Chapter 17: I was waiting for this
Adam wasted no time. His experience was beginning to kick in instinctively—he didn’t aim for the torso. He knew the mistakes he’d made before.
He paused briefly and focused his mana into his hand. The Bloodshadow Dagger appeared at his side, levitating like an extension of his will. The blade was black as night, pulsing with energy, ready to strike.
Adam sprinted forward. The zombie roared and charged after him, but Adam was faster. He dashed through the corridor, leaping over rubble and overturned desks.
In one swift motion, he veered sharply, kicked off a cracked wall on the right side of the hallway, and lunged to the side, vanishing from the monster’s direct line of sight. The mutant had just begun another wild swing with its four arms, its heavy steps crushing the concrete beneath. Before it could rotate its massive torso and react, Adam was already behind it, in its blind spot. The mutant’s hands trembled, its body tensed in confusion, and its head slowly started to turn, as if it had only just registered the shift in its opponent’s position.
Adam launched Void Manipulation with all the force he could muster. The dagger swirled through the air, a black flash whistling as it struck one of the mutant’s smaller hands. The blade didn’t pierce deeply—it stopped just beneath the surface, trembling slightly like a thorn. Adam smirked at the mutant’s reaction.
"Good..."
The mutant howled, its body shaking with fury, but Adam was already fading from its view.
"I need to lure it to the corpses. That’s where I can make full use of Void Manipulation."
He ran without hesitation. As he neared the corpse-strewn area where he had earlier tested his abilities, he felt that it was the perfect place to unleash the true potential of Void Manipulation. The space was open, full of scattered objects and bodies—ideal for maneuvering and improvisation.
But before he could form a plan, he felt a subtle tremor in the air, as if the very space around him was warning of something inevitable.
The zombie vanished from sight again.