Lea looked at the watch closely and then at the person in front of her, waiting impatiently for the people that most likely are already dead.

She stepped forward and voiced her opinion. “It's already 20 minutes past the scheduled time, we can't wait anymore.”

“I know!” Leon lashed out yet still maintained his gaze towards the direction where the people we were waiting were supposed to come from “They might have encountered a problem or their path must be blocked by monsters. We can afford to wait a little longer.”

Can we? Lea thought as she assessed the situation.

Maybe if the situation was the same as before, but after being forced to move deeper and deeper into the city due to the minotaur's thorough hunting. We were in the deep end of the water that spelled casualty whenever we had any encounter with any creature.

If you also add into account the fact that all 3 groups who went to secure the perimeter failed to return at the designated time as well as the fact that there were only 3 of us with bags full of food, medicines, and supplies to protect, we were far from having any leisure to wait around.

That said, I could also understand where Leon was coming from, Even I wouldn't want to be in a group where they abandon another at the first sign of trouble. Strength and safety in numbers were effective precisely so because one looks out for another.

But.... right now, with each passing second, we were being exposed to unnecessary danger. Risking whatever we managed to ransack at the cost of all the missing people who were potentially dead just so we could confirm that the people who were missing were indeed killed, wasting their death in the process.

He’s normally very logical and capable but always gets too emotional, not able to make the hard decisions, not able to abandon people. Lea was about to speak up when a figure dashed over the wall that was next to us.

Both Lea and Leon readied in an instant, ready to intercept the figure but soon relaxed when they saw the familiar face they were waiting for.

The figure that landed gave out a strange feeling as he walked. It was the sort that was hard to pinpoint what exactly caused it. His face carried a grave tone as he ran towards us, his body had spots of blood, but it didn't seem like it was his.

Even though he stopped in front of us to pant, he made almost no sound. As if the space around him was cut off from the rest of the world.

“Marcos! Are you okay? What happened to the rest?” Leon inquired urgently.

The slightly dark-skinned young man with a cut on his brows that extends to his eyes shined his face towards us after sending enough breath in his lungs to talk “Bugs. Big. Lots of them, they have the other side completely covered.”

“What about the others?” Lea inquired, she already knew the answer, but the sooner we hear from him the sooner we can leave.

“Everyone on my group is dead, I barely escaped with my ability. We can't wait for the other groups to find out whether they moved on or not. Gotta move now before they surround this area as well.”

The atmosphere crunched up in pain with the confirmation of the death of 11 members who were just alive moments before.

“Okay, let's go.” Lea spoke, breaking the atmosphere with urgency “Those who have a free hand, carry the bags, we gotta move fast.” It was just as she thought. Honestly, we should have moved the instant all 3 groups were late to arrive.

Hopefully, it's not too late.

She loaded as much as she could on her body without interfering with her mobility. She didn’t have to move a lot when fighting so it naturally came to her to carry them.

“Leon?” The big guy who was silent till now finally spoke with a quiet, almost calming voice.

I turned around to see Leon still looking out with a conflicted expression.

OH, COME ON! Don’t tell me he's still thinking of waiting for them. “We gotta go.” You idiot “If we die as well, the people back in the base have to fend and fight for themselves.” and God's would that would be a change.

That seems to finally make him convinced as he turned back and prepares to leave. “Okay.... let's go.”

With that, we soon run through the back end of the building. Avoiding the big road and cutting through the area using the alleyways with Marcus having the cat’s feet running at the front, me and the big guy in the middle with all the supplies, and finally Leon at the rear.

It would have been ideal if we were granted safe passage towards the base, but of course, reality wasn’t kind nowadays. A small swarm of the big bugs Marcus talked about just so happened to cross the route we were cutting through.

They were large insect like creatures covered with heavy black armor and sporting a huge needle on their face. Their belly which was the only spot the armor didn’t cover just so happened to also be bright red, as if announcing to the world where exactly to strike to kill them.

Marcus parted ways as I grab a hold of prana in the atmosphere in my extended hands. The intangible energy felt like grabbing onto a thick form of air even though there was no actual tactile sensation.

The ball of energy which was only visible to me soon burst into a large ball of flame which launched itself in a stream of fire. The whole process took about two seconds, something which I've been trying hard to reduce.

The flame poured directly into the slow moving insect who failed to move out of the way. The stream of fire abated after a second later, leaving behind a burning corpse. Leon dashed through, reaching the insect all the way from the back within a second, cutting through the burning insect with his white bone sword.

It was always better to double-tap, as the charred corpse could also just be a charred exterior. They could also cause havoc by running around with their flaming body, that was also something we learned the hard way. The rest of the monsters converged to the target that presented itself, attacking with their large forelegs that were inwardly oriented.

Big guy jumped in front of Leon, intercepting the horde wordlessly and stopping their entire momentum with his flat black chitinous-looking shield.

My hand extended to grab the second batch of prana, Leon who noticed that ran behind the shield which was keeping the horde in one place. I forcefully shifted the nature of prana which I controlled and released it into the horde with an impressive stream of fire that came alongside with a bitch of a headache.

I held out for a few seconds longer than last time, letting the group be thoroughly glazed with the last fire I would properly be able to dish out for the day. Leon jumped out of the reddened shield the moment my fire ran out and cut through the smoldering group, leaving behind spots of charred organs in his otherwise white blade.

I place my hand on my head as the headache really started to form, it was similar to the strain you get from doing 6 hours of math homework after you downed 4 tequila last night and were suffering from a hangover.

I heard a scraping noise behind my back, I turn my head around to see 3 bugs already dead behind me, with the last one dying as Marcus stabs it through the crack of its armor in its back as he stands on top of it.

The bug shake erratically as if its insides were being grinded inside a mixer, which was pretty close to what was actually happening.

As usual, his fighting style is as eerily silent as always. I didn’t even hear the 3 giant insects dying when it was right behind my back. We were about to leave when Marcus suddenly turned his head around towards the wall of the adjacent building. Just as I turn my head around to have a look, the wall broke, no, it melted as a horde of the same bugs we were fighting marched out.

“Run!” Leon screamed unnecessarily as we had already started running by then, with the horde not too far from us as they chased us with a chorus of buzzing sounds.

Having to carry the bag and already being physically weaker than the rest, made Lea trail behind the group with the horde slowly catching up to her.

It was not a situation where the others could help her, anyone who was going to slow down was risking death. Even after throwing away the heavy bags, the bugs were slowly catching up to her.

So, she did a risky gamble, she turned around with an instant 180 with her hands on the ground.

Forcing through the intense headache and the premonition of knowing that it was going to be much worse after this, Lea took control of a wide range of prana. The strain immediately intensified with a burst of pain but she fought through and shifted the nature of prana again. This time towards the opposite end.

The entire floor suddenly started sprouting ice with Lea’s hand as the starting point. It neither froze the monsters nor made them slow down, but it certainly made them tumble with one of the ones in the front skidding right towards her.

Lea stayed frozen with pain with her hands still on the ground as she mentally prepared herself for the crash, hoping to survive when a silhouette jumped in front of her, protecting her from the crash with a thin flat shield that in all rights should not be able to hold against that much force.

She closed her eyes from the large crashing boom and opened them to see a large burly man standing firmly with an intact shield in his hands.

“T-thanks" Although surprised, she thanked the person who came back to save her, though all she got in reply was the big man blushing slightly and averting his eyes without speaking a word.

With the horde severely slowed with the icy road, we managed to successfully evade them and finally reach back to our base – an underground shelter.

In terms of quality, this was one of the better ones when comparing it to the previous ones we had to run away from. It had electricity with the backup power which could be used in low power and even had running water in the channels. The fact that it was underground and hidden was a huge plus as well.

But in the end, when the time comes, she will have to abandon and run away again like the last two times.

Lea sighed as she entered the shelter, coming back with 4 people and a bag of supplies after leaving with 15 in the morning.

The inside was depressing as always with the residents moping around without a speck of hope on their face but the moment they saw the group that left returning it was as if a corpse had miraculously come back to life.

They rushed towards us with a bright face, or more specifically towards Leon and the bags that we carried. I wisely dropped off the bag on the floor and moved out of the crowd and towards a corner.

“Is this.... all you got?” One of the people, a middle-aged man who did nothing to earn it spoke with disappointment but also with a hint of accusation in his tone.

“Unfortunately, we ran into a problem and had to abandon the second bag of supplies” Leon spoke as if it was their right to receive these goods which he failed to reach.

“What about the rest? What happened to them?” One of them who surrounded Leon asked.

“They.... didn’t come back” he spoke as a shadow casted his face, which caused the rest of them to shut up, even if they were narrow-minded selfish pricks who were a waste of society, even they couldn’t dump their frustration of the dwindling supplies into them at this situation.

My head started to ache further from seeing the whole conversation. I kept my head down and between my shoulders. This was going to hurt for a few days.

“Well, you certainly look good today.” A teenager with blonde hair and punk clothing spoke with a gleeful tone as if we were classmates who were seeing each other in the morning.

“Shut up, you snarky kid, it's bad enough that I have to witness that while I'm suffering from the worst headache ever”

“Kid? I am a respectable adult as of this year though,” she said as she sucked on a lollipop.

“Snarky kids are snarky kids, age got nothing to do with them. Also, what's with your clothing at least try wearing something that fits the atmosphere, we’re in an apocalypse for God sake,”

“You're certainly speaking a lot for someone who just shooed me away,” said Emilia as she walked closer.

“Shut up, where did you even get that lollipop from anyways?”

“Privilege for being the most important person here. But more importantly...” She sat beside me and spoke with a firmer sound “Are the others really dead?”

I sighed again with my head going further down into my chest “Yeah. At least I think so. They were most likely caught by those bug monsters, don’t think anyone except Mr. Batman can escape from that without knowing about it.”

“Well, damn. Excluding the useless ones, there are only 5 of us left now, huh?. Looks like the time we are going to be wiped out is not too far.” Emilia spoke as if its someone else’s problem

“Yeah, anything living in here is no joke. We're reduced to less than 20 people after arriving with more than 50 people last week”

She mimicked me as she sighed “And it’s the productive members who are dying off, leaving mORE AND MORE USELESS ONES BEHIND THAT JUST EAT UP FOOD!” Emilia spoke loudly, intending for the others to hear as well.

They responded with glares, looking down in shame or eyes with contempt.

Although Lea understood her anger, she could not blame the other party as well. The only ones who were still left were people in their 40’s and 50’s as well as some children.

Even if one gets awoken to an ability, it was not like they suddenly learned how to fight as well. Excluding the few ones like Leons and Rudy’s, going against those creatures required guts and will that most just couldn’t muster along with the person himself being strong to have any chances of survival. One couldn’t blame them for hiding behind their age and pretending to not be able.

Rudy.... huh. She felt something close to nostalgia as she thought of the person she hasn’t seen for over two months. Hopefully, he is doing better than me right now.

“When do you think the minitours gonna come knocking this time around?” Emilia continued as if the last thing didn’t just happen.

“Don’t know....” Lea replied breaking off from her thoughts “We usually get two weeks in between every time we relocate. The guy is unexpectedly thorough, taking his time, circling every corner for any humans till he reaches the center.”

“Huh... At least next time we can expect a lot of casualties from the useless side as they can't hide behind numbers anymore.” Emilia spoke with a grin that earned a small smile on Lea’s face as well, which was a rare occurrence these days.

Although Lea could understand them, it still didn’t help with the irritation she was feeling every time she goes out, preparing to die and returning with fewer and fewer people while they sat inside safely enjoying the spoils she returned with. This irritation only increased after they started to adopt their attitude.

“It’s a shame that the kids will die as well” Emilia continued and Lea’s mood plummeted back.

Noticing her friend's mood taking a turn for the worse she quickly spoke again, trying to correct her mistake “Oh, yeah. I made you some defensive equipment, you're like a glass cannon, after all. We need you protected for the upcoming doom days and all.”

Lea’s eyes widened as she got up quickly.

“Woah, you're that surprised? Well, it did take a lot of eff-”

“Shush” Lea shushed her friend as she closed her eyes and listened more closely. It was hard to tell because of how low it was but facing it the 3rd time, now the 4th, Lea was sure that what she was hearing was indeed what she feared the most. The rumble steadily grew louder as even the room filled with chatter and joy from the new supplies quieted down.

“Are you serious!? It's only been a week.” Emilia spoke next to me with a startled face, recognizing the sound for the reaper that was stubbornly out for their souls.

“Looks like dooms day is scheduled a lot earlier than we thought.”

Rumble.