If the battle continued, more monsters would surely arrive. Those four humans would be overwhelmed, struggling even to escape from this area. Unlike Ethan, who went unnoticed by the undead, they had no such advantage. Here, surrounded by monsters, they were on borrowed time.
And clearly, they weren't making enough progress against this creature. Even the frontliner wielding the greatsword had taken a brutal hit to the chest. His armor smashed and cracked as if it might fall apart at any moment.
"We can't beat it. We need to fall back," the gunner called out from the rear.
"Shut up and focus on its weak spots. Aim for the joints first," the greatsword user snapped, gritting his teeth.
From another direction, shapes slithered out from the shadows. The undead lizards. At first, there were only a few. But then, more began to emerge, creeping forward one by one.
"Those lizards are starting to swarm," the gunner said, clearly rattled.
And in the next moment, the zombie boss lunged, wrapping its decayed arms around the greatsword user and knocking his weapon to the ground.
"Hit its arm! Strike now!" he shouted, struggling to free himself.
The spear user charged in, trying to land a decisive blow. But the zombie boss swung its body violently, sending the spear user flying across the battlefield.
The fight had reached a breaking point. Without help, they could easily be overrun by the monsters now closing in from all sides.
**
Ash, the greatsword user, was the largest among them. He was the only one bald, towering over the rest with a solid, muscular build that made him look like a wall of flesh and steel. And yet, even he was visibly struggling to withstand the relentless damage from the zombie.
He fought to break free with every ounce of strength.
"Coren, focus on its limbs!" Ash bellowed.
Coren, the gunner with shoulder-length white hair, hesitated. He kept firing, but the zombie boss was thrashing wildly, charging in unpredictable directions and throwing their formation into chaos.
Meanwhile, the only woman in their group, Diora, with her long, wavy blonde hair, kept running to reposition, loosing arrows one after another. But each shot seemed to vanish uselessly into the zombie's body, as though the creature was swallowing them whole.
Then there was Baren, the spear user, a man with short black hair, who kept attacking the zombie's weak points. Yet the monster's erratic movements made their strikes more frantic and less coordinated by the second.
"Keep the pressure up! It's weakening!" Baren shouted, stepping forward to take the front as Ash looked nearly crushed under the zombie boss's crushing grip.
Ash was suddenly hurled violently into a wall. He was out, no longer able to fight.
"Retreat now!" Baren commanded sharply. "Get Ash out of here. I'll hold this damn bastard back!" he shouted.
Coren hesitated, but then turned around and rushed to help Ash to his feet. Diora stayed close, her eyes scanning frantically in all directions as the other monsters began to close in.
But moments later, Baren too was thrown back, crashing hard to the ground and tumbling to a stop right in front of them.
The zombie boss let out a deafening roar. Its towering frame pounded forward, charging straight at the four of them with terrifying speed.
It all happened in a flash. They were cornered, truly overwhelmed. Diora kept firing arrows, one after another, desperately trying to slow the creature down. But it had broken through, now raising its arm, ready to smash her down.
Her face went pale. "No! We can't stop it. We're done for!" she screamed.
Then suddenly, the zombie froze mid-charge. Its movement halted, and with a thunderous crash, it collapsed to the ground.
The four of them stared in stunned silence, mouths agape.
What just happened?
Long, thorn-covered tendrils suddenly shot out from afar, latching tightly onto the zombie boss. They wrapped around its legs, binding it in place and halting its advance.
"Who is that? Is there another party after our target?" Ash asked, his voice tense and hurried.
Then, a series of projectiles flew in from above, slamming into the zombie boss's body. Each impact triggered an explosion, forcing the group to squint against the bursts of light and force.
The zombie boss began to jerk backward, slowly being pulled away. It struggled, thrashing its arms, but its body was clearly being dragged by some force, unable to resist.
A dark-colored chain appeared, snaking out from the distance and locking around the creature. The zombie was being beaten, repeatedly struck from afar. Though none of them could yet see who was behind the attacks.
Off in the distance, the other monsters that had been closing in on them were suddenly occupied as well. Now, they seemed to be caught in battle with something. Clashes, and thuds echoed through the field around them.
The four of them stood frozen for a moment, stunned by the shift in the battle. Slowly, they turned to look toward the direction where the mysterious force had come from.
And then, in the final moment, right before their eyes, a sword glowing with a dark red and black energy plunged into the neck of the zombie boss. With that final blow, they all knew: the fight was over.
"Is that a high-level hunter?" Ash muttered.
"At least we survived."
"But he took our target."
"Our whole effort to track down this monster key… gone to waste."
"Let's go see who that is."
They exchanged glances, murmuring among themselves, uncertain but curious.
"He took down that monster all on his own. His level must be over 25. He's probably gone through class advancement already," said Coren, the gunner, still watching the figure with a furrowed brow.
"Yeah. And he did it ridiculously fast," Baren added, his tone flat but quietly impressed.
"I think we need to be more cautious," Ash said next. "There's a chance he came here with a specific purpose. Or worse, he's been watching us for a while. Waiting until the monster was worn down before swooping in to finish it off."
"Are you sure?" Coren whispered, glancing at the mysterious figure in the distance. "If he's really that strong, why would he bother with a kill steal? Wouldn't it have been easier for him to just take the monster down solo from the start?"
Then Coren continued, his voice low. "Or maybe… he's the one who took out the other monsters we ran into earlier, and just left their cores behind. That would explain a lot. Maybe he's so powerful and so rich that he doesn't even care about those valuable drops anymore."
They began walking toward the figure who had either saved them, or stolen their prey. Ash, the tallest among them, took the lead. But even he, with his imposing height, found himself looking up at the mysterious man.
There was something odd about him. His entire body was wrapped in cloth bandages, obscuring his features.
Then, the figure turned. One boot still rested firmly on the corpse of the zombie boss. A cowboy hat cast a shadow over much of his face, and even that was partially covered with cloth wrappings.
His cloak hung tattered around him, and from the looks of it, he wasn't even wearing a proper outfit underneath. Just layers of worn fabric.
What kind of strange, edgy persona was this? Did he really think dressing like that made him look cool?
Still, they couldn't deny, this strange man radiated power. Far more than they had expected.
"We found the monster first," Ash said, breaking the silence. He stood still, waiting for a response.
"Thanks," came a softer voice, and it wasn't from the stranger.
It was Diora.
The other three turned, surprised, as Diora stepped forward. Now, she stood directly in front of the man.
"You saved us... thank you," she said, her voice quieter than usual. "We're from the Funtastic Four. We came to hunt this monster… but you ended up saving us instead."
"My name's Diora," she continued, offering a warm smile. "Let us show our gratitude. How about we talk… and share dinner together?"