Artak and D circled each other. Both has fierce looks in there eyes. D was waiting on his opponent to make the first move. He liked to let who he was fighting think they had the upper hand. It worked in many fights in his life. D also knew nothing about the mana Artak could use. D had a sword which gave him more reach. D flinched forward and the fight was on. Artak tried to come in quick and low slicing one dagger towards D's left leg. D was able to dodge and spin around to fake Artak as he swung his other dagger towards D's rib cage. D let the blade sweep across his chest armor. It did not damage. D was getting confident. He pretended to dive forward towards Artak. Artak reacted again. Trying to come in low and slash for D's legs again. This time D read the move like an open book. He side stepped so the blade would miss by a hair and planted his foot right into Artak's face. It was a brutal kick. D could have easily used this moment to capitalize and finish this here and now. Problem was D had already decided to crush this mans spirit before finishing him off. He allow Artak to stand and regain his bearings. The man looked pissed. Probably the first time he felt outmatched, or the first time he couldn't inflict any damage. Artak glanced at Erik and suddenly they both dove for D.
D could see both men diving for him but from the corner of his eye he could see Dave flying in mid kick. Dave's boots were fuckin awesome so whoever he kicked was going to be in for a world of hurt. Right as Dave was about to land his kick on Erik, D and Erik magically switched places.
*BOOM* Dave accidentally landed a solid push kick right into D's chest. Dave's eye's went wide what the hell just happened. Erik must have some type of swap skill or switch teleport skill. He must be able to utilize shadow mana like Rob. D was hurting from the kick to his chest he could taste blood in his mouth.
Artak and Erik were grinning like they just won the lottery. D had enough of this bullshit. It was time to get serious. He knew when he took damage in combat he could dish out more. He forced some Void mana into his fast and leaped for a superman punch. Artak was shocked by the quick movement. Even more he seemed to be staring at D's fist. A fist so black you couldn't really see it. "Watch out!" Erik yelled out. It was to late. When D's fist landed Artak head just turned into a mist. There was no gore no bone fragments, nothing. Just one second he had a head the next there seemed to be mist of red in place where his head had been.
Artaks body dropped to the ground lifeless Some Exp flooding into D. Erik was still in shock. The Crew wasn't sure about this mans class or his mana but that swap places skill made him dangerous.
Rob decided he would take him out before Erik knew what was coming. Rob used Shadow Blink and was behind Erik in an instant. Rob had his bow already drawn back mana arrows at the ready. Rob thought to himself "I'd like to see you stop this". At point blank range Rob shot the arrow into the base of Erik's skull. It all happened so fast he must not even have known what happened. Erik's body dropped forward, his face hit the ground before the rest of his body.
The group of people with Artak and Erik all gasped. Dan and Joe came out from behind Dave, Rob, and D. They had their weapons at the ready. Suddenly a women spoke up. "Please don't hurt us. My name is Ana were not really with them. They basically captured us on the way here."
"Yea said one of the men. My name is Ralphie. We had tried to fight back. They were just to strong. They would beat us if we didn't do anything they asked."
*Ding* Settlement challenge complete. For maintaining control of your settlement you have been awarded 3000 settlement points.
"So there is a way to upgrade the walls and stuff and gain more points." D said
"What are we going to do about all of them?" Dave asked.
"Not sure yet. Well have to check them for weapons. Hold them somewhere safe until we figure out if we can trust them. They look to be in rough shape." D said
"How about we let Gina ask them some questions. She will be able to tell us if they have any bad intentions and if there story is the truth." Rob said
"Good idea." D turned to face the 12 ragged looking people. He wasn't sure if there was a sleeper in the mix someone who was a true friend to the men they had just killed. Before he would allow them to become part of the settlement he had to be sure. "Listen if you have any weapons drop them now. If your found to be trustworthy you will be allowed to stay if not you will thrown out. If you try to hurt anyone here the punishment will be severe."
The group nodded as a whole. The first women to speak Ana was standing close to a rather pretty women. She had dark hair and dark eyes. D was taken back by her beauty but also the calmness she showed. He felt bad for singling her out but he wanted to know her name. He used IDENTIFY on her. She was level 1 her name was Tiffany. D was going to try and talk with her later.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
D wasn't sure if the days were getting longer or if it was just in his head. They couldn't really see a sun. Still for it being just a few days from this all happening it was starting to feel like a life time. He guessed living moment to moment with violence or death around the corner could do that to you.
They moved the new group close to the town hall. They were all low level. No one seemed to be wanting to fight. They would send them in one by one to talk with Gina. If things worked out they would be allowed to stay. More mouths to feed. Also more people to help maybe. The Crew had always looked out for themselves, but they weren't ready to turn there backs to humanity.
Rob and Dave went to go check on Mike. When they arrive at the barracks, Mike was looking a lot better.
"What up Mike. Long time no see how the hell did you end up around here?" Dave asked
"I just got a new job in the city I was driving to work and stopped to grab coffee. Then the damn message popped into my vision. I didn't know what to do but I went back towards the old neighborhood to just look for anyone I knew. It was so hectic I gave up. My phone wouldn't work so I just waited for it to end."
"That's rough man glad you've made your way here though. We could use your help we need all the people we can trust right now." Rob said
"What's your class and mana Mike?" Dave asked
"That's the thing I have a class but I don't technically have mana. Well I do in not sure. My class is called Borrower of Change. I don't really have mana because I can only use the last mana I was hit with as my own until I'm hit by a different type. It's an uncommon class." Mike said
"Well that could be great but also be terrible." Rob said "You could borrow a really strong mana but what if you get hit with a heal now you can't attack."
"That's how I got messed up getting here. None of the monsters had mana and I had to fist fight or run to make it here." Mike said "You guys are all still hanging out together I see. Man it's so crazy to run into you all but I'm glad. All the crazy stuff we did as kids, I still tell those stories today."
"Yea we had a wild life, but the futures looking crazier then I expected. We just had an influx of people. You feel good enough to come over to the town hall. We gotta show you around, get your level up." Rob said
"Hell yea I am. I'm not going to be of use just staying here. I feel fine now. I owe Dan and that girl a lot for helping me." Mike said
"No worries let's go see how these new people are panning out." Dave said
The three of them left the barracks to walk over to the town hall. When they walked outside they noticed Dan and Joe bringing a group over towards them.
"These people here were captured by those two assholes yesterday. Gina said there stories checked out. I was going to let them sleep a bit. We need to do something about food though." Joe said
"I'll talk to D see if he wants to go out for another hunt or if we're going to send out some people. Might as well make use of the new helping hands." Rob said
"Excuse me!" The girl Ana said. "I've been trying to tell anyone who will listen I can help with that. I can control plants. My class is called Earthen Witch. I know it sounds bad but basically I have Earth mana and can control the growth of plants."
"Well damn that will be a huge help really. Do you need seeds to start them or anything." Rob asked
"No I had a real green thumb before this all happened I was able to grow an apple tree with my mana to feed us a few times as we were marched over here. I just need some soil and time to get to work." Ana said
"Mike take her towards the gate. I'm going to find D and Dan see what they want to do. Maybe we can get some crops growing ASAP. Then we could hunt less and still have some food on hand." Rob said
Joe took the rest of the people into the barracks to get some rest. Rob and Dave were walking back towards the town hall to inform Dan and D on how the food situation was about to be less of a burden.
Mike was walking Ana towards the gate. "How do you know these Men? They seem to trust you?" She asked
"Well we kinda grew up together. When we were kids we would all meet up to hang out. We went to the same elementary school. My older brother was in their class. As we got older, we kind of formed our own click. We would have each other backs. We lived in a shitty part of the city. Someone was always trying to mess with someone else. You didn't have to find but that would make you a target. D and Rob are brothers, Dave has been there best friend since first grade. I knew them before they met Dan but I know him too. We've been in some pretty crazy fights in our lives. D once wiped out a house of college kids when he was only 16. Rob once hit a kid so hard it put him in a coma for 3 days. Dave doesn't take shit from anyone. Once your apart of the group they would have done anything for you. I was just lucky enough to be a true friend rather then an enemy." Mike said
"So basically you guys were like a gang?" Ana asked
"No not really I mean we were out own thing. There were gangs we didn't have bandanas or anything like that. People just knew it was a mess with one of us mess with all of us type thing. It made us all safer. I'm not an angle I've been by there sides fighting and had a lot of my own fights. I'm just glad we've met up during this whole mess. Once you get to know them you'll see." Mike said
"Well they are already treating us 100 times better than Artak and Erik did. So I'd say it's all going to work out I hope." Ana said
"I'm sure it will, if anyone's going to do great things in this mess it's those nut bags." Mike said with a laugh