Chapter 420: You're finished!

Chapter 420: You’re finished!

Mia lifted her head, her cold, clear eyes locking onto the creature in front of her. Her long brown hair whipped around in the night wind. “So this is a Hellhound?” she said coolly. “Other than being ugly as hell, you’re not that special.”

“You’ve got some nerve!” Hellhound’s savage eyes narrowed dangerously. Humans usually either screamed or ran for their lives the moment they saw him. But this woman? She wasn’t just unafraid—she was mocking him.

Fury roared to life inside him. He swore he’d make her regret ever crossing him—make her suffer a fate worse than death.

“Awooooo—!”

Hellhound threw his head back and howled, the sound splitting the night sky. Dark clouds churned overhead, swallowing the moon, plunging everything into pitch-black darkness.

From the nearby forest, a chorus of frenzied barking erupted, followed by the thunder of countless footsteps pounding the earth.

Out of the dense, shadowy woods, a horde of Rabies Zombies came charging.

“They’re here!” Robert’s sharp eyes narrowed.

Earlier that day, this same pack had attacked their shelter. Some of the zombies still bore fresh wounds from swords and knives.

They moved like rabid dogs—wild, crazed. Some sprinted on all fours, others on two legs, but all of them converged into a raging flood of bodies.

“Let’s do this.” Mia gripped her Tachi, arcs of electricity crackling along the blade, sizzling the air around it.

Chris and the others summoned their elemental powers, their bodies lighting up the dark night with bursts of color.

“Flame Barrier!”

“Torrent Barrier!”

One after another, they unleashed their awakened abilities, throwing up defenses against the oncoming swarm.

Above them, Hellhound’s vicious gaze locked onto Mia. He memorized her scent—no matter where she ran, he’d be able to track her down.

“You’re not getting away tonight!” he snarled.

With a powerful beat of his wings, he shot toward her, the air exploding with sonic booms in his wake.

Mia tilted her head slightly, watching him close in at breakneck speed. In the blink of an eye, he was right on top of her.

She swung her Tachi in a wide arc.

The blade sliced through the air with deadly speed.

But Hellhound didn’t even try to dodge. Instead, he reached out to grab it.

Clang!

The moment they clashed, the sound of metal striking metal rang out.

Hellhound caught Mia’s Tachi barehanded—and didn’t budge an inch. Against an S-class monster like him, even a high-grade weapon was barely enough.

Behind her, Jenny gasped. “Holy crap, he caught it with his bare hands!”

“Yeah, don’t forget—Hellhound’s got mutated bones. They’re tougher than steel,” Chris said grimly.

Jenny bit her lip. “Can Mia handle this?”

Chris just grinned. “Relax. She’s humanity’s last hope, remember?”

…

Meanwhile, the Rabies Zombies had already broken through the Flame and Torrent Barriers. They charged forward, completely fearless—even when their bodies caught fire, they didn’t stop.

Robert was the first to meet them head-on. His sword, the Blade of Justice, flashed through the air, slicing cleanly through zombie necks.

Brandon activated his Blood Burst ability, freezing several zombies in place around him.

Griffin—the guy who once got his balls kicked in—rushed forward, swinging a machete with a pink handle, hacking down zombies left and right.

“Brandon, you’re amazing~!” Griffin cheered.

“…” Brandon’s face darkened. He didn’t even want to respond. Honestly, he hadn’t wanted to bring Griffin along—he was just a newly awakened Neurocore user, not exactly powerhouse material. But the guy had insisted on tagging along…

—

Back at the center of the battlefield, Hellhound twisted Mia’s blade out of her hands, locking her down. A twisted grin spread across his face.

“Keh keh keh… Now you see how powerless you are?”

Mia just muttered under her breath, “Guess I need to push the R&D team to hurry up with the new weapons.”

“Huh???” Hellhound’s grin faltered. “That’s it?”

She was fighting him—fighting for her life—and she was thinking about weapon upgrades?

Hellhound’s rage boiled over. He swung his other claw straight for her slender neck.

“Die!” he roared.

Mia jerked her head to the side, narrowly dodging the lethal swipe.

She yanked her Tachi free and launched a flurry of slashes.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Hellhound parried with his claws, each clash ringing out like a hammer on an anvil.

They moved so fast, their bodies blurred into afterimages.

“So strong…” Jenny couldn’t help but marvel inwardly. Whether Mia could defeat Hellhound would decide the outcome of this battle—and right now, Jenny was practically holding her breath, her palms sweating with nerves.

But just as the tension peaked, Mia’s movements slowed for a split second. In that instant, Hellhound lunged and clamped his clawed hand around her wrist.

His razor-sharp nails sank deep into her flesh. Blood welled up instantly, dark and vivid against her pale skin.

“You’re finished!” Hellhound sneered triumphantly, baring his jagged fangs as he lunged straight for her head. His mouth was a nightmare of dagger-like teeth, snapping hungrily.

Mia, pinned by his grip, had no way to dodge. She could only raise her free arm to shield herself.

Chomp!

Hellhound’s teeth sank deep into her forearm. Blood sprayed out in a violent burst, splattering across his snarling, fur-covered face, making him look even more savage.

Mia stared him down, her expression eerily calm. The searing pain shot through her nerves like wildfire.

[Deadly Pain]—activated.

The numbers on the bracelet around her wrist began to climb.

[Pain Level: 38%]

Without hesitation, Mia drove her knee up hard into Hellhound’s gut.

Boom!

The impact sounded like a sledgehammer hitting steel.

Hellhound’s body shot backward like a baseball blasted out of a cannon, flying over a hundred feet before crashing to the ground and tumbling several times before finally skidding to a stop.

“What the hell…?” Hellhound growled, baring his bloodstained teeth as he staggered to his feet. “Where did that strength come from?”

Still, he figured she must be running on fumes. No way a human could take this much punishment and keep going. She was going to pay dearly for pissing him off.

He turned his head—and there she was, still standing exactly where he’d left her. Blood streamed from the wounds on her arms, the edges already turning an ominous black.

But her face… her face was calm. No fear, no pain. In fact, if anything, there was a flicker of excitement in her bright, unyielding eyes.

“What the hell? She’s not scared?” Hellhound muttered, unsettled.

Mia lifted her arm, inspecting the deep, brutal bite mark. Black veins were already spiderwebbing out from the wound, her blood vessels bulging grotesquely under her skin. The pain was intensifying, but so was something else—something almost… electric.

Hellhound’s lips curled into a cruel grin. “Heh! Not scared? Doesn’t matter. You forgot about my rabies virus, didn’t you? With my S-class infection, no human can survive!”

“Oh…” Mia responded with a soft, almost absent-minded sound, her body trembling slightly—not from fear, but from the overwhelming surge of pain and adrenaline.

Being infected by the rabies virus was pure agony, even under normal circumstances. But this wasn’t just any virus—this was the S-class strain from the Zombie King himself.

The veins around Mia’s wound glowed a sickly fluorescent blue, the infection spreading up her arm and creeping toward her pale neck. It looked horrifying.

One of her eyes began to redden, the blood vessels inside bursting one by one until the entire eye was a deep, bloody crimson.

It was the unmistakable sign of viral mutation.

Meanwhile, the numbers on her wristband kept ticking upward—39%… 40%… 41%… 42%…

Each jump in the numbers made Jenny and the others tense up even more, their hearts pounding in their chests.

“Mia… can she really survive this?”

…

Here’s a redemption code for everyone: