Upon witnessing the events unfolding, Lorian's face paled.
The panic instantly broke out.
The star soldiers stationed nearby weren't many and would barely be enough to contain rampaging beasts, so nobody appeared to lead the crowd.
In the uproar, people pushed each other and tens of people were injured even before the beasts struck.
- ROOOAR!!!
The black-scaled beast swept its tail and lashed on approaching 1-star soldier.
- Gah...
The tail was too fast and before the soldier reacted, deep gash had appeared on his chest. He was thrown away by impact, hitting several people in the process.
- Light the flare, intercept the beasts!
The bald soldier with thick eyebrows and stern expression roared. Even in this terrible chaos, his voice was loud and clear.
* Swoosh, spurt...
- SCREE!
With a single swing of his huge curved sword, he heavily injured flying beast in the abdomen. The beast fell before even taking off and its innards spilled out from its abdomen, which was cut open.
Unfortunately, the beasts had much higher vitality than humans. Even as these beasts were merely mortal rank and the soldiers were stronger, they wouldn't be able to kill the beasts in a short time, lest they accurately destroyed their vitals.
Also, the soldiers were outnumbered. Several beasts easily slipped past their blockade and started mercilessly massacring the civilians.
Lorian and Loki were stuck in the crowd, which constantly pushed forward. Some people ran all over each other. The pressure in the suffocating crowd and approaching doom of bloodthirsty monsters made people crazy and violent.
But in the end, they were victims. The ones who were closer to the platform were the first batch to die terrible deaths. Their limbs were torn, heads crushed, innards spilled. Children, young women, nobody was spared.
Bloodcurdling screams and pleas for help pressed on the conscience of the fleeing crowd. But there was nothing they could do...if they turned back, they would also die a gory death, none of their corpses remaining whole.
- Lorian!
Loki grabbed on his hand and pushed the crowd with his near one-star warrior strength. Using his movement technique, the duo barely squeezed through the crowd.
Suddenly, fleeing Loki felt resistance in the hand he was grabbing.
- Loki, you go, I...I'm going to help them.
His expression showed determination and Loki's face turned ugly, seeing that his friend was dead set on going back, but doing that would guarantee to become the feast of the bloodthirsty beasts.
- Are you crazy? You are too weak and will die for nothing!
Lorian wrestled his hand free from his grasp and went against the tide of the crowd.
- Move!
- What are you doing?!
- Bastard, give us the way!
The people in his path were angry and pushed Lorian around. Someone went to the extent of punching him, but his determination didn't waver. He cut through the crowd, approaching the place, where beasts were near and massacring the civilians.
Loki's face changed between hesitation and abandon, but in the end, he cursed under his breath and followed his friend.
- What's your plan? You're not going to jump in beasts' jaws, right?
Loki said as he easily caught up to him.
Lorian was overjoyed and nodded his head.
- See the soldiers barely holding their own? We'll give them a hand and break the equilibrium, allowing them to finish off the beast. We'll continue helping others to win time, allowing others to get their hands free and hunt down the massacring monsters.
Lorian hurriedly spoke his mind.
- Good, but why are we risking our lives? Nobody'll thank us, you'll see.
Loki said impassively. Lorian shook his head in response.
- There's no time for seeking reason and benefit, sometimes man's ought to do what he has to do.
Lorian unexpectedly kept his composure in such situation. Loki was honestly surprised.
- Good lad, but don't forget you're weak. I've got your back, but don't risk too much.
Lorian nodded and said.
- First, we need to avoid the massacring beasts. There's a gap to the left. If we are lucky, we can go past undetected. The platform, where the soldiers are fighting is not far ahead. Then we can proceed with the plan. Most importantly, we should absolutely avoid luring out one of massacring monsters, otherwise, the plan will go down the drain and we'll most probably be screwed.
- Got it. Let's breakthrough!
Lorian's head was in turmoil. The front which he showed to his friend was merely a facade. He was afraid, very afraid, but he had to take the initiative.
He wasn't doing this to save lives. He was far from the hero or a saint. His act, if successful would save lives, but this was merely secondary. As long as people close to him didn't die, he wouldn't be sad. It was impossible to sacrifice your life for a stranger and you wouldn't feel too sad about their deaths if you didn't have the strong emotional attachment to said people.
For example, if one heard from the news that the plane crashed and a hundred people died, he/she might feel sad for them, but won't feel heartache.
Loki must have misunderstood his intentions, but that was fine.
The fact that his friend decided to lend a helping hand in such dire circumstances deeply moved him. Now he considered him as his true friend. With his help, the danger he would face would greatly decrease, but even then, it would be really difficult for them...
The duo cut through the crowd and neared the platform. Several meters radius around the platform was littered with bloody, incomplete corpses. Some of them were still alive and moaning in pain, but they didn't have the strength to get up and would soon die too. The opened eyes of the mutilated corpses revealed their fear and resentment. The weak minded person would easily be traumatized by seeing the scene.
It was the first time for Lorian to see such bloody sight. He felt the urge to retch but barely held it down. Such a tragic and desolate scene was heart-wrenching. These were the innocent people. They didn't deserve such unsightly death!
But there was no time to get emotional at this moment. Lorian had to harden his resolve and proceed with the plan. The fact, that he wouldn't exchange his life for a stranger didn't mean he didn't feel sorrow for the innocents who died. The culprit definitely knew the content of the show and shot at the right timing, causing beasts to get out of control.
'What kind of fucked up world is this? What kind of benefit is there in killing innocent people?'
- Up!
Loki's voice woke him up from his thoughts. Seems the luck was on their side and beasts who were happily massacring the people in droves didn't bother to turn their heads and catch the two.
They went up the platform, where soldiers were fighting with the monsters.
- Let's help this one.
Lorian said determinedly. The young soldier equipped with a shield and a short sword was barely fending off against thick, black colored, brown dotted snake. Though its rank was lower than the soldier, its speed more than made up for it. The snake would at times fake the attacks, and sometimes struck for real. Its two sharp fangs easily tore through soldier's armor. Several bite marks had already appeared on his body.
The fact that he was still holding on meant that the snake was either not venomous or had a mild venom, which would constantly weaken its prey, but it would take time to come in effect.
The young soldier's face lit up as he saw the reinforcements arrive and held on more firmly.
Meanwhile, a pained shriek sounded in the soldiers' ears.
- Robin!
Instinctively, everyone's eyes focused on a certain figure on the platform.
The bald-headed soldier, their leader, who was the fiercest and strongest of them all and had already killed two beasts was now the headless corpse.
Two monsters had ambushed him from two sides. The bald leader had managed to seriously injure one of them but was caught off guard by the stealthy monster, which moved very fast, swept its claw and beheaded the leader.
Now the blood was madly sprouting from the headless leader. His body, which was standing lifelessly plopped on the ground. His head rolled several meters away.
Instantly the morale of the soldiers hit rock bottom.
- ROOOARR!!!
The monsters gave deafening howls, further scaring them. The situation turned even direr...
The signal had been sent, but the reinforcements wouldn't arrive anytime soon.
Unknowingly, everyone's heart was gripped with fear. Their attacks instinctively toned down and everyone went on defensive, fearing for their lives. Meanwhile, other beasts were mercilessly sweeping through the crowd. One or two of them had even escaped destroying other places.
Without their vigorous leaders, once bold soldiers were like headless flies, fearing for their lives.
Lorian's heart sank. The beasts had low intelligence but weren't fools. Seeing successful cooperation, they would join their hands and their momentum would rise. If this continued, then the soldiers wouldn't hold off before reinforcements arrived and the two of them would also die. He couldn't let this happen!