Chương 62: A Spark of Warmth

Flicking the foul blood off his twin spears to either side, Vince slowly backed away. After all, he didn't need to clash with them head-on. Kiting them backward would stretch the dense cluster into a manageable line—a tactical lesson he had thoroughly internalized by now. Just as the pack of over a dozen zombies was about to close the distance! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! A sharp, rhythmic banging suddenly erupted from the residential building to his left!

"Hey!"

"Aaah!"

"Over here!" Several frantic shouts rang out from a first-floor balcony! The charging horde was instantly distracted. Seven or eight zombies trailing on the left flank abruptly pivoted, lunging savagely toward the first-floor balcony! The survivors inside continued shouting to draw Aggro, desperately using steel pipes and wooden stools to smash the hands of the zombies trying to scale the security grate!

"Doctor Lin! Hurry! We can't hold them off for long!" a middle-aged man roared over the chaos. Hearing the desperate shouts echoing from behind the iron grate, Vince completely froze. When he had first driven into the intersection and seen the complex, hungry stares of the surrounding residents, he had remained outwardly indifferent, but his mind had been rapidly calculating contingencies. What if they swarm the cars? What if they block the road to beg? What if more thugs try to extort us?

But never in his wildest calculations had he anticipated this happening in the middle of a brutal firefight... What do I do if someone actively risks their own life to draw Aggro away from me? If it was Zoe, it was simple—he'd just yank her back by her collar. But facing these complete strangers... A strange, searing warmth flared in his chest, leaving him momentarily at a loss. In reality, Vince wasn't in any mortal danger, but he was the only one who knew that.

In the eyes of these onlookers, he had been backed into a desperate, life-or-death corner. To actively draw the horde's attention at a moment like this—even if driven by a selfish desire for mutual survival—was an undeniably heroic act! Regardless of their motives, they had successfully pulled away half the horde. The frontal pressure on Vince instantly plummeted. Only seven left! He glanced over. The eight diverted zombies were frantically tearing at the security grate.

Although the men inside were fighting desperately to smash the grasping arms away, the heavy expansion bolts anchoring the grate to the masonry were visibly warping under the sheer, rabid force of the undead... It wouldn't be long before the entire iron cage was ripped clean off the wall! At that thought, Vince's eyes hardened, a chilling killing intent erupting from within. Instead of stepping back, he ducked hard to the right, sliding past the leading zombies' lunges!

His twin short spears blurred into motion—a lethal thrust from his left hand, a crushing blow from his right! In the blink of an eye, two zombies were instantly dispatched! Determined to end the fight immediately, Vince completely abandoned his kiting strategy. Channeling every ounce of his enhanced strength, he executed a massive explosive dash, vaulting directly behind the remaining five zombies! The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Before they could even pivot to track him... Squelch! Squelch! Both spears drove downward with merciless precision! One punctured dead center through a zombie's occipital bone; the other drove cleanly through another zombie's ear canal! [-300]! [-300]! Two geysers of black sludge violently burst out the opposite sides of their skulls! The final three zombies finally managed to turn around, lunging at him. But Vince didn't flinch.

He brought his twin short spears together, gripping them like a single, heavy bat, and executed a devastating horizontal sweep aimed directly at their heads! [-300]! [-189]! [-56]! The first zombie's skull shattered completely, spraying gray and white gore across the asphalt! Having absorbed the initial impact, the heavy steel pipes slammed into the side of the second zombie's face with slightly reduced force.

It didn't pop the skull, but the massive kinetic energy caved in its entire cheek and shattered its balance, causing it to crash heavily into the third zombie on the right, sending them both tumbling to the pavement! Vince didn't hesitate for a microsecond. He closed the gap in a single stride! THUD! THUD! Two brutal, muffled impacts echoed out as he drove both spears downward, piercing straight through the skulls of the two downed zombies and pinning them to the concrete! All seven, annihilated!

Without a second to rest, Vince sucked in two sharp breaths of air, straightened his back, and launched himself into a full sprint toward the eight zombies violently tearing at the first-floor security grate!

"Ben, the grate isn't going to hold!" A man wielding a wooden stool frantically smashed at the rotting hands gripping the iron bars, his voice tight with panic. Before their eyes, the heavy security cage swayed violently back and forth under the relentless pulling of over a dozen rotting arms. The expansion bolts anchoring the top of the frame to the masonry groaned, emitting a terrifying, continuous crack-crack-crack... SCREEECH—POP!

Unable to bear the sheer mechanical stress, one of the massive expansion bolts finally sheared off! It violently burst from the wall in a puff of pulverized red brick dust, causing the entire top-left corner of the security grate to tilt outward at a sickening angle!

"Hold the line! Just a little longer! Didn't you see how fast Doctor Lin slaughters these things?!" Ben viciously wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Gripping a heavy iron pipe with both hands, he violently thrust it forward, jabbing a zombie right in the face. Unfortunately, the pipe was blunt. It mangled the rotting flesh on the zombie's cheek, but the creature didn't even flinch. It let out a guttural roar and hauled on the iron bars with even greater frenzy!

"That guy Lin isn't going to just abandon us and run, is he...?" another man grunted through gritted teeth. He was throwing his entire body weight backward, his thick steel crowbar bowing under the strain as he desperately tried to pin the failing grate against the wall.

"..." In that split second, Ben genuinely didn't know if his desperate gamble had been the right call. It was true that Doctor Lin had deliberately released the zombies, but he had been forced into a corner by those thugs. Over the past two days, those bastards had beaten at least three or four innocent people to death over control of the supermarket. Being eaten alive by zombies was exactly what that scum deserved!

But more importantly, after finishing off the thugs, Doctor Lin hadn't just slinked away to save his own skin. Instead, he had stepped out into the open to systematically clear the street! Whether the man was a hidden martial arts grandmaster or a literal superhero didn't matter. The fact that he had casually slaughtered over a dozen zombies just moments ago was an indisputable, ironclad reality! However, despite his blistering speed, Ben—with his military background—had recognized the underlying tactic.

Vince had been constantly kiting backward, ensuring he never engaged more than three or four zombies simultaneously. This meant that even a monster like him couldn't afford to be completely surrounded. So, when the massive pack of over a dozen zombies merged and charged Vince all at once, Ben had immediately sensed the tactical danger. He had hesitated for barely a single second before banging on the grate and shouting at the top of his lungs to draw Aggro!

Hiding with him in the apartment were his childhood friend and two familiar neighbors. When Ben had suddenly started shouting, the others had no choice but to fight for their lives. It was only after Ben barked a brief tactical explanation that they realized the grim truth: If the lips are gone, the teeth will freeze. If the man outside survived and cleared the street, the four of them might actually have a chance!

That was why they were desperately holding the line—trading their own safety to buy the man enough time to wipe out the horde! However, in the brief moment Ben's attention had lapsed, Vince had seemingly vanished from the distant street. All that remained were several motionless corpses on the asphalt.

"Where did he go?!" A spike of sheer panic pierced Ben's chest.

"Did he really just cut and run like Zack said...?" But just as his faith began to waver, a booming, thunderous roar erupted from directly behind the pack of zombies tearing at their window!

"HEY!" In that split second, the explosive shout completely drowned out the guttural snarls of the undead! Ben's head snapped up. The man's silhouette had already closed the distance. Ben couldn't even track the physical movement! All he saw was a blistering flash of silver! The heads of the three zombies desperately clawing at the security grate violently detonated! Black sludge, shattered bone, and rotten flesh exploded outward, painting the air with a thick mist of gore! It was him! He was here!