Bodyguard

Bruce couldn't help but frown when he finished reading that. He recognized his mother's handwriting, but he didn't recognize the feelings she conveyed in the letter. It wasn't like he had read any letters written by her, but it looked like she had gotten fairly soft over the course of the last year… even though she didn't try to contact him a single time. The same couldn't be said about his father. It was obvious that he didn't pass any message in the letter.

"The silent treatment, huh," Bruce shrugged. "Dad didn't change even a little bit…"

Putting such personal matters aside, the letter put some questions in Bruce's head. Before anything, he didn't know if it had been a nice coincidence that his mother was on her day off when the election started. Even though she was in her fifties, she used to work for two weeks straight before having a single day off. As if that wasn't weird enough, they apparently managed to leave the city. If anything, their response had been a bit too fast… Although his father was a high-ranked officer in the army, and Bruce was pretty sure the government had some contingency plans for unexpected events, everything was just too suspicious.

"It looks like you came to look for your parents," Lucius said. "Director Sarah is a very serious person, but I didn't think she would be… to this extent."

Bruce could understand the feeling that Lucius had; it was abnormal that parents would leave their children behind when such things happened. Even when their children are grown-up men like Bruce. However, that didn't surprise him. Most likely, the whole world was being overrun by monsters, and the government couldn't protect everyone. So, they decided to protect a selected few.

"Who said that you could read this?" Bruce asked while furrowing his eyebrows.

"Sorry… I thought that we could…" Lucius stepped back after seeing Bruce's cold eyes. "Obtain some information from the army by reading this… but as expected, we are by ourselves."

In the end, Bruce sighed again. Now that he thought about it, perhaps the reason why he didn't see any police officers so far was due to them having their own contingency plans. It was clear that most of them would leave their jobs in order to protect their families while others would be forced to protect some big shots.

"Well, whatever…" Bruce said and then hid the letter inside his pocket. "Let's get going."

Lucius couldn't help but open his eyes in surprise at Bruce's behavior; he recovered from the shock of being left behind by his parents way too fast. He was also acting nonchalantly as if he was covered in the monster's blood from head to toe. Regardless, for the good or the worse, Bruce was the sole person who could give a hand to that group of survivors. So, none of them had any intention of complaining as long as they were away from the monsters. However, such thoughts disappear when Bruce begins to walk toward the completely dark center of the city.

"You came from there?" Lucius asked, surprised. "The group of survivors you mentioned is in that direction?"

"That is right," Bruce replied. "Someone thought that turning off the power of that region would work against the monsters. It worked against the small fries, but some troublesome enemies hid within the darkness. So, stay close to each other and keep quiet. Unless I hear their approach beforehand, things might get messy."

Lucius didn't know what Bruce meant by small fries. Even though goblins were shorter than most adult humans, they had weapons and were savage enough to behead them in a single strike. However, when Lucius heard a single howl echoing from who knows where, he finally realized the meaning behind Bruce's words. Goblins weren't the only enemies humans had to worry about; they were only one of many. They were one of the weakest. The children began to cower and tremble in fear while the adults started to sweat cold.

"This might be bad…"

When the humans are scared to die, they may do all kinds of crazy things. Since those people were wounded or sick, their mental health wasn't at the apex. So, it was evident that something unexpected might happen, like one of them decided to run alone and cause the others to follow them behind. That would be disastrous. It didn't take long for Bruce to hear some footsteps moving away from him.

"Don't make me waste my time," Bruce said. "If you guys want to give up, now is the time. If you guys decide to proceed and then try something foolish in just a few minutes, I will split any of you in two."

Bruce wouldn't go as far as killing humans just because they made him lose a few minutes of his time, but his cold voice made the threat sound real. Adding that to his appearance, it made the survivors stick to each other like glue. Even Lucius began to think that they would be safer by themselves than with someone so crazy. However, such thoughts disappeared from his mind when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Amidst the darkness, he couldn't see anything, only shadows. Despite that, Lucius recognized Bruce passing by him and moving to the right side of the group, and then he saw it… a big shadow quickly approached, and he wasn't the only one. His patients quickly stepped back away from the beast, but before they could turn around and run, Bruce stopped the massive creature in full charge.

The sound of metal colliding with something massive made Lucius feel shivers; not only that, the creature's growl made his heart grow colder and colder, but not for long. Lucius barely saw what Bruce did, but apparently, he kicked the monster's face before jumping a meter backward and then charged again. This time he didn't hear the sound of metal colliding with anything, only the nerve-wracking sound of flesh being cut. The sound had been so intense that Lucius felt that the beast had died in a single strike, but that didn't happen. The monster did something that even surprised Bruce; it raised both paws and then tried to smash him from the sides with them. Bruce clenched his teeth and decided to endure the pain while also moving forward and stabbing the monster's exposed throat. His sword pierced the monster's throat all the way to its back, killing the creature, but not before Bruce could feel his shoulders getting smashed by the huge claws.

You obtained 50 experience points.

You obtained 5 spiritual coins.

"Shit…" Bruce muttered, annoyed, while he felt his sword getting incredibly heavier. "At least this bastard gave me a bit more experience."

Bruce let his sword rest on the side of his body, and then he grabbed one HP potion. That single attack made him lose ten points of HP. So, once again, he was forced to realize that perhaps it was time to increase his vitality. Relying on the extra defense that equipment gave him was too risky.

Lucius watched Bruce eat something weird but then approached the fallen shadow. From so up close, he noticed that the monster what the largest wolf he had seen, but he never saw one that had red eyes.

"You are quite brave," Bruce said. "And that makes me wonder why you didn't try to help me by using Fireball."