Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Lakeside Residential District—a massive housing complex on the edge of Clearford City—was already crawling with zombies. Wall to wall, undead packed every street and alley like a living tide, the whole zone overrun long before Ethan and his squad arrived.

Today’s mission? Kill the Tier 8 zombie reportedly lurking somewhere in this area.

With no Tier 9 targets in range, they had no choice but to hunt Tier 8s.

Sure, now that they could cultivate, they were stronger than ever. But crystal cores still sped up progress like nothing else.

Ethan didn’t need Tier 8 cores—he was already Tier 9—but his team definitely did. Especially since Tier 8 cores weren’t exactly growing on trees.

Emily, for one, had already been a Tier 6 Awakened when she was still with the Silverfox Squad. Her power had been crucial to their operations, so they’d never skimped when it came to giving her the cores she needed.

And once she hit Tier 6, her healing ability had taken a serious leap forward.

The skill she picked at that stage? A Light-type ability called Cleanse—able to purge harmful substances from the body: poisons, pathogens…even cancer cells.

In a pre-apocalypse world, she could’ve made a fortune. But now?

Now she was a support. Pure and simple. No boost to combat power whatsoever. No wonder the Silverfox Squad never let her on the front lines.

Last night, though, Ethan had used some spare crystal cores to push her up to Tier 7. If they could take down this Tier 8 zombie today, she’d be ready for Tier 8—finally worthy of joining Fallen Star Squad as a full member.

But her combat skills? Yeah…those still needed work.

In Fallen Star, there were no ”pure supports.” Hell, even Henry had to fight his way up. If Emily wanted to be part of the team, she’d have to get her hands bloodied, too.

It took the squad a little over thirty minutes to make it to the edge of Lakeside.

Even from a distance, the swarm of zombies was overwhelming—an undulating mass of rotten limbs and snapping jaws.

Looked like seventy…maybe eighty thousand of them crammed into the complex.

”Looks like the intel was solid,” Ethan said, eyes narrowing. ”There’s definitely a Tier 8 in there.”

”But if it doesn’t show itself…” Sean muttered, frowning, ”we’re screwed. No way we can kill that many. We’d drop dead from exhaustion first.”

”Maybe that was true before,” Ethan said, smirking. ”But not now. You’re forgetting—we’ve got a new member.”

”Oh, right! Damn, I totally forgot.”

Ethan turned toward Emily. ”How many times can you restore stamina?”

”In theory, as many times as I’ve got enough crystal cores to recover my mental energy,” Emily replied. ”But if I use my power too much in a short time, my body starts burning out. Cores won’t help with that. I still need breaks.”

”That’s normal. Happens to everyone,” Ethan nodded.

”So give me an estimate,” he said. ”Roughly how many rounds of stamina boosts can you handle?”

”I’d say over ten if it’s just you guys,” Emily said seriously. ”It’s not like in Silverfox, where I had to keep an entire squad going. But there’s a catch.”

”What kind of catch?” Ethan asked with a frown.

”Let’s say you guys can normally fight full-out for two hours,” she explained. ”After I restore your stamina once, you might only last an hour and a half. After the second time, maybe just an hour. I don’t know why, but that’s just how it works—it was the same for Silverfox.”

”Diminishing returns, huh…” Ethan nodded slowly, thinking it over. ”Probably a limitation of the human body itself.”

”Which means…” he glanced at the horde swarming ahead, ”taking on seventy or eighty thousand zombies might still be cutting it close.”

Then he turned toward Skinny Pete. ”Call Goldie and the others. We’ll need them.”

”On it,” Skinny Pete said, nodding. He closed his eyes for a second, mentally issuing the command.

The team withdrew behind the crumbling remains of an abandoned house and waited.

Wouldn’t be long before Bengal tiger Goldie, orange tabby cat Pumpkin, and black-spotted jaguar Speckles arrived on scene.

About ten minutes later, three shapes streaked across the ruined streets, heading straight for them at breakneck speed.

Emily jumped in shock the moment she saw them. Sure, the others had warned her about these ”pets” of theirs—but seeing them in person was a whole different beast.

Especially Goldie. A tiger the size of a damn elephant? The sheer pressure rolling off that thing made her knees weak.

Ethan, on the other hand, lit up with surprise when he spotted the orange tabby darting in close.

”Pumpkin, you’re Tier 8 now?”

”Meow!” Pumpkin let out a proud cry, tail high and puffed.

Immediately, Goldie growled low and menacing beside him. One glare, and Pumpkin went dead quiet.

Ethan glanced at Skinny Pete, who just shrugged helplessly. ”They’ve probably been tearing through all kinds of high-tier mutant beasts in the mountains. I didn’t level Goldie and the others on purpose—but I guess Pumpkin snatched up most of the benefits.”

”Yeah, that tracks.” Ethan nodded. ”It’s fine. They’re all ours anyway—one’s gain helps us all.” He turned back toward the zombie swarm. ”Alright then. Since everyone’s here—let’s move.”

”Got it!”

Everyone drew their weapons and charged.

Emily clutched the longsword Ethan had handed her, then followed at a steady pace.

To her credit, she didn’t freeze up at the sight of all the zombies—not even tens of thousands of them. Clearly, her time with Silverfox Squad hadn’t been for nothing.

The horde stirred the moment they noticed movement.

A ripple of hoarse, excited howls swept through the crowd—but the second they laid eyes on Goldie and the other mutant beasts, they hesitated. Just for a breath. Enough to suggest some flicker of intelligence remained.

But then instinct took over.

There were tens of thousands of them. The Fallen Star Squad only had a few fighters. They weren’t backing down.

The tide surged forward.

Ethan shot to the front of the line, poleaxe spinning. One swing—the axe carved through a whole swath of heads. He plunged into the horde without pause, weapon cleaving a brutal path as corpses crumpled behind him like wheat to a thresher.

Not to be outdone, Chris and the others dove into the chaos, unleashing blade and power alike in a rapid-fire storm of carnage.

Physical blows mixed with awakened abilities in deadly synch, keeping their kill efficiency at absolute peak.

The mutant beasts? They were downright gleeful.

Goldie barreled through the tide like a living tank, slamming her enormous claws and tail into everything in reach. Wherever she went, zombies flew like toys.

Speckles and Pumpkin, on the other hand, were all about speed. Less brute force, more razor agility. They danced through the gaps like ghosts, their claws flashing—one swipe, one kill.

Henry took a step forward, ready to leap in too…then stopped. A glance at Emily, and he made the call to stay back, positioning himself protectively at her side.

Probably a smart move.

Emily stood frozen, wide-eyed.

She’d expected Fallen Star Squad to fight the way she was used to—like the Silverfox Squad. Back there, whenever they were outnumbered, they’d circle up, minimizing contact points, carefully rotating positions to manage fatigue. And her job? Stay in the center, keeping stamina topped off.

But what she was seeing now?

This wasn’t tactical containment.

This was chaos.

Controlled, overwhelming chaos.

Each person was fighting dozens of zombies solo—and shredding through them like it was nothing. One swing, a dozen corpses dropped. Abilities lit the air behind the steel flash of weapons. The squad tore into the mob like wolves through dry grass.

Emily stared in silent awe.

This… was the Fallen Star Squad?

They weren’t surviving the apocalypse.

They were dominating it.