My Job? Weaving Armour For Undead In Apocalypse
Chapter 43: Frenzied Monsters

Chapter 43: Frenzied Monsters

"We’re going to die, aren’t we?" Fred’s voice came low and grim, a bitter chuckle escaping his pale lips.

He stood behind Tevin and Nero, the weight of dread heavy in his eyes as he gripped his bat with trembling hands.

"Tell me, why should we risk our lives to protect them?" Fred added, gesturing with a sharp nod toward the students.

They ran in a frightened cluster, herded along by Professor David’s hoarse commands. Some stumbled in their panic, falling hard on the cracked asphalt, but David was there, one-armed, weary, but still lifting them up, still pushing them forward.

Merek’s head turned slowly, his gaze falling on Fred with the weight of cold steel. "Tell me, Fred..." his voice was low. "Why should I risk my life to protect you?" His lips curled in a humorless smirk, his eyes narrowing. "You think that coward’s heart of yours will do anything when death is at your doorstep?"

As he spoke, Merek subtly invoked his skill—Incite. The invisible force of it coiled around Fred’s mind like a spark to dry wood.

Fred’s face twisted in a mix of anger and fear, the veins in his forehead pulsing as his grip tightened on his weapon.

"You said what?!" he barked, stepping forward as if his fury alone could shield him.

And yet, Merek could see it, Fred’s body tensed, but his feet rooted. Even in that moment, he wasn’t ready to charge the beasts. His spirit buckled beneath his bluster.

’Wrong job,’ Merek thought, a flicker of scorn passing through him. Whatever class Fred had gotten from the system, it was combat-based, perhaps some form of warrior but the man lacked the heart for it. A warrior without the will was as good as dead.

The ground trembled beneath them.

ROAR!

The gorillas’ deafening cries split the air, their fury shaking the ruins around them. With terrifying speed for creatures so massive, both silver-backed monsters lunged forward, hunger and rage in their eyes.

The Vulture undead sprang into motion, swords drawn, red plumes trailing behind them. Yuki led the charge, blades flashing as she dove toward the nearer gorilla. Tevin was close behind, his ragged mantle drawn tight. The cloak,.his prize from the Stage-1 Type Two rendered him all but invisible to the senses. No aura, no presence, nothing. Unless an enemy’s eyes fell directly upon him, Tevin might as well not exist at all. Not even a Stage-2 would detect him.

And beneath that shroud of vanishing, Tevin’s true terror lay in wait, a man encased in hardened bone armor, thick enough to deflect rifle fire, unseen and unstoppable.

But the second gorilla’s eyes locked on Merek, the one whose body crackled with hidden power. With a bellow, it leapt, fists raised like wrecking balls, aiming to crush him where he stood.

Merek didn’t flinch. His brow furrowed, his mind gripped tight, and with a sweep of his will, the monster was wrenched from the air, hurled sideways like a rag doll. It crashed through a building, shattering stone and steel, sending up a cloud of dust and debris.

Without pause, Merek raised his hand. The ground groaned, and the wall of the building split apart. A massive slab of concrete tore free, jagged rebar jutting from its sides. He took a step back, feeling the weight of it in his mind, spinning it around him like a great shield, its arc sweeping through the air.

The gorilla burst from the wreckage, fury burning in its eyes, its massive arms swinging down like hammers of war. But Merek was ready.

With a roar of his own, Merek slammed the concrete slab forward. The force of the impact cracked the slab, but it struck true, smashing into the beast’s chest, driving it backward, right into the hollow ruin from which it had emerged.

The walls groaned, then gave way. The entire four-story building collapsed in a thunder of dust and stone, burying the monster beneath the weight of its own battleground.

And for a heartbeat, the world stilled. On the other side of the battleground, while the Vultures and Tevin drew the silver-backed gorilla’s attention, Yuki’s form blurred, vanishing into a streak of motion as she activated Ghost Speed.

In an instant, she bypassed the creature’s monstrous reach, slipping through the gaps in its defense. Her blade flashed, a clean, precise strike carved across the beast’s chest, the edge biting deep into sinew and muscle.

Blood sprayed as she twisted, rolling clear just as the gorilla’s massive arm came crashing down where she’d stood a heartbeat before.

At that moment, Nero’s eyes glowed with fierce determination. His body trembled with exhaustion, but he forced his will to the limit. The air shimmered, and in his grasp materialized a spear of pure flame, its heat distorting the space around it.

With a cry, he hurled it with all his strength. The spear flew straight and true, striking the gorilla squarely in the wound Yuki had opened.

The spear detonated on impact. Flames roared outward in a burst of incandescent fury, engulfing the beast’s chest. The explosion hurled Yuki, the Vultures, and even Tevin backward, scattering them like leaves before a storm.

Smoke billowed into the sky, thick and black, mingling with the putrid stench of burning flesh.

Nero fell to his knees, gasping, his essence drained by the effort of unleashing the powerful Stage-1 skill.

His heart raced as he stared into the settling smoke. "Is it dead?" he breathed, hope and terror warring in his voice. "There’s no way it could still be—"

The fog of smoke parted with a terrible roar. The gorilla emerged, its face half-charred, one eye burnt blind, but the other gleaming with a pale, crimson fury. The flames hadn’t ended it, they had enraged it.

Madness drove the beast as it charged. The Vulture undead slashed at its flanks, their blades glinting, but the gorilla crossed its massive arms and barreled through them. The impact sent the undead flying, their armored forms crashing deep into the ruined ground.

Yuki’s blade flashed again as she dodged the monster’s charge, cutting deep across its knees. The gorilla stumbled, and in that instant, chains from the supposedly broken Vultures shot out, coiling tight around the beast’s legs. But fury lent it strength beyond reason,.the chains strained as the gorilla kept moving.

Tevin closed in, bone armor gleaming beneath the mantle’s tattered folds, but before he could strike, the beast’s arm swung out in a blur. The blow sent Tevin flying, his body vanishing into the haze, crashing somewhere unseen.

With a guttural bellow, the gorilla thundered forward again, smoke trailing from its scorched body. It bore down on Nero, its shadow swallowing him as it loomed above.

Nero’s breath froze in his chest, his limbs locked as terror clamped around his heart.

The beast raised its massive fist, the air vibrating with the force behind the strike. But just as the hammer-like blow fell, Yuki appeared, above it this time, sword in both hands, her face set in steely resolve.

For the briefest instant, time seemed to slow in Nero’s eyes. Then, with all her strength, Yuki plunged her blade down. The weapon drove deep into the gorilla’s skull, the hilt striking bone as the blade punched through brain and sinew.

The monster froze. Its massive body wavered, stumbling side to side as if drunk on its own death.

Then, with a final, rattling breath, it collapsed at Nero’s feet. The ground shook beneath the weight of its fall.

Nero stared at the corpse, wide-eyed, his heartbeat loud in his ears. He could feel it thudding through his ribs, his skull, wild and frantic.

From the smoke, Merek strode into view, hands stuffed in his pockets, a thin trickle of blood running down from his temple. A stray chunk of rubble, flung when the other gorilla burst free of the concrete slab in its final frenzy, had struck him, opening a shallow gash.

Merek barely spared the wound a thought. When the beast lunged at him, he’d met it with pure will, seizing it in his telekinetic grip and slamming it to the earth with all the strength he could muster.

The ground cracked, the impact thundered, but even Advanced Telekinesis couldn’t break the creature’s bones outright. It had taken everything to put the monster down.

Fred, who had frozen through the brutal battle, finally found his voice. His gaze turned to Merek, disbelief plain on his face. His throat worked as he swallowed, his words barely more than a whisper.

"You... you killed a Stage-1 beast... a-alone?"

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