From the rooftops, Kade fired a charged plasma shot.The bolt screamed through the air and hit the monster dead-center, burning into its chest with a flash of molten light.
Direct hit.
The creature didn't even flinch.
Instead, the impact was swallowed, light, heat, and kinetic force, vanishing into its mass. Veins of molten orange spread across its body like liquid magma, pulsing brighter with every heartbeat.
Then it grew.
Muscles swelled. The fumes thickened, curling into choking black clouds. The very street cracked under the weight of its steps.
"No way…" Kade's voice dropped, his visor reflecting the readings streaming across his HUD. Pulse rate, off the charts. Thermal spike unstable. Energy levels spiraling."He… he consumes energy."
The monster's head snapped toward the rooftop, its ember-red eyes locking on Kade.
One second, the monster was on the ground. The next, it was there.
Kade barely dove aside as a clawed hand tore through the roof, ripping up chunks of metal and sending them spinning into the air.
"Jules!" Kade barked into comms. "He's on to me!"
Below, Dævd was already moving, boots cracking asphalt as he sprinted across the blackened street, cutting through two more of the zombified husks that lunged for him. The air was thick with decay, the sound of distant groans mixing with the monster's guttural roar.
The monster lunged for Kade again, but Jules slid across the debris-strewn street, rifle raised. Three sharp cracks echoed, controlled bursts straight into its chest. The recoil jolted his shoulder, but the creature only staggered… then straightened, bulk swelling, veins glowing like molten tar.
"Oh, fantastic," Jules muttered, chambering another round. "a hungry customer."
From a distance, Kade cursed under his breath. "Stop feeding it!"
Too late. The monster's eyes burned brighter, its guttural roar sending a ripple through the empty, dead air of the Black Zone.
The creature's massive arm swung, shattering the side of a building as Dævd vaulted from the rubble, mask gleaming under the flicker of emergency drones. His blade arced, not to kill, but to wound, to slow it down. Sparks danced as steel met skin harder than stone.
The monster didn't flinch. It slammed into him like a runaway train, sending him skidding through fractured asphalt.
Rena's voice crackled in his earpiece, sharp and unrelenting.
"Dævd, stop holding back. They're not human anymore. Every single one of them is genetically mutated. Stop hesitating or you'll end up like the rest of them."
His grip tightened, eyes narrowing through the visor.
But then, he saw it.
One of the shambling infected, half its face gone, staggered toward him. The creature's milky eyes locked onto his, and for a moment, humanity flickered.
"P… please…"The voice was barely a whisper, wet and broken. "…kill… us…"
Dævd froze. That hesitation was all the monster needed.
It roared, crashing into him, claws raking his armor and hurling him across the square. Pain bloomed in his ribs, his mask cracking as he tumbled.
Dævd staggered to his feet, spitting grit from his mouth. His blade glimmered faintly in the haze of the black zone.
The monster's breath came in heavy, unnatural growls, fumes curling from its mouth and wounds like smoke from a dying fire. Its eyes burned with a primal hunger as it lumbered forward, shaking the ground with each step.
Jules fired from the side, unloading round after round into the oncoming horde of zombified humans. Kade shouted over comms, "We can't hold them all off forever!"
Dævd didn't respond. He stepped forward, slow and deliberate, his grip tightening on Lucent Grave. If they had once been human… if they still carried scraps of memory… then the least he could do was end their suffering swiftly.
The monster charged.
Dævd met it head-on, slipping under its swing and driving a crushing uppercut into its jaw. Bone cracked like splintering stone. The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the air, scattering ash and dust in a wide ring.
But the thing didn't go down, it roared louder, darker, its body swelling with the energy it had absorbed from Kade's shot.
The ground trembled.
Dævd knew then… this fight wasn't ending without someone being broken.
The monster burst in, faster now, its bulk blurring as it lunged.
Dævd twisted, Lucent Grave blazing with stormlight, and carved a diagonal slash across its torso. Lightning erupted from the wound, leaping up its spine and bursting from its mouth in a violent arc. The smell of scorched flesh cut through the ash-filled air.
It staggered only for a moment. Then, with a sound like a collapsing mountain, it swung both fists down.
Dævd crossed Lucent Grave above his head "CLANG"lightning and raw force colliding in a blinding flare. His boots dug trenches into the cracked ground as he slid back, teeth gritted.
The monster roared again, and black-red energy swirled into its core. The crackle of Kade's plasma still clung to its flesh, merging with its own power, twisting it into something unstable.
"Too much energy." Dævd's grip tightened on the hilt. "If I don't end this now, it'll take the whole city with it."
Lucent Grave's runes flared brighter, stormlight spiraling upward, summoning thunderheads overhead.
The monster saw it and charged. The charge shook the streets, every step cratering the asphalt.
Dævd lowered his stance, lightning crawling over his arms and down Lucent Grave's blade. The runes blazed white-blue, each symbol burning like a star.
They met in the middle.
The beast's claw came in wide, Dævd ducked, spun, and carved upward. The strike split armor, muscle, and bone, a torrent of stormlight ripping out the other side.
The monster screamed, swinging wildly. Dævd slipped past each blow, every dodge punctuated by another flash of Lucent Grave, each cut feeding the storm.
Thunder cracked overhead.
Finally, the beast slammed both hands down, trying to crush him outright, Dævd planted Lucent Grave in the ground, lightning detonating outward in a Thunderbrand Pulse. The shockwave blasted the monster back, ripping chunks of flesh free.
It staggered, breathing in ragged, gurgling bursts.
Dævd gripped the hilt with both hands. His eyes narrowed, stormlight reflected in their depths.
"End of the line."
In the blink of an eye, he was above the monster, Lucent Grave raised high, every cloud overhead spiraling into a single, blinding point.
A blinding streak cut across the battlefield, faster than thought, faster than the monster could react.
"Sovereign Cut."
The slash came down like judgment, a vertical storm splitting the sky.
The monster froze, every muscle convulsing as divine lightning tore through its body, unraveling it from the inside out.
The explosion was silent at first, then the world caught up. A sound like heaven cracking filled the air, and the black energy dispersed into nothingness.
When the light faded, only ash drifted where the creature had stood.
Dævd lowered the sword, lightning flickering out as his breath steadied. The rain began to fall, soft, cold, cleansing.
Rena's voice returned through comms, quiet now.
"Good work, boys. We'll extract you shortly."
He sheathed Lucent Grave, eyes shadowed beneath the cracked mask.