Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Tatiana and I were perched on the fences like we were about to wipe a certain clan before Mr. Cuervo noticed us. He was excitedly looking at this slim Hulker slowly dismantling the other two that were left at first, but his attention was directed to us when Roxanne and Melina turned around after hearing the fences rattling.

"What the— What are you doing here, Hermano?"

"I'm giving you two choices, Mr. Cuervo… you let me join in on the fight or I'll join without permission—"

Mr. Cuervo shook his head almost immediately, "You're gonna get shot down even if you're a family head, kid. Rules are rules—"

"Everyone here will die with those rules—"

"Then you're underestimating us—"

"Underestimate? You could be overestimating your—"

"I'm serious, Hermano. Listen to me, you could stay perched on that fence or go back to your seat but you're not stepping foot—that includes you, Tatiana—in this play area."

"Cheh. I'm telling you now that I could nail that thing from a couple of miles away. Just saying, you're lucky it still isn't rushing here and—"

"Sure, go ahead. As long as it went over the play area, you could fucking shoot it. For some reason, I know you could…"

At this point, the fight between the regular deadheads in front was still ongoing but only a fraction of the participants had noticed what happened a few dozen feet ahead. They didn't actually care that much because the undead were known for their strength but the ones with some common sense were now wearing pensive looks.

With that said, most of the people that saw it were the ones further behind—including my team and the rest that formed a formation with them.

My group in the play area, especially the ones who went toe to toe with it, were wearing an expression with a mix of nervousness and excitement because this would be one of the few times they'd be able to try out our injection system. Granted it was mostly due to taking down anything that resembled Kristoff's killer but the end result would be the same thing.

It's just that I noticed something peculiar when I looked ahead.

I for sure thought that the other two that were left to fend with this hulker were already dead but this particular special seemed to like playing with its food. But not only that, this particular deadhead seemed to only be an orthodox fighter due to the way it was fighting the other two.

It was because it was keeping the other guy in place by holding him down on his shoulder—fingers digging through his flesh and crushing his shoulder blades and scapula—while barely being able to chip off the other guy who was giving his last hurrah.

Its left hand already made contact with the other guy's blade and body but not only did it not kill the other guy outright, but it barely tore off the guy's limbs and fend for itself.

'It's taking damage just as easily? How—'

The last guy from the three who advanced was actually chipping off the hulker's left arm bit by bit—and if he had a much sharper weapon—he could've lopped it off from its shoulder. However, it didn't take long before the other deadheads in the vicinity ganged up on him and took him piece by piece, biting off chunks of his flesh from his back or tearing off his toned muscles from constant training.

He already lost a lot of blood but a small puff of red would just appear each time those deadheads nicked an important blood vessel. The spray would just give their grayish bodies a little bit of color to spice things up a little.

Despite that, he managed to sink his blade into three more rotting coconuts before he succumbed to his injuries.

I turned to Tatiana, "Did you see that?"

Tatiana nodded but before she could speak, Mr. Cuervo turned around to look at me with a scrunched brow.

"See what? Are you two really gonna perch there?"

"Are you gonna let us in or not?"

"Not a chance—"

"Then we have nothing to share with you."

"Y-You… You wanna take all the glory for yourself eh?"

"Cheh. This is not about me taking all the glory, Mr. Cuervo. Though I should be the one asking you that."

"..."

"Fuck it, if you wanna take all the credits… listen carefully. That's not the same as the one we faced last time… Well.. not completely… It's not even the same size and even though it somehow exerts the same pressure… just avoid its right side and you'll be fine."

Once I said that, Roxanne and Melina were also looking at me but I saw another javelin from the corner of my eye heading straight for the hulker in question.

It quickly tore through the air with speed but all we saw after that was a grown man getting flung around with one arm—getting used as a pincushion—only making the hulker lose its balance for a few seconds. However, it quickly brought its arm back in the same position, completely tearing the person it was holding onto by his shoulders, only leaving a handful in its grasp.

The guy it flung twice was already dead the moment it collided with a few deadheads in the vicinity, and he got feasted on when he got delivered onto their laps.

This action elicited almost all of the participants that they were facing something much stronger than a regular deadhead and they needed to be extremely careful with dealing with it.

But the first one to tell himself, "I'm dealing with that right now," was Mr. Castillo's right hand, Benjamin.

I was lucky to see his side profile among the number of participants in front and he never looked so excited for the new challenger that dropped a quarter from the other side of the arcade. His face looked the same when he was challenging me to a fight and his smile almost tore through his cheeks.

He easily pushed down the regular joe in front of him before stabbing the one behind it once below the chin and twice on its left earlobe. After that, he pushed that deadhead to the side with his dagger before sinking it into another deadhead that was blocking his way.

Benjie was already overextending to the point that if he got surrounded by deadheads, it would've been already over, but even if one of his eyes weren't in 100% working condition, it felt like he had a third one on the back of his head.

There was a point where he almost got clawed from behind but he swung his dagger in a wide arc—stabbing the poor deadhead on its temple—before pulling it out, kicking the one on his right, and stabbing the one on his left.

He'd kill a regular deadhead every two seconds and it didn't take long before he was face-to-face with his target.

He was the first one to attack but his target's right shoulder twitched a fraction of a second later.

The next few seconds had never been so quiet but cheers erupted from the stands all around us.

What happened was the hulker was aiming for a simultaneous hit while Benjie was trying to kill it in one blow, but he stopped himself midway and changed his attack trajectory. Everyone saw him twist his head to avoid the hulker's arm from grazing him even by a tiny bit but in the same motion, he dislodged the hulker's right knee and sunk his dagger right by the webbing of its pinky, tearing it by a few inches and making it flap with the wind.

He was holding himself up with one leg as he threw that low kick and followed its arm with his dagger, and the hulker just recoiled in "pain" as it tried to bitch-slap him with its backhand.

It's just that Benjie rolled to the side and decided to retreat while making more space between them.

Benjie looked comprehensive as he put down a couple of deadheads like it was nothing while looking at the hulker that survived his attack.

The hulker in question was now limping as one of its legs was disabled but no other people close besides Benjie were willing to take a shot at it. Losing a significant part of its movement brought its fighting capacity to some degree but the way its right arm just slaps down as fast as one of this place's top fighters was something to still be wary of.

It could still behead anyone that was stupid enough to come close without a proper plan to take it on.

But while everyone's focus was on Benjie and the hulker, another special had just finished its preparations. Most of the participants in front had almost made their way to Benjie's position but it only took a second before they realized that paving their way with dozens and dozens of corpses was a bad move, a fatal one.

The next thing they knew, a few deadheads that they already took down moved in unison, either scratching their exposed legs with their bony claws or taking a small bite of their ankles.

It only took a second for everything to register and the look on their faces was indescribable.

The first thing they did was to smash every bit of the dead deadhead that removed their living privileges before they found the source of their misery.

It was a tailor that was buried in a pile of corpses that like their comrades who tried to take down as many as they could before dying, did the same fucking thing.

The deadheads that were supposed to be cleared were all around it and had a particular body part that got invaded by a not-so-foreign entity before it took control of it as a meat puppet. Granted these puppets only moved for a few seconds before its strings were cut off, the damage was done, and to make matters worse, they didn't even get to light up for one last time.

Benjie just made his way over them and slit their throats before they could even react.