Not holding back, Leo was too frustrated to continue communicating with the man. Seeing that the man wasn't going to stop attacking what so ever, Leo began to strike him with the rebar. But even with two broken legs, the man was still crawling, trying to attack Leo. Growling, saliva sprayed everywhere while the man tried to claw Leo with his hands.
Leo did not want to kill the man, so he was aiming for his limbs. But even when Leo basically turned both of the man's feet into minced meat, the man was still keen on attacking him. "Zombie?" Leo thought, the gruesome scene reminded him of the fictional brain-hungry monsters that didn't feel any pain. Successfully convincing himself that the man was not an actual human being, he merciless stabbed the blunt rebar straight through the crawling man's head.
But to his surprise, even with a steel rebar stuck through his brain, the man still kept on crawling fowards. "What the fuck are you?" Leo thought, staring at the bloody man with horror filled eyes. Thinking that the man was a zombie, Leo did not want to get near him, not to mention attacking him with his bare hands and feet.
Grrr... more growling sounds could be heard as more zombies emerged from the ruins. Not even hesitating a single bit, Leo bolted off. There was no way he was going to deal with a dozen zombies without even actually knowing what they are. The walking dead slowly followed behind him, forming a weird sight. Leo even considered absorbing the red cyrstal to deal with the throng of marching dead behind him. A simple blast of flames would definitely burn the zombies to crisp. But seeing that the possibilities of the zombies catching up to him were slim to none, he decided that retreating would be the best option.
Ignoring the aches in his arms and legs, he ran straight for the shelter, which he doubt was that far away. His stomach growled in anger as the body began to use up large amounts of energy in order to reach speeds that even top athletes could only dream of. The zombies quickly lost sight of Leo, but by following his scent, the zombies slowly but surely were still coming for him.
Running for several blocks, Leo was exhausted. Stopping to allow some more air inside his lungs, he looked back to see if the zombies were following. Seeing no signs of any motion behind him, he finally relaxed a bit. Panting as he tried to catch his breath, he noticed that there were several figures not too far away from him. Without his glasses, he wasn't too sure if they were zombies or survivors. Squinting his eyes for a better look, he could see that they were holding some kind of polearm in their hands. Not knowing whether they were hostile or not, Leo decided to keep his distance.
He tried to slowly back up, observing the people for a while before he interacted with them. But one of the men with a stronger perception noticed Leo, which he quickly alerted his friends. "Zombie, ten yards away next to the debris," one of the men whispered, alerting the others. Since Leo hadn't clean himself up after all the fighting he has done, he was covered in blood and ashes, giving him the same appearance as zombies.
The slimmest person out of the three instantly locked on Leo's silhouette. Because of his eyesight, all Leo could see was three blurry figures. The skinny guy suddenly turned around, facing Leo. "What the..." before Leo could react, a spinning wooden spear flew straight at his chest. A whistling sound pierced through the air, the spinning spear directly slammed into Leo's chest, splintering. Luckily, with his enhanced body, the odds of a normal wooden spear killing him was pretty low. Hiding behind a half collapsed wall, he carefully examined his wounds. Other than tearing a gaping hole through his hoodie and bruising his chest, there wasn't much damage.
"New type of zombie?" the skinny man thought, shocked that the target seemed to have taken little damage. Ever since he had awakened his powers, the spinning spears that he threw always easily nailed normal zombies to the ground. Vines shot out from his palm, forming another spear. "Be careful, something is odd about this zombie," the skinny man said, carefully approaching Leo's position. "I'll try to scan it," one of the other guys said, two weird antennae sprouted from his head. The burly man who looked to be around his forties walked straight up to the wall, sending a punch at the pile of bricks. Exploding into dust, Leo was frightened.
Facing the three men, he didn't know what to do. But before he could say a single word, color drained from the face of the man with weird antennae. "Double awakened!" he said, stepping back before pointing his spear at Leo. "Elemental and Beast type, be really careful," he added, staring at Leo in shock. "Double awakened? I did not absorb any crystals nor had I awakened any powers," Leo thought, confused. Hearing that, the other two men also instantly went into fight mode. The burly man's muscles expanded, while a black exoskeleton covered the other man. "Hold up, you are not zombies?" Leo said, surprised that there were three survivors.
Still pointing their weapons at Leo, the three still had their doubts. They didn't know whether Leo was some kind of evolved zombie that would instantly kill them once they lowered their guards. "Who are you?" the burly man asked, sizing Leo up. "Leo, I'm just looking for some food and water, so I was heading towards the shelter," Leo said. "You are the kid down the block? Son of that doctor?" the burly man asked. "Yep, that would be me," Leo answered, not surprised that they knew his father. His father was a pretty well known doctor, people around the neighborhood were quite familiar with him.
"He's good?" the man with some weird vines wrapping around his arm asked. "Pretty much, the names Gary," the burly man introduced himself. "Kevin," the man with weird antennae said. "Mark, feel free to ask for more spears," the skinny man said, tossing the spear in his hand to Leo. Deactivating their powers, the armor that covered Kevin disappeared, and Gary's muscles deflated. "Mutated ant and mutated plant, how many people died?" Leo asked, observing their powers. Recalling the fight between the mutated cat and the fiery man, he doubted that these survivors took down their foes so easily.
"So you really are Double awakened," Kevin said, thinking that Leo probably took down a mutated beast after he awakened his powers. Thinking that Kevin probably mistook the energy coming from the two crystals in his pocket as his powers, Leo did not want to fix that misunderstanding. He still wasn't sure about the group's intentions, so them thinking that he was much more powerful than he really is was good intimidation. "With Gary here, the mutated ant didn't really stand a chance," Mark said. Before Leo could ask anymore questions, Kevin's expressions changed. "Gary, we have visitors," he said, the black exoskeleton appeared again, covering his body.
The three instantly got into battle mode, this definitely wasn't the first time they fought together. "How many?" Gary asked. "More than ten, less than twenty," Kevin replied, antennae carefully detecting the vibrations. They could see several figures slowly appear, a large group of zombies were heading towards them. "Looks like you brought some friends," Gary said, looking at Leo with a slight bit of irritation. Mark attacked first, easily pinning two zombies to the ground with his spears. The incapacitated zombies struggled to get up, but the spear dug quite deep into the ground.
The horde of zombies neared the group, rubbing his fists in glee, Gary was prepared for a fight. Being the only self-awakened person in the group, his passion for fighting was undoubtedly the strongest. Kevin and Gary rushed fowards, Gary's first punch sent one of the zombies flying with a gaping hole in it's chest. Kevin, with his hard exoskeleton, was basically invincible against the zombies. With the two mandibles on his face, he easily sliced off the limbs of the zombies. Watching them fight, Leo only had one thought, weak. If the mutated cat was here, it would definitely wipe out the three easily. Even the fiery man could easily wipe out the horde of zombies and the three with a couple blasts of flames. Luckily he wasn't that quick to absorb the crystals, he was pretty sure that there were definitely much stronger powers out there.
"Why don't you use your powers?" Mark asked, while he supported the two by throwing spears. "My attack will kill both of them too," Leo lied. But to show that he wasn't a freeloader, he also joined the battle, his newly obtained spear piercing through the heads of several zombies. After half an hour of fighting, the only thing left were the corpses of zombies. Seeing Kevin digging through the corpses, Leo asked, "What are you looking for?"