131 Monsters

\"Wow. You really impress the shit out of me, you know that?\" said a young man sitting on a chair as he stared at the bloodied person in front of him. \"You could have saved yourself,\" he said, then shrugged, \"...and save us a lot of time.\"

The man stood up and grabbed the person's hair to raise it, so he could look at him.

\"How does it feel? Being under your own skill?\" the man said then chuckled.

The bloodied person tied up on the chair was the lawyer who have a specialized skill on contracts. He received a unique skill because of his nature of ripping and cornering people off with his contracts for years.

And the reason why he was tied up like this was because he rejected the man's invitation to become his subordinate. The man once said, if you can't be mine, then no one else will have you.

The power that a binding contract proved to be too powerful that even if it was against his will, the owner, the creator of the contract couldn't help but fall victim to it.

He was treated fairly at first since the man wanted him as a subordinate, but after a day passed, it seemed like he already changed his mind. He entered with four bodyguards, together with a uniformed police.

They started to converse without lowering their voices and the police asked updates about the man's uncle. From their conversation, he figured out that this young man was the mayor's son.

He was then tortured by the bodyguards alternately, for the whole afternoon and night, which resulted in his current appearance.

The police tried stopping the torture but was threatened by the young man using his uncle's influence. Barely five minutes have passed and the young man left the room followed by the reluctant police.

The next morning after he was captured, they used his own hands to write a contract that obliges him to obey their every words. Then they stamped his own bloodied thumb onto the contract and used his own skill against him.

He only have fragmented memory of the whole day since most of the time, he was being questioned. He doesn't know what the question nor what he have said, but it seems like they've already gotten what they're looking for.

Looking at the smirking face of the young man made him want to spit on him.

\"Hey, what are you guys doing? Why aren't you untying our little friend here.\" said the young man to his bodyguards.

The bodyguards looked at each other first before one stepped up to untie the man.

\"You know, I really like your perseverance. I apologize for what this brutes did and I hope that you could look past the tree and observe the forest.\"

When the man's hand got untied, he twisted his wrists then suddenly lunged towards the young man. The bodyguard who hasn't left, quickly grabbed him and sat him back down to his chair.

The young man shook his head at the scene.

\"I know you're quite angry right now, but over time, you would realize that working for me is to your greater good. I don't want to turn you into a mindless puppet, but I will if I have to.\"

The bloodied man stared at his feet, thinking whether this was his retribution for everything and everyone that he did wrong.

The thought of working for someone never came to his mind, simply because he knew how the world works. The top would always benefit while the workers do the hard work.

But now, even if he agreed to work for this man, it was not beneficial. He would live a life under the skills effect and could be used like a dog.

He smirked at the young man and spat at him.

Red saliva flew in the air and landed on the young man's cheeks.

The young man's face turned stoic as he wiped the saliva from his cheek. Then, he glared at him with his sharp eyes, then signaled something to his bodyguard.

The bodyguard grabbed the neck and started hitting the man's head. After a few sceonds, the bodyguard felt that something was not right and let go of the body.

Blood was spilling from the corners of the man's mouth.

***

\"What happened? Is he dead?\"

Henry quickly rose from his seat once again. His heart started beating like a drum since this is his first seeing something like this, this close, besides the initial outbreak.

The bodyguard leaned the body on the chair and investigated. Afterwards, he said, \"He bit his tongue, sir.\"

\"Wha— Bastard!\"

Henry stood up in shock and made his way to the dead man since he didn't believe that someone would have the courage to suicide.

Though scared, he stared at the man's face and found the blood dripping on his mouth amusing. Since he confirmed with his own eyes that the man was really dead, he slowly backed off and lost interest.

\"What a waste of talents. I just wanted him to work for me. He didn't have to kill himself.\" Henry sighed and walked back to his chair to get his things.

Just then, he heard his bodyguard call for him.

\"Sir, I think you would like to see this...\"

Henry raised an eyebrow and felt like the bodyguard was acting mysterious for some reason. He walked back to them and the bodyguard signaled for him to hold the dead body.

He wanted to smack his bodyguard after he was ordered to touch the dead body, but restrained himself since something felt weird. If there was nothing special, he would have to punish this one even if he was his favorite.

The moment he reached for the body, a notification appeared infront of him.

***

At the same time that Nik and Bartolome saved the girl from being caught of guard, Jun was busy loitering around the store's warehouse.

\"He should be able to use this, right? Let's hope so.\"

He took things that he think were useful; metal sheets, steel beems and several metals. The metal sheets were cut into two since it was too big to go in the spiraling dimensional wormhole while the beems and metals directly went inside since they were only longer and not wide.

After making sure that he didn't miss anything useful, he went out and met with the group at the store front.

As he walked towards them, he noticed an additional person in the group. It was impossible not to notice since she was the only woman and the only person not wearing a mask on the group.

\"What's going on?\" said Jun.

Nik stepped forward and said, \"There's a horde of carriers on the slope ahead of us. A helicopter crash landed and further caused accidents on the highway. I didn't see any D-series carrier but saw signs that there might be H-series on the crowd.\"

Bartolome who was next to him frowned, even though no one could see it. He was there when they first saw the horde and he was sure that there was nothing strange on the crowd.

\"How many?\"

\"Around one hundred regulars with unknown number of evolvers.\"

Jun furrowed his brows after Nik reported the numbers. He then muttered, \"Why is there so few...\"

The woman who was listening to their conversation stared at Jun in shock. She felt that the man was bragging, even claiming that a hundred was such a small figure.

Without any further words, Jun led the group to the top of the slope. He examined the surroundings to get a feel of how the battle could turn out.

After gauging that the sea of carriers weren't a threat to them, he readied himself for battle. He wielded his bonehammer and charged to the horde.

The woman beside Nik gasp in shock and couldn't help but exclaim. \"Is he crazy?\"

Just as she finished speaking, Nik ran after Jun and joined the fray. Then, the flock started following the two while letting out several comments.

\"Here we go again!\"

\"Can't we rest for a bit more? I'm totally full right now!\"

She felt weirded out seeing the swarm of people rushing towards those zombies.

All of a sudden, someone spoke next to her.

\"Do you know how to fight? No... Uhh, please stay on the sides and don't cause trouble.\" said Bartolome.

With his mask on, Katrina couldn't determine who he was but she still nodded her head.

Since he already gave her some advise, Bartolome ran after the group to help them.

Jun led the group as the vanguard.

All kinds of noises came from the carriers. Roars, screams, shrieks and some even wailed.

As he ran forward, he gathered energy into his bonehammer. Before the carriers could reach the lunging distance, Jun threw the bonehammer in front of him. It flew in a straight line and went through numerous carriers body.

With his strength and additional energy channeled to the bonehammer, it caused devastating damage to everything it hit. The carriers body had holes that still have the wound's edges burning.

The bonehammer finally stopped when it struck a car after losing momentum.

Jun quickly pulled out two short swords from his dimensional storage and continued his charge. He easily cleaved the heads of any regular carrier that came in front of him. The only problem was that their bodies were quickly piling on top of each other and he had to move around. he didn't have to worry on his back or sides since someone was fiercely fighting beside him. Considering the increasingly noisy shouts of everyone charging into battle, he calmly fought everything that rushed in front of him.

Not even ten minutes have passed and the battle ended. Though some carriers managed to reanimate themselves, they were only able to since their heads weren't cleanly cut off their necks.

Katrina stared in awe at the scene.

M-monsters.