World's Last Hope-Chapter 111: The First Kill
Master Talon had led the team of Awakened to a swamp where they were supposed to fight monster for the first time.
As the Awakened were outside the protective reach of the cathedrals and the gods, they felt the air becoming harder to breathe.
Following the Master, they had to enter into the shallow murky waters.
Kyle had to admit that despite being in the death zone, he had yet to see any monsters. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
He quickly regretted his thought, however, as he saw where the Master was pointing.
Among the trees that were growing unbothered by the water that surrounded them, it seemed as if something was poking its head out, curiously looking at the Awakened.
Kyle shuddered for a moment. What he was seeing was an eyeball with a crimson pupil—and that eyeball, despite being far from them, was clearly at least as large as a human’s head.
"This is the first monster that you are going to hunt," Master Talon spoke as he took a step to the side, outside the monster’s gaze, which naturally was now solely on the Awakened.
"Wait, please! We can’t fight something like this right off the bat!" one scared woman screamed.
Kyle couldn’t blame her. If the monster had an eyeball that was as big as a human’s head, then how big was its body? It was clearly too strong for just a few Awakened who had only just started their training.
The Master yawned, putting a hand over his mouth. A second later, he spoke.
"I know that it looks terrifying, but it’s just a Low Grade-2 monster. You will be able to beat it. Don’t worry," the man reassured.
"Are you sure?" Kyle began, "Something this big is just a Low Grade-2 monster?"
The Master shifted his gaze to the monster before speaking.
"Yes, this is an important lesson, not just for how to kill monsters, but how to make a difference between different types of strengths."
The Master held up three fingers. As he began to explain,
"First, we have cases like this, where the monster is weak. That thing may be weak, but it is still an organism that may be threatened by other monsters. As such, it has a scary appearance to scare off stronger predators—or at least make them think twice before attacking."
The monster, of course, didn’t wait for the Master to finish his explanation, as it slowly stood up, revealing itself from the murky waters.
Black scales covered its body, making it easy to spot, as it wasn’t camouflaged with the murky waters, which had a greenish hue. It had three antennae, each ending in a massive eyeball. Its body was smaller than expected, chubby, and wider than it was tall.
It had two arms that ended with three sharp fingers.
The monster began to walk slowly toward the Awakened.
"Second," the Master, not bothered by the approaching monster in the slightest, continued, "there are the strong ones that don’t care about their appearance. As such, if you see something that doesn’t seem that dangerous, I advise you to run, as more often than not, it is much stronger than you think, and the reason it doesn’t look threatening is that it doesn’t need to."
The Awakened were hardly registering his words, as all of them were focusing on the upcoming monster. The only exception was Kyle, who was trying to memorize as much of the information as possible.
"And third, the ones that are truly dangerous. You will immediately be able to recognize them. When your eyes land on them, you will know that if you don’t get out as soon as possible, you are as good as dead."
Gulping audibly, Kyle asked, "Have you met the third type of monster?"
Surprised for a second that somebody had managed to keep calm under the gaze of the slowly approaching monster, the Master scoffed before replying,
"Thank gods, I haven’t. Oh, keep in mind that what I just told you isn’t something that could be considered true. It’s just the conclusion I’ve come to after living for so long, so take it with a grain of salt."
Kyle, seeing that the Master was done with his explanation, shifted his gaze to the monster and began to think.
The first thing he noticed was that the monster was slow... very slow. There weren’t more than 500 meters between them, yet the monster would need at least five minutes to reach them.
What was the reason? Kyle asked himself. Was it because it was slowed down by the water? But that couldn’t be the case, as if it had been living here, then it was natural to assume that it would get used to the living conditions.
Or could it be that it hadn’t been living here until recently? Its legs were short, meaning that it would have problems walking, let alone running, in the waters. Its black scales made it pretty obvious where it was located, as it didn’t blend with the surroundings at all.
After a moment of hesitation, he turned to the Master and asked,
"Is... this not the natural habitat of the monster?"
Hearing the question, Talon couldn’t help but smile.
"No, it is not. This is one more lesson to be learned here. In the wild death zone, even the monsters are not safe from one another. This monster here has probably been scared off from its natural habitat."
Kyle raised an eyebrow. "So, does that mean we have the upper hand?"
"Yes, you do. But don’t get too cocky, because in the death zone, anything could and will go wrong. You will live longer if you think like that."
Nodding, Kyle took the Master’s words to heart. After confirming his suspicions that they indeed had the upper hand, he felt braver and suggested his plan to the others.
Shifting his gaze to a woman who carried a wooden bow, he spoke, "It will be a good idea to attack the eyeballs, don’t you think?"
"Me?" The girl flinched back at Kyle’s suggestion, clearly not comfortable with attacking the creature.
He raised a reassuring smile. "Yes, you are the only one with a bow, and if we make it blind, the creature will fall much easier."
The girl gulped, realizing that everybody’s eyes were on her. Seeing that she didn’t have much of a choice, she took one light silver arrow from her back and placed it on the bow.
She took a deep breath as she pulled back the string, and the moment she exhaled, she let go.
The arrow flew through the air and hit one of the eyeballs.
The monster screamed in pain but didn’t stop moving toward the humans. It seemed its hunger was much stronger than the pain it was feeling.
Seeing that she had a knack for it, the girl gained a shred of confidence and let out two more arrows toward the other eyeballs.
Kyle smiled as he saw that now the creature was completely blind.
The monster was probably going to use its hearing to locate them, so he whispered, "Okay, let’s attack!"
A few gave him weird looks, but knowing that there probably wouldn’t be a similar chance, they steeled their resolve and stepped forward.
Kyle and the other Awakened had the creature surrounded.
"Now!" Kyle spoke as he attacked with his spear.
The others followed suit with their weapons as well.
Kyle couldn’t help but shudder. This was the first time he had attacked a living being. He felt how his spear went past between the scales of the creature and pierced its skin.
Without hesitating, he pulled out the spear, and black blood began to pour from the wound he had just made.
Not slowing down even for a second, he attacked the same way, and so did every Awakened that had surrounded the creature.
The monster let out a pained screech, but before it could attack, it collapsed due to the numerous wounds it had received in the span of a few seconds, as its black blood began to mix with the murky waters of the swamp.
Kyle took a deep breath, trying to calm down his wildly beating heart.
He ignored Master Talon, who was clapping enthusiastically in the back, as he shifted his gaze to his right hand that was trembling a little.
He clenched his palm into a fist and smiled.
Today, he had killed a monster for the first time.
Talon approached the Awakened with a smile as he addressed them.
"See? It wasn’t that hard, was it?"
A few of the Awakened smiled, trying to register that they had managed to kill a monster.
Kyle was the only one who noticed that the Master’s smile disappeared as his eyes became colder.
"Um... is something the matter, sir?" he asked, his voice carrying a sense of worry.
The Master turned his back to the Awakened as he sumomened his weapon.
"Yes, it seems that we have uninvited guests."
