Chapter 26 26: Don't Get Distracted

"I wanted to come here to fix the misunderstanding that I was a threat to you, but….IT TURNS OUT IT WASN'T A MISUNDERSTANDING AFTER ALL.

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 the center.

There was a soft glow originating from Noah's back. The glow perhaps would've been brighter if not for the clothing covering 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 the confidence of Noah even when he was supposedly at a disadvantage, they all thought that the glow was most likely the reason why, well, they weren't wrong.

"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 arms length distance, it quickly changed shape in front of everyone, revealing his giant spider companion.

The spider looked around vigilantly as soon as it surfaced. It wasn't aware of exactly what was going on but it was also affected by Noah's early 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.

It fought humans before and if it wasn't because of it being outnumbered then the two legged creatures it feared before was nothing special, but they did taste delicious.

The voice that yelled out earlier happened to be the tall overweight Phil. Noah didn't bother to answer the question, clearly anyone could see it was a spider.

He already had a small plan in mind and it was simple. He raised his hand slowly and pointed to the shortest person there with the dual axes in his hand.

"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 of 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 had a transformation ability of some kind too then he shouldn't give them the time to activate it. He also knew that out of all of them, the short guy seemed to be the biggest threat and it wasn't because of his weapons, but because of his demeanor.

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.

"Arrggh! Whaa…..?"

Dave wasn't given a chance. Noah's reasoning wasn't far from the truth about his build path. He managed to reach level three, considering that a zombie would give five experience proved that he killed his fair share. He also received an achievement like Noah, but 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.

But he didn't account for two things, one being, meeting a faster opponent and the other, not preparing for disabilitating attacks by raising his spirit. Which 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 grip him, but that didn't stop the other one and a half from attacking from the sides. The encroaching danger all at once made him forget about the deadliest aspect of spiders and he didn't become aware until he felt two large like needles bare down around his chest area. Upon contact he felt tremendous pain, but after the pain, he felt numb. 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.

"D-Da-Dave…?"

Phil stammered, everything happened so fast, 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 way Noah had his spider kill him without any hesitation convinced him that he would be killed too.

He retreated a few steps back, his eyes roamed from the spider, to Noah, the people in the cafeteria watching and then to the doors of the main lobby that leads 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 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 made him react to Ken's orders without thinking. His weapon wasn't technically the best suited to kill a spider of its size.

While Phil charges 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 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. He saw that Ken was heading in the direction of the cafeteria. He wasn't sure if he was running there to hide or if he was going to pull a 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 tethered a web from where it jumped and it appeared that no one else paid any attention to this.

When Phil edged closer to the spider, it suddenly yanked itself backwards 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 Phil and made 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 relaxed when he saw the spider 'avoid' him. He thought the spider was afraid of him, which meant that he had a chance to defeat it. He became even more relaxed when he saw Noah running towards him. Noah was already a head shorter than he was and he was all also a couple sized smaller. During this time, Phil still used the normal means of judging by appearances to determine someone's ability to fight. But he didn't account for his easing up to be his quick downfall.

"PHIILLLLLLL!!"

Because of his slackening vigilance, when he heard the overly dramatic screams of Ken 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 the scene taking place caused an even bigger distraction than calling out his name. When he looked over, he saw Ken on the floor and he seemed as stiff as a statue and his eyes were looking in his direction in horror.

But just that alone wasn't enough to distract him. It seems that the spider took this chance to begin its meal. Ken's body was slowly losing body mass in real time, the scene appeared as though the spider was draining all of the fluids in Ken's body. Coupling that with the fearful eyes still shone in his eyes, made it almost impossible for him to look away.

WHACK!*

Phil felt a heavy blow to his temple and felt his body giving way and making contact with the ground abruptly. He still was conscious but now he was suffering from dizziness. The strength of the blow to the temple would be enough to knock out any normal human, but just like Noah, he also allocated points into his constitution over his other attributes.

Yet that was still only enough to stop him from fainting. He struggled to get up, his vision was blurry but it was enough to get a slight visual of the figure above, hovering over him.

He raised his arms over his head to protect his face as much as he could, he wanted to call out to Noah to stop. Before he could get his distraught mind to speak a coherent sentence, he felt another blow but it was to his chin. His head snapped back while a couple of his teeth flew. The blow was worse than it should've been since he was in the middle of trying to talk.

Even though Phil was hit yet again, he still stopped himself from fainting. Each blow made him become more afraid of dying. He broke out in tears, crying frantically 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 control of his body functions.

"Ple-Pleas-eee….n-nnno…more…" Phil continued to cry out to Noah, he began to cry even more when he saw that Noah didn't continue to advance anymore, believing that his cries were reaching him.

This was the moment that Noah was the most curious about when it concerned himself. He needed to know if he was ready to take this step to take a life and how he would feel during this process. When he saw the broken, yet snobbish face crying for forgiveness, he thought back to Isabelle and how he pitied her. Yet, when he looked into Phil's disturbing expression, all he 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 were all shaken. It didn't matter if it were the ones who were extorted or the two lackeys of the group. Every one of them felt disturbed by what was occurring, people were literally being killed right in front of them. But to Noah, he considered them hypocrites. Even when they felt that way they still continued to watch.

The thought of the onlookers opened his eyes to help him clear his thoughts. He smiled to himself, satisfied that he was finally able to realize what the difference was.

'That's right, it's not just because she's a girl that I pitied her. It's because she's so helpless that she is not able to achieve 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 and yet they didn't try to fight back. The zombies felt more alive than them and it's sad.'

He then looked towards Phil who appeared to finally become cognizant of his surroundings. The disgust he felt for him only grew stronger the more he saw him struggle about.