章 29: Chapter 29: Mysterious predator

Noah couldn't forget the voice of the first person who had tried to kill him earlier that morning. His suspicions were confirmed when he walked to the balcony and spotted a noticeably large group gathered on the bottom floor. Mark stood near the bottom of the steps, brandishing his sword. It appeared that Mark was attempting to attack Noah's spider, but surprisingly, Henry was preventing him from doing so. Noah didn't understand why he would do so; their interactions had been far from cordial since they first met. What Noah didn't know was that Henry still very much feared him, and after witnessing the spider's handiwork, he feared what might happen if he crossed Noah again.

"W-Wait! I'm telling you, that's not a good idea! That spider belongs to someone you shouldn't mess with. I'm trying to help you!" Henry attempted to reason with Mark, whose eyes were bulging in anger. Or was he just overly emotional? Henry couldn't tell, but it was obvious that Mark was furious.

Behind Mark was no longer the big group from before. If before there were about 40 survivors in their group, they were now down to around 18. This drastic reduction partly explained Mark's anger upon discovering a giant spider feasting on a human corpse.

Mark felt he needed to redeem himself for his lack of leadership and helplessness in the face of the beasts that had decimated close to half of their group single-handedly, and there were only two of them! He tried to calm himself down, but the scene kept replaying in his head.

Flashback

"Aaaaaah!"

"IT'S BEHIND US NOW! W-SOMEBODY HELP U-!"

Screams sounded all around them as Mark and his group frantically ran to their destination. Everything was going so well before this. They had the occasional rats try to nibble at them as they made their way past the dead human and zombie corpses. Even then, people would get hurt, but it wasn't enough to stop them. When it came to zombies, Mark and his small party were enough to take on any small groups that crossed their path.

Jas also proved her usefulness. Due to her racial change into an Elf, her summoner class developed small changes. As a summoner, you are given a chance to contract with one specific element and then a skill that will decide what type of summon you will contract with.

Originally, she chose the ice element and the skill 'frostbite,' which was a controlled area of effect ability that would slow down a large group of enemies.As a result, she contracted an Ice spirit. However, after the race change, her spirit was replaced with a druid spirit instead, and her frostbite was replaced with 'nature's entanglement.'

With the help of the surrounding natural environment, Jas could use less mana to root enemies in place with her Druid spirit. The ability to harness the power of nature to immobilize their enemies provided a significant advantage in combat, especially when facing large groups. This new upgrade not only increased the effectiveness of their group, the likelihood of being injured drastically was reduced.

They were making significant progress, especially considering that most of their group consisted of noncombatants. However, they didn't realize that not only did their large group make them a bigger target, but the trail of blood also brought upon them two unlikely predators.

"Buzz! Buzz!"*

"What's that sound?" Mark directed the question to his sister, who usually always had an answer. But when he saw her face, he noted that she too was confused. Their puzzled expressions continued as they tried to find the source of the buzzing echoing through the air, their senses on high alert as they scanned their surroundings for any sign of danger. However, as the source of noise remained a mystery, the anguished cries of a nearby student sounded.

"Beth… Beth?? Ahhhhh!" The sound of a woman's piercing scream shattered the air, halting Mark and Jas in their tracks. Everyone stopped to find out the reason for the woman's cries, but no one liked the sight that greeted them. Pushing through the crowd towards the back of the group, Mark and Jas could see a cluster of people surrounding the area where the scream took place. As they drew nearer, screams continued to sound off, intensifying one after the other. They didn't like where this was heading as Jas and Mark hastened their steps.

They came upon a few girls who were most likely the source of the screams, huddled together being consoled while they cried. Farther down, they found the person called Beth, whose fate sadly foreshadowed that she wouldn't be the last to meet such a tragic end.

Beth was headless! The image of Beth's headless body sent shivers down their spines. And when they investigated her neck area, it had a defining characteristic of being cleanly cut off. The clean precise cut brought about a cold realization, making them fear that what they were dealing with was something far more sinister than the mere zombies or predators they faced before.

"What the hell happened?" Mark asked out loud to no one in particular, but no one answered. He didn't like this feeling, someone dying under his watch, and no one knew how they died; he felt incompetent.

He looked around and spotted the girl who was the first to notice Beth's death.

"Mark?" Jas noticed the irregularity in Mark's behavior since this started and tried to get his attention. However, her efforts were in vain, as Mark had already reached the girl, roughly pulling her to her feet.

"Tell me what happened!" Mark's tone was forceful as he demanded answers, but it only served to intensify the girl's cries, fueling his impatience. He tugged her by the arm and brought her to the headless body.

"Don't you know her? You're gonna stand there and not say anything when your friend was just killed? Do you want everyone else to die just like her? HUH!?"

"MARK! That's enough…"

Mark turned to the voice that challenged him with a glare, but seeing the disappointed look on his sister's face caused his glare to soften before he released the girl's arm.

He felt the need to defend himself for his previous actions; he didn't want her to get the wrong idea, 'it's for everyone's safety'. Yet when he tried to articulate a response, another scream sounded.

Mark and Jas's previous bad feelings deepened as they made their way to the next person, only to find a male also missing a head from his body; the cut was just as sharp and clean as before. At this point, fear sunk into everyone who knew what was going on.

"Noooo! I don't want this!" A student yelled before taking off in a random direction. And just like a domino effect, one by one, others started to branch away from the group. Jas could understand everyone's feelings, but now wasn't the time to make decisions based on them.

"Wait! If we don't stick together, it will make it easier for whatever is doing this! You'll be safer if you stay together with us." But no one listened to her; only the people who felt safer in a group stayed, while the ten or so others never turned back.

In the end, the ones who stayed decided to form a circle to confront whatever was attacking them.

Buzzz Buzzz*

The buzzing sound of wings resurfaced, echoing in the distance toward the direction of those who had fled. They could hear the screams and yells of the students who ran away earlier amongst the buzzing. No one was sure if they caught a glimpse of the attacker or maybe they cried out because the buzzing noise approached them. One by one, each person they heard in the distance dwindled before there was silence.

"Mark, we can't go on like this… Whatever it is, it's moving too fast for us to contend with. How many people do we have to lose before we can even see what we're dealing with?" Even for Jas, the tone of her voice held a hint of fear.

"And what do you think we should do? Be cowards and make a run for it? We should stand our ground here. If people die, then at least it won't be in vain if we are able to kill that beast. Dying while running away is worse than dying while fighting. And once we spot what's causing all of this, I alone will be enough to deal with it, so don't worry."

As he talked, Jas could make out the prideful smile appearing on his face. She just couldn't bring herself to agree with this "new" brother of hers, but he was still her little brother whom she loved. It would be more detrimental to start a fight now than to just follow along with him. She would just have to make a plan to make up for his rash decisions.

All of them waited in silence. The silence made the situation more horrifying, and even the smallest sound would startle the people in the group.

"Jasmine, Jasmine, Jasmine!" The sudden squeals sent everyone in the surroundings jumping in fright. The only person who wasn't affected was Jas herself. Well, she was affected, but she wasn't afraid. She sighed with a heavy heart. She already knew who the voice belonged to, but she didn't want to acknowledge her right now. The girl had her quirks, and it made her appear very eccentric. Despite what happened a few years ago, the girl's peculiar behavior hadn't changed. Jas knew this well, as she was the girl's only friend, largely due to this reason.

"Alietta, we don't have time for this right now. Can it wait?" Even though the tone of her voice suggested that Ailetta was being troublesome, it didn't dishearten her at all.

"But! I think I can help figure out what's out there!"

The annoying feeling she was giving everyone immediately subsided when they heard her. Everyone's ears perked up to listen to what she had to say. Hopefully, the suggestion wouldn't be as weird as her personality.

Mark, in particular, wasn't amused. He looked disdainfully towards the girl who was usually always around his older sister during school. Her appearance made him loathe her even more.

She couldn't be described as a beauty, and the majority of the people who saw her would consider her a plain Jane. Standing at around 5 feet 5 inches, she had shoulder-length long auburn hair with long bangs that often covered her face. Her square-shaped glasses, held together by tape on the bridge, were her trademark, as she only had one pair. Freckles adorned her cheeks, framing her button-sized nose and small, thin lips. The only eye-grabbing feature about her would be her green eyes that often shone with curiosity.

Mark never could understand why his sister put up with her so much. Even now, he could tell that his sister was interested in her idea when she didn't show the slightest interest in his own.

"Well? Are you going to say it or not? Quit wasting our time." He couldn't help but quip back at her. Jas didn't plan on commenting on his attitude; he was always quite rude to Ailetta for some reason, but even when he was, Ailetta would always appear oblivious to his remarks.

"We just need to have someone act as bait! And it doesn't have to b-"

"I know you didn't have a good idea! If you want someone to be bait, then are you gonna be the one to volunteer? I'd like to see that." Mark interrupted her, this time earning a pout from Ailetta. She could usually ignore him before when she was just talking to Jasmine, and he would then proceed to ignore her back, but she didn't like to be interrupted when she's talking to her friend.

"Coughs* Jasmine, did you forget I was a summoner too?"

Ignoring Mark once again, she asked Jasmine a question that, to the listeners, didn't give them any answers. Everyone was becoming restless, and Mark wanted to rebuke her again, but Jasmine realized what Ailetta was getting at before she exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention.

"That's right! The bait doesn't have to be alive. We can make our own zombies."