Chapter 770: What kind of strategy is this?
The young manâs body trembled violently. He tried to turn his head, but the world spun around him. Darkness swallowed his visionâand then, nothing. He collapsed, unconscious.
Another headless corpse hit the ground at Lauraâs feet.
Laura had just ascendedâevolvedâinto an SSS-rank Voidborn Undying. It was only a single level up on paper, but in reality, the power gap was like heaven and earth.
The human Awakeners? They couldnât stop her anymore. Not even close.
Without hesitation, Laura turned and dove back into the slaughter. Wherever she went, chaos followedâbodies flying, screams echoing, blood soaking the ground.
The nearby zombies, sensing her transformation, roared with renewed fury. Their morale surged, their frenzy deepened. They were no longer just a hordeâthey were a storm.
With Ethan already standing as the first Voidborn Undying, Laura had now become the second to rise from the zombie nest with that terrifying title.
Far off in the distance, Howard and his team felt the shift in the air. That oppressive, suffocating auraâit hit them like a wave. Their expressions darkened as they turned toward the battlefield.
What they saw made their blood run cold.
Their forces were in full retreat, panic written all over their faces. And at the center of the carnage? A female Zombie King, tearing through elite Awakeners like paper dolls. No one could even last a single exchange against her.
In just a few minutes, several S-rank powerhouses had already fallen to Lauraâs handsâbrutally, mercilessly.
âShe evolved⊠now? Of all times?!â
Their voices were low, grim. Faces tight with dread.
This was the last thing they wanted to seeâand it was happening right in front of them.
Laura had become a living spear, piercing straight into the heart of the human formation. She ripped a gaping hole through their defenses, hunting down the high-level Awakeners one by one.
Behind her, the zombie horde surged forward like a tidal wave, following her lead.
The remaining low-level Awakeners didnât stand a chance. They were swallowed whole, torn apart by the ravenous undead.
Screams filled the airâanguished, hopeless, desperate. But they were quickly drowned out by the roar of the horde.
When the wave passed, all that remained was a field of corpses. Shattered bodies. Blood-soaked earth. Nothing but devastation.
And the horde wasnât stopping.
Led by Laura, the zombie tide surged toward the Dreadnought-class Starcruiserâclosing in fast.
âWhat the hell are they trying to do?â Howardâs brow furrowed. A chill crept down his spine. Something felt wrong. Very wrong.
Then, from beneath the massive starcruiser, a blinding green light erupted.
Sky-Piercing Vine.
âSKY-PIERCING VINE!â Sproutâs voice boomed like thunder as he unleashed everything he had.
The power of his Absolute Domain exploded outward, reaching its peak in an instant.
Massive vines burst from the ground like dragons, shooting skyward. They twisted and coiled around each other, growing thicker and stronger, forming a towering column that reached for the heavens.
BOOM!
The topmost vine slammed into the underside of the Dreadnought-class Starcruiser with a thunderous crash.
The humans stationed aboard gasped in shock.
âHoly shit! The vinesâTheyâre wrapping around the starcruiser!â
âThat Zombie King is insane!â
âCut them! Cut them now!â
âââ
Panic spread like wildfire. Soldiers scrambled, firing Crystal Core Firearms, unleashing abilities, doing everything they could to sever the vines.
But before they could make a dent, more vines shot upâtwisting, binding, anchoring themselves to the top of the starcruiser.
âCHARGE!â
A deafening roar echoed from below. It was the voice of a Zombie Kingâdeep, booming, shaking the very air.
Bulldozer emerged from the chaos, his massive frame leading the charge. Behind him, the zombie horde surged forward, racing toward the vines.
Howardâs eyes widened. In that moment, he understood.
âTheyâre trying to climb the Dreadnought-class Starcruiser!â
âWhat? Thatâs insane!â Serah and Gareth stared in disbelief.
âNo,â Howard said, his voice grim. âTheyâre not just climbing it. Theyâre trying to take it.â
Thirty years ago, during the great war, the Zombie Kings had managed to bring down a Dreadnought-class Starcruiserâbut it had been destroyed in the process.
This time was different.
This time, they wanted it intact.
Gareth scoffed, shaking his head. âThey really think a few vines are enough to take down a Dreadnought-class Starcruiser? Thatâs pure fantasy.â
And he wasnât wrong. A behemoth like the Dreadnought-class had an insanely powerful propulsion system. The moment it lifted off, those vines would snap like twigs.
Sure enough, just as he predicted, the crew onboard began powering up the engines, preparing to break free from the ground and leave the vines behind.
But thenâsomething unexpected.
A dark cloud drifted in from above.
âCawâ! Cawâ! Cawâ!â
The sky filled with shrill cries. Thousandsâno, tens of thousandsâof red-eyed crows swarmed in, blotting out the sun. They moved like missiles, diving at the ship with terrifying speed.
Their beaks were like daggers, sharp enough to pierce skulls with ease.
The crew scrambled. Lightsabers lit up, Crystal Core Firearms fired wildly into the sky. Chaos erupted.
âFUCK! What the hell are these things? Mutant beasts?!â
âSince when does Necroterra have shit like this?!â
âThereâs so many of themâ!â
âââ
High above, a particularly large crow circled, its glowing red eyes scanning the deck below.
On the deck, a brawny Awakenerâclearly strength-typeâlocked eyes with it. He gripped his Lightsaber like a baseball bat, muscles tensed, ready to swing.
âCome on, freak! Letâs go!â
He narrowed his eyes, waiting for the crow to dive so he could knock it out of the sky.
But the crow just flapped lazily, watching him with something that looked a lot like disdain.
âDumbassâŠâ
Then, with a twitch of its throat, it coughed up a glowing orbâa Crystal Core Bomb.
The bomb shimmered as it dropped, heading straight for the manâs head.
âHuh??â His eyes went wide. He didnât even have time to react.
BOOM!
The explosion lit up the deck, swallowing him in a blinding flash.
That bomb wasnât low-grade either. It packed serious firepowerâenough to kill even an S-rank Awakener outright.
And that blast? It was just the beginning.
One after another, explosions rocked the ship. Turns out, a ton of those crows were carrying Crystal Core Bombs inside them.
Some elemental Awakeners tried to fight back, unleashing massive area attacks that wiped out entire flocksâbut the response was brutal. The sky rained bombs like a storm of death.
Multiple bombs detonated at once, their combined force devastating.
Panic spread fast. Even those armed with Crystal Core Firearms hesitated to shoot, afraid theyâd trigger a suicide dive and get blown to hell with their target.
But the crows werenât just there to kill.
Their real mission? Sabotage.
They targeted key systems on the deckâradar arrays, defense turrets, communication nodes. The Dreadnought-class Starcruiser had more than just its main cannon; it was bristling with secondary weapons designed to obliterate anything that got too close.
After a brutal exchange, the crow swarm had taken heavy lossesâbut theyâd done their job.
The survivors on deck wiped sweat from their brows, shaken to the core.
âWhat kind of strategy is this? Itâs insane!â
âYeah! They were carrying bombs inside them!â
âStraight-up suicide bombersâŠâ
âââ
The horror was still fresh. Some of the crows, even after being shot, would dive straight at the humans, detonating on impact.
Black feathers turned into missilesâguided, relentless, and deadly.
They gave their lives to leave behind one final, blazing mark on the world.
But just as the humans caught their breath, just as the fear started to fadeâ
More lights appeared in the distance.
Tiny glimmers at first, but growing fast. Too fast.
âMore incoming?!â
âWhat now?!â
Tension spiked again. Eyes turned skyward, scanning the horizon.
And then they saw them.
Figuresâzombiesâhurtling through the air like comets, flames blasting from their feet. Their bodies gleamed with alloy plating, limbs reinforced with cybernetic enhancements.
They werenât just zombies anymore.
They were weapons.
Ahead of them, several sleek aircraft zipped through the sky, guiding their trajectory.
At the center of it all, seated calmly in one of the lead crafts, was PhD.
The mastermind.
The one leading the charge of the undead mechanical army.
And they were coming in hot.
âŠ
Hereâs a redemption code for everyone: