Urban Powers After the Apocalypse

The skeletons, though clumsy, never tired. It didn't take long for them to catch up with the black-jacketed young man, who was already exhausted. Knowing that escape was impossible, he grabbed a rock from the ground and swung it hard at the nearest skeleton's skull. The brittle bones caved in on impact, and a bowl-sized hole opened up in the pale, eerie skull.

"You freaks! To hell with you all!"

Seeing his attack land successfully, the young man's gangster instincts flared. He brandished the rock and fought fiercely against the relentless skeletons. Bone fragments flew as he smashed them apart, but in return, their sharp, bony fingers raked across his flesh, leaving hundreds of deep gashes. In the distance, he looked like a figure drenched in blood.

The young man, lost in battle rage, might not have noticed, but from dozens of meters away, Xu Mo saw everything clearly. Though the skeletons were knocked down at first, their shattered bones and cracked skulls astonishingly healed within seconds. Each time they collapsed, they simply got up again, resuming the fight. No matter how many times they fell, the process repeated—an absolute, undeniable immortality!

As the black-jacketed young man's stamina ran dry, the outcome was inevitable. The dozen skeletons tore his body into several pieces, their bones drenched in the crimson of his blood.

The worst corpse Xu Mo had ever seen before was merely someone shot in the head—he had never witnessed a person being ripped apart limb from limb. His stomach churned violently at the sight, and he nearly threw up his lunch.

Perhaps it was the sound of his retching, or maybe the skeletons had sensed the presence of another living being, but all at once, the bloodstained creatures turned sharply and staggered toward Xu Mo's hiding place behind the rocks.

"Damn it, these things don't even have eyes or noses, so how the hell are they so perceptive?!"

Cursing under his breath, Xu Mo sprang up from behind the rock, aimed his gun, and fired. A bullet blew off the skull of the fastest-approaching skeleton. Without hesitation, he turned and bolted—he had no interest in engaging with these infinitely reviving monsters.

However, after only a few steps, he came to an abrupt stop. Something unexpected caught his eye—the skeleton he had shot in the head had collapsed into a pile of bones and wasn't getting back up!

If there was any difference between his attack and the black-jacketed young man's, the only explanation was that his USP pistol was a transformation of an Apocalypse Shard! In other words, these skeletons weren't truly immortal—only Apocalypse Shards could inflict real damage on them!

To confirm his theory, Xu Mo fired three more shots, taking down another three skeletons permanently. His suspicions were right—these clumsy creatures' only terrifying trait was their undying nature. Now that he had a way to kill them, they were no more threatening than a bunch of animated scarecrows.

To conserve his USP's bullets, Xu Mo didn't hesitate to unleash the "Demon Hand" on his right arm. With a swift movement, he charged directly into the horde of skeletons.

Lacking intelligence, the skeletons merely followed their instincts, swarming toward him with outstretched, blood-stained claws. Against these brainless creatures that didn't even understand defense, Xu Mo saw no need for any fancy tactics. He swung the Demon Hand in wide arcs, targeting the largest bones—the ribcages and skulls. The crimson Demon Hand left streaks of blue-white light in the air, smashing bones into splinters. One by one, the skeletons were dismantled, their remains forming a mound of shattered bones around him.

"Phew! These things are slow and stupid, but when they swarm together, they really are a pain…" Standing in the midst of the blood-soaked remains, Xu Mo let out a long breath.

He no longer dared to underestimate these skeletons. Though sluggish and clumsy, they had strength comparable to humans. Their skeletal structure allowed them to cluster more tightly together, and their razor-sharp claws could strike from unexpected angles, making them difficult to defend against. If there had been more than twelve of them, the fight could have gone in an entirely different direction.

Even so, he hadn't escaped unscathed—several deep wounds now marred his body. Though none were fatal, they were enough to hinder his movements.

With no other choice, Xu Mo used one of his backup yellow Apocalypse Shards. Upon fusing with it, his wounds healed completely, and he gained a new weapon—a 40-centimeter-long kukri blade formed from the shard.

Stowing away the Demon Hand, Xu Mo picked up the kukri and cautiously advanced toward the valley ahead.

Rounding a bend, he took in the full view of the valley before him.

It was gourd-shaped, with a narrow choke point in the middle where the rock walls squeezed together, leaving only a ten-meter-wide passage. A one-meter-high barricade of rocks and sandbags had been erected at this bottleneck, where over twenty soldiers were making a desperate stand, fending off the seemingly endless army of skeletons pouring in from the other side.

On Xu Mo's side of the valley, another group of skeletons was besieging a military truck. Seven or eight soldiers atop the vehicle fired their QBZ-95 automatic rifles with deadly accuracy, pinning the skeletal attackers ten meters away, preventing them from advancing.

At first glance, it seemed the soldiers had the upper hand. But Xu Mo knew better—conventional weapons couldn't actually kill these undead creatures. At best, they could suppress them temporarily. Once their ammunition ran out, these soldiers would meet the same gruesome fate as that gangster.

Since he had a way to truly kill these creatures, Xu Mo had no intention of standing by while the soldiers fell. Whether or not they were directly connected to him, they were still thirty-something living, breathing people. More importantly, these soldiers were likely the only ones who knew the secrets of this bizarre space and how to escape it. He couldn't let them perish here.

Bursting out from his cover, Xu Mo sprinted toward the military truck, kukri in hand. The skeletons sensed his approach and immediately turned, with three of them breaking off to intercept him.

"Careful! These things can't be killed! Get over here!"

The soldiers atop the truck, hesitant to fire so close to their ally, shouted warnings instead.

But in the next moment, they watched in stunned disbelief—before the skeletons could even get close, Xu Mo's kukri swept in a horizontal arc, decapitating all three in one swift strike. Their round skulls tumbled away, and their bodies crumpled into lifeless heaps of bones.

Sensing the threat Xu Mo posed, the remaining skeletons abandoned their attack on the truck and charged at him instead. Having already suffered once from being overwhelmed, Xu Mo wasn't about to repeat that mistake. He pulled out his USP and fired several precise shots, taking down five more skeletons in an instant. The few remaining stragglers were no challenge at all—his kukri made quick work of them, reducing them to scattered remains.

With the threat neutralized, several soldiers jumped down from the truck. One, a sergeant, hurried over and saluted Xu Mo. "Thank you for your assistance! However, according to our mission protocol, we must ask you to surrender your weapons. Please comply."

"Uh…" Xu Mo hadn't expected this kind of response.

At this awkward moment, a second officer—a lieutenant—stepped in to diffuse the situation. He clapped the sergeant on the shoulder and chuckled. "Sergeant, orders are orders, but we need to use our judgment. If this guy wanted us dead, he could've just let those monsters do the job. No need to be so rigid—let him keep his weapons."

"Yes, sir," the sergeant hesitated but ultimately followed the lieutenant's command.

Thanks to Xu Mo, the soldiers no longer had to fight on two fronts. With their rear secured, they could focus their forces on reinforcing the barricade. The pressure on the front lines immediately eased.