For a moment, the muffled sounds from below continued without end.

The man, lying on the ground, had now taken more than ten kicks from Vikram, yet he hadn’t uttered a single sound.

When he threw the explosives earlier, he never intended to kill Vikram with them.

After all, these bombs were entirely handmade by them; they weren’t even blueprint items.

They were barely strong enough to kill Zombies when tied to them, so they were just used to scare people.

His real escape plan was to trick the opponent by playing dead.

In the middle of the night, being overlooked was very possible.

He knew that if he were discovered, he would definitely not have a good end, so even though Vikram had already broken several of his ribs, he dared not make a sound.

While he was trying to endure the pain, Vikram was having a blast on his back.

He was already doing a street dance in place, repeatedly desecrating the body.

"Ouch?!" While having fun, he suddenly slipped, his left foot sliding down his buttocks, and the sole of his foot felt something being crushed.

Before he could wonder, the figure beneath his foot instantly stood up.

"Ah!" The man who had endured again and again finally cried out, clutching his crotch, his scream utterly horrifying.

After a long while, the screams gradually subsided.

Looking at the smiling Vikram, the man’s face was ashen, and he pointed at Vikram, angrily saying, "You... you beast, you definitely did that on purpose."

"Nonsense, what else?" He said, forming his right hand into a fist and punching his left eye without hesitation.

The man, who hadn’t realized his current predicament, was immediately sent flying. When he got up again, his eye socket was completely red.

Sitting on the ground, he watched Vikram’s approaching steps and kept retreating, "Don’t come over, my boss is Snape. If you dare to kill me, you won’t have a good ending."

"Snape?" Hearing this name, Vikram felt a slight impression, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

He pondered for a moment, stroking his forehead, but couldn’t recall.

"Never mind, I’ll know everything once I get your wrist." He didn’t intend to waste time slowly interrogating; cutting off a wrist was the most effective and tried-and-true method.

With that, he raised his long blade, ready to end the opponent with one strike.

But just then, an unexpected change occurred. From the black mist behind the opponent, several pairs of sharp claws suddenly extended, at some unknown time.

They now grabbed his head and shoulders, dragging half of his body into the black mist in the blink of an eye.

Seeing this scene, Vikram broke out in a cold sweat, immediately thinking of the Legendary Zombie from the Hospital back then.

But this idea was immediately discarded, because these claws clearly belonged to different Zombies.

Seeing that his source of information was about to be dragged away, with the opponent hidden in the black mist, he followed quickly.

Now that he was close enough, Vikram’s vision was clear. He took the opportunity to see what was happening inside the black mist.

He had a clear view of the situation.

In his line of sight, a dense swarm of zombies was gripping the man’s body, frantically tearing and biting at him. Right before Vikram’s eyes, the man was gnawed into a bloody mess.

The man didn’t even make a sound when he was grabbed because a zombie’s sharp claws had already pierced his eyes, instantly ending his life.

Even Vikram, who had killed so many people before, felt his stomach churn at the sight of this disgusting scene.

"How could so many zombies suddenly appear?" Frowning deeply, Vikram looked at the Bio Detector.

To his dismay, it wasn’t just the man being torn apart who had a group of zombies behind him. In the black mist all around, large hordes of zombies were surging toward the territory like a tide.

The flashing dots on the detector also showed that more zombies were continuously approaching.

His gaze shifted slightly. When he looked at the gnawed man again, the man had already been reduced to scattered white bones on the ground. After being torn apart by numerous zombies, not a single drop of flesh or blood was left.

What made him even more uncomfortable was that after these zombies finished eating, they all started moving toward him.

"Divya, call the Fiery here!" he shouted, while at the same time taking out the M416, which he hadn’t used for many days.

"Okay!" Divya shouted and quickly disappeared.

"Phanty, now start the massacre. Not a single zombie should be left alive."

At the same time, he started firing at the zombies without caring about the noise.

After all, they had already reached near his territory. If he didn’t do something now, they would eventually block his path and stop his travels.

The horde of zombies surged forward like a black tide, their guttural roars filling the air as they shambled and sprinted toward the territory.

Vikram stood firm, M416 raised. "Let’s clean this up."

The Phantom Druid vanished into shadow the moment the order was given. It reappeared like a ghost behind a group of zombies, its blade flashing in deadly arcs. Heads rolled silently as the shadowy figure danced through the horde, leaving a trail of severed necks and collapsing bodies.

"Fiery! Icy! Stormy! Earthy! Come!" Vikram shouted.

The Sprouts arrived almost instantly.

The Fire Mage Druid floated forward, its small hands glowing bright orange. With a wave, a sweeping wall of flames erupted, engulfing dozens of zombies in roaring fire. Their rotten bodies ignited like dry kindling, filling the air with the sickening smell of burning flesh.

The Ice Mage Sprout followed, raising both hands. Sharp ice spikes shot out like bullets, piercing through zombie heads and freezing their bodies solid mid-stride. Several zombies shattered into frozen chunks as they fell.

The Storm Mage Sprout hovered above, summoning dark clouds. Bolts of lightning cracked down repeatedly, electrocuting groups of zombies and leaving them twitching on the ground. Strong winds whipped up, throwing lighter zombies off balance and making them easy targets.

The Earth Mage Sprout slammed its hands on the ground. The earth trembled as jagged stone spikes erupted upward, impaling multiple zombies at once. Deep crevices opened, swallowing several more into the frozen ground.

Vikram himself moved like a predator. He fired controlled bursts from the M416, each shot finding a zombie’s head with deadly accuracy. When they got too close, he switched to his alloy long saber, slashing through them with powerful, efficient strokes.

The Phantom Druid was the most terrifying of all. It flickered in and out of visibility, using Mist Clones to confuse the horde before delivering lethal Shadow Assassinate strikes from behind. Entire groups of zombies fell without ever realizing what had hit them.

In just a few minutes, the area in front of the territory had turned into a gruesome battlefield. Broken bodies, frozen corpses, charred remains, and impaled zombies littered the snow. The once overwhelming horde was rapidly thinning out under the coordinated assault of Vikram and his Plant Sprouts.

Vikram lowered his rifle, breathing steadily as he surveyed the carnage. The ground was soaked with blackish blood and littered with crystal cores waiting to be harvested.

"Not bad," he muttered, a cold smile forming on his lips. "Keep going. Leave none alive."

The Sprouts responded with renewed vigor, continuing their ruthless massacre.

—

With one final sweep of flames from the Fire Mage Sprout and a decisive slash from the Phantom Druid’s blade, the last zombie collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud. Blackish blood stained the snow for dozens of meters around.

Vikram lowered his M416, his breathing steady as he surveyed the carnage. Hundreds of zombie corpses lay scattered across the frozen ground, some charred, some frozen solid, some impaled by earth spikes, and many decapitated by the Phantom Druid’s shadow strikes.

The massacre was complete.

"Not a single one left," Vikram muttered with satisfaction, lowering his rifle.

Just then, hurried footsteps approached from behind. Divya, Sophia, and Anjali came running out of the territory, their faces filled with worry and urgency.

"Vikram!" Divya called out first, her eyes scanning him for injuries.

"Are you okay?" Sophia asked, breathing heavily as she reached him.

Anjali arrived a step behind, eyes wide as she took in the sea of corpses. "So many zombies... Vikram, you fought all of them?"

Vikram gave them a reassuring smile. "I’m fine. The Sprouts helped a lot."

The three women looked at the battlefield with a mix of awe and slight discomfort. The sheer number of dead zombies was overwhelming.

After confirming Vikram was unharmed, Divya’s expression turned serious. "Then let’s not waste time. These crystals... we should collect them quickly."

Without hesitation, the three women, along with a few Sprouts, began moving through the battlefield. They crouched down beside the corpses, carefully cutting open heads and chests to extract the faintly glowing Zombie Crystals.

Anjali, despite her usual playful nature, worked diligently, her small hands moving with surprising efficiency. "There’s one here!" she called out, holding up a crystal with a bright smile.

Sophia moved gracefully between the bodies, collecting crystals while occasionally glancing at Vikram with concern. "These will be very useful for strengthening everyone."

Divya worked the fastest, her movements precise and focused. "If we can gather enough, we can distribute them to the new members as well."

Vikram stood back and watched them with a soft expression. The sight of his three women working together in the bloody snow after such a fierce battle gave him a strange sense of warmth and satisfaction.

In just twenty minutes, a decent pile of Zombie Crystals had been collected. The girls’ hands and clothes were stained with dark blood, but none of them complained.

Vikram walked over and gently wiped a smear of blood from Anjali’s cheek. "Good work. Let’s head back inside. We’ll sort these crystals properly."

The three women nodded, their faces showing a mix of exhaustion and quiet pride as they followed him back toward the territory.

---

While going towards the home, Divya spoke in a composed tone, "How did the Zombies get attracted here? Once we know the reason, we’ll have a way to prevent this from happening again."

Hearing this, Vikram nodded. Earlier, he had no clue about the sudden zombie horde, but Divya’s reminder instantly made him realize the cause.

There were only a few ways to attract zombies, the smell of blood, sight, and sound. While the first two could draw them in, they clearly couldn’t summon such a massive number at once. That left only sound.

"The commotion from the fighting definitely wasn’t enough. The only possibility is the sound from that previous dynamite explosion," Vikram said, his expression darkening.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but curse that little punk again in his heart. Vikram had always been careful not to use loud firearms when killing people, and when he did, they had silencers. But that guy, one single grenade had drawn all these zombies.