Chapter 359: The golden fruit 70.

Bai Li ducked beneath it, planted one hand on the creature’s ribs, and vaulted over its back. Whisperfang flashed downward and opened a long cut from shoulder to hip.

The wound should have dropped a normal zombie instantly. Instead, the level 3 creature turned inside the cut. Flesh closed around the blade and trapped it. Bai Li’s eyes sharpened. The zombie had deliberately swallowed her weapon into its own regenerating tissue.

Its hand came around toward her face.

Yan Cijin fired.

The bullet struck the wrist and knocked the claw aside.

Bai Li released Whisperfang rather than wasting time pulling it free. She stepped inside the creature’s reach and struck its sternum with the heel of her palm. The evolved body folded slightly. She followed with a knee, then an elbow, then a sharp upward blow beneath the jaw. The zombie stumbled backward.

Whisperfang tore itself free when Bai Li called it back. The blade snapped into her hand just as the zombie charged again.

"Duck," Yan Cijin said.

Bai Li lowered herself.

A bolt flew over her head and entered the creature’s mouth.

The zombie reeled.

Bai Li crossed the distance in one step and cut through the base of its skull. The head rolled away. She did not stop there. She kicked the body onto its back, drove Whisperfang into the chest, and felt the blade strike something much harder than bone.

"There."

She twisted.

The dark core shifted beneath the flesh.

The zombie’s body convulsed.

Bai Li pushed harder. The blade broke through the casing around the core, but the creature was still fighting. Its remaining hand wrapped around Bai Li’s wrist and squeezed.

Yan Cijin raised her revolver.

She hesitated.

Only for a fraction of a second.

Bai Li noticed.

"Fire."

The shot cracked.

The bullet entered the zombie’s eye.

The hand went slack.

Bai Li shattered the core.

This time the body collapsed for good.

Yan Cijin lowered the gun and looked at her remaining bullets. "Four."

Bai Li glanced over. "You are counting?"

"I have to."

"Then count the important ones."

"These are all important."

Bai Li nodded. "Fair."

The second zombie rose while they were talking.

Its bone ridge had changed. The structure along its spine had opened like the ribs of a giant insect, exposing layers of black-white armor. Its extra arms unfolded fully for the first time. Each palm had a narrow slit in it.

Yan Cijin frowned. "Those were not open before."

"Evolution keeps surprises."

The zombie struck its hands together.

A sharp pulse shot from the slits.

Bai Li crossed Whisperfang in time, but the impact still drove her back. The pulse did not merely hit her body. It vibrated through the blade and made her fingers numb.

"Do not block that directly," Yan Cijin said.

"I noticed."

The creature charged again.

Bai Li shifted to the right. One fist missed. Another arm came down from above. She rolled beneath it, and the third arm swept toward her legs. She jumped, twisted in the air, and came down behind the creature.

Yan Cijin fired a crossbow bolt.

It hit the exposed armor along the spine.

The bolt broke.

Yan Cijin winced. "That thing is armored."

"Then shoot joints."

The zombie turned too fast.

Bai Li barely avoided its mouth.

The creature snapped at the air where her shoulder had been. She drew her revolver and fired once into its knee. The shot was not enough to break the bone, but it made the leg dip.

Whisperfang flashed across the other knee.

The zombie fell.

Bai Li immediately jumped backward.

The creature’s palms opened.

Two pulses struck the ground.

Concrete exploded.

Chunks of broken rooftop flew upward.

Yan Cijin pulled her arm over her face.

Bai Li moved through the debris without slowing. She stepped between two falling slabs, slipped beneath another, and reached the zombie before it could stand.

Her blade went into the soft place beneath its arm.

The creature twisted.

She rotated with it rather than resisting and used its own momentum to throw it onto its back.

The extra arms flailed.

She pinned one with a knee. ℴ

The second caught her shoulder.

The third reached for her throat.

Yan Cijin fired.

The bullet struck the hand.

Bai Li leaned closer.

"Thanks."

"You owe me."

"For what?"

"One bullet."

Bai Li almost laughed.

She stabbed through the creature’s chest.

The dark glow beneath its ribs shifted.

She tracked it with the blade.

The core moved toward the abdomen.

She redirected the blade.

The creature screamed and bucked hard enough to lift her off the ground.

Bai Li landed, rolled, and came back in immediately.

The zombie had regenerated its knees.

It came at her again.

The next exchange was faster.

Bai Li let the creature think it had cornered her near a roof vent. She moved exactly as much as needed, never more, allowing each strike to pass within a finger’s width of her body. The zombie’s additional arms made it difficult to read, but its torso always moved before the limbs did. Bai Li watched the shoulders rather than the hands. Every time the upper body turned, she already knew which arm would follow.

Yan Cijin understood what Bai Li was doing.

She stopped aiming at the creature itself and instead fired at the ground near its feet. One bullet struck a patch of loose gravel. The recoil and impact sent stones into the zombie’s face. The creature flinched.

That was enough.

Bai Li cut the tendons behind one knee.

The zombie dropped.

She cut the other.

Then she drove Whisperfang through the back of its skull and held the blade there until the core energy finally stopped moving.

The body went still.

Yan Cijin exhaled. "That one took longer."

"It learned."

"So did you."

Bai Li looked at her. "So did you."

The third zombie was the one Bai Li feared most.

It had not moved.

It stood beside the tree and watched them finish the other two. Its one eye was fixed on the golden fruit.

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TO BE CONTINUED.