Ashen God
Chapter 36: Killing the Licker

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Killing the Licker

Two hours later, Zhang Yanhang was walking along a street littered with corpses yet eerily silent; he had just eliminated a large group of zombies here, around fifty or sixty in number. These zombies huddled together inexplicably like Adélie penguins seeking warmth in a circle.

Seeing this, Zhang Yanhang casually tossed a few M57 fragmentation grenades towards the center of the group, to let them feel a final touch of warmth before death. Honestly, he felt that this was a fairly desirable way to go, almost on par with fairytale characters, such as Little Red Riding Hood, who could only keep warm with a match.

In fact, it might have been better than Little Red Riding Hood, considering even a large basket of matches couldn’t compare to the heat of a grenade explosion.

Besides, even without comparing them to fairytale characters like Little Red Riding Hood but to other zombie fellows instead, it was at least an above-average way to die. After all, the worst off were those zombies that engaged in close combat with Zhang Yanhang, a significant number of whom were torn in half, and then there were those classic deaths like having their heads crushed by refrigerator doors or car doors.

As Zhang Yanhang’s mind wandered, his very diluted version of an Enemy Seeking Radar, named Crisis Warning, suddenly activated, signaling the presence of monsters nearby capable of threatening him. There were three in total, located to his right, behind, and above.

Just as Zhang Yanhang wondered what ’above’ meant, a Licker that had been clinging to the exterior wall of a building had already leaped up, using the street lamps to perform a double jump, and pounced towards Zhang Yanhang mid-air, its sharp, crimson tongue targeting his waist.

With a soft ’pthuck,’ an ’utterly unguarded’ Zhang Yanhang felt a sudden pain in his left waist, and before his eyes emerged a repulsive, blood-red monster with exposed muscle fibers and limbs laid flat against the ground.

Its limbs had mutated to be utterly unhuman-like, having huge, clawed hands with only four fingers, and moreover, the monster, having overfed on zombies, had an overdeveloped brain that had forcibly split the skull to be exposed.

Then, the most important feature, which also gave the creature its name, was a razor-sharp, crimson, pointed tongue that was now connected to Zhang Yanhang’s left waist.

Was the Licker unwilling to retract its tongue? No, it was Zhang Yanhang who firmly grasped the tongue, forcibly stopping the Licker’s next move.

"You think you can hit me and just run? You think you can get away with that?" Zhang Yanhang infused his hands with Spiritual Power for an enhanced defense, completely ignoring the sharp edges of the Licker’s tongue, intending to use the tongue to yank the Licker towards him.

As the strongest muscle of the human body, and also the namesake of the creature, the Licker’s tongue functioned perfectly to bear the transferred force. Even though the Licker struggled, its limbs digging deep claw marks into the pavement, it was all in vain.

In just two seconds, Zhang Yanhang, with a ferocious smile, had dragged the Licker face-to-face with him, "What a quaint little thing you are. Let’s see how your brain differs from a zombie’s..."

Zhang Yanhang raised his right fist and smashed it onto the Licker’s exposed brain. With a smack, the Licker’s overstrained, crimson tongue was crushed by the force of its own teeth snapping shut, and at the same time, Zhang Yanhang slammed the Licker’s head hard against the ground. Tiles shattered instantly as the blood-red, hideous body of the Licker convulsed weakly a couple of times before falling silent.

[Successfully killed First Tier Two-star Monster ’Licker (ordinary)’ ×1, Soul points +6.]

"That’s it? That’s it? That’s it?" Zhang Yanhang made no attempt to hide his classic taunts as he spoke to the corpse of the first monster that had managed to injure him since his arrival in the Ashen World.

As Zhang Yanhang was taunting the Licker, another Licker leaped out of thin air from behind him, and without learning its lesson, aimed to attack Zhang Yanhang with its tongue again, but unlike the previous Licker that had targeted Zhang Yanhang’s waist, this one aimed for his head.

Zhang Yanhang turned around and grabbed the bright red tongue that the Licker thrust towards his head with his right hand. Then, using the force of inertia, he swung the Licker straight onto a streetlight on the sidewalk.

With a loud bang, the metal lamppost twisted into a strange shape under Zhang Yanhang’s immense strength, while the Licker that had foolishly attempted a sneak attack was smashed into a ’ɔ’ shape, its spine instantaneously shattered, losing its ability to move.

It must be said that zombies are indeed zombies; even in such a state, the Licker was still not dead but clung to a faint life force. Although it was the sort that would die on its own if left unattended for a while, to avoid any complications, Zhang Yanhang still took out his M4A1 assault rifle and fired a shot into its head for good measure.

[Successfully killed First Tier Two-star Monster ’Licker (ordinary)’ ×1, Soul points +6.]

"That’s it? That’s it? That’s it?" Having killed two Lickers, Zhang Yanhang once again spared no effort in taunting the corpses of the Lickers.

The only reason the first Licker had managed to injure him was that he wanted to test whether the Licker’s attack power could cause him defense-breaking damage, but the second Licker definitely didn’t get that chance because by then, Zhang Yanhang knew that monsters of this level were capable of injuring him.

The fight might have seemed lengthy, but in reality, only a few seconds had passed when a Licker finally hopped out from a shop on the right side of the street, arriving too late. If it had been under normal circumstances, the three Lickers should have been able to flank the enemy, but unfortunately, Zhang Yanhang killed too quickly, leaving them with no chance to surround him.

This Licker, whether it had become smarter or had some other reason, did not immediately pounce to attack Zhang Yanhang.

But Zhang Yanhang wasn’t interested in wasting time with it in a staring contest. He switched his M4A1 to automatic mode and casually fired half a clip at the Licker.

Ratatat! After a burst of intense gunfire, another mutilated Licker corpse, riddled with holes, was added to the sidewalk across the street.

[Successfully killed First Tier Two-star Monster ’Licker (ordinary)’ ×1, Soul points +6.]

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