Flora Bloom noticed him sizing her up, saw the doubt in his eyes, and rolled her own at him. "Wipe that doubt off your face!" she snapped. "Hurry up! If it doesn’t die, we will! Stop dawdling!" At the same time, she retorted inwardly, ’My water isn’t ordinary water, either!’

Lex Cross found her tone refreshing, but now wasn’t the time to analyze it. He said no more, unleashing one bolt of lightning after another on the zombie cow. He gripped his combat dagger, waiting for a chance to strike.

The man seemed to have an innate talent for battle, knowing the quickest way to draw an enemy’s aggro. After just a few hits, the zombie cow charged him, its eyes blazing with fury.

Seizing the opportunity, Flora Bloom rushed in from behind the zombie cow. She leaped up and vaulted onto its back. The move was familiar to her from her past life, but in her reborn body, she clearly lacked the hardened physique she’d once honed. The moment she landed, she was thrown around several times before she could grab a horn and steady herself.

The zombie cow knew it had been tricked and tried to repeat its earlier attack, its flames burning even more intensely. But because Lex Cross’s lightning bolts kept striking its injured eye, it was consumed with the desire to kill the man who was toying with it, to tear him limb from limb. It completely ignored Flora Bloom’s presence.

The corner of Flora Bloom’s mouth curled up as a deep blue liquid enveloped her entire body. The zombie cow’s flames were powerful, and they warred with her Water Ability in a mutually destructive stalemate. Neither could gain the upper hand.

To keep from falling, she held tight to one horn, but her body was still being flung about as if she could be thrown to the ground at any moment.

’Bad move. He made holding onto the horn with one hand look so easy. Who knew it would be this difficult for me?’

To steady herself and avoid falling, Flora Bloom put all her strength into it, viciously stabbing her dagger into the zombie cow’s good eye.

"ROAR!"

"ROAR!"

The zombie cow shrieked in pain, its cry even louder than before. Flora Bloom was already prepared. The Space Spirit Water sprinkled down on her and Lex Cross like a shower of blossoms.

The cool spiritual water seeped through their skin, quickly reviving them.

Especially Flora Bloom. She licked a drop of spiritual water from the corner of her lip, a confident light blooming in her eyes. One hand gripped the horn, the other the dagger embedded in the cow’s eye. She let the zombie cow buck and rear, refusing to get down.

The flames on the zombie cow flared, brightly illuminating this section of the upper Perilla River.

At the center of these flames was an elvenly delicate girl, her face a mask of solemnity and endurance. She radiated a gentle, deep blue glow that was especially eye-catching amidst the fire.

Lex Cross looked at the brave and resolute woman before him. In this environment, she was like a formidable female War God—a fresh, pretty face, clear and determined eyes, and a petite body that seemed to hold world-shattering power. The way her little red tongue darted out to lick her lips was both charming and sexy, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

In Lex Cross’s eyes, the girl’s tenacity and fervor were a stark contrast to her delicate gentleness from that one night.

If it weren’t for the crisis at hand, he could have easily lost himself in her valiant, heroic bearing. His eagle-like eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at Flora Bloom, as if locking onto his prey.

"My superpower is almost depleted! Why don’t you hurry up and attack it? What are you staring at me for? Are you crazy? I’m almost done for!"

Flora Bloom’s hands gripping the dagger and horn had almost lost all strength. If not for the support of her Space Spirit Water, she would have already been completely exhausted.

But this man before her was the real deal.

After she yelled at him, the man’s figure suddenly flickered, as if melting into the darkness, becoming impossible to see with the naked eye. His shadow appeared within the zombie cow’s shadow, then vanished again.

Flora Bloom was secretly shocked. ’What! The apocalypse has only been going on for a week, and this man has already awakened two superpowers? A Dual Ability User! In my past life, according to statistics, only one percent of the world’s three-billion-plus population survived. And among that one percent, the ratio of those who awakened superpowers was a mere one in a hundred thousand.’

’The Thunder Element is already known as the strongest offensive superpower. In the later stages, a large-scale lightning attack could let one person take on a small zombie horde. And Dual Ability Users are even rarer. At any rate, I’ve never heard of anyone like that existing.’

’Just who is this man? Not only did he awaken the strongest Thunder Element, but he also awakened a second superpower?’

’And this ability to merge into shadows and darkness isn’t simple invisibility. Feeling the Dark Element energy in the air... this guy’s second superpower is actually a Dark Element ability. That’s just completely overpowered, isn’t it?’

Suddenly.

"ROAR!"

A piercing shriek that echoed through the clouds erupted from the zombie cow’s mouth. Flora Bloom thought it was activating another ability and readied the spiritual water in her hand. But then she saw the flames on the zombie cow gradually extinguish, and at the same time, its huge body went limp and crashed to the ground.

Flora Bloom couldn’t dodge in time. She wanted to jump away but found her limbs were sore, numb, and weak. She could barely even move her fingers from the horn. Her superpower had been depleted for the second time in just a few minutes.

As the dirt-smeared man in front of her steadily caught her falling body, Flora Bloom only had time to give his sour-smelling, blood-caked arm a disgusted push before he started carrying her toward her home.

She looked back at the corpse of the fallen zombie cow, her eyes wide.

A single gash ran from the cow’s head to its tail, clearly inflicted in one clean, unstoppable motion. Its innards spilled onto the ground in a gooey mess. It was a gruesome death.

’I absolutely cannot make an enemy of someone like this,’ Flora Bloom suddenly thought. ’He’s this strong right at the start of the apocalypse. In the future, he’ll be a force that ordinary people like me could never hope to oppose. Even with my space, I have to be extremely careful.’

The battle on the side of Vert and Flora Bloom’s other little pets had also mostly concluded. Aside from a few special forces soldiers with minor injuries, everyone else was unharmed.

When he carried her over, everyone stared at the two of them strangely. The undisguised curiosity in their odd gazes made Flora Bloom feel uncomfortable.

"Put me down. Now." The stench of gore from his body was making Flora Bloom sick, so she yelled at the man, but he ignored her.

"You absolutely reek. I’m going to throw up."

Lex Cross paused. He looked at her disheveled face, threatening him without an ounce of strength left, and the corners of his handsome, thin lips curled up slightly. The smile was like a lone star illuminating the night sky.

"My apologies, then. You’ll just have to bear with it."

Flora Bloom was stunned. ’How can someone be so shameless and unreasonable? Was my disgust not obvious enough?’

But his next words struck Flora Bloom like a lightning bolt, and her brain shut down.

"To be honest, I still prefer the delicate version of you from that night. It truly captured my heart," Lex Cross murmured into Flora Bloom’s ear, his warm breath tickling her earlobe and sending a shiver down her spine.

"BOOM!"

Flora Bloom’s mind went blank. She stared at the face of the man holding her in disbelief.

"’That night?’"

The only "that night" she’d ever had in this life was the one from over two months ago. She stared blankly at Lex Cross as her heart began to pound violently. But a chill started to spread through her.

"That night... it was you?!"

Hearing Flora Bloom’s words, Lex Cross’s handsome brows furrowed sharply. He looked at her, a flash of anger in his eyes.

"You really don’t remember me?" ’After a night as intense as that one with me, she doesn’t remember me? This is a serious blow to a man’s pride!’

His question took Flora Bloom aback. She averted her face.

"Am I supposed to remember you? Let me go!"

"You’ll remember." The pride in Lex Cross’s voice as he said it made Flora Bloom want to tear her hair out. Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time to argue with him.

She unconsciously touched her lower abdomen, her heart feeling like it was about to beat out of her chest.

’Is this man Polly’s father? He has the same handsome nose and thin lips. And those eyes... they always seem to hold the light of stars, drawing you in with a single glance. They’re like an endless abyss; if you’re not careful, you’ll be hopelessly lost.’

’It wasn’t obvious at a glance, but a closer comparison revealed it: Polly really did inherit her father’s features completely. Only her fair skin is like mine. If you ignore the zombie fluids and filth staining his appearance, this man has healthy, masculine, wheat-colored skin.’

As Flora Bloom was carefully comparing the features of Polly and the man before her, she unconsciously asked, "What’s your name?"

Lex Cross only knew that something was very off about the woman in his arms. She was staring at his face nonstop. It wouldn’t be right to say she was infatuated with his looks. The way she was looking at him made him feel like his face was a product being appraised for sale.

Seeing that she was asking for his name, Lex Cross’s mood improved, and he quirked his lips into a smile.

"My name is—" He was about to speak but seemed to think of something, pausing for a moment before continuing, "My name is Lex Cross."

The cool, deep male voice sent a shiver through Flora Bloom. She recalled that it was this same voice that had been whispering in her ear all that night. But she couldn’t remember what it had said. She just felt her face flush, and she turned away to hide it.

"What’s this? Feeling shy now?"