As the bullet entered the monster's open mouth, the recoil of the pistol lifted Arlan's arm and forced him backwards so as not to lose his balance.
The monster's head was sent backwards by the blow, but a second later the monster put its head back on straight and roared in pain.
The bullet didn't kill it, it didn't even come close, but it did hurt it, enough to enrage it.
Having lost his momentum, Arlan didn't have enough time to run again. Not when the monsters had much more acceleration than he did.
Finished roaring, the monster opened its mouth again to eat Arlan this time, who could only watch as the monster's mouth rapidly approached him.
But before he could close his eyes and prepare to die, the monster suddenly became still.
Arlan didn't know how to react as the monster's head slowly began to separate from his body before falling to the ground just like his body seconds later.
'Huh?'
Soon, more roars could be heard from their surroundings and silent slashes ending the monster's life.
Tristan, Laurel and the two soldiers still alive, stopped as they saw a strange person stop in front of them.
The strange thing was that they did not even see how he had arrived in front of them. One moment there was no one there and the next moment the man had appeared.
The man was carrying a drawn katana and a spotless white robe. His eyes were sharp and his face completely serious as he looked at the group.
"Who are you?" the man asked with clear hostility.
Tristan was shocked, but when the man spoke, he quickly raised his rifle and pointed it at him.
"Who are you?"
Tristan didn't answer the man's question and instead asked his own question.
The man frowned at Tristan's clear gesture and moved his arm slightly.
In that instant, Tristan's rifle snapped in half, and everyone blanched as they saw half of the rifle fall to the ground, leaving their only lethal weapon unusable. Yes, the others still had weapons, but they had already seen one destroyed in less than a second, and they had not even seen how it had happened.
So, it was useless to think that the same would not happen to theirs, so no one moved and they watched in silence.
"I'm the one asking the questions. Now, who are you and what are you doing in this place?"
Arlan who was observing everything from behind, still not knowing what was going on, noticed how something lightly pricked his neck. Turning his head carefully, he noticed how there was a young woman next to him pointing a katana at his neck.
All this without even looking at him and keeping focused on the man and the group in front of them.
Slowly, from the forest more people in robes with the same swords appeared. The only difference was that their swords were completely bloody, and their robes had traces of blood on them.
Tristan was clearly annoyed but seeing that they had no escape and that the man in front of him was too strange, he decided to speak up.
At least the most immediate threat such as the monsters had passed and now, they were facing humans, with whom they could dialogue and negotiate.
"We are a group of survivors...and we are looking for a place"
Tristan decided not to reveal everything, only the minimum and the necessary, which was still true.
The man looked at him for a few seconds as he thought before speaking again.
"How did you get to this island?"
Tristan didn't quite understand the question, but still answered.
"I don't know what you mean, I've been stationed on this island for over a year now"
Now it was not only the man's frown that furrowed, but that of all the people in robes.
"That's impossible" the man said firmly before stepping closer and placing his sword to Tristan's neck.
"Tell me the truth" he said in a soft but authoritative tone.
Tristan did not change his serious expression but inside he felt a chill run through his entire body. He knew that his next words could decide his fate.
That's why he took a few seconds and swallowed saliva before answering.
"I'm not lying, we've all been here a long time. The only one who arrived recently was Arlan"
The man frowned and asked.
"Who's that?"
Tristan paled as he realized he had quite possibly just sold Arlan, however there was nothing to be done now, so with his head and without making any sudden movements he pointed to Arlan with his chin.
"The guy in the back"
The man disappeared in an instant and arrived in front of Arlan, he looked him straight in the eyes.
"Answer me."
Arlan was still surprised, so he didn't answer right away. Seeing that he didn't respond, the young woman next to him pushed her sword a little to press him to answer.
'Fuck...Fuck everything!'
Arlan felt overwhelmed, everything around him seemed to be going against him. So far everything in his life had gone wrong.
He had basically lost half of his youth he felt stalked by darkness, listening to a voice slowly eat away at his sanity to the point of breaking him.
He was traumatized, Arlan hated dark places. If possible, he preferred to always have a light to guide him. But metaphorically, that light was not present in his life.
Then he woke up and freed himself from it, he spent a year basically recovering. Then he decided to come to this island where he had an accident. Only to find that strange monsters had colonized the island killing everyone.
And now a group of strange people who looked like cultists were threatening him with swords waiting for him to answer their questions treating him with clear hostility.
There had simply been so much bad stuff going on, and so soon it looked like they weren't going to stop. He hadn't taken his medicine for a couple of weeks, and his body felt heavy and sluggish with each passing minute.
It all just overwhelmed Arlan so much that he couldn't take it anymore and exploded.
"You want to know how I got to the island? I flew. Now go fuck yourself"