Ann picked a small bottle which had a red liquid inside, but I pulled the trigger before she could drink it. I tried to hit her and the bottle, but I only managed to hit the bottle. One of her bodyguards put himself in front of her, and the bolts only hit him. But, in the end, he died.
You killed a survivor; You have obtained his 2007 Evolution Coins.
Ann clicked her tongue in annoyance; at that point in time, she didn’t have much time to worry about the deaths of her underlings. She only had three guards to protect her, and like always, they created a human wall in front of her. But before that, one of her bodyguards gave her another potion.
“That’s not fair guys.”
I used the vampire hunter’s crossbow again, but those three blocked all my bolts. They were probably the strongest of Ann’s bodyguards, and they had a sword, an ax, and a spear respectively as their weapons. In a direct confrontation, I would be in trouble, and I would die if Ann helps them. But I didn’t have to play by their rules. I activated the cape’s effect as soon as they charged to attack.
I drank one of those potions too, to recover my MP and heal my wounds. And just like I had expected from a top-class potion, after a single minute, my arm and leg were back to normal. But Ann also recovered herself from the damage she received. Meanwhile, her bodyguards also formed a circle around her
Ann used the fire rain to burn everything surrounding her, aside from her bodyguards, of course. The heat of the flames was even more intense than before, I was more than thirty meters away from the fire, but I still could feel the heat. I wondered how they were able to stay in the middle of that flames, but then I saw a small ice tornado around them, protecting them from the flames.
‘Very smart, but for how long can you do this?’
Probably for more time than I can stay invisible if their bodyguards give her more potions. Besides, the other survivors under her control could arrive at any moment, and I would like to finish things here before they come.
To use two spells, Ann had to use both hands to control them. She was almost defenseless in that position but finishing her wouldn’t be easy in that situation. First, I had to make her cancel the ice tornado around her, if I succeed, she will suffer a lot of damage because of the fire rain, she will have to cancel that skill too, and I will finally obtain my chance.
‘That defensive skill will activate again, so, I had to use two spiritual knives. But where should I aim?’
A wound on the neck wouldn’t stop her; I didn’t have the strength to cause much damage, after all. I had to hit the hand she was using to control the ice tornado. But I had no idea what hand was controlling it, in the end, I decided to go with my guts, I created two spiritual knives, and I aimed.
‘Here goes nothing.’
I threw the first knife on her face to scare her, and then I threw the second one on her left hand. I got lucky, I scared her with the first attack, and the second knife hit her hand, causing enough damage to make her lose focus on the skill frostbite. After just a few seconds, she also canceled the fire rain because she was coughing a lot and her clothes were on fire. Although the fire rain stopped, she put everything around her on fire. So I wasn’t able to shot from where I was. I moved to my left side a bit, and when I could see them clearly, I used the metal crossbow.
I hit the back one of the guards who was trying to extinguish the flames, the bolt hit his spine, and after the explosion, his figure didn’t resemble much of a human anymore. The other two guards and Ann also suffered some damage, but not enough to stop them. However, the explosion threw them to the flames of the destroyed jeep which they previously used. One of them died because of it; he had already suffered a lot of damage because of the crash. Ann and the other soon left the flames; the last guard used his body to extinguish the fire on her body and also used his mystical potion to cure her. After that, he dropped dead with three bolts on the back of his head.
I approached with the vampire hunter’s crossbow aimed at her face while she looked at me, showing anger and fear on her eyes. She started to craw away, but my steps were faster than her. She was really resilient, although I could see clearly the wounds and burns on her body healing, she ignored the pain like it was nothing. She was done for, Ann knew it. While she was powerful and could decimate hundreds of enemies in a few seconds, he had three fatal weaknesses. First, her greatest weapons against monsters, which was her area of effect skills, were also her weakness. She was stronger, but sometimes to kill a weaker foe, you need a single powerful skill. That was even truer when the enemy was faster than her.
Her second weakness was that she didn’t struggle as much as me. We probably faced the same initial problems, but after she received her second skill, she didn’t really put herself on the battlefield. She attacked the enemies from a safe place, and her guards and her other minions always protected her.
The last weakness, she didn’t kill me when she had the chance. Because of a single mistake, she got upset because her most useful skill didn’t work, and then she made other mistakes. I made some mistakes against monsters, but when I never underestimated humans.
“You monster!” Ann shouted while she was crawling away from me. “I finally understand it now… you will burn in hell for what you have done to me! No… you won’t go there because you are not even a human. You are just a…”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Every piece of the puzzle fell on its place, because of a single word, thanks to that word, all my doubts vanished.
“I see, now everything makes sense. Since the monsters appeared, I have been feeling a little weird, I finally understand why now. Thank you for telling me.”
Ann furiously glared at me, but before she could say or try anything, I pulled my crossbow’s trigger.
You killed a survivor; You have obtained her 74256 Evolution Coins.
Ann had a lot of HP, so, she only died after the twentieth bolt pierced her head. Before she could fall on the ground, I heard a scream.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
It was Karl’s voice; I looked behind me and saw many fireballs flying toward me. But, I easily avoided them. However, that only made Karl angrier. He stopped, and he created an immense fireball, it was the same size as the evolved mutant eagle. He was using all his MP to kill me, but it wouldn’t be that easy. He shot the big fireball, and it was faster than the small ones, but not fast enough. I avoided the massive attack, and the flames passed by my just slightly burning my skin.
‘Idiot you are going to burn her.’
I looked at the fireball, and to my surprise, Karl’s controlled the flames, and it didn’t hit Ann’s body. The fireball was making a massive curve, but its target was clear: I was the target.
‘It seems this is going to take a while.’
I remembered Karl’s skills, and thanks to it, I understood that he still had a lot of MP. He had to die too, but I couldn’t carelessly approach, he could create another massive fireball after all. I was starting to get tired because that had been a long night, so, I decided to take the easy way out.
I waited until the fireball was only thirty meters away from me, and then I grabbed Ann’s body by the neck and put it in front of me. It wouldn’t protect me from all the flames, but it would probably make Karl hesitate.
The result had been better than I had expected; Karl widened his eyes and made the fireball disappear before it could hit me or Ann’s body. Still grabbing Ann’s body by the neck and using as a shield, I approached Karl. He fell on his knees while looking at me, he was crying, and tears didn’t seem like it would stop falling anytime soon.
When I was ten meters away from him, he trembled when he looked at Ann’s face pierced by so many bolts. He idolized her so much that he couldn’t believe what I had done.
“Why?” Karl asked, showing an expression of absolute despair.
“She tried to kill me, but she failed. That’s why she is dead.”
“Why?” Karl asked again.
“She would cause too many problems for me; this world doesn’t need someone like her anymore.”
“WHY?” Karl shouted.
Karl got up and tried to attack me, but five steel bolts on his body stopped him. I didn’t aim at his head or heart, and because of it, I saw him falling on the ground, crying while still maintaining eye contact with Ann’s body. He only died after several seconds, and I observed him for the entire time until the light in his eyes disappeared, but I felt nothing.
You killed a survivor; You have obtained his 758 Evolution Coins.
The most troublesome survivors in that area had died, now we could finally concentrate on strengthening our forces, but I wasn’t sad or happy because of it. I just felt tired. So tired that I didn’t notice the remaining survivors under Ann’s control approaching. When they looked at me, I saw their eyes changing like they had become beasts. They had lost their goddess, and they would do anything to kill the responsible for it. Looking at them, I just sighed.
“As I thought, her brainwashing is still active.”
While I had one more mystical potion and another cartridge of steel bolts, I didn’t feel like fighting anymore. My body was sluggish, and my mind was kind of foggy. Besides, I didn’t have any real reason to fight anymore. I was just a…
When I was about to finish that thought, I heard the sound of some car approaching, and when I looked at the radar, I saw a small group of red dots approaching at high speed.
“So, they really came, huh.”
It was Claire, Harry, and a few others. Even though they were behind the survivors who have been brainwashed, I could hear the sound of something hissing through the air, and then one of the brainwashed zombies died. After that, I heard something being pierced; it was probably Rose.
“I guess I will have to fight a little more, or they will bother me.”
It was strange. Why wasn’t I worried about dying? I obtained so much evolution coins that I could learn my new skill, and I still could another powerful skill. Besides, they had a lot of loot. It was almost crazy to give up on that. I activated my invisibility, and then I decided to use my usual hit-and-run tactics.
Since they were basically zombies, those survivors didn’t even try to attack Harry’s group. They were only interested in killing me, thanks to it, after five minutes all of the eighty remaining brainwashed survivors had died. I didn’t even have to help; I just waited while keeping myself invisible.
When the last of them fell, I reappeared and began to search for anything valuable on Ann’s and her bodyguards’ bodies. Thanks to my actions, Harry and the others frowned. It looked like I was acting as nothing had happened.
“Um… Ethan, Are you all right?” Harry asked after hesitating.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for the help.”
“What are you doing?” Claire asked, showing a dubious face. “What happened here?”
“I’m looting their bodies, as for what happened…”
While it was the most obvious thing to do, it was visible on everyone’s eyes that they didn’t like what I was doing. I ignored their expressions and told them everything that happened since I appeared in the hotel. However, I hid some unimportant facts from them, like what Ann and I talked when we were in that dark space, and I also hid what I learned about me. It was something personal, and that information wouldn’t help them anyway.
However, they even became more surprised because I was treating that crazy and bloody event like a daily occurrence. Harry was confused, Charles, Sarah, and Sabrina looked a bit scared. Rose was astonished, Claire and Sandra looked angry.
“Did you really have no other choice but do this?” Claire asked while raising her right eyebrow. “Why didn’t you just run or waited for help?”
“I guess I could have just run, but then I would have lost the chance to diminish her army… only three mystical potions which can still be used, huh. That’s disappointing.”
“Can’t you stop doing this for a minute?” Claire said with her face red of anger. “You just killed hundreds of people, and we also killed dozens. Don’t you think we have more important things to discuss?”
I have no idea what was she talking about, so, I stopped and looked at her in the eye looking for an answer. But soon I understood why she was angry.
“Oh, right. Ann’s and her bodyguards’ items are mines, the rest of the loot is all yours. Is that fine?”