My 100th Rebirth a day before the Apocalypse - Chapter 926

Chapter 926: Chapter 926 Calling For Back Up

The weight of his oversight hit him hard; he had been so consumed by the fight, counting on reinforcements to arrive soon, only to realize now there might be none… unless they called for help themselves.

Keith had just lowered his bow after loosing a storm of energy arrows, cutting down swathes of zombies, when he froze. At first, it was confusion, then sheer dread washed over him as Vulture’s words sank in.

They really hadn’t contacted his sister yet. He had meant to, but the sudden arrival of the zombie wave had shoved it from his mind. Panic surged through him, and he scrambled to pull up the Territory interface once more.

“Sir… Keith, what are you doing?” Vulture asked, noticing Keith swiping and tapping at something only he could see, fingers moving across an invisible interface.

“Contacting my sister,” Keith answered calmly. He had already sent word, and to his relief, she wasn’t too occupied. Her reply had come quickly. “She’ll be here soon… I think.”

Hearing this, Vulture gritted his teeth and pulled out his radio again. “Sparrow, we just contacted the Young Madam. She’s on her way, but we don’t have an ETA. All we can do now is hold out for as long as possible. You stay up there and keep your eyes sharp, find the mutated zombie. Once you spot it, don’t let it out of your sight.”

“The Young Madam has to face that thing head-on if we’re going to end this zombie wave.” Vulture’s voice was firm, carrying both urgency and determination.

“You really want to go through with this? Are you certain the Young Madam and Master can contend with a mutated zombie that’s both this intelligent and this strong? Have you forgotten how much trouble we had back at the chemical warehouse in City A, against that one with the potential to become a zombie king?”

“With the scale of this horde under its control, I’d wager this one is even stronger. We might need our entire force just to cover the Young Madam and Master, and even if reinforcements rushed here, they’d still be hours away.” Sparrow reasoned grimly, his words cutting with hard truth.

But Vulture stood firm, convinced his instincts were right. No one else could deal with this creature better than their Young Madam and Master. He had seen it with his own eyes; their strength grew with each battle, their power unlike anything the rest of them could wield. Though he couldn’t name it, he had felt it when they fought.

And Vulture wasn’t wrong. The force he struggled to put into words was ‘Aura’—the unique power Duke and Kisha commanded, the very power they had once used against the parasite-like mutated zombie that could seize control of other powerful corpses.

Sparrow let out a weary sigh, finally conceding to Vulture’s reasoning. Still, frustration gnawed at him; he hated standing guard while everyone else was locked in battle.

This was the first time he’d been forced to hold back during such a large-scale fight; usually, he was among the first to charge into the front lines. Now, all he could do was stand still, watching from above, feeling useless.

But once Vulture confirmed that Kisha and Duke were on their way, Sparrow forced himself to clear his thoughts. Lowering his radio, he steadied his gaze on the battlefield, searching for that elusive mutated zombie that seemed to be playing a cruel game of hide-and-seek with him.

And so, after that brief exchange, both Vulture and Keith threw themselves back into the fray. Vulture leapt to the front lines, determined not to let a single zombie slip past him. Thanks to the ‘Blast Set’, his defenses were greatly enhanced, scratches and bites barely left a mark on his ‘Earth Armor’.

That only fueled his confidence as he bulldozed through the horde, smashing zombies left and right as if he were playing a brutal game of whack-a-mole.

Any zombies that managed to get close to the wall were left for Clyde and Reeve to handle. Clyde unleashed his ‘Gravity Impact’ skill, crushing everything within range into the ground until nothing remained but mangled flesh and shattered bones.

Beside him, Reeve used his ‘Siren’s Call’, the sound waves rupturing zombie skulls with explosive force, heads bursting like grotesque balloons. Thankfully, the pair fought at enough distance that no one was showered with the foul spray of black blood and brain matter.

Still, the sheer display of power was something the survivors had never witnessed before, and it left them utterly stunned.

Thanks to Grandma Aldens’ awakened ability, no one panicked. A blanket of calm and peace settled over them, easing their nerves despite the occasional gagging at the gore before their eyes.

Whenever the awakened ability users felt their spiritual energy dip near the danger threshold of having to experience a backlash, they quickly drank a vial of black liquid to replenish it.

Those on the frontlines, like Vulture and Evelyn, relied instead on stamina boosters, since they are burning through their physical stamina far more than their spiritual energy.

Once the first group grew mentally exhausted, they ceded their positions to the second group, giving themselves time to recuperate and recover from the strain of constantly taking stamina boosters and vials of black liquid.

Thanks to Grandma Alden’s calming awakened ability, their mental fortitude rebounded much faster than it normally would.

“STAUs, keep the stamina boosters and vials of black liquid in constant supply!” Fred barked, glancing back at the logistics crew scrambling to deliver both ammunition and potions to the fighters.

He swapped out his assault rifle, cursing under his breath as the first one’s muzzle had warped and burst into a flower-like shape, unable to withstand the strain of his specialized bullets.

If this kept up, he would burn through their stockpile of rifles far too quickly. The thought made him grit his teeth; he needed to commission a custom-made weapon from the blacksmiths.

Even with careful bursts to prolong each rifle’s lifespan, the damage was inevitable. By the time he shouldered his second rifle, Fred had already decided: a reinforced, customized assault rifle was no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

Worse still, because he had to carefully ration the use of his assault rifle, Fred could only fire off a limited number of explosive rounds. This restraint gnawed at him, especially now, when his ability would have been most effective against the massive clusters of zombies surging before them.

“Captain, don’t worry. Just focus your fire on the zombie clusters, we’ll handle the stragglers that escape the blasts,” one of the wind ability users assured him. As he spoke, he conjured two shimmering ‘Wind Blades’ in his hands and launched them toward the scattered zombies across the battlefield.

Each blade cut through the air with lethal precision, sharp enough to slice down as many as three zombies in succession before dissipating.

“Alright, I’ll leave my back to you.” Fred nodded with a smile before raising his new assault rifle and firing into the horde. Instead of the usual thunderous blast like an RPG, a strange sticky fluid shot out, splattering across the zombies. It clung to their bodies like glue.

One of the fire ability users hurled a fireball at the mass, and to everyone’s shock, the fluid ignited instantly. Flames raced across the zombies with terrifying speed, burning them to ash before they could even screech. Both Fred and the fire ability user exchanged a stunned glance, realization sparking between them.

Fred had only intended to slow the horde by turning the first line of zombies into a stumbling barrier, but the unexpected flammability of the sticky fluid had transformed his tactic into something far greater: a blazing wall of fire. Even after the zombies collapsed into charred corpses, the flames continued to roar, refusing to die out.

Working in perfect sync, Fred unleashed more rounds to coat the front line while the fire ability user followed with precise fireballs. Together, they forged a scorching barricade, an inferno the remaining zombies had no choice but to push through, only to be consumed and reduced to charcoal.

“This is great, Captain!” one of Fred’s subordinates shouted, their voice filled with excitement. But even as they rejoiced, their hands didn’t stop moving, hurling wave after wave of attacks onto the battlefield. Seeing Fred’s tactic working so effectively, everyone felt their morale soar, pouring even more of their awakened abilities into the zombie horde.

Meanwhile, Evelyn was like an unstoppable juggernaut of living steel, carving through the swarm with ruthless efficiency. The zombies had no chance of slowing her down; these were nothing more than ordinary ones, the strongest barely reaching level 1.

There were no mutated variants among them, aside from the hidden mutated zombie pulling the strings, and against Evelyn, which meant no real threat.

Level 1 zombies might have been faster and stronger than their level 0 counterparts, but their meager improvements were useless against her.