The self-destruct alarm echoed through the underground passage, red light staining the concrete walls.
Leon ran in long strides toward the freight elevator leading to the lowest level, greatsword over his shoulder.
Rebecca stayed close behind, water still dripping from her vest as she checked her watch while running.
“Faster!
We don’t have time to take the long way!” Several Plague Crawlers and zombies, drawn by the explosions, were gathering around the corner ahead.
They blocked the route.
Rebecca started raising the shotgun.
Leon did not slow.
He took the hilt in both hands, not lifting with arm strength but snapping his waist and pouring the mass of his armored body into the weapon.
The black-steel greatsword rode the momentum through a savage crescent.
Its broad point swept directly across the mob.
SPLAT!
Bone and meat broke together.
Three zombies were physically smashed in half by the horizontal strike, black blood and organs painting the wall in a fan.
Feels even softer than cutting practice posts.
Leon used the recovery momentum instead of stopping.
His wrists rolled and converted the sword immediately into a vertical downward blow.
The heavy greatsword crashed onto a leaping Plague Crawler and the steel railing beneath it, smashing both apart as sparks and acid sprayed outward.
Acid struck the high-carbon-steel chest plate with an angry hiss.
Leon did not dodge.
He simply let the armor absorb it and advanced one iron step at a time through the slime.
“Could you dodge at least once?!” Rebecca shouted behind him.
“That armor isn’t going to last forever!” Leon kicked half a ruined iron door out of his path and strode into the freight elevator.
“Shortest distance is a straight line.” He planted the greatsword on the elevator floor with a dull CLANG.
“Smash everything in the way and it’s the most energy-efficient route.” Rebecca rushed in and slapped the button for the bottom level.
The elevator descended with a roar of grinding machinery.
They dropped into the lowest water-treatment core.
The space was enormous, surrounded by towering reservoirs.
A concentrated carrion stink filled the air.
A young man in a long robe stood on a high catwalk.
The resurrected James Marcus looked down at them, spread both arms, and inhaled deeply.
“I am James Marcus!
You will become the sacrifice for my reven—” he called grandly.
He never finished.
Leon did not even break stride.
His left hand snatched up a discarded iron valve block weighing dozens of kilograms.
Waist turning and arm muscles bulging, he hurled it at the catwalk with the brute mechanics of a shot put.
THUD!
A dull impact sounded.
The iron block struck Marcus squarely in the upper body.
His head and half his torso burst under the impact, the speech dying in his throat.
The ruined body fell from the height and came apart in midair into countless writhing black leeches.
“Shut up.” Leon’s voice was cold.
“Terrorists don’t get speeches.” Rebecca stared at the pile of leeches with her weapon raised.
“You don’t even want to hear what his plan is?!” “Villains die because they talk too much.” Leon pulled the greatsword upright.
“Listening to the speech only wastes evacuation time.” The leeches on the ground began aggregating at frantic speed.
Within seconds, the first form of the Queen Leech rebuilt itself nearly three meters tall.
A vertical mouth lined with fangs split open along its chest and abdomen.
Several thick whip-like tentacles grew from its back, dripping highly corrosive acid.
The tentacles tore through the air and lashed toward him.
Leon raised his left arm and took the strike directly on the high-carbon-steel armor.
Acid hissed and sparks flew.
His boots slid half a step before he fixed his stance again.
Under the rain of tentacle blows, Leon reverse-held the black-steel greatsword in both hands.
He raised the broad blade like a door in front of himself, adopting an Ox Guard from historical European swordsmanship.
Tentacles hammered the spine one after another with deafening thuds.
Strong.
Shame it’s stupid.
The creature suddenly opened the vertical mouth in its torso, trying to swallow the armored man whole.
Its giant body lunged.
At such close range, Leon did not swing.
He instantly changed grip—one hand on the hilt, the other on the unsharpened black-steel blade.
Half-swording.
The greatsword became a massive short spear as his waist and abdomen contracted explosively.
The broad point drove straight into the fanged mouth in the monster’s chest with horrifying force.
“A mouth in your stomach?” Leon braced into the steel and mocked it.
“Umbrella’s design department really has opened my eyes.” “Leon!
It’s a leech aggregate—piercing force gets distributed!” Rebecca searched the surrounding consoles frantically.
“Fire!
Leeches hate high heat and strong light!” Leon clenched his teeth and held the greatsword buried in the creature’s chest.
Using the armor’s enormous base weight, he drove both boots into deep impressions in the floor and held the thrashing monster in place like a tug-of-war opponent.
“Then hurry!
Its breath is worse than the sewer!” Rebecca seized a drum of industrial fuel from the corner and hurled it at the creature.
The container broke against its body and black fuel flooded the floor.
She raised the shotgun immediately and fired into the spill.
BOOM!
The muzzle flash ignited it.
Fire swallowed the first form in an instant.
The monster shrieked.
Its torso-mouth and tentacles writhed in the flames, and heat shock locked the aggregate into a long stagger.
Leon ripped the sword free and opened two steps of distance.
Both hands tightened around the hilt.
He sprinted briefly and jumped high, arching his body to the limit in midair while armor compressed with a low groan.
He committed everything to one vertical chop.
The black-steel greatsword fell with the force of a storm.
The burning head took the blow and the charred remains smashed into the floor in a shower of sparks.
Leon arrested the sword and released a long breath.
“Perfect barbecue temperature.
Portioning complete.” The remains burned on the floor.
Warning lights flashed faster and the mechanical countdown sounded again: “Ten minutes until facility destruction.” “Move!” Rebecca turned to find the exit controls.
Then the entire underground water-treatment plant shook violently.
Reservoirs churned and chunks of concrete fell from the ceiling.
The blackened remains were not dead.
Like a black hole, they began absorbing thousands upon thousands of mutant leeches pouring from every drain.
Dense streams of black bodies formed rivers across the floor and converged on the corpse.
Under Rebecca’s horrified stare, an ancient-looking beast several times larger than the first form slowly rose in the shadows.
It moved on four limbs, with a horrifying circular abyss of a mouth and even thicker tentacles.
Its massive body smashed through the steel catwalk overhead simply by standing.
The circular maw released a soul-shaking roar.
Foul wind blasted Leon’s blond fringe straight back from his forehead.
Rebecca gripped the shotgun with only a few shells left, fingers visibly trembling.
Leon slowly pulled the greatsword free from the concrete.
His black high-carbon-steel armor caught the weak red light as he looked up at the colossal mouth nearly touching the ceiling.
One corner of his mouth lifted into a wild, arrogant smile.
“Looks like this illegal construction project is bigger than I expected.” Leon adjusted his grip.
“Medic, get clear.
I’m demolishing the building.”