Chapter 278 Soultransmute
Hayden's death brought a hush over the room.
It felt like time stopped for the Zero Commerce Guild members, even if it was just an illusion.
Hayden was one of Quincy's top guards, the longest-serving and the strongest. Many thought he'd be a shoo-in for the tenth lord if the guild ever expanded.
But now, he was sliced in half with one blow.
The Zero Commerce Guild had seen its share of casualties, but never had someone been cut down so effortlessly, without a chance to fight back.
This was a public execution, a direct challenge to their authority, delivered with an almost casual brutality that sent a chill down their spines.
William, who had just spilled the guild's top-secret info, took Hayden out with one strike.
"Hayden!" Quincy screamed, his hands turning into deadly weapons, sending Chester, who was already defenseless and shredded, flying. Chester collapsed, his fate uncertain.
Meanwhile, the elites of Accraville City started their counterattack.
Their initial hesitation, born of fear and uncertainty, evaporated as they witnessed the sheer ruthlessness of their attackers. These weren't honorable warriors, fighting for a cause, for a belief. These were monsters, clad in black, their faces hidden behind emotionless masks, their only purpose to break them, to enslave them.
William's words echoed in their minds: "They don't care if you're whole. Just alive."
The elites of Accraville City fought back desperately. They were the city's strongest, living on the edge every day. When they fought fiercely, their combat power was insane.
These folks had no qualms, using any means to kill their opponents. In contrast, the guild's warriors, ordered to avoid killing, were somewhat restrained, and the battle started to shift.
But this didn't mean victory for the Accraville elites. They were still at a disadvantage, still getting killed by the well-coordinated guild warriors. If this kept up, they might take down many black-clad warriors, but capture seemed inevitable.
Things changed when William killed Hayden.
Many noticed the determination in the black-clad warriors' eyes wavered. They might have realized this wasn't a guaranteed win.
On the other side, William and Quincy faced off in a brutal showdown.
William whistled, while Quincy roared.
Even though William hadn't had time to use his knife because of Quincy's speed, their fists were evenly matched.
William's hand got shredded by Quincy's meat grinder, but it gave him confidence.
Quincy wasn't as invincible as he thought.
The Bloodstride Boots stepped on Hayden's blood.
William gripped his knife with both hands, his injured hand feeling like it wasn't even his.
Quincy panted, his eyes filled with crazed hatred.
Hayden was a high-level combatant for the guild. Cultivating someone like him took a ton of resources. Dozens of people feeding zombies would evolve an ordinary zombie, and feeding a dozen one-star Evolving persons would evolve the zombie to level three.
This process had to be repeated dozens or hundreds of times to cultivate a Hayden.
In other words, creating Hayden required thousands of fresh humans.
But now, in the district run by the Zero Commerce Guild, Hayden's death was a blow Quincy had to take on the chin. Without any backup, he had no clue how long it would take to train another three-star Evolving person. If things kept going this way, the other lords would outpace him, and he'd drop in the monthly lord rankings, which were tied to resource distribution.
That's why Quincy was fuming. Losing Hayden hit him hard in more ways than one.
In his rage, Quincy stomped the ground, and black mist snaked towards William through the cracks. But William wasn't sluggish like Chester with The Gilded Form. He tapped the ground lightly, and a Mudstone Giant rose up, its big foot crushing the black lines, making a sound like the Wolf Spirit's earlier.
Quincy's white, meat-grinding fists pounded the Mudstone Giant, shattering its low durability.
Amid the flying debris, the Edge of the Moon's knife light flashed.
The Wolf Spirit appeared, layer upon layer blocking the knife light. Despite their wails, they dimmed the knife light.
Quincy stomped the ground again, and the black lines multiplied, attacking from all angles.
The Bloodstride Boots' skill kicked in, and the knife light shone on the other side.
In a blink, they exchanged several moves, showing off their top-notch combat skills. Quincy was a dual-combat pro, while William had just leveled up. Both were at their peak. These intense seconds made them take each other more seriously than ever.
Quincy dodged the knife light, and they resumed their standoff.
The "meat grinder" slowly faded, as keeping it up drained Quincy's mental energy, and the bone spurs reappeared.
The heavily injured Wolf Spirit returned to Quincy's body, only to be released again, back to its original form, though Quincy looked paler.
"You're strong, really strong, but you're still not my match. Before you die, you should feel proud because you forced out the strongest version of me." Quincy ripped off his shirt, revealing his bulging muscles, glowing like stone in the sunlight streaming through the window.
"Soultransmute!" With a loud roar, the Wolf Spirits began to gather above Quincy's head, forming a massive, ferocious wolf head. Though made of black mist, it seemed solid, its eyes glowing blood-red. The wolf head opened its mouth wide, not towards William, but towards Quincy below.
The 6-foot-tall Quincy was swallowed whole by the wolf head.
Then, the giant wolf head's features began to change, twisting and struggling to reveal Quincy's appearance. A few breaths later, a 10-foot-tall wolf-headed monster, shrouded in black mist and floating in mid-air, appeared before everyone.
"You're my food!" The giant voice seemed to come from the void, each word hitting William's ears. The entire mass of mist contracted violently, ready to pounce the next moment.
Just then, the ground shook violently, causing many to lose their balance and fall.
The remaining broken glass in the windows shattered, and the ceiling began to crumble, sending debris falling. The people who had been fighting fiercely were now tumbling together, enemies and opponents rolling into a heap. The entire building was on the verge of collapse.
The sound of collapsing and cracking came from the distant city. Although the ground trembled less violently than before, it was still shaking.
Many in the conference room stumbled to their feet and looked out the window.
In the distance, skyscrapers were toppling like dominoes, dust rising to the sky. Many zombies were crushed to pulp by the massive debris.
Amid the dust, something was rising from the ground, so huge that the skyscrapers looked tiny in comparison.
Survivors from all corners of the city stared in shock as the smoke gradually cleared, revealing a giant roulette standing in the city center.
