Death was looming above his head. The first time he felt this way was a few days ago. Right now, it was being repeated but with different causes.

Previously, it was a foot descending towards him, while currently, it was a pretty doll.

The pretty doll was two feet long, it was made with solid clay instead of polymers. At the moment, the pretty doll's blonde hair was already sheared off its head and it now looks like a bald doll in a horror movie.

Maybe that's also the reason why the hulking zombie no longer cared for it and just wanted to smash it towards Croco.

The doll's bald head was aimed towards Croco's left eye. He couldn't move as his arm-blade was held tight by the zombie's other hand. He's afraid that the arm-blade would snap into two if ever he forcefully retracts it.

He could do nothing other than to wait for the bald doll's descent.

"Not again, buddy!"

BOOM!

As he waited for his eyes to get pierced, Croco suddenly heard a deafening sound from another location. He also realized that the zombie was no longer in his front. He took a glance around and traced the deafening sound he heard earlier.

In the thick theater wall, a huge figure was embedded. It was the hulking zombie who almost pierced his eyes. It seems that it does really care for the doll, as even though it was already sent flying, it was still holding it tightly, though the doll had pretty much become disfigured.

Croco noticed that the zombie was missing an arm, he retracted his gaze and directed it on his arm-blade. The hand restricting him was still there, but this time, it was already cut away from its shoulder.

Croco shook the arm-blade to get rid of the hand that was stuck in it. He then looked towards his front and there he saw his savior, his master, the 'handsome' Nile.

Croco stuck his tongue out and licked Nile's raised foot. It was the foot that he used to kick the zombie away from Croco.

Croco's eyes slit to produce the best cute expression he could make. He smiled and stared directly at Nile's eyes as if saying, "Thank you! My handsome master!"

Nile felt his skin hair rise to the air like an erected column. He glared at Croco and said, "That gaze of yours... Why do I feel like you're trying to trick me?"

Croco hurriedly shook his head in denial before looking away. He stopped fawning towards his master and hatefully stared at the embedded zombie on the wall.

'It seems that a gap on stats is still a gap, huh.' Nile thought.

He checked the zombie's stats earlier and it was 14.9, it's preparing to breakthrough towards Level Two° as well. If they arrived late then the zombie might have already started its evolution and they might get a free kill that way.

A zombie evolving towards Level Two° will have its cognition turned off. To be exact, the Apocalypse Virus will focus on evolving and will only provide some basic self-defense for the body to act towards certain dangers.

It's also the case for the zombie that they have interrupted the evolution from before. It didn't fight back and only dodged their attack. It's basically a free kill for them.

A Late Stage animal will have a maximum of 11.00 stats, comparing it to the 14.9 stats of the zombie, it's no wonder that Croco and Max got repelled easily by it. He even thinks that it's not using its full strength from before.

As if it did, then Croco and Maximo wouldn't be able to last that long.

Too bad for the zombie, the two animals had a Level Two° master. And the master was also a bit protective of his two pets.

It's okay if you hurt them a little, that's part of the battle. However, if you planned on doing something nasty, like, trying to do fatal harm, then that's a no-no.

He already regretted not being there to protect Maximo from the woman before, he doesn't want the same scenario to repeat again.

Whoosh!

Nile's body blurred and reappeared in front of the zombie embedded on the wall. Its body was buried and was stuck deeply on the thick wall. One of its arms was sheared off while the other held the doll.

The zombie struggled, trying to break free from the wall's binding, but unfortunately, it couldn't.

Shing! Shing!

The sound of a shear being snipped echoed as Nile moved his fingers closed and open. "This is the arm that wanted to blind, Croc? Quite thick… too bad it would cease to exist after this!"

Swoosh!

Using the shear, Nile sheared the zombie's remaining arm completely.

Kyaaah!

It produced a dreadful scream as it glared hatefully at Nile. As he was about to cut its head off to end its life, two humongous figures suddenly appeared in the corner of his eyes.

The two figures were Croco and Maximo. The look at Nile with pleading eyes.

He felt confused and stared at the two pets for a minute. Inside his mind, the two suddenly express their intentions using the earrings of loyalty.

"You two wanted to kill the zombie yourselves?" Nile inquired for confirmation.

The two animals nodded their head meekly. They look like a child, requesting a new toy from their parent. Or a child who was being denied to come along towards the mall or amusement parks.

"I see… I understand."

The shear glowed with red as it transformed itself into a ring.

"Alright!"

He said as he grabbed the collar of the zombie's shirt.

Swoosh!

Nile threw the zombie's body up in the air like a student throwing a cap high in the air during a graduation ceremony.

"It's all yours!"

Hearing the permission from their master, Croco and Maximo's eyes suddenly lit up. Their previous meek expression was long gone and was now only the thing of the past.

Grinning from ear to ear, the two leaps up to welcome the descending body of the zombie, like a grandmother welcoming her only grandchild.

_________

Top 100 = 1 Bonus Chap

Top 90 = 2 Bonus Chaps