Free Web NovelChapter 20: Chapter 20: Stronger Than They Thought
"Move. Now. Don’t stop."
Lucian’s voice cut through the panic like a blade. His Blood Sense expanded to its maximum range, mapping every zombie signature within two hundred meters — a sea of grey pulses converging on Bastien’s lightning trail but still thick enough around them to be lethal.
Ryan and Clara didn’t need to be told twice.
Ice erupted from Clara’s palms in continuous streams, spreading across the street behind them like a frozen carpet. Zombies that stepped on it slipped, slowed, their feet fusing to the surface. Ryan added his own ice blasts — weaker, less refined, but effective against the normal ones — firing over his shoulder as he herded the children forward.
Elise ran beside them, her hands glowing with golden light.
"C-rank Light Beams," she muttered, and thin beams of concentrated light lanced out, punching through zombie skulls with pinpoint accuracy. Pew. Pew. Pew. Each shot dropped a zombie, but there were always more.
"Left!" Lucian barked.
The group turned. An alley opened up on their left — narrow, dark, free of the larger zombie clusters that choked the main streets. Lucian took point, Rose still draped over his shoulder, her breathing shallow but steady.
Behind them, the ice slowed the horde. But it wouldn’t hold forever.
"Two blocks!" Lucian called out. "There’s a building ahead — three stories, intact structure. We hole up there."
They ran.
The children’s footsteps were deafening in Lucian’s ears — small feet slapping pavement, panicked breathing, the occasional sob that Clara or Ryan quickly shushed. Lucian’s heightened hearing turned every sound into a potential death sentence.
Faster. Faster.
They reached the building — an old apartment complex, front door hanging open — and piled inside. Lucian directed them to a second-floor unit at the back, away from the street, and closed the door behind them.
"Hands over their mouths," he ordered. "All of them. Not a single fucking sound."
Clara and Ryan moved immediately, pressing their palms over the children’s mouths. The kids’ eyes were wide with terror, tears streaming down their cheeks, but they understood — somehow, impossibly, these small children understood that silence meant survival.
The room went quiet.
Lucian stood by the window, Blood Sense extended, tracking the zombie horde as it flowed past the building. Most of them were following Bastien’s lightning trail, but stragglers lingered — grey forms shambling through the street below, sniffing, searching for something to devour.
One of them stopped.
It turned its head toward the building.
Shit.
Lucian saw it happen in his Blood Sense — the zombie’s attention locking onto something. A scent, maybe, or a sound too faint for human ears. It left the group and shuffled toward the apartment entrance.
Down the hallway. Up the stairs. Second floor.
It reached the door.
Lucian raised his hand.
The zombie burst through the doorway — snarling, arms outstretched — and then it simply stopped. Every particle of blood inside its body surged outward at once, tearing through flesh and bone from the inside, and the creature exploded into a shower of black blood that painted the walls and ceiling.
Silence.
Everyone stared at Lucian.
His hand was still raised, fingers slightly curled, as if he’d just swatted a fly.
"...What the hell was that?" Ryan whispered.
"The blood inside its body," Lucian said, lowering his hand. "I manipulated it. Caused it to expand rapidly. The body couldn’t contain the pressure."
Ryan’s mouth opened wide.
Clara’s ice-blue eyes were wide, her analytical mind clearly racing.
Elise, standing in the corner, wasn’t surprised at all. She’d seen him pop a woman’s head from across a room. This was nothing new.
"Everyone stay quiet," Lucian said. "They’re still passing."
Hours passed.
The zombie horde gradually thinned, the stragglers wandering off in search of other prey. By the fourth hour, the street outside was clear — empty except for the occasional distant groan.
Lucian reached into his shadow and pulled out a container.
Then another. And another.
Pasta. Bread. Canned stew. Bottled water. Sealed packages of dried fruit. He set them on the floor in front of the children, who stared at the sudden appearance of food like it was a miracle.
Clara stared too.
Shadow storage, she thought, watching more containers emerge from the darkness at Lucian’s feet. Another ability.
Her mind was working overtime now, cataloguing everything she’d seen from Lucian since he’d arrived. Blood manipulation — the spikes, the spear, the internal explosion. A sensory ability — he’d known about the zombies before anyone else, tracked them with impossible precision. Light control. And now shadow storage.
Four abilities.
Four. The absolute maximum number of abilities ever recorded in a human was three — a triple awakener, and there was only one on the entire planet. A woman in China who’d made international news when her third ability had manifested at age twenty.
Four was supposed to be impossible.
Clara took a slow breath and forced herself to calm down. He’s not a normal human. That much is obvious. But it doesn’t matter right now. What matters is survival.
"Eat," she told the children, her voice gentle. "It’s safe."
The kids fell on the food with the desperate hunger of children who’d been living on rationed meals for days. Even Mei — the twelve-year-old who’d been so strong — ate with her head down, shoulders shaking.
Lucian sat against the wall, arms crossed, watching.
The children were clearly traumatized. They’d seen people eaten. No amount of food would fix that.
But food was a start.
Rose stirred.
She sat up slowly, wincing, one hand pressing against her temple. Her red hair was matted with sweat, her face pale from mana exhaustion, but her eyes were clear.
"What..." She looked around the room. "What happened?"
Ryan moved to her side. "The dome fell. The zombies attacked in a coordinated wave — all of them, at once. Someone was controlling them. Maybe a more powerful zombie."
"Controlling them?" Rose’s brow furrowed. "That would require—"
"At least Mid Core realm," Ryan said grimly. "Probably higher. Someone with enough power and intelligence to direct a horde of that size. It’s the only explanation for why they all converged on the academy simultaneously."
"There was an Early Core realm zombie near the academy," Lucian said from his corner. "I fought it before I arrived. But it didn’t have that kind of ability. No coordination, no strategic thinking — just brute force and territory instinct. This is something else."
Rose turned to him. Clara turned to him. Even Ryan paused.
"Wait." Rose held up a hand. "You fought an Early Core realm zombie? Alone?" freēwēbnovel.com
"Yes."
Silence.
"You’re joking," Rose said flatly. "Right?"
Lucian looked at her.
His expression didn’t change. There was no humor, no exaggeration, no hint that he was anything other than completely serious.
Rose stared at him for a long moment.
The silence stretched.
"...Oh," Rose said quietly. "You’re not joking."
"No."
She leaned back against the wall and exhaled slowly.
This guy is stronger than any of us realized.
Nobody spoke after that. The children finished eating and huddled together in the corner, some of them falling into exhausted sleep. Clara sat with them, her hand resting on the youngest boy’s back. Ryan paced near the window, his Critical Mind ability working overtime, trying to piece together their next move.
Lucian closed his eyes and listened.
The zombies outside had settled into a low-level background hum — distant groans, shuffling footsteps, the occasional crash of something falling. The horde had moved on, following Bastien’s lightning trail, but stragglers remained. They always remained.
An hour passed. Two.
Then Lucian’s ears caught something new.
Thwop. Thwop. Thwop.
His eyes snapped open.
He moved to the window and pressed his face close to the glass.
Against the grey morning sky, a small helicopter was descending through the smoke.
