The True Face Of Death

Kai and Conor's eyes widened as they immediately grabbed the important things they needed before running out towards Myra's location… 

'Damn it…! That's why I told them not to get too close until we're all there… "

Kai grit his teeth as he recalled telling his team to specifically not get near that monster no matter the situation, he didn't know why would Myra disobey his order but he was sure he was gonna give her a hell of a scold…

While running between the trees and through the forest, Kai and Conor noticed some kind of smoke going a little bit further in their way before a loud noise began coming from that place… 

They started running faster hoping to get there in time before anything bad happens to Myra… 

Though they didn't know her for that long and didn't have the best first impressions of her, she was still a part of their team and losing her meant losing a huge force from it 

When they were less than 100 meters away from the location of the smoke, they were able to see Ken and Ellen -who also noticed them- a few feet away from them, the four got to the source of the noise and they had finally found Myra…. 

Yet unfortunately she was not in the condition they hoped she would be… 

Her face was completely swollen and full of blood and bruises, it looked like a truck just hit her directly in the face while her a big cut was going around her belly area, it almost hit some very vital places yet somehow avoided them all by a hair's length with some kind of miracle. 

But Myra's condition wasn't what made them all freeze in place in ultimate dread and fear, what did was when they witnessed something very terrifying standing beside her… 

A hideous-looking being with the lower part of its body being horse's legs while the upper part being this of a gorilla with the fangs of a mammoth turned its bloody, injured face towards the newcomers who it felt like were about to disturb its peaceful meal after a long fight… 

It was clear that this was the monster they had to eliminate and that it had just been through a long, close fight with Myra and it did not defeat her that easily… 

Yet Kai and his friends had the darkest looks on their faces as they could feel it, they could feel it inside their bones and through their eyes… This monster in front of them was no ordinary monster at all… 

This… This was a peak E-rank monster… 

"H… How… How could they make such a grave mistake?!? How are we even supposed to kill such a being?!?! "

Ken stuttered in fear as he couldn't believe how the army could make such a great mistake…

Sending them to fight an E-rank monster, whether the monster recently reached that rank or not was like sending them to their deaths… But a peak E-rank monster… Such a being could play with them as much as it wants and they would be of no threat to it whatsoever… 

Even Kai who had a plan to fight an E-rank monster was starting to feel kind of hopeless, all his plans and schemes were for one that had just reached the E-rank, not one who was in that rank for months… And maybe even years. 

He couldn't wrap his head around how the army can be this dumb and ignorant and reckless… Especially when it was new recruits who were about to fight that monster… 

Kai's mind started to work at maximum speed trying to find some way for them to survive this fight… No, not just survive, they had to also kill that monster or else, Commander John will never trust them again, and his target in the military would also have higher chances of failing meaning his fate will be much worse than death then… 

Of course, due to the heat of the moment and to his -yet to vanish- fear, Kai did not take into consideration that no one, not even commander John would judge them for failing to kill an E-rank monster… 

Kai's head ran over thousands of thoughts and ideas, strategies and plans, yet none of them felt like it was enough to defeat that vicious monster… 

Eventually, the monster began to strike first as it didn't want to give the four any time to get out of their fears… 

Seeing this Kai knew he had to improvise and try his best to get out of this situation alive somehow… 

He shouted at the others to get them out of their amazement as he dodged the gorilla's first strike which was aiming for him, fortunately, or unfortunately… 

He then, with the others, started to reorganize themselves as he gave them his first orders… Thankfully the monster was kind of slow because of his huge body so it could've been worse for them… 

"Ellen, Ken… You two get Myra out of the way… We don't want to be disturbed by her during the fight… Once you're done, Join us… "

"Conor! Come with me… "

Kai and Conor sprinted towards the gorilla-looking monster as they started to hit him from both sides while dodging his slow punches to the best of their ability… 

Though the gorilla's hits were very slow and they could avoid them effortlessly, each of them contained enough force to turn them into a bloody mess a hundred times… 

They knew that even a single punch of his would send them to the afterlife which is why they were very focused on dodging every one of its strikes… 

But eventually, they had to lose focus and get tired even if they had superhuman strength… They were still humans after all… 

Ken and Ellen had finally returned after 10 minutes and when Kai and Conor were feeling fatigued and exhausted… And though Kai and Conor's expressions seemed to lighten up for a second, they instantly went darker than ever after realizing the mistake they had just made… 

They converted their attention away from the monster which gave it the chance to finally take out one of them and raise its chances of winning… 

The monster's hand was about to turn Kai's head into a pile of blood and brain tissue before something big and hard got in its way causing the unknown object to launch toward one of the nearby trees and almost breaking it down completely… 

Staring intensely into the point where the unknown object landed, everyone's eyes widened in fear as they saw the voracious scene that unfolded in front of them… 

Unfortunately for them… The unknown object that got yeeted by the monster was… Their friend Conor… 

When seeing the condition he was in and the happy grin on the monster's face they all felt chills running down their spines as they felt it… 

The monster's face… 

It… It was the face of death…