Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

There were few things in this world that could stop a Raufoss Mk 211 .50 BMG multipurpose round from utterly annihilating it. Most of these came in the form of heavily armored vehicles. And while Zane had no doubt that something like a Juggernaut would able to effortlessly tank such a powerful cartridge fired out of an anti-material rifle, or god forbid a Horde King.

A Stalker was not safe from such a mighty projectile. And when the round made contact with the Stalker's head, it burrowed inside of its thick skull before exploding, killing the Tier IV Undead on the spot.

The sudden death of the Stalker caused the one next to it to halt its actions, and instead immediately vanish. Giving the strike team enough leeway to get back to Gravestones gates. By now Elena, Olivia, Madison, and Angelica had sortied out of their positions with their body armor and firearms in hands.

They were prepared for battle, as was the strike team, and the non-awakened sentries who crawled out of their hiding spots, taking defensive positions as they waited for the surviving stalker to make its attack.

Zane shifted his rifles position to where the stalker had fled to. Activating his inherent thermal vision just long enough to realize he was an absolute fucking moron. The undead were lifeless; they produced no internal body heat. Therefore, his thermal vision could not detect it. Causing him to immediately sigh and shake his head at his own folly before turning off his thermal sight.

Once he had done this, Elena called out to him, worried about where the stalker had run off to, and whether or not Zane had actually killed one of them.

"Zane, what do you see?"

Zane shifted the rifle once more to look at the headless corpse of the stalker, which lie in a pool of its own blood and brain matter from its splattered head before confirming he had indeed taken one of the high level undead out with a single shot.

"Well, I got one of them. But the other is hiding. I'm going to go out and take a look. Somebody cover me with the .50!"

Zane placed down the anti material rifle and jumped over the walls. The walls were quite high, built out of reinforced concrete, and with razer wire at the top. But Zane was even higher in the makeshift guard tower. Meaning he had jumped a full twenty feet into the air and landed effortlessly. Something that would normally damage a human being.

But thanks to his level, 15 stats did not even hamper his movement as he sprinted off at approximately 30 miles per hour towards the location where the stalker had been killed. Zane was obviously baiting the remaining stalker to come after him, while he looted the blood crystal from the splattered head.

So far, Zane had seen Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III blood crystals. Each of which had been a different color and size. The basic Tier I blood crystal was the smallest of all. It was a deep red, almost like a ruby.

Whereas the Tier II blood crystal was slightly larger than the Tier I blood crystal and had a dark green color similar to that of an emerald. Tier III Blood crystals were blue like sapphires and were significantly larger than either of its predecessors.

But this Tier IV blood crystal was something else entirely. It was larger than any of the three previous ranking blood crystals which Zane had scavenged. And it was a dark purple color, almost like an amethyst.

The moment Zane grabbed the crystal and observed it in his hands, he felt something, almost like a sixth sense. At the same time, the familiar and feminine voice called out to him.

"Behind you!"

Zane was a step quicker than the Stalker, having been warned in advance by the mysterious cloaked stranger, and having reflexes that were well above the norm thanks to his high attribute points Zane managed to grab his knife and pierce his own flesh, spilling his blood out of his system and using it as a knife that stabbed straight into the skull of the Stalker which was an inch away from taking his life.

The Stalker's eyes were full of shock when it fell to the ground, suffering its second death at the hands of what it thought was easy prey. Zane had moved so fast that even Elena, who was on the .50 cal, could not even pull the trigger in time.

Zane looked at the corpse was surprised by the information it displayed to him. The higher the level he gained, the more information he received from the undead, who previously gave him a skull and crossbones symbol rather than a level.

---

[Stalker – Tier IV Undead]

[Level – 15]

[HP: 0/500]

---

After making this observation, Zane looted another identical purple blood crystal from the Stalker's corpse and put one of them into his mouth. The crystal, like all others before it dissolved into a thick liquid the moment it touched Zane's tongue, flooding down his throat as it did so.

The taste was even more potent than the lower-ranking blood crystals, something that Zane felt was absolutely addicting. He wanted more than anything to eat the next blood crystal, but refrained from doing so. As it was meant to be given to one of his companions.

Instead, Zane gazed upon the message that his system sent him with a curious glint in his dark eyes.

---

[Tier IV Blood Crystal Consumed!]

[+500 XP]

---

Now that Zane knew, he was on the same level as Stalkers, and that his girls were not far behind them. He was starting to get the feeling that they would be easier to take on than he had previously believed.

Sure, they had significantly more health than he and the girls for the time being. But their powers and weapons allowed them to be on equal footing with the creatures, meaning that Zane was now more confident in hunting down the remainder of Eliza's stalkers.