The gun felt light in his hand.
Elias flipped it once, feeling the cold weight settle into his palm. Four bullets. Only four.
It wasn't much, but it would do.
The zombies were fast, faster than normal but... he was faster.
A half-dozen of them broke into a sprint toward him, their rotting faces twisted into silent screams.
Their white, cloudy eyes were locked onto him like he was their prey.
Elias exhaled once.
Then he moved.
Bang!
The first bullet ripped through the forehead of the leading zombie.
Its head snapped back, its body crashing to the floor hard enough to break its neck.
Bang!
Another fell, its chest blown open like a rotten watermelon.
A stinking, wet sound filled the hallway.
Two bullets left.
Ivy fought fiercely beside him, crowbar flashing.
She smashed one zombie's jaw clean off, spun, and kicked another in the knee. It fell, and she finished it off with a brutal swing to the skull.
Not bad, Elias thought with a grunt of approval.
Bang!
His third bullet found the eye socket of a large zombie trying to flank him.
It dropped without a sound, leaking dark blood across the floor.
One bullet left.
"Behind you!" Ivy shouted.
Elias twisted just in time.
A crawler, half its body torn away, was scuttling toward him like a demonic crab.
Its hands were just claws of bone, scratching at the floor.
Elias pointed the gun down and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The crawler's head exploded in a shower of black brain matter.
Empty.
No bullets now.
Elias tossed the gun aside without a second thought.
The real fun was about to begin.
He bared his teeth in a feral grin, flexing his fingers.
A deep, burning hunger filled him. A need for violence.
'This goddamn system!'
He always had the system to blame for any negative thing.
"Come on then," he growled.
The remaining zombies rushed in.
Elias charged into them like a wild beast. Of course, he's a wild beast.
His hand punched straight through the nearest zombie's chest, ripping out its heart in one brutal move.
Black blood sprayed across his face.
He twisted around, grabbing another by the throat and slamming it headfirst into the wall hard enough to leave a dent.
It crumpled, twitching.
The next one reached for him... too slow.
Elias grabbed its arm and ripped it clean off, using it like a club to bash the zombie's skull into a sticky mess.
More came.
He didn't stop.
Didn't think. He didn't have time for any of that. He was having too much fun doing whatever he was doing.
Killing!
He never thought there would be a day he would enjoy killing. He won't call it killing since he's just re-killing the already dead humans.
He felt so powerful that he had to enjoy his new strength. He was a whirlwind of blood and gore.
Every punch shattered bones.
Every kick crushed the body against walls.
He bit one zombie's throat out with his teeth, spitting the rotten flesh aside in disgust.
He crushed another's spine with a brutal knee strike.
Ivy stared at him, frozen for a moment.
This wasn't normal fighting.
This wasn't human.
This was a monster.
A beautiful, terrifying monster wearing the skin of a man.
He already let her know he wasn't a human before. It's okay for her to conclude that he was a monster.
The floor was slick with blood now.
The walls dripped with gore.
The air stank of iron and rot.
Still, more came.
Still, Elias fought.
He threw one zombie over the railing, watching it fall two stories down with a wet smack.
He grabbed another by the jaw and ripped its head clean off, tossing it like garbage.
He was covered in blood now, dripping from head to toe.
But he didn't care much since he wasn't going to get affected by the blood. If he were to be a human, he would have found it disgusting. He was sure he had the same colour of dark blood inside him.
It was his nature now. He had accepted that fact already.
It was what the system wanted him to be.
When the last zombie gurgled and fell twitching at his feet, Elias stood panting in the silence.
His hands were stained black and a bit swollen because of all the heavy blows and hits.
Ivy slowly lowered her crowbar, staring at him with wide, shocked eyes.
"You..." she whispered.
He looked at her, blood dripping from his hair.
"I told you," he rasped, voice low.
"I'm not human, sweetheart. Now, do you see? I'm a monster."
System Notification:
> > [Zombie Kill Count: +53]
[Cores Available for Absorption: 51]
[Progress toward Tier 4: 74/100 Cores]
Almost there.
Almost.
Elias crouched beside one of the fallen zombies, pressing his hand against its chest.
A faint glow rose from the corpse.
A black, twisting energy.
He absorbed the core, feeling its strength pour into him.
Just like the corpse, It tasted like rot and death...
And power.
More.
He needed more.
He moved from body to body, absorbing core after core.
Each time, he felt stronger.
Faster.
More powerful.
He could feel his muscles tightening, hardening.
His senses sharpened, hearing every drip of blood, every creak of the broken mall, even the sound of Ivy's heart beating.
Ivy watched silently, gripping her crowbar tighter.
She didn't trust him.
Not fully.
Not yet.
But she couldn't deny the heat pooling in her belly.
The way her body reacted when he fought like that.
Like a god of death.
Elias finished with the last corpse and stood, blood still dripping from him.
[Current Cores: 92 absorbed]
[Tier 4 Evolution Unlocked at 100 Cores.]
Eight more.
Just eight.
He wiped his mouth, smearing the blood across his cheek.
Then he turned to Ivy.
"You alright, Sister?" he asked casually.
She flinched slightly at his blood-soaked appearance but nodded stiffly.
"Fine."
He smiled faintly.
"You fought well."
She blinked, surprised at the rare compliment.
"Thanks," she muttered.
Elias looked out the broken windows. As his senses had heightened, he could sense them...
More zombies would come soon.
Bigger ones.
Stronger ones. This time, he won't be able to protect Ivy fully.
"We can't stay here," he said.
"I know," Ivy said, regaining her composure.
"There's a survivor camp about two miles north. Small. Maybe twenty people, if it's still standing."
"Good," Elias said, already moving.
He needed those last eight cores.
He needed to evolve.
Because if this was what the weak zombies were like...
He couldn't imagine what the strong ones would be.
They would tear through normal survivors like paper.
And he wasn't a normal survivor anymore.
.
.
As they made their way down the blood-soaked stairs, Ivy glanced at him.
"Hey," she said quietly.
He glanced at her.
"You said you're not human anymore." She asked, waiting for an answer. And after staring at her for some seconds, he answered.
"Yeah."
"Do you care about it? Do you wish to go back to being human?"
Elias thought about it for a moment.
The blood on his hands.
The hunger in his veins.
The thrill of ripping the undead apart with nothing but raw strength. Living his life as a soldier, killing undead and trying to live, he doesn't care about that life. He had nothing to protect anyway. He had already protected the person he wanted to protect. Lira.
He smiled.
"No," he said simply.
"I like being a monster."
Ivy swallowed hard, feeling both fear and something else twirl inside her.
Excitement? Maybe?
Maybe she was just as broken as him.
Maybe that's why she couldn't leave.
Not yet.
She took one last glance at him, clenching her fist tight
'Maybe... He'll do. He is the one,'
---
System Notification:
> > [Warning: Host has absorbed excessive corrupted cores.]
[Corruption Level: 8%]
[Temporary Stability Maintained.]
Elias frowned slightly at the system window but shoved the thought aside.
He had a lot and a lot of time to deal with it later.
For now, survival came first.
Everything else could wait.
---
Outside, the streets were deserted.
The sun beat down, making the blood on their clothes steam. They moved quietly, like predators drenched in prey's blood.
They were both heading north to the small base. Elias hoped he could get a lot of sleep once he got there. Maybe... Some time alone with Ivy.
He grinned, with lewd thoughts popping up in his head every five minutes.
[END OF CHAPTER EIGHT]