TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 243: Krauser: You Win! (Patreon)

To Luke, Krauser wasn’t fast at all. He looked like he was moving in slow motion.

Luke didn’t even bother blocking with the dragon-head knife. He simply leaned slightly to the side, letting the scythe sweep past his cheek and miss completely. It smashed into the glass culture tank behind him, shattering the entire thing.

“That’s it?”

As he dodged, Luke drove an elbow straight into Krauser’s ribs.

The roughly 100-kilogram bruiser was knocked clean off his feet.

“Bang!”

Krauser hit the ground and skidded several steps before barely managing to steady himself.

He spun around, his expression turning serious.

That kind of force wasn’t something an ordinary person could produce.

Was this guy bio-engineered too?

“Interesting!”

Krauser rubbed his side and settled back into a fighting stance. “No wonder Mendez died at your hands. You’ve definitely got some skill!”

“You’ve got that wrong. He didn’t die by my hand.”

Luke waved dismissively. “We have to believe in science. When you’re dealing with bio-engineered mutants, just hit them with an RPG like a sensible person. Don’t try fighting them up close like Leon.”

“He can chew on a couple of green herbs and recover. You can’t. Yeah, I’m talking about you.”

Krauser frowned. “Did those experiments damage your brain? Nothing you say makes any sense. And who the hell is Leon?”

Krauser didn’t know Leon?

Oh, right.

Luke had taken Krauser’s place as Leon’s instructor, so naturally, Krauser had never gotten that role.

“Forget it. I’ll show you what the human body is really capable of!”

Krauser’s scythe-arm unleashed slash after slash.

Each strike targeted a different vital point on Luke’s body. Every attack was fast, precise, and vicious, the flashing blade weaving a nearly impenetrable net of death.

His close-quarters combat skills really were impressive.

Before his modifications, Krauser had already been an elite special forces soldier with extensive combat training. After being enhanced, his physical abilities had risen even further.

But when it came to raw stats, Luke was simply unfair.

He drew the dragon-head knife and met Krauser’s attacks head-on.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

Metal rang against hardened bone again and again.

If this were still a game, Krauser would probably have a giant Danger warning flashing over his head right now.

Yes.

Krauser.

Every one of Krauser’s heavy, powerful strikes was forcefully stopped by Luke.

In terms of pure close-combat technique, Krauser was undoubtedly better.

But when it came to raw physical ability, Krauser needed a few more upgrades.

After dozens of exchanges, beads of cold sweat began forming across Krauser’s face.

The speed he had always been proud of gave him no advantage whatsoever. No matter what he did, he was always half a step behind.

And the strength he considered overwhelming couldn’t gain even the slightest edge against Luke’s brute force.

Krauser felt completely trapped in Luke’s shadow.

He couldn’t even touch the corner of his clothes.

“Did you skip breakfast? You’re trying to rob people with that little strength?” Luke kept blocking while casually sticking his neck out toward him. “Come on, hit me right here. Put some muscle into it! Your daddy can take it!”

Krauser’s eyes went bloodshot with rage.

This bastard was way too damn arrogant!

The parasite-like markings along his arm became more pronounced and increasingly grotesque as the entire limb swelled and mutated again.

Krauser unleashed everything he had.

He raised the scythe high overhead, tore through the air, and brought it crashing down toward the top of Luke’s skull.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that strike could split a car open.

Luke didn’t dodge.

Just before the scythe came down, his left hand shot up.

His fingers spread wide and clamped directly around the bone blade as it descended at full speed.

“Crack!”

Luke caught the edge at just the right angle.

It didn’t even break his skin.

At the end of the day, the thing was still biological bone. With enough brute force behind it, it could smash a person apart, but in terms of actual sharpness, it couldn’t compare to a properly forged weapon.

Krauser’s pupils contracted as he stared in disbelief.

No way.

If Luke had blocked the attack with his knife, Krauser could have accepted it.

But the bastard had stopped it with his bare hand.

“Speed is power!”

Luke raised his leg.

“Tell me, have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?”

Krauser tried to pull his blade free.

Luke’s kick was already flying toward him.

He drove his foot into Krauser’s chest with full force.

“Pfft!”

Krauser immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

His entire body flew backward like a rag doll, sent tumbling through the air once again.

Luke rushed after him without giving him a chance to recover, thrusting the dragon-head knife forward like a flash of lightning.

This time, he aimed for Krauser’s mutated arm.

Take away a crab’s big claw, and most of its ability to fight disappeared with it.

Krauser rolled and quickly raised the arm to block.

But Luke was faster.

An afterimage seemed to burst from where he stood.

The next instant, the blade pierced straight through the joint covered in parasite-like markings.

Krauser grunted.

His arm instantly went limp.

Luke was almost like a master striking pressure points.

His fighting technique might have been fairly ordinary, but his accuracy was exceptional.

When he aimed for something, he usually hit it.

“I’m calling it now. This strike is taking your arm off!”

Luke twisted his wrist and violently wrenched the blade around.

A sickening crack came from the joint.

The entire carapace-covered scythe arm was severed from Krauser’s shoulder, flesh and bone alike.

Dark purple blood sprayed everywhere.

That wasn’t even human blood anymore.

It showed just how far Krauser’s modifications had gone. His body had practically become that of an insect.

“Aagh!!”

Krauser let out a piercing scream and staggered backward, instinctively clutching the stump as blood poured from it.

The murderous look on his face vanished.

All that remained was shock and alarm.

“Come on, keep going. A crab’s supposed to have two claws, right?” Luke pulled his knife free while holding Krauser’s severed arm. “Your other arm should be able to transform too.”

He tossed the arm away.

It hit the floor, rolled several times, and slid to a stop in front of Krauser.

“Who the hell are you?”

Krauser could no longer make sense of Luke by any normal standard.

If Luke really was bio-engineered, then whoever had modified him had done an absurdly good job.

His appearance hadn’t changed at all, yet in his base form alone, he could completely overpower Krauser.

If Luke had some kind of full transformation on top of that, wouldn’t he crush Krauser like a dead dog?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

“I’m just an ordinary guy doing this for fun. More importantly, who are you actually working for? Saddler? Or Wesker?”

Luke wasn’t entirely clear on Krauser’s background.

He vaguely remembered that Krauser wasn’t working solely for Los Illuminados.

Krauser breathed heavily as he stared at Luke.

There was resentment in his eyes, but far more caution.

He was a smart man.

For a mercenary, knowing when to retreat was essential.

The opponent in front of him was far beyond anything he could handle.

If he kept fighting, he wouldn’t just lose another arm.

He would lose his head.

“...You win!”

Krauser forced the words through clenched teeth.

He pulled something from his waist and smashed it against the floor.

A cloud of smoke instantly erupted.

Krauser moved at once, using the smoke as cover to disappear into a hidden passage deeper inside the laboratory.

Luke hurled the dragon-head knife into the smoke.

A muffled grunt came faintly from somewhere ahead.

Luke charged straight into the smoke.

After running a few steps, he spotted the broken dragon-head knife lying on the floor, its blade covered in purple blood.

“Three refined steel dragon-head knives lost. What a waste!”

Luke looked genuinely regretful.

Then he reached into his system backpack and pulled out another dragon-head knife.