Return of the last survivor
Chapter 59: Battle preparations

After a hardy meal, and settling Maya into their room, Ethan wore the uniform that had been especially created for him, took his card, and headed to the 1st floor, known as the meeting room to receive his first mission.

Somehow, even the lifts worked inside this place…

Ethan was in deep thought as he made his way to the nearest lift port. Although the lifts indeed worked, to save time and increase efficiency, the lifts would only stop every 10 floors, known as lift ports. Anyone from the other floors would have to climb up or down to the nearest lift port.

After around 5 minutes of waiting, the line finally ended, and his turn to enter the lift came.

Entering the lift, he was once again reminded of the awkward silence inside the lift, and as soon as the doors opened, everyone rushed out to escape the silence.

Following the path depicted on the card, Ethan finally found the meeting room designated to team #593.

Opening the door, he found 7 people seated in rows, facing one man. Looking at the number of stars below the Merlin's sanctum symbol on his back, Ethan recognised him as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Nodding slightly, the man pointed to a seat and patiently waited for Ethan to be seated.

"Alright. Now that everyone is present, let me begin. Today's mission is not that complicated. Our scouts have found a group of specialised zombies. The problem is not that, but the fact that those specialised have reached Tier 1, and that there are commanders, and even liches within those Tier 1s. They are also within a horde of nearly 10,000 zombies. We should also take precaution and assume that the leading commander might have evolved into a general due to the large number of zombies."

"…!"

Ethan's mind went numb by the very description of this mission. Was this something level 3s and level 2s can take on? Is this a suicide mission? What the hell. Was coming here a mistake?

Such thoughts whirled in Ethan's mind.

Seeing the blank expressions on the newly promoted captains, and even some of the more experienced ones, the Lieutenant colonel decided to continue further to prevent misunderstandings.

"Hahaha. Don't worry, my team is not responsible for direct combat. We are in charge of rounding up escaping zombies and finishing off the small fry. The actual battle will be done by Teams #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #8."

"Teams #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #8!?"

All the captains in the room let out gasps. Their expression showed their admiration towards these teams.

"Yes" at this point, the man continued, "The Lieutenant General, and all the Major Generals will be participating in this fight, along with their teams. This is an incredibly large scale battle, and will take place in mid to south Brooklyn. The movement of the horde has been confirmed to be moving south towards Merlin's Sanctum. We need to completely eradicate them before they reach the bridge and cause any harm to it."

After a while of letting the present captains calm down, the Lieutenant Colonel said while leaving the meeting room, "Perhaps General Merlin might make an appearance-"

…

30 minutes later, on the other side of the bridge…

All the team Captains, Majors, Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels, Major Generals, and Lieutenant General participating in the operation had assembled, equipped with all kinds of weapons, ranging from melee to snipers.

Initially, Ethan was worried about not having armour, but his doubts were disintegrated instantly when one of his fellow captains fired a round at his chest, only to see the bullets fall to the ground, deformed onto flat coins. According to the others, the black uniform is inscribed by General Merlin's puppets to create kinetic force absorption and damage resistance. It effectively makes the clothes indestructible under Tier 1.

At this point, Lieutenant General Sean jumped onto a car and spoke, infusing his voice with mana to make it reverberate in the ears of every soldier present.

"This is an important mission. It regards the safety of the Sanctum. The safety of your loved ones. The safety of humanity. Those zombies want to make a stand against out sanctum, since our strength is growing faster than theirs. Yes. Zombies can think. For those you underestimate zombies, you will be the first to die. Specialised zombies called commander can not only think, but directly influence a certain number of normal zombies. Specialised zombies called liches can even use magic. What is even more irritating is the fact that liches themselves are indestructible. The only way to kill a lich is to go for its heart, which is can separate from its body. However, it has to keep it within 10 meters of its body in order to survive. We have also confirmed the existence of both commander and Lich Tier 1s. In addition to this, they have a large number of other Tier 0 specialised, like skeletons, ghasts and their evolved forms; Tier 1 wraiths. Lastly, we have reason to believe that the leading commander has evolved into a general."

Just as Sean was completing his briefing, a bright light shone from the colossus behind the army. The blinding pillar of light extended into the sky, with many magical runes flowing within like droplets in a raging river.