Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”What about you, Henry?” Ethan asked, turning to him.

Henry sighed and shook his head. ”Guess I’m just destined to be support. My new Stage C skill is a Light-type ability—Divine Shield.”

”It’s kind of like Miles’s, but not the same. This shield’s strength scales with how much mental energy I put into it.”

”I don’t know the upper limit yet. We’ll test it later.”

”And I can cast it on myself or on any of you.”

He continued, a little more animated now. ”Also, my Healing-type ability evolved. I got group healing—if you’re within ten meters of me, I can heal all of you at the same time.”

Ethan’s eyes lit up. ”Nice. That’s huge. With you having that, everyone’s a lot safer.”

”Exactly.” Chris laughed. ”Henry, your skills are way better than raw damage. My life’s in your hands from now on.”

”Everyone else, maybe.” Henry rolled his eyes. ”You? No.”

”Why?!” Chris clutched his chest dramatically. ”All these years together—was it all a lie?”

”Give me a break.” Henry looked genuinely offended. ”You’re a damn ghost half the time. The second you go invisible, I can’t even see you. Where am I supposed to put the shield?”

”…Uh.”

Chris deflated. ”Okay, yeah. Fair.”

”Chris, you really won’t get much use out of Henry’s Divine Shield,” Ethan said, amused. ”If he does manage to slap it on you, it might even interfere with your invisibility.”

Then he looked at the next person. ”Sean. What about you?”

Sean’s face lit up, barely containing himself.

”My new skill is nasty,” he said, voice rising. ”From now on, I’m the team’s tank. Garrick’s officially retired.”

”Oh?” That got everyone’s attention. ”What skill?”

”Thornmail.”

Sean thumped his chest. ”It forms an armor layer around me. It not only blocks more damage—it also reflects part of the damage back.”

”Holy shit.” A few of them stared at him. ”That’s insane.”

Ethan leaned forward. ”How much does it reflect?”

”About thirty percent.”

”That’s still huge,” Ethan said, nodding.

”And my metalization ability evolved too,” Sean added quickly. ”Now it can cover my whole body. With that plus Thornmail, I think I can tank attacks from a Tier 15 powerhouse without a problem.”

”Damn.” Ethan laughed. ”Yeah, looks like we really can swap tanks now.”

Sean turned and shot Garrick a smug look. ”Well? From now on, I’m Fallen Star Squad’s number one tank.”

”Tch.” Garrick rolled his eyes. ”If you wanna be the meat shield, go ahead. You think getting hit for a living is fun?”

Being the tank meant eating the nastiest hits. If someone else wanted to take that job, Garrick wasn’t about to cry about it.

Ethan shifted his gaze to him. ”Alright, Garrick. What’d you get?”

”My new skill’s support too,” Garrick said. ”Suppression Field.”

”It slows enemies within a hundred and fifty feet of me. How much it slows depends on how strong they are.”

”If they’re weaker than me, I can practically pin them in place. If they’re much weaker… I can even crush them outright.”

”If they’re stronger, the effect drops off hard—the bigger the gap, the worse it gets.”

He did the math out loud, practical as always. ”Against another Tier 14, it should be over fifty percent. Tier 15, maybe around thirty. Tier 16, not much—ten percent if I’m lucky. Above that, it’s basically useless.”

”That’s still good,” Ethan said. ”Speed matters in a fight, especially against high-Tier opponents. Half the time you can’t even touch them. A slow like that is clutch.”

Garrick nodded. ”Yeah, I’m happy with it.”

”And my Innate Ability evolved too. Rockfall turned into Meteor Storm—I can drop over a hundred meteors at once now. The power and the area both jumped a lot.”

”Holy shit!” Big Mike’s eyes went wide. ”So you’re gonna clear zombies faster than me now?”

Back in Clearford City, during that million-zombie tide, Garrick losing to him had made Big Mike unbearably proud. He hadn’t expected Garrick to turn around and unlock a straight-up mass-delete.

And just from the name, it sounded even nastier than Big Mike’s Rain of Flames.

”Damn right,” Garrick said, grinning. ”Next time we run into something like that, I’m not losing to you again.”

”Man, that’s not fair!” Big Mike groaned.

Ethan cut in before it turned into a whole thing. ”Quit whining. Big Mike—what about you?”

Big Mike’s face darkened like someone had ruined his entire day. ”I’m suffering, okay?”

”When I hit Stage C, my new skill was Speed Boost.”

”It’s better than Sean’s Stage D speed increase—mine’s fifty percent—but it’s still useless for me. I fight sitting on a flying mount most of the time. Speed boost for what?”

”And my Innate Ability evolved too. I got Immolation Aura—a ring of fire around me that damages anyone who gets close.”

He looked personally offended by his own powers. ”But the worst part? It doesn’t care if you’re friend or enemy.”

”If I’m sitting on Nugget, how the hell am I supposed to use it?”

”So basically, if I’m fighting from Nugget’s back, both of these skills are dead. Might as well not exist.”

Ethan chuckled. ”Or… you could try not fighting on Nugget all the time. Those two skills actually boost your survivability a lot. I’d call that a win.”

”Don’t rely on the flying mount so much,” he added, voice turning more serious. ”Against real monsters, being on Nugget’s back might actually limit you.”

Big Mike sighed. ”Yeah, I get what you’re saying. I just… love fighting on Nugget. I can just drop Rain of Flames from above and not worry about anything else.”

”That’s exactly why your actual combat ability isn’t keeping up,” Skinny Pete said bluntly. ”From now on, you’re not riding Nugget in fights.”

Big Mike jerked. ”What? No—come on!”

”It’s decided.” Ethan didn’t even blink. ”Outside of travel, he doesn’t get to ride Nugget during combat. Nugget can fight on its own anyway.”

Big Mike went silent, looking like he’d just been sentenced to hard labor.

”Skinny Pete, what about you?” Ethan asked, turning to him.

”I got a new skill too,” Skinny Pete said. ”Finally something with some crowd control. It’s a wind-type ability—a Tornado.”

”I can form a tornado in an area. It damages everyone inside, and it also drags them in, makes it hard to break free.”

”Of course, whether they can resist the pull depends on their strength,” he added. ”If the enemy’s too strong, they can brute-force their way out of the tornado’s range.”

Ethan nodded. ”Nice. At least you’ve got another heavy-hitting option now.”

Then his smile turned a little sharper. ”But I’m more curious about how your Innate Ability evolved.”

Skinny Pete looked pretty pleased with himself. ”Beast Control got stronger in terms of control, but it also gave me a new function—I can communicate with mutant beasts now.”

”Like… I can understand what they’re saying.”

Ethan’s brows lifted. ”Is that communication only effective on the mutant beasts you control, or on all mutant beasts?”

”All of them, obviously,” Skinny Pete said like it should’ve been self-evident. ”The ones I control, I can already communicate with mentally anyway.”

”And it might not be limited to mutant beasts,” he added, hesitating as he thought it through. ”I think it could work on other species too, because it feels like I’m picking up what they mean through mental fluctuations—like intent.”

Ethan’s eyes lit up. ”Oh?”

”If that’s true… that ability’s going to be insanely powerful.”

”Yeah.” Skinny Pete grinned, clearly delighted. ”That’s what I’m thinking too.”