Apocalypse: King of Zombies

The mutant beast horde roared as they surged forward once more, crashing into the zombie ranks with renewed fury. After the earlier clash, they were no longer hesitant—if anything, they were more bloodthirsty than before.

”This is our home turf!”

”Fighting us in the forest? You’re asking to die!”

”...”

One by one, the Xenobeasts lunged into the fray, tearing into the zombies with savage abandon. The two sides rolled across the ground, locked in a frenzy of claws, fangs, and rotting flesh. It was pure chaos—brutal, primal, and unrelenting.

But then—

”Your turf? Did you ask me first?”

A calm, deep voice echoed through the battlefield.

From the zombie ranks, a figure stepped forward—tall, bark-skinned, and crowned with twisted branches. A tree-like Zombie King, his presence ancient and commanding.

Gorewood.

”Arboreal Domain.”

With a low chant, green energy pulsed from beneath his feet, spreading outward like ripples in a pond.

After surviving multiple battles, Gorewood had grown stronger. His Absolute Domain was now fully formed—and it was terrifying.

The earth trembled violently. Trees erupted from the ground, shooting skyward in seconds. Towering trunks and thick canopies formed a dense, living forest, blotting out the sky.

Even the scorched land flattened by the Starbreaker Cannon was reborn—lush and green once more.

In the blink of an eye, a new forest had taken root.

Xenobeasts that charged in were immediately ensnared—roots coiled around their limbs, branches pierced their hides, lifting them into the air like grotesque trophies.

The horde faltered. Fear crept into their eyes.

”What the hell are those trees?”

”They’re alive!”

”That’s gotta be a fusion-type plant Zombie King… We need the Devilvines to deal with him!”

”...”

From the ground, thick vines began to slither forward like serpents, Devilvines summoned by the Xenobeasts to counter Gorewood’s domain. They wrapped around the massive trunks, squeezing hard enough to snap branches with loud crack-crack sounds.

But before the beasts could celebrate—

Another voice rang out from the forest.

”Vine Domain.”

A second Absolute Domain activated.

The ground heaved, and a tidal wave of vines burst forth, flooding the battlefield in a sea of green. The Devilvines were instantly overwhelmed, tangled and shredded by the new growth.

And then—flowers.

Delicate pink blossoms bloomed among the vines, their petals soft and fragrant. The scent drifted through the air, sweet and cloying.

The Xenobeasts inhaled it without thinking.

Moments later, their eyes glazed over. Their movements slowed. Confusion set in.

Then madness.

They turned on each other, snarling and biting, mistaking their own allies for enemies. The battlefield descended into a surreal nightmare of self-inflicted carnage.

And that was just the beginning.

From the corpses littering the ground, red tumors began to swell—pulsing, writhing, feeding on the flesh. In seconds, they drained the bodies dry, then fused together, reshaping into grotesque new Xenobeast-like forms.

They stood up—reborn, twisted, and under new command.

Lil’ Shroom’s work.

Ethan’s four plant-type Zombie Kings had all entered the fight—and they were tearing through the enemy like a scythe through wheat. Their combined power didn’t just rival the Starbreaker Cannon—it surpassed it in endurance and battlefield control.

The mutant beast overlords, who had been charging in with bloodlust in their eyes, suddenly skidded to a halt.

They stared at the scene before them—utterly stunned.

”What… what kind of powers are these?”

”These zombies… they’re unnatural.”

”Our forest… it’s not ours anymore.”

”...”

The lower-tier Xenobeasts were being shredded—torn apart by the combined might of the four plant-type Zombie Kings. But even the stronger ones weren’t faring much better.

A pack of S-class Horned Panthers, known for their blistering speed and deadly precision, had their heads lopped off in the blink of an eye.

Their agility, once their pride, meant nothing now.

Laura was a blur on the battlefield, her figure flickering like a ghost. Her mechanical arm morphed into a sleek, elongated blade—nearly as tall as she was. Every swing of that blade carved through flesh and bone with surgical precision.

Wherever she passed, blood sprayed like fountains, and bodies dropped like dominoes.

But she wasn’t the only shadow on the field.

In the darkness beneath the trees, a sliver of blackness slithered silently—like a phantom. It moved without sound, without warning, and every time it appeared, a Xenobeast leader dropped dead with a hole in its skull.

Little Shadow.

His single-target assassination ability was terrifying. Worse, he didn’t even need to attack—just knowing he was out there, lurking in the shadows, was enough to throw the enemy into chaos.

Meanwhile, the brute-force Zombie Kings like Bulldozer were going toe-to-toe with the mutated beasts, trading blows with raw power. Their monstrous physiques didn’t flinch under the weight of claws or fangs—they gave as good as they got, and then some.

Bloodveil watched it all unfold, his savage eyes narrowing.

”This… this isn’t how the last fight went,” he muttered.

Just a short while ago, his own troops had been getting steamrolled, barely able to hold the line.

Now the tide had turned.

Same zombies. Same battlefield. So why the hell was there such a massive difference?

The answer was obvious.

Ethan’s zombies weren’t just any undead—they were hardened veterans, evolved through countless battles. Their mutation levels were off the charts, far beyond the average scavenger-tier zombies of Necroterra’s other regions.

These were apex predators.

And they were tearing through the mutant beast horde like it was nothing.

Far off, the mutant beast overlords watched in disbelief. Their forces—once unstoppable—were faltering. The battlefield was shifting, and it was shifting fast.

”This… this isn’t right,” the Direwolf King growled. ”If this keeps up, we’re going to lose. We need to send in our elite Xenobeasts!”

”Agreed,” rumbled the Titan Bison King. ”Don’t worry. The Mountain God is on his way. We just need to hold out until he arrives.”

”Right!” The other overlords nodded in unison.

The Mountain God was powerful, but he was still deep within Xenorift. It would take time for him to reach the front lines.

Until then, they had to stall.

With a unified mental command, the overlords summoned their personal elite units.

And then—BOOM!

The jungle shook with a new wave of roars, louder than thunder, shaking the trees to their roots.

These were no ordinary beasts.

These were the bloodline elites—Xenobeasts that shared the same mutated lineage as the overlords themselves. Born from the same primal blood, they were faster, stronger, and smarter than the rest.

Towering Direwolves, mountain-sized Titan Bisons, lightning-fast Horned Panthers—they charged through the forest like living tanks, smashing everything in their path.

Each one was a walking disaster. A single swipe could send even elite zombies flying.

In the face of such raw power, technique meant nothing.

But just as the mutant beast elites were about to turn the tide—

Something changed.

From behind the Zombie Horde, a thick black mist erupted into the sky, swirling like a demonic storm. It clawed at the air, swallowing light, swallowing sound—swallowing everything.

”What the hell is that?!”

The Xenobeasts’ vision was cut off. Panic set in. Through the haze, they could barely make out flickers of light—bright beams slicing through the darkness.

Then—FLASH!

A figure burst from the mist, lightsaber in hand, and in one clean motion, decapitated a charging Direwolf.

The blade burned white-hot, slicing through bone like butter.

The Saber Corps had arrived.

Three thousand elite zombies, each wielding a lightsaber forged from crystal cores, surged forward like a tidal wave of death. They trampled over Xenobeast corpses, cutting down anything that moved.

At the same time, the Dreadnought-class Starcruiser lit up with fire.

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!

Fifteen hundred Guard Mechs launched into the air, then came crashing down into the heart of the mutant beast horde.

The battlefield shook as they landed.

One particularly massive mutant rhino was charging through the ranks, its armored body plowing through zombies like a wrecking ball.

Then it hit a Guard Mech.

CLANG!

The rhino stopped dead—its momentum shattered.

The Guard Mech raised its massive lightsaber and brought it down in a clean arc. The blade sliced through the rhino’s thick hide like it was paper, splitting it open from shoulder to gut.

The Mech didn’t stop.

Its other arm rotated, revealing a cluster of black-barreled cannons. With a mechanical whir, the Crystal Core Blasters activated.

BRRRRRRRRRRT!

A storm of energy bolts tore through the smaller Xenobeasts nearby, reducing them to smoking chunks in seconds.

...