The chaos erupted around them, twisting and folding the world into a nightmare neither Kazuki nor Lillian had ever seen before. The air was thick with the smell of rot and decay, the weight of the storm pressing down on them, yet nothing felt heavier than the mass of undead that surged forward with endless hunger. Each step they took felt like a desperate sprint through a nightmare they couldn't wake up from.

  Lillian's breath came in ragged gasps. She was fast—faster than most, especially with her ice abilities, but the sheer number of zombies was overwhelming. No matter how many she froze, shattered, or repelled with her icy bsts, they just kept coming, twisting, mutating, and reforming like some hellish tide that wouldn't recede.

  "Keep moving!" she shouted at Kazuki, her voice strained as she shot a quick gnce behind her. A small army of zombies was hot on their heels, and a few were even scaling buildings, their broken bodies stretching and distorting as they climbed, screeching in agony.

  Kazuki was breathing heavily, his eyes wide with that twisted gleam of excitement. His body danced around the zombies, his bde fshing in the air. He moved like lightning, slicing through the undead like they were nothing more than air. Yet, even he couldn't deny the sense of mounting desperation. They were running out of time.

  And then they reached the heart of it.

  The road ahead split into two paths. On one side, the ground had split open, a chasm of darkness reaching down into the unknown. On the other, the street was filled with a gargantuan, bloated abomination—a creature so monstrous that its presence made everything around it seem even smaller, more insignificant. It moved with sickening slowness, but its hunger was limitless.

  "Lillian!" Kazuki's voice cracked through the frenzy of sounds. He saw her struggle, her hands trembling as she froze more and more of the approaching zombies, only to have them mutate and reform in seconds.

  "I'm fine!" she snapped, but the strain was obvious in her voice. Her face was pale, her control slipping. She sent another wave of ice through the crowd, but the abomination and its zombie horde were growing too fast. Every time she took one down, two more repced it.

  Kazuki looked at the bloated monster, then back at Lillian. His expression shifted from madness to grim resolve.

  "Alright," he said, spinning his dagger between his fingers. He pnted his feet firmly on the ground. "Time to show them what happens when you mess with us."

  He stopped in his tracks, his body straightening to an absurd pose. Then, without missing a beat, Kazuki threw his arms out to the sides and struck a dramatic T-pose, his chest puffed out.

  Lillian's jaw dropped. "Kazuki! What the hell—?!"

  Kazuki, grinning ear to ear, shouted to the heavens with reckless abandon. "I'm ATOMIC!" he bellowed, as if challenging the very ws of reality. The zombies staggered back, as if the sheer absurdity of his action had stunned them.

  And then, he reached into the folds of his cloak with a flourish and pulled out what appeared to be nothing more than a rubber chicken. He raised it high, grinning like a madman. "Prepare yourselves for the ultimate chaos!"

  [Skill: Exploding Chicken Summon: D]

  The moment Kazuki muttered the words, the rubber chicken in his hand began to glow an eerie shade of yellow. It vibrated for a moment, its pstic form warping as it grew into something... more. It twisted, pulsated, and suddenly, the rubber chicken expanded into a massive, feathery beast with an almost comical aura. The chicken's eyes gleamed with an insane energy, and it squawked—an unnatural, ear-splitting shriek that sent shockwaves through the air.

  Lillian's eyes widened in disbelief. "You—what did you just do?!"

  Kazuki, still grinning like a madman, unched the now-monstrous chicken straight into the mass of zombies, its body spinning like a missile. "Exploding Chicken GO!"

  The chicken soared into the crowd of zombies, and with a terrifying, explosive BANG—the sky split. A shockwave of raw energy radiated out in every direction, turning the zombies in its path into charred bits of flesh and bone. The ground trembled as the explosion rocked the earth beneath them. The chicken itself vanished in the bst, its form disintegrating into pure, chaotic energy.

  But that wasn't all. The explosion triggered a chain reaction, setting off a series of smaller bsts around the battlefield, each one sending zombie parts flying and disintegrating the monstrosities in a shower of gore. The abomination that had been lumbering toward them staggered, its flesh torn apart by the shockwaves. Its massive, bloated body was bsted backward, crashing into nearby buildings with a deafening thud.

  Kazuki stood, still in his T-pose, looking over the destruction with satisfaction. "Now THAT'S what I call a chicken dinner."

  Lillian, who had been frozen in shock for a moment, snapped back to reality as the dust began to settle. Her face was a mixture of disbelief, exhaustion, and a kind of reluctant admiration. "You're insane… I can't believe that actually worked…"

  Kazuki tilted his head, still grinning. "Did I say it would work? That was just the warm-up. We're not out of this yet."

  And just as Lillian was about to respond, the ground rumbled again. Through the smoke, a new horde of zombies began to rise—stronger, faster, and more determined than before.

  Kazuki wiped his hands off, flipping his dagger back into its sheath. "Guess we get to do it again. Ready?"

  Lillian, though still exhausted and battered, couldn't help but smirk. "I've never been more ready to kill something in my life."

  Zexusgo