"Get up! Get up!"
Bat alphas master chief roared as the gunship's interior light changed from red to green while the ramps unlocked themselves and rose up allowing the already-in DAM marines to stand up.
Once they did the master chief happily pressed a button causing the square hatches under them to open up and as they did the cables holding them started rolling out making the marines descend to the ground at a slow enough speed that they wouldn't break their legs after landing but fast enough speed that they could barely target the swarming towards their master zombies.
"Alright, boys, it's time to have some fun!"
The master chief said after which he started whistling a happy tune as he ran towards the gunships already lovered down ramp with a minigun fixed to the gunships roof that already extended itself while his two gunners ran to their own miniguns on the gunships left and right whos sides had opened up with the walls rising up.
By the time Lilith was only 10 meters from the ground she pressed the stock of her rifle against her right shoulder and while holding her forearm grip with her left hand first fired her under-barrel grenade launcher taking out a dozen zombies at once.
Then started pouring out 6.8 mm APHE bullets at the closing-in horde of zombies in a short burst of 3, 4 bullets with each trigger pull making a few unlucky zombies' heads burst like watermelons.
But it was nothing compared to the 3 happy trigger maniacs together with other gunships minigunners who swept their miniguns left and right pouring out normal 7.62×51 mm APHE bullets that effortlessly ripped to pieces dozens of zombies each second while the hot spent cartridges fell to the ground one after another as they were having the time of their life.
But even nowhere close to Yangs and other copilot's killing efficiency as they too remotely operated their Vulcan Gatling guns under their gunships noses that spewed out 20×102 mm APHE bullets which left nothing but bloody chunks of meat behind.
"Squad one, squad two, and squad three form a defensive triangle ASAP! Squads twos alpha groups anti-tank team follow me!"
Lilith roared into their cc as she unhooked her cable and started sprinting towards the lich and the death knight as she quickly reloaded her under-barrel grenade launcher while acknowledgments sounded in her ears.
"Squad one copy!"
"Squad two copy!"
"Squad three copy!"
"Anti-tank copy!"
Alfred the missile launcher answered as he removed his already loaded grenade launcher from his back and turned off its safety while he and his assistant carrying four additional 127 mm multipurpose missiles on his back ran after Lilith.
"What the f...?"
Lilith started cursing out loud as she looked at the death knight with half of his torso missing from which pitch black smoke oozed out as it condensed into solid matter that formed new bones, organs, blood, muscles, and armor which actually was its skin while pointing her rifles at its black spartan shaped with spikes helmet covered head.
Who crawled with the help of its remaining left arm towards the skull with its jaw gone but still had weak ice-blue flames glowing in its empty eye sockets.
"...is it talking to me?"
Lilith finished her cursing while listening to Ark's deathly ice-cold voice in her mind which sounded like a growl to her.
Protect... the... lord... at... all... costs...
Bloody hell that thing is still alive!
Alfred cursed out as he knelt down on his right knee, placed his missile launcher on his right shoulder, and after placing his holographic crosshair over the death knight's torso was about to pull the trigger only to get stopped by Lilith.
"Wait blow up that skull first!"
Lilith ordered as she pointed with her left index finger at the liches skull who she swore saw its two burning flames flicker as it sensed its incoming death.
"Copy!"
"Clear! Clear! Shoot! Shoot!"
Alfred's assistant who was practically glued to Alfred's left side shouted after checking their back.
"Clear! Clear! Firing! Firing!"
Alfred shouted as he pressed the trigger making a 127 mm multipurpose missile shout out with a gust of blue flames and after traveling a hundred meters explode.
"Hey do you think it's dead or do we need to fire another one?"
Alfred asked making his assistant turn his head to the right.
As he did he saw the horde of zombies stop dead in their tracks for a millisecond only to start attacking the marines who had already formed a triangle-shaped defense line after one of their comrades got its head blown up by a 50-caliber APHE bullet fired from a smart modular sniper rifle.
"Not sure the zombies seemed to have stopped just for a millisecond but they started attacking again so we might as well fire one more right?"
The assistant said as he removed one of his spare missiles from his back and inserted it into the missile launcher.
Only for Lilith to order them to run back to their squad.
"Report to Heinrich the fucker is already dead!"
Lilith ordered as she looked at the starting to slowly dematerialize Ark whose body started evaporating into pitch black smoke while listening to his words of gratitude.
Thank... you...I... hope... Ill... get...to... serve... a worthy... lord... in... my... next... life...
Hearing this Lilith blinked her green eyes as an utterly stupid but at the same time utterly brilliant idea that only an utter psycho like her could come up with appeared in her mind.
"Hey mister knight I have a big bro who would be thrilled to have a knight like you in his service so how about it why don't you stay for a bit and get to know him and if you don't think he is worthy enough you can evaporate into the afterlife then."
Lilith said in her mind as she poked Ark's head with her rifle's muzzle a few times causing its undead brain to short-circuit for a moment because she suspected that the death knight could communicate with her through telepathy and she was spot on.
What the heck is this woman nuts? Who in their right mind would offer a death knight who was about to go to the afterlife to stay and serve a living person? Shouldn't a normal person be trying to kill me as fast as possible? And just what kind of insane person would want my service?
The dumbfounded Ark thought in his mind only to mentally shake his head.
Forget it it's not even possible my body is way too heavily damaged at this point the only reason it was regenerating is because of that wretched lord of mine's death mana so even if I wanted to I can't stay it's the end for me.
Ark said to himself only for a blue holographic notification to appear in his view.
[Do you wish to form a servant-master contract with captain Dracula of UNNS REAPER]
[Y/N?]
..... (Ark)
...
Oh for fucks sake what the fuck is going on now? Don't tell me that I acquired a fucking system or something?
I cursed in my mind after blinking a couple of times to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating only to still see the holographic notification in my HUD view.
[Do you wish to form a master-servant contract with death knight Ark Dragonborn the former chief knight of Duke Ludwig Von Gold]
[Y/N?]
Ah, fuck it why not!
I cursed as I accepted and as I did at first nothing happened but before I knew it I blacked out.
Thud!
"Huh?"
AM exclaimed as he looked at the source of the sound only for his original and biomechanical heart to almost stop.
"Drac! Drac! Oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Drac wake up you bastard! Don't you fucking dare die on me if you do Lilith is going to kill me!"
The panicked as fuck AM cursed as he unbuckled his safety belt, connected his helmets hose to a portable oxygen tank, put it on his back, and after unbuckling Dracula picked him up in a princess carry with a speed he never thought he could achieve and stormed out while calling Catherine.
...
Nah who am I kidding no one in their right mind would want to form a contract with me.
Ark thought that although the holographic notification was something he never heard of happening before in Gaia the servant-master contract made possible through magic wasn't something new.
So he knew that for it to be formed both parties had to either willingly or unwillingly accept it and there was no way in nine hells that there was someone crazy enough to accept it.
Only for a new notification to appear.
[Captain Dracula has accepted the contract will you]
[Y/N?]
"..." (Ark)
I accept.
As Ark formed the contract he felt extremely potent life and death mana that blended in a perfect mix which shouldn't be possible since the two were complete opposites of each other enter his body and as it did his body together with his pitch-black centuries-old masterfully crafted greatsword and spiked shield regenerated in a blink of an eye.