After recovering from the fatigue of the battle, Diane and Chris got up and then picked up their new swords. Carrying the weapon on their back was easy, but holding them on their hands wasn't. As if it was some sort of magic, they couldn't properly wield the sword.
"It is probably because you guys don't have enough strength," Bruce said. "That being said, you guys don't have to increase your strength for the time being. There is another way to use the weapon."
"How?" Diane asked.
"Here it comes some monsters," Bruce said pointing toward Diane and Bruce's back. "Raise the swords and then let it fall when the enemy approaches."
Just after hearing that Diane and Chris noticed the noisy of the monsters moving toward them, just as they had expected, the stone golem's presence was making all the other monsters keep some distance from that region. In any case, Diane didn't like Bruce's idea all that much since it seemed insane, but Chris decided to test that theory without hesitation.
When a goblin entered his range, Chris decreased his strength over the sword. While still holding the hilt, Chris new weapon fell down on the monster's head… the creature tried to block the attack with its sword, but it failed. The attack not only destroyed the sword but also cut the monster's head in two parts, as if it was butter and his sword was a hot knife. Even Diane opened her eyes widely at that. Another goblin noticed that Diane was exhausted and tried to attack her, but she easily blocked the charge just by putting the sword between the monster and herself.
"I guess that is also another way to use a weapon that has certain requirements…" Bruce smirked and then readied himself.
Three goblins were still alive, and Bruce ran toward them. The beasts grinned just like him because they had the numerical advantage. They leaped to attack Bruce at the same time and he didn't lose that perfect change. He swung his sword horizontally and before the monsters could hit him, Bruce slit those three in two pieces. A rain of blood poured over Bruce and his sword, but despite that, he stayed in his finishing position for a while with a smile on his face.
You obtained 46 experience points.
You obtained 3 spiritual coins.
"Hahahaha!" Bruce laughed maniacally. "This is it! This is how it is supposed to be!"
This time, even Chris couldn't help but show a bewildered expression while watching Bruce covered in blood and laughing with the three bodies near him. If that wasn't a grotesque sight, he didn't know what it was. Diane touched him on his shoulders and then gave him the sign to fall back a little bit. There was no telling what someone as crazy as that might do. However, after a while, much to their surprise. Bruce took a deep breath and then showed a relaxed expression.
"Shall we get going then?" Bruce asked as if nothing had happened.
Diane had already suspected that something was weird with Bruce from the very beginning, but now she was sure that his mental health was beyond damaged. Although she was a college student who wanted to become a volleyball player, Diane was smart and had a good memory. She immediately recalled some articles that she read in the past about psychopaths… some of them can bend seemingly well in today's society. Their odd behavior only appears in rare moments, after all. Maybe Bruce wasn't a psychopath, but he wasn't someone they could trust.
"Yeah…" Diane said with a stern expression. "Let's get going."
Bruce wasn't someone smart, but even a dead brain would have noticed that Diane was being more cautious of him. Upon noticing that, Bruce couldn't help but laugh a little and shrug. As expected, those two siblings were just too serious. While Bruce was aware that his behavior was odd, he recalled stories about people of participated in wars in the past. His excitement he was feeling was the same thing people felt back then. The exhilarating feeling of surviving a death match against a foe that wanted his neck. In today's society, that wasn't normal, but today's society was as boring as hell. So, Bruce decided to forget about those small things.
Bruce couldn't care less about taking the lead of that group, but since Diane was obviously wary of him and she wouldn't let her little brother get too close of someone unstable, they ended up walking several meters behind Bruce. Regardless, after the battle they finally noticed that perhaps using such a strategy to beat a monster such as the Stone Golem might have been a bit… destructive to say the least. Some power poles were still working, but half of the street ahead of them was now completely dark. Fortunately, the electric current wasn't passing anymore thought the water. So, without putting much thought into it, Bruce put himself in front one of hydrants that had been destroyed and let the water clear his whole body.
"So cold!" Bruce said and then trembled slightly. "Maybe I should have waited a little bit to clean my body."
Although being covered in blood was beyond unpleasant, it had its merits. For example, it could scare most people and perhaps even some monsters, at least those who had a strong sense of smell. They would notice that was the blood of monsters that had fallen by Bruce's hands.
After getting rid of the blood, Bruce decided to move a bit faster. Not only he needed to warm his body, but he also had to pick up the pace. Two hours had passed since the start of the 'election' and he only had walked seven hundred meters away from his apartment. At that pace, it would take him the whole night to reach his parents' home, which was ten kilometers away from his current position.
It didn't take much time for new monsters to appear here and there, but since most of them were at level two and only a few were at the level three, the fights ended fast. Given that a single level up granted five status points, it was only obvious that a single level was like a huge wall between monsters and humans. However, the real reason was due to Bruce and his new sword. He could split in half three monsters at the same time, after all.
"Hehehe, I can't get tired of this feeling," Bruce said while cleaning off his sword from the monster's blood. "Even defeating small fries is fun. Don't you guys think?"
"Yeah, sure," Diane replied with a frown on her face.
"I guess," Chris forced a smile.
"You guys are no fun," Bruce shrugged.
After one hour, Bruce, Diane and Chris had walked more or less five kilometers. It was a good pace considering that they had to be ware of their surroundings. After one more hour, Bruce would complete another quest and obtain a new skill, so things were proceeding relatively well. However, on their path they found something unexpected… all the central region of the city was completely dark.