Chapter 102 Spiritual Thorn
Someone asked, "Mr. Dixon, did you hear the noise outside?"
A young man took a few steps toward the window and listened carefully.
Before Eli Dixon could respond, the sounds of battle erupted, followed by the roars of mutated animals and piercing screams.
"Why did the fighting suddenly get so intense? Did you discover something earlier?" A middle-aged woman, her face pale, asked in a low voice, ignoring the half-eaten sausage in her hand.
In the room behind the small grocery store, seven or eight people were gathered. They had been eating together by candlelight, but now the candles were extinguished. Three women huddled in the farthest corner from the window, visibly tense, while the remaining four men each held weapons, guarding the window as if expecting enemies to burst in at any moment.
Eli instructed, "Grab the Magic Crystal and let's get ready to bounce."
The young man replied, "Leave? Mr. Dixon, we giving up on this place?"
The young man who spoke first seemed reluctant to leave. After all, they had food and drink here and didn't have to worry about supplies for the time being. If they left, who knew if they could find another place as good as this.
Eli, who appeared to be in his forties or fifties, was robust with a healthy, sun-kissed tan from years of exposure. His demeanor made it clear that he was the only Evolving person among the survivors.
"They're strong," Eli said steadily. "Really strong. If they break in, I'm not sure I can handle them."
Hearing Eli's words, the others looked grim. They had managed to hold this place not just because of their unity but also because of Eli's strength. He even had a self-made crossbow with considerable power.
If he said there was something outside they couldn't handle, then they really needed to retreat.
Moments later, the nearby commotion suddenly ceased, leaving only the increasingly loud sounds of approaching zombies.
After a while, the people inside the room heard the sound of something repeatedly falling, followed by a gentle tapping on the window.
A voice asked, "Is anyone there?"
The Golden Cloth, having been repeatedly attacked, its energy was being drained. Now, upon encountering a living being, there was no room for politeness. It frantically absorbed energy, swiftly replenishing itself.
The Bone Demon felt its power rapidly draining. It didn't understand why this was happening, and with most of its arms gone, it could no longer suppress the fear it thought it didn't have, letting out an uncontrollable wail.
If it were any other second-level mutated zombie, even if William knew its innate abilities, he wouldn't have been able to defeat it so easily.
However, the Bone Demon belongs to the mental evolution category, characterized by its strong mental power and mysterious mental skills. Its physical stats weren't much higher than a one-star evolved human.
Facing William, who was already stronger than an ordinary one-star Evolving person and well-versed in its innate skills, the Bone Demon was bound to lose.
From the moment it started mutating to becoming a second-level evolved being, this Bone Demon had been invincible. No one could withstand its Scorching Rays, which was why it had evolved so quickly.
But today, it felt like everything ended before it even began, not even understanding how it lost.
One thing the Bone Demon knew, though, was that failure often meant death.
Even as an evolved zombie, death was still its greatest fear.
It wanted to remove the Golden Cloth tied to its ring-shaped bones, but with its hands severed, it was powerless to do so.
It felt its body weakening rapidly, but it couldn't stop that.
From defense to offense, William took only a second. The Bone Demon was no longer a threat, and his full attention was on the witch.
Like the Bone Demon, the witch's physical attributes, except for agility, were all inferior to other types of mutated zombies. When William struck her face with his shield, she was sent flying backward a considerable distance. When she regained her footing, she found the human already close, his terrifying silver long knife glinting in the moonlight at her throat.
At the critical moment, the witch suddenly opened her mouth and began to silently roar at William.
William felt a sharp pain in his head, and his vision plunged into darkness, with a trickle of blood flowing from his nose.
William thought, 'This is impossible!'
William was horrified because the witch was now using her innate skill—Spiritual Thorn!
His thoughts raced, 'She was just a second-level mutated zombie! She already had Spiritual Seed and Energy Exchange as innate skills; how could she have a third one!?
'Even if she did, she would only acquire it upon her third evolution!'
Without hesitation, William swung the Edge of the Moon to protect himself, while his other hand reached out to the side, where he remembered a streetlamp should be.
The streetlamp transformed into a black Iron Man at his touch. It immediately lunged at the witch, who was roaring with a ferocious expression.
The hard body collided with the witch, abruptly stopping the Spiritual Thorn.
Spiritual Thorn, a mental attack skill, could directly damage the consciousness of living beings, making it extremely vicious. This skill was even listed among the top twenty forbidden techniques by surviving humans in the apocalypse.
Once, there was a mental-type monster highly skilled in this ability used its Spiritual Thorn during a hunt against a renowned battle group. Over five hundred members of the group were turned into idiots by the skill, including mid to high-level Evolving persons of six or seven stars. Even all life within a 30-mile radius suffered varying degrees of mental aftereffects, depending on their distance from the epicenter.
This illustrated the terrifying nature of this innate skill.
William had considered the Bone Demon's innate skills but hadn't anticipated the witch having another skill. He was also baffled as to how this witch could possess three innate skills at the second level.
This defied the theories that were formed over ten years of the apocalypse!
Although the witch's Spiritual Thorn wasn't as powerful as that of the monster from back then, it was enough to cause William, a one-star Evolving person, excruciating pain and temporary vision loss.
Luckily, William had his trump cards, one of which was the Coagulation and Arousal spell. The Iron Man formed from the streetlamp interrupted the witch's spell, alleviating William's discomfort.
Seeing its owner injured, the black cat let out a cry and rushed over. In the battle against Pill, it completely dominated. It didn't pay any attention to the clumsy dog it was overpowering. The mutated cat was wholeheartedly focused on rescuing its owner.
Pill, already covered in wounds, saw the mutated black cat pounce in another direction. Its already bared mouth suddenly opened wider, fur bristling all over its body. With a roar, all its fur shot out in the direction of the black cat in mid-air.
Pill had already learned to control the direction of its innate skill.
