Chapter 37: 37 Flesh Ball
From the entrance, Altair couldn't see the full picture, but now, having fallen below the large gate, he finally got a clear look at the vast military base square. At this moment, it was a gigantic circular blood pool. From the entrance, it appeared to be a blood pool, but if viewed from above, one would notice that the edges of this blood pool were filled with various gaps.
This indicated that the blood pool was not sourced from outside the square, but rather was dug out from beneath the light difference below. This was not merely a blood pool on the ground; it was a blood pool that had pierced through the entire ground!
"Damn, we just walked over this stuff; it's terrifying."
Altair stood at the large gate, while Saeko was outside the entrance. Compared to the view from above, Saeko could see much less clearly from the ground, but it didn't prevent her from feeling so frightened that she couldn't help but back away repeatedly.
"Saeko, be careful! Watch your step; the ground probably can't support what's below."
"I know."
Saeko kept backing away, eventually finding herself beside a Humvee, jumping onto its roof. There was no safe place here, so she felt secure only when she was high enough, thus distancing herself from the ground.
"Be careful! There are still those guys outside!"
After Altair finished speaking, he turned his attention back to the blood pool. Originally, it looked like there was a lot of shredded meat in the blood pool, but now, numerous hands were reaching out from within, and these hands continued to extend outward.
These outstretched arms were much longer than normal human arms, at least twice the length of a typical person's arm. Once all the arms fully emerged from the blood pool, Altair finally saw what lay behind them, parts of zombie bodies were coming out, each standing at least a meter tall.
These zombies were crowded together, even intertwining their bodies. The scene looked extremely horrifying. Although these zombies had heads, they lacked eyes, possessing only a mouth that had almost torn their entire face apart. As they broke free from the blood pool, they opened their terrifying mouths, revealing teeth as sharp as a shark's.
"These are utterly monstrous creatures."
Standing at the large gate, Altair was the closest and became the direct target of these terrifying zombies. Although they had no eyes, they all turned to look at him, indicating that they didn't need eyes to lock onto his position. It was uncertain what perception they relied on, sound waves or some other sensory method.
Altair was unsure, but he needed to test the waters first. He pulled out a magic stone pistol from his waist and aimed at one zombie's head, firing a shot. The magic stone bullet transformed into a beam of light that directly struck the zombie's head, penetrating it.
However, the zombie's head merely tilted back slightly, leaving a penetrating hole. After a brief moment of stupor, the zombie began clawing and gnashing toward Altair again. Most importantly, the hole created in its head not only didn't affect it but even seemed to heal.
"It has regenerative capabilities."
Finally, a troublesome ability had emerged. The previous zombies had essentially been cut down easily, and even the parkour zombies Altair encountered upon arriving in Yokosuka would stop moving if their heads were severed.
But now, he was dealing with something different... these creatures displayed a body much taller than an average person and, lacking eyes, only had mouths. Now, with the added ability to regenerate, this was a trait typical of elite monsters.
So, these must be the elite monsters within this base. Regenerative abilities have limitations; they can't just regenerate freely. After all, the laws of conservation of mass and energy must be respected. This isn't some magical world; it's a typical post-apocalyptic crisis world.
"Then, let's try this."
Altair took out a high-explosive magic stone grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the horde of zombies. The zombies had no idea what Altair had thrown; they showed no intent to dodge and instead opened their mouths wide, extending long arms to grab the high-explosive magical grenade.
One zombie caught the grenade and immediately bit down on it.
Boom!
The magical explosion erupted instantaneously, disintegrating the zombie that had bitten the grenade into dust. The other zombies nearby were also torn to pieces by the blast.
The blood on the ground was instantly kicked up, and from above, it looked like a massive red tide rapidly spreading outwards from the center, knocking the zombies over one by one.
However, the scene after the magical explosion left Altair dumbfounded. After so much blood was dispersed by the magical explosion, he saw a gigantic flesh ball beneath. Altair knew that something horrifying, whether it be zombies or worse, lay beneath the blood pool, but he hadn't anticipated that it would be a massive flesh ball.
The zombies that had just emerged were actually just parts extending from this flesh ball. Each one had only an upper body, a mouth, and two arms. What had previously looked like zombies now appeared to be external organs growing from a gigantic flesh ball.
Of course, the zombies blown apart by the high-explosive magic stone grenade began to grow back, and the blood that had been ejected by the explosion started to flow back quickly. The most disgusting part was that the areas where the blood was pooling were precisely where the zombies were regrowing.
So, this blood was actually their supply for recovery! With this blood, they could easily regenerate.
"This method of fighting is going to be draining!"
Altair didn't want to engage in a war of attrition. He pulled out a rocket launcher instead. He fired one shot himself while Saeko fired two; there were still seven shots left in total.
However, Altair didn't plan to fire them one by one; he had designed a mode during development that allowed the energy in the magic stone cannonball to be discharged all at once... that was the real magic cannon!
He adjusted the switch to a mode that would unleash 70% of the remaining magic power in one explosive burst and aimed directly at the zombies below, pulling the trigger.
Magic power gathered at the mouth of the rocket launcher, transforming into a thick beam of light with a diameter of three meters, roaring down toward the horde of zombies below.
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