Dark King

Everyone stopped at the same time when she halted her movement. Ian turned towards Luna and whispered: “What?”

“Blood…” Luna gently sniffed the air. She wrinkled her eyebrows: “It floats from ten o’clock. It seems that it is human blood.”

“Human blood?” The members of the team asked.

Eugene whispered: “Is there any team in front of us?”

“It’s possible.” Ian thought a bit and asked Luna: “Can you identify the smell of the monster?”

“There is a taste of wet stench.. It should be left by the monster.” Luna replied.

Ian pondered for a moment: “We will check it out.”

All of them looked at each other. No one objected or complained so they quietly went towards the place where Luna referred to.

Dean used his thermal vision to carefully observe the surrounding places. There were small rats and small monsters in the ruins but he couldn’t detect heat of any high-level monster.

They reached the place Luna was talking about in ten minutes. The team had reached a wide square which was surrounded by several collapsed buildings. The windows of the buildings were broken while the concrete had faded too.

The source of the bloody smell was coming from the open space on the square. They confirmed that the environment was secure so they quietly reached the source of the smell. Dean saw a corpse of a youth wearing the basic dragon clan armor. The youth’s head was missing above the eyes. The brain was scattered on the ground while there was a huge wound on his chest.

Everyone’s face changed as they looked at the corpse.

Dean frowned as he looked at the wounds on the youth’s body. It seems that the youth was killed about 20 minutes ago. He quickly looked around and saw few sharp claw marks on the ground. Several cars that were covered with moss were over. Some of them had hit the walls by the square and left fresh tire marks.

Martin squatted down and tore apart the name plate on the youth’s arm. His face changed as he whispered: “It’s Tommy from the 5th team.””

Ruby was surprised: “Tommy? How could he die in here? We are not even in wasteland!”

Ian looked at the corpse then turned around. He was wary as he whispered: “Monster should have followed him from wasteland and caught up with him in here. That’s why Tommy was killed in here.”

Luna looked at Dean: “What do you see?”

“Nothing.” Dean responded.

Luna looked at Ian: “We shouldn’t stay in here for long. We have to leave immediately.”

Ian nodded as he looked at the corpse on the ground. He sighed: “Rosemary burn Tommy’s corpse so that its not left to those dirty monsters.”

“Yes.” Rosemary took out a small bottle of oil from her pocket and was about to ignite it when Dean quickly intervened: “Don’t.”

The other looked at him.

Dean continued: “He died not so long ago. It means that the monsters isn’t far away. If the monster is a cold-blooded one then the fire will stimulate it and attract its attention.”

“There are 7 of us in here. We can cope with the monster even if it appears and at the same time avenge Tommy! What are you afraid of?” Ruby was angered.

Eugene added: “Dean is being rational in here. Although we can deal with that monster but we will be spending energy for such thing. Is it worth it?”

Rosemary wanted to speak but Ian raised his hand to stop her. He added: “Dean is right. We can’t stay here for long.”

Martin and others were startled as they heard Ian’s words. They looked around and Rosemary put away the small bottle of the oil. The team left the place.

Soon after the team left two dark red lights slowly emerged from the collapsed building.

…

…

“The monster kill Tommy but didn’t eat him. Most probably it killed Tommy to vent its anger.” Martin whispered as he looked at Ian but everyone else heard his words too.

Ian nodded: “Generally, the high level monsters are territorial and won’t leave their territory that easy. It is a terrifying thing that the monster has chased Tommy to catch up with him in here.”

“Yes.” Martin narrowed his eyes: “It has to be a monster that hunts other monsters for food. So its territory is there where there is enough food.”

“I hope we won’t meet it.” Ian looked at Dean: “Fortunately, you responded quickly or else we would be facing unnecessary trouble.”

Dean smiled as he saw Ian praise him. He had noticed that the battle hadn’t last long when they entered the square. It showed that the monster which killed Tommy had absolute strength over him. So it was very unusual for the monster to allow Tommy to ran out of the wasteland. Dean could only think of one possibility. The monster was using Tommy as a bait to catch something else.

Maybe the monster chased Tommy so that he could flee back to his own territory and the monster could sweep clean Tommy’s nest.

If the monster acted so then it meant that it had a very high wisdom!

The only advantage humanity had over monsters was wisdom. So when the monsters were able to overcome that advantage then the humanity would have any capital to confront monsters.

…

…

It didn’t take long for them to reach the wasteland.

Dean and Eugene wouldn’t know that they were facing wasteland if not for Ian. The deserted place was no different than the area outside the giant wall. There were desolate ruins all over the place. Moreover there were no boundaries or signs that showed they were entering the wasteland.

“There is a layer of worm powder in here. The more advanced the monster is the more afraid it will be of the smell of the worm powder. They won’t pass this place.” Ian explained to Dean and Eugene.

Dean had heard about the worm powder previously. He gently sniffed to smell the strange taste floating in the air. At first it was a bit smelly but after a while he slowly felt the fragrance. After a while he got comfortable with the smell.

Suddenly, Dean felt coldness in his left shoulder. It was as if the icy blood on his left arm was flowing gently.