Moments earlier, outside, the Siamese approached the superblock as it sensed that the presence of the Breeder and the shelter had changed. The zombie approached cautiously towards the building, but was still taken by surprise by the attack.
The window of the apartment exploded without warning and the Siamese barely had time to react. It erected as many psychic defenses around as possible, pressing one of its halves to its limits. The tornado's explosion unleashed a terrible wind that advanced on the zombie within seconds.
The Siamese was able to hold its position, but could not avoid taking some damage from the debris dislodged from the surrounding area. Still, by the time it was all over, the Siamese found itself virtually unharmed, but angry. The Breeder tricked it into using too much power to protect itself from a pathetic attack. Filled with rage, the Siamese prepared for a chase.
Luna, meanwhile, was striding up the stairs of what had been its refuge. Before the Breeder knew it, it was on the top floor. From where it approached the stairs to the roof and jumped hard.
Its head struck the railing to the roof and slammed it open. Arnold screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. The Breeder paid him no attention and threw the human and Shadow through the hole. Its huge body could not fit through the narrow opening, so it would have to jump from the outside.
Luna ran with all its strength and jumped out into the corridor. From there it could see outside through the grate, so The Breeder was not surprised when the Siamese launched an attack. A piece of debris shot out at surprising speed, from the parking lot toward where Luna was standing. Luna stopped, just in time to watch as the chunk of asphalt shattered the fence and slammed into the wall.
The zombie covered the crystal it was still holding and leapt up to the still intact part of the grating. From there it repeated the jump, flipped in the air and grabbed the roof with one hand. Then the zombie propelled itself forcefully upward as it dodged a second piece of debris that impacted the spot where it stood.
Already on the roof, Luna approached Arnold, who was staring at it with wide eyes, but before the Breeder could reach him, it felt to its knees, its strength failing. The stupid potion had cured it, but now Luna thought it was worse. After straining to get up to the rooftop, the Breeder was now exhausted. However, there was no time to worry about it. The Siamese would be arriving soon and Luna doubted it could fight it head on.
The Breeder grabbed Arnold and Shadow again and headed for the back of the building. From there it jumped without hesitation to the ground, more than 10 meters below. Luna wished it could fly, but its injuries had been too severe and the potion didn't fully heal the wings. So Luna just dropped to the ground while ignoring Arnold's screams.
The impact against the slope was much harder than it expected. Luna lost its balance and was forced to let go of Shadow and Arnold as it fell. The only thing the Zombie clung to with his life was the crystal.
Arnold, for his part, acted on reflex and used his wings to try to slow his fall. However, the unconscious Shadow hit him in the back and they both ended up crashing into a shack that was in the way.
Luna ended up crashing into a tree that stopped its momentum completely. It struggled to its feet and frowned when it realized that its wings had taken even more damage.
The Breeder moved towards the shack that Arnold and Shadow had crashed into and pulled them out of the rubble. The zombie human had taken a lot of damage and was now unconscious. But there wasn't much time to worry about it, as Luna knew it had to get out of sight of the superblock immediately.
Luna jumped over the houses blocking its path and barely made it to the roof of one of them. Fatigue and accumulated damage had all but completely nullified its physical abilities, but it could still exert surprising strength in short intervals.
The Breeder kept walking along the rooftops until it sensed sudden danger. The Siamese had flown up to the roof of the superblock and hurled other debris at full speed.
Luna accelerated and narrowly avoided the attack, but the roof he was on couldn't take the impact and collapsed. The Breeder almost lost his balance, but managed to jump in time to avoid falling into the hole. The jump took it over the edge of the building, onto the street just below, about 10 feet up.
Luna managed to land somewhat awkwardly, and then it stepped away from the street and stuck to the nearest building, trying to keep the Siamese out of direct view.
The Siamese stood still on the roof of the superblock and watched the destruction caused by its attacks, all of which were useless. It had been carried away by anger and had spent its energy on powerful but easily dodgeable attacks. Frustrated, it turned and walked away, in case the Breeder would attempt an attack.
Both halves of the Siamese reflected on everything that had gone wrong. Mainly, they noticed two things. The humans were far more powerful than expected. Their initial plan depended in part on the Breeder and the humans weakening each other and both ending up being sitting ducks for them In this regard, the Breeder had let them down. It had a lot of power, but didn't know how to use it.
However, this made the Siamese think that the Breeder was just a brute, but the Siamese realized that the Breeder obviously knew all along about the manipulation. The Siamese had to admit that it had been a clumsy attempt to take over the shelter.
Luckily all was not lost for the Siamese, there was an easier way to become a Breeder. The zombie would gain much more power if it managed to devour the Breeder, but that was no longer an option. Besides, it had a large number of zombies under its control that it had removed from the Breeder's sight, the problem was that the Siamese wouldn't be able to control them easily until it became a Breeder.
The Siamese didn't quite understand how a shelter appeared, but it suspected it had to do with being the first to secure a building in an area. To do this, the zombie had to get a building where humans and zombies were still in conflict.
The Siamese realized that perhaps this option was no longer as easy as it was at first. It also had the option of devouring another, weaker Breeder or taking a human shelter for itself, which was not easy either. Any Breeder, out there, would be more powerful than the Siamese. As for the humans... The zombie turned to look in the direction of the nearby shelter. That they were capable of nearly annihilating a Breeder without much collateral damage was a surprise. It was not going to underestimate them.
Part of the Siamese thought about attacking the human shelter and taking advantage of the fact that they were undoubtedly weakened, but the other half stopped it. It was not a good idea, as it thought the shelter was not weakened enough to pull it off. Both sides fought each other for a while, but in the end caution won out. The Siamese decided to get the hell out of that place and look for the right place for its evolution.
In Nuevo Sol, what had begun as a desperate struggle had turned into an almost absolute victory. The zombie horde was already on the verge of collapse and there were no powerful zombies to worry about.
Carlos watched the scene from his apartment, relieved. He realized that he had underestimated the power of the shelter. The corpses of hundreds of zombies must have been in the trap in the parking lot. Besides, they had repelled the Breeder without many casualties.
Carlos had already heard about Miguel's death. He felt sad, but preferred to look at it from a positive side. They had succeeded with almost no casualties. The only bad thing was that there were too many wounded and too few antidotes, so there would soon be more infected.
Still, the overall mood was good. There were still zombies left to exterminate, but they no longer posed much danger. Tracel came out of a nearby apartment and approached Carlos.
"So we're still alive."
Carlos nodded.
"What now?" Tracel asked. Carlos looked at him with a frown.
"It doesn't sound like you, Tracel. You'd better go back to being the same wretch everyone hates, it suits you better."
Tracel let out a chuckle.
"I guess you're right. I would never think that, of all people, Adam would be able to walk all over me like he's been doing."
Carlos smiled.
"There's no doubt about it, you're like his pet."
This time they both laughed, but Tracel didn't really think it was funny, he felt he was losing to a rookie.
"I plan to change that situation now that there is no threat nearby. But I will change my methods."
Carlos stopped laughing when he heard Tracel.
"What do you plan to do to defeat Adam?"
Tracel smiled, but said nothing. Carlos nodded.
"Good luck, my friend. This is the chance we've always wanted. If we don't take it, we'll be nothing but idiots."
Tracel looked up at the night sky with a certain nostalgia. After his failure in politics, at the beginning of what seemed like a brilliant career, he always believed he would never amount to much in life. Ironically, his foolish ambition had never died inside him, but a part of him knew he was finished. That was the reason he was happy that the System destroyed the world. Another smile escaped his mouth.