Chapter 65: The new conflict
After landing hard on the road, Leo’s card belt instantly absorbed the cards dropped on the road.
Only then did he notice Rose staring at him with wide, intense eyes.
Without a word, he grabbed the rifle strapped to his back, swung it forward, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Rose froze. Startled by the abrupt action , she squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the impact of a bullet. But the pain she expected never arrived. Instead, a cold splash of liquid hit her face.
She opened her eyes slowly, rubbing her cheek. When she looked at her fingertips, they were stained with thick, black blood. Only then did the low growl behind her register in her ears.
Leo stepped forward, pulling the trigger a second time.
Pssst!
The suppressed shot tore through flesh.
Rose spun around. A zombie directly behind her staggered backward.
Three more had been creeping up on her flank, fingers outstretched to pounce.
Leo burst forward, rushing past her. Twin blades slid out from his gauntlets with a metallic hiss.
Lowering his center of gravity, he slid across the pavement, passing right under the reach of the grasping hands. With a sharp twist of his torso, he swept both arms outward.
SSSHHK!
The blades sliced clean through their legs.
Rose watched, stunned by the fluid precision of his movements. The next second, Leo’s boot connected with her own rifle , the one knocked loose from her hand during the earlier explosion and sent it sliding across the asphalt right to her feet. Without looking back, Leo kept moving to engage the next wave of approaching monsters.
Rose scooped up her rifle, racked the bolt, and fired at the crawling targets.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
After putting down the last of them, she asked Leo , unable to keep the question in.
"Hey, you’re so skilled. So why aren’t you finishing the zombies off yourself?"
Leo didn’t answer. He simply kept disabling every zombie that got close, severing their legs and leaving them helpless on the ground for her to finish.
Further down the road, near the wreckage of the Wave Colliders, the aliens attached to the Runner Zombies having watched the leaders death , ejected itself out of the Runner Zombies and decided to flee .
They controlled the surrounding horde into a frenzy, but with the stronger alien commanders dead, the momentum had shifted.
Fueled by the loss of their comrades, the soldiers surged forward like a breaking dam.
The disorganized horde began crumbling under the military’s fierce counterattack. Within minutes, green signal flares began arching into the sky.
Leo and Rose kept working in tandem, cutting down any threats that crossed their path. Their coordination felt natural, though Leo was the one carrying the brunt of the weight.
Without warning, Leo’s danger sense flared and warned him of incoming danger .
Acting on raw instinct, he flipped backward and rolled across the hard ground.
Even with the fast reaction
PSSHT! PSSHT! PSSHT!
A volley of high-velocity water bullets hit his back. The Cloak of Shroud absorbed the worst of the force, but a dull sting throbbed through his shoulders, feeling like he had been hit by a hail of rubber bullets.
Leo recovered his footing and faced the attacker.
It was Tony.
Neither of them spoke. Their eyes locked in a tense stare.
Tony broke the silence, his voice tight. "Who are you?"
Leo kept quiet, his expression unreadable under the darkness of the hood .
Tony’s brow furrowed. "Don’t you know that survivors are forbidden from interfering while the military is conducting an operation?"
Rose looked back and forth between them, her face tense at the sudden conflict .
She stepped forward.
"Tony, wait. He...."
"Young Miss, don’t interfere,"
Tony cut in, his voice cold.
"I’m not the captain. I won’t indulge your whims."
Rose opened her mouth to argue, but Tony didn’t let her finish.
"This isn’t a suggestion. It’s an order."
Tony scanned the surrounding area before locking his eyes back on Leo. "Where are the aliens’ bodies? I saw you do something. Hand them over. If you do, I’ll let you leave for Young Miss’s sake."
Leo still simply stared . On the outside, he looked calm. On the inside, his mind was already running through several different ways to put Tony down.
When no answer came, Tony let out a slow, heavy sigh.
"Fine. If you won’t listen to reason... then so be it."
Tony raised his hand.
Rings of water floated near Leo and materialised into water shackles , snapping tightly around Leo’s wrists and ankles.
Leo yanked his arms and legs , trying to tear free, but his physical strength was not enough to break the shackles and set him free .
His eyes darkened. He pulled his right hand up as far as the restraint allowed, grabbing the thick sling of the rifle on his back, and yanked with all his strength .
SNAP!
The strap tore and the rifle dropped to the ground .
Just before it hit the asphalt, Leo tilted his foot and kicked the butt of the gun with the heel of his boot.
The rifle spun through the air toward him.
Leo caught it with one hand.
Without the slightest hesitation, he pointed the barrel at Tony and pulled the trigger.
RATATATATA!!
Tony’s eyes widened.
He had expected resistance.
But he had never imagined Leo would immediately attempt to kill him.
This was military territory.
Attacking a military officer here, alone, was something no sane survivor would dare do.
Yet Leo had done exactly that.
Tony quickly formed a hand seal and rotated his wrist in a circular motion.
"WATER BARRIER!"
The shackles binding Leo instantly dissolved into water.
Together with the surrounding water, they gathered in front of Tony, forming a thick barrier.
The barrier failed to stop the bullets completely, but the water greatly slowed their speed.
That brief delay was enough.
Tony threw himself into a roll, narrowly escaping the hail of bullets.
As soon as he looked up, he saw the rifle’s barrel pointed at him once again.
Leo was just about to pull the trigger when his Danger Sense suddenly flared.
Without hesitation, he kicked off the ground and leaped backward.
RATATATATA!!
A barrage of bullets tore through the spot where he had been standing only a moment earlier.
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