The old man began to turn his head around after hearing the voice by his ear, but it was already too late.

Josh was decisive, he already knew what he had to do since the plan began to brew between the brothers. The father and son duo were monsters, and they had to pay for what they had been doing.

He knew that by doing what he had planned, the entire island, not only the Shroo would turn against him. Probably all the other farmers would assemble their private soldiers to attack and hunt him down, but he knew what was right, and he felt the weight of the responsibility upon his shoulders pushing him to act.

He had to do it, no matter how mad his brother would get.

‘NO! What you doing?!’ Johan screamed in his mind, but that didn’t stop what he was about to do. He clutched the neck of the old man, and his claws easily penetrated the skin, muscles, and bones, quickly killing him.

The old man didn’t even have the opportunity to react or scream, it all happened so fast that the son did not realize what had just happened.

‘JOSH, STOP!!!’

He kept ignoring his brother’s shouts and went over to his second target. The younger man heard some movement and turned around just in time to see Josh's now transformed eyes in front of him.

Josh grabbed his neck before he could give any warning, and just squeezed like he did to the older man.

“Huh!” A guttural sound left the younger Shroo’s mouth, it was all he could say before Josh broke his neck.

No soldier had noticed what had just happened, and Josh knew he had to take that opportunity and act fast. He took the rare card that was in the open hand of the corpse and felt around his body to look for the cards he had. He quickly found an inner pocket in his shirt and ripped the cards off. Turning to the old man, he already knew where to look, and quickly got the cards.

He put all the cards he had looted in his pockets, just in time to hear a shout.

“ATTACK!!!” A soldier had finally sighted him, but it was already too late. Josh got closer to the edge and quickly used the handhold they had prepared to get inside the net and quickly go down.

From the now confused soldier's point of view, he had just jumped from the edge, but he knew it would not remain like that for too long.

‘What had you done?! There was no need for that, it was an unnecessary risk!” Johan kept complaining. ‘You could have died if they had noticed you!’

‘I wouldn’t have an opportunity like that again! I needed to act! I have the perfect escape plan, and the position advantage, it was obvious I had to take the shot, and it worked out.’ Josh said, silencing his brother.

After he was almost at the entrance of the cave, Johan said. ‘You could at least have told me.’

‘For what? For you to threaten to take the Reaper access from me? No way.’ Despite his good mood, Josh still had a hint of anger in his voice. ‘You would have probably done that. I knew what I just did meant, and I’m willing to face the consequences.’

‘But william…’

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

‘He will be happy for what I did, I’m sure of that.’

After that, Johan stayed quiet while Josh ran through the tunnel.

As they had planned beforehand, William would be waiting for him at a faraway meeting point. There was no reason for him to risk his life after having done his part.

Josh ran through the tunnels, the ignore wounds card constantly draining his energy to keep him walking, despite not looking like it, varius muscles had been torn, mainly on his arms and legs due to the strain of using th Reaper for too long, the sudden jump at the son in the end was what caused the most damage. He gritted his teeth and ignored the pain as best as he could. Josh knew there was no time to rest.

‘Shit! Not now!’ Tree rats appeared, they dug out from the side of the tunnels and blocked his path. He was in no condition to fight, but he just gritted his teeth and used the Reaper once again.

The closest rat jumped at him. Josh barely had time to get out of the way, earning him a wound to the shoulder, he swiftly used his claws to pierce its brain. The two others didn’t lose the opportunity, and attacked together.

Josh was in the toughest spot he had ever been, one monster from the right and another from the left. He had just stopped and didn’t have much time to move, but he noticed the rat coming from the left was aiming at his left leg instead of his upper body. He could take another wound to the leg, but having a vital organ pierced would spell his end.

The choice was easy, and he chose to ignore the rat attacking his leg and tackle the one jumping at his torse.

“ARH!!” The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt, the rat teeth easily bit through his flesh, taking a piece out of him. He could clearly hear the sound of his fleshing being ripped out as he rolled on the floor with the other one.

He used all the willpower he had to ignore the excruciating pain and dug his claws into the rat’s brain, it quickly went still, but the other one was ready to attack once again.

Josh was on the ground, and the rat followed its natural instinct to attack the most vulnerable part, the neck. It jumped at him while he was getting his hands out of the other one.

“ARHHHHH!” Josh screamed in pain as he did the only thing he could to stop it, putting his arm in the way of the attack. He felt his bone snapping, but frenziedly attacked before it could rip the limb off. He repeatedly attacked its head, punching and using the claws to attack again and again. The pain was so intense that he didn’t know when to stop and just kept attacking.

‘...Josh…JOSH!! It’s dead!’ Johan finally got his brother out of the frenzied state, the rat was now a headless corpse on the floor, the head having been smashed to a pulp, and its contents spilled all over the place.

‘Just go! Follow my voice, I know the path.’ Johan guided his brother, as he couldn’t differentiate left from right. He didn’t even pick up the mold rock card that had dropped from the corpse on the ground.

Josh didn’t know where he was going, he just kept following his brother’s voice as he walked through the tunnels. The only other thing he had the mind to do was change the energy from going to the ignore wounds card to the enhanced healing. Stopping the card effect made him stumble forward, barely being able to walk, but he knew deep down that if the bleeding on both his leg and arm didn’t stop, he would die.

‘How can he have the mind for that?’ Thought Johan while looking at the move his brother had made. ‘His instincts are better than I thought.’

The tunnels looked to be much longer than normal as if they had no end. Josh was barely going on by the time he could see the weak light shining from the entrance in front of him.

“Josh!” William shouted and ran to him, supporting his body just as he fell down. “What happened to you?! The plan didn’t work?”

“It worked…” Josh took out the last strength he had to speak. “Just take me somewhere safe, I’ll heal.”

Josh did his best to not faint. Enhanced healing wouldn’t keep its effects if he went unconscious, and that would be a death sentence.

He didn’t know where William was taking him, his vision was a blur and he could barely move his body, all strength had left him and he was in the most vulnerable state he had ever been in his whole life.

His energy was slowly slipping through his fingers, but the severity of his wounds was still there, his card was not that powerful, and he was on the precipice of death.

‘Don’t die broth-’ ‘I’m he-’

From time to time, he could hear his brother’s voice, his mind wandered on and off, just concentrating on releasing the energy he had gotten back on the card, its effects came on and off.

After what felt like an eternity of struggle, Josh couldn’t hold on anymore, and even with his strong willpower, could not keep his consciousness. His mind slowly slipped into darkness, engulfing all his thoughts.