Chapter 75: Blind rage

With his nerves on edge, the old policeman waited for the moment of Rony's attack. After a few minutes of agony, Rony, without warning, turned and fired at high speed. The Ambusher tried to dodge, but the attack had been too sudden, so his head exploded and his body fell to the ground, where he appeared out of nowhere.

The other Ambusher remained invisible, but its body was covered in a large amount of blood, so Krieg could easily take aim. However, the Ambusher managed to dodge his shot this time and approached him at high speed.

Krieg backed up as he tried to aim again, but not fast enough. The Ambusher accelerated and lost invisibility when it was already only a few steps away from Krieg. At that moment, Rony intervened. The drone jumped at the policeman and rammed him, causing him to fall to the ground. The Ambusher's attack tore through Rony, who fired his weapons one last time before exploding and covering the entire hallway with electronic debris.

The Ambusher was shot in the shoulder, but managed to dodge the other one, aimed at his head. Still, the final explosion left him quite wounded. Enough so that Krieg could shoot him one more time and finish him off. The old cop looked at Rony's remains, shook his head and then stood up, trying to find an explanation as to why both zombies were invisible.

Inside the apartment, Terry looked at his computer sadly. Rony had died in just a few days. He knew many people would think him strange for caring so much about a machine, but that drone had been like a dream come true for him. Luckily, he had a skill that allowed him to rebuild the drone once it was destroyed, but the problem was that it required a lot of materials that he didn't have on hand.

He sighed and then looked around at his surroundings. The fight was now in the hands of the others, without Rony there wasn't much he could do, though he soon changed his mind. Perhaps he could make a quick repair of Rony that would allow him to participate in the battle again, so he rose from his seat and left the apartment.

Krieg watched him in surprise, but Terry said nothing and simply picked up Rony's remains and returned to his room, where he looked at the charred remains with some anger.

"I'm sorry Rony, your 2.0 version probably sucks, but I promise that with 3.0 you will be the best combat drone I can make."

Without another word, he began to repair Rony.

This was the first time he had to perform a near-total rebuild, so he would have to rely on his skill to recover essential electronics. The problem was that it would take a while, and so he didn't know if he would be able to participate in the battle that was currently raging.

Krieg, on the outside, couldn't help but sigh when he saw Terry picking up the pieces of Rony as if he were a baby, that boy has serious trouble, he thought. But that was not the time to concentrate on it, for now they had a new problem. Unable to find the reason why the zombies had become invisible, he turned his attention to the bridge, where the situation was complicated.

Zack's group had killed the nearest Stalkers and was closing in on the [Zombie Warrior], who was also fighting Marlen. Meanwhile, a few meters behind, was the Berserker, who had lost all reasoning as a dagger in his eye continued to hurt him. Unfortunately, as Krieg watched him, the monster stopped hitting the bridge and lunged towards the fight in front of him.

The Berserker screamed at the top of his lungs and set out to crush everything in his path. The [Zombie Warrior] jumped over the railing onto the ground under the bridge and, coincidentally, Marlen had the same idea. Zack, on the other hand, backed up to the rest of his team, all of whom prepared to hold on.

"Arlem, go to the second floor and make sure Anin is alive, then come back here and stay behind."

Arlem obeyed Zack's orders, relieved to be able to get away from the fighting for a moment.

Krieg did what he could to stop the Berserker's advance, but his shots proved futile. He watched helplessly as the zombie eventually disappeared from sight and entered the building. He also had no sight of Marlen and the [Zombie Warrior], so he devoted himself, with growing concern, to killing the approaching Stalkers, as he was not getting bullets fast enough to stop them all.

Meanwhile, Marlen found herself alone with the [Zombie Warrior] on the uneven ground under the bridge. They both looked at each other for a few seconds and then raised their weapons. The zombie was badly wounded in the head, but this one seemed to feel no pain, for his eyes were so focused on Marlen that she felt a shiver. She seriously doubted that she could win and thought she would probably die, but when they both raised their weapons, she decided to concentrate completely on the fight. She forgot everything that bothered her and her world became, for a moment, the enemy in front.

Everything seemed to be at a complete disadvantage for her, the zombie had the high ground and a longer range with his commander, so the first thing Marlen did was to retreat back towards the first floor of the building.

However, the zombie leapt, giving her no time to prepare. Marlen blocked by holding her ax with both hands. The blow knocked her off her feet and almost knocked her to her knees, but she held on and managed to retreat a few more steps.

Her ax was not ideal for blocking, so Marlen had trouble with a second blow. The zombie managed to press her to the ground, but this time she decided to be aggressive. When the zombie raised its sword, Marlen kicked its stomach.

The attack took the zombie by surprise and it recoiled, giving Marlen time to reach the first floor of the building. There, in the narrow corridor, she decided to wait for her enemy.

It didn't take long for him to catch up with her. The hallway prevented him from raising the sword with all his might, so Marlen expected to have the advantage, but then she watched in astonishment as the huge weapon contracted into a longsword that the zombie could comfortably wield in the hallway.

Even so, Marlen believed she was still at an advantage, for the reach and blocking offered by the giant sword were gone. She now had a chance to get close.

However, the zombie was about to prove her wrong. It changed its battle style completely and concentrated on making small slashes while retreating, which prevented Marlen from being able to get close if she didn't want to risk being badly hurt.

She partially blocked a slash aimed at her stomach and then stepped back, narrowly dodging the next attack. She then moved forward and tried to attack, but the zombie dodged her with a single step and the cycle repeated itself again. However, as time went on Marlen received more and more attacks and had to fight more defensively. After receiving a severe cut to her stomach, she became desperate, at which point she realized that she was still trying to mimic the zombie.

She decided to stop doing so and fight in her own way. Marlen's fighting style was slowly becoming more defined as fast and aggressive attacks began to stand out, completely ignoring her defense. She simply let herself be carried away by the anger and desperation she felt and channeled it all into fueling uncontrollable rage. At first she thought it would be difficult, but to her surprise it was not. Just the thought that she would die this way and end up leaving her sister alone was enough to ignite the flame she needed.

Marlen dodged the next attack and then leapt wildly at the zombie, which was taken by surprise. Before it could adjust to the violent change, Marlen was on it, swinging her ax with all her might, delivering blow after blow.

The zombie blocked the first blow against his neck and then a second and a third. Marlen was attacking so fast that the zombie could only retreat step by step as his arms began to go numb.

Marlen felt great pain with each blow and his body was rapidly reaching its limit, but she paid no attention to any of this and continued to attack. Finally, in one last strike, using her [Precise Slash] skill, she used all the strength she still had left. The zombie blocked, but it didn't matter. His sword was cleaved in half and the ax drove deep into his chest.

Marlen dropped her weapon and fell to the ground. She was completely exhausted and bleeding from the various wounds. She raised her head and saw to her satisfaction that the zombie was trying to get up without success. Finally, it raised its head and looked at Marlen for a moment before losing its strength and dying.

The zombie threw a book and the typical blue crystal, but Marlen paid no attention to it, as she barely had the strength to stay conscious. Before she realized the danger she was still in, she let her eyes slowly close. The system, of course, rewarded her right away:

[Warrior to advanced at level 10]

[New skill unlocked:]

[Berserker Wrath: You gain a significant increase in strength for 1 minute. You can ignore any pain and injury you suffer in this state and become immune to any negative effect that can stop you. When the effect ends, the user can automatically heal from any mortal wounds. However, when the ability runs out or more than 30 seconds pass without any attack on an enemy, the user will feel completely exhausted and starved. It can only be used once a day.

Marlen barely had time to rejoice before she fell asleep.

Moments earlier, still on the bridge, Zack watched as the Berserker approached them and ordered his group to fall back.

They all entered the second floor corridor and prepared for combat. The Berserker entered the building, smashed the grille at the entrance and began punching the walls around him.

"I don't think it can take much more of this, so give it everything you've got."

Zack watched as his subordinates threw everything they had at the zombie. Still, it seemed like it would take them a moment to finish this one off. One of Zack's men was a mage with wind magic. He was firing almost invisible waves of wind that shallowly cut through the Berserker's thick skin over and over again. Another was an archer who shot arrow after arrow, while the last was a warrior whose job was to keep the Berserker busy while the other two killed him.

Zack wasn't too worried about the battle, but he had to keep an eye out to make sure the [Zombie Warrior] didn't ambush them again. Besides, soon the horde of Stalkers would arrive. He wanted to kill the Berserker, but first he had to stop the approaching Stalkers. He raised his sword with difficulty and set out to fight until the battle was over.