The heavy metal gate surrounding the remaining survivors, who are known as the Ashvor, slowly creaked open.
None of the team members wanted to take the first step, it was like fear had glued them to the ground.
Tinya took a deep breath before taking the lead, and only then did the others followed.
Olivia bit her lower lip, as she could feel her legs trembling, with a promise of not supporting her, but before she could buckle to her knees, Anna held her shoulder. "Are you okay?" She asked, with worry laced in her voice.
"I... I'm fine."
"Let's catch up with them, it will be dangerous for us to get separated from them," she urged Olivia to walk, pulling her by her arm.
They both walked hastily joining their teammates, who were already venturing into the woods.
The metal gate began to close again, shutting them out from safety. Now was the time for the teenagers to depend on themselves, to survive the terrific horror of the outside world.
Olivia's green eyes, carefully observed her surroundings as they walked deeper into the woods.
The green leaves of the trees were rich and dark, as if the disaster had not touched them, the ray of the light filtered through the canopy of the forest, the twigs snapped beneath their footsteps, the air felt fresh and damp, a breath that was different from the one in the fortress.
In as much as she would love to admire the beauty of the forest, the shivers running down her spine made everything look like an horror movie.
"Everyone, follow my lead," Tinya's voice commanded.
"Stop acting as if you are the leader." The boy with the gold brown hair scoffed.
"Shut your trap Roy," Tinya shot back at him.
"You shut yours."
The atmosphere grew heavy with tension.
"You want to fight it out," Tinya teased.
"Guys stop," Anna said, having enough of their quarrel. "This is not the time for a fight, we are in the domain of the monsters, we can get attacked anytime," she reasoned, trying to make them realize what was at stake. "We need to stay united."
Olivia unknowingly nodded her head in agreement.
"We are already in this together, we shouldn't…fight because we are going to need our strength later." Olivia stammered, standing next to Anna. She facepalm herself mentally, she didn't know why she had said that, maybe it was because she was so afraid that their loud voices will make the monsters locate them quickly.
"Oh please spare us the lecture, we don't need it from someone like you, a section 27 b**ch." Tinya snapped at her.
"Stop it, Tinya," Anna's voice grew heavy, her nerves strained, ready to fight.
"AAARGH!!!"
A blood chilling scream suddenly pierced through the tension, shattering it like a broken glass.
Olivia and the rest of the team turned towards the source of the scream, but there was nothing but a trail of….blood.
Panic surged in the air, as most of the teenagers scrambled together, their eyes scanning the surrounding frantically.
"We are all going to die, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!" the chubby boy cried, running back towards the direction of the fortress.
Slash.
A pincer hand pierced through his chest, silencing his cry.
His eyes opened wide in surprise, the colour of his skin ashened, before he gave up the ghost. His body was slowly dragged away, sweeping through the dirts.
"Everyone stay calm," Anna's voice woke everyone from the traumatic experience that had just assaulted their mind.
"It is the Craghoul monsters, they are level 4 Creatures," Anna said, as she took out her sword.
The rest of the squad also brought out their weapons, as their eyes frantically looked around the woods. Olivia fingers slightly trembled around her twin blades.
The Craghoul are monsters with pincer hands, long legs with four toes, black coloured skin but thin enough to see the structure of their bones. A long spine like tail and a head with two black eyes and two sharp teeth protruding out of their mouth.
Everyone's eyes darted around, searching for the creatures. Silence fell around them like a thick blanket, the tension made beads of cold sweat dripping over their faces.
Soon chaos followed as the Craghoul monsters began to attack.
Olivia knew that if you are weak, you would only be a stepping stone to the strong, and being weak was her middle name.
She knew she couldn't fight these monsters, the alternative was to hide, yeah she felt like a coward… but most cowards live long enough to tell the tales, while the heros perished in battle.
Her eyes scanned around, looking for a good spot to hide. As if luck was on her side, she found a place, a hole in a tree, a really good spot to hide, as it was underground.
She quickly ran towards her target, but then… she halted abruptly, luckily avoiding a sneaky attack from one of the Craghoul.
Olivia soul nearly leaped out of her chest, the monster swung it claws at her again, but she managed to dodge it, as she twisted her ankle to the side.
Her movements were slow and sloppy, she wasn't even considered as a level 1 soldier, because her system had not awakened yet, so she was basically a normal human with no fighting skills.
Olivia heart pounded in her ears, her brains threatening to shut down, but she had to fight, she had to escape and find safety. The monster struck again, she managed to block it attack with her blades, her green eyes met the monster's soulless eyes, which send shivers of fear through her.
As the monster struck again, her blades flew out of her hands in different directions. Her widened eyes darted toward them, her blood ran cold, knowing that was good as fucked.
Trying to escape, she took to her heels, however the monster swung it tail swiftly at her, ripping through her clothes, before cutting the skin on her back.
She fell to the ground, wincing in pain, blood gushed out of her wounds, pooling on the forest floor.
She saw the monster heading towards her from the corner of her eyes, panic jolted through her, at that moment she saw her life flashing through her eyes.
" No… I can't give up… I can't die now, " she muttered, her hand shakily reached for her gun strapped on her knees.
As the monster reached out for its final strike, its growling echoing through the forest.
Shot. Shot. Shot.
Sounds of gunshot echoed through the air, her green eyes shone with fear and desperation. Black blood splattered over her body, before the monster fell on her. Dead.
She laid frozen on the ground. Panic, fear and relief washed over her. She couldn't believe she had killed a monster, her chest heaved up and down, her heart skittering in its cage.
Uncontrollable tears rolled down her cheeks. But she knew this was not the time to cry, she needed to hide now, before she got discovered by other monsters.
She pushed the monster away, before crawling towards the hole. Her eyes looked at Anna who was effortlessly kicking the ass of the monsters.
By the time she finally managed to reach the safety of the tree. A groan of pain escaped her lips. Right now, all she had to do was wait for the battle to end, before coming out.
After several hours of fighting, the battle finally came to an end.
"We made it," Tinya said, as she cleaned the black blood off her blade.
There were four of them remaining now. Corpses of both human and the monsters scattered around the ground, with some of their limbs separating from their bodies.
Frantically, Anna's eyes scanned the surroundings for Olivia.
"Olivia!" she called out.
"Anna, I'm here," Olivia weakly answered, she had little strength left, as she had lost a lot of blood, her gaze blurred, her body trembling as she curled up inside the hole.
"The trash from section 27 is the aliv…." A monster suddenly springs out of the ground swallowing Tinya and her words.
Anna, who was already walking towards Olivia, turned around, instantly, blood drained from her face.
"A wormhole king," she muttered as she stumbled back. A wormhole king is a level-18 monster, ranked as an S level beast.
Its long steel-like body stood over 200 metre high, sharp jagged teeth surrounding its mouth, its black eyes shone with wisdom.
"We weren't supposed to fight a S level beast," Roy felt his pants wet.
Before the blink of an eye, Roy and the other boy were brutally swallowed by the worm king.
Anna froze. The wormhole king's soulless eyes locked on her, as if sealing her fate.
Anna knew there was no outrunning this beast, the best option was to face it head on, without a second thought she ran towards the monster with a yell.
"I'd rather die in a battle, than die like a coward," she yelled, flying up, aiming her sword at its eye.
"Noooo!!" Olivia screamed, as she tried to crawled out of the hole, her eyes momentarily locking with Anna's, who smiled bitterly at her.
"Nooo!!" she screamed, as she watched her being swallowed by the beast.
She wailed, crawling out of the hole. Just then…
The Wormhole turned, its eyes locked on her. It swiftly turned, crawling crazily towards her, Its body squashing some of the body on the ground, and breaking trees that were in its path.
"This is it?" her green eyes closed, tears flowing down her cheeks.
Then, everything turned dark.