Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”This guy’s basically a walking monster magnet, huh?” Brandon couldn’t help but snark.

In an instant, the entire mountaintop trembled. Massive boulders tumbled down with thunderous crashes—then morphed into Stone Scorpions, skittering toward the group with deadly intent.

”Keep fighting!” Mia said calmly, drawing her tachi in one smooth motion. She slashed at an oncoming Stone Scorpion, her blade slicing through the air with a sharp whistle. It scraped across the creature’s armored shell, ringing out like steel on steel.

Sparks flew from the Stone Scorpion’s body, but it wasn’t cut clean through. Instead, a deep gash opened up, oozing blue blood.

”Still alive?” Mia raised an eyebrow. She realized that in her current state, a one-hit kill was out of the question.

Even wounded, the Stone Scorpion was relentless. It didn’t flinch, didn’t hesitate—its barbed tail lashed out as it lunged again.

Mia’s tachi crackled with electricity as she unleashed a flurry of strikes, each swing leaving a blur in the air. After several precise slashes, she finally carved the creature into pieces.

Nearby, Brandon’s ability—Blood Burst—was almost useless. The Stone Scorpions were just too tough. Their bodies were so dense, he couldn’t make their blood explode like usual. At best, he could nudge them slightly, but it barely made a difference.

Chris’s fire powers weren’t faring any better. No matter how much he scorched them, all he managed to do was leave a few black scorch marks on their shells. That was it.

”These things are insane!” Chris shouted.

”No,” Brandon said, eyes narrowing. ”We’re just too weak.”

The level gap was just too wide. No matter how good their abilities were, they couldn’t bridge that kind of difference.

The mountaintop, which had been eerily quiet just moments ago, was now in total chaos. More and more Stone Scorpions dropped their disguises and revealed their true forms.

Thomas and Jenny were stunned. This was Mosca Peak, after all—its reputation for danger was no joke.

The two of them could barely manage to injure a Stone Scorpion, and even then, only just.

They also noticed something else: the bigger the scorpion, the thicker its armor—and the more dangerous it was.

When they ran into one that was over ten feet long, they didn’t even try to fight. They just ran.

”This is brutal...”

Fighting monsters like these drained both stamina and focus. One slip-up, and it was game over.

Just as they were starting to panic, a deafening boom echoed through the air.

A powerful shockwave tore through the area, shattering rocks and sending Stone Scorpions screeching in pain. Blue blood sprayed everywhere.

They turned—and saw Ethan standing at the front, gripping the Star Map tablet he’d shown them before.

It still glowed with that same soft, dreamlike light.

Blades weren’t ideal for fighting these monsters—they took too much effort. So Ethan had gone straight for the heavy artillery.

The tablet was far tougher than any Stone Scorpion.

With a single swing, Ethan unleashed a devastating force. One scorpion’s head exploded into dust, and a crystal core shot out from the remains.

Ethan glanced down at the corpse at his feet.

”Damn, this one’s a tough dish,” he muttered. ”Wonder if I can even chew through it.”

Still, he scooped it up anyway.

He kept swinging the tablet like a warhammer, each blow tearing through the mutated creatures like they were nothing. It was like he was swatting flies.

”Holy crap!” Thomas and the others were floored. With Ethan taking out most of the monsters, the rest of them were suddenly a lot safer.

They’d thought he was just the brains of the group—always strategizing, rarely fighting. But now? He was more badass than any of them.

Still, the Stone Scorpions didn’t back down. Even as their comrades fell, the rest kept charging forward, fearless and relentless.

They weren’t just mindless beasts. They moved with coordination, like they were following orders.

Which could only mean one thing—there was probably a Stone Scorpion King nearby.

”Where is it?” Everyone scanned the area, tension rising. The king of Mosca Peak’s summit had to be insanely powerful—and incredibly dangerous.

As Ethan kept cutting down monsters, he suddenly noticed something strange.

The Star Map tablet in his hand began to glow more intensely, as if it were being drawn toward something. A soft radiance shimmered across its surface, pointing in a specific direction.

”Got it!” Ethan’s eyes lit up. Clearly, the two tablets were connected somehow.

He looked toward a clearing up ahead—oddly quiet, with no monsters in sight.

Too quiet.

”There.” Ethan shifted his grip, grabbing the Star Map tablet with both hands by its edges. Then, with a roar, he raised it high overhead—and slammed it down into the ground.

BOOOOM!

The impact was like a volcanic eruption.

The ground beneath them convulsed violently, as if the entire Mosca Peak was about to split apart. A shockwave blasted outward, pulverizing nearby rocks and shattering the Stone Scorpions charging toward them.

Cracks ripped through the earth, jagged and black, snaking forward like lightning bolts.

Then, from the clearing ahead, something stirred.

A guttural roar erupted—deep, raw, and furious. It sounded like boulders grinding against each other, a sound so massive it drowned out everything else. For a moment, the world went silent under its weight.

Chris and the others winced, ears ringing, heads buzzing like they’d just stood too close to a bomb going off.

”What the hell was that?!”

”I think... the Stone Scorpion King’s waking up,” Brandon said, eyes locked on the clearing, his voice low and tense.

Everyone froze, staring in the same direction, hearts pounding.

Ethan’s devastating strike hadn’t calmed the chaos—it had only made it worse.

Mosca Peak shook harder now, the tremors so intense they could barely stay on their feet. They had to cling to each other just to keep from falling over.

Except for Logan, who was farther away and had no one to grab onto. The ground bucked beneath him, and he landed flat on his ass with a loud thud.

”OWWWWW—!”

He let out a pitiful scream.

Because clinging to his butt cheek… was a baby Stone Scorpion.

And it wasn’t just biting—it was venomous. The sting site was already swelling up like a balloon.

First, he got bit on the mouth by a venomous snake. Now, he’d been stung in the ass by a scorpion. Logan looked like a man on the verge of tears.

”What did I do to deserve this?!”

...

Up ahead, something massive was pushing its way out from beneath the earth. A wave of raw, murderous energy rolled over the battlefield, thick and suffocating.

It felt like a blade hovering right between their eyes.

Then, with a final, violent quake, the ground erupted—and a mountain rose.

No, not a mountain. A creature.

It towered nearly sixty feet tall—easily the height of a six-story building. Its sheer size radiated pressure, like gravity itself had gotten heavier.

Eight glowing red eyes snapped open, burning like warning lights in the dark. The killing intent pouring off it was suffocating.

The mountain rumbled again—and began to move.

It was a Stone Scorpion.

The Stone Scorpion King had arrived.

”Holy shit, it’s huge!” Chris gasped, eyes wide.

The last time they’d seen something this massive was during the fight with the Azure Scaled Zombie King—when that Zombiezilla rose from the ocean depths.

But this? This thing made Zombiezilla look like a warm-up act.

Because with Stone Scorpions, size wasn’t just for show—it meant power. And this one was the size of a damn building.

No doubt about it. At the very least, this thing was S-rank.

”We’re screwed. We’re so screwed...” Logan stared at the monster, despair washing over him like a cold wave.

There was no way they could beat something like that.

But Ethan didn’t flinch. His eyes stayed locked on the beast, calm and focused. The glow from the Star Map tablet in his hands drifted toward the scorpion’s massive underbelly.

”So... you swallowed it, huh?” he muttered. ”Alright then. Spit it out.”

...