Wesker's Point of View
As Mendez, now colossal, advanced, effortlessly crushing the village ruins beneath his titanic steps, a powerful roar tore through the air, drowning out the thunder of his infernal strides.I looked up.
A black helicopter was emerging from the horizon, its searchlights blazing.Brad and Kenneth were returning, racing full speed toward the scene of carnage."This is Bravo One, here for the party!" Brad shouted over the radio, his voice trembling under the violent vibrations of the rotor.
Without wasting a second, Kenneth activated the heavy machine gun mounted on the side of the aircraft.The noise was deafening.Heavy-caliber bullets struck Mendez's smoldering body like a meteor shower, forcing him to raise his spike-covered arms in defense. The titan staggered, taking a small step back under the force of the assault — a first since the beginning of the battle.
The diversion was perfect."Fall back, now!" I shouted to the ground team.Claire, Leon, Enrico, and the others dashed for cover behind the remaining standing buildings.Even Forest, who had been stationed on a rooftop, jumped down, rolling through the dust before springing back to his feet.
I backed away as well, but my gaze stayed locked on Tintin.Still in the midst of mutation, his body had grown even larger. New thick, ridged bone plates had formed over his arms, back, and chest, creating a living armor. Without waiting for orders, he charged.Tintin leaped, his mutant claws sinking deep into Mendez's massive leg with a sickening sound of tearing flesh.
Like a relentless predator, he climbed the titan, gripping burned flesh and ripping chunks out with every move.
Savage howls echoed while Brad and Kenneth concentrated all their fire on the monster's face, half-blinding him.
"Wesker, what do we do?" Enrico asked, panting as he reloaded his weapon. "Even with all our gear, we've got nothing that can take down something like that. Tintin's fighting alone... and he won't last forever."
I gritted my teeth, scanning the chaotic battlefield.
"We'll improvise later!" I growled. "Forest, Enrico, grab the two rocket launchers, get into position, and wait for my signal. Aim for the head if Tintin gets in trouble!"Without wasting time, I grabbed the grenade bag and the special weapon Gerald had entrusted to me for worst-case scenarios.
I strapped everything onto my back, drew my combat knives, and sprinted toward the beast.But before I could reach Mendez, everything changed.With supernatural brutality, Mendez managed to grab Tintin with one giant hand.With a roar of anger, he hurled Tintin like a mere projectile — straight at the helicopter.Brad reacted instantly, forcing the aircraft into a desperate swerve, but the impact was inevitable: one of the rotors was hit, and the helicopter began losing altitude, crashing heavily a few hundred meters away.
I stopped in my tracks, my breath caught in my throat, as I saw Mendez turning toward me, his incandescent eyes burning with a deadly light.Without thinking, I turned around and ran toward the crash site.An explosion of fire and metal erupted, but before Mendez could reach the wreckage, two rockets shrieked from our positions.
BOOM.
A direct hit to the face. Mendez roared in pain, his face shattered by the explosion, but already, his eyes were beginning to regenerate — slowly, stubbornly.The screech of twisted metal filled the air.
Tintin, emerging from the wreckage, pushed aside pieces of the helicopter carcass with a low, rumbling rage. Brad and Kenneth, despite visible injuries, were alive — their metabolism enhanced by Gerald was already starting to close their wounds.
I leapt toward Tintin, grabbing onto a bony plate on his back."Tintin, let me climb! I have a plan!" I shouted through the dust and fire.The Tyrant turned, his face still wild, pulsing with the force of his mutations.But after a rough growl, his veins contracted, and his face regained a more lucid, more human expression.
"...Sorry, Wesker," he growled, his voice rough and heavy, "I can't promise I'll stay conscious much longer. Every minute, I'm mutating to keep up with that monster... but I can still fight."He leaned forward slightly, allowing me to secure my grip on his back.Without hesitation, Tintin let out a titanic roar and charged straight at Mendez once again, tearing up the ground beneath his feet, ready to deliver one last desperate battle.
At the titan's feet, Tintin made a lifesaving move.With a brutal yet calculated gesture, he grabbed me in one massive hand, squeezing so hard I felt my ribs crack under the pressure, a dull pain radiating through my chest.Before Mendez could crush everything under his titanic foot, Tintin hurled me into the air with Herculean force, sacrificing his own safety.
The world spun around me in a suspended moment.With near-superhuman reflexes, I drew my knives and drove them deep into Mendez's monstrous calf to stop my fall, clinging desperately to his burning, living flesh.Below me, Tintin disappeared under the titanic impact of Mendez's foot.
A hideous crash, a cloud of dust. My heart clenched — but it wasn't over.Grimacing in pain, clinging to the monstrous leg, I pulled a grenade from my bag, and with a precise throw, hurled it straight into the titan's gaping nostril.
BOOM.
The explosion rocked Mendez's head violently, a spray of charred flesh and black blood bursting in every direction.The colossus staggered, losing balance, as a guttural roar echoed through the village ruins.On the ground, Tintin, covered in blood and debris, let out a howl of rage.With a herculean effort, he drove his two mutated arms under the crushing foot and, with superhuman strength, literally lifted Mendez's leg.The sound of snapping bones and torn tendons filled the air.
With a furious roar, Tintin pushed the leg away and toppled the giant.Mendez, thrown off balance, crashed heavily onto his back, the ground shaking beneath his titanic weight.
Seizing the opening, I released my knives and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the falling debris.In a desperate surge, Tintin leapt again — a true beast — and fell upon Mendez's head.His mutant claws slashed, tore, ripped chunk after chunk, fiercely battling the monster's giant hands trying to fend him off.
I reached the weak spot: Mendez's monstrous groin.Without hesitation, I pulled all the pins from my grenades, wedged them into the open wounds, and leapt backward.At the same time, I pulled out the red bulb — Gerald's ultimate trump card, a controlled mutation of the modified Plant 42, strengthened by Alexia Ashford's science.A wicked smile crossed my lips.
BOOM!
The explosion shook the air.Mendez's lower body was obliterated, his burning flesh collapsing in on itself.A monstrous howl tore through the night, shattering even the darkness itself.Seizing the moment, I quickly slashed my arm, letting my blood flow over the still-pulsating bulb.The bulb reacted instantly, pulsing like a starving heart.Without waiting, I threw it into the gaping wound.The plant rooted itself instantly.
Like an infernal hydra, thick black and red vines erupted from Mendez's body, tearing him apart from the inside, wrapping around his ribs, his spine, relentlessly piercing through him.
The giant screamed, his monstrous body writhing in agony as the plant continued to grow at a demonic speed, feeding on the heat, flesh, and blood of the beast.
"Tintin, immediate evacuation!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, seeing the titanic shadow of Mendez begin to waver, his immense body no longer able to resist the organic assault of the mutant plant.
In one last act of defiance, Tintin tore a massive chunk from Mendez's twisted face, nearly scalping him, before leaping high into the air, propelled far from the epicenter of the chaos in a powerful burst of dust and debris.
On the ground, Mendez — or what was left of him — howled in pain and rage.He frantically tried to tear out the thick, pulsating vines erupting from his chest and entrails, but every desperate move only made things worse.The vines, driven by a predatory will, coiled around his limbs, digging deeper into his scorched bones and corrupted flesh.
Before our eyes, they shattered his legs with a sickening crack, anchoring themselves into the ground through his body, impaling him alive.Mendez raised his arms toward the night sky, his incandescent eyes filled with indescribable terror.
"LORD SADDLER!! HELP ME!! AAAAAARGHHH!"
His heartbreaking scream faded into a monstrous, gurgling death rattle.The plant, taking root in his corpse, began to grow at an insane speed, fed by the remaining life energy.Before our stunned eyes, a titanic oak burst forth, shooting toward the sky like an accusing finger pointed at the entire universe.
120 meters tall,Blood-red leaves, thick like leather sails, covered its monstrous branches.The ground still vibrated with the energy unleashed by the metamorphosis.I snapped back to action immediately.
"Strategic retreat, now!" I barked sharply.I turned to Claire, Enrico, Leon, and Forest, who stood frozen, staring at the scene."Gerald warned me. That thing's going to devour anything living within its reach. If we stay, we'll just be more fertilizer!" I added through gritted teeth.
Without another word, we bolted, sprinting through the devastated village streets, past charred carcasses and shattered stones, fleeing the looming shadow of the monstrous plant.We ran for a long time.
Thirty minutes later, breathless, covered in ash and blood, we regrouped at a collapsed old barn we found for shelter.
A heavy rumble shook the barn.Tintin had reappeared, casually walking through the debris.His body had regressed into a human form — still massive and imposing, but now within "acceptable" proportions.
There was only one problem: he was completely naked, his transformation having literally reduced his clothes to dust.Claire, who had stayed stoic despite the horrors of the night, turned beet red the moment she caught sight of the Tyrant's imposing figure.
She spun around immediately, slapping her hands over her face."G-goddammit... Someone, get him a blanket, please!" she stammered, caught between a nervous breakdown and a fit of laughter.
Brad, who had just returned from checking on the wounded, burst out laughing at the scene."Man, we said 'covert operations,' not 'apocalypse orgy,' Tintin!" he called out, laughing.Kenneth, never one to miss a beat, raised an eyebrow and threw a mock-jealous glance."Seriously, man... save some for the rest of us. We've got our pride too, you know?"
Leon, howling with laughter, finally found a ragged old coat abandoned on a corpse and tossed it at Tintin like someone throwing a towel at a guy coming out of the shower."Here, cover up that mountain of muscle before Claire passes out."Tintin caught the coat in one hand, taking his time.
He draped it over his broad shoulders, then swept the group with a calm, slightly amused look."Don't worry, guys..." he said in a cool but teasing tone, "I'm not here to make you feel bad... especially you, Brad."
Brad clutched his chest dramatically."Ouch. Right in the ego," he groaned, laughing with the others.Even Claire, still red as a tomato, burst out laughing behind her hands.
For the first time in hours, among the smoking ruins and the blood-red sky, a real moment of levity settled over us.
(Author's Note: Sorry for the delay — I haven't had access to my PC for over a week because of work travel. Hope you enjoyed this little chapter! This will be the last point of view from the STARS team for now — I'll be focusing back on my MC's story next.)