"Shut up!"
We instantly went quiet. Instructor Jiao raised a finger to his lips, glaring at us. He then waved his hand and bade us to follow him along the wreckage.
We followed him as quietly as they could, tiptoeing across the ruins of an abandoned building. Judging from the wear and tear, the building had to be over a hundred years old, the structure little more than a skeletal frame. Debris littered the ground, the walls cracked and cratered. Several pillars had been snapped diagonally, jagged edges pointing toward the skies. Their upper halves had been ground to dust and stone, joining the many rubble that buried it.
The building wasn't alone in its devastation. The entire city lay in ruins, the once mighty civilization of mankind laid low. Skyscrapers that once challenged the heavens had been toppled, seemingly punished for their audacious ambitions. Roads that linked nations had been destroyed, bridges demolished and entire streets now abysmal sinkholes that devoured any traveler unlucky enough to fall into them.
Within those depths, even greater horrors awaited. For now they stayed hidden, refusing to face the bright sunlight that streamed through the perorated buildings that now served as tombstones for the dead city.
"Incredible," one of my classmates, Nian Qing, whispered. "I didn't think the outside world would look like this. Just what could destroy these buildings?"
Instructor Jiao Guan glanced back and risked speaking up. "Mutants. Apocalypse class mutants."
One of the other students shuddered. A short girl with shoulder-length hair, Xia Xin, who was usually cheerful in class, but now she was a shivering wreck. "A…are they…?"
"Don't worry, they are no longer here," Instructor Jiao said dismissively. "The school has already scouted ahead and conducted reconnaissance in this area. There are only low-ranking zombies in this area. Nothing stronger than a minion category."
"What are the categories again?" Pang Fei asked, the chubby guy following beside me and panting. I tried not to roll my eyes. Obviously he had been snacking in class instead of paying attention to the lessons.
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I adopted a severe look. "The five categories are minion, warrior, commander, disaster, and Apocalypse. The basic zombies are usually minion class, unless it's a zombie mutant like a grotesque or an aberrant."
"Feng Zhi Ming is correct," Instructor Jiao said, impressed. "At least one of you is paying attention in class. The knowledge will keep you alive one day."
"Nerd," Qi Ren muttered darkly under his breath. His lip curled into a sneer. "What's the use of having knowledge? In this world, only the strong survives. The most important thing is combat power."
I ignored him. Knowledge was power. True, in this post-apocalyptic world, strength and combat abilities were important, but without knowledge, it was easy for us to underestimate our enemies, charge in recklessly…only to get ourselves slaughtered.
"W…where are the zombies?" Xia Xin asked, looking around nervously. Instructor Jiao sighed and shook his head.
"They are usually active during the night. That's not to say they won't attack during the day time, but they are more lethargic. Still dangerous, though, so don't be careless." He then stared sternly at the trembling girl. "Relax, Xia Xin. We're only facing minion-ranked zombies. They are the weakest of the weakest. We are evolvers. We can handle this."
"Damn right we can!" Qi Ren exclaimed, holding up his arm and flexing his biceps. "I've awakened one of the strongest abilities possible! These zombies are no match for us!"
"Keep it down!" Instructor Jiao hissed. "Zombies might be half blind, but they have very good hearing! If you make too much noise, you'll call a whole nest down on us!"
"That's exactly what I wish for," Qi Ren retorted. "With our powers, we can wipe out a thousand zombies. Right, Lou Qian?"
Everyone – particularly the guys – turned toward the black-haired beauty. She was known as the campus belle, being the most beautiful girl in the Fourth Evolver Academy, and there was no small amount of guys who had tried to confess to her. In fact, even some of the girls had joined in, giving her love letters. She had rejected every single one of them so far. There were rumors that the ice queen was only interested in dating the strongest evolver.
That meant none of us had any chance. At least not in the fourth district.
That didn't stop Qi Ren from trying, though. He tried to place an arm around Lou Qian, but she dodged him elegantly, pulling away to a great distance in a single maneuver. Qi Ren was frustrated, but he masked it with a smile.
"What do you think? The both of us are at least starlight-ranked evolvers. Zombies shouldn't be a problem to us."
"I think we should listen to Instructor Jiao," Lou Qian replied coldly, her arms folded. "He's moon glow ranked and has more experience than all of us put together."
At her words, I was reminded that this was our first practical expedition. I couldn't blame Xia Xin for being scared. I was feeling nervous myself, a pit gnawing away at the bottom of my stomach. Eying the shadows warily, I followed the rest of my classmates further into the carcass of a building.
Then Instructor Jiao raised a hand to stop us.
"Movement," he said, his voice tense. "Be careful…and be prepared for anything. Stay alert, kids. One wrong move and you'll be dead."
"Hah, quit trying to scare us, teach," Qi Ren said with a snort. "Just what can possibly…?"
The ground beneath his foot cracked and crumbled away. Qi Ren jumped to the side instinctively, cursing at his luck.
His luck got infinitely worse when rotting, desiccated hands burst out of the disintegrating concrete to grab at his feet. Qi Ren swore even more loudly and kicked aggressively, trying to pull himself free.
"No, wait!" Instructor Jiao shouted. "Don't use your abilities yet…"
He was too late. A gleam of evolution energy surged through Qi Ren's body. His muscles bulged and expanded. Gauntlets – Qi Ren's personal evolver weapons – materialized around his arms and he crunched one of them into the head of a zombie that was just pulling itself out of the ever growing hole below.
"Are you kidding, teach?" Qi Ren roared, pulverizing another zombie with his other gauntlet. "If I didn't use my combat abilities, wouldn't I get killed by the zombies? And why shouldn't we use them? Isn't the whole reason why you trained us to use them to exterminate these fodder?"
Instructor Jiao was burying his face in his palm. "Zombies are sensitive to evolution energy. The moment you use your abilities, you've triggered a zombie flood."
He had barely finished his sentence when his last words were drowned out by moans. Looking around us, I could see zombies shambling from the shadows where they had taken shelter underneath. Even though they usually avoided the sun, they weren't exactly hampered by it. At the sign of potential food, they stumbled out in force in order to feast.
"What do we do?" Xin Xia cried out in panic.
"Stay calm!" Instructor Jiao snapped. "Get into formation, all of you! Alpha pattern formation! Concentric rings! Ranged evolvers at the back, close combat evolvers at the front! Cover each other! Remember the drills and lessons! As long as you keep calm and do your part, we'll be able to survive this!"
"Hey! Some help here?" Qi Ren called out from his current position. He was currently swarmed by zombies, and despite his enhanced strength, he was being overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.
"I got your back!" His best friend, Cheng Yan, shouted. Crimson fireballs materialized around him and he sent them streaking toward the zombies surrounding Qi Ren. The artificial comets detonated within their midst, sending burning bodies flying into the air.
Then ice froze another portion of the surviving zombies. Lou Qian descended into midst, her scythe reaping a huge harvest. Ominous black and blue energies crackled around the length of the curved blade, freezing and slicing the zombies as if they were nothing more than crops.
Qi Ren grinned when he saw her. "You've come to help me, Lou Qian!"
"Don't misunderstand," she said frostily and jabbed her scythe upward. "We need you in the formation. You're one of our best tanks. Without you, the formation might fall. Now hurry up and get your ass back up there."
"Fine." Qi Ren took a deep breath and slammed both gauntlets against the ground. Conjuring a huge pillar of earth, he transported both him and Lou Qian back up. As the zombies scrambled over the newly grown stone, Lou Qian froze them along with the structure and then shattered everything with a single blow of her scythe.
No wonder she was known as the strongest and most talented genius in our campus.
Chuckling, Qi Ren stomped a zombie onto the ground and then used his fists to clobber them. He formed a one-man wall, rallying the other close combat type evolvers to his side. Behind the line of human flesh, the ranged evolvers prepared to support their comrades.
I was among them.
Drawing my evolver pistols, I took aim. Targeting reticles blinked to life along the surface of my lenses, marking out the optimal targets among the zombie crowd. I lined both my guns up and adjusted my aim until the reticles turned from white to red, and then opened fire. Azure blasts spat out from the barrel and arced toward the zombies' heads, pulping them and turning them into red explosions of blood, flesh and bone.
In front of me, Pang Fei lumbered forward. He clapped both hands together, conjuring a huge gust of wind that knocked the zombies off their feet. Muttering an incantation, he focused more evolution energy into his technique, creating a mini tornado that swept the zombies into the air and tore them apart in a spinning vortex. Beside him, Nian Qing crated wood, using branches to entangle the zombies and restrain their movements so that they would be easier targets for me and Cheng Yan. Lei Shu also joined in, lightning flying from his fingers and electrocuting the zombies. He then drew a sword and slashed a zombie that had ventured too close to the frontline, beheading it with a single stroke.
Even Xin Xia helped, but her abilities lay more in healing than combat. Even though she stayed behind the close combat evolvers, she continued to run circles around the ring, seeking out injured classmates and treating their injuries. White energies departed from her hands and suffused Qi Ren, closing his wounds and diffusing his bruises.
Then she was up and running to the next wounded. Lei Shu, who let his guard down and received a scratch, thanked her when she healed his cuts. Then he was back in the fray, his blade crackling with electricity.
I fired off a few more shots, taking down a couple more zombies. The tide of undead didn't seem to cease, more of them emerging from elsewhere in the city.
"Hang in there!" Instructor Jiao Guan ordered. In one hand he held a massive rifle that blasted massive orbs of explosive energies, gouging craters into the mob of zombies. His other hand was clutching his smartphone. "Reinforcements will be here soon! Fifteen minutes to evac! As long as we can hold out for that long, we should be fine…"
He was cut off by a thunderous roar. I shifted my aim, my glasses flaring red and warning me of a new biological sign – one much bigger than the minion category zombies.
"Warrior category mutant?" I muttered, studying the readings on my lenses.
Opposite us, an entire portion of the ground caved in. Zombies tumbled in, squashed and crushed by the falling concrete and also by something immense emerging from the abyss. A humanoid figure lumbered outward, but other than the head, two arms and two legs, there was where the similarities ended.
Towering over five meters, its body bloated with decay and disease, a goliath roared and swung one misshapen arm to pound a broken pillar into dust. Snarling, it charged at us with a speed that belied its size. Wrinkled, emaciated limbs hung from its distended belly, its thick mass the result of fusing dozens – if not over a hundred corpses together into a single undead entity. Many heads bobbed about its collarbone, limbs and waist, their expressions frozen in eternal torment.
"A grotesque," I muttered, feeling my blood chill in my veins.
Then the monstrosity hit our lines and sent us scattering from the tremendous impact.