Chapter 349: That’s Insulting
The fireball hit before the last vine finished closing the gap.
One moment, the front garden was moving like a living mouth, dragging blood into the soil and weaving new growth across the exposed path. The next, orange light flooded the entrance of the cul-de-sac, and a ball of fire tore through the forming wall where the gate used to stand.
Heat rolled across the lawn hard enough to make Chenghai lift one arm in front of his face. The blast struck the vines in a clean circle, burning through leaves, stems, flowers, and the young growth that had only begun knitting itself back together.
The plants screamed in pain.
It wasn’t a human sound.
It came through the roots, through the grass, through every vine recoiling from the burned edge. The noise scraped across Chenghai’s nerves and made his hands curl into fists before he even knew he had moved.
Rouxi screamed too. Not because she was hurt or afraid, but because she just got a whole lot more pissed off.
Her arms flew out to both sides and her eyes flashed green as the wounded vines thrashed around her feet and on the grass.
The smile from a moment ago disappeared, replaced by something sharp enough that Chenghai stepped closer before thinking better of it.
"Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?" Rouxi hissed, getting even more angry by the minute.
The dead answered by pouring through the burned circle.
They came in a thick wave, shoulder to shoulder, bodies shoving against one another as they staggered across the blackened opening. The fire had given them a path through the half-repaired barrier, and they took it with the mindless hunger that made zombies both stupid and dangerous.
One was easy. Ten were work. A road full of them could bury anything beneath teeth, weight, and sheer numbers.
But instead of getting stressed, Rouxi snapped both hands forward.
The vines around the house surged despite the burned edges.
Some rose from the lawn, while others crawled out from beneath the porch and snapped toward the first line of zombies. They caught throats, ankles, and spines, pulling bodies apart before the dead could reach the walkway. Black blood splashed over the grass, but there was too much movement behind the first row.
Chenghai moved to Rouxi’s left side.
He didn’t stand in front of her. She didn’t need him blocking her view or treating her like something breakable.
Instead, he placed himself close enough that anything slipping past the vines would hit him first, then braced his feet on the porch steps as the first burned zombie stumbled through the chaos and reached for her.
Chenghai caught it by the face and drove it down into the stone.
The skull broke beneath his palm, and black blood burst across his fingers. He kicked the body off the steps and caught the next one by the throat, squeezing until the bones collapsed.
Rouxi didn’t look at him.
Good.
Her attention belonged on the road.
"Yuche," she snapped.
Metal shot past Chenghai’s shoulder before she finished saying the name. Long strips tore from the gate remnants, window bars, old fencing, and the metal still scattered from the parasite trap.
Yuche drove them into the burned circle at an angle, creating a jagged field of spikes that caught the legs of the first zombies pushing through.
Several fell immediately.
The ones behind stepped on them and kept coming.
"It wasn’t enough," Yuche warned, both hands lifted as more metal ripped free from the abandoned houses near the road.
"No shit," Rouxi snarled. "I can see that."
Zhenlan stepped out through the open door behind them. Wind pressed over Chenghai’s back and swept toward the road, pushing smoke, ash, and the sharp heat of the blast away from the porch.
The zombies slowed under the pressure, their bodies leaning forward as they fought against air that shoved them back toward the opening.
Lingyun’s fire rose beside Rouxi in a bright rush.
Chenghai saw him take one step forward, then stop.
For once, Lingyun didn’t immediately burn everything in front of him. His gaze had gone to the vines first, to the burned circle and the blackened plants twisting along its edge. His fire would kill the zombies, but if he threw it wrong, he would finish what the fireball had started.
His hesitation lasted less than a breath. Then Rouxi pointed toward the right side of the opening. "There. Keep it away from the roots."
Lingyun smiled.
Fire snapped from his hand in a narrow line, slicing across the bodies trying to climb over Yuche’s metal.
The flames caught clothing, hair, dead skin, and dry bone without spreading into the grass. Zhenlan angled the wind behind it, keeping the heat pushed outward, while Yuche opened a channel through the spikes so the burned bodies fell where the plants could still reach them.
Chenghai struck anything that made it past the line.
The fight became faster after that.
Rouxi pulled zombies apart in batches. The vines stopped playing and started working, dragging bodies down as soon as they stepped through the circle. Flowers opened beneath the fallen and swallowed pieces whole. Grass crawled over black blood and torn flesh, feeding as quickly as the dead could spill.
Yuche kept building metal through the burned path. Hooks caught ribs. Blades cut knees. Thin wires wrapped around ankles and jerked zombies sideways before the plants tore them apart.
Zhenlan held the smoke back and kept the wind low enough that Rouxi’s vines could still move.
Lingyun burned only where she pointed.
That told Chenghai more about the danger than the fireball had.
Lingyun liked burning things. He liked it too much. The fact that he was waiting for Rouxi’s orders meant he understood exactly how much damage one careless flame could do.
Another body broke through on the left.
Chenghai stepped down from the porch, grabbed the zombie by the shoulder, and drove his fist through its chest. The ribs cracked around his wrist. He swung the body into two more and knocked them into a waiting tangle of vines.
Rouxi’s eyes flicked toward him. "Thanks."
He nodded once. "More are coming."
"I know."
Her voice was clipped, but it wasn’t empty. She was angry. Present. Alive in the middle of the fight, hands spread as the plants answered every twitch of her fingers.
Then the road lit up again.
Chenghai turned toward the entrance of the cul-de-sac.
The zombies closest to the burned opening staggered sideways as something moved behind them.
At first, all he saw was a shape in the smoke, taller than the others and too steady to be dragged along by the wave. Heat shimmered around it. The dead in front of it burned where they brushed too close, but they kept moving until their bodies collapsed in smoking pieces.
The thing stepped into view.
It had once been human.
Maybe.
Probably.
Its skin had split across the chest in glowing cracks, orange light pulsing between blackened ribs. Smoke leaked from its mouth with every slow breath. Its jaw hung crooked, and the flesh around its lips had burned away until the teeth showed too clearly. Fire gathered in its throat, brightening the hollow spaces beneath its face.
Rouxi went very still as the vines around her lifted their burned tips, leaves trembling.
The zombie behind the wave opened its mouth wider, and heat built between its broken teeth.
Lingyun’s smile disappeared.
"Oh," he murmured, fire curling up both of his arms. "That’s insulting."