Exceptional and Brave

Even with Grant telling everyone to run, the majority of the people in the crowd didn't move a muscle. Whether they were rooted in place due to terror or shock, Grant wasn't sure. But he wasn't going to spend the time to find out.

"I said RUN!!"

This time, everyone turned and ran away without even a moments hesitation. Seeing everyone running, Grant glanced at the notification that appeared in the corner of his vision.

{Terrorize has successfully influenced 21 individuals. To contribute towards the skills growth, maintain control for the next 59 minutes 32 seconds.}

Knowing that now wasn't the time to bother with the growth of his skills, he quickly dismissed the notification.

Grant wanted to head straight towards the hospital that wasn't more than a couple hundred yards away from him but after a moments hesitation, he turned and started walking in the direction of the entry point to the camp that Ethan and him had scouted earlier.

He knew that having Ethan around would be beneficial to managing the chaos because he was much better with people than Grant was himself.

Before Grant even took a step towards his destination, he paused because he realized that someone was still standing right beside him.

After glancing over his shoulder, Grant saw Leonard looking at him with a strained look on his face. It appeared as if he was fighting some internal turmoil. His face was shifting between pain, terror, awe, determination, and many more.

Grant knew that part of his facial expressions were Leonard fighting against the Terrorize skill using his own willpower to suppress the skills effects and could only assume that the rest were the result of what he had just witnessed.

Impressed with the strength the kid was showing, Grant released him from the Terrorize skill and put his hand on Leonard's shoulder.

"I commend you for your courage kid. But you really should not be here right now.

I appreciate you for your help earlier. You should really go find your sister and look for somewhere to hide though. Things are about to get very chaotic here."

After being released from the skill and hearing what Grant said, Leonard seemed to regain his wits momentarily but still appeared to be fighting an internal battle on what he should do next.

A moment later, Leonard visibly clenched his hands into two fists and raised his head to look Grant directly in the eyes. There seemed to be a small fire burning in them.

"Thank you for saving me and my sister. I don't know what you are doing here or what you are trying to accomplish but I can tell you are not like the rest of the guards here.

The only way I can repay you, is to tell you that there are only 18 normal guards, sorry, 13 now.

However, their are a group of 10 people that work for Andrew that have killed monsters and gained equipment and items from The Path."

Grant was surprised at how detailed Leonard's information was but he didn't doubt its authenticity. He had realized very quickly that Leonard was a straightforward and honest kid which astonished Grant immensely knowing what the kid had been through.

Grant patted Leonard on the shoulder once more before giving his thanks.

"Thanks Leonard. You were brave tonight and I can say this with confidence, you are an exceptional young man.

You really need to leave now though. Their are men quickly approaching and I don't want you to be implicated in the deaths of those scum.

Go to your sister and just wait. Things are about to change for the better."

The sounds of footsteps and men yelling were progressively getting louder as they closed in on their location, so Leonard just gave a curt head nod to Grant before turning around and running off in the direction that his sister had gone.

Seeing Leonard disappear into the maze of shacks and other small buildings, Grant turned and sprinted towards wall where he had originally entered the camp, thrust his arm into the ground and pulled his pack out from where he had buried it. Since the element of surprise was gone, their was no more reason to hide.

Knowing that a new group of guards would be appearing shortly, Grant slung his pack over his shoulder and quickly took off in the direction of the gate.

Moments after Grant disappeared into the darkness, a group of men rounded the corner into the clearing where Grant had just killed the five guards.

In the lead was a scrawny, middle aged man, standing at 6 feet tall with deep set eyes and who looked like he hadn't slept for a year. The scrawny man was followed closely by a six foot man of average build who wore glasses and had the appearance of a typical American business man.

While the people behind the two started to kick up a ruckus seeing the dead bodies scattered about, the scrawny leader just surveyed the area quietly while the man in glasses stood there quietly taking in the scene as well.

After a couple of minutes passed and the group regained their composure, the man with the glasses approached the scrawny one.

"Martin, can you tell anything about what happened here? I don't know of anyone in the camp who is strong enough to do what has been done to these men."

The scrawny man, Martin, just stood there for a few seconds more looking lost in thought before he finally replied.

"You don't need me to tell you what happened here, Zach. It's clear as day how all these men died. It's not like someone can survive without their throats.

As for who did this. If you look towards the wall over there, you'll see that something was recently torn out from the ground, given that there is a massive hole.

So clearly, someone has infiltrated the camp. Go tell Andrew right now that everyone needs to be on high alert back at the HQ and ready for an attack.

Whoever or whatever has appeared in this camp is not weak by any stretch of the imagination."

When Martin finished speaking, Zach looked like he had just been asked to shoulder the weight of the world or something. His face was twisted into one of fear and concern.

"You want me to go tell boss that we have intruders?! He'll kill me if I interrupt his "nightly activities" and even more painfully if he thinks that I ran back to him without trying to resolve the problem!"

Martin turned on his heel and place his face mere inches away from Zach's face before he spoke again, "I do not give a fuck what you want. You will go, and you will tell Andrew exactly what you have seen here and what I have said. If we want to live to see the sun rise then we will need to gather the men and hunt the intruder down immediately."

With Martin's face so close to his and the anger evident in his voice, Zach quickly took a few steps back before quickly scrambling in the direction in which he had originally come from.

Zach may have been scared of Andrew, but he was even more terrified of Martin. Martin had a reputation around the camp for being a sadist and extremely cruel in his actions if he was angered.

Any time Andrew wanted answers from someone who refused to speak, Martin would be the one to pay them a visit in the middle of the night and make them wish they had never been born into the world before they inevitably spilled all the information that they refused to share in the first place.

As Zach disappeared in the direction of their HQ, Martin continued to survey the area. He was trying to deduce the number of intruders and the direction they had disappeared in.

He could also see many footsteps running in many different directions which indicated that many people had been witness to the guards' deaths.

He was planning to follow some of the tracks in an attempt to locate and interrogate one of the onlookers but before he could take so much as a few steps, gunshots rang out in the distance.

Martin turned his head in the direction of the gunfire and realized that it was coming from the location of the camp's gates.

After ordering the remaining men to follow him, Martin took off in the direction of the gunfire.

With his personality and the fact that he was already level 23, he thought that he would be able to make use of the men with him and his own strength to delay whoever it was attacking them until reinforcements could arrive.

The gate was only located a couple minutes run away from their original location so he had assumed that the ordinary guards would be able to hold out until he arrived but after a mere handful of gunshots, the surroundings returned to silence once more.

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A/N: I am sorry I didn't post a chapter yesterday! Things at work have been extremely chaotic and I just didn't have time to get anything worthwhile written down. I didn't want to post a subpar chapter so I decided to hold off until I had more time to dedicate to writing. With one of the restaurants ready and opening soon, I will be able to return to two-a-day chapters soon! Please bare with me for the next few days until then! I will have some free time this weekend so I will attempt to post five chapters both Saturday and Sunday!

As always, I appreciate you guys very much and thank you for reading the novel!