"No! Don't lie, Cayden!" Nena emotionally cried as she continued to shake Ina's listless body. "Ina...come back...please...you can't leave…" Despite what she said to Cayden, in her mind, she knew that what he said was the truth.
But her heart refused to accept it and continued to weep bitterly. Cayden wasn't feeling any better seeing Ina's ghastly corpse, making his eyes well up with warm tears.
Even though he knew that lots of people die to these Dreadlings every day, he and his friends had never personally lost someone close to them due to the protected environment he grew up in.
He remembered the happy times he and the others shared with Ina and how they all made promises of growing stronger together and waiting for each other to become a Dreadslayer.
Now, they had finally killed a Dreadling for the first time in their lives...but at a great cost that could never be recouped for.
Cayden being the eldest of them all, couldn't help but loathe himself for not being able to save Ina in time. His knees sunk into the ground as he lifelessly stared at the ground, not knowing what he should do.
Never in their life had they thought of losing their close friend, especially not today, just when they all were having fun a while ago.
Arion, who was a few meters away and had already got up in his wheelchair, felt complicated seeing Ina pass away since he felt that she wouldn't have died hadn't it been for them trying to protect him.
They could have simply used him as bait to run away...at least, that was what Arion expected because of what he experienced in his previous life.
But seeing how they put their lives at risk for someone like him, he couldn't help but feel guilty and grateful towards them at the same time.
That was why he was feeling regretful that Ina passed and a bit sad since she seemed like a nice person.
He was also a bit surprised at himself for feeling such strong, complicated emotions since, in his previous life, he would have felt the same feelings but not to this extent.
Arion didn't know whether he should try to console them or not. But finally decided to let them have some space, thus stayed in the same spot as he looked at the three.
One kneeling on the ground with a broken spirit, feeling anger and self-loathing; the second weeping after having her heart shattered, seeing the death of her best friend...the third lying on the ground in an unconscious state after passing out from intense pain.
Arion knew that these youngsters had never undergone any tragic event in their lives before, thus making it hard for them to accept the tragedy that happened.
He remembered being in the same situation when his foster parents got murdered, and he couldn't even recover from such a shock for a long time.
It was his circumstances and his situation that forced him to accept reality and move on. Otherwise, he would have ended up dead already.
He wondered how long it would take for these youngsters to move on or whether their wills would crumble on the way.
Still, he felt that if Bari had at least ran in some other direction, maybe Ina wouldn't have ended up like this. But then Bari would die for sure.
Arion already saw that Bari didn't run towards Ina on purpose but because he was too scared to think.
Although what Bari did seems cowardly, Arion was sure that most of the people in his previous life would have done the same except for some.
Even he got terrified seeing such a monster that his heart almost lept out. Arion was used to dealing with humans and sometimes even killing them off. Still, he wasn't used to hideous and frightening monsters like these.
After seeing what happened to Ina, he didn't dare to imagine what would have happened if the Dreadling had got to him.
Arion slowly moved towards Cayden to tell him that he should take Silvi back since it was better to at least treat her early before further complications arise.
*~Rumble! Rumble!*
Everyone's heart jumped in shock when the ground started to shake vigorously again!
This time, the most frightening fact was that the earth seemed to rumble even more loudly, and the already formed crevices on the ground grew even more apart.
*Crack! Crack!*
Cracks formed on the ground and began to grow bigger and bigger till a grey gigantic insect-like leg popped out from the ground. But it didn't end there...more legs popped out until a hideous-looking creature looking no different from the Dreadling earlier came out.
*Thump! Thump! Thump!*
Everyone could hear their hearts loudly thumping as they looked at the Dreadling coming out of the earth just a few hundreds of meters away. The most shocking thing was that this Dreadling looked exactly just like the one they killed.
And this meant that this did not end with the Dreadling they killed. There were more than one of them!
"Cayden! Nena! Get the hell out of here!" Arion shouted, pulling out the two from their reverie after he quickly recovered from his shock.
Nena blinked her wet eyes quite a few times in disbelief and fear as if making sure what she was seeing was true. Cayden's face became pallid as he got up, feeling his leg muscles tightening, ready to run.
They had killed one just a while ago, and it took all of their strength and the support of each other to kill it. But all at a tragic cost.
And now another one showed up right when their spirit and heart were at their lowest, feeling broken after the death of their close friend.
So, how could they handle seeing another Dreadling looking exactly like the one that killed their friend?
Another question was how they were going to kill it this time? Who was going to die among them next?
The Dreadling seemed in no hurry and seemed as if it was waiting for something.
*Crack! Crack!*
But something more shocking was happening right before the youngsters as they saw even more giant spider-like legs emerging from the ground...numerous of them...till they saw a second Dreadling emerging out...a third one!...a fourth!...and even more!
Everyone held their breath, feeling their heart racing as if it was going to explode the next moment.