Tysone hefted his halberd as he burst from cover, charging not directly at the Zombie Hulk, but at an angle, forcing it to turn on its injured leg.
Saeko mirrored him from the other side, her bokken a flickering threat.
The Zombie Hulk roared in frustration, abandoning its attempt to pry another slab of floor loose. It swiped at Saeko, who danced back just out of reach, her bokken darting in to strike at its extended arm, drawing another howl of pain.
Tysone used the opening. As the creature's attention was on Saeko, he surged forward, halberd held high, and brought the axe-head down with all his strength on the already damaged right knee. This time, he aimed for the very center of the joint from the side.
The halberd blade, honed to a razor's edge, bit deep.
A sickening, wet crunch echoed through the corridor, louder and more final than before. Black ichor sprayed, splattering Tysone's arms and chest.
The Zombie Hulk let out a shriek that was pure, unadulterated agony, a sound that clawed at their eardrums. Its massive right leg, already brutalized, now hung at an impossible angle, bone jutting through torn flesh and mangled armor.
It didn't fall immediately. Instead, it roared, a sound of pure, incandescent fury, and swung its left arm in a wild, desperate arc. Tysone, anticipating a backlash, was already throwing himself backwards, but the speed was still shocking. 'Shit!' The claws whistled inches past his face, the wind of their passage cold on his skin.
He landed awkwardly, his left knee jarring against the hard tile. A sharp pain shot up his leg, but adrenaline masked most of it.
"Rei, now! While it's off balance!" Tysone yelled, scrambling back to his feet, ignoring the throbbing in his knee.
Rei, who had been circling cautiously, saw her chance. The monster was teetering, its entire weight shifting precariously onto its one good leg as it tried to compensate for the ruined limb. With a sharp battle cry, she darted in, her spear a silver streak.
She didn't aim for the mangled ruin of the right leg, but for the back of its left knee, the one still supporting its immense bulk. Her spearpoint, sharp and true, sank into the less armored flesh behind the kneecap.
The Zombie Hulk bellowed again, a strangled, choking sound. Its remaining good leg buckled. This time, there was no catching itself. With a ground-shaking thud, the behemoth crashed heavily onto its side, its massive body skidding a few feet across the slick floor, sending shattered tiles flying.
The crystal in its chest pulsed erratically, its crimson light flickering like a dying ember before flaring back with a desperate intensity.
"It's down! Saya, HIT IT! FINISH THAT LEG!" Tysone roared, pointing with his halberd.
The creature was flailing, its powerful arms smashing against the floor, trying to push itself up, but its lower body was a useless wreck. This was their chance.
Saya, her face a grim mask of determination, charged. Fear was still there, a cold knot in her stomach, but the sight of the monster crippled, of her teammates creating this opening, fueled her.
She poured all her fear, all her anger, all her newfound strength into a single, devastating haymaker aimed at the already mangled right leg, specifically the shattered knee joint Tysone had targeted.
Her fist connected with a sound like a cannonball hitting wet concrete.
The remnants of bone and fused armor shattered completely. The Zombie Hulk's leg was now little more than a grotesque appendage of torn flesh and metal shards, completely severed from any functional support.
As Saya delivered the blow, the creature thrashed in agony. One of its flailing arms, heavy as a battering ram, swept blindly outwards. Saya, caught in the follow-through of her punch, couldn't dodge in time. The back of its massive, clawed hand clipped her across the ribs.
"OOF!" Air exploded from Saya's lungs as she was sent flying, tumbling several meters before crashing hard against a collapsed display rack. Stars burst behind her eyes, and a searing pain lanced through her side. She lay there, gasping, the world tilting.
"SAYA!" Takashi yelled, instinctively moving towards her, but Tysone's voice cut him off.
"Takashi, hold your position! It's not dead yet! Rei, Saeko, head! Pressure on its head! Don't let it focus!"
God knew how fucking worried he was for Saya, but if they got distracted now, it could very well spell their doom.
The Zombie Hulk, despite being effectively immobilized from the waist down, was still terrifyingly dangerous. It snarled, its red eyes blazing with pure hatred, and began to drag itself forward with its powerful arms, its claws gouging deep trenches in the mall floor. The crystal in its chest pulsed with a furious, almost frantic light.
Saeko was a blur of motion. She leaped onto a pile of debris, then onto the creature's broad, thrashing back, her bokken a wooden, deadly streak.
She rained blows down on its head, targeting the cracked visor, the exposed flesh, anything to distract and disorient it. She was incredibly fast, but lacked Tysone or Saya's enhanced strength. Each thwack was met with a frustrated roar. One particularly vicious swipe from the Hulk, aimed over its shoulder at Saeko, missed her by a hair's breadth, but the force of it caused her to lose her footing on its slick, uneven back.
She tumbled, landing hard on her left shoulder with a grunt of pain, her bokken skittering away for a moment.
Rei, seeing Saeko stumble, redoubled her efforts. She circled, jabbing with her spear at the creature's face and neck, forcing it to twist and turn its head, trying to fend off her attacks.
"Damn you!"
The monster, enraged and blinded by pain, snapped its jaws, its jagged teeth clashing inches from Rei's spear. In its fury, it slammed a fist onto the ground near Rei. The impact sent a shower of razor-sharp tile fragments flying. One large piece caught her on the forearm, slicing through her sleeve and drawing a line of crimson.
She hissed in pain but kept her spear up, her eyes narrowed.
Takashi, meanwhile, was providing pinpoint covering fire. His rifle barked, each shot aimed at the creature's glowing eyes or the edges of its fused helmet. One bullet ricocheted off the helmet with a sharp ping, and the creature roared, swatting at its own head. Another shot struck near its left eye, drawing a spurt of ichor. The red glow in that eye flickered and dimmed.
"Tysone, now's your chance! Its left side is exposed!" Takashi yelled, seeing the monster momentarily blinded on one side and distracted by Saeko, who had recovered her bokken and was back in the fray, hammering at its skull.
Tysone saw it. The opening. The creature's left eye was a ruined mess, dark ichor weeping from it. Saeko, back on her feet, her bokken a blur despite her injured shoulder, was pecking at the right side of its helmet, forcing its attention that way.
Rei, blood streaming down her arm, relentlessly darted in and out, her spear a constant threat to its face, making it jerk its head erratically. It was pinned, enraged, and its left side, particularly the junction of its thick neck and skull, was momentarily less guarded as it focused on the immediate threats to its right.
"Cover me!" Tysone roared, his voice raw. He didn't wait for an answer. Adrenaline surged, a fiery wave washing over the pain in his knee, the burn in his thigh, the dozens of stinging cuts.
He charged, not with the grace of Saeko, but with the desperate momentum of a freight train. The stench of decay, blood, and something acridly metallic assaulted his nostrils.
The Zombie Hulk sensed him. Its one good crimson eye swiveled wildly, fixing on him with an expression of pure, undiluted malice. The moment Tysone got too close, Rei and Saeko cleared out of the way. This was his play.
The downed monster opened its maw wide open, strings of infected saliva connecting its upper and lower jaws.
In front of him, the creature's mouth stretched impossibly wide, revealing rows of jagged, yellow-black teeth.
The creature's wounded eye was the target; there was no other way.
With a primal yell that tore from his own throat, Tysone raised his halberd high. He shifted his weight, channeling every ounce of his strength, his desperation, his will to survive, into this single, final blow.
He brought the weapon down in a devastating, two-handed chop. The axe blade met the soft, putrefied flesh of the Zombie Hulk's eye socket. The resistance was momentary, like cutting through gelatin, and then the blade sank in, deep. Ichor spurted, a dark, viscous fountain, as the blade carved through the creature's eye and into the rotting tissue of its brain.
In its final moment, however, the creature's arm moved. Its massive, claw-tipped hand, driven by pure, mindless fury, arced upwards with the last vestiges of its terrifying strength. The claws whistled through the air.
Tysone saw the strike coming, but he was fully committed to his attack. He tilted his center of gravity slightly backward, but the tips of its claws still managed to graze his side. It was like being slashed by five razor blades. His biker's leather jacket offered scant protection, and he felt searing pain bloom along his rib cage.
'Fuck!' Tysone thought, falling backwards as the monster's head crashed to the floor with a final, wet crunch.
His own blood soared, right past his widened eyes.
The Zombie Hulk let out a final, gurgling howl, its massive body thrashing once, twice, then finally going still. The crimson glow in its remaining eye flickered and died, its claws falling limply to its sides. Black, foul-smelling blood pooled around its head, and its chest crystal's light dimmed and went dark.
The silence that followed was almost deafening.
"Tysone!"
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.