An hour went by and Jason was readied for another killing spree. He wore back his overall black outfit as he barely broke a sweat, there wasn’t even a bloodstain on it. Turning the knob open, he walked into the living room. Hakeem was still dozing off while Esther was staring out through the window. She sat there with her legs crossed as if she was a complex woman living in the big city.

Sadly, she sitting right there didn’t sit well for Jason.

“Get away from the window,” said Jason.

Esther glanced at her brother and the first thing he did after resting for an hour was reprimanding her. She never felt this much annoyed by her brother, before this whole change in Jason’s character, her brother wasn’t the type to argue with her. Exchanging a few pleasantries and mocking banters were the best description of their brother-sister relationship.

“Can’t you take a break from being a jerk? You know, you’re getting more annoying after this whole new you,” said Esther as she was a girl that talked her mind out.

“Just get your butt away from the window, it’s dangerous here, we need to keep cautious at every second. Who knows what might see you if you just sit there in front of a window,” said Jason.

Although it was a logical statement yet Esther didn’t want to back down just because she didn’t want to lose to her brother.

“You’re being too paranoid, nothing is going to…” but Esther’s words fell short as both she and Jason was surprised by the sudden break of the window.

Jason watched with his eyes opened wide as he saw Esther being lifted off the ground by a familiar-looking projectile. The pale whitish aura that surrounded Esther shattered into a million pieces as the already recovered energy guard was obliterated in an instant.

“Esther!” Jason shouted. Hakeem who was still sleeping woke up immediately.

Esther puked out a mouthful of blood as the sudden ambush was too powerful. Even after her energy guard took the majority of the force behind the attack, it still had enough power to damaged Esther. Her internal organs were screaming as everything was damaged.

What happened? Am I going to die? That thought flashed inside Esther’s mind. Everything happened too fast and she herself didn’t felt the pain yet.

Her head landed on the floor with a thud, she didn’t move as she couldn’t. Even her eyelids didn’t blink as she saw her brother coming towards her. He was mouthing something at her but she couldn’t hear him. Jason was actually shouting as his eyes were quivering. Blood kept on spilling over from her mouth as Jason watched in horror.

“What happened?” Hakeem asked flustered by the sudden turn of event.

“Get down on the floor! A kobold is shooting at us!” Jason shouted.

Hakeem lay down on the floor immediately. At the same time, Jason put both of his hands on Esther as the vibrant green glow enveloped Esther’s entire body.

“Heal! Heal! Heal!” Jason didn’t waste time as he healed the gravely injured Esther. Warm energy went coursing inside Esther’s body as her body rapidly healed by Jason’s heal.

“What happened to Esther? Is she hurt?” Hakeem just realized the state of Esther laying down on the floor with that vacant look in her eyes.

“Keep your eyes on the window, tell me if you see a kobold,” said Jason. He was having his hands full concentrating on Esther.

Hakeem followed his order as his eyes went glancing around the windows in this apartment.

A few minutes later, Esther regained her clarity.

“Jason?” she said as she propped her body up. She felt her body a bit sluggish but noticing she was still alive and breathing, it felt surreal.

“I’m still alive?” she said.

Then she felt two warm hands holding on to her head. She glanced at these two eyes of her brother who was staring at her.

“Thank goodness,” Jason said as he then hugged her sister not minding the precarious situation they were in.

In a split second, he almost lost his sister. He remembered the lives lost back in New York City, he buried those painful memories a while back but this incident was enough to brought them back.

Esther was dumbfounded by her brother sudden show of affection. A stark difference compared to his jerk like persona. He hugged her for a long time as she herself could felt the loving heart of her brother. A second later, she just realized her brother saved her from death. Her lips drooped downwards as she broke into tears. Feeling the sense of death was a frightening experience and she was still just a normal person.

Hakeem who was keeping an eye to the windows couldn’t help but glance at the overly sweet interaction between brother-sister, rather than being happy for them he just wished they could finish fast as they were not in a good situation right now.

“Jason, can you hurry up. I’m getting nervous here,” said Hakeem.

Then another window broke as something zipped through the apartment. All three people ducked down close to the floor from their reflex alone.

“What’s attacking us?” Esther asked as the perpetrator that shot her was making her whole body trembled.

“Get behind the kitchen counter, and never stand up,” Jason said.

“But…” she wanted to say she could help but she knew she couldn’t. Rather than couldn’t, she didn’t want to. That near-death experience left something in her.

Jason went off as he grabbed on to his Zoyt compound bow. He hid with Shadow Sneak and leaped outside of the window. He grabbed on to the ledge of the window as he flung himself upwards to the roof. His eyes scanned the rooftops and the windows searching for the kobold that ambushed them.

Then he saw it, a silhouette was leaping from one rooftop to another. Jason didn’t let this chance go to waste as he aimed down sight as three bright glowing white arrows manifested on his bow.

“Die,” he said as he let loose of the bowstring.

Three arrows flew and as he waited for his arrows to shoot it down, he saw the unthinkable. The kobold who was leaping in mid-air threw the huge crossbow on its back at the incoming arrows. Two arrows pierced the crossbow and one slipped away, the lone arrow struck the kobold by the shoulder as it landed on the roof while kneeling. The archer kobold winced in pain as the jutting glowing white arrow on its shoulder was something it didn’t expect.

The archer kobold glanced at the direction of the shot and saw the silhouette of a human with a bow in his hand. A slight second later the human was gone from thin air and the archer kobold couldn’t help but be surprised. He who was a keen archer of the kobold couldn’t see even a glimpse of that man. It was either the human was too fast for its eye or the human turned invisible. The kobold who was planning to have some fun with some humans turned sour as it didn’t expect the situation to turn out like this. The exhilarating feeling it had when it hunted down those soldiers back in Kawartha Park was no longer there as the human that shot it was different. A different class than those trashy Awakens he fought.

But then its ears jerked sensing something was coming. The archer kobold leaped to the side as it rolled on the roof. It glanced at the side of where it once was and saw three glowing white arrows piercing the roof. Once again, it glanced at the roof and there it was the human who was aiming his bow at it.

It had to admit, this human who was attacking it had some impressive accuracy if it wasn’t for its innate hearing, it would have been shot by now. The kobold leaped off from the roof hiding behind the building as being on the rooftop was simply being an open target.

It felt humiliated by the fact that he had to resort to such an action. In its mind, humans are the weaker species and being pushed to fled like this only tarnished its pride. But rather than giving itself into the rage, the archer kobold thought things through.

Its weapon was rendered useless and up against that bow-wielding bastard, it couldn’t stand a chance if it was just it alone. Rather than letting it suffer through a humiliating defeat, it was better to gain a complete win.

The kobold turned its tail around and left the spot. It went back with a nasty intention in mind as it won’t let this humiliation be gone like this. It howled to the sky on this bright morning day. A howl that wasn’t from a wolf but from a kobold calling for reinforcement.

Jason thought about giving chase after losing sight of that archer kobold but after hearing that howl, he had a bad feeling about it.

Jason went back into the apartment with a solemn expression.

“Did you kill it?” Hakeem asked. Esther was already up while standing behind the kitchen counter.

“No, it ran away,” he said.

“What? Monsters can run away? Shouldn’t it be aggro?” said Hakeem.

“Don’t be this stupid, this isn’t a game. This is real life, those things aren’t dumb virtual monsters,” Jason said.

“So what do we do?” Esther asked as there was a hint of trembling in her voice. She still couldn’t shake it off even after recovering from that near-death state.

“We need to move, there’s more coming.”