Chapter 79: Rampage

After rushing continuously through the narrow tunnels and wide caves, Ethan and his army of zombie Blood Ants finally reached the entrance of their nest.

By now, the sound of the battle outside had become so loud that even the thick walls of the cave could no longer completely suppress it.

Strong winds had begun slamming into Ethan and the others head-on, carrying dust, broken pieces of rocks, leaves, and even entire branches that had been torn apart from the trees outside.

For a moment, Ethan couldn’t help but feel the strange sensation of the wind brushing across his body.

Since the time Ethan had transformed into a zombie, his body had barely ever been covered in clothes.

His previous clothes had rotted away under the weight of decades, while his zombie appearance made it impossible for him to walk into a human city and purchase new clothes for himself.

Even if he somehow managed to sneak inside, the chances of him being immediately surrounded by awakeners were far too high.

He had once considered ordering the Blood Ants to make clothes for him, but that idea had quickly failed as well.

Although the Blood Ants could understand and follow his commands, their intelligence was simply too weak for them to properly learn such a complicated skill, and after several failed attempts at making something resembling clothing, Ethan eventually gave up on the matter completely.

Even now, Ethan only had a small piece of pants that had somehow survived all these years, still covering his crotch, groin, and behind.

Apart from that, his body was effectively naked, revealing his fine, muscular jade-green body to the outside world.

Normally, against such strong winds, even a normal human would feel their body slowly losing its warmth as the cold air continuously passed against their skin, especially when the surrounding temperature was already low enough to make their fingers numb.

However, because of his D-rank racial trait, Temperature Resistance, Ethan could easily withstand this level of temperature difference without feeling any discomfort.

The same applied to the blood ants as well. Although blood ants naturally preferred warm environments and would usually become uncomfortable when exposed to extremely cold temperatures, they had now become zombies.

Just like Ethan, they had gained a certain degree of resistance against temperature changes.

Their resistance was naturally weaker than Ethan’s, but against the current environment, it worked flawlessly.

Ethan slowly raised his palm towards Eris, signaling her and all the other ants to halt their movements.

Immediately, the enormous army behind him stopped. Then, Ethan silently climbed the final few steps leading towards the entrance of the nest, carefully lowering his body before peeking outside.

The moment he saw the world beyond the cave, however, his mind was completely blown away.

The surrounding environment had changed completely. Trees that had once stood proudly throughout the forest had been ripped out from their roots, while massive rocks had been smashed and dragged across the ground by the violent winds, their surfaces slowly being refined and polished by the constant force.

Curvaceous patterns had formed across the earth, stretching for hundreds of meters as the wind continuously carved its way through the soil.

And in front of him, Ethan saw dozens of giant tornadoes stretching high towards the sky, moving from one side to another as they continued their destruction.

The tornadoes weren’t ordinary either, as each one was enormous enough to make Ethan feel insignificant.

Whenever one of them passed through the forest, countless trees would be pulled into the air before being shredded apart by the rotating currents.

The sight was truly frightening.

Even Ethan, who had never truly witnessed such a level of strength during his entire existence, felt his body unconsciously losing some of its strength at the sight.

’Just what kind of battle is happening outside?’ Ethan remained silent as he stared into the distance, his eyes narrowing slightly while countless thoughts began flooding his mind.

To regret was a part of human nature.

Humans often regretted every step of their lives, following their impulses and bodies more than their own minds, only to realize later, after their minds had matured, that they could have done things differently.

After all, to realize one’s own mistake was also a part of human nature.

However, in this situation, Ethan wasn’t sure whether what he was feeling could truly be called regret.

What would he regret exactly?

He hadn’t accomplished anything.

The calamity standing before his eyes wasn’t something that had been initiated because of him either.

In fact, he didn’t even know why the humans had suddenly attacked the Blood Ant nest in the first place.

He had neither provoked them nor attacked their city.

He hadn’t even known that they were watching this place. Yet somehow, everything had escalated into this.

Hundreds of his Blood Ants had already died, his enemies had invaded his home, and now an overwhelming battle was taking place right outside the nest.

Ethan clenched his fists slightly, feeling disappointed in his own strength. ’If I had been stronger, would this have happened?’

The thought appeared in his mind before he immediately pushed it away—there was no point thinking about it now.

Strength was the only thing that mattered in a situation like this, and regretting what he couldn’t change wouldn’t suddenly make him stronger.

Just as Ethan was trying to sort out his feelings, however, he noticed two distinct figures clashing against one another at a distance.

Under the deep crimson sky, a white-robed human—the Envoy—and the dark-brown feathered zombie Ironfeather Eagle were engaged in a battle of life and death.

Although their stalemate hadn’t been completely broken yet, the battle had begun mildly shifting towards the eagle’s favor.

Unlike humans, monsters possessed a completely different power system and different traits.

They didn’t need to spend years training their physical bodies in order to make themselves stronger, nor did they have to slowly increase their strength through countless battles in the same way that humans did.

Instead, they devoured other monsters and humans and absorbed their biological material to increase their different attributes while simultaneously mutating their bodies to break through different levels of strength.

Because of this, not only was their progress faster, even their physical foundation was often much stronger than that of humans.

Their stamina, control over Nox, energy reserves, regeneration, dexterity, and natural physical strength were all incomparably better than those of humans of the same level in many situations.

Of course, this didn’t mean monsters were always stronger.

Humans possessed intelligence, classes, weapons, and techniques that could allow them to fight enemies far beyond their own natural limits.

The Envoy was a perfect example of this, since he had been moving swiftly across the surrounding wind currents, constantly changing his position before launching attacks at the Ironfeather Eagle from a safer distance.

His teal bells continued ringing with every movement, allowing him to perceive the flow of the wind around him and use those currents to support his movement.

Whenever the eagle attempted to close the distance, the Envoy would immediately manipulate the surrounding currents to push himself away before launching another attack.

However, the eagle wasn’t an ordinary C-rank monster anymore but instead a complete zombie.

Its vitality had increased dramatically after its transformation, and its already impressive regeneration had become even more troublesome.

As long as an injury wasn’t immediately life-threatening and the eagle possessed sufficient biological matter, it could continuously regenerate its wounds.

Because of this, the Envoy’s attacks were slowly becoming meaningless, as even when he managed to injure the eagle, the wounds would eventually recover.

"This is getting bad..." the Envoy muttered to himself as he pulled a great distance between himself and the eagle.

His breathing had become heavier than before, although his expression remained cold.

"I cannot focus on the battle completely like this; who knows when that brat might appear?" His eyes were full of annoyance, his voice shaking with boiling anger.

The white-robed man had been fighting for far longer than he had expected, and despite his overwhelming advantage in intelligence and technique, the zombie eagle simply refused to die.

Just then, as he spread out a small portion of his Nox through the surrounding wind currents, the Envoy suddenly noticed several presences emerging from the cave’s entrance.

His eyes jolted towards the cave. Even from a great distance, where the cave’s entrance looked like nothing more than a tiny speck of dust, he could see everything clearly.

Dozens of blood ants had emerged from the entrance, and behind them, even more silhouettes could be seen gathering inside the cave.

But what caught his attention wasn’t the ants, but rather the faint jade-green figure standing at the very front.

For a brief moment, the Envoy’s expression froze. His eyes widened slightly as his gaze remained locked onto Ethan.

At once, he understood that the Radiant Stars had been defeated.

One after another, he had been facing constant defeats ever since arriving at this place, and now even the group of D-rank awakeners that had entered the Blood Ant nest had disappeared.

His expression became uglier than ever. ’But how?’

How had mere zombie Blood Ants defeated several D-rank awakeners?

No.

That wasn’t the most important question.

The Envoy’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the unfamiliar jade-green zombie standing among the Blood Ants.

’More importantly... who is that zombie?’