Chapter 130: The Mutated Dog
“It doesn’t have an ability—close combat,” Lu Weiyi said. “Make it quick.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he charged forward. The others followed swiftly, surrounding the yellow dog in a circle, throwing all kinds of powers and weapons at it without holding back. In just moments, the dog’s body was already covered in red patches.
Antonio’s flying knife slashed across the yellow dog’s nose, and for the first time, it let out an earth-shaking howl—“WOOF!” As it dodged, it also revealed its sharp claws and teeth.
Lu Weiyi managed to wrap his green vine tightly around the dog’s neck, but no matter how hard he pulled, it wouldn’t budge. When the dog suddenly leapt up, it almost dragged Lu Weiyi into the air with it. He quickly let go of the vine. On the other side, Wu Yue was rammed by the dog and sent flying. If he weren’t agile and had stabilized himself with a skillful move, he would’ve been flung much farther.
Although the others hadn’t been bitten, the dog’s slashes and charges had left them all somewhat injured.
Just as Lu Weiyi was thinking they should probably retreat, his sharp eyes noticed that the wound Antonio had cut into the dog’s nose—had healed.
He wanted to check if the other injuries had also healed, but the dog’s fur was too thick. All he could see was some blood and grime on the surface—no visible wounds.
Lu Weiyi could hardly believe it. As the dog lunged with its paw again, he slashed a mental energy blade straight at its nose.
Injured again in a vulnerable spot, the yellow dog was clearly enraged. It leapt toward Liu Rui, the closest person. Its claws, as long as fingers, looked like they’d rip Liu Rui open on contact.
Lu Weiyi grabbed Antonio beside him and simultaneously used his vine to tightly bind the dog. Both of them pulled hard in opposite directions, forcibly yanking the dog away.
“Xu Sa, now!” Antonio shouted.
Xu Sa, seizing the opportunity, poured all his newly awakened lightning-type power into the dog. Though not strong enough to paralyze the mutated animal outright, it was enough to slow its movements.
That gave them the opening: Antonio’s dagger went straight for the dog’s throat. Lu Weiyi slashed a mental blade at its belly. Wu Yue and Xiong Jie launched earth spikes, and Gu Qingyue followed up with an ice sword, all targeting the dog’s vulnerable neck and abdomen.
The yellow dog struggled a couple of times—then collapsed to the ground, motionless.
Everyone stood there panting, barely believing they were still alive. Lu Weiyi looked again and confirmed: the wound on the dog’s nose had completely vanished.
The healing ability he had always dreamed of… had appeared on a dog.
Unbelievable.
Antonio let go of Lu Weiyi’s arm. Lu Weiyi stepped forward and stored the yellow dog away. Then he looked in the direction where Li Zhuang had gone to distract the black dog. From that direction, they could hear shouting and cursing—both male and female voices—but no sign of Li Zhuang himself.
“I’ll go check,” Lu Weiyi said, frowning as he scanned the group. Everyone was injured to some degree, and the blood left on the ground from killing the yellow dog might attract more zombies if they delayed.
“We’re coming too,” Antonio said.
No one else made a move to leave either. Lu Weiyi glanced at Xu Sa, whose powers were clearly drained, then at the rest, who didn’t look much better. From his spatial storage, he pulled out five crystal cores for each person, handing them out. To Liu Rui, he said:
“Take care of him.”
“Mhm,” Liu Rui said as he absorbed one crystal core and handed the rest to Xu Sa without hesitation. He was close to leveling up, but absorbing more crystal cores wouldn’t help him advance—only replenish energy. Using too many wouldn’t make much difference. Xu Sa, however, was different.
Xu Sa didn’t argue. Supported by Liu Rui, he walked forward while clutching the crystal cores in both hands and began absorbing them.
There was no way Li Zhuang could deal with the black dog alone—he had clearly lured it toward another team.
Even if sixty-seven people couldn’t kill a black dog, Lu Weiyi figured the casualties shouldn’t be too heavy. After all, their group of seven had managed to take down one. But as they got closer, the scene in front of them was shocking—
A dozen people were trapped between the sturdiest part of a half-collapsed building and a truck, boxed in. A massive black dog stood on high ground, occasionally swiping its paw down at the people below, drawing terrified, choked screams in return.
“The others… ran?” The surrounding vehicles had all disappeared except the one furthest inside. As for those hiding, it was clear they’d been left behind by their teammates. Wu Yue didn’t know what to say.
Faced with an unknown, terrifying beast, fleeing was instinct. But those left behind… how innocent they were.
This black dog was far more aggressive than the yellow one. Charging in might just mean becoming its next snack. None of the seven had rushed in to help. Antonio took out his walkie-talkie and tried calling Li Zhuang twice, but got no response.
Just as they were debating where to find Li Zhuang, a clump of dirt flew over from the outskirts, missing everyone and landing on the ground. The noise it made was drowned out by the shouting crowd, but Lu Weiyi sensed a fluctuation in energy and looked in the direction it came from.
There, in the corner of a half-collapsed second floor, stood Li Zhuang, waving at them. The building he stood on overlooked the trapped people, with a pile of rubble separating him and the black dog.
Antonio pointed toward an escape route. Li Zhuang nodded, then leapt lightly from the second floor and jogged off in that direction.
They had assumed the black dog would stay distracted by the crowd, giving Li Zhuang time to escape—but not long after Li Zhuang moved, the black dog suddenly turned and chased after him, ignoring the others.
“Shit.” The giant black dog pounced toward Li Zhuang. He swore, slammed on the brakes, and barely dodged in time.
The seven of them were right up ahead, but the black dog acted as if it hadn’t noticed them, choosing instead to confront Li Zhuang head-on.
“Is this thing… holding a grudge?” Wu Yue asked.
No one had time to answer. The black dog suddenly spat four fireballs, each the size of a fist, surrounding Li Zhuang in flames.
“Fire-type,” Xu Sa observed.
Liu Rui’s eyes lit up—he had only gotten three fire-type cores in total: one from a kill, and two from trades at the exchange. He was the only fire-ability user in the group, so Lu Weiyi had given them all to him. Fire-type cores had noticeably more energy than other types, and Liu Rui couldn’t help but feel tempted.
It was clear the black dog wasn’t going to let Li Zhuang go. And they couldn’t just abandon him—this wasn’t a guaranteed-death scenario yet. Without another word, the seven turned and charged toward the black dog, powers blazing.
The black dog not only had powers, but its combat ability was a full tier above the yellow dog’s. Even with eight people attacking together, they only managed to leave a few shallow wounds. It dodged effortlessly and counterattacked freely. Whether close-range or distance, the team couldn’t gain the upper hand—it quickly turned into a stalemate.
Aside from occasionally spitting fireballs, the black dog would dodge their powers, leap away from their weapons, and maintain control of the field.
“It’s trying to wear us down—drain our powers and stamina,” Wu Yue said grimly. “It’s practically evolved.”
Only now did they all realize what was happening. But they’d just burned through most of their strength fighting the yellow dog. This was far from ideal.
“Should we try the same tactic again?” Antonio asked.
“We can,” Xu Sa, the key to the plan, replied.
Antonio once again grabbed Lu Weiyi. Liu Rui hurled a fireball at the black dog’s face. As it dodged, Lu Weiyi used his green vine to entangle it. Xu Sa’s lightning attack immediately followed—but…
The black dog, sensing it had been bound, dug its claws into the ground, spun its body forcefully, and rolled sideways, yanking Lu Weiyi toward it. Antonio, who was holding tightly onto Lu, was also pulled forward. At that exact moment, as Xu Sa’s lightning struck, the black dog swiped a sharp claw directly at Lu Weiyi’s forehead.
Lu Weiyi couldn’t recall what those people were thinking when they destroyed themselves with their crystal cores in his past life.
But right now, what flashed through his mind were Zhuang Mingxu’s crippled legs…
He still hadn’t healed his legs. He absolutely could not die!
If only this thing could be stored in the spatial dimension…
Countless thoughts flashed through Lu Weiyi’s mind, but they didn’t stop him from focusing his mental energy into a protective barrier around himself.
Just as the black dog’s claws were about to strike—
“What just happened?”
“Where’d the dog go?”
A flurry of powers had been hurled toward the black dog, but instead of hitting, they all collided with each other in midair—the black dog was gone.
“Huh?” Lu Weiyi felt his mental shield get lightly brushed, but that was it. He blinked, looked around—the others were also confused.
“Uh… uh…” Lu Weiyi stared into his spatial dimension, where the black dog stood, alert and growling, looking around warily. He was momentarily stunned. Then the familiar ripple of space came—Lu Weiyi quickly used his mental power to move the black dog into the stasis space on the shadow side.
“What happened?” Li Zhuang asked.
“It… got sucked into the spatial dimension,” Lu Weiyi replied, then used his mental power to slash the dog’s neck inside the frozen space. The blade left a mark, but no blood flowed. Worried it might still be clinging to its last breath, he didn’t hesitate—he severed the entire head, then carefully extracted the crystal core.
“Just… just like that?” It felt like facing a final boss villain, only to kick it to death in one shot—Xu Sa couldn’t quite accept it.
“Then why don’t I release it again so you can fight it some more?” Lu Weiyi rolled his eyes at him.
“No, no need.” Xu Sa waved his hands quickly.
“Let’s get out of here. We shouldn’t stay long.” Li Zhuang looked around cautiously and spoke urgently.
Due to the collapsed floor, the previously agreed rendezvous point was unreachable. The eight of them, all injured, hadn’t gone far before they attracted the attention of zombies. After finally escaping the flour factory, Lu Weiyi pulled out two cars from his space, which allowed them to break free.
They followed the likely path taken by the other group and soon saw three parked vehicles. The eight of them returned to their original cars, too exhausted to say a single word.
I wish they could have made friends with the big black dog