Chase stood up and cracked his neck.
“Is there a specific problem with the rain?”
Kairos shot him a glance.
“It seems very similar to the red sun, changing people into monsters. Considering I don’t want to become a monster, it is a pretty big issue.”
Chase nodded.
“Ah, that’s fair.”
Kairos took out the red prism.
“However, it also seems that it will charge this thing up, which would probably help a lot in making our base. So it’s not like there are only bad things about it.”
There was also the fact that it would help evolution, but he figured he could disclose that information later as it would probably take a while for the others to get enough points for evolution.
Kairos walked down the steps then looked at the giant hole he had created in the side of the stairwell. Peeking out from it, he could see that the rain had indeed stopped. Though, there were still faint red stains left behind all across the floor. This was the same for the first floor in the grocery store.
He turned around.
“We should be able to leave now, the rain has died down.”
With that, Kairos took the lead, getting them out of the grocery store. He stepped out without much concern about any of the monsters.
“The wilderness should be fairly close by. I imagine we should be able to get there today.”
Almost immediately he heard the sound of several monsters roaring. Looking to his left, he saw a group of five monsters that were looking at him ferociously.
However, Kairos wasn’t the slightest bit scared.
After all, they would find it really difficult to do any harm to him.
However, one thing that he noticed was that these monsters seemed a little taller and redder than usual. Kairos scratched the back of his head.
“I won’t touch them unless needed, as promised. You guys can go on ahead to get them.”
Tori and Chase were the first to step up, one with their katana and the other with their fists. They also seemed to want to do their evolution soon.
These monsters were roughly ten meters away. But then, they all pounced together, closing the gap within a second. Both Tori and Chase seemed surprised, but it wasn’t enough to fully shock them.
Tori’s katana flashed as she stepped back.
It tore into one monster’s neck, but suddenly stopped with a light thud. The spine kept the weapon from advancing any further. Without hesitation, she withdrew her sword and backed off. As for Chase, he threw a fist at a monster’s skull, pushing it back, then retreated as well.
However, the monster he punched simply recovered one second later, seemingly taking no damage whatsoever.
Chase furrowed his brows.
“They have become much stronger for some reason…”
Tori also frowned.
“I need to increase my strength to kill these things.”
Though the group backed off, the monsters were quite fast, meaning that they were unable to create any space. Kairos furrowed his brows.
“Should I step in?”
Chase clicked his tongue.
“Not yet.”
Then, he pulled the bow off his back, taking a few seconds to draw back a mana arrow before letting it loose straight towards a monster’s skull.
However, the monster he shot at suddenly pounced to the side. Chase frowned as he shifted the arrow’s direction, causing the monster’s skull to explode. Though he killed it in the end, he was forced to curve the arrow, unlike how the monsters couldn’t react in time before.
Tori pulled up her status panel and frowned.
“Can you stall them for a bit?”
Kairos raised his fire axe and let out a soft sigh.
“Alright.”
A little bit of mana gathered onto his palm, just a little bit more than required to cast the pulse spell.
The four monsters lunged towards him, but they didn’t attempt to surround him. As such, they ended up blocking each other, leaving him with only two to fight at a time.
The two monsters reached out towards them with their claws, nearly twice as fast compared to the monsters he faced before.
However, Kairos was even faster, easily dodging both strikes. While their arms were still extended, he swung his fire axe and reached out with his free hand.
With a thwack, one monster’s arm was directly cut off, causing blood to spray out of the air. Although it was easy for Kairos to do so, he definitely noticed that the difficulty of cutting through them increased by quite a bit.
As for his free hand, it got right next to the other monster’s chest. Then, a sudden force shot out from his palm.
A few faint cracking sounds resounded.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
Kairos’ eyes widened slightly as he realized that the monster had died. It was so unexpected that he didn’t even stop himself despite seeing it happen one second earlier. The monster’s chest looked extremely red, but nothing too bad. Although cracking sounds came from his bones, there was only a slight indentation visible.
It was not a wound that looked lethal in any way. Yet, it collapsed right there.
The monster that lost its limb earlier ended up taking a few steps back as its remaining arm covered the bleeding stump.
It appeared afraid.
Dealing with these monsters was extremely easy for Kairos. It was so easy, he even had the time to look over his shoulder at Tori, who was currently adding points into strength on her status panel.
The first thing he checked was her ID, seeing if it matched up with the one ID he had memorized. However, it was different. Then, he took a peek at the stats.
[Stats
Strength – 1.1
Agility – 4.9
Endurance – 1.5
Willpower – 4.2]
Comparing his stats and hers, the first thing Kairos thought was that they were really low. However, when he remembered how many points of his came from the top ten achievements, those points were also impressive. Not to mention, she still had two points saved up.
Another thing that also stood out to him was how those stats were balanced. Tori simply put a disproportionate amount into agility and willpower. Though that didn’t seem to be that bad of a strategy in his eyes.
Kairos looked back towards his front. The two monsters were still charging up. They went around the one that began fleeing and charged in as recklessly as they were before. After thinking for a moment, Kairos thought of something.
One monster swiped at him while the other tried to bite. However, they didn’t even get close. Kairos sidestepped before letting his fire axe whip out.
One of the monster’s legs gave out, causing it to collapse.
Before the monster could react, his axe flashed again, taking out the other leg. The now legless monster collapsed to the ground. At that point, it tried to turn around and flee, but could hardly move that fast.
Kairos was about to do the same thing to the other monster, but the gleam of a katana came by beforehand.
With a small swish, the monster’s head came off cleanly.
He looked over his shoulder to see Tori, as expected.
Kairos looked at the one-armed monster that was trying to run away.
“One second.”
He dashed past the monster crawling away with both arms and raised his axe. The one-armed monster couldn’t help but look behind itself.
And saw a guy gaining on him like a sports car.
The fire axe whipped out twice, taking out both of the monster’s legs. Despite being on the verge of death, it continued to use its last arm to try and crawl away.
Kairos slashed off the last arm before picking it up by the back of its neck.
The monster continued to move its jaws violently, struggling with all it could. However, there was not much it could do while it had no limbs.
As for the monster that had lost both legs, I looked towards Kairos in front of him, then turned around and charged straight towards the others.
Nicole put on the red watch with a small frown before stepping up. She raised her fire axe high before suddenly bringing it down. Perhaps the monster would’ve been able to dodge before, but without its legs, it was a little harder to do anything.
The fire axe slammed into the monster’s skull hard, piercing halfway through. However, it continued to struggle reaching out with its hands.
Sydney stepped up.
“Nicole!”
However, before she needed any help, Nicole pressed down harder, making the monster’s skull let out a sound like a watermelon splitting in half, just more gruesome.
Kairos let out a soft sigh as he brought the last surviving monster over.
“Sorry, I accidently killed one of them earlier. But this one is still alive. I say Harold or Sydney should get it since they haven’t killed any recently.
Harold looked at Sydney and nodded.
“You should take this kill.”
Sydney furrowed her brows.
“But… aren’t your stats pretty low?”
Harold waved his hand dismissively.
“I will be fine.”
Though Kairos thought that was definitely false, he didn’t speak up. Instead, he simply dropped the monster onto the floor.
Sydney ended up agreeing, stepping up and raising her bat.
Then, she brought it down on the monster’s skull, causing a loud bang to ring out.
But the monster’s skull was only slightly dented.
She repeated this process a few more times before it was finally smashed. Sydney furrowed her brows.
“Why is it still giving the same amount of points despite being so much harder? I… I don’t think I can take one of these things on if they are so durable…”
Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose.
“It seems the red rain made them all stronger. Perhaps before, they were at the bottom of the E rank, but now they are at the very top.”
Chase clicked his tongue.
“…That’s annoying. We should’ve killed as many as we could earlier on.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Not like we could’ve known.”
Suddenly, his eyes shifted to the side.
Off in the distance, a group of fifteen monsters began charging towards them.
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“It seems they are far more lively after the red rain. It used to be hard to even find a few…”
He cracked his neck.
“I should be able to get rid of their limbs for you guys to kill.”
Then, he dashed forward, raising his fire axe. The fifteen monsters reached for him aggressively, confident in their numbers.
However, Kairos easily slipped by, almost like an eel. He ran circles around them, taking off their legs one after another.
In just a few minutes, all fifteen monsters lost their legs.
Kairos thought that they would begin running, but they actually kept chasing him. Since that was more convenient for him, he just went with it, bringing the fifteen monsters along towards the group.
“They can hardly fight back. Each of you can kill three.”
Tori didn’t hesitate, immediately beheading three of the monsters. Nicole was a little scared, but she also killed them, splitting their skulls in half. As for Chase, Harold, and Sydney, they weren’t as enthusiastic.
Chase coughed.
“Could you get rid of their arms? I don’t want to use my arrows to kill them.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Fine.”
And so, he got rid of all their arms, letting the remaining people get their kills. The process was quite brutal, especially for Chase since he had to use his hands. They all aimed at the monster’s skulls, but had to really bash at them before they would break open.
Right when Chase punched through the last monster’s skull, even more roars resounded.
Kairos narrowed his eyes, as he looked at an even larger group of monsters approaching from the distance.
…He began considering whether he should be afraid or not.