The mutated beast corpse slashed at the captain's head with great accuracy. He had to use his short sword to block.
'Clang'
The sound of metal against metal was heard and the captain was flung away by the sheer force.
When he got up his face held a surprised expression, but he didn't hesitate to run away at full speed.
When the both of them clashed, the beast threw him back by a least three thousand meters which gave him more than enough time to run.
'As expected of a mutated beast that nearly broke through to the next realm.' Captain said inwardly as he raced into outer parts of the corroded zone.
By the time he turned around, the corpse was already chasing him. Maybe because it was just a new corpse or because its realm was too high, the crimson tree had not drained out all its blood.
And even the skin was not too dried out. It looked like it was still decaying as some pieces were still being devoured by maggots which made the running corpse behind him look... disgusting.
Its saggy flesh was shaking awkwardly as pieces of rotten flesh fell to the ground. The walking corpse still oblivious to this though.
The captain shook his head and thought of how he could escape from such rotten monstrosity. Maybe if he ran away from the tree's range could he be free but he didn't know how far it was.
Just as he leapt over a tree, he saw Grey hiding in the shadows and skinning a dead mutated rabbit. His eyes widened in surprise as he took a defensive position to the intruder.
But when he saw what was chasing the man, his already widened eyes was shaken with fear and he immediately left whatever he was doing and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
The captain seeing a kid who was no older than 17 was also surprised. He thought that he could fight against this corpse together with Grey, or at least escape while the corpse was busy with him.
So he picked up his pace and ran to Grey who was running at the fastest his body could. When he saw the captain by his side, his expression deepened into a frown.
"Change route, this is your battle not mine. Let me be." He said in his usual nonchalant voice as he secretly studied the captain.
And from his observations, he could tell immediately that he was strong. Even though he had ran quite the distance away, the Captain had caught up to him rather easily and with no sign of effort on his face.
His spirit energy fluctuations were telling him that he was at least in the seventh realm of qi condensation. Which was a lot higher than his.
The captain smiled softly when he heard Grey. "I don't think you understand what's at stake here kid, if that corpse is through with me it will definitely come for you."
"And why would you think so?" His eyes were calm, too calm for anyone his age that it was almost cold. Looking at his calm gaze, the captain felt a little tense. That he was not looking at a little kid, but a cold-hearted veteran.
But luckily, he really was telling the truth. "If you don't believe me, look at your most recent kill."
The strange request made him to look back and he felt the hair on his head all stand up in fear.
The former dead mutated rabbit was now up and running, with black fog coming out of the wounds he had inflicted before it died.
It eyes were filled with the black fog as well as it ran along side the corpse. It was obvious the black fog from the corpse turned the dead beast into an undead.
When he looked at the captain, he saw the several scratches and injuries on his body, with the black fog trying to seep in but couldn't due to the presence of life force.
They passed by several mutated beasts on the way but when they all saw the corpses chasing them, they ran away with fear. It was clear that they wouldn't be able to escape easily today.
"Then let's run deeper into the corroded zone. I doubt it will continue due to the presence of the bizarre existences." Grey said.
"That's a good idea, but your forgeting that the bizarre entities may instead chase us. The corpses don't have spirit energy fluctuations due to having no life force. It will be easy for the corpses to be ignored. But can the same be said about us?"
Grey mulled over that thought before speaking. "Then what do we do?"
"Our only chance is to fight against it together and try to get as far away from the crimsom tree as possible. Cause if i die, i'll definitely be coming for you next." The captain said with urgency. The corpses had managed to close the distance between them and were now just a few meters behind.
It was clear that they couldn't outrun them for long.
"Alright, you are at the fourth realm. So you should at least be able to hold your ground for a while. Do you have any weapons?" To which Grey shook his head.
"Then how will you fight?" The captain said in surprise.
"I'll manage. What will you do in the meantime?"
"Me? Well i'll fight of course. Wasn't i the one to bring this damn bastard here." Before he had even finished talking, he had unsheathed his short sword.
Holding the sword in his hands, it was quite a sight. Normally, cultivators didn't use weapons too much. They normally used their arts when fighting.
"Here i go..." And he had already turned back to face the corpses. The sword in his hand, he deflected a fierce slash from the undead abomination and reciprocated with his own. Only managing a deep cut.
Grey frowned, why wasn't he using his cultivation art? Why was he using just brute force.
He wanted to use this opportunity tk escape but as if hearing his thoughts, captain said. "I seriously can't defeat it on my own. I need your help."
Grey was considering whether to help or not. He only had a second left to decide.
If he didn't help and the Captain managed to escape. He could have a potential enemy on his hand. But if he helped instead, he may have an ally. Considering if really he should help. He didn't trust the captain at all due to his suspicious behavior of not using his cultivation art to fight.
***
In the next second, he turned back 180 degrees and cut fiercely with his blunt knife.
The knife buried itself deeply into the side of the mutated corpse until only the handle was showing.
'Since you aren't going to fight with everything you have, why should i?'