"Clank!"
The moment I pressed the button, the machine was kicked to life. All of sudden the entire playground was lit and its bright spotlights kicked away the darkness in a blink of an eye.
"Wow! I never thought something like this would be here!!" one of the youths said in awe while others nodded in agreement.
Even Isabella gave me such a deep gaze, like she was wondering how I knew about the presence of such a generator here.
"Back in my place, every playground had one like this in case of emergency," I lied.
"But how come it works and nothing else does?" another one asked, and I was prepared for it.
"This works on gasoline with old tech," I simply explained, "anything advanced with chips embedded won't work."
"Brilliant," Isabella admitted, "I never took you for such one."
"Like whom?" I asked while trying to hide my joy out of her praise.
A loser like me getting praised from such a queen, that was something worthy of celebration indeed.
"Someone who puts his mind before anything else."
I smiled and walked outside the room. Despite doing all this, things weren't safe yet.
"Howl!"
"Roar!"
All of sudden the world around started to grow scarier by all the sounds coming from the monsters. 'They finally came,' I muttered to myself before moving my eyes around.
Sacrifices were necessary, something no one could escape from. However what mattered was the end result of any clash for a group like us.
Almost all of those around me looked terrified, all except for three. I sat my gaze upon them, including Isabella.
"Let's get inside," I said while leading them towards the inner space of this field.
"What was that?" one youth asked in fear, "I think there are wolves outside."
"Wolves howl, but I heard roaring as well," a girl said in a pale face while her body kept shaking out of fear.
She wasn't the only one showing such a reaction, and I couldn't help but inwardly sigh. If it was possible, I would rather save all their lives.
After all they proved to have good instincts and minds of their own. However, thinking like that was childish dreams. I knew what type of monsters we were up against, and it wasn't easy to defend against them.
"This might work," again the roars and howls reverberated across the entire world around us while I grabbed a metallic baseball club from the side of the field. "Come, pick what you like… Here is a good variety of weapons."
I didn't leave the three I picked alone as I grabbed three metallic clubs like mine and threw these to them. There weren't so many of these, so I feared they might end up with wooden ones instead.
"Do you know what's coming at us?" one of the youths felt I knew something as I acted with a plan, not on impulse.
I could already feel gazes of doubts at me. "I just heard the howls of wolves and it's natural to look for something to fight them with," I simply said before adding, "if you don't want to be here, then leave. I didn't invite you to come with me in the first place."
I had to hammer this fact inside their minds now so they would stop questioning me at every single step. It was annoying getting watched and asked such questions, especially when I was fighting for my own life.
I didn't allow them in just to threaten my life like that! If they didn't plan to let things go and mind their own sh*t, then it was better to send them away.
"Thanks," Isabella said while the other two came along. They were two males, almost one year older than me. The two looked like athletes, with good and proportionate bodies with no bulging muscles anywhere.
They took the clubs with appreciative eyes.
"Thanks," one of the two said, "my name is John, it's a pleasure to know you."
"Thanks sir for this," another one was more polite than John, "I'm Allen, do you know if we can close this field on us to prevent these wolves from coming here?"
"I'm Hye," I greeted them differently than my earlier harsh attitude. I looked around and thought Allen got a point here. This field seemed too vulnerable for the upcoming battle. Before I could answer him, someone else did.
"Pft, do you all believe that?" one youth suddenly said while he waved the club he held like he was used to playing baseball, "I never heard about wolves in New York."
"Then what are these things running around the place?" a girl asked in fear and doubt, "if not wolves… then what are they?"
Everyone fell into silence while I was the only one knowing what was coming at us. In fact these monsters weren't wolves, but hyenas.
Wolves were too cunning to come at us first, especially with such bright light enveloping us here.
They were a brutal variation of those brutal monsters. They were bigger, almost four meters in length and two meters in height.
They were like elephants in size, but with high mobility, fierce attacks, and bloodthirsty nature. They were really scary, especially for us in such a weak state.
"Let's barricade this field first," I said while trying to get them to work, "I also want someone high up there to watch."
I pointed towards one of the four big spotlight towers here. There were small metallic ladders which were used for the maintenance of these big torches.
"I can do that," one youth volunteered. I silently watched him as he acted smart.
Being high up there would grant him total immunity against any incoming ground danger... Smart one!
'Another good candidate to recruit,' I said to myself while watching everyone trying to find anything to fortify the door and the weak net around.
The field was surrounded with a net made out of ropes like a gigantic version of fisher net. It looked weak, so weak to stop monsters from coming here.
But I never counted on them in the first place. Even those who tried to survive the first quest by hiding inside their apartment's fortified doors ended up dying in the end.
These monsters weren't a joke! A simple claw of them and any steel could crack open in front of their terrifying force. However, here it was different. The light here would act as my main line of defense.
They weren't yet accustomed to living in such a bright world. If they dared to come here, I'd make sure every single one of them would die.
But in return for that, they would kill more of the group. I looked around and all I could see were terrified and shaking youths with zero experience in actual fights.
I hesitated for a second to tell them where these weaknesses were. But in the end I saw it was better to stay silent and wait until the monsters arrive.
After dealing with the first one, I could easily pinpoint their weakness. My reason would be luck. We humans loved to believe in such an inexistent thing.