Bab 26: Chapter 26: Don't get distracted

Noah's words hung heavy in the air; this would've been the start to the brutal exchange, but before the opposing group made their move, another spectacle took place with Noah at its center.

Suddenly, a soft glow emanated from Noah's back. The gentle radiance perhaps would've been brighter if not for the clothing concealing it. The glow lasted less than ten seconds, even then, ten seconds is a lot of time if someone wanted to take action.

No one wanted to make a move when approaching the unknown, and considering Noah's confidence even when he was supposedly at a disadvantage, they all thought that the glow was most likely the reason why. The following scene confirmed their assumptions were right.

"WH-WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"

Instead of the glow subsiding or even being used to cast a spell, the glow separated into a white ghostly ball from Noah's body and hovered on his side. As soon as the ball reached an arm's length distance, it began to change shape in front of everyone, revealing his giant spider companion.

The sudden appearance of the spider elicited gasps of astonishment from the other side, leaving them momentarily stunned. its massive form looming ominously beside Noah as looked around vigilantly after the transformation was complete, ready to defend its master. It wasn't aware of exactly what was going on, but it was also affected by Noah's earlier erratic emotions. It was expecting an opponent similar to the oversized bird from earlier; it was ready to redeem itself to its master since it disappointed him when fighting the human. Yet when it saw the humans, its earlier battle intent died down while its appetite rose.

Noah didn't bother to answer the question voiced out to him; clearly, anyone could see it was a spider.

The situation was tense; his sudden display of summoning his creature could be considered a power move. With this display, he could be said to have equal footing to voice his demands in the conversation as an equal. However, his thoughts and actions were different than what would be expected. He already had a small plan in mind, and it was simple. He steadily raised his hand before pointing to the person that he considered the most dangerous there; unlike before, the small-statured man no longer held that bloodlust of a smile.

"NO! NO! WAI-"

"Go"

Ken tried to plead out to Noah; the spider's many piercing eyes alone caused a budding fear within him. The assured chance of killing Noah and taking his gear and gold was lowered immensely. If he had known about the spider earlier, then he would rather cooperate with him. Even though he said help would never come, he didn't entirely believe it. He just believed help wouldn't come for everyone else, but his family, they would definitely come for him, or so he thought.

But Noah learned from his mistake with Derrick. If these people also had a transformation ability of some kind, then he shouldn't give them the time to activate it. He also knew that out of all of them, the shorter person came across as the biggest threat, and it wasn't because of his weapons, but because of his demeanor. He couldn't afford to make the same mistake twice, he had to take the initiative.

Whoosh!*

No one here could be said to be an animal expert; even more so, an expert on spiders. They weren't expecting a spider of its size to be able to jump, but more than a jump, it appeared as if it was launched from a cannon.

"Arrggh! Whaa…..?" The sudden, explosive movement caught them off guard.

Dave wasn't given a chance. Noah's reasoning wasn't far from the truth about Dave's threat level. He managed to reach level three; considering that a zombie would give five experience points, it proved that he killed his fair share. And just as he feared, Dave too was a holder of a unique skill that he gained from the very same achievement; unlike Noah's, his was a passive called 'Insatiable fighter'. It increased his strength by a percentage of his stamina and could also be leveled up. Because of this skill, he chose to allocate his points into strength and stamina. This wouldn't have been a bad decision on his part; given time, his strength stat could almost rival Derrick's transformation strength and even surpass it.

However, he didn't account for two things: one being meeting a faster opponent, while the other was not preparing for disabling attacks by raising his spirit. In this case, the spider had both.

When it sprung on him, Dave wielded his axes to defend himself; given the suddenness of the spider's attack and speed to close the distance, he couldn't do anything more.

His first intuition was to block the first two legs that tried to impale him, but that didn't stop the other functioning one from attacking from a different angle. The encroaching danger all at once forced him to forget about the deadliest aspect of spiders, and he didn't become aware of it until he felt two large like needles bare down around his chest.

Upon contact, he felt tremendous pain, but after the pain, he felt numbness crawl out from the source of contact. It started with his breathing and then his limbs. He tried to voice out to his companions when he felt the disturbance in his body, but he couldn't utter a sound, and before he knew it, he was looking face up from the ground. Not being able to move his body nor being able to blink, he was still slightly conscious of his surroundings, which only made his situation more terrifying from his perspective.

"D-Da-Dave…?"

Phil stammered, everything happened faster than his mind could comprehend. Unlike Ken, who was more like his boss, he considered Dave as a friend at least. He's seen his fair share of deaths and even before this apocalypse, he killed a few under the work of Ken's family. But being on the receiving end was a different matter, even more so when one of the people killed was related to him.

Ken also was flabbergasted about the scene taking place. Even though he was the leader, he knew that Dave was the strongest out of the three of them. He was even envious of Dave because of the skill he obtained. He wasn't able to get one; the stupid achievement never specified the time limit to kill anything!

Not only was Dave taken out, but he was "killed" without a chance to fight back. How was he, who was weaker than both his minions supposed to confront them now? The swift and ruthless manner in which Noah had his spider dispatched Dave left no room for doubt: Noah was just as much of a murderer as he was. The palpitations of his heart began to pulse to dangerous levels, he was going to die!

He retreated a few steps back; his eyes panicky roamed from the spider to Noah, the people in the cafeteria watching, and then to the main lobby doors leading outside. His first thought was to make a run for it, but then what? Could he escape from the spider that jumped faster than they could react? He thought of the next best thing, something he even did just recently to one of the earlier groups to get what he wanted.

"Phil, snap out of it! If you don't let it jump, then it won't be an issue for you, just don't let it bite you. He's probably nothing without the spider, I'll take care of him, now go!"

Phil's short-sightedness due to Dave's sudden death caused him to react to Ken's orders without thinking. His weapon wasn't technically the best suited to kill a spider of its size nor was his stats even comparable to Dave.

While Phil charged towards the spider, Noah still has yet to make a move. He wasn't worried about the spider being harmed at this point. If anything, he was more proud of himself that he was able to tame such a creature. If they had to fight on an even playing field, then he had no doubt that he would fall before it, it was the same with the vulture. The animals now seemed to reclaim their place as the humans' predators and rightfully so, thankfully humans were still innovative and were also fortunate enough to be able to obtain a 'class'.

"Now get the other one, and I'll let you have both of them as your meal…" Noah voiced out. Noah declared, eyeing Ken as he headed toward the cafeteria. He wasn't sure if he was running there to hide or if he was going to pull the cliche move from the villain's handbook and try to use them as hostages. It was best to prevent him from going there altogether, so to avoid both options he decided to take care of him next. Besides, he knew that it wouldn't be a problem for the spider now.

Just like when it saved Isabelle, it had tethered a web from its initial jump that had gone unnoticed by everyone else.

When Phil edged closer to the spider, it suddenly yanked itself backward to its initial place and as if a spring was set under it, it launched itself immediately in Ken's direction while it kept itself tethered.

Noah didn't plan on watching Ken's plight; he knew the outcome as soon as he saw him turn his back. In the meantime, he turned his attention to the bewildered Phil, swiftly making a beeline in his direction. He couldn't let the spider do all of the work for him. Well, he can but he wouldn't feel satisfied, and this would be the first time he personally killed a human. He needed to know how this would affect him, would he be as indifferent as to when he killed the zombies?

Part of Phil's tension eased as he observed the spider seemingly avoiding him. He interpreted this as a sign of fear on the spider's part, bolstering his belief that he stood a chance against it. His relief deepened upon spotting Noah rushing toward him.

Phil still used the normal means of judging by appearances to determine someone's ability to fight. Comparing his size to Noah's small stature and lack of visible muscles, he didn't account for his lack of guard to be his quick downfall.

"PHIILLLLLLL!!"

Because of his slackening vigilance, Phil's attention was easily drawn to Ken's sudden dramatic scream calling out his name. His head naturally followed the sound of the voice. Not only did that give Noah more time to close the distance, but what was unfolding before him proved to be an even greater distraction than Ken's cry. As Phil looked over, he witnessed Ken unmoving on the floor, his body frozen like a living statue, with horror-stricken eyes unblinkingly fixed in his direction.

Just that alone wasn't enough to numb his awareness of his surroundings. It was watching the spider motioning over Ken's body; readying itself for its meal that was the deciding factor. As it fed on Ken's body, Ken was visibly losing body mass in real-time. His dreadful gaze didn't bulge, although the life in his eyes gradually was losing its luster. The scene appeared as though the spider was draining all of the fluids in Ken's body making it nearly impossible for Phill to look away. Each gruesome moment seemed to stretch on endlessly, Ken's everlasting death etching itself in Phils memory. The surreal scene overwhelmed his senses, leaving himself vulnerable to his grim reaper approaching.

WHACK!*

Phil felt a heavy blow to his temple and felt his body giving way before abruptly making contact with the ground. He still was conscious, but now he was suffering from dizziness. The force of the blow to his temple would have been enough to render any normal human unconscious. However, like Noah, Phil had also invested points into his constitution, prioritizing it over his other attributes.

Despite his increased vitality, that was still only enough to prevent him from fainting. He struggled to raise himself from the ground, his vision was blurry, while his mind even foggier, but it was enough to get a slight visual of the figure above, hovering over him.

Phil raised his arms over his head, fear urged his waning body to protect his face as much as he could. He desperately wanted to call out to Noah to stop. Before he could get his distraught mind to speak a coherent sentence, he felt another blow, this time connecting to his chin. His head snapped back from the impact while a couple of his teeth flew. The blow was even more devastating than expected, as he was caught in the midst of trying to speak.

Even though Phil was hit yet again, he still clung on to his consciousness, for he knew that once he lost consciousness, then his life would quickly follow. Each blow made it more apparent that he was going to die. Scared and vulnerable, he broke out in tears, his frantic cries formed into incoherent pleas when he noticed the blurred figure approaching again. He tried to push himself off the ground, but the strike to the chin rattled his brain further, preventing him from having anymore control of his body functions.

"Ple-Please… no…more…" Phil continued to plead, tears streaming down his face. His cries intensified when he noticed that Noah had halted his advance, clinging to the false hope that maybe his pleas were reaching him. His words were less audible than a choked whisper, his voice trembled under his overwhelming emotions. And yet although he was beginning to believe that his life may be spared, Noah's conflicting gaze continued to bore down upon him, crushing what little hope he had.

This was the moment that Noah was the most curious about concerning himself. He needed to know if he was truly ready to take this step to take a life and how he would feel after the deed was done. As he observed Phil's broken yet snobbish face pleading for forgiveness, memories of Isabelle and the pity he felt for her flashed through his mind. Yet, when he looked into Phil's disturbing expression, all Noah felt was disgust.

He wasn't satisfied with this. There has to be a reason why he felt differently between the two.

While he struggled to gather his thoughts, the spectators in the area all watched with heavy hearts and disturbed thoughts. Whether they were the ones who had been extorted or the two remaining lackeys from the group, each individual felt unsettled by the scene unfolding before them. People were coldly being murdered in front of their eyes while the person in question didn't appear to hesitate to kill. Their accusing stares and judging murmurs were enough to cause Noah to scoff in ridicule. In his eyes, every one of them was a hypocrite. He was being labeled a murderer, a psychopath, a demon, and yet those accusing eyes never once stopped watching.

The onlookers' biased judgements were an eye opener to Noah's conflicting thoughts. With a sense of satisfaction, he smiled inwardly, finally finding the answer he had been seeking.

'That's right, it's not just because she's a girl that I pitied her. It's because she's utterly helpless, if no one tells her what to do then she wouldn't be capable of achieving anything on her own. Well, more than not being able to achieve anything, it's more like she doesn't even consider that she can do anything. Just like the people here, they didn't choose to fight the monsters to protect themselves, and they also allowed themselves to be extorted and beaten. Even with everything that happened to them, the thought of fighting back never occurred to them. The zombies felt more alive than they do.'

His attention returned to the source of movement next to him. He looked towards Phil, who appeared to finally become cognizant of his surroundings. His thoughts shifted to the reason why Phil's pathetic expression unnerved him so much compared to the others.