange.

”Well?” he said brightly. ”Big guy. Still want to go?”

His mental energy was running low again, but if there was ever a time to act cool, it was right now.

The Glacial Bear stared at him for a long moment, then made a small motion—almost like a dismissive wave.

”Roar…” (Not fighting. Not fighting. No fun.)

Then it plopped down hard on the ground, looking thoroughly offended and strangely dejected.

A Stage SS ferocious beast losing face to a Stage S human?

That hurt its pride.

But it also couldn’t ignore what just happened. It had taken a clean hit it hadn’t even been able to perceive. There was only one explanation for something that absurd—

A time-type ability.

And it had no way to counter that.

If it kept fighting, it was probably just going to eat another axe to the skull. So it quit while it still had most of its limbs.

Ethan chuckled and sat down beside it, patting its shoulder like they were old friends.

”Don’t sulk. You’re still strong.”

”…”

Ethan leaned in a little. ”How about this—later I’ll take you out to kill some other things. Let you vent properly. Sound good?”

”ROAR!” (Go, go, go. Now!)

The Glacial Bear popped right back up like it hadn’t been depressed a second ago, practically urging him to move.

Ethan laughed, stood up as well, and turned toward Miles.

”Gather the Fallen Star Guard and the Fallen Star Corps. All of them.” His voice turned cold with intent. ”This time, I’m sweeping every last Void Realm creature out of the Atlas Federation.”

”Understood.” Miles nodded, then hurried off at once.