The Wind Mantis struck first, swooping down towards Lu Zhang with it's arms outstretched.
Instantly, Lu Zhang leapt off the first floor balcony headfirst, falling downwards as he looked up at the mantis.
The Wind Mantis increased it's speed, wings beating faster than ever as it chased Lu Zhang down, aiming to pierce through his heart before he even reached the ground.
'Stupid insect.'
As he fell, Lu Zhang's outstretched arms stopped on thin air, barely visible green ripples stretching out as he suddenly halted his descent, bunching up his legs before exploding back upwards like a spear as one Fang formed around both his feet.
With barely any time to react, the mantis changed it's diving trajectory and barely avoiding the Fang, which instead carved another bloody furrow along it's back and tearing off the majority of it's thin right wing.
'Tsk, it dodged.'
Lu Zhang used the still present Double Jump platform to leap towards the wall.
He leapt off the wall, aiming for the downed insect's head to decapitate it-
Shink!
Hastily abandoning his strike, Lu Zhang rolled across the floor, splattered in the flesh of decaying zombies.
He felt a newly made cut across his neck, fatal if it was any deeper.
'It... learnt from me?'
In that instant, the mantis had undoubtedly been falling uncontrollably and landed on the ground hard.
But it learnt to feign weakness in that small amount of time, analyzing Lu Zhang's own tactic and using it against him.
'I hate insects.'
Lu Zhang sighed as he stepped on a still living, dismembered Level 6 zombie.
Even looking at the mantis was just pissing him off.
Conversely...
He was enjoying himself far more than when he fought the Blob.
Lu Zhang speared the zombie's head with one Fang-clad leg, and flicked it towards the mantis.
The Wind Mantis let the head sail past it with a slight sway of it's body, it's legs never moving from their place as it chittered lightly.
The rest of the zombie's torso also came flying towards it, which it severed with one slash of it's scythe arm, confused by the futility of Lu Zhang's actions.
As the torso separated, congealed blood splattering in the air, a figure appeared right in front of the Mantis, barely visible through the bisected zombie's body before an azure burst of energy tore through it's right eye.
"KIIEEKKK!!" It screeched in agony, before it felt one of it's right legs being severed.
It whirled around, slashing thin air as it's disbalanced body stumbled.
Another cut was carved across it's back, tearing off it's remaining wing entirely.
And another cut that severed it's antennae at the base.
Dozens of smaller injuries began adding up, but it didn't move.
Suddenly, it croaked out a short sound. It spun around, it's scythe arm slamming down as it pierced a moving Lu Zhang's foot, pinning it to the ground.
Despite adrenaline coursing through his body preventing him from feeling the full amount of pain, the suddenly restricted range of motion was almost a death sentence for Lu Zhang.
The other scythe arm was already in motion towards his neck, unhindered by the awkward angle, forcing Lu Zhang to waste another Empty Fang to barely block it with both his hands.
For a moment, Lu Zhang thought it was a stalemate. Until the Wind Mantis reminded him of the biggest difference between the two of them.
'Right...'
'At the end of the day, you're just a beast too.'
The Wind Mantis' mandibles bore down on Lu Zhang's face without obstruction.
Crunch.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why are we going up here, uncle?" Anne asked the man who held his phone like a weapon before him.
The group of survivors was heading back up to the second floor under the man's urging.
"Shut up!" He whispered to her, raising his phone threateningly, making the little girl flinch. "There's no way those guys are making it back alive. We'll go hide before those angered monsters come up and eat us!"
Anne didn't believe him. The nice lady had promised to her that they would come back for sure.
She stopped walking up the stairs and voiced her discontent, "No. That Big Sis promised-"
Slap!
"I told you to shut up, you stupid shit. Or I'll-" He was cut off suddenly.
"You will what?" Su Yao asked from the bottom of the staircase. Fresh from the massacre her and Cai Dajiang had committed on the ground floor, she was still covered in black blood and viscera, looking like a demon.
"What will you do?" She climbed up the stairs one by one. A torn off hand was still attached to her leg.
"Y-You! I was just trying to help. You should be grateful to me!"
Listening to his blathering, a tired Su Yao assessed the situation.
'They have fear and reverence for Lu Zhang, which is good. During this time, a leader must be undisputed. But...'
'Was I too kind to them, in an effort to be a liaison?'
'They don't seem to have the same level of respect for me, and even dismissal. This is... troublesome.'
'Best to erase this from the root.'
Su Yao knelt next to Anne with a gentle smile. Despite the horrific atmosphere around her, Anne seemed to want to be on her side more than the man with the phone.
Su Yao cradled the cheek which had been slapped, her eyes going cold.
"We don't need any upstarts disrupting us from within during this crucial period."
"Huh? You- You, do you dare to do something to me? Lu Zhang saved me himself! It means you'll be angering him if you abandon me here!" The man made the source of his arrogance clear.
Su Yao raised a hand behind Anne as the girl hugged her, her palm facing towards him.
"What? Do you expect me to forgive yo-"
"[Inferno]."
A burst of flame erupted from her palm, completely covering the man. Screams of pain rang out as he writhed, trying to put out the fire, but it kept increasing.
Even though Su Yao covered Anne's ears, the smell of burning flesh filled the stairwell, the screams slowing to a halt as a charred corpse lay limp against the railing.
[Human Lv 1 killed!]
[Inferno Lv 1 -> Inferno Lv 2]
.....
[Name: Su Yao]
[Level: 8]
[Strength: 18]
[Speed: 16]
[Intelligence: 33]
[Endurance: 16]
[Stat Points: 20]
[Mana: 290/330]
[Skills: Inspect Lv 4, Inferno Lv 2]
.....
'Now it all depends on you, Lu Zhang.' Su Yao thought as Cai Dajiang climbed up the stairs, looking at the burnt body but not saying a word.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crunch.
The sound came from where the mantis' mandibles had clamped down on Lu Zhang's face.
However, it wasn't from Lu Zhang at all.
[Empty Fang Lv 6 -> Empty Fang Lv 7]
Two long Fangs had manifested around Lu Zhang's jaws, clashing against the Mantis' mandibles. The crunching sound came from the Empty Fang's digging into the insect's chitin.
Looking down at Lu Zhang's eyes, the mantis no longer saw a prey. Just another beast.
In the next instant, Lu Zhang's hand gored off the Mantis' left mandible, cracking it's right one beyond repair. This forced the injured Mantis to abandon it's grip on Lu Zhang's foot as it flew backwards to the front door it had guarded.
The situation was similar to how they had started. The Mantis in front of the only entrance and exit of the library, surrounded by tortured, half-animate or dead zombies it had eaten, Lu Zhang near the corridor leading to the stairway.
Both beings knew this couldn't continue.
While Lu Zhang could sustain his mana due to the Empty Fang's property of absorption, he couldn't afford to be injured more than this, with no way of healing. The Mantis couldn't keep fighting either, in case it was killed before it learned and adapted to Lu Zhang's level.
'One strike.'
Everything would be decided in one strike.
Lu Zhang made an Empty Fang around his right hand. The Mantis pushed it's left scythe arm into a zombie corpse, it's right scythe arm raised in preparation as well.
They both took off at the same time.
Lu Zhang's Empty Fang flew towards the Mantis' head, as it's arm sliced towards his face.
Neither party could tell in that moment, whose attack would land first.
The Wind Mantis suddenly flicked it's left arm up, the corpse impaled on it flying toward's Lu Zhang. It had learned again from him.
Even as Lu Zhang's hand punctured through the entire zombie, slowing it barely by a fraction of a second, it was enough for him to know that the Mantis' scythe would reach him before he reached it.
Death was imminent.
[Zombie Lv 8 killed!]
[Level Up!]
The sudden surge of speed from his level up made up for the obstruction of the zombie, which had never been a corpse.
Squelch!
The Empty Fang drilled through the Wind Mantis' head, exploding it entirely. An Empty Fang sprouted from Lu Zhang's elbow as it clashed against the scythe arm, blocking it.
The Mantis' corpse shuddered, flailing wildly in death before Lu Zhang stabbed both his hands through it's torso, tearing it apart.
[Wind Mantis Lv 10 killed!]
[Inspect Lv 3 -> Inspect Lv 5]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations on being the first in the world to slay a King (Prospect)!]
[Your reward has been upgraded!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations on being the first in the world to reach the First Limit!]
[Your reward has been upgraded!]
From the Mantis' body, two crystals dropped to Lu Zhang's feet. Knowing the drill now, he raised his foot, and crushed both of them at once.
Before he could see his new skills, the group of survivors came into the lobby, led by Su Yao and Cai Dajiang.
'Right.'
It was time to see the new world.
Lu Zhang took one step outside the library that had been their cage till now. The sun was rising at this moment, illuminating the city.
[Hell is empty and all the devils are here.]
Hell was the only way to describe it. In the scant few hours since the start of everything, the city had been destroyed, overrun by Beasts.
Burning buildings, screeching monsters, giant beasts and zombies roaming.
Lu Zhang looked at the sky for peace.
The sky began moving.
All of it moved, shimmering as it was revealed to be a wing so large, it covered the entire city.
A Dragon flew over the city, heralding the apocalypse.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Name: Lu Zhang]
[Level: 10]
[Strength: 17 ->26]
[Speed: 49 -> 59]
[Intelligence: 20 -> 28]
[Endurance: 17 ->26]
[Stat Points: 15]
[Mana: 280/280]
[Skills: Inspect lv 5, Empty Fang Lv 7, Double Jump Lv 4, ???, ???]
[New Fact discovered!]
[Monsters can be categorized into different levels among their race, based on their uniqueness.]