The police station had light, but he did not detect any human presence. So was it that the people within had some special ability to hide from his heightened acuity, or was the place abandoned?

If it was abandoned, then who left the lights on and why?

Things were already looking questionable, and Dominic was not willing to risk anything. As such, he made the obvious decision to send one unarmed Death Clone inside to scout the place out, sneakily.

The Death Clone flipped down from the heightened position Dominic took to monitor the police station and rushed towards one of the windows at the side. Usually the windows in police stations were barred, but these ones were left open.

The Death Clone lifted the window open and jumped inside skillfully. The moment it was in, it took a look around and realized that it was in the records room of the station. There were mixed documents that were half-organized and partly unorganized, probably the work of some aide to deal with.

The Death Clone remained still and listened for any sounds but did not find anything out. The light was on in this room, so it was not able to hide that well, forcing it to head towards the door on the other side that led to the administration assistance.

The door was left slightly ajar as the Death Clone peeked through for signs of movement, but there were none, just the same lights-on kind of situation. As such, it opened the door and rushed into the administration assistance room, then bypassed towards the patrol hall.

The Death Clone only traveled down this hallway for a bit before its senses began to tingle. It had only half of Dominic's Acuity, so its senses were not as sharp or fast, nor was its reaction speed.

It was struck and knocked to the ground rolling by something heavy. A pair of sharp, jagged teeth dug into its shoulder and began to maul it, aiming to rip out flesh. Unfortunately for the attacker, this particular entity was not made out of flesh but rather something that Dominic had no idea of.

Even though there was no blood pouring out to weaken the Death Clone, nor did it feel pain, the sheer power of the attacking enemy tore off a part of its collarbone on the left side. While this occurred, it was able to push itself up using its superior strength and force whatever pinned it down flying a little.

It grabbed its ruined collarbone on the left and retreated, turning around to get a good look at who got a good hit in. It was there that the Death Clone - and Dominic through its eyes - saw that the enemy was a burly dog with sleek fur and expanded muscles.

Unlike the ugly mutations of other dogs that made them huge and demonic looking, this one maintained its overall size and structure, only advancing in terms of power in a balanced manner, seeming to be a more 'perfect' evolution.

Dominic easily identified the origin of this new foe, as it was still wearing the vest that said 'Police, K-9 Unit'. Dominic also understood immediately what separated monsters of different grades from the animals they formerly were, and it was not just species and environment, but their level of training too.

Unlike domestic dogs, K-9 German Shepherds were trained to be loyal, obedient, and quick-witted in sniffing out drugs as well as other targeted substances, so if we were to look at their stat tree compared to other dogs, their 'Acuity' would be higher.

And when the mutation came, this 'advantage' was boosted further, creating a monster that was extremely intelligent. If the lowly domestic monsters like the giant pitbull and the various felines he came across could suppress beastly instincts and show levels of cognition, then this monster was definitely a genius among them.

Dominic also now had his answer as to why the police station was left so open and lit during an apocalypse situation. The officers had likely long been killed and hidden - or devoured -, and this clever monster knew that humans often came here to seek help or shelter against danger.

If it was dark and locked up, a person might hesitate to enter due to fear of the unknown, but it being brightly lit and open was extremely inviting. Dominic himself only stopped not because the lights were on, but only because he could not sense any human presence.

Those with weaker stats and a lack of sensory ability like he did would walk in with their guard down, expecting help. Even if they had their guard up, it wouldn't help against a foe like this.

Once you were confined within these walls with it, the only way to survive was to be stronger and faster.

With that in mind, Dominic made his Death Clone attack with the intention of fighting to the death. The goal was not to kill it, as Dominic understood his limits very well, it was impossible for his Death Clone to beat this monster at its peak.

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His goal was to leave an injury, no matter how small. With his ability to respawn his death clones, Dominic could completely afford to play with it to death using the attrition method of warfare.

The suped-up K-9 seemed surprised that the Death Clone would dare to attack first, but clearly felt that this was just as well since it could deal with him once and for all. The Death Clone got close and attempted to grapple the K-9, aiming for its snout first.

Just like how that cat had been dealt with, as long as its limbs and snout were suppressed, it would be at the mercy if its captor. Unfortunately, unlike that domestic cat, this K-9 was too fast and too well trained to fall for such a thing.

It dodged the grapple easily and swiped with its paw casually, batting the Death Clone to the side, sending it crashing into a wall with a heavy thud. If the Death Clone had blood or bones, the former would be leaking and the latter would have been broken.

Just looking at its power, Dominic knew that its Potency alone had surpassed 5 points if it was put on the human scale. This kind of strength was not something that could be achieved with raw brute force unless one had a special technique.

As this beast clearly had none, it had to be pure power, which was a scary concept. The Death Clone got up and circled the monster carefully, looking for an opening. Dominic knew one would not be forthcoming, and even if it did, he would not have the capacity to take advantage of it.

So he got the Death Clone to stall while his other Death Clone had long been dispatched over at its full speed to come and assist. The reason it hadn't arrived yet was because it rushed to the station's armory and grabbed two shotguns that were pump-action.

When the second clone got to the patrol hallway, the first Death Clone was trying its best to prevent the K-9 from reaching the jugular as the beast had pressed the clone down on the ground.

The first clone could barely keep its jaws and sharp canines away from its throat, using up all of its strength to do so. When one accounted for its ruined shoulder, it was only thanks to the lack of muscles, fatigue, and the lack of bones that it could maintain its life.

The K-9 sensed the presence of a new foe, not through the sound of footsteps nor the smell of flesh, but the familiar smell of metal and gunpowder. It practically whipped its head up, by which its pupils immediately constricted massively.

It saw the second clone who held two shotguns in hand and its entire body shuddered as its hackles raised. The K-9 monster jumped off the first clone and backed away rapidly, adopting the posture of a scared dog.

This change surprised Dominic, but the two death clones moved in tandem, the second one giving the first a shotgun to hold. They then slowly approached the K-9 monster with the barrels loaded.

The K-9 continued to retreat slowly with a look of fear and desperation. Dominic may not have realized this, but in every police station of this size, there was a whole K-9 unit patrol with a significant number of dogs.

Yet, there was only one dog here in the station at the moment. Where had the rest gone?

This particular K-9 had witnessed where they went, and it was down into the depths of hell at the end of the smoking barrel of those loud weapons. While the mutated monsters were able to get the jump on the disbelieving police who treated their K-9s as their brothers, some were near the armory and quickly equipped themselves.

Just a few of those police with these guns had almost wiped them all out, showing how effective weaponry was at the earlier stages of this apocalypse, at least more powerful weaponry compared to domestic guns.

But hey, at least Dominic was blessed to be in America where guns were relatively abundant domestically. If he had been anywhere else, he would have only himself to rely on, and while it was not impossible, the difficulty certainly scaled up.

Eventually, the K-9 shocked the group by pretending to lunge forward and then rapidly retreating at its fastest speed. Its fear had won over its hunger, and there was not much hunger anyway.

It had already caught and gobbled up a few unsuspecting fools, not to mention that these strange enemies did not have any flesh. Even if it killed them, so what? What would it get out of it? On top of that, they had those weapons of death as well that had killed its brothers.

One did not need human-level intelligence to see that this was a losing deal.

The two death clones chased after the K-9 and fired, but they missed as they were not gun-trained - as Dominic wasn't - not to mention their stats were more than half below that of the K-9. A normal dog running was already faster than a human, depending on its breed, and the German Shepherd was definitely fast, not even considering that it had been mutated.

In no time, it reached the double doors of the station and was about to escape while the other two death clones were only about to turn the corner to the long hallway. The gap in distance was no joke, at all.

However, the door, which seemed about to open itself up, was suddenly smashed in and sent flying, a booted leg colliding with the jaw of the K-9 and sending it flying down the hallway, bypassing the two death clones that barely dodged in time.

The K-9 smashed against the wall and dented it, coughing out blood as it fell limply in pain. The two death clones glanced over their backs at the wounded K-9, and one could almost see sweat forming on their brow as that was too close.

They only dodged in time thanks to forewarning after all. This was naturally because the person who kicked the door down and was now walking in with a deep frown was Dominic himself.

The two death clones rushed over to the weak K-9 that was stubbornly trying to get up and run, but it could barely limp along as its rib cage was completely smashed, and its bones were poking holes in its organs.

Dominic and the death clones did not need to do anything; this monster would die on its own in time. At least, that was the case using common logic, but Dominic knew how strong his own healing and regeneration was after reaching 3.6 points in Vitality.

If this monster had even the same amount, it could likely regenerate and preserve its life in some corner, which was why it was so determined to escape doggedly despite the pain.

However, its attempts were put to an end by two shotgun blasts to the head.