Chapter 26 - Death

Jacob checked his shoes and checked to make sure his crossbow was loaded, then checked everyone else for the same, until finally after five minutes did he nod at Vain and Samantha. To which Vain only shrugged his shoulders, while Samantha looked embarrassed.

The new group had officially started on their way in a new direction hoping for whatever safety they could get.

After only ten minutes of walking there was now a new group of entities right in front of them. It was medium-sized and had nothing special about it.

Vain stood out and spoke loudly, "Alright! Let's see how decent you both are! LET'S BEGIN!"

With his loud words, Vain started the fight by shooting an arrow to signify the start of the battle. Unfortunately, he overestimated who he was with.

"AHHH! Are you crazy! That group is way too big! We can't take that on!" Samantha yelled at Vain to stop.

Jacob also agreed with Samantha's decision, "Let's go! We can still run!" Jacob agreed so much that he had already started to run.

Vain on the other hand cursed and yelled at the pair while shooting, "If you run I will guarantee that you will end up dead! If it isn't an entity it will be personally by me for you both abandoning me in such a small fight!"

Vain also noticed something that he hadn't noticed before. The pair didn't have any type of melee weapon visible anywhere! Suddenly Vain had a premonition about how 'decent' the pair was.

Samantha turned around to see Vain still shooting down entities and knew that she didn't really have a choice. With a loud sigh, she lifted her crossbow and started to shoot at the entities that were coming their way.

Jacob on the other hand only glanced back at Vain before screaming, "You can't kill if you're dead!"

Vain had his last arrow and turned his back to the entities before shooting at the escaping Jacob. The man was not fast and moved very slowly at least in Vain's opinion. That being said since Vain didn't want his back to the entities he only quickly shot at him before focusing on the real dangers of the area.

A loud screech sounded as Jacob fell down with an arrow straight through his spine on his lower back. But to Vain who had seen enough, he couldn't care less and focused on the Clump that was directly in front of him. The Clump was reasonably small, but he was struggling since it had a lot of experience and could fight almost equally against Vain.

After nearly half an hour the Clump fell next to the piles of corpses made up of entities. It was only then that Vain could hear the screeching Jacob was making behind him. After making sure nothing was moving anymore, Vain got close to Jacob who was trying to crawl away.

Jacob could hear slow footsteps moving in his direction. Turning his head he could see Vain walking close to him with a bloodied sword in his right hand dripping blood. The slow steps made Vain seem like he was Death. The slow and methodical sounds of his boots sounded against the cement floor.

"AAHHH! NO! I CAN'T DIE LIKE THIS!"

Screaming as loud as he could Jacob pulled out his crossbow and aimed at Vain's head, then shooting without hesitation at his head.

Vain saw a man who was pitifully crying while crawling away from him. The man's red eyes really made Vain question his decision to shoot the man even if this was what he had said he would do before. Sighing to himself he was walking slowly to make sure he was sure that he had made the right decision.

Suddenly the screeching sounds that had been getting quieter had been replaced by a loud yell that disrupted his thoughts. Looking at the man who suddenly became coherent, Vain saw him pull his crossbow in front of himself without missing a beat shooting directly at Vain.

Vain saw the crossbow being pointed at him and moved as fast as he could barely pull himself out of the way to be able to survive the crossbow bolt, leaving a large cut through his cheek cutting a full centimeter into his flesh.

Behind Vain a squelch sounded. A small squeal was heard.

Turning around Vain saw Samantha with the crossbow bolt lodged into her head. Vain froze in shock... after a full minute, he finally reacted and used his sword to end the life of Jacob who was trying his hardest to reload the crossbow in his hands.

Looking at the bloody sword in his hands Vain questioned his decision for the first time. Jacob wasn't trying to hurt him until he shot first. He wasn't being attacked by Jacob. Jacob just wanted to take the best way to ensure he would live. In the end, Samantha also ended up dead. Samantha was even more innocent. She had a better personality than Jacob, but because Vain decided to kill Jacob she had also died.

Being alone in this hell once again, Vain truly questioned his decisions. He started to wonder since when had he been so violent against people. Before he had Athena to always be there and calm him whenever he thought about these questions, but this time there was no one to comfort him.

Alone and sad Vain could do nothing but stand there surrounded by bodies, both entity, and human. For half an hour he was now lost among his thoughts. For half an hour Vain stood still in place with a bloody sword in his hand.

After standing for so long, Vain only walked to the nearest wall before he slumped down to get some rest. He still needed to get out.

With a sad sigh, Vain attempted to get some rest, but after half an hour he realized he couldn't get any rest. Left without options he could only patch up all the injuries he got before, including the large cut on his cheek that was spilling a large amount of blood.

After a quick ten minutes, Vain stood up and prepared for the next fight that was sure to come soon.

After a few minutes, Vain's thoughts proved to be true with a screeching of some entities being heard in the distance. With a slow shamble, Vain moved to the next group and fought until there was nothing in his way.

This time he disregarded the small cuts he had gotten and kept moving to whatever was in this direction. Slowly but surely Vain moved forward fighting anything in his path.

An entire day passed. Tired. Sad. Injured. Unsure. Vain kept moving slowly with only a few short breaks that were too short to make a difference.

Another half a day slowly passed. After fighting another group, Vain could no longer take it and fell asleep right then and there. After one hour of sleep, a loud screeching sounded in the distance. Slowly waking up, Vain got up and was ready to fight once again.

Unfortunately, this was not a fight he could take since it had a Smiler directly in the center. The soft creepy laughter disrupted any thoughts to fight this small group of entities.

Running for half an hour Vain was able to find a door to escape and just like usual there was a group of entities waiting for him on the other side. Another half an hour before Vain fell asleep after the fight.

Nearly another half an hour passed before he heard yelling and signs of fighting. Excited to meet people again, Vain ran to the battle and joined the large group in killing more entities. A few more minutes passed before the battle quickly came to an end.

The woman leading the group called out to him, "Thanks for the assistance! May we know who you are and why are you alone?"

The group had a majority of women with only two men out of the ten of them. The entire group looked at Vain warily as if he would kill them within a second.