A transparent blueprint of the building appeared on his HUD, guiding him past collapsed walls and broken corridors. Finally, he reached the heart of the devastation. What had once been a hall was now a massive crater.
"Not dead yet?" Zack muttered, spotting chunks of flesh scattered at the bottom of the pit. Despite the explosion, some pieces of meat were still intact. They lay limp, with a few tentacles remaining, the rest severed and charred by the blast.
'This sarcoma sacrificed its tentacles to shield itself—a clever move, but not clever enough,' Zack thought as he walked toward the pit. The remaining tentacles twitched weakly, making feeble attempts to strike him. He slashed through each one with swift, precise strokes, clearing his path until he reached the core of the mass. Standing over it, he raised his blade, ready to finish the creature off.
Suddenly, a deep roar shattered the silence. "Sir, something's approaching from three o'clock!" Ego warned.
Before Zack could react, a hulking figure burst through the smoke, charging straight at him. It collided with Zack like a freight train, knocking him off his feet and sending him tumbling backward in a brutal collision. He crashed into a fractured pillar nearby, which crumbled beneath him on impact. Groaning, he shook his head and pushed himself up from the rubble. The creature that had struck him was none other than the Lord—a towering zombie mutant.
The Lord's skin was torn to shreds, exposing raw muscle tissue to the air, and a rancid stench rose from its battered flesh. Blood soaked its body, though it was hard to tell if it was its own or from the other zombies it had trampled. It let out another furious roar when it spotted Zack, the sound powerful enough to whip up clouds of dust around them, scattering the smoke in all directions.
"Sir, the Lord is a highly dangerous mutant," Ego warned. "I'm simulating the best combat strategy for you."
"Forget the simulation, Ego," Zack interrupted, knowing there wasn't time. "Focus on the fight."
The Lord charged again, its roar shaking the ground. Zack leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the zombie's wild rush. He'd already felt what it was like to get hit by one of those, and he wasn't eager to experience it again. As he sidestepped, the Lord barreled into a nearby building. The structure collapsed like paper under the creature's nearly four-meter frame, moving like an unstoppable tank.
"This thing turns slow," Zack noted, spotting a flaw in its brute-force approach. It had overwhelming strength and speed on impact, but its bulk made it clumsy and hard to redirect. Just like his first suit, the MV-01—lots of power, but not enough maneuverability.
Without hesitation, Zack lunged forward, slashing at the Lord's waist with a sharp blade. The weapon glinted as it struck, but the blade barely pierced an inch before the dense muscle held it tight. Zack grunted, trying to pull it free, but it was lodged firmly in the creature's flesh.
The Lord roared in fury, swinging its enormous fist at Zack. "Damn it!" Zack cursed, abandoning the blade and kicking the Lord with all his might. He used the rebound to launch himself backward, narrowly avoiding the punch. Sparks flew off his visor as the monster's fist grazed it, scraping away some of the chromium-plated titanium.
"Son of a…" Zack muttered, realizing just how tough this thing was.
But the Lord, unfazed by the blade lodged in its body, charged again, its roar deafening. "Sir, the arm blade cannot penetrate the Lord's defenses!" Ego warned.
"I can see that!" Zack shouted, raising his arm and firing a pulse cannon directly at the Lord. The particle beam shot out with a loud crack, hitting its target and leaving a smoldering, fist-sized hole in the Lord's chest. For a moment, it seemed to falter—but only for a moment. The creature charged again, as if the wound had meant nothing.
Undeterred, Zack fired three more shots in quick succession, aiming for the same spot. The impact tore through the Lord's body, leaving a massive, burnt hole in its torso. But instead of slowing down, the creature went berserk. Its muscles swelled, twitching and writhing as they started to heal. The damaged flesh stitched itself back together right in front of Zack's eyes.
"This thing can regenerate too?" Zack breathed, finally realizing why this mutant had the power to wipe out heavily fortified bases single-handedly. The Lord snarled, its vicious gaze locking onto Zack with renewed rage. It surged forward again, faster than before, the ground trembling with each step.
"Ego! How much power do I have left?" Zack shouted, bracing himself.
"Fifty-one percent remaining, sir!" Ego replied.
"That'll have to do," Zack gritted his teeth, planting his feet firmly. The Lord was charging at him with terrifying speed. "Ego, stop with the warnings and let me handle this!"
Ignoring Ego's frantic pleas for him to dodge, Zack lunged forward, meeting the Lord head-on. Even with his armor adding to his height, Zack was still less than half the Lord's towering size. As the impact neared, Zack jumped, grabbing the Lord's shoulders with both hands, absorbing the brunt of the force with his body.
"Ego! Engage thrusters! Full power!" Zack shouted.
With a roar, MV-02's leg thrusters ignited, launching both Zack and the Lord into the air. Zack's boots flared with intense beams of particle energy, pushing them higher into the sky.
"Finally! I'm flying!" Zack thought excitedly, but he was quickly snapped back to reality by Ego's voice crackling through the comms.
"Sir, remaining energy at 47%... 41%... now 34%."
The rapid depletion warnings buzzed in his ear, focusing Zack's attention on the battle. The Lord was struggling fiercely in his grip, throwing Zack off balance. This was his first time flying, and with the added resistance, their flight path became erratic.
"Enough of the warnings, Ego! More thrust!" Zack yelled.
Ego complied, pushing the propulsion system into overdrive. An intense burst of particle beams surged from the ejection ports, steadying their flight and propelling them toward their target—the cooling tower of the nuclear power plant.
"Down you go!" Zack bellowed, hurling the Lord toward the tower. The creature let out a furious roar, its arms flailing as it tried to reach Zack. But gravity quickly took hold, and it slammed into the structure with tremendous force. The cooling tower, designed to withstand heat, now held the residual heat of a nuclear leak, making it as hot as a furnace. Temperatures inside had soared to thousands of degrees.
Upon impact, the cooling tower exploded, sending massive metallic shards shooting into the sky. Hovering above the chaos, Zack let out a triumphant cheer. "I don't believe you're walking away from that!"
But before he could fully savor his victory, Ego chimed in once again. "Sir, only 8% energy remaining."
The reminder hit Zack like a ton of bricks—he'd been flying on battery power, not reactor power.