The heavy metal gate surrounding the remaining survivors, who are known as the Ashvor, slowly creaked open.
From afar, Olivia saw a creature dragging a bloodied corpse deep into the dark woods. Blood drained from her face, as she stood stupefied.
The squad were all hesitant.
Tinya took a deep breath before taking the lead, soon others joined her.
Olivia could feel her legs trembling, with a promise of not supporting her. But before she could buckle to her knees. Anna held her shoulder "Are you okay?" She asked, with worry laced in her voice.
"I... I'm fine," she stammered.
"Let's catch up with them, it will be bad for us to be separated from them," she urged Olivia to walk.
They both walked towards the squad, who were already venturing into the unknown.
The metal gate began to close again, shutting them out from safety. Now it was time for the teenagers to depend on themselves, to survive the terrific horror of the outside world.
Olivia's green eyes, carefully observed her surroundings as they walked deeper into the woods.
"Everyone, follow my lead," Tinya's voice commanded.
"Stop acting as if you are the leader." The boy with the gold brown hair scoffed.
"Shut your trap Roy," Tinya shot back at him.
"You shut yours."
The atmosphere grew heavy with tension.
"You want to fight it out," Tinya teased.
"Guys stop," Anna stood between them. "This is not the time for a fight, we are in the domain of the monsters, we can get attacked anytime," she paused, gauging their reaction. "We need to stay united," she added.
Olivia unknowingly nodded her head in agreement.
" We are already in this together, we shouldn't…fight because we are going to need our strength later." Olivia's stammered, before standing next to Anna. She didn't know why she said those words.
"Oh please spare us the lecture, we don't need it from someone like you, a section 27 b**ch." Tinya snapped at her.
"Stop it, Tinya," Anna's voice grew heavy, her nerves strained, ready to fight.
"AAARGH!!!"
A scream suddenly broke the tension.
Their heads turned towards the source of the scream, but there was nothing but a trail of….blood.
Panic surged in the air.
"We are all going to get killed," the chubby boy cried, he suddenly turned, running back towards the fortress.
Slash.
A pincer hand pierced through his chest.
His eyes opened wide in surprise, before he gave up the ghost. His body was dragged away under the cover of the night.
"Everyone stay calm," Anna's voice woke everyone from the traumatic experience that had assaulted their mind.
"It is the Craghoul monsters, they are level 4 Creatures," Anna said, as she took out her sword.
The rest of the squad also brought out their weapons. Olivia fingers slightly trembled around her twin blades.
The Craghoul are monsters with pincer hands, long legs with four toes, black coloured skin but thin enough to see the structure of their bones. A long spine like tail and a head with two black eyes and two sharp teeth protruding out of their mouth.
Everyone's eyes darted around, searching for the creatures. Silence fell around them like a thick blanket.
Soon chaos followed as the Craghoul monsters began to attack. Olivia knew that if you are weak, you would only be a stepping stone to the strong.
She knew she couldn't fight these monsters, the best plan was to hide.
Her eyes searched for a hiding place.
Finally, She found a place. A hole in a tree, it was really a good spot to hide.
She quickly ran towards her target, but then, she.. stopped. Luckily avoiding a snarky attack from one of the Craghoul.
Her soul nearly leaped out of her chest. The monster swung at her again, but she managed to dodge it.
Her movements were slow and slurpy, she won't even consider herself as a level 1 soldier, because her system had not awakened yet.
She was extremely weak against the monster. Unfortunately for her, her blades flew out of her hands in different directions. Her widened eyes darted toward them, her blood ran cold. She was good as f**ked right now.
Without hesitation, she took to her heels, however the monster swung it tail swiftly at her, cutting through the skin on her back before she could escape.
She fell to the ground, wincing in pain.
She saw the monster heading towards her from the corner of her eyes, dread ran through her veins.
" No… I can't give up… I can't die now, " she muttered, her hand shakily reached for her gun.
The monster reached out for its final strike.
Shot. Shot. Shot.
Sounds of gunshot echoed through the air, her green eyes shone with fear and desperation. Black blood splattered over her body, before the monster fell on her. Dead.
She laid frozen on the ground. Panic, fear and relief washed over her. She couldn't believe she had killed a monster, her chest heaved up and down, her heart skittering in its cage.
Uncontrollable tears rolled down her cheeks. But this was not the time to cry, she needed to hide now, before she got discovered by the other monsters.
She pushed the monster away, before crawling towards the hole. Her eyes looked at Anna who was effortlessly kicking the ass of the monsters.
By the time she finally managed to reach the safety of the tree. A groan of pain escaped her lips. Right now, all she had to do was wait for the battle to end, before coming out.
After several hours of fighting, the battle finally came to an end.
"We made it," Tinya said, as she cleaned the black blood off her blade.
There were four of them remaining now. Corpses of both human and the monsters scattered around the ground, with some of their limbs separating from their bodies.
Frantically, Anna's eyes scanned the surroundings for Olivia.
"Olivia!" she called out.
"Anna, I'm here," Olivia weakly answered, she had little strength left, as she had lost a lot of blood.
"The trash from section 27 is the aliv…." A monster suddenly springs out of the ground swallowing Tinya and her words.
Anna, who was already walking towards Olivia, turned around, instantly, blood drained from her face.
"A wormhole king," she muttered as she stumbled back. A wormhole king is a level-18 monster, ranked as an S level beast.
Its long steel-like body stood over 200 metre high, sharp jagged teeth surrounding its mouth, its black eyes shone with wisdom.
"We weren't supposed to fight a S level beast," Roy felt his pants wet.
Before the blink of an eye, Roy and the other boy were brutally swallowed by the worm king.
Anna froze. The wormhole king's soulless eyes bore into her, as if sealing her fate.
Anna knew there was no outrunning this beast, the best option was to face it head on, without second thought she ran towards the monster with a yell.
"I'd rather die in a battle, than die like a coward," she yelled, flying up, aiming her sword at its eye.
"Noooo!!" Olivia screamed, she crawled out of the hole, her eyes locking with Anna's, who smiled bitterly at her.
"Nooo!!" she screamed, as she watched her friend being swallowed by the beast.
She wailed, crawling out of the hole. Then…
The Wormhole's eyes locked on her. It swiftly turned, crawling crazily towards her. Its body squashed some of the body on the ground, and breaking trees that were in its path.
"This is it?" her green eyes closed, tears flowing down her cheeks.
Then, everything turned dark.