Chapter 78: Lord-Tier Candy

The massive abomination slammed its mutated, pillar-like feet into the cracked asphalt, sending a violent shockwave through the ground that rattled the undercarriages of every transport truck within a hundred yards.

Dark, corrosive mist poured continuously from the open pores of its greyish-black skin, hissing softly as it dissolved the frozen sand and gravel beneath its heavy stance.

Summer skidded to a light stop forty yards away, her small boots leaving shallow grooves in the dirt road.

Her dark hair fluttered in the freezing desert wind, her crimson eyes gleaming with hunger as she stared at its towering figure.

"Candy..." she muttered as her control over herself SLOWLY waned off.

[Name: Mutated Lord Zombie]

Evolution: Lord

Racial Traits: Corrosive Aberration, Unstable Core Infusion, Calcium Armor Plating

Class Skill: Corrosive Flesh Domain

Level: 45

HP: 45,000 / 45,000

Corruption: 99.8%

STR: 185| AGI: 140|CON: 210|INT: 45

Skills: Acidic Burst, Localized Corrosion Field, Seismic Slam

Summer’s eyebrows knitted together as the system processed the floating indicators.

How did it mutate into a Lord before her? Did the wilderness have enough Elites for it to mutate?

Summer was inwardly dissatisfied to see another zombie evolving higher before her. That hurt her ego.

[Dummy girl, this is a temporary evolution. This idiot swallowed a Lord core.]

’What!’ Summer became agitated, knowing someone else swallowed a candy.

’This creature has completely bypassed natural biological progression by forcibly consuming a Lord core. Its stats are dangerously inflated, making it a walking siege engine.

More importantly, it possesses the defining trait that separates a true Lord from lower-tier monsters: absolute, domain-level control over its specific elemental alignment.’ Shadow spoke more solemnly.

Unlike lower-evolution zombies that merely secreted passive toxins or acidic saliva, a Lord-tier entity could actively shape, command, and weaponize its specialty.

’But...it’s so weaker for you.’ Shadow muttered.

The swirling grey mist enveloping the monster’s shoulders suddenly condensed under its conscious will, hardening into dozens of jagged, dark green spikes hovering in the frigid air around its upper body.

With a wet, gurgling roar that shook the canvas covers of the nearby supply trailers, the abomination thrust both forearms forward.

The floating corrosive spikes shot through the air like high-caliber artillery shells, leaving dark, sizzling trails in the atmosphere as they flew straight toward Summer.

Watching the spectacle from the elevated beds of the surrounding transport vehicles, hundreds of civilian survivors gasped in collective terror.

Mothers pulled their children behind wooden supply crates, and armed guards instinctively raised their heavy metal riot shields, terrified that the stray, acid-dripping projectiles would hit the crowded civilian trucks.

"Look out!" a soldier screamed from the top of an armored transport, leaning over the side railing with his rifle drawn. "The little girl is right in the middle of the firing line!"

"Get out of the way!" several voices cried out in unison.

Farther up the column, Salma stood atop the flat roof of the lead command vehicle, her long dark coat fluttering gracefully in the desert gale.

Shadow energy swirled silently around her fingertips. Her Shadows were moving across the plains, ready to intervene at a millisecond’s notice if her daughter faced genuine mortal danger.

Yet, despite her absolute combat readiness, her expression bore no panic. Instead, a proud, deeply affectionate smile touched her lips as she looked down the road at her little girl.

’Show them, my star,’ Salma thought softly, her green eyes glowing with dark warmth. ’Show them why these pathetic worms should worship the ground you walk on.’

Summer took a step forward, and her tiny left boot cracked the frozen earth beneath her.

As the cluster of dark green corrosive spikes reached within five feet of her small frame, she swung her right arm upward in a crisp, devastating arc.

A dense wave of blended Mana and Corruption erupted from her small palm, expanding into a visible, greyish-black shockwave that tore through the air with a deafening crack.

BOOM!

The greyish-black shockwave smashed head-on into the barrage of corrosive spikes.

The kinetic force combined with her dual-core energy detonated the projectiles mid-air, shattering them into a harmless cloud of dark, vaporized mist that was immediately blown away by the biting desert wind.

Without waiting for the mist to clear, Summer used Shadow Mirage. Her small form flickered, splitting instantaneously into three identical shadow illusions that darted across the fractured asphalt from different angles.

The abomination roared in frustration, its sunken crimson eyes darting wildly between the approaching targets.

Sweeping its massive, mutated forearms in a violent horizontal arc, its calcium claws sliced through two of the flickering illusions, tearing nothing but empty air.

The real Summer emerged directly above the monster’s broad shoulders. Her Chaotic Wings burst from her back in a swirling shroud of dense shadow mana, holding her suspended in the freezing air.

Her crimson eyes flared with incandescent greed as her gaze locked onto the pulsating green core visible through the creature’s split sternum.

’My candy!’ she screamed internally.

Activating Gravity Compression, space visibly distorted around her right fist. Dense, localized gravitational force pulled inward, wrapping her small hand in a translucent sphere of pure, crushing pressure.

She brought her fist down in a brutal, vertical strike straight toward the center of the abomination’s skull.

CRACK!

The combined force of Gravity Compression and her raw Elite physical strength shattered the monster’s reinforced calcium armor plating like brittle glass. The sheer impact slammed the seven-foot-tall Lord zombie face-first into the asphalt, fracturing the dirt road into a cavernous ten-foot crater.

Before the creature could even attempt to push itself up or deploy its Localized Corrosion Field, Summer landed heavily on its back. She drove her pale hand deep into its ruptured chest cavity, her fingers clamping tightly around the warm, pulsating Lord core.

With a brutal, fluid yank, she ripped the basketball-sized green crystal cleanly out of its thoracic cage, severing its power source completely.

The giant abomination twitched violently once, its remaining HP instantly dropping to zero, before going completely limp as black, foul blood pooled beneath its massive corpse.

Standing proudly atop the dead monster, Summer raised the dripping, unpurified Lord core straight to her face. Completely ignoring the acidic gore running down her forearms, she opened her jaw and bit down with all her strength.

CRUNCH!

A sharp, resounding crunch echoed across the frozen highway as her teeth shattered the dense crystalline surface.

Rich, highly concentrated corruption energy poured down her throat like sweet syrup. She let out a long, blissed-out sigh, her chubby cheeks puffing out as she blissfully chewed the remaining fragments.

All along the convoy, silence fell.

The soldiers who had been gripping their rifles in terror stood paralyzed, their mouths hanging open. The civilians huddled inside the truck beds stared in utter shock at the eight-year-old girl who had just obliterated a Lord-tier nightmare in seconds and was now casually eating its core like hard candy.

"Did... did she just eat that?" a soldier stammered, his arms trembling.

"Why are you acting surprised, idiot? She’s a zombie; it’s her food!" Another soldier slapped the head of the first one.

"True."

"And it seems she likes to eat zombie cores so much!"

"True."

"Maybe that’s why she’s not attacking humans!"

"True."

"Fucker, say something other than true...."

"True..."

Farther ahead, Salma retracted her shadow energy with a smooth sweep of her coat, her green eyes brimming with pride.

Her gaze then shifted sideways, landing cold and sharp on Nadir Sha, who was trembling in the roadside ditch, his domain flickering weakly.

Salma raised a brow. ’An SSS+ Talent? Not bad.’

Beside the dead abomination, three soft golden lights flashed as loot dropped beside the corpse: a dark leather skill book bound in iron, a crystal vial filled with glowing purple liquid, and a pair of dark golden metallic gauntlets.