The person she was addressing was her than Ahe Siberian tiger shifter stood alo the forefront of the zombie tide. His body, over five meters long, was battered and bruised. His tail hung limply, broken, and two ribs jutted grotesquely from his side—injuries dealt by a Mutated Lord. Still, he fought with unyieldiermination. “I’m the fearless Siberian tiger! King of the jungle!” Andre roared, his voice shaky but filled with pride.

  “Siberian tiger? Just say tiger! Why are ying Siberia into this?” Erza retorted through gritted teeth, her sarcasm automatic even in the heat of battle. Behind them, the high wall defenses began to falter. Soldiers and security teams scrambled to find any remaining ammunition, but every supply run came back empty-handed.

  “It’s over! We ’t hold the lihe morale of the troops shattered as the gunfire ceased. Without the stant barrage of bullets, the deafening roar of the zombie horde filled the air, reigniting old fears of the apocalypse. Memories of the early days of the end times—of terror and helplessness—flooded back, and panic spread like wildfire.

  The first wave of retreat began. “NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO RUN!” On the wall, Scott grabbed a megaphone and bellowed at the top of his lungs. His voice carried a mix of anger and desperation. “Anyone who retreats will be court-martialed! STAND YROUND!” But even as he shouted, doubt crept into his heart. The tide of death was relentless, and the liween survival and annihitiohinner by the sed. "Others are down there risking everything, fighting for their lives!" Scott bellowed, his voice raw and hoarse from shouting. "And we’re up here, hiding behind the wall with empty guns? Are we cowards?" His voice cracked as he tinued, veins bulging on his forehead. "They’ve been holding the line for so long—it’s about damn time we take our turn!"

  "But we’re out of bullets!" someone shouted back.

  "Then use knives! Use stones! Use your fists if you have to!" Scott roared, pag the wall with a fiery determination. "We are not weaklings! If those fearless people do it, then so we!" The weight of his words filled the air. "Opees!" Scott demanded. "Ah the heart to fight, follow me! We will not retreat, even if it means dying here!"

  His final cry echoed like a thundercp: "I WILL NOT RETREAT!" "Don’t retreat!" "Even if we die, we don’t retreat!" "Let’s go!"

  Emboldened by Scott’s ferocity, the soldiers began to move. Bayos were fixed to rifles, and those without proper ons grabbed steel pipes, wooden pnks, or anything else they could wield. But ce wasn’t universal. As the soldiers rallied, some broke away, retreating into the depths of the base in fear. "Forwards!" Scott roared, leading the charge.

  The gates swung open, and he and the remaining soldiers stormed into the horde of undead, their battle cries pierg through the chaos. Several mutants took the lead, cutting through the zombie tide like living ons. Even Scarlett, calm aionless as ever, wielded a bde and pushed forward without hesitation. "Are you all crazy? You’re just throwing your lives away!" Erza shouted from her position, struggling to maintain trol of the fire dragons proteg the line.

  "Better to die fighting than die running!" oant shouted back.

  "You’re beautiful, by the way!" another yelled, grinning even as he charged into the fray.

  "You—" Erza faltered, momentarily stunned by the absurdity of the ent. Then came the sound of rumbling footsteps, heavier and slower than the chaos of the charging soldiers. Behind the wall, tens of thousands of emaciated survivors emerged, armed with anything they could find—hammers, broken tools, kit knives.

  Among them were the soldiers who had fled earlier, rallying the base’s inhabitants. "Kill! If we’re going to die anyway, we might as well take some of them with us!"

  The roar of the survivors’ charge was deafening. Malnourished, scared, and desperate, they surged forward with an almost primal fury. They crashed into the zombie tide like a sed wave, an untrained, chaotic mass. Thousands fell almost instantly, but they took just as many zombies down with them. "Kill!" The battlefield desded into an y of violence. Amidst the age, the survivors and soldiers tapped into a deep, primal instinct to fight.

  From above, the se was horrifying—a roiling sea of humans and zombies tearing into each other. "Stick with the meical units! Don’t throw yourselves away!" Erza yelled, but her voice was lost in the chaos.

  For every survivor that fell, another rushed forward, their ranks thinning but never breaking. The ground turned into a morass of mud, blood, and shattered bodies. The tide of survivors looked like it would crumble at any moment. Then, the sound everyone had been waiting for. Boom! The sonis of returning Avalons split the sky. "Finally…" Erza whispered, her entire body sagging with relief. Two minutes and thirty seds had felt like ay.

  From above, twenty Avalons desded in formation, their sleek forms cutting through the clouds. The 30mm ounted on the aircraft roared to life. Streams of armor-pierg rounds rained down, carving through the horde with devastating precision. The survivors, locked in hand-to-hand bat with the zombies, heard the roar of the Avalons’ strafing runs. Then came the explosions. Zombies around them were obliterated, flesh and bone disiing in showers of blood and gore. The survivors paused for just a moment, awestruck by the destru.

  The Avalons pulled up after their first run, climbing to safer altitudes. As they asded, the rear hatches opened, and parachutes filled the air. Underh each parachute was a box of ammunition. "Ammo!" someone shouted.

  Soldiers rushed to the crates, tearing them open and loading their ons. Moments ter, the meical beasts roared back to life. Spiders and meical dogs opened fire with heavy mae guns and miissiles, creating a wall of destru. The releide of zombies faltered uhe renewed firepower.

  Finally, the Goliath joihe fray. The deep, rhythmic thunder of their 50mm ons echoed across the battlefield. Each shell annihited dozens of zombies, cutting massive swaths through the horde. With the bined firepower of the Avalons, meical beasts, and Goliath, the tide began to turn. Where moments ago the survivors had seemed like a fragile dam against an unstoppable wave, now the zombies were being driven back, falling in droves uhe relentless assault.

  From above, it looked like a miracle—the tide of corpses was breaking. But for those on the ground, it was simply the beginning of another brutal fight for survival. The Goliath, now rearmed with fresh ammunition, thundered bato the fray, mowing down zombies with meical precision. "We’ve got air support! Ha ha!" "Kill them all!"