Chapter 30: Finally

The streets were deserted.

Sure, it was the apocalypse so it was a normal sight but it was still deserted even during an apocalyptic day.

"F*ck!!! Where are they!? They all came when nobody wanted them and they're gone now when we actually need those f*cks?!"

Michael yelled in frustration.

Their team had been roaming east of the hotel in search of monsters they could hunt for crystals in the last two hours but they found no living being apart from themselves.

That was why Michael was getting frustrated.

"Calm down babe…" His girlfriend Mia rubbed his back to calm him down, "Getting angry won't help here and people are watching."

Michael glanced at the people in his group and their expressions were varied at his outburst.

Some showed frustration, some worries, some disdain but mostly confusion.

Most of them didn't understand why he was trying to seek crystals so badly when everyone in the hotel was already awakened with their powers and there were already 12 of them in the expedition group, with half of them already ranked up to 10 crystals.

"Sorry people," Michael apologized for his outburst to his group.

"Michael is just frustrated because he wants to be better." Mia added.

"Yeah, so we don't have to rely on others and pay for it." His cousin Julio also helped out.

Most of them gave him a sympathetic and understanding gaze after this but a few still had doubts.

However, Michael didn't have time to spend his thought on this as he was more worried about falling behind to those brats he hated.

Those arrogant brats took down fifty monsters by themselves with ease, and they were armored pigs on top of that!

While his group needed to gang on a single one with ten of them to take down one of those armored pigs. There was no way he would be able to take one of them one by himself even if he already ranked up when reaching ten crystals.

There was too much of a gap between the two groups even if Michael's group had more people.

This only meant one thing, that those brat crystal counts must be more than fifty and that was why they were that strong.

Michael could see the gap increase between him and those brats by each second that passed and if this kept going on, that gap would become as big as the Grand Canyon.

That was why he was being so frustrated.

Falling behind so far would make it harder for him to realize his ambition, he may even be trampled by them later or become their dog.

His pride wouldn't let him become anyone's dog, he must be an alpha no matter what.

But how to do so when they couldn't even find monsters to get crystals?

At this point, they might not even be able to pay those brat's weekly crystals if this went at this rhythm and a fight would probably ensue out of this, not one he would win.

He needed to find another way out of this… Did he need to come up with something more sinister?

He was in a dilemma.

"Hey, is that people over there?"

Someone from their group yelled and pointed toward the alleyway where three human figures could be seen.

The other party also seemed to have seen them as they approached their group too,

Michael could see it was a three men group of two men and a woman.

"Nice to see another group of survivors!" The man at the lead of the three people group said.

"Survivors! It's been two weeks, I nearly thought we were the only ones on this island!"

"Are you locals? Do you know if help will be sent?"

"Is there some security zone?"

People from Michael's team exclaimed when they saw the trio who looked like locals.

"F*cking great, Americans again, cockroaches, all of you." The other man grumbled.

"What the hell?"

"What's your problem?"

"Haha, don't mind him! He's just rambling! I'm John by the way, are you guys tourists too?" The leader of the three stepped up.

"I'm Michael." Michael stepped up and gave John a handshake, "We're tourists that were lucky enough to survive until now."

"You met other Americans today?" Mia asked.

"Yeah, an hour ago, a little group of youngsters." John answered.

Michael's face scrunched up, he had an idea of who they were talking about.

"Was it five guys and two girls?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, you know them?" John asked back.

"Yeah, some arrogant brats."

"Don't think you're any better than them." Gabriel sneered at Michael.

"Gabriel, go stand aside." John sent him away before turning toward Michael, "He's like that to everyone, don't mind him."

John was being quite amicable as he answered all the questions Michael's people had for him and even proposed to them to join John's camp as it was bigger and safer.

Michael didn't want to join as he could guess that he would end up as someone's dog but saw some of his people being tempted so just said he would consider the offer.

This would give him the time to convince his team that staying with him was the better choice.

They did learn from John the place that they should avoid and other useful tidbits.

However, for Michael, they were just competitors for the crystals and ambition.

Meeting them just added more pressure on him.

***

John left with his two companions after a bit with Michael's group and failing to recruit them to his survivor camp.

The three would continue to scout the area and take out any wandering monsters before returning to their camp at sunset.

Their camp had more than 200 people so they had multiple teams out scouting and scavenging for food. The camp was built up by the local policies initially and expanded with each survivor they found in the two weeks.

The three of them were all Rank F+ and had guns so should be able to take care of any monsters as long as there weren't too many of them.

"You need to cut the shit off Gabriel. Or you'll alienate everyone we meet and god know we might need their help." John admonished Gabriel.

"We don't need those Americans' help!" Gabriel said as the mere thought of getting help from them was disgusting.

"Oh, maybe you think you're enough to deal with Sam and his crooks?" John poked at his chest with his fingers.

Sam was their biggest problem. He used to be someone from their camp but broke away from them along with his group, which was made of former thugs, cops and other young like minded young men.

Sam's group even stole a lot of their firearms when they ran away.

It would still be alright if that was the end of it but Sam's group were very dangerous.

The reason they broke away was they didn't want to be restrained anymore and wanted to gain true freedom.

Sam and his crooks wanted to do whatever they wanted, enjoy to their heart's content and this new chaotic world was the best for it.

Without the shackles of the law, they pillaged, killed for thrills and gave themselves up to the pleasure of the flesh.

Sam's group killed some of John's people and kidnapped women from their camp too. Their fate was probably worse than death.

Now, they had to guard their camp and try to nail down where Sam and his crooks were hiding before Sam did more damage to their camp.

However, it was very hard for them. They may have the number but their fighting force was actually less than Sam's group who had SMGs.

The only positive point was SMG's bullet were scarce so they couldn't steal many of it either. Sam was bound to run out of it soon.

Hopefully, they would be able to deal with Sam otherwise they would be forced to ask for help.

Luckily, they found new survivors and they seemed to be capable and John had no doubt they would accept his proposal as he doubted that Sam would have any good intention toward them.

But that would be the last resort, he just them now after all.

***

"Is that the place John was talking about?" Amelia asked as she pointed to a parking lot with rows of buildings surrounding it.

"There are a dozen armored pigs there so it must be it." Evan said.

"I can also see a few wolves there too." Enzo said.

Kennen looked at the parking lot and focused on the wolves in particular, because he noticed something off about them.

"Aren't those wolves a bit bigger than the one we usually hunt? Their furs' patterns look different too. " Kennen asked his friend.

"Now that you mention it…"

"We should be careful." Frank warned.

"Should we really do this, it seems dangerous." Brandi asked, "We are on an open field too."

"Bran is right, we might get surrounded too." Amelia added.

"Nah, there are only a dozen, we got this." Evan was ready to rumble.

"Even if there are more in the building, they can't possibly house more than fifty." Enzo also felt confident.

Kennen thought about it and in the end, also felt it was feasible and not that hard.

"We should strike hard on the surprise attack and kill as many as possible right at the beginning."

"Those in the building won't be able to come out fast enough and the entrance is small too, the monsters won't be able to overwhelm us as long as we are on pace."

"At worst, we can always run into a building there."

Kennen suggested a plan of attack.

That was enough to convince them and soon, everyone was ready.

Enzo and the goblins would be in charge of the wolves while the rest would focus on the armored orcs.

They hugged along the wall and slowly approached the parking lot without being noticed.

"Three, two, one… go!" Kennen announced the start.

Enzo and the goblins shot the wolves while the frontline charged the moment Kennen gave the go.

There were four wolves in there and they were kind of acting like the pig orcs' familiar when the arrow and javelins came but the wolves seemed to have sensed danger and instantly leaped away.

It wasn't all bad as Enzo's arrow was too fast so it still killed his target while one of the javelins ended up hitting the exposed feet of an armored orc.

Oxyotl, who was invisible, approached an orc and made three holes on the orc's exposed neck.

The frontline surprise charge was also able to take down a few armored orcs while the orcs were still being taken aback.

Kennen observed the wolf and they indeed looked faster and more ferocious than before but that didn't help against Enzo's arrow or Rafael's binding.

The wolves just didn't move fast enough laterally.

One of the wolves was smart enough to rush toward the backline but he crashed to the ground when Amelia used her powers on it and the wolf was finished by the goblins.

The wolves were all taken care for before half a minute passed and the fight seemed to be going well as nobody was really in danger and the armored orc dropped like flies.

Then armored orcs and wolves started dropping from the sky.

To be more exact, some of them jumped out from the second floor of the building they were in while others came from the open door of their respective buildings.

A dozen more just popped out like that.

Brandi just finished off an orc with a parry and stab but was already attacked by another armored orc.

Amelia instantly helped her by stunning the armored orc since Brandi wasn't especially good at dodging when she didn't have ample time to react.

The problem was a wolf was running toward Brandi's back.

She still had cooldown for the parry and Amelia just used her power too so couldn't help.

Rafael was busy holding back three armored orcs so Frank and Evan didn't get overwhelmed while Oxyotl was too far.

However, the goblins came in clutch as two of the three javelins they threw nailed the wolf down.

Kennen actually told the goblins to get up close since it wasn't like they could hurt the armored orc by throwing javelins unless they got a lucky shot.

They couldn't throw spears like the Dog of Culann could.

"Oxyotl, help out Frank!" Kennen ordered his summon.

Frank was having a hard time as he was being chased by three armored orcs so he was focusing on running away.

The armored orcs couldn't see the invisible Oxyotl approach and one of them got offed by him, which helped turn the tide for Frank.

Kennen was surveying the battlefield and would send Oxyotl or the goblins to help whoever needed it.

The fight was going smoothly as Enzo nearly took a life for each of his shots so the number of opponents slowly dwindled and the fight grew increasingly easier as time passed.