Chapter 7: What Makes a Leader?

[Clear!] – Dianne

[Come on guys, let’s go!] – Miguel

After we left the restaurant, we noticed that the streets were clear of monsters. It was strange. There were a lot of corpses though. Human corpses. They were starting to rot and they smelled horrible. Luckily, we got facemasks from the hardware store. The kind of facemask that bike riders used to wear.

As you can imagine, some of the buildings we came across were totally ruined because of the strong earthquake on the first day. It’s only been two days but there were strange plants growing on the cracks of the concrete road.

We tread silently through the eerily empty streets. We’ve been walking for at least ten minutes but it was strange that we haven’t encountered a single monster yet.

[I spotted a lone goblin scout three blocks at your 10. Can you see it?] – Dianne

I took a peek from a side wall and saw the goblin.

Goblin Scout Lvl. 4

[Yes, I am seeing it right now. Okay, guys. Same tactics and formation like the other day.]- Miguel

When the goblin turned to the opposite direction, I gave the team my go signal and attacked it. Melissa drew her bow and used her [Aimed Shot] and hit the goblin scout in its back.

-102 HP Target Died

Our charge was cut short when the goblin instantly died. It’s not even a critical hit.

[One hit?!] – Eric

[Looks like it… Probably because of our stats and equipment.] – Miguel

[Do you think we can handle groups now?] – Claire

[I think so but we have to change our approach when it comes to group fights. We have to fight smart. Preferably, I’d like to avoid monster groups as much as possible.] – Miguel

[But if we have no other choice, what will be our play?]- Melissa

[It’s pretty much the same like Eric’s tactics when we fought our first group of monsters but we have to change our ways so no one gets hurt as much as possible.] – Miguel

In a normal RPG game, the common tactic used in fighting a group was to control the mob’s aggro and let the damage dealers take care of the mob. Obviously, this wasn’t a normal RPG game. Even though we got Eric as a tanker and me as the healer, we couldn’t take the risk especially if our lives were on the line. One mistake could get us all killed so we have to fight smarter.

I told Dianne to regroup so we could discuss them our new tactic when we encounter a group. I knew that I should’ve done this before we leave the hardware store but I was just being human. I totally forgot about it. Even if my intelligence and wisdom were much higher, I could still make a mistake.

These were the tactics I devised:

In case that there are 2 enemies, our priority would the one with a long range weapon or magic. When the rest of us are in position, Dianne will initiate and sneak attack the priority target and the rest of us will do the ‘One enemy tactic’. In this case, I assumed that Dianne killed the priority target in one hit. If Dianne somehow failed to kill the priority target even with her ridiculously high damage, Melissa will use [Aimed Shot] to finish off the priority target while Claire will use [Charm] on the secondary target and Eric and I to finish it. The tactic will be the same even if the two enemies have long range weapons or magic. If there are 3 to 6 enemies, Melissa will initiate the attack and kill one of the priority targets while Eric, Claire and I will form a close formation with our shields. Melissa will use us as cover while using [Aimed Shot] at the enemy. Hopefully, one or two enemies will die by Melissa’s bow. When the gap is close enough, Claire would use [Charm] on one of the enemies and Eric will use his [Charge Attack] to another and finish off the enemy. While the enemy is charmed, Dianne will sneak attack to finish it off and will continue to shoot until all the enemies are dead. Melissa would use me as a cover while shooting at the enemy. We will try to avoid more than 6 enemies as much as possible. But if the enemies saw us first, Dianne would retreat back to the group’s position and we will retreat and fight in a tighter space so the enemies will be forced to attack us in thinner waves. We would have to rely on our close formation and Claire’s [Charm] while Melissa and Dianne thin out the mob. We’ll have to fight defensively while I spam [Heal] in order keep the formation. If we encounter a large enemy like the ogre youngling and assuming it saw us first, we will use the kiting tactic. If we saw it first but have no choice but to fight it, we will set up an ambush but it will depend on the situation. I will need to brief them of the plan before we move.

I explained to them the tactics and made them remember it.

“But what if we encounter another group of survivors?” Melissa asked. “Especially that we’re getting nearer to the campus.” I paused for a moment to think.

“We should try to avoid them as much as possible. We don’t know them or their intentions. Remember that there are no more laws and law enforcers to stop those ‘evil-doers’. We should only trust ourselves and our families from now on.”

“But what if they saw us?” Dianne asked.

“Then we approach them politely. There's no need for violence without speaking to them first. They are probably the same as us trying their best to survive but if they are hostile and attack us, we will use the same tactics like we kill the monsters. If all else fails, we run.”

We spent almost an hour discussing all the possible situations we may get ourselves into. After the discussion, a blue screen appeared.

*DING*

For being a good leader to your group, the SYSTEM rewarded you with the following:

Reward(s):

Perk: Leadership

Effect: +10 Charisma and your followers will be more loyal to you

Hmmm… This was the first time that God didn’t have a comment on me. Perhaps His attention was on other things at that time. This is a good perk since loyalty is hard to come by even in the old days. But of course, there are different kinds and levels of loyalty. This perk just increased it but it didn’t say how much. Depending on my action or situation, there is still chance that one of them would betray me. Humans will be humans after all. I still have to be careful.

“Alright guys, let’s move…” I said to them.

After the discussion, Dianne went to the roof. The rest of us had our mouths opened when Dianne climbed the roof like a ninja.

[Awesome!] - Claire

[How did you do that?!] – Miguel

[I don’t know but scouting this way is much better…] – Dianne

[Uhhmmm…. Good job…] – Miguel

Dianne hopped in between buildings like a ninja as she went scouting. We followed her instructions as to where to go and which way was clear. She also told us that there’s a goblin horde in the west and there were few strays along the way. I guess that’s the reason why the streets were empty instead of crawling with goblin horde. Someone or something must be keeping them busy. I told Dianne to find a route that would take us further from the horde.

[Goblin scouts! Three of them at your nine.] – Dianne

[Weapons?] – Miguel

[All of them have bows…] – Dianne

[Alright guys… Group tactic #2] – Miguel

When we were in position, Melissa initiated the attack and used [Aimed Shot] to one of them in the head while Eric, Claire and I formed a close formation with our shields. Again, it was instantly killed by the shot.

-148 HP Critical Hit! Target Died

The two goblin scouts noticed their fallen comrade and started shooting back at us but our close shield formation blocked all the arrows. Melissa fired another shot while using us as cover.

-104 HP Target Died

Dianne fired her bow while she was on top of the roof. I must say that her idea was great. Choosing a higher ground and exploiting it to her advantage.

-159 HP Sneak Attack! Target Died

I gave Dianne a thumbs up after she killed the goblin.

[Good job guys!] – Miguel

We looted the goblins’ body but we didn’t leave the weapons even if they were junk. I had an idea that these weapons could be useful for trading with other survivors. Besides food, water, shelter and medicine, weapons also became a necessity for daily survival in an RPG apocalypse.

I noticed that even leveling up became harder since the level of goblins were much lower than ours. We only get 2% per kill and I get at least 1%. I know that I should get at least double their EXP but I was 2 levels above them so it’s only reasonable that I was getting much lower EXP from the kills.

We were very close to the university campus but because of the goblin horde, we turned around and tried to find another path. Most of the streets on the way to the campus were blocked by barricades made of debris created by the goblins and the few streets that weren’t blocked were swarming with goblins.

These barricades and its streets were guarded by 200-500 goblins. I considered turning back and try to take another route to EDSA but it would take us at least two days of travel assuming we would also have to fight our way. I decided to take a riskier approach by going around the barricades and find a path that wasn’t blocked. By doing this, we would also have to fight more goblins. Whatever’s waiting for us on the other side seemed to be giving the goblins a lot of trouble.

[Five goblins just up ahead… All of them have spears except for one with a bow.] – Dianne

[Dianne, on my signal. Shoot the one with the bow then fire at will. Guys, get ready!] – Miguel

Goblin Archer Lvl. 5 Goblin Spearman Lvl. 6 Goblin Spearman Lvl. 6 Goblin Spearman Lvl. 6 Goblin Spearman Lvl. 6

When we got into position, I gave Dianne the signal to attack.

-155 HP Sneak Attack! Target Died -302 HP Critical Hit! Sneak Attack! Target Died

As usual, Dianne kept on one hitting the enemies. After the archer died, Dianne kept on firing on the enemies before they realized that they were under attack. She instantly killed two of them in a matter of seconds. Her agility seemed to quicken her draw and fire rate.

[Close formation! Melissa, fire at will!] - Miguel

I ordered Melissa to assist on Dianne as we cover her.

-162 HP Critical Hit! Target Died

The poor goblin spearmen were clearly no match for Dianne. Since they have melee weapons, they couldn’t reach her because of her high position. As an act of desperation, the two goblins tried throw their spears at Dianne but that was their grave mistake. Dianne’s agility enabled her to dodge their spear easily and vanished before their eyes and fired another arrow. Melissa used [Aimed Shot] to the other goblin and hit it in its chest.

-82 HP -131 HP

Although they didn’t kill the goblin spearman in one hit, the arrow left them severely wounded. With no weapons left, I ordered Eric and Claire to execute the goblins. I called it execution rather than kill because the goblins were bleeding and didn’t have any weapons.

-138 HP Target Died -71 HP Target Died

I know that I wouldn’t gain attribute points for not fighting but who’s to say that I didn’t contribute? I give commands and they put their trust in me. And keeping and holding their trust is my contribution as a ‘leader’.

After we looted the goblins, we rested for a few minutes to recover our SP before moving on. I told them that there’s no need to rush since I wanted them to have full SP and MP before any encounter and wasting a few minutes to recover is time not wasted at all.

We did the same tactics as we did with our first ‘six monster’ encounter. Close if not the same. We killed them as efficiently as possible and looted them.

We killed 34 goblin horde strays before we decided to hole up inside a building to take a short break for lunch. We also levelled up and gained stat points. The rest of them gained 2 attribute points but I didn’t gain any because the only time I participated in fighting was when after I used [Bash] with my shield on a goblin, I kicked it and was knocked back. That was it. But at least my unique skill did its work and I obtained another useful skill.

Power Kick [Active] Lvl 1 Beginner

Effect: Kick your enemies to knock them back. The knockback effect and damage will depend on STR and enemy size. Each level will increase damage of [Power Kick] and knockback effect.

SP Cost: 15

You might be thinking. How the hell did a group of noobs killed 34 goblins in a few hours? Well, we might be noobs but we were smart noobs.

First, because of Dianne’s idea to shoot from the roof, we found that it was super effective because these goblins couldn’t reach her. Mr. Villain from Iron Man movie said that in medieval ages, the bow and arrow was the pinnacle of weapons technology.

Second, we fought defensively rather than aggressively.

And last but not the least, the main reason on how we killed a lot of goblins in a few hours was me.

We fought with a precise coordination as I gave commands. I think that it was the effect of my perk [Leadership] rather than our ability to work together. We were like an orchestra with me as the conductor. My job was to make them synchronize and without me, the band will be in chaos and out of sync.

As you can see, no plan was perfect and even if you think of all possible situations that you may get into or having a lot of contingency plans, mistakes will be made and anything can go wrong.

Of course, we weren’t an exception from Murphy’s Law. We sometimes fuck up too.

Earlier, Eric was hit by an arrow in the head because Dianne and Melissa missed a shot. Eric, by some miracle, was still standing and fought with an arrow stuck in his head. He suffered -84 HP damage and it was a critical hit. When we removed the arrow, the wound closed immediately. The wound looked to be fatal but the SYSTEM somehow prevented him to die because of his high HP. This proved my theory that even if you receive a ‘fatal’ blow; you wouldn’t die if you still have some HP left. Having a high HP pool will prevent enemies from one hitting you.

A good tactician can make the most cunning of plans but nothing can beat a man who can improvise on the fly.

That is where a good commander comes in. He executes the plan but if anything goes wrong with the plan, he should be able to cover that mistake by improvising. I made changes with our tactics as we fought. Those changes depended on the situation and I, as a leader, simply adapted to it. But of course, our standard approach will always be the same as we discussed earlier.

After we ate ham sandwiches, we continued our way around the barricades. Almost every street was blocked and swarming with goblins. We continued to fight scattered small forces while avoiding larger groups of goblins.

[Guys… To the north! The ogres are fighting the goblins!] – Dianne

[Ogres? How many?] – Miguel

[Uhmm… Many… They’ve broken through a barricade and they’re fighting the goblins!] – Dianne

[Who’s winning?] – Eric

[The ogres, of course…] - Dianne

[So what’s the plan?] – Claire

[We wait them out. I don’t want to be on this side of the fence when the ogres win. We have to cross to the other side.] – Miguel

[Do we really have to take risk crossing the university belt? We can go around the barricade. Perhaps there’s another way to avoid both goblins and ogres.] – Melissa

[We’ve been going for miles trying to go around the barricades. The fastest way from point A to B is through a straight line. We don’t have a choice.] – Miguel

[I’m with you, Miguel… We got to save our family as soon as we can…] – Eric

[I agree…] – Claire

We didn’t have a choice. We’ve come a long way to get back to the C-5 Highway. We have to take the risk and cross the university belt on our way to EDSA. I know that it was me being reckless this time but for me, time is of the essence. I also got a family to save too.

Hopefully, when I get home, my sister would still be alive but even if she’s dead, I’ll at least cremate her remains and take her ashes with me. Even a worthless asshole and a dick like me have a family. It may sound cheesy but even if I’m a logical person, I love my family more than anything else in this world.

From what Dianne observed, ogres and goblins seemed to be at a territorial war. The ogres were trying to break through and take over this side of the territory. The goblins were defending their territory from the ogres.

We waited for almost an hour and the ogres won and continued their advance towards the goblin territory. We’ve waited for them to pass until the way is clear. Unfortunately, one of the ogres was left behind to guard the broken barricade. We didn’t have a choice but to kill the ogre.

Ogre Lvl. 27

This time, the ogre was much larger and taller than the one we encountered before. It stood at 12 feet in height and it was wearing crude leather clothes like the Ogre Youngling.

[Isn’t this a bad idea?] – Dianne

[It is but not if we fight smart…] - Miguel

I told them to regroup and come to my position. As I stated earlier, our group tactic #4 will be used. But since the enemy was unaware of our presence, we plan to kill it by ambush. After I explained to them my plan in details, we went to position and initiated the plan.

Claire and I hid ourselves behind debris on the left side of the street while Eric was on the opposite. The ogre was at least 2 blocks away.

[Guys, on my signal, you…] – Miguel

[We get it already… Come on Dianne. Lure that thing.] – Claire

[I don’t like this… Do we really have to do this?] – Dianne

[It will work, Dianne. Just do it.] – Eric

[I can do this… I can do this… Shit…] – Melissa

[Calm down and be accurate on your shots… We can do this.] – Miguel

Dianne used her [Sneak] and aimed her bow and told us that she was in position. Luckily, the ogre was a sitting duck and a very large target.

[Go!] – Miguel

After I gave the go signal, Dianne released her arrow and hit the ogre in its head.

-252 HP Critical Hit! Sneak Attack!

Since Dianne was on the ground and not on the roof, the ogre quickly noticed her presence and roared in rage. The ogre chased her and she ran. She could outrun the ogre but I told her to not let the ogre lose sight of her since we plan to lure him.

Dianne continued to run and when the ogre arrived near the intersection, Melissa used her [Aimed Shot].

-131 HP Critical Hit!

The ogre then went to its left and chased the one who hit him with an arrow.

[It’s working! It’s working! He’s coming after me!] – Melissa

[Yes, we know it’s working just run!] – Dianne

[Just fucking run!] - Miguel

Melissa snapped out and ran quickly to her right while Dianne ran as fast as she can to her next position. The ogre’s aggro was now on Melissa. The ogre’s steps became heavier and faster as it chased Melissa.

When Melissa and the ogre were in the second road intersection, Dianne had already drawn her bow while aiming at the ogre’s head.

-223 HP Critical Hit! Sneak Attack!

[I did it!] – Dianne

The ogre changed its target and chased after Dianne. She lured the raged ogre back to the first intersection where the trap was set.

[Is it weakened?] – Miguel

[I think so… He got three arrows on his head and he’s bleeding badly.] – Dianne

[Good! Melissa, run as fast as you can and get back on our position.] – Miguel

[Okay…] – Melissa

[Dianne, try to buy some time for Melissa to get into position before you lure it here.] - Miguel

[Got it!] – Dianne

Melissa went to the first road intersection and positioned herself in the middle of the road near our position. She drew her bow and readied for the shot.

[We’re ready, Dianne!] – Miguel

As soon as Dianne heard the message, she lured the ogre into the first road intersection near the barricade. The rest of us were in the opposite direction when Melissa lured the ogre.

[Here he comes!] – Dianne

Melissa’s bow glowed in yellow light as she released her arrow. It hit the ogre in its left side.

-82 HP

Melissa’s damage was enough to take the ogre’s aggro from Dianne. The ogre was mad and roared more fiercely as it charged towards Melissa. She fired off another arrow and hit the ogre in its chest but it didn’t stop the ogre from charging. It was determined to get her.

-61 HP

As soon as the ogre’s steps sounded louder and closer, I gave them the signal for the final part of the plan.

[Pull!] – Miguel

Eric, Claire and I pulled the rope and raised it in order to trip the ogre. It was just as I planned. The ogre’s rage made him blind of his surroundings and didn’t notice the rope as he charged. The ogre was tripped and fell on its face. Since his speed was too fast when he tripped, the impact of fall came with a loud thud and lowered its HP.

-44 HP

[Attack!] – Miguel

Eric, Claire and I rushed quickly to the downed ogre to finish it off. We used our Bolo knives to stab and slash the ogre’s weak spots: Eric on its head, Claire on its spine and me on its legs. We did this in case the damage wasn’t enough to kill the ogre but enough to disable it.

-146 HP Critical Hit! -91 HP Target is Crippled -47 HP -161 HP Critical Hit! Target Died

The two critical hits were done by Eric and the crippling damage was done by Claire. Obviously, my damage was the weakest since my STR was lower compared to them.

For successfully killing a monster more than 10 levels above your level, the SYSTEM rewarded the ‘Boston Tea Party’ with the following:

Reward(s):

+2 all attributes

+5 Gold Coins (For each party member) Level up! Level up! Level up! For coming up with a brilliant tactic, the SYSTEM rewarded you with the following:

Reward(s):

Perk: Tactician

Effect: Your tactics and strategies will have higher chance of success.

It seemed that killing monsters above our league was worth it and rewarding. I don’t think the SYSTEM expected some players to successfully kill monsters 10 levels above them. It looked like God himself underestimated the capabilities of humanity.

We looted the ogre and took a moment of rest before going in to the university belt. We allocated the undistributed attribute points according to our builds. Dianne went to a roof to see what’s happening as we rest.

[The ogres have broken through the barricades and the goblins are retreating...] – Dianne

[Do you see what’s happening on the other side? How about the university belt?] – Miguel

[I couldn’t see much but it looks like our way is clear… Nothing’s wrong.] – Dianne

[Nothing is wrong except nothing is wrong. We still have to be careful, Dianne.] - Miguel

I didn’t expect that monsters would fight each other but what could possibly be the reason why the ogres declared war with the goblins? Is it just for territory? Or are they running from something? I started to have doubts with my plan to go inside the university belt. But it’s too late now; we spent too much effort to back out. Maybe we’re lucky that the ogres decided to go to this side and we’re going to the other side. I couldn’t imagine how much trouble it is to fight ogres every day.

We finally made it to the university belt. We called the place university belt because there’s more than one school building surrounding the main university campus.

The scenery was worse. There were more ruined buildings so Dianne couldn’t do her rooftop hopping scouting. She was forced to do it the normal way. The streets were filled with more corpses. Not just human corpses but ogre and goblin corpses too. We were in the deeper part of the university belt when I decided to investigate the corpses. I’ve noticed something strange about the corpses.

“What is it?” Claire asked.

“It’s strange all of these corpses looked like they’ve been gnawed. Look at the bite marks.” I held the corpse’s arm.

“So?”

“I think these corpses were eaten…” I replied.

[Dianne, go to a roof… tell us what you see.] – Miguel

[Okay…] - Dianne

After a few minutes of waiting for Dianne’s report, she finally found something.

[Oh my god!] – Dianne

[What is it?] – Eric

[Zombies!] – Dianne

All of us were shocked by Dianne’s message.

[The zombies… Oh my god! They’re too many!] – Dianne

[Are they the slow ones or the fast ones?] – Eric

[S-slow ones, I think…] – Dianne

[Phew…] – Eric

[Does it matter if they’re slow or fast? They’re fucking zombies!] - Claire

[We shouldn’t stay here for long… We travel until we pass the univer…] – Miguel

“Ugghhhh…”

I was interrupted by the sound of groaning around us. All of us fell silent as we realized what was happening.

Zombie Lvl 5

Our eyes opened wide with disbelief. The hundreds of corpses that surrounded us slowly rose up. Their bodies were half-eaten and dismembered beyond recognition.

I had a sudden realization of all the clues. The goblin swarm and the barricades. The ogres and their relentless attack. They were all afraid. The ogres were actually running and the goblins were trying to stop the undead horde from getting through.

Without saying a word, we all knew what to do. We didn’t need telepathy to state the obvious course of action.

We ran.

Author's Note: Tell me what you think on the comment section...