Chapter 532: The Disaster
Their leader, Borin, was a Level 51 powerhouse known for his Epic Talent, Weapon Master. Furthermore, due to his lack, he was able to obtain a Talent Expansion Scroll and Talent Orb, allowing him to gain another talent.
This time, it was only an Exceptional Talent but it was still a highly sought-after Regeneration Talent. Alongside him stood Ran, an expert in barrier magic with his Vanguard Talent, and Heart, a dual-blade specialist who had a Rare Swordsman Talent.
But as they stepped into the chamber where the Ravenous Tyrant was imprisoned, they immediately felt something was wrong.
"Hey! The Zombie Lord is not alone?! There's two more beside it!"
"It should not be like this!"
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"Crap… We can't retreat now or the Zombie Lord will cause chaos to the nearby Shelter! We have to fight it!"
"Change of plans! My team will fight the Zombie Lord! Ran and Heart, bring your teams to deal with the two Armored Tyrant Zombies or whatever those are!" Borin immediately instructed.
He had no other choice but to adapt to their current situation.
One of the vanguards in his team raised his Titan Hammer, signaling the team to attack first before the creature could break their defensive formation.
They had fought large zombies before like Giant Zombies, so they believed that they had a good idea about the strength of the Zombie Lord.
Unfortunately, they were wrong.
What followed was a one-sided massacre.
The moment they defeated the two companions of the Zombie Lord, those two didn't give any experience points and instead, they merged into the Zombie Lord's body!
It wasn't something described in the System Notification! It was no wonder why there were two extra Zombies in the Chamber.
It was a disaster!
This Zombie Lord suddenly had six red eyes filled with hatred.
With a thunderous roar, the Ravenous Tyrant shattered the ground in a single move. It pounced forward with its huge mouth open unnaturally wide, swallowing the nearby five warriors in one gulp.
Just like that, chaos erupted.
Heart attempted to slash at its flailing limbs, only for the Tyrant's flesh to morph and harden, shattering his swords on impact.
The creature responded by swiping his entire upper body clean off, leaving only his twitching legs standing before they collapsed.
Thud!
Ran then summoned a grand defensive barrier, attempting to buy the other survivors time to reorganize—but the Tyrant did not slow down.
Instead, it vomited a corrosive bile onto the shield, melting through it in seconds before impaling Ran through the chest with its elongated arm.
Just like that, two of the top Rankers in their Clan died without being able to use their full strength. Everything happened so quickly! They couldn't even complain about how terrible the armor those two were wearing!
"We have to run!" someone screamed.
But running wasn't an option.
Every time a warrior fell, the Ravenous Tyrant's flesh would wriggle and mutate, adapting with each kill. It was such a terrifying Lord Tier Zombie and Borin couldn't think of a way to deal with it!
It was resistant to so many attacks! They lacked the burst power that could immediately kill this Zombie!
"This---Just how did the others killed those Zombie Lord?!" He couldn't believe it
It learned.
It evolved.
It grew stronger as they continued to battle.
One by one, ROTK's elite were torn apart, devoured, or obliterated by the unstoppable beast. Even his finest vanguard—who fought bravely to cover his retreating comrades—was ripped in half after enduring for a few moments.
By the time the last remnants of the team staggered out of the ruins, less than 20 survivors remained.
Their wounds were severe, their morale shattered, and their pride was completely broken. They wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible!
But the worst was yet to come.
Because they failed to kill the Ravenous Tyrant within its Chamber, the Lord-Tier Zombie no longer had any boundaries.
The Zombie Lord Territory that was protecting the outside world had basically disappeared!
Indeed! With no more chains and no more restrictions, the creature broke free from the ruined factory, its hunger led it toward the nearest Survivor Shelters, Neutral Shelters, and even the Wild Shelters owned by the Necromancers.
The first to fall was a Survivor Shelter only ten kilometers away.
Its wooden palisades and crude defenses were useless as the Ravenous Tyrant plowed through them, consuming every last man, woman, and even child within!
Although Borin could be able to warn them through private messages and in the Regional Chat, everything happened too fast!
After all, unlike Travis who had a clone that could check the Chat all the time, the others weren't in such a peaceful place and they were all working hard, hunting, building, or doing various tasks.
Nonetheless, the news immediately spread like wildfire as various powerful Clans learned about the situation.
At first, Borin tried to keep their involvement in this a secret but because the others who lost their friends were deeply saddened by the situation, they all revealed the situation in the chat, hoping that some elite Survivors could avenge their friends.
Then came the Neutral Shelters.
***
The Neutral Shelter of Ironhold was one of the largest independent strongholds in the region, it was located within the ruins of an old military bunker.
Unlike some other large shelters with a strict hierarchy of major Survivor Factions, Ironhold was a safe haven for those who refused to swear loyalty to any one power. Indeed, the people who could stay here could be Foreign Survivors, Scavengers, or even some Recruited Survivors who had lost their recruiters in the process.
It was basically home to mercenaries, smugglers, black-market traders, rogue scavengers, and bounty hunters.
Nonetheless, they were all bound by a single rule: "Ironhold stands, or we all fall."
Their leader, Marshal Dain, was a former special forces commander, recruited by a previous Foreign Survivor who had died already. However, through various events, he was able to replace the previous leader of this Neutral Shelter.
This place had a decent armory of military-grade weaponry. He now also had platoons of well-armed mercenaries and reinforced walls lined with automated turrets, he believed his stronghold could withstand any siege.
But he had never faced anything like the Ravenous Tyrant.
***
The first sign of the coming disaster wasn't the sound of footsteps.
It was the silence.
The wastelands outside Ironhold were always filled with distant gunfire and the occasional scream of the Zombies that would come to their territory from time to time.
But as the night approached, an unnatural stillness covered the land.
Then, the ground trembled.
BOOM.
A shockwave rippled through the ground…
The outer scouts never had a chance to report something. The watchtowers, normally manned by eagle-eyed snipers, were obliterated in seconds as a huge rock was thrown in their direction!
A zombie who had the knowledge to throw huge rocks was definitely not a normal one!
Just like that, the Zombie Lord was able to get close to their Shelter so quickly!
The Ravenous Tyrant, a Zombie Lord, was about to arrive!
Marshal Dain didn't waste time.
"All hands, to the walls! Heavy weapons, now!" He shouted as he used their loudspeakers to ensure that his orders were conveyed.
Ironhold's had a few defenses that could normally withstand a Zombie Wave.
There were machine guns that could spit out a rain of armor-piercing rounds.
Aside from that, they had precious grenade launchers and RPGs. They had limited ammunitions but it could certainly deal a lot of damage, especially if it was used against large Zombies.
Finally, there were also several snipers positioned in several reinforced watchtowers. Against such a powerful Zombie, these snipers took aim at the Zombie's eyes, hoping to blind the monster.
It was their most basic tactic against other large Zombies.
The first barrage of their attacks landed!
Direct hits!
Boom!
The explosions engulfed the Tyrant, sending chunks of blackened flesh flying!
"It's working!" Marshal Dain was glad as soon as he saw this. The Zombie Lord wasn't invincible after all.
Just like him, the defenders thought they had stopped it.
Then they saw the flesh begin to reform.
Its bones started to reset.
Its muscles regrew and its eyes blinked, making it perfectly healed!
"This…"
They had no time to think how it happened as the Zombie Lord charged.
The massive iron gate of their shelter—reinforced with titanium plating—folded like paper as the Tyrant dashed through!
Dozens of mercenaries were crushed instantly.
However, the battle hadn't ended yet as the gunfire continued to rain upon the monster!
Unfortunately, the Tyrant moved too fast, it adapted too quickly, and devoured the bodies of the Survivors who could no longer move!
Suddenly, a mercenary captain with a flamethrower tried to incinerate it, but before the flames could even cover the Zombie's body, it had already caught the captain's head!
His screams barely lasted a second before the Tyrant split him in half with a single bite.