Apocalypse: King of Zombies Chapter 1315: Cut It Off

"How can a world like this possibly have a soulless thrall that strong?" The Stoneborn leader’s face turned ugly.

Ethan sneered. "Heh. There’s a lot you don’t know. You wanted me as your slave—are you out of your mind?"

He pointed forward. "Dopey. Beat them to death."

The instant the order left his mouth, Dopey launched himself like a cannonball straight into their formation.

"So fast!"

Every Stoneborn’s expression changed. They reacted as one, throwing out skills in a practiced storm.

The ground turned to sucking swamp-mud, trying to lock Dopey in place. Next came massive meteors, slamming down from above, while thick stone pillars surged up and tried to ram him head-on.

These Stoneborn were earth-type ability users—masters of earth-element skills.

But against the oncoming barrage, Dopey didn’t even flinch. His body was the weapon. He bulldozed straight through.

The swamp terrain might as well have been flat road under his feet. Meteors smashed into him and shattered instantly, barely slowing him. He kept moving—fast enough to blur.

In a blink, he was in front of one Stoneborn powerhouse.

No tricks. No flourish.

Just a punch.

The Stoneborn’s face went white. Layer after layer of stone barriers popped up in front of him, and thick rock armor formed over his body in an instant. The others threw additional stone shields onto him as backup.

BOOM!

A deafening crack rang out.

Dopey’s fist blew through the stacked shields, smashed through the defenses, and drove into the Stoneborn’s body.

"Pff—"

Blood and shredded organs sprayed out. The man flew backward, hit the ground, and went still.

"—!"

Shock hit the entire group.

"How is that possible?!" someone shouted.

If the first death could be blamed on being caught off-guard, this one had been protected by layers of defenses from multiple people—and he still died in one hit.

Earth-type abilities were famous for defense.

And Dopey had just punched straight through it like it was paper.

"Stage S...?" The leader’s face sank.

How the hell did a place like this have a Stage S soulless thrall?

Dopey didn’t care about their panic. After killing one, he pivoted and charged the second.

The leader shouted, voice cutting through the chaos. "Soulless thralls are bound to their master! Kill the master and the thrall becomes useless!"

He barked orders to the two beside him. "Gravel! Boulder! Go kill that human. The rest of you—hold this thrall down with me!"

"Yes!"

Two Stoneborn peeled off immediately and sprinted for Ethan. The remaining Stoneborn went all-in on Dopey—not with raw damage, but with control.

Slows. Gravity pressure. Sandstorms. Debuffs stacked on debuffs, anything to drag down Dopey’s momentum and buy time.

Ethan saw the two coming for him, and his expression hardened.

"Really think I’m that easy to bully?" he snapped.

Then, under his breath, "I might not be able to beat you... but I can sure as hell run."

He vanished.

Three thousand feet away, Ethan reappeared. But almost immediately, the two Stoneborn closed in again.

Ethan’s eyes went wide as he watched one of them take a single step and eat nearly three thousand feet of distance. "Seriously? You folded the ground?"

There was no time to stand around being impressed. Ethan teleported again—clean, decisive.

The two Stoneborn chased, but they were always a fraction late. Because when it came to pure movement, nothing beat a spatial-type ability.

The two Stoneborn exchanged a quick look. Then they split. One kept chasing Ethan head-on. The other, while Ethan wasn’t paying attention, dropped straight into the earth and vanished underground.

Ethan, sprinting and blinking through space ahead of them, noticed one of the pursuers was suddenly gone. He frowned. But there was no time to think it through. Just keep teleporting. If he could hold out a little longer, once Dopey finished off the rest, they’d win.

He didn’t dare get close to the main battlefield. Too many wide-area skills were going off over there. If he got clipped by even one, he’d be in trouble. So all he could do was kite them in circles around the outskirts.

After another teleport opened up distance, Ethan pulled a Tier 16 crystal core from his spatial storage ring and tossed it into his mouth. Back-to-back teleports chewed through mental energy like crazy.

And then—A hand shot up from underground and clamped onto his ankle. Ethan’s face changed. He twisted and yanked, putting everything into breaking free, but it didn’t budge.

Teleportation couldn’t bring other people with it. And if you were grabbed or restrained, you couldn’t teleport at all. That was the weakness of teleportation. These guys clearly understood spatial abilities. They’d predicted his landing point through the spatial fluctuation... and the second his foot touched down, they pinned him.

"A Tier 19 ant actually believes it can get away from us?" A head erupted from the dirt, still clamped onto Ethan's ankle. "Not a chance."

As one, the Stoneborn formed a spear of rock in its other hand and thrust it directly at Ethan's head—a swift, merciless strike with no wasted motion.

"Absolute Stasis!"

Ethan activated the ability without a sliver of hesitation.

The entire world ground to a halt.

He wrenched his poleaxe free and brought it down hard on his own ankle.

Chop.

His own foot was severed.

Then, planting his remaining foot on the Stoneborn's head—a single, forceful stomp—he vanished in another teleport the very instant he regained mobility.

Ethan was ruthlessly efficient against his foes.

He was equally unforgiving with himself.

That Stoneborn, while not the strongest of the group, was still Tier 26. Ethan couldn't possibly risk failing to sever the creature's hand in one clean blow. Failure would mean his death.

So, he didn't take the gamble.

Instead, he lopped off his own foot.

Henry's powers already allowed for the regeneration of severed limbs. He would simply regrow it later.

The theory was simple enough.

But in practice... how many individuals could truly execute such a decisive maneuver?

Less than a second later, time crashed back into its normal flow.

Gravel stared, dumbfounded, at the severed foot now clutched in his hand.

"What in the world...? How did he still manage to escape?"

Boulder arrived a heartbeat later. He had been frozen mid-air moments before, though he hadn't realized it at the time.

"I have no idea," Gravel stammered, still in shock. "I had a grip on him. He... he must have chopped off his own foot to get away. But I didn't even see him do it. Not at all."

Boulder scowled. He had been observing as well, and he too had missed the action.

"It looks like you got stepped on too," Boulder noted, his gaze fixed on Gravel's face.

Gravel blinked. "What?"

Boulder pointed. A distinct shoeprint was clearly stamped across Gravel's cheek.

"What—?!" Gravel's eyes widened in disbelief.

"That explains why my face felt so strange," he mumbled, his shock intensifying. "How is that even possible?"

To be stomped on without even noticing was utterly baffling.

Boulder's expression grew grim. "It's possible... it's a space-time ability."

"—!"

A chill ran down both their spines.

From a considerable distance, their leader's enraged voice thundered through the surrounding chaos.

"What are you two doing?! You're fighting a Tier 19—why is this taking you so long?!"

They flinched as if doused in ice water. Only then did the urgency of the situation crash back upon them.

They resumed their pursuit of Ethan.

However, having been tricked once, Ethan was not about to let them lay a hand on him again. He no longer even allowed his feet to touch the ground, continuously blinking through the air with successive teleports.

It was an immense drain on his mental energy, but he had no alternative.

Gritting his teeth, he began consuming his remaining reserves—dozens of Tier 18 crystal cores, one after the other, solely to maintain his mental energy levels.