Figures emerged from the shadows, a dozen men and women in mismatched armour, each carrying makeshift weapons and rifles. Wolves padded between them, silver-eyed and unnervingly calm. At their front was a broad-shouldered man with a jagged scar across his cheek.
His gaze swept over the dead aberration, then locked on Zayden. The man smirked.
"This was our hunt. Our pond. And you lot just waltz in, kill the beast, and start looting? Doesn't work like that."
Zayden stepped forward, keeping his voice even. "We saved this place from that thing. Without us, you'd have nothing to claim."
"Without you," the man shot back, "it would've been ours in one piece. Now, you'll hand over everything, the pond water, your supplies, and maybe we'll let you join us."
Valeria's hand tightened on her blade. "You're joking."
The man's wolves growled, low and rumbling. "Do I look like I'm joking?"
Zayden was most definitely not ready to compromise, not after they almost died trying to secure he pond. The military was vultures, and there was no way Zayden was going to give it up.
While he was determined, Zayden knew that he wasn't at peak condition. He only had about 7% of cosmic energy remaining, and that wouldn't be enough to perform one umbra slash.
A grim expression appeared on his face as he stared at the military in front of him. Then determination appeared. If he needed to fight, then there was no need to hesitate.
"Boom!!"
There was a small crack in the ground where Zayden was standing as he dashed at them, the little amount of cosmic energy in his body churning and transforming into oblivion flux with the laws of darkness, coating his sword.
There was no way he was going to defeat the leader with the strength he had remaining, and he knew that, so he didn't try to take on more than he could handle.
Almost immediately, he appeared in front of one of the unsuspecting military men. This man was pretty weak at level twelve, and he didn't know when Zayden appeared in front of him.
So he couldn't react when the sword sliced his head off like a hot knife through butter.
The dark energy latches onto his body and eats it up, like a virus, spreading at an alarming rate.
This was the second time Zayden was killing, but there was no time to have a panic attack, as he didn't even stop to see the result of his attack, before changing direction mid-air, and going for the nearest person.
The surprising thing was that after the death of the man, he could feel the energy the man had flowing into his body, through the dark energy that was attached to the man, connected to him.
It was as if it consumed the man; the energy that was gathered was being transferred to him, and before long, his cosmic energy increased to ten percent.
At the same time, the military men were surprised; they never expected Zayden to attack so suddenly; they didn't have any time to react, and before they knew what happened, one of their own was already dead.
But they were hardened warriors, with lots of experience, so letting it happen a second time was impossible.
"How dare you!!"
The leader of the military group roared as he appeared in front of Zayden, his eyes red in anger. He quickly managed to block the attack, pushing Zayden back a few feet.
"We gave you a way out, but you chose not to now, you will know the consequences"
The rest of the military team had their guns pointed at Zayden and the rest of the team, while the leader snapped his fingers.
The sound of a cricket could he heard, as nothing happened. There was a slight twitch in his left eye, but he snapped his fingers again, and the same thing happened, nothing.
"Damn mutts"
Behind him, walking out like warriors that had just won a war were Darian, Isara, and the rest of the team that didn't battle the aberration.
"You really thought you could defeat us", Dare said with a mocking smile on his face, the red aura of Mayhem exploding out of his body.
"Mayhem Domain"
The energy exploded to about one hundred meters, and the eyes of the members of the military group turned red as they stared at Darian with rabid craziness, as if looking at a delicious meal.
Without wasting time, they lunged at Darian, but they were too low-levelled, and there was no way they could ever defeat Darian.
As if he were swatting away flies, Darian swung his axe, heads flew, and blood sprayed everywhere.
Not just him, Isara had multiple magic circles floating around her, and from these circles, lances made from ice were shot out, hitting military men and turning them into ice statues, which later broke into millions of pieces.
While all of this was happening, the rest of the team was watching wide-eyed. One had to remember that none of them, apart from Zayden, had ever killed a human, but now, Isara and Darian killed almost ten humans.
Even Zayden had a surprised look on his face.
Darian, seeing the look that the rest of the team was giving him, had an indignant expression on his face. He looked at Zayden with a confused expression on his face.
"What? Didn't you want help?"
"Yeah, stop looking at us like we did something wrong, we're in an apocalypse, and we might inevitably have to fight humans, and letting our enemies go will bring us a lot of problems later in the future", Isara said as if explaining to juniors.
While this was going on, from the pocket of Zayden's coat, the egg of unknown origins came out and floated in front of Zayden, spinning around as if looking at the surroundings, before diving into the pond.
"Plop!!"
There was a slight moment of silence, but Zayden had an expressionless face. He wasn't going to explain the egg to anyone, and no one was going to force him to do otherwise.
But his expression suddenly changed when the silver water of the pond started churning and spinning as the water in the pond was reducing at a visible rate. Even Zayden had a worried expression on his face.
"What the hell is that egg, Zayden?" Tyrel couldn't handle it anymore. They had shed blood for this pond, and the egg, that did nothing, wanted to take the majority of it; it was unacceptable.
But Zayden reacted as if he hadn't heard him, looking at the pont with a worried look. Thankfully, the egg didn't take too much and came back out a few minutes later, with a golden glow around it.
[Egg of Unknown Origins]
[Grade: ???]
[Incubation: 100%]
[Hatching: 0/100% (Please drop blood on egg to begin hatching)]
Zayden couldn't help but smile after all the resources that were poured into the egg; it was finally time for it to hatch. He couldn't wait to see what came out of the egg.
Ignoring the weird gazes that the rest of the team was giving him, Zayden bit his finger, and a drop of blood landed on the egg.
The glow around the egg increased, turning blood red, before dying down, floating back into the pocket of Zayden.
[Egg of Unknown Origins]
[Grade: ???]
[Incubation: 100%]
[Hatching: 0/100% (Estimated Time: 4:23:59:53)]
'Five days till the egg hatches, ' Zayden thought
The rest of the team was about to bombard Zayden with a whole lot of questions, but before they had the chance to say anything, they heard footsteps behind them.
They turned around and saw that the rest of the people on the bus. Zayden looked into the distance at the setting sun, casting its orange glow on them and thought
'it is time'