Doomsday Pillars

"I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends…They're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights."

- Warren G. Harding

In a battlefield, especially the chaotic one, discipline is paramount and may be the element that can determine the difference between your life and death.

"Goddamn it! These bunch of newbies! They can't even follow a simple order!" The captain clenched his fists and cursed as he saw the young men break away from the formation and dash toward the barely visible civilians.

It was normal for some new recruits to disobey orders. After all, two thirds of the battalion were just civilians who had recently been trained in the army. So they haven't gone through any disciplinary training, which aims to always follow the orders of their leader.

One of the captain's close attendants approached him..

"Should we keep firing, captain?"

The captain was silent for a moment, he was now in a difficult position. If they kept shooting then the 4 soldiers that ran forward could die from stray bullets. Meanwhile, if they stop their shooting, the zombies will get closer and closer. It was truly an adept description of being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Gritted his teeth, the captain then said. "Fricking hell! You! Take your unit and follow me!" He said pointing to one of the soldiers. "Everyone else, cover fire!"

A barrage of bullets could be seen flying in the air as the soldiers fired their guns, creating a clear path for the captain and his men to rush forward. Others continued to cover fire from the sides as the team charged forward, ensuring that they were not surrounded by the zombies.

The captain then rushed to the war zone which was covered in a lot of smoke from the explosion. They continued their progress with unstoppable momentum while killing all the zombies before their eyes. 

To his surprise, the captain still couldn't find the 4 young soldiers even after they had walked more than 200 meters. Suspicion about the strange situation began to grow in his heart.

As thoughts of retreating appeared in his mind, he then noticed the civilians screaming for help 100 meters in front of them. Even though he was suspicious of the whole situation and still worried about the situation of the four young men, the captain decided to approach and save the civilians first.

However, just as he and his team were about to approach the civilians, the smoke around them started to dissipate at the same time, allowing them to see their surroundings. To his horror, he could see that the four young men were dead, mutilated with their body parts strewn all over the ground. Meanwhile, the civilians were seen standing there still alive with their legs cut off.

When the captain saw their current situation, a terrifying thought flashed through his mind, a thought that made chills ran down his spine.

'There is no way these zombies are using bait!? How could these zombies be able to use bait tactics?!' 

Realizing the situation, his face turned pale as he quickly turned his back. 'Fallback!! Fallback!!" He frantically screamed. However as they retreated, they were suddenly surrounded by dozens of black zombies.

The group swiftly switched their weapons and took out their artifacts, as firearms would not be able to do anything in a besieged situation like this. If they insist on using firearms, there is a higher chance of friendly fire than hitting zombies in this difficult situation.

Several tier 1 and tier 2 artifacts can be seen in the group's hands as they start attacking the black zombies. Although tier 1 and tier 2 artifacts could not inflict fatal wounds in a single hit against a stage 3 zombie, it was still sufficient. They continued to attack the black zombies while retreating towards the formation at the same time.

But just as they walked back a few steps, the captain was shocked and sweats started to trickle down his face when he saw a white figure among the black zombies, the white zombie. A stage 4 zombie that is hard to beat even for the Sky realm Knight fighters. And with his Earth realm strength, he definitely won't stand a chance. 

 With all the strength his throat could muster, the captain shouted. "RUN BACK!"

The captain knew that they won't be able to outrun this stage 4 zombie if someone didn't stall it. Therefore, he decided to fight the zombie to give his soldiers time to retreat. "Everybody, run back while I stall this monster!" said the captain aloud.

The stage 4 zombie ran towards the captain due to his earlier scream, he then frantically swung his tier 2 weapon at the incoming zombie but unfortunately the attack only left a faint scratch on its body.

Looking at the huge white figure in front of him that seemed like an unshakable mountain, the captain could only sigh deeply at his powerlessness. 'I couldn't even stop this monster for half a minute.'

BAM!

A loud sound rang through the air as the white zombie clapped both its hands on the captain's head. Leaving the captain's headless body slowly fell to the ground, dead.

"SH*T!" "CAPTAIN!" "F*CK!" "NOOO!!!"

Various screams and curses were heard as the soldiers saw their captain die under the hands of the white zombies in seconds.

"Die! you motherf***er!"

The soldiers who were closest to the captain and directly saw this terror immediately attacked blindly. Unfortunately for him, not a single bullet was able to penetrate this stage 4 zombie's thick skin and could only helplessly fall to the ground with a clink. The furious action of the soldier, let alone injuring the white zombie, instead caught his attention.

The previously enraged soldier suddenly came to his senses when he saw the bullets do nothing to the zombie. His face turned pale in an instant. He then screamed hysterically.

"Monster!! Monster!! Someone save me!!!"

The stage 4 zombie turned towards the soldier and its feet immediately stomped the ground, creating a spider web like crack as he leaped into the air towards the panicked soldier. The zombie slammed its body against the soldier, knocking him to the ground with a severe rib cage wound. It then began to swing its hands, using its claw-like fingers to rip apart the soldier's body while the man screamed in pain and asked for help.

The other soldiers who were still shocked by the captain's sudden death woke from their shock when they heard the poor soldier's plea for help. They hurriedly dashed back towards the defensive line in fear, using every energy they had to reach it. But unfortunately, only some of them made it back, while the others were torn to death by the zombies.

The others who could not see what was happening due to the thick smoke covering the battlefield were puzzled by their behavior.

"Dude, what happened? Where is the captain and the others?" asked one of the soldiers

Hands trembling, pupils dilated, the soldier who had already fled said frantically. "The captain is dead !! Shoot! Hurry up and shoot at the smoke or we'll die!! "

The others were startled when they heard his words, but they quickly aimed their rifles and started firing.Tanks and artillery that were ready in position, immediately returned to fire the bullets in succession

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

They stopped their fire after the third volley and went to observe the battlefield. As the smoke slowly dissipated and the scattered sands floated to the ground, the soldiers on the line could finally see the figures of the several silhouettes they saw behind the dissipating smoke. A white zombie stood there with tens of black zombies and hundreds of red zombies behind it with ferocious expressions on their faces.

The soldier's face turned pale with some of them directly fainting when they saw the terrifying line up. Rockets from tanks and artillery were not enough to finish off the white zombie and its lackeys, and could only injure them slightly.

The white zombie was about to dash into the line of soldiers, intending to destroy the defensive line when suddenly a large copper ax flew through the air and fell right in front of him. Followed by a military clad figure with an insignia of 1 crown and 2 stars.

Seeing the ax and the figure, the spirit and will of the troops burned again. The reinforcement who was present this time was the famed Colonel Angus. Even though he was only a Sky realm Knight, he was the only colonel who was always at the forefront of every battle. Therefore, he had reached the middle stage of Sky realm Knight.

Colonel Angus immediately intercepted the white zombie while the soldiers continued to fire their rifles and attack the zombies that were nearby. The battle between the Colonel and the stage 4 zombies was fierce, with him nearly losing parts of his body many times if he wasn't careful.

But thanks to the tier 3 artifact [Cupriferous Ax], Colonel Angus managed to defeat the white zombie with one timely horizontal slash on the zombie's head while he received minor wounds from the zombie's retaliation. He then quickly helped his soldier to clean up the remaining zombies, annihilating them without mercy.

"Close the ranks!" Colonel Angus said as he cleaved the last zombie, signaling the end of the battle.

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Written and Directed by Avans, Published by NovelFull, 

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