After that, what followed was an intense battle.
The agonizing cries of the terrible zombies and the fierce gunfire overlapped endlessly.
“Kiak!”
The number of zombies coming up the stairs seed to be dozens at first glance.
The makeshift barricade made of old furniture was about to be breached in an instant.
However, even after enough ti had passed, the corpses couldn’t overco the makeshift barricade.
It was all thanks to Aiden, who guarded the rear like a solid wall.
Dadadadang!
The rifle he held continuously spewed flas.
At first glance, it seed like he was just firing indiscriminately, with a rapid rate of fire.
But he didn’t waste bullets.
One by one, the zombies trying to cross the barricade fell backward.
It was truly a marksmanship performance.
And there was soone supporting Aiden from behind.
“...”
It was Rebecca, sticking to the barricade and firing a submachine gun.
Even with dozens of zombies in front of her, she remained surprisingly calm.
There was tension in her facial expression, but there was no apparent unease beyond what was necessary.
Aiden glanced at Rebecca with a sidelong glance but refocused on the battle.
There was nothing particularly surprising about Rebecca’s composure. After all, she hadn’t survived in this world overrun by corpses for three years without reason.
So, this level of composure could be considered natural.
“Kiiik!”
Another zombie’s forehead was pierced by a bullet, and it fell beyond the broken glass wall.
Continuously pouring out bullets without a break, the number of zombies standing there had clearly diminished.
In the end, the last one received a burst of gunfire from the submachine gun and tumbled down the stairs.
Once again, the ergency stairs regained silence.
However, Aiden, even as he changed the magazine, didn’t let his guard down.
This was only an extrely small part of the zombie horde.
There were still countless zombies outside the hotel, and Aiden couldn’t predict how the zombie horde that wiped out the reconnaissance team from the hotel would erge.
If their search ends like this, there would be nothing more to wish for. Unfortunately, the likelihood of that happening was significantly low.
“Now, it’s for real.”
Rebecca nodded quietly, gripping the gun with determination.
Then, thud!
At that mont, a vibration occurred below the building.
Sothing heavy seed to have crashed into the building.
Aiden concentrated his attention below the stairs. Soon, a chaotic sound of footsteps echoed.
“...Beasts.”
Aiden murmured as the footsteps were much lighter than those of ordinary zombies.
As he said, the sound was like several four-legged beasts, such as dogs, pounding the ground.
But shortly after...
“...”
Seeing the appearance of the zombies revealed below the stairs, Aiden furrowed his brow.
Rebecca sighed in frustration, sounding like a sigh.
It was a variant of mutant zombies called ‘Stinger’.
Generally, they ford groups of around ten and lived in caves or buildings.
The na ‘Stinger’ was given because they used branches or spikes to compensate for their lack of physical strength, stabbing and killing people.
But they had another nickna besides that.
Kid.
Because all the small bodies were nothing but children who hadn’t even reached the age of teenagers.
“Ki-iik!”
A much higher and sharper scream than ordinary zombies pierced the ears.
Confirming the presence of Stingers, Aiden imdiately put down the rifle and picked up a pistol and a tal bat.
While their strength was much weaker than ordinary zombies, their light bodies made them agile like small animals, and their sharp claws could climb walls.
So in such narrow spaces where they could bounce anywhere, they beca much more formidable opponents than ordinary zombies.
Even the carefully built barricade seed aningless.
Bang!
The first Stinger seen by Aiden was hit by the bullet he shot and flew away, tumbling.
Rebecca, watching this, closed her eyes tightly.
It was because she saw her daughter overlapping with that girl of the similar age when she was alive.
“Bow your head.”
Hearing Aiden’s words, Rebecca followed without understanding English.
Right after that-
Boom!
A thunderous explosion echoed from the floor just below.
Aiden, realizing the presence of Stingers, imdiately dropped a grenade.
The ejected grenade bounced up and down the stairs, hitting the barricade.
Thanks to that, so of the Stingers, who were eagerly climbing, turned into rotten pieces of flesh, and their montum wavered.
But that was only for a mont.
Not long after, stepping on the scattered corpses on the floor, they rushed forward.
“Get away from the barricade. They’ll easily jump over it.”
Aiden advised Rebecca, and he stepped forward.
Bang!
A few Stingers slamd the wall and leaped over the barricade in a single breath.
Aiden sniped one of them mid-air, and the rest he struck down with the baseball bat he had.
With an unpleasant squelching sound, a Stinger’s head shattered, and it fell onto the barricade.
However, right after that, more Stingers rushed towards Aiden.
The chaotic lee continued.
Nurous Stingers sward Aiden like a horde, but he steadfastly defended the barricade.
However, wounds were appearing on his body one by one.
Even though pierced by bullets and bludgeoned, these small monsters used their sharp nails, covered in gooey secretions, to insert them into Aiden’s body.
“Tsk!”
Each sting was deadly for a human opponent, but for the zombie Aiden, it was just a minor annoyance.
Ignoring the injuries, he aid the gun at another Stinger.
anwhile, Rebecca supported Aiden from behind with precise suppressive fire.
Whenever Aiden seed overwheld on one side, she quickly fired into the empty space.
Before Aiden could turn around to deal with the Stinger he hadn’t managed to handle, Rebecca finished it off.
Though the sight of those young bodies, hit by bullets and tumbling lifelessly, was incredibly pitiful, she clenched her teeth and pulled the trigger.
The battle continued for a while.
Whether due to the large number of Stingers or their pitiful appearance, the fight was even more challenging for Rebecca than the previous onslaught of zombies.
Several tis, it seed like the barricade was about to be breached.
If Aiden hadn’t effectively used grenades to disrupt the enemy’s attacks each ti, it would undoubtedly have happened.
They fought tirelessly.
Finally, the number of Stingers seed to decrease.
Thud!
Unexpectedly, another vibration echoed from below.
A powerful tremor, as if shaking the building. But this ti, it was much closer.
“...!”
Aiden’s intuition warned him of the extraordinary noise that ordinary zombies or Stingers couldn’t produce.
He hurriedly looked down the stairs, but he couldn’t see anything in the darkness.
However, the vibration wasn’t a one-ti occurrence, and the source wasn’t singular.
One was closer, and one was farther away.
It ant...
“...Two are coming from both sides.”
Aiden muttered as he fiercely knocked away a jumping Stinger.
At that mont, a large shadow passed through the darkness below the stairs.
Sensing imminent danger, Aiden imdiately moved away from the barricade.
“Sothing’s coming! Step back!”
Right after he shouted-
Boom!
A huge entity appeared, rudely distorting the railing of the stairs.
“That is...”
Rebecca’s voice trailed off as she saw it.
It was... a Brutal.
However, unlike the Bigfoot mutant with a large build, its appearance was completely different.
Though towering at about three ters tall, its body consisted not of massive flesh but unusually developed muscles.
Bathed in the faint moonlight, it exuded a threatening glow, revealing its presence through the rotten skin.
Seeing this type of zombie, Rebecca felt a sense of doom.
It was undoubtedly a powerful mutant, but lacking knowledge about it made the situation worse.
However, Aiden was different.
He recalled the na of the mutant he had heard from Anders.
“The Brutal...!”
It was definitely that na.
A zombie with well-developed muscles witnessed in Baltimore.
Although it was only active at night, its strength was said to be enough to break through concrete walls.
Now, the Brutal was effortlessly smashing the steel railing of the stairs with its strength alone.
“Ugh...”
Such the Brutal’s gaze turned towards Aiden and Rebecca.
Aiden’s judgnt was swift.
Quickly picking up the fallen rifle, he shouted:
“Go upstairs!”
Rebecca, who had not slackened her tension, imdiately followed his instructions.
Holding only the submachine gun and the magazine, she turned on the gun’s LED light and rushed desperately up the stairs.
“Grrraaagh!”
At that mont, the Brutal reacted.
The creature pounded the ground, causing the entire building to shake.
Thud!
Although the Brutal’s path was blocked by the barricade, the feeble barrier was no match for the massive muscle mass.
Under the weight resembling a grenade, the barricade crumbled instantly.
However, as the Brutal passed through the broken barricade.
Boom!
The explosive planted inside the barricade detonated, engulfing the Brutal.
The debris from the barricade rained down, tearing apart the area.
Stingers caught in the storm of the explosion couldn’t leave a trace and burst into pieces.
However, in the midst of the explosion, the Brutal, standing there, roared with rage.
“Kreee!”
It displayed its resilience despite the construction of dynamite inside the barricade. Even the force of the explosion only caused a few scratches on its outer surface.
Tatatatat!
Aiden, facing such a creature, fired rifle rounds at it and rushed upstairs.
High-velocity 5.56mm bullets capable of penetrating even steel plates.
However, the Brutal simply used its two arms as shields against the bullets.
Although the bullets penetrated into the creature’s arms, they couldn’t pierce through its thick muscles.
Once the barrage of gunfire ended, the Brutal, which had paused for a mont, moved again.
Aiden had ascended one floor during this ti.
Now, the Brutal, full of fury, tore apart the railing at the stair’s end and tried to chase after him.
However, at the location where there had been a barricade, on the 22nd floor above the place with the barricade, Aiden had prepared another counterasure.
At the end of the stairs where the Brutal had just stepped, there was a rectangular object leaning against the glass wall.
It was a military-grade claymore.
A single bomb that could annihilate an infantry platoon, an anti-personnel directional fragntation mine.
When the detonation switch was pressed, about 700 steel balls would shoot out in all directions, creating a killing radius of up to 50 ters if it exploded on a plain.
However, the Brutal, unaware of the nature of such a weapon, entered the effective range of the claymore without any suspicion.
“...!”
Aiden, watching from above, imdiately checked Rebecca’s position.
As he had instructed, she had already left the stairs and was running through the corridor on the 23rd floor.
It was safe there.
Having made that judgnt, Aiden also threw himself towards the corridor and simultaneously pressed the detonation switch of the claymore he held.
Boooom!
A fierce shock that shook the building echoed through the air.
As 700 steel balls burst out from the narrow stairs, they shattered everything in their path.
The iron door separating the stairs and the room corridor was torn off its hinges.
To make matters worse, so of the steel balls were deflected, and, brushing past Aiden, hit the front door of the room directly in front of him.
It was a trendous force.
Even if it were a monster-like mutant zombie, survival would be challenging under such circumstances.
However, Aiden didn’t release the gun in his hand.
And when the storm of steel gradually subsided, he stepped onto the ergency staircase again to confirm the creature’s death.
The stairs that hundreds of steel balls had brushed against were a complete ss.
There were no traces left on the external glass walls, and the solid interior walls bore scars as if hit by a bombardnt.
The floor seed like it could collapse at any mont, and the railing had completely disappeared, with no sign of where it had gone.
Clear evidence of utter destruction.
However... Aiden’s face hardened as he looked down at sothing downstairs.
At the exact location where he had placed the claymore, the Brutal had used the explosion to his advantage.
Although nearly half of the upper torso, including the left arm, had been blown away, the explosion-engulfed face was missing from the chin to the left eye, and the left side was torn open as if squeezed, leaking rotten organs.
However, perhaps due to the terrain.
Unfortunately, the creature’s two legs were intact.
Even if half of its body had been blown away, a single arm and two legs were still a sufficiently nacing foe.
Seeing this, Aiden tightened his grip on the gun.
And when the storm of steel subsided, the Brutal, with only one eye left, turned its gaze toward Aiden.
And then...
“Grraaaagh!”
The creature scread like a mad beast and charged towards Aiden.
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