'Go…'
THOOM!
The fight began, the sound of a thud shredding the impact of Rykei and the monkey zombie assassin's speed.
'Don't look at the juggernaut! Don't look at the juggernaut!' Ryeki thought to himself, knowing if he barely looked his way, he would attack him.
Rykei blasts forward with superhuman speed, bones sharpening into spikes from his forearms as he slashes at the agile monkey. The monkey dodges expertly, flipping backward as it fires its assault rifle in midair, forcing Rykei to roll aside.
Kaido thought, 'I can't keep up with those two in speed, I'll hang back and fight long range. The monkey zombie assassin killed its own kind, but this abnormal zombie is fighting him now. If only these bastards could really talk, I'd be able to wrap my head around this.'
Meanwhile, Kaido uses his juggernaut strength to stomp ferociously, creating a seismic shockwave aimed at the monkey. The ground ruptures beneath the monkey, but it leaps onto a nearby wall, clinging with preternatural balance.
'Damn! Close..'
Rykei thought, 'The juggernaut man is providing long range cover, why did they knock me out instead of kill me anyway? Are they helping me?'
The monkey springs off the wall, diving towards Rykei with staff poised to strike. Rykei counters by extending a bone spike from his elbow, parrying the blow just in time, sparks flying as bone meets metal. Kaido opens up with his minigun from behind makeshift cover. The barrage of bullets sweeps toward the monkey, which nimbly weaves through the hail, its sinister eyes locked on Rykei. The monkey closes in on Rykei, staff swirling in a series of blinding strikes. Rykei's enhanced reflexes keep up, blocking and dodging, their moves a blur of deadly grace and ferocity.
Seizing a brief moment, Rykei tackles the monkey, bone spikes aimed to impale. The monkey twists in his grip, using Rykei's momentum to hurl him into a crumbling column. Debris clouds the air.
"AGH!" Rykei roared.
Kaido shifts position, climbing to higher ground. From his elevated position, he fires down at the monkey, controlling the battlefield and forcing the monkey into defensive maneuvers. Rykei recovers, lunging with renewed vigor. He spreads his bone spikes wide, creating a deadly radius around him as he spins. The monkey uses the staff to vault over the lethal whirlwind, narrowly escaping The monkey lands behind Kaido, attempting to disarm him. Kaido elbows back brutally, connecting with the monkey's face, and then sweeps around, minigun blazing at point-blank range. The monkey barely escapes, its suit torn and bleeding.
"AGHHH!"
Rykei dashes in, intercepting the monkey as it flees from Kaido's onslaught. Their speeds match, creating a sonic-boom echo in the broken halls, as they exchange a flurry of close-quarter bone jabs and staff strikes. Realizing the close combat disadvantage, the monkey creates distance, using its assault rifle to pepper Rykei with bullets. Rykei uses bone plates to shield himself, advancing steadily under cover.
Rykei thought, 'It's getting smarter. These types of zombies are intelligent, not like the lingering zombies that are outside. The zombie assassins are smart too.'
The monkey utilizes its environment, swinging from exposed rafters and executing complex flips to avoid Rykei's relentless advance and Kaido's intermittent barrages from above. Kaido, sensing an opportunity as the monkey focuses on Rykei, collapses part of the ceiling above the monkey with a well-aimed shot, forcing the monkey into direct confrontation.
As the monkey evades the falling debris, Rykei and Kaido coordinate their attacks, Rykei with his bone spikes and Kaido with suppressive fire, pinning the monkey between precision and brute force. With no option left, the monkey taps into a berserk rage, its attacks becoming more unpredictable and ferocious. It smashes through Rykei's bone shield with its staff and dodges the bullets with an eerie grace.
Kaido exclaimed, "He's going crazy now!"
'Gotta go full throttle! What's the limit to this zombie's power?!'
Rykei, undeterred, morphs his fingertips into sharp, needle-like projectiles and launches them at high velocity. The monkey uses its staff to deflect, but several find their mark, embedding in the creature's limbs. Wounded, the monkey snarls and intensifies its attack on Rykei, landing several gut-wrenching hits with the butt of its rifle. Each blow sends shockwaves of pain rippling through Rykei's form.
Rykei grabs the monkey, pulling it into a crushing embrace as bone spikes emerge from his back, aiming to impale. The monkey, in kind, sinks its teeth into Rykei's shoulder. The stalemate breaks as Kaido's next shockwave sends them tumbling apart.
Rykei and the monkey blast from each other, and Rykei's wounds are healing.
'He's on par with me..even in my zombie form, is crazy as hell.'
He accidentally looked at Kaido, and he could see a little bit inside of his juggernaut suit, exposing a little bit of skin. Rykei's mouth watered as he walked towards him.
'No! Stop! Noooo no no no! Not him! Not him!' Rykei stopped, struggling to hold his zombie bloodlust back from devouring Kaido.
Kaido stepped back, saying, "Hey..hey…don't think I won't blow your brains out!"
'He's turning on me. I should've seen it coming, he's a zombie like the rest of them!'
Rykei's stomach growled, and he thought, 'Being in this form makes me hungry also. It craves people!'
Kaido tilted his head, questioning, "Did it's stomach just growl?"
Rykei slowly nodded while snarling ferociously.
Rykei dashed towards Kaido instantly, and Kaido prepared to fight, but the monkey zombie assassin came from nowhere, bashing against Rykei. Kaido let out a sigh of relief, and went to continue fighting.
Up above them on a balcony was Seven, Hel, and Cupid, and some other survivors.
Seven said, "Hmm."
Hel asked Seven, "Does thy woman feel something towards thy zombie?"
"He's familiar.."
Cupid smiled, "OOOH! Seven's in love with a zombiâ€"."
Seven choked Cupid, saying, "—Never."
Hel was reading a small black book, and he asked, "Shall we go help them?"
"I wanna see something. Since this place is clear, I believe we have the time to. Plus, we can study this new zombie they're fighting. The fact that they're evolving or come in different variants prove these things are formidable. And will soon become too formidable."
The survivors above on a balcony said to each other:
"That's the new zombie they caught?"
"Yeah. It's strong as hell."
"And fast."
"What will the director do with it?"
"Probably dissect it, draw its blood, anything. I doubt he'll force it to work with us, those things can't be controlled, and we know no one who has that type of ability."
Rykei opens a new round with a bone-crushing punch, his fist wrapped in hardened bone. The monkey counters with a vicious uppercut, smacking Rykei's jaw with the hilt of its staff. Blood sprays as Rykei's lip splits, quickly regenerating. Kaido jumps into the brawl, his juggernaut fists clanging against the monkey's staff with each swing. One heavy strike from Kaido dents the metal of the monkey's arm-guard, eliciting a snarl from the creature.
Rykei absorbs a knee to the stomach, folding slightly, but retaliates instantly with a headbutt. His skull, reinforced with protruding bone, connects with the monkey's nose, a crack audible as blood spurts from the wounded snout. Kaido's fist finds its mark on the monkey's side, the impact echoing like a gunshot. The monkey whips around, slamming its rifle butt into Kaido's exposed side, carving a line across his armor, sparks flying. Rykei forms sharp bone blades along his forearms, slicing air as he swings at the monkey, who expertly blocks and parries, its own blade laden with Rykei's blood, which it flings off in dark, wet arcs.
The monkey drives a forceful kick into Rykei's abdomen, sending him skidding back. Undeterred, Rykei's wounds stitch together, and he charges back into the fray, his vigor undiminished. Kaido and Rykei, now moving with purposeful, coordinated aggression, box the monkey in. Kaido slams a fist down as Rykei sweeps low; the monkey leaps, but not without a shattering strike to its leg from Rykei's low sweep. Enraged, the monkey launches into a frenzied attack, its movements a blur. It catches Kaido off-guard, slicing a deep gash across his thigh, ripping through the armor. Rykei intervenes, bearing down on the monkey with a barrage of bony punches.
Bleeding but unbowed, Kaido captures the monkey's staff arm, twisting until a sickening snap fills the air. The monkey howls, retaliating with a headbutt that cracks part of Kaido's visor. Rykei transforms his body into a fortress of spikes, daring the monkey to approach. It does, its staff spinning, deflecting off Rykei's protrusions with sparks, each contact a risk of impalement. Tight in each other's space, Rykei and the monkey exchange blows at lightning speed, flesh and bone colliding with resounding thuds and splashes of blood, the ground dark with their combat. Kaido grabs the monkey's injured arm, yanking it forward and delivering a series of ruthless punches to the torso. Each hit resounds with the dampened thud of fist on flesh, the monkey's grunts mingling with the clatter of battle.
Rykei, though weary, heals rapidly, his torn flesh knitting together before the monkey's eyes. It snarls in frustration, aiming a kick that Rykei catches, twisting and throwing the monkey overhead. The monkey rises, shedding pieces of broken armor and emanating a deadly determination. It charges, barreling into Rykei who stands firm, his body sharpening into an impenetrable barrier.
Kaido's armored fist collides with the monkey's chest, sending a shockwave of pain through its body. As the monkey stumbles back, Rykei unleashes a flurry of strikes, each hit echoing through the chamber. They move together now, a symphony of violence. Rykei's bones slice through the air, drawing blood with every hit. The monkey, agile and lethal, lands several deep cuts on Rykei, who grimaces but heals once more.
Rykei, his eyes alight with ferocious energy, extends every bone in his body, turning himself into a walking weapon. The monkey, undaunted, leaps at him, only to be impaled on multiple protrusionsâ€"yet it pushes forward, driven by sheer will. As the monkey pushes on Rykei's spikes, sinking deeper into its own pain, Kaido uses the distraction, delivering the coup de grace mighty blow right to the monkey's spine. The impact resounds, a sickening crunch that signals the break, the monkey's movements faltering as its body starts to give way.
Rykei, dripping with his own and the enemy's blood, clasps his hands together, forming a massive bone maul. He swings with all his remaining strength, connecting with the monkey's head. There's a moment of silence as the strike lands, and then a horrifying crack. The monkey collapses, its body finally succumbing to the relentless onslaught. Kaido, panting, steps back, his armor dented and cracked, watching as the monkey ceases moving. Rykei stands over their fallen enemy, his chest heaving, his eyes cold and hard. The ground around them is a testament to their brutal combat, soaked with blood, littered with shattered bone and torn metal.
The air is thick with the iron scent of blood and the faint crackle of dissipating energy. In this moment of eerie silence, after the storm of violence, both Rykei and Kaido know the grim truth of such fights—survival always comes at a brutal cost, but they're ready to pay it, time and again.
Kaido sighed, "Phew! Okay, nowqq."
"Nom nom nom."
Kaido looked to his right, and saw Rykei chewing on his armored arm, drooling.
Kaido just looked at him, his eyes twitching in disgust.
Rykei thought, 'I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!'
Kaido screeched like a girl, "AGH! GET OFF ME! NASTY PRICK!"
Rykei thought, 'I don't mean to do this!'
FWIP!
A dart stuck in the back of Rykei's neck, and he thought, 'Shit. Not again. But good, this is good. Keep me from eating anyone for right now.'
Kaido said, "It's about time!"
Hel, Seven, Cupid, and the others dropped down, and Hel kneeled, "I did what I must. You're not strong enough to fight thy zombie abomination."
"I am!"
Cupid laughed, "Noooope!"
"I'll lock you in a cage with this monster!"
"Hehe, I like cages.."
"Gross.."
Seven looked down at Rykei's unconscious zombie form, thinking, 'What's so special about you? That you're so different from the other zombies?'