While his sister was taking up his responsibilities, Leon was facing the coordinated attacks of a settlement's combat team.
After he had dispatched the annoying fireball user, Kevin had realized his threat and quickly gave out a few successive orders.
Armed men quickly appeared. They made sure to maintain their distance while raising their guns at Leon.
At this moment, Kevin made up his mind. Leon had to die.
Unperturbed, Leon faced the whole group head-on. His blades, sharp and ready, gleamed with a promise of blood.
The next moment, the false peace shattered.
Bang!
A shot was fired, straight at Leon. He didn't even bother to dodge.
Clang!
The bullet bounced off his skin as if it had met an elastic metal wall, then clattered to the floor. It hadn't hurt him even the slightest.
Leon whistled, amazed by such skill. Even though he had experience from his past life, he was still wary of a gun.
Feeling less threatened by that mundane armament made him relieved.
On the other hand, Kevin wasn't feeling relieved at all. He had just witnessed someone casually shrug off a bullet. As nonsensical as it might look, he believed it was possible.
After all, the Reward Crucible offered diverse possibilities.
'Damn it! Those guys are now useless. Only we evolved can beat him.'
He cursed. Frustrated, he roared and charged at Leon.
The spear lashed out in pure physical might. Leon didn't contest against it. Instead, he smiled and deflected the attack with his katanas crossed.
Kevin's movement faltered, disrupted by Leon's meddling. He pulled back and allowed the other evolved to face him.
Unfortunately, they weren't his match. In just a few exchanges, he had injured three of them and left the others numb.
'Who the hell is this guy?! He's definitely a Second Level Evolved.'
Kevin's misunderstanding deepened.
"Fan out!"
He ordered. Pulling his spear, he charged at Leon again.
Inwardly though, Leon praised the man. Even though it was just the early times of the apocalypse, this man had gained experience fighting zombies and already cultivated a combat team. He had even become a Second Level Evolved.
Leon silently endured their relentless attacks. He would either block or deflect Kevin's attack, then injure the first level guys slightly.
Suddenly, his eyes turned serious. He'd had enough of playing with these humans. He understood that he couldn't really beat Kevin in his human form, so he transformed.
The change occured immediately.
Though he called it a transformation, it was merely subtle changes. His purple eyes narrowed into slits while his fangs and claws elongated.
Kevin shouted for his men to retreat when he saw Leon suddenly pause. A sense of unease gnawed at his heart.
As if by chance, an accidental wind blew, exposing the crystal beneath Leon's bangs.
A zombie?!
Kevin was stumped. He couldn't believe it. A zombie? That young, rude boy was a zombie all long? He felt a growing headache.
Leon didn't let him pay attention to the headache, though.
Because he suddenly abandoned his blades and charged at the nearest evolved. The guy looked too shocked to react.
His head was already rolling.
"Ahh!!!"
A scream of panic tore through the air. Seeing that Leon had a crystal, everyone concluded he was a zombie. But what unnerved them was the fact that he could talk, act like a human, and even think like a human.
Leon rolled his eyes, unamused. He found their reaction unimpressive. When they thought he was a human, they had been fighting enthusiastically. Now that it's revealed that he was a zombie, they started panicking?
Shouldn't they be more vicious and try to kill a zombie compared to a fellow human?
'Truly, the human nature is quite despicable.'
Bang!
He frowned as he caught Kevin's spear. The strength behind the attack was heavy. He barely cared, though.
With a pull, he yanked Kevin forward, then clamped his thick neck in a tight grip.
The older man dropped his weapon and pulled at Leon's arm, feeling the breath of death on his face.
Casually, Leon tossed him aside. With a painful bang, he crashed into an abandoned car, destroying the vehicle with his enlarged mass.
"I wouldn't have bothered with you guys..." Leon said, "But I can't ignore someone trying to kill me right?"
His gaze locked onto the remaining evolved. Those guys shivered, scared witless.
"P-please!"
He ignored their pleas. In just ten seconds, he killed them all, then turned to Kevin with a cold look on his face.
"You brought this on yourself."
Surprisingly, the man replied with a chuckle. He raised his head despite bleeding profusely.
"You think you've won? Hah! Fool! I have a trump card."
Leon tensed slightly. This was what he was probing for. After experiencing ten years of the apocalypse in his past life, he came to understand something. Everyone, no matter their level, always possessed a trump card.
And now, he had to face Kevin's trump card.
ROOAARR!!!
An enraged roar filled the air, causing Leon's hair to stand on end. The energy radiated from the roar itself was frightening.
Leon turned to the source, hearing sounds of heavy footsteps approaching.
Boom!
A moment later, something large landed meters away from him. When the dust cleared, he realized it was a mutated leopard.
One with a blue crystal on its head.
Leon's mind went blank.
A Third Level Mutated Beast?! In the second month of the apocalypse at that.
It had to be the first in the whole of America.
"Hehe..." Kevin chuckled, interpreting Leon's shock as despair. "Now you'll die a dog's death."
To be honest, Leon was more delighted than shocked. If he could kill and devour this creature, advancing to the second level would be very easy—instantaneous, even.
The mutated leopard growled as it strutted forward, then chomped up the corpse of an evolved.
'Could it be...?' His eyes shifted to Kevin's broken figure, 'He can't control it. If not, he'd have used the beast earlier.'
He realized. No wonder it was his trump card. An uncontrollable Third Level Mutated Beast. Truly impressive.
Leon's eyes blazed as he watched the beast devour the body. He deeply wanted to consume the beast.
However, the question remained...
Could he kill it...?