Zombie Domination-Chapter 72- Battle Team II

At the Southern Gate, Rayden was still frozen in place, his eyes scanning the chaotic scene. His mind raced.

’What the hell is going on...?’

In front of them, Frederik stood tall among his troops with an arrogant smirk on his face.

"Heh... I’ll crush every single one of you," he sneered, raising his sword.

Before anyone could respond, a blur of light zipped across the battlefield.

Reinar, a streak of motion too fast to follow, shot forward like a flash of lightning.

"C-Captain, what do we do?! He’s too fast!" Clint panicked, stepping back.

Rayden clenched his fists. "We go for the gas. We recover the soldiers, now."

Without hesitation, Celestia stepped forward. "I’ll take care of Reinar."

With a deep breath, she activated her new skill, [Phantom Step]. Her body flickered, vanishing in a shimmer of translucent silver.

A split-second later, silver threads surged forward from nowhere, her [Silver Thread] catching Reinar mid-dash and trapping him in mid-air, entangled.

Rayden shouted, "Clint, support us now!"

Clint nodded, focusing hard. His hands moved rapidly, conjuring a series of small glowing spheres that hovered and spread out across the battlefield. The orbs glided over fallen soldiers, suppressing the infection and stabilizing their bodies.

Just when things seemed to be turning around—

Boom.

A heavy wave of pressure slammed into the ground.

Everyone staggered.

Hike, expressionless and calm, activated his skill. The entire area shook as his gravity aura expanded.

Celestia gasped. "H-Hike... please, snap out of it!"

Rayden’s legs buckled. He gritted his teeth. "Shit... gravity... this is bad..."

Then, splash!

Clint hurled two vials toward Rayden and Celestia. The liquid shattered around them, releasing a strange mist that neutralized the gravity for just a moment.

"Nice, Clint!" Rayden barked.

Now freed, they charged again.

Frederik, irritated that they were still standing, barked out, "Keep going! Crush them! No mercy!"

Meanwhile, Reinar had broken part of the threads restraining him and blurred forward again, too fast to catch with the eye.

Celestia struggled to keep up, dodging with effort, but just before Reinar could strike her down, she activated a second layer of her threads. The silken strands morphed into a clone of herself, striking Reinar square in the chest and sending him flying back.

"Tch... nice trick," Reinar muttered, flipping back on his feet. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Not far off, Rayden now stood face to face with Hike.

He narrowed his eyes. "Sorry, Hike... but I can’t let you keep dragging others down."

His body shimmered crimson as he activated a stolen skill [Crimson Oath].

With a low chant, a crimson blade appeared on his back, glowing with enchantments and ready to strike. In one swift movement, Rayden slashed downward, his blade pulsing with energy.

Clang!

The impact forced Hike to step back, for the first time showing a sign of being pushed.

Rayden took a deep breath. "I’m not done yet."

Hike didn’t waste a second. His eyes sharpened as he activated his gravity skill once again. From the air around him, several black orbs of compressed gravity began to form, each one crackling with raw force.

"Fall," he muttered, launching them at Rayden.

Rayden, unfazed, reacted just as quickly. He triggered his explosive skill, conjuring a series of small detonation spheres that collided mid-air with the gravity orbs. The sky above the battlefield lit up as the opposing energies clashed, shockwaves rippling outward.

Meanwhile, at the rear, Clint kept his focus sharp, working tirelessly to keep the enemy troops from overwhelming the others. He hurled vials with pinpoint accuracy, releasing clouds of mist that slowed the infected soldiers and created breathing room for their side.

From his perch, Frederik watched with growing frustration. His jaw clenched. "Enough. End this already!" he shouted. "Hike! Reinar! Crush them!"

Reinar responded with a silent blur of motion.

Celestia didn’t wait, she flickered into Phantom Step, weaving silver thread mid-air in rapid patterns, setting up traps to restrict Reinar’s movement. Her control had gotten better, stronger, more refined.

But even then, Reinar’s speed was monstrous.

He zigzagged between her traps, too fast to track. Before she could react, he appeared at her side and delivered a brutal strike, sending her crashing into the ground.

"Celestia!" Clint called out and immediately threw a glowing vial her way.

The bottle shattered at her feet, and a wave of buffing mist surged over her body. Her muscles responded instantly, power surging through her limbs.

Reinar came in again, this time faster.

But Celestia was ready.

She blocked his blow just in time, parried with a sharp movement, then dodged a follow-up kick to her ribs using another blink from her step skill. With a fluid motion, she gathered her silver threads into a dense, glowing fist and slammed it into Reinar’s chest.

The impact cracked through the air, sending Reinar flying back several meters.

At the same time, Rayden closed in on Hike. He threw a fierce punch straight toward him, but gravity crushed down again, forcing him to the ground.

"Not yet," Rayden growled.

Energy swirled around him as he activated another skill, his body flaring with explosive energy that shielded him from the crushing weight. The two powers collided in a thunderous detonation.

Rayden pushed forward.

Without giving Hike room to breathe, he began charging a spell through his crimson sword, its glow pulsing with raw heat. With a warcry, he brought it down hard toward Hike.

Hike raised his arms, forced into a defensive stance as the sword struck.

Hike grunted as Rayden’s crimson sword pierced through his side, yet the moment the blade pulled free, his flesh stitched itself back together, the wound closing unnaturally fast.

On the other side of the battlefield, Celestia was still locked in a rapid clash with Reinar, who now attacked wildly, his blinding speed making it nearly impossible to react.

But Celestia narrowed her eyes. "I’ve watched you use your skill over and over, Reinar," she said calmly, sidestepping a blow. "I know your rhythm."

And in a flash, she countered.

Her threads surged from her fingers, forming a massive silver fist, and she struck him square in the chest. The hit knocked Reinar off balance, then another punch followed, and another, each one forcing him back. The overwhelming pressure left him no room to breathe. He staggered, retreating, cornered.

Meanwhile, Hike suddenly launched upward, propelled by concentrated gravity swirling around his body. He floated mid-air, a pulsing aura surrounding him like a collapsing star.

Rayden looked up, stunned. "You’ve got to be kidding me—"

In a blink, Hike crashed down, slamming into Rayden with tremendous force. The blow sent Rayden skidding across the ground, but he quickly rolled to his feet, pulling out a vial and drinking it in one gulp. His wounds began to mend.

Rayden dashed forward again, fists glowing with power. He struck, but Hike twisted easily around the blow, countering with another crushing hit that knocked Rayden back once more.

"This guy..." Rayden clenched his teeth. "He’s getting stronger."

Refusing to give in, he launched forward again, this time with a blade flying behind him, controlled by his spell. The sword slashed toward Hike, but it bounced off his dense gravitational aura.

"Clint!" Rayden shouted. "Do you have anything left? That potion from before, something to break this gravity!"

Clint rummaged through his belt pouch and yelled back, "Just one left! It’s a Gravity Purge Elixir, unstable, but it can nullify external gravitational fields for a few seconds. That’s all I’ve got!"

Rayden nodded. "That’s enough. Throw it!"

Clint hurled the vial with precision, and Rayden caught it mid-run.

Without hesitation, he downed the elixir. The pressure on his body vanished like smoke, and the moment of clarity surged through his limbs.

"I don’t have time to mess around with you," Rayden muttered coldly.

Hike saw the shift, and immediately gathered all his gravitational energy into a single point, trying to collapse space around Rayden.

But Rayden was already in motion.

He focused the explosive energy in his body, detonating it in bursts at his feet, boosting his speed beyond normal limits, propelling himself like a missile straight at Hike.

In that split second, his sword swung downward, cloaked in heat and force. A blinding explosion erupted on impact as the blade tore through Hike’s defenses, the added force from the detonations making it near-impossible to resist.

Hike was flung backward, crashing into the ground like a meteor.

Rayden stepped over Hike’s wounded body and yanked the gas canister from his belt. Without hesitation, he hurled it high into the air then raised his hand, compressing a surge of explosive energy in his finger.

BOOM.

The gas detonated midair, scattering in a wide radius. A thick, hazy mist spread out and engulfed the battlefield, and one by one, enemy soldiers began collapsing, unconscious, overwhelmed by the dispersing agent.

From the frontlines, Frederik’s eyes widened. His jaw clenched, watching the tide shift.

"No... No, this isn’t happening," he muttered.

Hike and Reinar were faltering, even after their power had evolved. That shouldn’t be possible.

And then something in him snapped.

With a sudden jerk of his hand, a dark, crimson aura latched onto both Hike and Reinar, and they screamed in agony, bodies twitching under invisible pressure.

"Frederik!" Celestia yelled, panic rising in her voice. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Frederik’s eyes twitched. Then he grinned, a twisted, deranged grin.

"They’ll kill you now," he said coldly. "Whether they want to or not."

Reinar shrieked, his body convulsing violently, then with a roar, he charged straight at Celestia, faster than before, a blur of berserk rage.

Rayden turned instantly. "Celestia!"

He ran to intercept, but he wasn’t fast enough.

Just before the blow landed, another figure appeared between them, Hike, dragging his broken body forward.

With one last act of defiance, he shielded Celestia, and Reinar’s hand pierced clean through his chest, blood exploding from his mouth.

"S-Such a troublesome little brother..." Hike coughed, his voice trembling. His knees gave out, but he remained standing just long enough to protect her.

Celestia’s eyes widened, frozen in shock. "H-Hike... no..."

"I’m... sorry, Lieutenant," Hike whispered weakly. "For being such trouble..."

Tears welled up as she held him. "Why?! You weren’t a burden to us! Never, never once!"

His body slumped forward, lifeless.

"You all..." he growled, clutching at his temples. "You always get in my way. Always in the way!"

He screamed, and then began to change.

His skin split, bones cracking, muscle swelling. A monstrous form began to emerge as he lost all sense of humanity.

Rayden shouted, "Celestia, fall back—!"

Too late.

Frederik’s massive jaws opened, and in one horrifying motion, he devoured Hike and Reinar, crunching their bodies like they were nothing.

Celestia’s scream ripped through the chaos. "NO! They’re still alive, Frederik, you monster!"

Frederik chewed with a sickening noise, blood dripping from his mouth, eyes glowing with madness. His body twitched, then expanded again, more violently, more grotesquely.

Rayden grit his teeth. "This is bad... really bad."

He gathered every bit of energy into his palm and hurled it toward Frederik in a glowing spiral of power. It struck—

And did nothing.

Frederik turned to face them, his transformation nearly complete, his body now towering, twisted, a full-fledged monster.

Rayden’s eyes widened. "Don’t let him finish!"

But it was too late.

With a final pulse of energy, Frederik let out a monstrous roar that shook the air, he had become something else entirely.