The house was broken and did not provide the required safety, which had led us to make the decision to move to find a safer location. One less exposed with higher elevation from the floor. This had been two days ago. We stayed in houses far from the main streets during the move. The city torn apart and the report of gunfire no longer audible, having died a few hours ago. We moved in a circular formation. Me and Dad on the sides, the extra stamina having done wonders in healing his arm. My brother placed at the back to provide support and my minions moving in front. This allowed us to protect the rest of the family and efficiently deal with attacks.

Unfortunately, it seemed the first 24 hours had been special regarding experience gain as even though we killed a high volume of monsters my brother and father only went up by one level, mine staying stagnant. Looking around the lack of human presence proved evident, no cars driving through the street, no lights in houses, no bustling noise of human activity. Just a few barely audible screams being carried by the wind followed by the marching of monsters.

However, humans were present, the partial form of heads popped through windows of houses. Eyes devoid of life waiting for their impending doom. Yesterday the more resilient people set off in mass migrations trying to find safety, most grouped towards the gunfire some fleeing to the opposite direction. As you can imagine this proved to be an open buffet for the monsters, groups of humans being picked of the streets, leaving half-eaten corpses littered through the dark alleyways.

This scene watched by the onlooker destroyed any motivation they had to try and survive. But one thing history taught, is that humans are resilient, and many continued even now though these groups were not very common.

You may have thought that people would storm towards the stores to stock up on supplies, but these places proved to be infested with monsters. Most areas that used to be highly dense with humans were now swarmed by monsters. They appeared as if growing out of the ground continuously reinforcing their numbers.

As the afternoon was eagerly approaching, we decided to hunker down, the left-over frost from winter still permeating the surrounding. The good news was that even throughout all this, the weather continued to be unforgiving. Thankfully, we were only a few hundred metres from the destination point. A group of building piercing the sky closely huddled together as if to provide warmth from the cold.

The reason we stopped with our destination in sight was to first scout the area before proceeding. The building built with floor after floor of apartments made them a highly dense human zone. This meant there would be a high chance for monsters to be present. Taking a quick break to rest up, I quickly ate biscuits, an easy meal with high calories, washing it down with water before leaving to scout. With my new assistants, I preferred moving alone as I could be riskier with my approach.

Having a good naming sense or so I would like to say, I named them Whyte and Igris respectively. The manga’s proving useful as I may have borrowed the names from there. With my minions guarding either flanks we stalked off towards the apartments.

Reaching the end of the road leading we quickly moved towards the nearest still standing wall. Crouching down behind I peered from the side my line-of-sight landing on the clear opening beneath the flats. Having been blocked from sight thanks to the outer walls I sighed in relief in not have forcing our way in.

Large brutish creatures roamed the clearing, their murky green skin in contrast with the lush green surrounding. Thick bulging muscles decorated their limbs, with veins wriggling to deliver blood. Long braided hair flowed from the head down there back. 2 large fangs bared their presence behind thick husked over lips. Beady eyes peering in search of prey stayed half-open far up their face. There only salvations from nudity was the thin cloth, strapped too closely to their bodies almost like a jumpsuit. As if not imposing enough, each stood around 6 foot 5 inches, holstering monstrously sized axes or other polearms.

Sinking down I sat in thought for a fleeting minute. From my observation, although each of them possessed monstrous strength, they also seemed to waddle around. This showed that they lacked in movement speed. Had they been so overwhelming they would not still be hunkered down in one place unlike the other monsters. There physique’s being more in line with the Capri sun drinking bodybuilders of the current era, meant they had to suffer the same flaws. If I could engage them one on one, that would provide more accurate representation on how big of a threat they posed.

As I looked out once more, I saw a few leave the safety of the wall venturing to opposite corners. I being a gentleman, decided to help the one moving in my direction to a more peaceful place. Noticing the direction, the creature was walking towards, I ran to reach the back of the building before it. Positioning Whyte in the building were the window lay broken he hunched in the dark a spear clasped in the dark. The same one from the imp raid. Igris was placed in the upper floor of the house with a clear look over the walkway. I decided to be bait, which creature wouldn’t like a tender 6foot walking piece of healthy meat.

As the creature rounded the corner its beady eyes landed on me. My khaki jacket differentiating me from the grey walkway. The creature toothy grinned, looking maniacal in appearance and began rushing towards me.