Chapter 22: Disappointed (2)

"Something is off… there is a weird sound in the distance," Rina said.

"This sound… a new enemy arrived in town, a bit sooner than expected," Shalia said. "Things are going to get pretty intense at night as well."

The sun had already set when Luke finished memorizing everyone's names and when he heard those words. As expected, he won't have the chance to relax, not even at night.

"I want to hear proper information… not that kind of ambiguous nonsense," Luke said.

"It is hard to say, but I think that the Corrupt Crows had arrived on your city," Rina said. "They only operate in the dark, but what makes them truly annoying enemies is the fact that they become stronger by eating dead bodies."

That wasn't good… it was essentially the same as telling him that the humans who tried really hard to survive prepared a hot meal for a new opponent. Since their goal was to eat the corpses, Luke and the others could always hide inside the house, which would only delay the unavoidable.

"All right… which of you had watched zombie movies?" Luke asked. "Do you learn anything from that?"

"Is that another senseless joke?" Amanda asked.

"Not entirely, but you can learn even watching something stupid," Luke said. "Here are some basic rules for the zombies' apocalypse, number one: don't help strangers since it might be a trap. Don't look for strangers since they might stab you in the back later. Don't trust in strangers, because in a world where knowledge and resources are everything, anyone can at least take your resources."

"I am astonished…" Amanda said. "Your social skills must be terrific if you truly believe in that."

"Speaking of strangers… you listened to her pretty easily, don't you think?" Celia said.

"Not really, I know her more or less from college, and my parents know her parents," Luke said. "With that in mind, they aren't exactly strangers."

"What about me?" Celia asked.

"The fact that you have this guy with you proves that you are as naive as one can be," Luke said while pointing to Luchi. "Rather than worrying about being backstabbed, I am worried that you might cause other types of problems like trying to play the hero."

"Being naive and good-hearted are two different things," Luchi said.

"Whatever you say," Luke said and then shrugged. "Back to the topic, what I mean is, let's focus on our own survival. Once we achieve a few things, we can do others. To make things simple, let's move with a single goal in mind each time. This time, we are going to leave the house and kill all the corrupt crows around the block."

Flying enemies were a pain in the ass, so maybe it was a good thing that Luke was going to work with Amanda's group for a while. Still, before leaving, Luke headed to the garage of his home and grabbed some flashlights. His father had several of those alongside batteries… even though they were pretty old.

"Only turn them on for a short while," Luke said. "The three of us will focus on hunting the corrupt crows, while you guys will make sure the zombies won't surround us."

Celia and Amanda's parents nodded. While they lost their hesitation and got uses to the zombies, fighting in the darkness against a new type of foe was something too tough for them. While Amanda and Celia could work to keep the monsters away from them, they still were several levels below Luke, so they had to work together.

The group slowly left the house, but even before all of them could leave the place, they could hear the gruesome sounds of the crows eating the corpses. One thing that Rina forgot to mention was the size of the Corrupt Crows. They were much bigger than even falcons. Despite the darkness of the night, Luke still could see their silhouette above the corpses, and while the group had decimated dozens of zombies in that block, only three of them were around.

Without warning anyone, Luke dashed toward one of them. It was the best moment to attack the targets since they weren't flying, after all. Usually, flying monsters don't have high endurance. Still, Luke didn't want to find out that before trying to kill at least one with melee attacks.

Despite the surprise, the creature reacted on time to attack Luke. The monster opened its mouth and fired a burst of wind toward Luke that hit his stomach. The impact caught him off guard and made him lose the air in his lungs, but it didn't stop him from charging, even though he lost ten points of health in that single attack.

From up-close, Luke confirmed that the crows were as tall as humans, and they were pretty full of themselves as well. The creature he attacked didn't try to run away. It only tried to bite him with its beak. Luke's rapier and the beak of the monster collided, creating sparks in the area. Although Luke had increased his strength quite a bit that day, he still didn't manage to overpower the beast.

"I can't let this thing block my attack again… Rapiers aren't good for blocking," Luke thought.

Luke stepped forward for a moment, and the monster used that chance to prepare another attack, but before it could finish it, Luke used Stinger and pierce the creature's left chest. The beast almost grunted in pain, but Luke didn't let that happen since he used Stinger two times more and made his weapon pierce that thing's heart.

You obtained 10 experience points.

You obtained 10 gold coins.

Luke thought that he won the battle pretty easily, but he forgot that he used Stinger at the max level. Hence, he used half of his SP to kill a single monster, and the other two were ready to attack him.