Clang!
Isabelle's expression froze as she witnessed members of the group dropping their heavier weapons to the ground, their faces contorted with a fear that surpassed anything they had shown before. The sight of their sudden surrender struck her with a mixture of disbelief and further confusion.
Isabelle couldn't understand the reasoning behind their actions after she had just explained to them that they could die if they didn't fight. She wanted to question their behavior, but words weren't forming from her confusion. Thankfully and unfortunately, someone cleared it up for her.
"Sh-she's right! We'll only die if we continue to fight! This is our chance while it's distracted! Why should I continue to fight and die when clearly you all are the only ones fighting to save someone you know?"
His words inspired the fearful ones who had wanted to retreat all this time but didn't have the confidence to leave on their own initiative. Now that someone had spoken up for them, they were instilled with the courage to speak out their true thoughts.
"We're clearly going to die even if we all stay. We've lost more people than we should have! We shouldn't have decided to fight it in the first place!"
"That guy with the shield, and her," a bystander pointed to Isabelle. "Are the reasons we're in this mess. I'm outta here, I don't want to die!"
One by one, they started to fold and scatter right in front of Isabelle's eyes.
Isabelle's heart sank as she heard the bystander's accusation, pointing the blame at her and the man with the shield for the dire situation they found themselves in.
"W-wait…." She weakly called out to the group with an outstretched arm, yet her voice didn't seem to reach them. Her vulnerability was the deciding factor for the rest who were still undecided to leave. Even though she believed it to be, hope wasn't all lost since there were still a few who stayed. Not only because they felt guilty, but the real reason was because they too still had someone to save among the victims.
Out of a group of around twenty-five students, there were only eight left, including Isabelle.
As Isabelle watched the dwindling group of people leave, her emotions began to well up inside her, a mixture of sorrow, frustration, and anger bubbling to the surface. Feeling a sense of helplessness wash over her, Isabelle clenched her fists in frustration, her chest tight with emotion.
"Fine, you pieces of shit! If you couldn't fight this one creature without us, then how would you manage if you ran into something like this again? I hope you all die!"
The ones who ran were too focused to hear her screams, but the few who stayed were able to gradually calm their troubled hearts when they realized they may have made the right choice in staying. Of course, they all hoped that what she said wasn't true. Who would want to believe that there could be something more dangerous than what they were fighting now?
It didn't require much common sense to recognize that their adversary was simply a giant spider. Yet, witnessing the transformation of zombies and rodents into monstrous versions of their former selves filled them with a sense of dread and despair. They could only imagine the extent of the changes that had befallen other creatures in the world.
"BRANDON! YOU FUCKER, I'LL KILL YOU!"
Isabelle and the remaining group all turned their attention to the fight. What they witnessed caused Isabelle to gasp. They were able to force the spider back as Derrick was now standing before Justin's body. From the distance, Isabelle wasn't able to tell if Justin was still alive after the spider sunk its fangs into him for the second time, yet that wasn't what made her gasp.
She saw Derrick and Justin's body, but she didn't see Brandon. When she looked in the spider's direction, she noticed the spider posing defensively. Its upper body was raised in the air, showing five of its legs threateningly, even though one of the five was broken at its joint while it awkwardly supported itself on its two back legs.
But what horrified her more was the remaining leg that wasn't raised because what was under it was the last person of her group that she knew personally, and he was now skewered under the spider's leg. Anyone could tell he was a goner as he held onto the spider's leg in a needless attempt to remove it from his fatal wound. From where they stood, they could see that the spider's leg penetrated through the middle of his stomach, outside through his back.
The occasional action of Brandon spitting out blood and crying from the endless pain was causing Derrick's already deranged emotions to surge. Unable to bear the sight any longer, Derrick's emotions reached a boiling point, his mind consumed by a potent mix of fear, frustration, and fury.
Clang!
"Derrick…?" Isabelle started to become more worried when she saw Derrick drop his shield and rushed towards a giant ax lying by a nearby corpse. His actions were beginning to scare her. He was giving her the sense that he was going to throw his life away in order to kill the spider. Not only would she lose the person she loves, but she would also lose her protector in this hellish environment. She couldn't begin to imagine what she would do if she let him go through with his actions; she had to stop him before it was too late.
"DERRICK!" She screamed at the top of her lungs to get his attention, and at the same time, it attracted a small group of zombies behind them. Within the horde of zombies, no one was able to notice that the zombies further behind the approaching zombies were focusing on something else entirely.
Her scream managed to grab hold of Derrick's attention. He turned in her direction, a wild savageness radiated from his gaze.
"Isabelle, look what they did to our friends, look what it's done to Brandon! And Jus-Justin… he's dead… ma-maybe if I had used that skill then he… he…. HELP ME KILL THIS BASTARD!"
The intensity of his stare caused her to take a step back. The group that stayed looked back and forth between the two and the encroaching zombies, unsure of what action to take. Isabelle was afraid to speak after receiving Derrick's crazed gaze, but she understood that if she didn't speak now, then the chances of everyone dying were high.
"Derrick, it's over! There's no one else to save! And at this rate… at this rate, you'll only be getting us killed too! Let's leave, we need to live, to live for everyone we lost, to live for each other!"
Hearing Isabelle trying to convince Derrick to retreat relieved the group that had decided to stay behind. They didn't want to engage with the spider, not again. Hope glimmered in their eyes at the thought of getting out of this mess, and if they all stuck together, then maybe they could survive long enough to await aid. On that note, they all came to a consensus to fight the approaching zombies to clear a way to leave while Isabelle retrieved Derrick.
All the while, the spider, who was constantly alert, gazed towards Derrick and then towards its lively new meal. It noticed that Derrick's attention was distracted elsewhere. For the first time since their confrontation, it viewed Derrick as vulnerable.
This would have been the perfect opportunity to remove its biggest threat, but fatigue and hunger prevented it from doing so. The desire to feed was growing stronger as its fangs rubbed against each other frantically as a warning. It was when this action occurred that it noticed even more lack of reaction from its main opponent.
Warily, it started to lower its legs as it lowered its mouth towards Brandon, his cries no longer cried out in pain. It pierced his sides with its fangs, eliciting a strong twitch while he let out soft and fearful whimpers. Barely able to even lift his arm, Brandon's vision made its way to Derrick. With every attempt to scream for help, blood would instead spill out of his mouth, and yet Derrick still failed to notice.
Meanwhile, while the spider was finally about to feed, Derrick was trying to sort out his complicated feelings. He wanted more than anything to kill the spider with his own hands.
However, realization dawned on him. Ever since the first member of their group was taken out, he spurred everyone on for that one person and slowly they ended up in this situation with almost no one left alive, all because of his bad decision.
He felt guilty. Part of him wanted to finish what he started; that way he could use that as an escape for being the cause of everyone's death. If he used the skill he gained from his achievement, then he had a high chance of killing the creature at the cost of maybe his life afterwards.
The more he tried to rationalize things, an unbundling fear of death waved over him. Like any normal person, he didn't want to die, but he also couldn't be the one to suggest retreating, not after all he'd done. He was thankful for Isabelle giving him a way out.
He was preparing to return to Isabelle's side and retreat with what was left of their group who stayed. That was until everyone heard a voice coming from the spider's direction.
"Come to daddy!"
————
Moments before the spider began to feed on Brandon's body, Noah finally made it to the clearing where the battle was ongoing.
The gore and carnage he came upon wasn't enough to faze him. He himself had just come from a similar setting, if not worse, and he was the cause of it.
A distance behind him was a small group of students that were growing in number due to the fact that they were viewing Noah as their lifeline after witnessing his recent achievement. Behind him lay multiple corpses of zombies, leading a straight path. The straight path carved through the carnage served as a stark reminder of the danger they faced, but also as a beacon of hope.
But even though they followed him, they were also afraid of his very presence. Some were still stumbling and hurling from the carnage and brutal killings that Noah displayed, while others still continued to delusionally hear his creepy cackle repeatedly ringing in their ears.
It didn't help that even now Noah was completely covered in blood and innards again. Unlike last time, the blood would most likely take a couple of washes just to remove the stains from his skin, let alone the smell.
Noah was aware of the people following him, but as long as they didn't take his precious exp and didn't try to force him to protect anyone, then he would allow the followers to do what they want. As for now, he had two important matters to take care of.
"So it does work! If I had to go searching for the chest, then I would lose it…but how does it drop exactly when I'm no longer fighting?" His eyes glanced up above him.
"I guess whoever that voice was is watching over everything, huh? I know I would; this is just too thrilling."
Again, after killing the last zombie around him, a bronze chest appeared, confirming Noah's initial thoughts. He didn't have anything specific in mind to obtain from the chest; if anything, he wanted a new weapon similar to his hammer.
His hammer didn't last long enough during his killing spree. The steel had a few dents here and there, but blow after blow against the zombies' craniums caused the base of the wooden handle connecting the steel and the wood to slowly splinter. Halfway through killing the zombies, the steel had broken off from its handle, leaving him to fight with the short piece of wood as if it was a makeshift spear.
Thankfully, the area was filled with students who were at least courageous enough to get one kill and receive a weapon. Some just weren't lucky enough to survive. Their demise at least left Noah with options of a preferred weapon lying around as he retrieved a thin sword in one hand and a small mallet in the other.
He could make do with the weapons he had now, but he would still prefer a weapon that was a bit messier.
He remembered that the last time he opened the chest too quickly, he only received gold so superstitiously he opened the chest slowly, hoping that luck would be on his side.
"If I don't find what to use this money for, I think I'll lose my mind…" The first item he saw as soon as he opened the chest was an abundance of gold coins. He felt an itch as he quickly fantasized about buying unique fantasy items or even skills!
Noah closed his eyes briefly to calm his thoughts before moving on. Just like his last bronze chest, this one also held attribute orbs, but unlike before, there were two orbs; one was a blinding white while the other azure blue, both glowed intensely next to a piece of metal sticking out from the gold.
He impatiently reached for the orbs first, curious of what the colors signified, but more importantly, he was in a hurry not to miss out on the opportunity concerning the badass spider.
+2 magic
+2 spirit
"Phew, Take that Johnathan! I was beginning to believe I would be forced to become a meat shield!" After receiving the attributes from the orb, he moved on to his last reward, which turned out to be more than needed in his opinion.