The Hooded Man[1]

Due to the mutated plant, and the sudden insect attack, she was forced to drop the nylon of drugs in her hand.

She didn't even realise when she did it, as she only acted on instinct, all for the sake of fighting effectively.

But she still had a few with her, and those were the ones she stuffed into her pockets.

Her gaze drifted to Blake, who was still busy fawning over his new weapon. Just like her, he wasn't holding any nylon, meaning he probably dropped the drugs also.

"Blake, do you still have them with you?" She said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Have what?" Blake replied, finally returning the sword back to its sheath.

"I mean, the drugs you gathered in the pharmacy. Are they still with you?" Aria replied, her words causing Blake's eyes to widen in shock.

'Yeah! The drugs… I completely forgot about them.' Blake thought, tapping his forehead in embarrassment.

They were here to save Daisy, but instead, he carelessly forgot the medicine they were supposed to bring back with them.

He wasn't exactly at fault though, with the mutated plant attack, and the insects that swarmed at them, holding the nylon bag wasn't really the first thing that same to his mind.

"Yeah, thought so." Aria mumbled, with a wry smile. "We better go back in there and get the drugs… if we can find it. Hopefully, those bugs didn't squash all the medicine."

Blake nodded in agreement, still feeling embarrassed by his actions, but at least, he wasn't the only one that dropped the bags.

"Hey, let's come with you." Karl said, nodding his head eagerly.

"Huh? You two want to come with us?" Blake asked, his brows raising slightly in confusion.

"Yeah… I mean, the pharmacy's pretty much wrecked now. There's no way we're staying in there, and if there is really a group of survivors some where not too far from here… I see no reason why we shouldn't come with you." Karl said, but then he suddenly remembered something, causing his lips to curl into a wry smile.

Now that he thought about it, his words were quite stupid, because how was he even sure that where they stayed had a capacity to house two more survivors.

"Well… that's if we can." He continued, looking to the side awkwardly, as he felt his request was a little selfish.

"Sure, you can. I doubt Shane would refuse." Blake said, with a slight smile.

Aria's eyes narrowed slightly when she heard this, but she didn't say anything, and simply walked towards the wrecked building.

"Really! That's great." Karl said, his eyes gleaming with joy. He and his brother had no where else to go, as the pharmacy they formerly resided in had been wrecked by beasts, so hearing Blake's words made him very happy.

"You hear that, Edward." He said, rapidly shaking the shoulders of Edward, who simply nodded at his words.

'Can we really be sure about this though…?' The shorter brother mumbled inwardly, his face squeezing into a slight frown.

*

Blake and Aria walked out of the pharmacy, with two new nylon bags held in their hands, each of them filled with necessary medicine.

Fortunately, the insects didn't wreck up the pharmacy too much, and they were still able to gather enough drugs to last them at least a week.

"We can go now." She said, nodding towards Edward and his brother.

Karl chuckled softly, his cheeks turning pink just at the sight of Aria's face.

"Yeah, we've wasted too much time already…" Blake muttered. 'I hope nothing has gone wrong at the warehouse…'

Whoosh!

Just as they started walking forward, a thin arrow suddenly shot from the side at insane speed.

None of them could react, as the arrow silently streaked through the air, before deeply lodging itself right at the side of Karl's head.

Splash!

Thick red blood splashed on the ground, as the arrow swiftly tore through the other side of his head, piercing through his brain.

"Huh?" Edward mumbled, suddenly noticing he couldn't hear the sound of his brother's footsteps again.

He paused his steps, before immediately turning around, however, the only thing that met him was the sight of Karl's still body falling to the ground.

"Karl!" He shouted, his eyes widening in horror.

His scream quickly caught the attention of Blake and Aria, who hurriedly turned backwards, stunned by his sudden scream.

"What… the hell?" Blake mumbled, stumbling to the ground while breathing heavily.

He didn't understand… Karl was just speaking with them, how the hell was there an arrow in his head…? How come he was dead all of his sudden? What the hell happened…?

So many thoughts kept flashing through his mind, but out of all the things he felt right now, what he felt the most was pure fear and horror!

"H-hey! Look!" Aria shouted, her voice shaking slightly as she pointed to the direction the arrow flew from.

Blake's eyes instinctively turned to the side, to where she was pointing to, and his eyes trembled upon the sight in front of him.

Standing atop of a tall building, was a man draped in a long, pitch black hoodie, along with pitch black pants.

In his hands was a pitch black bow, and his lips were curled into a wide sinister grin, as he looked down on them from the roof.

"Got ya." He mumbled, nodding his head slightly in satisfaction.

"W-wha…" Blake stuttered heaving, his mouth not finding any words to say. With the bow in the strange man's hand, and where it was pointing to… it was clear as day to all three of them—that he was the one that shot Karl!

"Don't think! Just attack!" Aria shouted, swiftly stretching her hands towards the man in preparation to activate her skill.

She didn't know who this strange man was, but his mere presence sent chills down her spine. Besides, the fact that just shot down Karl made it clear that he wasn't here to play with them!

Twishh!

'Light—' Just as she was about to activate her skill, a large green circle suddenly lit up beneath them, encompassing all three of them within it.

Drawn within the strange circle, were an array of big and small triangles along with some weird lines and words scribbled around it, all of which emmited a similar bright green glow.

Her body suddenly went still, causing her eyes to widen in horror.

'Ligh…' Her thoughts slurred, and she came to a realisation, while watching her hands sluggishly move in the air.

It wasn't that she couldn't move, but instead, her movements slowed down greatly… and even her basic steps were done at a speed slower than a tortoise!

Aria wasn't the only one though, Blake and Edward who were also contained within the weird green circle, also found that their movements became sluggish all of a sudden.

Blake was also about to activate his skill, having already stood up the moment he heard Aria's shout.

However, due to the weird skill the man used, he could only watch in horror as his hands moved extremely sluggishly in the air.

***

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