Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Chapter 57

Jowe immediately turned his head toward her, his sharp eyes narrowing. "Created it? Do you have any idea what you’re saying? Zombies are the result of infections and mutations. There’s no way someone could manufacture a creature like that, especially one of this size. You should be more careful about throwing around ridiculous theories when you don’t understand what you’re looking at."

Ingrid stared at him for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Oh, really? And I suppose everything else happening in this world is perfectly normal? We’ve got zombies, Beastmen, awakened abilities, and whatever that giant monstrosity is supposed to be, but the idea that someone might have created it is where you draw the line?" She folded her arms as much as Lysander’s hold allowed, giving him an unimpressed look. "If you don’t have an explanation for its condition, just say so instead of acting like you know everything."

Jowe’s eyebrows rose, and his expression grew noticeably colder. "You don’t know anything about me, so don’t presume to judge what I do or don’t know. I have spent years training with the Hunter’s Guild, and I don’t make conclusions based on wild guesses. If you have evidence that this creature was created, then show it to me. Otherwise, stop distracting us while we’re trying to deal with an immediate threat."

Ingrid glared right back at him. "And you don’t know anything about me either, so don’t talk to me like I’m stupid. I just spent the last several minutes running for my life from that thing, and I had a much better view of its body than you did. I’m telling you what I observed, not asking for your permission to have an opinion."

This man annoyed Ingrid with his know it all attitude. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was trained more in combat than she was, she would have slapped him.

’Ugh, I miss when I was fat. I’d at least be able to sit on him and break his bones.’

Before Jowe could respond, Freya slapped him hard on the shoulder, making him stumble half a step forward. "Will you stop that, Dart? She’s just escaped death, and you’re already picking a fight with her. Honestly, you can be so annoying sometimes!"

She turned toward Ingrid and gave her a cheerful wave, her scar stretching as she smiled. "Don’t mind him, little survivor! He gets grumpy whenever someone disagrees with him, but he’s not completely useless. He can shoot things from ridiculously far away, which is why I keep him around."

Jowe rubbed his shoulder and shot her an irritated look. "You keep me around? You were the one who nearly got yourself surrounded by zombies last week, and I had to cover your retreat. If I hadn’t been there, you would have been eaten alive before you finished laughing at them."

"Yet here you are, still following me around!" Freya replied loudly, laughing as though he had just told her the funniest joke in the world. "You should be grateful that I make your boring life interesting."

Jowe opened his mouth to answer, but after staring at Freya for a moment, he closed it again and turned back toward the monster.

Ingrid watched the exchange with growing curiosity, noticing the way Freya seemed perfectly comfortable teasing him while Jowe tolerated her far more than he tolerated anyone else. There was something ambiguous between them, something that went beyond ordinary teammates, although neither of them seemed interested in giving it a label. Ingrid decided that she would have to figure it out later, provided they all survived the next few minutes.

The Evolved One let out another roar and charged toward them, its enormous feet crushing the earth beneath its weight. Freya’s playful expression changed at once, and she stepped forward with her mace resting against her shoulder. The weapon looked absurdly large beside her, yet she handled it with such ease that Ingrid couldn’t stop staring. Freya rolled one shoulder, flexed her fingers around the handle, and leaned forward as though she were preparing to sprint toward an exciting game.

"Well, look at that! It’s finally here!" Freya exclaimed, her voice loud enough to carry over the monster’s roar. "Dart, don’t shoot it before I get my turn. I’ve been waiting all day for something interesting to happen, and I’m not letting you steal all the fun!"

"Freya, don’t..."

Jowe didn’t even finish his warning before Freya launched herself forward.

Ingrid’s eyes widened as the woman sprang into the air, her movements astonishingly fast for someone carrying a weapon of that size. For an instant, Freya’s silhouette seemed to blur, and the next moment, she was already above the Evolved One’s enormous shoulder. Her jaguar-like agility was unmistakable as she twisted in midair, bringing the mace around with both hands. The red tassel snapped behind her, and the four bells rang sharply as the weapon gathered momentum.

"Let’s see how tough you really are!" Freya shouted.

She brought the mace down with terrifying force. The impact landed squarely against the monster’s upper body, producing a deafening crash that shook the surrounding ground.

The Evolved One staggered, its enormous frame lurching sideways as a shock wave of dust and broken branches burst outward.

Ingrid instinctively covered her face with one arm while Lysander shifted in front of her, shielding her from the debris. She expected the creature to recover and strike back, but Freya had already landed lightly on a fallen trunk, her weapon swinging around her body as she prepared for another attack.

The monster swung its arm toward her, attempting to crush her against the ground. Freya ducked beneath the blow, moving so quickly that its claw struck nothing but empty air. She used the monster’s own momentum against it, springing onto its forearm before running along the thick limb as though it were an ordinary path. Ingrid could hardly believe what she was seeing, especially when Freya leaped from the creature’s arm and drove her mace into the side of its head.

The blow sent the Evolved One crashing to one knee.

Its roar became a furious, choking sound as it tried to lift its head, but Freya gave it no opportunity to recover. She swung the mace in a wide arc, struck its exposed shoulder, and used the recoil to propel herself higher. Her movements were wild in appearance, yet every strike landed with frightening precision. She was not simply relying on brute strength; she was using her speed and the monster’s enormous size to control the fight, forcing it to react to her rather than allowing it to attack freely.

"Freya, its skull!" Jowe called from a safe distance, raising his rifle. "Aim for the head if you want to finish it!"

"That’s what I’m doing!" Freya shouted back, laughing as she spun the mace around her body. "Try to keep up, Dart!"

She leaped once more, this time using a protruding bone on the monster’s shoulder as a foothold. The Evolved One thrashed violently, trying to throw her off, but Freya twisted through the movement and landed directly above its head.

For one brief moment, she stood balanced on the creature’s skull, her scarred mouth stretched into that same unsettling smile. Then she raised the enormous mace high above her head, gripping the handle so tightly that the muscles in her arms became visible.

"Good night, ugly!"

The mace came crashing down. A very loud crack rang through the clearing, followed by a deep impact that sent dust billowing into the air. The Evolved One’s head slammed against the ground, and its enormous body collapsed after it, shaking the surrounding trees as it fell. Freya jumped clear at the last moment, landing several metres away before resting her mace against her shoulder as casually as though she had just finished a morning workout.

For a few seconds, nobody spoke.

Ingrid stared at the fallen monster, waiting for it to move again. The dust cloud was so thick that she could barely see its silhouette, and she held her breath as she waited for another roar. Even after watching Freya batter the creature into the ground, she found it difficult to believe that the fight could be over so quickly. That monster had chased them through the forest, thrown trees like toys, and nearly killed every person in their group, yet Freya had defeated it on her own.

Slowly, the dust began to settle.

The Evolved One lay motionless in the middle of the clearing, its twisted limbs sprawled across the broken earth. Its glowing red eyes had gone dark, and its enormous chest no longer moved. There was no roar, no sudden twitch, and no sign that it intended to get back up. The giant zombie was dead.