Sunlight beat down on the metallic graveyard of the Daang Hari roundabout as thirty-six soldiers dismounted into combat formation.
"Rattle-rattle!"
Company Commander Mateo Cruz signaled 1st Squad, 5th Squad, and 6th Squad to fan out across the wreckage.
"1st Squad, take the center lanes! 5th Squad, hold the left flank! 6th Squad, clear the right perimeter near the overturned bus!" Cruz commanded.
"Yes, Supreme Commander!" the squad leaders responded in unison.
Elias stood near the front fender of the KM-450 tactical truck, keeping his hand on his combat blade as the soldiers advanced.
Inside the truck cab, Maya watched through the reinforced glass, her hands nervously clutching her seatbelt.
The soldiers drew their tactical blades, methodically executing turned residents wandering between crushed sedans and delivery trucks.
"Slice!"
"Crack!"
"Thud!"
For ten minutes, the clearing sweep proceeded smoothly as dozens of standard infected were eliminated without a sound.
Suddenly, a shadowy figure moved across the roof of an overturned passenger bus along the right flank.
"Swish!"
The motion was unnaturally fast, leaping between car roofs with feline, animalistic agility!
Unlike mindless turned residents, this monster possessed a terrifying predatory intelligence, using vehicle frames to block direct line of sight.
It was an Evolved Zombie—a mutated hunter variant created by the crimson rain!
"Hostile on the right flank! Fast mover!" a 6th Squad rifleman shouted, raising his assault rifle.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The rifleman fired a three-round burst, but the Evolved Zombie dodged the incoming bullets in mid-air, leaping sideways off a van hood!
"Slash!"
Before the soldier could adjust his aim, the monster pounced onto his chest, its razor-sharp claws tearing through his Kevlar armor into his throat!
"Thud!"
The soldier collapsed onto the pavement in a pool of crimson blood!
"Man down! Man down!" the 6th Squad leader roared, opening fire. "Fire! Shoot that bastard!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Multiple riflemen opened fire as they saw their brother fall, but the Evolved Zombie scrambled underneath a delivery truck, dodging the hail of bullets with terrifying speed!
"Swish!"
It erupted from beneath the truck chassis, leaping onto a second rifleman's shoulders and snapping his neck with savage force!
"Crack!"
"Thud!"
"Dammit! Man down on the right flank!" another soldier screamed as his comrade collapsed dead beside him.
In a violent, ten-second flurry of predatory strikes, the Evolved Zombie blitzed the right flank, slaughtering six soldiers of 6th Squad before anyone could land a clean hit!
Blood splattered across shattered windshields as the surviving six members of 6th Squad scrambled backward, gritting their teeth as they covered their fallen brothers!
"Position compromised! Man down! We can't track it! It's too fast!" a rifleman yelled over the tactical comms.
Hearing the frantic shouts and gunfire from the right flank, Elias exploded into motion with 3x Peak Human speed!
"Boom!"
Elias's boots shattered the asphalt beneath him as he sprinted across fifty meters in less than two seconds!
He leaped over the hood of a crushed sedan, arriving at 6th Squad's blood-stained position just as the Evolved Zombie pounced toward a seventh soldier's face!
"Grrr... Raaagh!"
The monster snarled, its elongated claws extended for the kill!
To the normal soldiers, the beast was an unblurrable shadow, but to Elias's 3x enhanced perception, its mid-air trajectory moved in slow motion!
Elias stepped inside the monster's leap, reaching out with lightning reflexes!
He seized the Evolved Zombie by its throat in mid-air, his crushing 3x physical grip locking around its neck like a steel vise!
"Choke!"
Before the monster could claw his face, Elias slammed it face-first onto the hood of a crushed taxi with bone-shattering power!
"Boom! Shatter!"
The violent impact crushed the taxi's engine hood and shattered its front windshield into thousands of glass fragments!
"Raaagh!"
The Evolved Zombie thrashed wildly, its razor claws scraping uselessly against Elias's tactical forearm guards, but Elias held it pinned with absolute physical dominance!
"Not fast enough," Elias said coldly.
Elias drove his tactical combat knife straight down through the center of its skull, driving the blade deep into its brainstem!
"Squiggle... Squelch!"
The Evolved Zombie twitched violently for two seconds before its limbs went limp, black blood pooling over the crushed taxi hood.
"Ding!"
[ System Notice: Low-Mid Tier Red Core (Hunter Class) Harvested! ]
[ Equivalent to 10 Low-Tier Red Cores (10 Red Cores Absorbed)! ]
[ Total Red Cores Vault Balance: 700 Red Cores ]
Silence fell over the right flank of the Daang Hari roundabout as Company Commander Cruz and the surviving soldiers rushed to the scene.
The surviving riflemen of 6th Squad immediately dropped to their knees beside their six fallen brothers, holding their gloved hands with tears mixing with the sweat on their faces.
"Dammit... Brother..." a rifleman choked out softly.
Company Commander Cruz stood beside Elias, his head bowed as he snapped a heavy salute to the six fallen soldiers.
"Supreme Commander... 6th Squad lost six men today," Cruz reported softly. "They died covering each other."
Elias wiped the black blood from his tactical blade, looking down at the six fallen soldiers with a grim, heavy heart.
"Gather their dog tags, and carry their bodies into the back of our convoy vehicles," Elias commanded.
"We leave no man behind. They will be buried honorably inside the fortress walls of Bilibid."
"Yes, Supreme Commander!" Cruz and the surviving riflemen responded in unison.
The soldiers carefully wrapped their fallen brothers in heavy tactical tarps and lifted them into the rear cargo section of the HiAce van.
Elias turned back toward the blocked roundabout, looking for a way to clear the massive pile-up of cars and buses.
On the right shoulder of the road, parked near a DPWH roadwork zone, sat a heavy yellow DPWH backhoe excavator.
"Cruz, ask the men if anyone knows how to operate heavy machinery," Elias instructed.
"Calling all units! Any operator certified on heavy engineering equipment?" Cruz called out over the tactical comms.
"Supreme Commander! I have heavy machinery operator experience from my engineering unit!" a rifleman from 5th Squad reported, stepping forward.
"Get in that excavator and clear us a path through this roundabout," Elias commanded.
"Yes, Supreme Commander!" the rifleman saluted, sprinting to the DPWH excavator.
He climbed into the high glass operator cab and turned the heavy ignition key.
"Rumble... Vroom!"
The massive diesel engine roared to life with a deep mechanical thrum!
The soldier grabbed the hydraulic control joysticks, swinging the heavy yellow boom arm into position.
"Crash! Metal-crunch!"
The heavy steel excavator bucket smashed into the wrecked sedan pile-up, shoving crushed commuter cars and overturned tricycles off to the side of the road!
With powerful hydraulic thrusts, the excavator shoved aside a jackknifed delivery truck, creating a wide, open single-lane path straight through the roundabout!
"Path cleared, Supreme Commander!" the operator reported over the comms.
Elias looked at the massive steel machine, nodding with tactical foresight.
"Don't leave that machine behind," Elias ordered over the radio. "Bring the excavator with us to Bilibid."
"Even if it's slow, we're going to need heavy engineering equipment to build earthwork barricades and fortify the prison defenses."
"Understood, Supreme Commander! I'll rumble right behind the convoy!" the operator replied enthusiastically.
Elias walked back to the driver side of the KM-450 tactical truck, getting into the cab beside Maya.
"Convoy, move out!" Elias commanded into the vehicle radio.
"Vroom!"
The Kia KM-450 tactical truck, Ford Everest SUV, Toyota HiAce van, and heavy DPWH excavator rolled forward through the cleared roundabout lane, accelerating straight down the final stretch toward New Bilibid Prison!