Despite the cartoonish overlay, she could sense its danger. The brute—known as the Lord—was nearly four meters tall, a hulking beast barreling forward like a tank.
Sophia acted without hesitation. She leaped off the platform, sprinting toward Annie. "Annie, MOVE!" she shouted, shoving her out of the creature's path just in time. The Lord's massive frame collided with Sophia instead, sending her flying like a ragdoll. Her MV-01 suit slammed into the steel wall with a deafening crash, leaving a dent before she crumpled to the ground.
"Sophia!" Annie screamed, horror filling her voice.
Sophia coughed, blood trickling from her lips. The outdated suit lacked modern shock absorption, leaving her badly injured from the impact. Her vision swam as she struggled to speak. "Annie… stay back…"
But the Lord wasn't done. It roared, raising its massive fists to crush Sophia where she lay.
Annie's eyes darkened, her playful demeanor vanishing. "Tarantula," she ordered, "turn off the image filter." The battlefield's true, bloody horror filled her vision as the cheerful overlay disappeared.
Her fury erupted. "Don't you dare hurt my sister!" she shouted, launching high-tensile spider silk from her mech's arms. The sticky threads latched onto the Lord, slowing its advance as Annie dug her mechanical legs into the ground, bracing against the strain.
"Tarantula, power warning! Insufficient energy!" the AI alerted her.
"I don't care!" Annie roared, pushing the mech to its limit. The silk stretched tighter and tighter until Annie suddenly let go, snapping the tension.
The impact sent Annie's spider mech flying through the air, propelling her like a missile straight at the towering Lord. As she hurtled forward, she extended her arm blades, locking onto the creature's exposed back.
With a metallic screech, her blades pierced deep into the monster's flesh. The Lord roared in anger, thrashing its massive arms to knock her off. But Annie held on, moving with the precision and grace of her mech, dodging its wild swipes while driving her blades even deeper. She aimed for its neck, hoping to sever its spine.
The creature's fury only grew, its massive muscles rippling unnaturally, as if something alive squirmed beneath its skin. Its wounds began healing at an alarming rate, knitting together as if pain only fueled its strength.
"I can do this! My brother told me I could!" Annie shouted, her voice fierce and unwavering.
With a final, determined thrust, she buried her blade into the creature's neck wound, tearing it open further. In one swift motion, she pulled a micro-missile from her belt and jammed it into the gaping wound.
"Tarantula, set detonation for three seconds!" she commanded through gritted teeth.
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
Annie leapt away from the creature just as the timer hit zero. In midair, she fired a strand of spider silk, yanking Sophia to safety with her.
The explosion erupted in a fiery burst, obliterating most of the Lord's towering form. The blast lit up the battlefield, scattering zombies and momentarily halting their relentless advance. The shockwave even tore apart a section of the steel plant, leaving its defenses crumbling.
"Oh no," Annie realized, panic setting in. Without the plant's walls to hold back the swarm, the zombies would flood in. She pushed Sophia into cover, bracing herself for the next wave.
Despite the destruction, Annie wasn't about to back down. She charged back into the fray with her spider mech, cutting through the undead with swift, deadly precision. Her twin blades slashed relentlessly, her movements almost a blur. She was a one-woman army holding the line against the endless tide.
But the zombies kept coming, pouring in from every direction, choking the streets and overwhelming what was left of the steel plant's defenses.
"I'm sorry, Sophia," Annie whispered, her voice heavy with guilt. "I messed this up…"
"You've done more than enough," Sophia replied, her determination cutting through her pain as she joined the defensive line.
Nearby, five spider mechs and the mechanical dog, now out of ammo, switched to melee combat, tearing into the horde. On the roof, Charles and his team fired desperately into the mass of zombies below, but the flood was unstoppable. The steel plant was drowning in the undead.
Boom! Boom!
Explosions suddenly rocked the battlefield as bombs rained down from above. Three bombers and a fighter jet roared past, dropping payloads that ignited the zombie ranks in massive fireballs. The relentless tide finally broke, the flames carving a path through the swarm and scattering them.
With air support clearing the horde, Annie cheered, her exhaustion momentarily forgotten. "Sophia, we held the line!"
The steel plant had survived—just barely.
Across the city, Zack hovered above the zombie-infested streets, monitoring the battle through updates from Ego, his AI companion. He had already marked the steel plant as a fallback point and sent five additional spider mechs as reinforcements.
"Did they hold?" Zack asked, his voice calm but tense.
"Confirmed, sir. The defense held," Ego replied.
"Good. Retrieve the spiders," Zack ordered, already planning his next move.
"Should we send them to the construction site?" Ego inquired.
"No. Redirect them to me," Zack said firmly.
The spider mechs weren't just expendable soldiers; they were designed for strategic versatility. Unlike the more expensive mechanical dogs, the spiders were equipped with a self-destruct feature. Using them as suicide units was cost-effective, though Zack still preferred not to waste resources unnecessarily.
"Position the spiders here," Zack said, marking five points on his HUD map.
As he spoke, Zack's gaze shifted to the zombie horde below—a vast, blackened sea of charred bodies and rising smoke. The battlefield looked like a vision of hell.
"Threat detected at three o'clock," Ego alerted him.
Zack turned toward a small hill to his right, where nearly a hundred mutated zombies stood motionless, guarding something. Among them were towering Lords, their powerful frames far more menacing than the regular undead.
"So, this is what you've been hiding," Zack muttered, narrowing his eyes.
Hovering closer, he focused on a massive zombie at the center of the hill. It was nearly five meters tall, its muscular frame covered in rock-like gray skin. Long, gorilla-like arms dangled low to the ground, and glowing silver lines traced its body, making it look like a monstrous silverback.
"New variant detected. Recording data," Ego said. "Shall we call it the Silverback?"
"Works for me," Zack replied, his gaze fixed on the creature.
"The Silverback appears capable of leading other zombies, indicating human-level intelligence," Ego continued. "Extreme caution is advised."
Zack smirked. "If it's carbon-based, it's killable."
He descended toward the hill, drawing the attention of the undead. Below, the Silverback let out a guttural roar, pounding its chest like a gorilla. The sound echoed across the battlefield, challenging Zack.
"You really think you're King Kong?" Zack muttered, raising his hands.
He fired concentrated energy beams at the Silverback, but they barely left a mark on its dense, rock-hard skin. The creature roared in rage and leapt high into the air, nearly reaching Zack's position.
"Well, that's new," Zack said, readying himself for a real fight.