The Variant
"Gyaaaaah!"
"Kyaaaaaah!"
"Goddamn it..."
"Tsk, tsk. Would you look at that..."
Kim Minho's and Jeong Mina's screams drew pitying sounds from Kang Hanna and Jang Sangcheol. I smiled on the inside.
I couldn't help it. This was exactly what I'd intended.
The two of them were hopelessly incompetent. The moment I first laid eyes on them, I'd already pulled their information through the Third Eye.
Garbage stats, plain and simple. And vermin who'd betrayed their own companions on top of it?
Trash I could never allow into my house. I'd already made up my mind to dispose of both of them here.
If Jeong Mina had at least been striking to look at, I might have given the idea a moment's thought. She wasn't even that.
Once the zombies thinned and we had a little room to breathe, I deliberately left the support around their assigned post sloppy. That was how a zombie had managed to reach Kim Minho's ankle.
I hadn't expected him to drag Jeong Mina down with him, but it meant less work for me. All the better.
They had betrayed the group, yes — but watching people they'd lived alongside die so horribly still left something complicated written across Kang Hanna's and Jang Sangcheol's faces.
"Move! This isn't over yet!"
My rough voice rang across the barricade. The zombies were fewer, but letting our guard down was out of the question. I drove the others on and kept my eyes on everything around us.
That was when it happened.
"Th-that... what is that?"
Mr. Jang's trembling voice reached my ear. I followed his gaze into the press of zombies, and my eyes went wide.
"Shit... what the hell is that?"
A massive shape was moving among them. Easily twice the bulk of an ordinary zombie, with arms and legs knotted in seething muscle. What stood out most was the head — bone tangled and woven over it like a net.
The thing was ripping apart every zombie in its path as if they were paper dolls. It seized one in a single hand and crushed it where it stood. None of us could keep the shock off our faces.
Goddamn it! The numbers didn't drop because the clear time was getting close. They ran. They were fleeing from that thing!
Even as zombies, some scrap of survival instinct remained. They had scattered to get away from the variant.
"Graaaaaaah!"
The variant's roar shook the whole building. Everyone on the barricade flinched at once.
It burst ordinary zombies apart at random and charged straight for the second floor. A living tank.
"Wh-what do we do? How are we supposed to stop that?"
Terror got the better of Mr. Jang. He backed away, step by stumbling step.
"Graaaaaaah!"
The variant reached the foot of the barricade.
"Stab it!"
"You rotten bastard! The spear won't go in!"
At my order they drove their spears at it, but the bone plating the skull threw sparks and kicked the points aside.
"Graaaaah!"
A moment later that enormous fist hammered the barricade, and the whole building seemed to shudder.
The barricade doesn't mean a damn thing against this!
One punch was enough. I understood, all at once, that the barricade was useless in front of that thing.
The ordinary zombies were nearly gone anyway — the variant had driven most of them off. Abandoning the barricade was the right call.
"Everyone, get down!"
"What?"
"The barricade's worthless against that thing! We're better off fighting it from below!"
The second punch slammed home. Kang Hanna saw it too — in front of this monster, the barricade was no sturdier than a sheet of paper.
"Move! Get down!"
My shout carried, and the two of them moved fast.
"Hurry! Get down, sir!"
Kang Hanna yelled.
While we were climbing off the barricade, the variant's third blow crashed into it. Metal crumpled. The barricade rocked, and we lost our footing, staggering.
"Agh!"
Mr. Jang slipped and nearly went over the edge to the floor below. I snatched his arm.
"Get a hold of yourself, sir!"
"Th-thank you."
Jang Sangcheol offered the thanks and kept climbing down off the barricade.
"You got a plan?"
Kang Hanna asked once she was down beside me.
"I'll take the monster. You two handle the rest of the zombies. Watch my back, especially."
Her eyes went wide, and a small, stunned breath escaped her.
"You... you're gonna take that thing alone? You out of your mind?"
"You see another way? That bastard's on a completely different level from a normal zombie. All of us piling on would just get in each other's way."
"Be careful. Don't die."
She still looked like she wanted to argue, but in the end she nodded.
In that instant the variant's fist hammered the barricade again. Already near its limit, it came apart in a thunderous crash.
"Graaaaah!"
The variant had seen us. Its roar rolled through the building once more, and the whole structure seemed to shake.
"See you alive."
I gave her shoulder a light tap and broke into a run straight at the variant.
As the barricade toppled and zombies came spilling through, Kang Hanna seized her spear and threw herself at them.
I know this is insane. But what choice do I have? If I want to live, this is the least of what I'll have to do.
The distance to the huge variant closed, and I could hear my own heart slamming. Sweat made the sword in my hand feel ready to slip, so I clamped down harder.
"Hey, you son of a bitch!"
"Come on! I'll grind your brains to paste!"
The variant turned its head toward me. In that moment I saw the thing for what it really was — a face mashed together out of blood and meat, legs with the bone laid bare, that enormous frame, those thick arms. Fear surged up all at once. I shoved it down.
"Graaaaaaah!"
"Kh—!"
The monster screamed and came at me. Nothing like an ordinary zombie — the speed was in another class entirely. I dropped low in a hurry and slipped the blow.
"Shit..."
I muttered it under my breath.
"This is gonna be harder than I thought."
One empty swing of that fist, and I understood. The moment it connected, I was done with this world.
Damn it. I can't keep this up.
Certain now that it was nothing like a normal zombie, I forced my pulse down and started watching it.
I can't take the neck in one cut the way I do with the others. There's got to be a weak point somewhere.
My mind started turning faster than it ever had.
The neck? No. Go for the neck and I eat a fist and die. The arms? How the hell do I cut through arms that thick?
I kept watching, and its lower body caught my eye.
That left leg looks weak.
Whether it had always been that way or the flesh had simply rotted, the bone was exposed.
There. That's the spot.
"Come on, then! I'll scrape your brains out with this blade!"
"Graaaaaah!"
The moment I locked onto the target and shouted, the variant answered the taunt. That huge body drove straight at me.
The stink of rotten meat stabbed up my nose until I wanted to gag, but I held it down. This was no time to look weak.
The monster growled and charged. Faster than I'd expected — I barely twisted aside. Its arm swept over my head, close enough to whip my hair.
"Damn it!"
I muttered.
"This bastard's quicker than I thought."
The speed had caught me that time. I hadn't been able to answer it. Even so, I locked my grip on the sword again and drove in.
"Graaaaaah!"
It swung once more, but this time I was faster. I dropped low and slid between the monster's legs.
"Die!"
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The blade bit deep into the monster's leg. It howled as if the pain had finally reached it.
"Graaaaaaah!"
I sprang back at once. The thing staggered, on the verge of going down, and yet somehow it held. Watching that, I grinned.
"How's that, you bastard? So you can feel pain after all."