Rosalina’s scream pierced through the chaos, reverberating through the shattered buildings like a war cry. She clenched her body fiercely as her leaf spiraled out of control, flinging her through the air until she crashed on the roof I was standing on. Due to the force of my new technique, I had unintentionally pushed my body backwards and landed on the same building.

We both struggled to stay on our feet. Rosalina’s oozy form shriveled, her vine dress coiling tightly to hold her body together. Meanwhile, the holes in my bones made me wobble until I finally collapsed, unable to stand any longer.

“Why is this…happening to me!?” she shrieked, clawing her way to the edge. “What did you do? Is this that damn…herbicide!?”

I’m sure what I did granted her a similar feeling to the effects of the herbicide, however I’d say it was a little different. There was something about the energies I had absorbed throughout the weeks I had been a zombie that gradually caught my attention the more I used and released them. Two different kinds of energy were present in this post-apocalyptic world and they were Nuclear Energy and Radioactive energy.

Nuclear energy was a lot more explosive and destructive than radioactive energy, every impact resulting in some form of explosion. Absorbing Dante’s forcefields, Kofi’s electricity, and Jesus' sword detonations allowed me to use this. Then, there was radioactive energy which I found to be a lot easier to locate as zombies and radioactive animals were filled with them. While they also exploded on impact, they had another aspect to them I found useful for this battle.

Poisoning—More specifically, radiation poisoning. And as Rosalina just found out, humans weren’t the only living things that could be killed by it.

“The…arena…I have to go,” she said weakly, taking a freaky looking seed out of her dress as the vines pulled her onto the ledge.

“Rosalina, you’re not going anywhere!” I shouted, crawling towards her.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t crawl fast enough, forced to watch the plant zombie throw itself off the roof. I had no idea what she was trying to do, but I knew Rosalina couldn’t use any plant in the ground that hadn’t sprouted to attack me anymore. I could see an enormous amount of radioactive energy from under Barclays Center and that same energy streaked under the concrete of most of the city. It was what kept the carnivorous plants alive and dangerous. Her vines and trees had also spawned from there as well.

That red, thorny seed was a mystery to me but I was sure that she had nothing left in her arsena-

“Dragon’s Blood!”

The scream shook everything in my vicinity as the buildings vibrated ferociously, bricks and other debris raining down on my back. Then, I heard the sound of…wings flapping, accompanied with a terrifying roar that was even louder than the earlier scream. To my surprise, a giant tree arose from below and shadowed over me. It was red—an unsettling kind of red that instantly reminded me of blood. Like the pool of blood that oozed out of Johnny’s head or the invisible guy’s abdomen. Unlike other trees I’ve seen, every single branch on this one extended horizontally.

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That's when I realized that the demonic tree was attached to the back of a creature. Its wings were made of wood, ominously beating against the sky and sending shockwaves through the air. The whole animal was made of wood and it stared at me with the same colorless eyes Rosalina had.

Did this girl just create a dragon with that seed!?

The tree on its back glowed a deep red as it opened its mouth. Seeing this, I scrambled toward the vines on the ledge that had torn free from her dress. But I was too late. The dragon fired a beam of dark crimson at the roof, blasting me across the city. I skidded across broken buildings before crashing into a random truck.

I lay on the vehicle covered in what I realized was blood. I was a shadow of my former self–all of my limbs had been vaporized and I was nothing more than a head attached to a torso. The last thing I saw before the blood seeped into my eye holes was Rosalina’s dragon, flying towards what I guessed was the arena. The dragon had its tail wrapped around Victoria who still had the tree in her mouth.

Did I…lose?

This question repeatedly wracked my mind as I sunk into the pool of red. The dragon didn't even come back to finish the damn job.

Maybe I did lo…No!

The thick blood seeped into my mouth and then, I felt it–an intense surge of power coursing through me, beastly and electrifying, as it spread through every fiber of my being. It was as though my body were waking from a long coma, each limb I had lost regrowing, larger and stronger than before.

Without another thought, I launched myself into the sky, rocketing towards the roaring dragon with my hardened fist aimed for the monster’s head. Its thunderous bellow split the air, but I held firm, my body enduring the shockwave as my strike connected with its chin, sending the beast reeling.

I hovered in the air and anticipated the dragon’s next move. That’s when I realized that there was something different about my body. I had thought that my rocket feet technique had shot me through the sky, but my body had flown in the air using a completely different ability. There were now wings on my body, jagged and wide like the dragon. Drinking that thing’s blood must have given me this ability, and now it was time to see who could use our wings better.

The dragon charged at me, and I charged as well. Its skull collided with my hands, and my fingers punctured its dense wood. The beast attempted to tackle me out the way, shooting bullets of blood from the unnatural tree on its back, however I kept my body firm and released energy vines from my hands to envelop its face.

Then, I threw the big sunnava bitch upwards and lodged my foot into its chest. It screamed in what sounded like pain.

“You…stupid, dumb lizard!” The voice came from Rosalina, sprawled out on the tree. “You’re not supposed to destroy him! Just capture-”

The dragon bellowed, making the plant girl jump in shock. I guess she didn’t have as much control over the monster as I thought she did. That was perfect for me. It meant I was only fighting something intellectually comparable to some random radioactive beast and not one controlled by a former human.

The flying piece of wood began to charge what I assumed to be another Blood Beam at me. In return, I opened my mouth and charged my own special attack. A couple more seconds passed and, after ignoring Rosalina’s pleas to stop, we both fired.

Our beams surged with a competitive spirit, lighting up the space between us with a bright emerald and red. It was a fiery struggle, each blast fighting to see which would disperse first. Rosalina’s voice barely registered over the deafening sound of the collision and judging from the increasing weight, we were about to reach a climactic conclu-

“AIDs!”

A familiar voice…A familiar word boomed across the battlefield and in that same second, the dragon’s body bent, the wood slowly cracking.

It was Jason. And the psycho entered the battle with a drop kick.