The ground quaked as Blaze burst through the ground. He was so pissed that he didn’t wait for Fester to dig. Instead, he dug his way out himself.
Behind him, the rotten links swerved in the air like flying serpents. It looked as if he were wearing a black veil, which strangely enough, complemented his black suit.
His horde wasn’t far behind. Marrow, Raven, and Fester crawled out of the ground. No longer were they affected by the Headless’s control, probably because Blaze had severed all the links and made them his.
[New mutation detected: Puppeteer.]
As he appeared, the rabid sprinters went still. One after another, they turned towards Blaze, tilting their heads. Then they raised their left hand, and then the right.
Blaze was testing the link and its limitations. It wasn’t much different from his Hivemind skill. Only this mutation or trait had a physical appearance instead of a psychic one.
He raised his finger, pointing at David. The next second, thousands of sprinters charged towards him.
David roared, knocking a few of them out. However, unlike the humans, the roar did little against the endless horde of zombies.
It wasn’t surprising, since David, or the Protector, was created to fight the chosen, not the undead. His skills and abilities weren’t suited for such a scenario.
The Headless sensed that. It moved to protect its child, only to find a wall stopping it. Furious, it turned to Blaze.
To everyone’s surprise, Blaze let out a deafening roar and charged at the Headless. Even the horde was confused.
After all, despite being a zombie, Blaze hadn’t ever acted as one. It didn’t matter whether he was facing the zombies or the humans. He always retained a touch of humanity.
However, not this time.
It almost felt as if those links were influencing his behavior. Yet, knowing Blaze, it just might be his way to let loose.
Fester tilted its head, wondering if something was wrong with Blaze.
"Master’s fine," Marrow replied.
Raven chimed in, folding his arms, as if to say he was bored.
"Stay put," Marrow said, glaring at it. "We must wait for instructions, no matter how bored you feel."
Raven didn’t dare retort, knowing that after Blaze, Marrow had the highest intelligence within the horde. Except for those two humans, their master had tamed.
Meanwhile, Blaze charged at the Headless, but he wasn’t alone. He grabbed about a hundred sprinters away from the ground and had them attack the Headless.
At first, the Headless tried to regain control over them, but in vain.
The next second, the tentacles on its head lashed out. They transformed into small mouths like the ones the Headless had during the university breakout and bit into the sprinters’ heads.
It seemed the Headless had abandoned its pursuit of perfect absorption. For it, survival was most important. Even if it meant consuming the nuclei in the good old way.
However, Blaze didn’t care about it. The Headless had to absorb thousands of corpses in its perfect method to evolve. What difference would it make if it ate a few hundred nuclei?
Besides, the sprinters were there to distract it. Their death would also help Blaze as he’d have more materials to work with.
It didn’t matter what the Headless or David did; their death was imminent.
It wasn’t Blaze’s ego speaking. Those were facts.
As Blaze got closer, he received the same treatment as the sprinters. The Headless’s tentacles slithered towards him, striking out like snakes.
Blaze ducked, his momentum making him slide on the ground. More tentacles followed. He rolled to his feet to avoid touching them.
Not that he was scared of them, but he was being cautious regardless. After all, the Headless wasn’t an ordinary zombie.
More tentacles? Two can play this game.
Blaze’s own tendrils shot towards the Headless. Unlike him, the latter was overwhelmed by the sprinters and didn’t notice before the tendrils wrapped around its neck.
He grabbed the tendrils for extra leverage and pulled. The Headless buckled, but didn’t crash on the ground. #
In terms of raw strength, they were matched.
The Headless then yanked its ’head’ back. Blaze tried to hold on, dragging his feet into the dirt to counter. He applied more force, pulling the Headless towards him.
That’s when the tentacles shot out again. But this time, they went for Blaze’s tendrils. They bit down on the tendrils, and nothing happened.
It made Blaze wonder if he was being cautious for no reason when something happened.
His tendrils cracked.
Blaze saw in real time as the flesh turned brittle before rotting away. The brittle rot actively spread across the tendril, heading towards him.
Annoyed, Blaze clicked his tongue before severing his tendrils with his claws. The infected stumps hit the ground and withered to dust in seconds.
He looked at the Headless. It had no mouth, but he could feel it smirking.
It seemed he wasn’t the only one with tricks.
It’s fine. You’ve just made this a bit more interesting.
Despite learning about its strange venom, Blaze continued his charge towards the creature.
The Headless sent most of its tentacles to strike Blaze. He jumped to dodge the first volley, slid under the second one, and even sliced some with his claws.
But it seemed the Headless had infinite tentacles at its disposal. It hurled more tentacles at Blaze, to the point he had to grab a couple of sprinters and use them as meat shields.
The tentacles tore through them.
Tsk, worthless shields.
He tossed the limp bodies aside before rolling to safety from another volley.
At least, that’s what he thought, raising his hand to slice some tendrils. He sliced them, but felt a strange burn in his leg.
He looked down and saw two tentacles had broken out of the ground, biting his left calf.
Blaze cursed as his leg gave away.
Upon sensing that direct attacks weren’t working against Blaze, the Headless overwhelmed him with attacks while secretly sending two tentacles through the ground toward him.
The attack worked flawlessly. A price Blaze had to pay for underestimating the Headless.
Instead of despair, Blaze had a smirk on his face.
You’re not the only one who can play tricks.
He grabbed the two tentacles and slammed them together, forcing their needle-like tips to pierce one another.
The reaction was instant as the rot spread from the tentacles into the Headless’s stock of tentacles. One would think the creature would have immunity from its poison, like most snakes, but it wasn’t the case.
The Headless recoiled as its tentacles died one after another.
Meanwhile, Blaze sank his claws into his leg and carved the chunk of infected flesh out. Then, he attacked the nearby sprinter with his tendrils, absorbing its body mass to regenerate the missing flesh.