Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”So strong!” The crowd’s eyes were filled with awe. They had thought the monster leader was already terrifyingly powerful, but compared to Ethan, it was like a child facing a giant. Truly, he lived up to his title as the Zombie King of Los Angeles.

From a distance, Robert stood frozen, utterly stunned.

This was the first time he had ever seen such a powerful Zombie King.

The monster crashed into the wall, leaving a gaping, pitch-black hole as rubble crumbled around it.

Ethan wasn’t about to let up. He planned to press the attack, giving her no chance to recover. In a flash, he surged forward again.

Sensing the danger, the monster lashed out first. A single tentacle shot out from the darkness of the hole, slicing through the air with a sharp whooshing sound, carrying immense force.

Ethan’s Domain of the Dead swirled around him like a storm, shielding him effortlessly. Without hesitation, he raised his hand, and a sleek tachi appeared in his grip. With a swift motion, he slashed forward.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

He struck multiple times in quick succession, slicing the tentacle into pieces, each segment falling to the ground.

But to everyone’s horror, the severed pieces began to writhe and squirm, as if alive, and then started reattaching themselves.

Ethan glanced at the regenerating tentacle, his expression calm, almost indifferent.

He wasn’t particularly surprised. He simply thought to himself, As expected of the monster leader. Its regeneration is leagues above the smaller ones.

At that moment, the elegant woman’s figure emerged from the dark fissure. The tentacle that had been severed was now fully reattached to her body.

Her hair hung in disarray, her once-luxurious gown now tattered and torn. She no longer looked regal but instead resembled a vengeful specter crawling out of hell. Her face was twisted with malice, her eyes burning with fury as they locked onto Ethan.

”You can’t kill me!” she hissed, her voice dripping with venom.

”Oh? Is that so?” Ethan replied, his tone calm but laced with a dangerous edge. Gripping his tachi tightly, he leapt forward like a predator pouncing on its prey, aiming straight for her chest.

”This guy...” The woman’s expression grew grim. Despite her bold words, fear flickered in her heart. She had thought defeating the human warrior would secure her victory, but now she realized—he was the true final boss.

As Ethan closed in, the monster lashed out with all nine of her tentacles, whipping them forward to block his attack.

But Ethan’s Domain of the Dead was too overwhelming. The oppressive energy radiating from him made it impossible for the tentacles to even touch him. Each one that got close was instantly repelled.

Ethan was like an unstoppable war machine, plowing through every obstacle in his path.

In the blink of an eye, his tachi pierced toward the monster’s chest—right where her crystal core was located. A direct hit here would be fatal.

The woman’s eyes widened in terror. She frantically raised her hands to block the strike.

Clang!

A sharp metallic sound rang out as she managed to deflect the blade slightly. Instead of piercing her chest, the tachi plunged into her abdomen.

The monster leader let out a sigh of relief. As long as her crystal core remained intact, any other injury was just superficial—nothing that could kill her.

But then, Ethan made his next move.

He activated the fire crystal core embedded in the tachi’s hilt. A wave of searing heat erupted, and flames roared to life, engulfing the blade in an instant.

”AAAAARGH—!”

The monster let out a blood-curdling scream.

The long blade, now burning fiercely, scorched her from the inside. The stench of charred flesh filled the air.

The flames were agonizing, but what made it worse was Ethan’s Domain of the Dead. At such close range, the crushing pressure was unbearable, like a massive millstone grinding her down. Even with her formidable physique, she couldn’t withstand it.

The monster leader writhed in agony, her shrieks echoing wildly. Desperation filled her mind as she frantically searched for a way to escape.

Suddenly, with a sickening squelch, her back split open. From the gory wound, a new creature emerged, drenched in blood.

This was her ultimate form.

The true monster leader.

It was humanoid in shape but grotesque in appearance. Its limbs were unnaturally thin, and nine writhing tentacles extended from its back, twitching erratically. Its head resembled that of a tyrannosaurus, with two small, glowing yellow eyes that gleamed with malice. Its mouth was filled with jagged, razor-sharp teeth, bared in a menacing snarl.

”So that’s the monster leader’s true form?” someone muttered.

”Ugh, it’s so ugly...”

”It crawled out of the woman’s body!”

”Not this trick again...”

”....”

The crowd stared in tense silence.

They had seen this ”shedding its skin” trick before, back at the shelter. But even so, witnessing it again sent chills down their spines.

After shedding its previous form, the monster’s first instinct was to put as much distance as possible between itself and Ethan.

Its feral, blood-red eyes scanned the battlefield until they locked onto a human spectator.

”Oh, hell no!” The man, immediately sensing danger, felt a wave of dread wash over him. He was none other than the 003 Awakener from Rancho Cucamonga.

”Run for it!” someone shouted.

But the monster wasn’t about to let him escape. Whether it was to replenish its strength, claim a new host, or both, it had no intention of sparing him.

One of its thick, writhing tentacles lashed out, coiling tightly around the man’s waist, and dragged him closer. The monster’s true form followed swiftly, closing the gap in an instant.

The way the monster parasitized its victims wasn’t by burrowing inside them—it was far more grotesque. It simply pressed its body against theirs. The moment their skin made contact, it was as if the strongest adhesive in the world had fused them together.

The young man thrashed violently, his skin stretching unnaturally as he struggled to break free, but it was useless. In mere seconds, the two had merged into one.

From a distance, the scene looked disturbingly ”intimate,” almost like two lovers locked in a tight embrace. But up close, it was nothing short of horrifying.

Chris, watching from the sidelines, felt a chill run down his spine. He couldn’t help but think, Thank God I didn’t pick this monster to mess with earlier...

The rest of the onlookers were equally horrified, their faces pale with fear.

Ethan, however, had only one thought as he observed the scene: What a waste of resources.

Without hesitation, he gripped his tachi and charged at the monster once more.

The monster, still reeling from the pain of its earlier encounter with Ethan, was visibly shaken. Seeing him approach again, it panicked and instinctively grabbed another human to use as a shield.

This time, its unfortunate victim was Zane, another survivor from Rancho Cucamonga.

”No… no, please!” Zane cried out in terror. He was already severely injured and completely drained of energy, unable to put up any resistance.

Ethan’s tachi was already hurtling toward him.

”Don’t kill me!” Zane screamed, his voice cracking with desperation.

But Ethan didn’t hesitate. If anything, his blade moved even faster.

”In battle, casualties are inevitable,” Ethan said coldly.

”...” Zane’s face turned ashen. In his final moments, as the tachi pierced through his chest, his panicked expression froze. Darkness consumed his vision, and just before losing consciousness, one final thought crossed his mind: If there’s a next life… I’ll never talk about ’acceptable losses’ again…

The tachi, after skewering Zane, continued its trajectory and plunged into the monster’s shoulder.

Ethan didn’t stop there. With a swift horizontal slash, he aimed to cleave the monster’s body wide open.

But the monster reacted quickly, twisting its body to avoid a fatal blow to its crystal core.

Swish!

Instead, Ethan’s blade severed one of the tentacles from its shoulder, sending it tumbling to the ground.

”Hmph! It’s useless!” the monster leader sneered. The severed tentacle began to writhe and squirm, inching its way back toward the monster’s body to reattach itself.

But just as it was about to reconnect, a figure suddenly appeared in midair.

It was Robert.

His face was pale, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes burned with determination. In his hands, the Lightning Blade crackled with energy, its speed reaching an almost blinding level. Like a bolt of lightning splitting the apocalypse itself, he plunged the blade downward, pinning the writhing tentacle to the ground.

”Let me give you a little shock therapy,” Robert said, his voice steady despite his injuries.

He activated his A+-grade lightning crystal core, unleashing a surge of electricity that coursed through the entire tentacle. Sparks flew, and the air filled with the acrid smell of burning flesh. The tentacle turned black and charred, its movements ceasing entirely.

”Damn you!” the monster leader roared, its eyes wide with fury.

...