"Tyler?" Zane asked in astonishment. "How could you?" Zane shouted the next moment, breaking free of the soldier's grip and rushing over to Tyler. "What were you thinking? Are you mad? Why did you do that?" he said, clenching his hands angrily as Tyler twitched in confusion.

"Zane. Calm down..." Nathan, who had come running, tried to calm him down.

"Maybe we could have helped him!" He kept shouting as Nathan tried to pull him back.

"We couldn't!" Tyler was losing his patience with all of Zane's accusations. "There was nothing you could have done for him! I did the only thing we could! I saved him! "

"Zane, Tyler is right," Nathan supported him.

"But... But he was human!"

"Not anymore!" He shouted at Zane, who flinched. "It's over as soon as you get infected! Don't you understand?"

Zane calmed down and clenched his hands again, staring at the floor.

Meanwhile, Zero's gaze shifted from Zane to Asagi. "Everything okay?"

"Yes, thank you Zero," Asagi nodded. "Is it true what Tyler said?" She asked dismayed.

"Unfortunately, yes ..." Zero looked back at Zane who turned away from Tyler angrily. "I did some research myself and found nothing ... What Tyler did was probably the best option..."

Angry and full of incomprehension, Zane stomped back with Nathan to join Asagi and Zero who had gone over to the soldiers behind one of the trucks. There they waited for Tyler's orders. Tyler seemed to have calmed down and began to report from his cockpit on how to secure the entrance.

As a result of Zane's rebellion, unnoticed by anyone, something began to pulsate in the black crystal the man had left behind when he died. A violet light seemed to glow, surrounded by veins deep within the crystal.

"What's going on now?" One of the soldiers remarked as he watched in shock as the sand around the crystal began to move.

The sand moved in a circular motion towards the crystal and seemed to gather around it. Not only the sand, but also the corpses of the people who had previously attacked the soldiers for no reason were pulled towards the crystal along with the sand that had come out of the entrance.

"What is that?" asked another soldier, as the bodies and sand seemed to coalesce into a viscous mass, twisting and turning like flowing lava. Then a corpse, previously black and veined like the infected, flowed along the outside of the lump. Suddenly, the corpse opened its eyes and let out a high-pitched scream.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEE!"

The soldier screamed in shock and began firing at the lump. More soldiers immediately joined him. There were more high-pitched screams as the lump turned wildly under the hail of bullets.

"Cease fire!" Tyler shouted as the hail of bullets rained down on the screaming black lump. A tendril shot out of the lump and the unprotected soldiers standing between the two trucks were whipped down as the tendril immediately retreated into the lump, which suddenly began to move.

The lump stood up.

However, it was no longer a lump, but a seven meter tall humanoid creature standing in front of them. The creature's main body appeared to be made from one of the corpses the crystal had absorbed earlier.

The ribcage and other bones were still clearly visible within the black, muscular mass. But that was the only part that still looked human. The legs, thin compared to the rest of the body, had developed another joint. The creature had three heads, the head in the middle seemed to be that of the upper body, while the bodies of the other two heads, which sat a little below the skull to the left and right, merged into the creature's massive arms. The shape of the creature was best compared to that of an upright walking gorilla. The creature's grotesquely massive arms ended in equally massive fists, even larger than the arms they supported. Veins ran through parts of the creature's body and skull from a pulsating purple spot in the center of its chest.

The creature let out a high-pitched shriek as it stretched its arms, preparing to approach the soldiers who had previously been knocked down by the vine.

"Damn it, start defending!" Tyler yelled as he and the other ATBS and a few soldiers opened fire on the creature. After the first few hits from Tyler and the others, the creature put its hands up protectively. Its massive arms almost completely shielded its body from the bullets. But the bullets from the soldiers and the ATBS seemed to have little effect. Only Tyler's heavy bullets seemed to have any effect on the infected who had been taken down by them earlier.

Tyler's bullets tore huge holes in the creature's arms, partially piercing it. The black blood that spurted from the wounds spread across the ground, but there was no further damage. On the contrary. After a short time, the wounds seemed to close again.

"Stay away from the blood!" Zero shouted warningly at the soldiers.

"Tyler! This isn't working!" Nathan yelled, immediately assessing the situation.

"I noticed that too!" Tyler replied annoyed. "By the time I cause permanent damage to that thing, I'll be out of ammo! Damn it!"

"We have to retreat! We are not equipped for a fight like this! "The second ATBS shouted in agreement with Nathan as they continued to fire at the creature and Tyler shouted:

"Look out!" In the brief moment that Tyler had stopped firing at it, the creature had grabbed the lorry to its right and used it as a shield as it charged towards the two ATBSs that were in close proximity.

Tyler and the other ATBS barely dodged as the creature spun the truck around, hitting the second ATBS. Hit by the force of the truck, he let go of his rifle, stumbled for a moment and fell back to the ground. Unable to withstand the force of the truck's flight, the creature let go of the truck, which, after a deafening sled ride, stopped a few meters from the overturned ATBS. The overturned ATBS immediately tried to straighten up as the creature charged towards it.

"Zane, protect the ATBS!" Tyler yelled as he reloaded his cannon.

"Huh?!" hesitated Zane, who was shaking again.

"Build an ice wall or a pillar!" Zero shouted as the creature got closer and closer to the ATBS, desperately trying to reach his gun.

"Never mind!" Tyler shouted through the speakers of his ATBS, aiming the gun at the creature's legs.

"Tyler! I'll take over!" Nathan shouted, forming a rune.

The creature towered over the ATBS, which instinctively put its hands in front of it in preparation for impact. The creature raised its giant fist just before it struck the ATBS as Tyler fired a single bullet at the last moment. The armor-piercing bullet tore through the air, shattering the creature's waist and landing on its arms.

Suddenly, a ball of water floated in the air in front of the infected colossus' chest, and something inside seemed to be glowing. The next moment it exploded, releasing a huge shock wave. The explosion inside the ball of water pushed the water apart so much that it threw the colossus back, separating it from the ATBS. Due to its horizontal position, the ATBS was only exposed to a small area, which meant that it was only slightly affected by the shock wave. The Colossus, on the other hand, had received the full force of the blast and flew a few meters through the air before landing next to the truck it had smashed into the ATBS.

"Asagi, go! Fire at the truck!" Nathan shouted.

"OK!" Asagi replied immediately and in the next moment, she shot a lightning bolt from her hand at the truck, which immediately went up in flames with an explosion.

"Take cover!" Zero shouted and barely had time to warn the soldiers of Asagi's attack before they jumped for cover when the explosion hit them.

The flames of the explosion completely enveloped the colossus, which let out a high-pitched scream as it tried to sit up. Tyler immediately positioned himself between the colossus and the entrance to the hospital.

There is nothing I can do! Zero thought bitterly, the flames right in front of his eyes. His gaze wandered over the soldiers who were helping each other up; to the fallen ATBS who were straightening up; to Nathan and Asagi who had just turned the battle around. What am I doing here? He thought as Tyler pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Zero, go! Get to the hospital with the troops! "

"Tyler! We have to retreat!" Nathan shouted immediately and contradicted Tyler's suggestion while he ran back to Asagi and Zero.

"No! If we do that, it will only get worse! I called for a tank to fix this thing! You go to the hospital with the second team as planned! "

"But..." Zane started to object.

"Come on, while it's distracted!" Tyler shouted again as the colossus stepped out of the flames and his submerged body slowly regenerated. Zero and the others ran towards the entrance.

"Come on Zane!" Zero tapped him on the shoulder as he ran past.

"Team two, this is your mission!" One of the soldiers shouted, signaling the soldiers with a wave to the entrance of the hospital, where Zane and the others were heading.

"Watch out behind you!" The second ATBS yelled over his loudspeaker as he pointed his rifle in the direction of Zane and the others.

Zero and Nathan turned to see more infected, including another Colossus, approaching the hospital.

"Damn, there are more coming!" One of the soldiers at the entrance reported.

"Where are the reinforcements?" asked another soldier.

"Tyler! We have to retreat!" Nathan shouted again.

"No! We stick to the plan!"

"At least let us help you!" Nathan continued.

"You need to get the survivors out of there!" It echoed over Tyler's loudspeaker as he dodged the first colossus that came at him.

"He's right, we have to get in there and save the survivors," said the squad leader who had called the soldiers to him earlier. "Otherwise, there could be more infections."

"But Tyler!" Zane worried.

"Just go!"

"Come on!" Zero signaled to Nathan and Zane as he ran for the entrance, the hail of bullets falling on the infected behind him.

"Everyone here?" The squad leader asked as Zero and the others arrived. By now, many of the smaller infected had been mowed down by the soldiers' hail of bullets. A shot was heard in the distance. The next moment, a huge explosion ripped the shoulder of the second colossus to shreds.

"There are reinforcements!" A soldier shouted as he saw the tank and soldiers advancing in the distance.

"Captain Seaver, we're starting the evacuation," the squad leader reported to Tyler over his communicator.

"Roger that! Good luck," Tyler replied in a slightly stressed voice, still trying to keep the colossus away from the soldiers.

"Team two, march out!" The team leader ordered and the soldiers moved towards the hospital, a little hesitantly.

"Good luck Tyler! Take care!" Zero shouted.

"Stay alive Tyler!" Zane added.

"Why are you still here? Go now!"

"All the best," Asagi added while Nathan looked around anxiously and tried to ignore the situation.

"Good luck guys ..." Tyler said, his voice barely audible over the roar of battle, before the group turned to the soldiers and followed them into the hospital. "And now it's your turn!" Tyler turned back to the colossus standing before him.