Becoming a Monster

Chapter 288: Chapter 288: Overwhelming Odds

Mark had yet to realize that Noah had finished his battle, even more so understanding how easily he had conquered the creature.

On their end, they were back fighting for their lives to even think about what was happening with Noah’s battle. Despite the Kaiju being taken out of the picture, the zombies were still strong in both numbers and strength.

Their strength may not be able to contend with people of Mark’s and Ishii’s status at their prime, however, not only were the others not as strong as them. Their stamina and mana were plummeting.

What the system never fully explained was that not all skills came free; despite the fact that a cost wasn’t specified. Overusing a skill or continuously activating a non-mana usage skill for a long period of time would either drain their spirit or their physical energies. It was the same with Noah. When activating his transformation ability, his mana wasn’t affected at all, but his spirit to maintain the transformation was affecting him, and over time those effects extended to his physical body too.

It was because of this that everyone was now feeling the toll of combat.

But the zombies didn’t know the meaning of exhaustion, they just kept coming with nonstop aggression.

”I need help here!” Out of the remaining armed fighters, there was one person in particular whose gunfire was still proving to be a factor. Peterson had learned from his experience back at the station, at his side was a small armory of different weapons and ammunition for each one.

When at one time he spent his time reloading his guns, now when he ran out of ammo, he simply tossed the gun aside to grab another one. The transition was extremely smooth. The moment he lifted another gun in his arms, he was firing the weapon before even bringing it to eye level, and even then, the shots fired magically found their mark without fail.

Peterson’s position was well placed behind the others, but that was before the situation turned dire. Now, any creature that was picked randomly from the bunch were zombies that required a significant amount of effort to put down. And not everyone was willing to lay their life on the line to protect someone who has been fighting from a space of safety while they and the people around them were trying their hardest to just survive.

”Fools! We can’t keep retreating! Raven! Levi! I can’t hold on much longer!” Peterson continued to shout, his body jerking left and right sporadically as he continued to aim at a certain target that he felt has been preying on him for a while now. It was the same shadowed zombie that had fled from before.

The zombie had not once forgotten the person who destroyed its eye. It

has been patient since then, hiding from Peterson’s sight all this time; watching, learning. Its eye was constantly analyzing him, noticing the fact that the bullets Peterson shot out barely registered when shot at the average target. It was only when the bullets would hit something as fragile as an eye that it truly made an impact.

The shadowed zombie understood this, it didn’t understand why but just knowing that it didn’t have to fear the bullets led it to the scenario Peterson was in now.

Sneakily, it maneuvered behind enemy lines to get to Peterson without anyone knowing, but its intelligence wasn’t high enough to allow it to understand that a fast-moving black shadow would never go unnoticed by everyone.

The commotion led to Peterson shooting at the zombie. In that moment, the zombie simply covered its remaining eye with its hand as it felt something painlessly bury itself into the zombie’s tangible form. And since then, the zombie no longer approached with caution as it was set on killing Peterson above all else.

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Both Raven and Levi each spared a glance towards him, but both were also in a tough spot.

Raven’s role was similar to Paul’s; she had to maintain the frontline. However, her role varied by one trait, she was also in charge of fighting the titan zombies.

Currently she was going against a zombie whose skin and flesh were made of vines and bark. Its ridiculous size made it no different than a moving tree, both its legs and arms were as thick as tree trunks, lined with a series of vines that turned out to be more dangerous than the strength of its limbs that were strong enough to shatter stone.

Raven’s breaths were always staggering, her size made it close to impossible to dodge the creatures’ attacks, and even when she was able block the attack, the feelings in her arms threatened to give out under the force. Every clash sent a tremor down her bones, yet her worries were more focused on the vines.

She could never steer too close to the creature for long periods of time. The last time she did, she happened to feel her mana quickly draining the moment the vines latched onto her. The vines strength was easy for her to break free, but even now she could feel the diminished reserves she suffered from that short exchange.

With time, she believed that she could win. That last clash she had just reached the damaged threshold to unleash her most powerful move to hopefully destroy it. Knowing that her victory was assured should’ve put her mind at ease, if not for the fact that once she used her trump card, her transformation would end along with it.

Her eyes quickly shifted next to her, her last three Amazonians were fighting a threat together, another titan zombie. Its rib cage was fully exposed, showcasing a giant, rotting heart surrounded by its other corrupted organs. And further down was a stomach that was bulging from its earlier meal.

The body part of its body was made up of four red tentacles. Each of its arms were also tentacles of the same appearance yet the arms split halfway down.

The creature’s attacks were fast, but the strength of its tentacles was far too strong. Just a little while ago, one of the Amazonians became entrapped in the creature’s grasp. The Amazonian’s cries alone were enough for Raven to understand the severity of the situation. If not for the other two Amazonians striving to make the zombie release her, Raven believed that the woman would have already been crushed to death.

And to make matters worse, Peterson was now asking for aid.

Gritting her teeth, Raven had to make a tough decision.

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Just like Raven, Levi also had troubles of his own. He didn’t have a team to take care of as the rest, nor did he have anyone he particularly valued enough to want to keep out of harm’s way. However, he wanted his achievements to be worth it after everything was over. Knowing that the chests drop loot based on the strength of his opponents, Levi sought out foes alone that were potentially life threatening enough to give him the best results.

Only now, did he feel as if he bit off more than he could chew.

Facing him was an undead that he had never encountered before. A skeletal mage.

The skeleton was simply all bones without an inch of flesh left, its eyes burned with light blue embers for pupils and beneath the rugged, torn clothes it still wore around from when it was once human, a fiery core that was surrounding in the same light azure-like flames was burning strongly.

Levi tried everything to preserve, but the creature made him feel as if he was completely countered.

His curse magic didn’t simply not affect the skeleton, it empowered it!

With one source of his spells useless, Levi resorted to the use of his illusion abilities, mixed with the complexity of his doppelgangers. But that made him more fearful than before. No matter if he created barriers made from illusions or attempted to hide his real self in the mix of his doppelgangers, the skeleton’s ember gaze followed him with a piercing stare.

Levi was becoming desperate to finish the creature off. If he couldn’t rely on skill alone, he needed to use brute strength to overcome it. With the help of his doppelgangers, he unleashed his synergized attack, amplifying the combination of the two clones to create a powerful fireball much more threatening than before.

The fire was released with the size larger than his entire body. Levi felt certain that it should at least do significant damage. However, the blooming fear turned into sheer dread at the skeletons’ next action.

Its hand simply raised with one finger pointed towards him. With that one finger, it released a small blue ember that slowly whisked its way in front of the massive flame he created.

The scene made him pale in disbelief as he watched the small flame completely engulf his own, causing his entire flame to transform into a blue fiery gas before it dissolved into nothingness.

What made matters worse was that the creature wasn’t nearly this strong as what the creature was showing now, even its core wasn’t burning as strongly as it is now. Levi couldn’t see it, but one person in particular did. Endless souls of those dying on the battlefield were converging to the skeleton, being absorbed into its core that acted as its heart.

And that moment of interest gathered by that person was what saved Levi from a tragic fate.