Meanwhile, at the rear end.
"What is going on there?"
"No idea. I can’t see shit out there."
The dense rain, coupled with sudden mist, made it difficult for them to see more than a couple of yards ahead. They only stopped because the ones in the front row did. The ones behind stopped as they didn’t want to break formation and get punished.
"Just ask what’s happening in front, who told you to see it yourself?"
Someone retorted from behind.
"Why don’t you try—argh!"
Something like a whip shot through the mist, pulling the man into the mist.
The man’s scream was cut off halfway through.
The rest turned sideways to see what happened, but the voice and the man disappeared together.
The mist didn’t just limit their vision, it also limited their hearing!
"Stop yelling—no! Let go of me!"
Another person was yanked away, disappearing into the mist just like the one before.
No one dared to open their mouths again or make any sound at all.
They realized that whatever was attacking them was using the sound to locate them. They even covered their noses and mouths, afraid that even the smallest breath might give them away.
Unfortunately, the one attacking them would know of their presence even if they turned into corpses.
The culprit was the rain.
The raindrops sounded different when they hit the ground compared to when they landed on people.
That subtle difference was enough to find them.
They stood there, not daring to move, all the while suppressing their urge to run away.
No one said a word, even as their sight began to shrink.
It wasn’t their eyes playing tricks on them. The mist was getting closer, wrapping around them like a blanket.
They kept their mouths shut even when they felt something slither between their legs. Yet they didn’t dare to look down, afraid that their hoods would rustle and give away their position.
It was a test of endurance and of willpower.
Unfortunately, not everyone had what it took to live.
One man couldn’t take it anymore and bolted ahead. If he could get to the enforcers, he’d survive. At least, that’s what he thought.
But before he could disappear into the mist, a tongue shot towards him from behind, dragging him away. His screams were followed by the sound of tearing flesh before everything went silent.
As scared as they were, the zealots hoped the enforcers would realize something was off and come to their aid.
That’s when they heard it.
Everyone smiled in relief.
The enforcers were there to save them!
However, what they saw wasn’t enforcers. It wasn’t even human.
It was a six-foot-tall frog!
A frog with horns on its head like those of a bull.
It’s three pairs of crimson eyes stared at them with interest.
Instead of scaring them, Saturn’s appearance fueled the zealots with rage.
Yes, the zombified king of frogs looked scary, but it wasn’t half as scary as the fear of the unknown. As long as it was a zombie, the cultists wouldn’t be afraid of it!
They rushed into a crescent moon formation with Saturn at its center. This way, they could focus all of their strength on the frog while separating it from the healers behind them.
"Don’t let it disappear in the mist!"
They raised their weapons, firing away. Dozens of arrows were shot at Saturn. The bolts were so fast, even the zealots had trouble seeing them. Surely the frog couldn’t defend against such an attack from all directions.
Unfortunately for them, most frogs had an inbuilt superhuman ability.
A little thing called dynamic vision.
It enabled them to perceive and react to moving objects faster.
Objects such as arrows.
They were waiting for the arrows to his the target when Saturn shot its tongue out.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The only thing they saw was their arrows dropping uselessly to the ground.
"What are you waiting for? Keep firing!"
They nocked the arrows, ready to strike again. However, Saturn was faster. The tongue struck the front-liners. They didn’t even have the time to dodge.
Screams erupted as they were flung away. The sticky tongue had ripped their flesh off along with the skin.
Saturn had developed acidic mucus following its evolution. It used the mucus to coat its tongue.
While the spiky tongue dealt with the front-liners, the ones in the back were doused in acid. The sound and smell of sizzling skin cloaks echoed in the mist.
The zealots reacted quickly, taking off their cloaks before the acid burned through them. They watched the cloaks melt with relief as the acid didn’t do much damage to them.
What they didn’t realize was that Saturn didn’t want to burn them with acid. The aim was to get rid of their protective layers.
"It isn’t moving! Attack it now!"
Once again, they prepared to shoot arrows. Only to stop after looking ahead.
Faint silhouettes of humans appeared behind Saturn. At first, the zealots thought they were cultists, thinking the teleportations must have been restored.
However, as the figures got closer, the humans were thrown into despair once again.
They were zombies. The same strange zombies that they had burned near the outpost.
The cultists recognized the distorted faces of those zombies.
They were the initiates who had fallen in the last fight with the sporeforms. The bodies that hadn’t been destroyed were now infected and raised as new sporeforms.
That’s why the sporeforms had left the initiates’ corpses untouched. They wanted to flank the cultists as they escaped!
"Johnny! Someone call him!"
They panicked, and rightly so.
Although the cultists knew how to defeat them, it was impossible without Johnny’s help. That’s why they were attacking the rearguard and not the vanguard!
The cultists thought they had surrounded Saturn, yet it was the other way around.
They were the ones who got surrounded by the undead.