Chapter 63: The Unaccounted Backup
As soon as the Wave Colliders exploded, a faint, almost imperceptible hum echoed from within the barrier.
At first, it was barely audible.
Then, little by little, the eerie vibration spread across the entire battlefield.
For a brief moment...
Everything fell silent.
Then chaos erupted.
Several soldiers froze in place. Their expressions turned blank as they slowly raised their rifles toward the comrades standing beside them.
Tony’s expression darkened.
Without a second thought, he thrust both hands into the air.
The water scattered across the battlefield rose, separating into thousands of floating droplets.
Blood dripped from the corner of Tony’s mouth, but his gaze never wavered.
"RAIN DESCENT!"
With a sharp downward motion of his hands, every droplet shot outward in all directions.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The water bullets struck everyone in their path—soldiers and zombies alike.
The controlled soldiers cried out in pain as the sharp impacts jolted them awake.
Their vacant eyes cleared.
Tony used the last of his strength to shout,
"All troops! Grab anything you can find!"
"Stab yourselves or hit yourselves as hard as you can!"
"If your comrades are under control, do the same to them!"
The soldiers obeyed the order without delay.
Knives, bayonets, rifle stocks, fists—anything they could grab became a means to break the mental control.
John glanced toward the two Eyeball Aliens.
Even through the barrier, he could feel their sinister gazes fixed upon him.
He knew Tony’s method was only a temporary fix.
If this continued, the soldiers would eventually collapse from their own injuries.
This battle had to end.
Now.
John clenched his fist.
The two spinning steel beams sped up once more.
WHIRRRRRR!!
They drilled relentlessly into the translucent barrier, each rotation carving the cracks wider.
The Eyeball Aliens also gave everything they had.
Blue vein-like patterns crawled across the surfaces of their enormous eyes, growing denser with every passing second as they desperately reinforced the barrier.
John wasn’t faring any better.
The veins on his forehead bulged.
His eyes turned bloodshot, and fresh blood trickled from his nose.
For several long seconds...
Neither side gave way.
The spinning drills screamed against the barrier while the aliens held it together.
The battlefield reached a deadlock.
One side fighting to break through.
The other refusing to yield an inch.
Just as it seemed the stalemate would continue forever...
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The loud horn of a military jeep echoed across the battlefield.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
A military jeep burst onto the street, smashing through the barricades that blocked its path.
Standing in the back was the soldier assigned to escort Rose, carrying an enormous cannon unlike anything seen on the battlefield.
Behind the wheel sat another soldier.
Close behind the jeep came two heavily modified military off-road vehicles.
Rose herself was driving one of them.
Their roofs bristled with heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, and other mounted weapons.
Without slowing down, the two vehicles surged past the jeep.
RATATATATA!!
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Machine guns roared while rockets streaked into the horde, tearing apart every zombie in their way.
The convoy carved a bloody path straight toward John.
Out of the corner of his eye, John noticed the approaching vehicles.
A flicker of confusion crossed his face.
What is Rose doing here?
But he forced his attention back to the Eyeball Aliens.
At this critical moment...
Even the slightest distraction could prove fatal.
He would ask her later.
The convoy finally screeched to a halt several dozen meters from the battlefield’s center.
Rose jumped out, an assault rifle already in her hands.
"Fire!"
Without hesitation, she squeezed the trigger.
RATATATATA!!
Bullets slammed against the translucent barrier.
The soldiers behind her tried to stop her.
"Miss Rose! Wait—"
But she had already rushed forward.
The escort soldier stepped off the jeep.
As his boots touched the ground, his body began transforming.
His upper body swelled as muscles expanded and tightened beneath his skin.
He dropped onto one knee with a heavy THUD, hoisting the massive cannon onto his shoulder.
Taking a deep breath, he aimed directly at the barrier.
Then...
He pulled the trigger.
HMMMMMMMM!
A deep mechanical hum echoed from inside the weapon as brilliant energy gathered inside the barrel.
One second later
BOOOOOOOM!!
A dazzling pillar of energy erupted from the cannon.
The beam tore across the battlefield and struck the barrier head-on.
The two spinning steel beams vanished, vaporized the moment they touched the energy ray.
The barrier suffered the same fate.
John coughed up a mouthful of blood as the sudden backlash threw him to his knees.
The energy beam continued forward without losing momentum.
It struck both floating Eyeball Aliens directly.
"SKREEEEEEEE!!"
Their agonized shrieks echoed across the battlefield.
Their enormous eyes turned crimson as smoke poured from their bodies.
It looked as though they were being cooked alive.
The escort soldier gritted his teeth.
The cannon shook violently in his grasp.
Three seconds later
KRRRRR...
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The cannon exploded.
The terrifying blast engulfed its wielder, tearing him apart before he could even scream.
The explosion expanded in every direction.
The two military vehicles behind him were swallowed by the fire.
Soldiers within the blast radius disappeared beneath the wall of flames.
The shockwave raced across the battlefield.
Rose, who had been charging toward the aliens, was thrown off her feet.
She rolled several times before coming to a stop.
Coughing through the dust, she looked back.
Her face turned pale.
The entire convoy...
Had been destroyed.
Despite surviving the blast, the Eyeball Aliens no longer looked calm.
For the first time...
Fear appeared in their eyes.
Without caring about the battlefield any longer, they fled toward the escape route they had prepared beforehand.
John struggled to stand.
But the backlash from the shattered steel beams and the experimental drug had completely drained him.
His vision blurred.
His body refused to move.
Rose clenched her fists.
"No..."
"I won’t let you escape!"
Ignoring the pain throughout her body, she dragged herself to her feet and chased after the fleeing aliens.
The Eyeball Aliens rushed into a narrow alleyway.
Neither of them noticed the nearly invisible tripwires stretched across the entrance.
They were moving far too fast to stop.
The wires snapped.
A heartbeat later
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
A massive explosion engulfed the entire alley.
Just before Rose reached the entrance, the violent blast erupted.
The shockwave slammed into her, hurling her backward.
At the same time,
The burning bodies of the two Eyeball Aliens were blasted out of the alley along with the explosion.
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