Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Somewhere in the mountains of Rivermark State…

Ethan and the others were still fighting—still grinding, still bleeding their stamina out one second at a time.

There were too many Outland Beasts.

They couldn’t kill them all.

They really, genuinely couldn’t.

The worst part was Dopey.

Dopey, who was usually one punch per kill, was no longer doing one punch per kill.

Once the Lionfang King actually got serious, it started trading blows with him—back and forth, refusing to fold.

Dopey still had it pinned, still beat it around the field more often than not, but the King’s body was wrapped in that layer of golden light. Dopey couldn’t smash through it fast enough.

He couldn’t finish it.

Not yet.

And the other thralls had it even worse.

These Lionfang Beasts were monsters—nothing like ordinary Stage S. Their combat power was on another level entirely, and that golden light wasn’t just defense.

It blocked the Umbrals’ Decay.

It was like the Lionfang Beasts were built specifically to hard-counter them.

If the thralls felt pain, if injuries actually slowed them down… Ethan would’ve been losing bodies already.

As it stood, only Dopey and Aeralon were clearly holding the upper hand.

Everyone else was getting pushed.

But even Aeralon couldn’t just ”wrap it up.”

The three Lionfang Beasts it was holding were the strongest ones after the King—two Tier 33 and one Tier 32. Aeralon could suppress them, sure, but quickly killing them was another story.

Ethan’s side was even more brutal.

Facing a packed ocean of Outland Beasts, all they could do was keep killing—until their arms went numb and their minds started to swim.

At one point, Garrick’s protective dome even got broken.

For a split second, the battlefield opened up like a mouth.

If Ethan hadn’t Teleported over immediately to plug the hole, the consequences didn’t bear thinking about.

Even so, Skinny Pete and Emily both took serious injuries in the chaos. Thankfully, with a powerful healer on the team, wounds were a problem they could solve.

But exhaustion?

Exhaustion was different.

Right now, everyone looked wrecked—body and mind both.

It had been a long time since they’d felt like this.

Back when they fought zombies in the early apocalypse, this kind of desperate, grinding battle had been normal.

But after their strength skyrocketed, fights had turned into two extremes:

Either the enemy was too strong and they had to run…

Or the enemy was too weak and there was no pressure at all.

A situation like this—strength close enough to be dangerous, but numbers so overwhelming it felt endless—was something they hadn’t faced in a very long time.

And yet…

Their fighting spirit hadn’t cracked.

Fallen Star Squad had been forged through one nightmare after another. The harder the fight got, the more vicious they became.

Breaking them wasn’t going to be easy.

”Emily,” Big Mike said, voice rough as he glanced at her, ”give me another mental energy refill.”

Emily shot him a look. ”Take it easy. That’s the fifth time. Your eyes are already bloodshot—don’t die on me.”

”Don’t scare me like that,” Big Mike said with a weak grin. ”With our bodies now, dropping dead from exhaustion shouldn’t be that easy.”

His smile thinned.

”Besides… I matter in this fight. If I slow down, more Outland Beasts reach the front line. If too many stack up, Garrick’s protective dome won’t hold.”

He let out a bitter laugh, breath wheezing.

”So even if I really do keel over, I still have to keep going.”

Big Mike joked around most of the time, but when it counted, he never took a step back.

Emily sighed, then still reached out and refilled his mental energy.

But her own face was pale too.

She’d been using Energy Link on Garrick nonstop, feeding him just to keep the dome stable—while also healing injuries and topping off other people whenever she could.

The longer it went, the more terrifying the drain became.

And that link couldn’t break.

Garrick’s protective dome was the spine of their entire defense. These Outland Beasts weren’t just charging in with claws and teeth—plenty of them had ranged attacks, and the dome was eating all of it.

Without the dome, they wouldn’t have lasted this long.

Aside from Ethan, Sean, and Chris, nobody else could survive under that kind of full-coverage barrage.

Sean sucked in air, sweat and blood streaking his face. ”Am I crazy, or does it feel like their numbers haven’t dropped at all?”

”You’re not crazy,” Chris’s voice answered from somewhere in the swarm—close, then gone. ”They really haven’t. We’ve killed a lot, but we also pulled in more Outland Beasts.”

”Holy shit… then we’ll kill ourselves and still won’t finish them!” Sean shouted, a note of real despair cracking through.

”Of course we can’t kill them all,” Ethan said, flashing in beside him to take some of the pressure off. ”Right now we just have to hold until Dopey finishes his fight. Once he drops the Lionfang King, these Outland Beasts will probably back off. And even if they don’t—Dopey can carve a path and we break out.”

His eyes flicked over Sean’s condition, and his face tightened.

”I’ve got this side for a bit. You fall back and recover.”

Sean was already in terrible shape. His Thornmail had been battered apart, and even his Titansteel Form was dented and cratered like it had been hammered by artillery. If he didn’t reset soon, he was going to die here.

”Got it.” Sean didn’t play hero. He turned and sprinted for the protective dome.

Ethan glanced toward Dopey’s fight and finally let himself breathe.

The Lionfang King was on its last legs. The golden light covering it had dimmed to a weak shimmer, like a candle about to gutter out. Once that protection broke, it wouldn’t survive Dopey’s fists for more than a second.

You lasted this long against Dopey… even dying would be something to brag about, Ethan thought grimly.

But it was time to end it. Once Dopey freed up, their crisis would unravel fast.

Then—

More Outland Beasts arrived.

Normally, that wouldn’t have meant much anymore. Reinforcements had been showing up nonstop this whole time.

But this group was different.

They looked like oversized sabertooth tigers—low, fast, built for killing—with blade-long fangs and eyes that didn’t have the mindless frenzy of the swarm.

And inside that pack…

Three Stage S presences.

One of them was even worse.

Tier 35.

Ethan’s face sank.

Up until now, all the reinforcements had been below Stage S. Ethan had unconsciously assumed the Lionfang Beasts could only command Stage S and below—that Stage S beasts wouldn’t take orders from them.

This pack shattered that assumption.

They might not be able to command other Stage S beasts…

But that didn’t mean they couldn’t call in favors.

The newcomers reached the edge of the battlefield. The Tier 35 sabertooth—clearly their leader—threw a roar toward the Lionfang King.

The Lionfang King roared back.

It sounded like negotiation. Like a grudging concession.

The moment the sabertooth king got its answer, excitement flashed across its face. It lunged forward, bringing the other two Stage S sabertooths with it—straight at Dopey.

Dopey didn’t fear. Dopey didn’t hesitate.

If something came at him, he hit it.

The instant they entered range, he threw a punch.

BOOM!

The Sabertooth King was blasted out of the air, sent tumbling across the battlefield.

The other two Stage S sabertooths managed to land their strikes on Dopey’s body—but it was like clawing a steel wall. No real damage.

Dopey’s hand snapped out.

One casual slap.

A Stage S sabertooth’s head and upper body exploded into pulp, the corpse flinging away like trash.

The surviving sabertooth jerked back instinctively.

And the Sabertooth King—hauling itself up—finally understood why a monster as strong as the Lionfang King had gotten beaten into this state.

This thing was ridiculous.

”ROAR…”

The Lionfang King roared again.

The Sabertooth King’s ears twitched. It nodded—quick, decisive—then barked an order.

The remaining Stage S sabertooth veered off, abandoning Dopey and charging straight toward the humans.

The Sabertooth King, meanwhile, swung back in beside the Lionfang King.

Two kings.

Together.

To bring down one monster.

Ethan watched the Stage S sabertooth sprinting their way, and every nerve in his body went tight.

He didn’t have time to hesitate.

He turned and snapped, ”Hold the line. I’m going to stop that sabertooth!”

”Got it!”

Everyone answered, grim and tense.

They all knew what it meant.

Without Ethan at the front, their side would get even uglier.

But a Stage S sabertooth was something none of them could block—not for long.

Only Ethan could.