Chapter 338 (1/2)

Sydney and Ace crouched in the shadow of a fallen building, doing their best to keep their breathing even. The shuffling and sniffing of the wolves was one of the loudest things that either of them had ever heard. To his surprise, Sydney had a death grip on Ace’s hand, slowly squeezing the life and blood out of it.

But he didn’t really mind. After all, it was one of the rare moments that he had ever seen her care about something. Aside from Randidly, of course.

They both knew that this would only buy them a few minutes. With his free hand, Ace gripped the fire poker they had been able to scrounge up in the few hours after the System arrived. It was a poor weapon against the monsters that hounded them, but it was more than nothing. Sydney sat, her eyes pressed closed, focusing as well as she could on Meditating, so she could recover enough Mana to use one more Ice Shard spell.

The silence around them was deafening, broken only by the sniffing. Which was why they both jumped to alertness when the sniffing stopped.

A wolf padded out of the darkness in front of them, not the lean wolves that you saw on National Geographic, but a hulking, motorcycle sized creature that breathed out in long, foggy breaths. Sydney hissed between her teeth, and Ace stepped forward, interposing himself between them.

But at the same moment, two more wolves appeared, at the other end of the opening to their small, impromptu cave. The eyes hung in the eye, glowing golden. A small promise of death.

With a sinking heart, Ace realized that all of the excitement he had for the game-like System, and his special skill called Adapt, was completely unfounded. Sure, it could someday become extremely powerful. But for now… it was barely any advantage at all.

And in the face of Lvl 6 monsters, they needed an advantage. Any advantage.

As if by unspoken agreement, Ace and Sydney began to dash forward, towards the lone wolf. If they were going to survive this, they would need to break through this wall of muscle and teeth. It sat on its haunches, waiting for them. When they arrived, Ace took the lead, fainting high and then swinging the poker like a baseball bat, aiming for its knee joint.

If they could reduce its mobility, even a little…

But of course, the wolf moved, rushing forward, the blow hitting its shoulder, but barely throwing off its stride. It leapt, tackling Ace and sending him sprawling. He had poured most of his spare stat points into Strength, but it was barely a candle to what this Level creature could bring to bare.

Luckily, at the last moment, it yelped, and scrambled to get off him, its claws leaving long, but shallow, gashes in its chest. Sydney was pantining, her eyelids fluttering, barely able to stand, but there was an ice shard through the wolves right eye.

With a grunt, Ace pulled a spare kitchen knife from the hastily made sheath at his side and rammed it through the right eye.

Now the wolf was truly howling, but it stumbled back, blind and hurting. As fast as he could, which wasn’t fast at all, Ace got to his feet. He picked the poker back up, staggering to face the two other wolves, who undoubtedly would have caught up with them by now. But the attack never came.

Instead, framed in the opening to the outside world from this collapsed building was a figure, standing over the two corpses of wolves.

“Are you two alright?” A voice asked, a warm voice, and the figure stepped closer, becoming less a silhouette, and more a person. It was a tall, burly male with an affable smile and a rather untrimmed brown beard. His arms were wrapped in what looked like black iron gauntlets, which just rounded at the front, making his arms appear longer, but without fingers.

Ace looked at Sydney, who swayed, barely standing. He wanted to reach out and give her assistance, but from that almost dead look in her eyes, he knew from experience that in the face of this stranger, she would refuse even the smallest sign of weakness. So he let her sway, and instead stepped forward.

“Who are you…?” Ace meant it to sound intimidating, but it just came out as weary and helpless, which was very much how he felt.

The man’s smile grew wider. “I’m Roy. And I’m going to be a Hero.”

…….

Sydney’s eyes flashed as she looked at him. “Why are you being stubborn? You know I detest the man, but this is about humanity as a whole. We helped each other with our Tribulations, why are we allowing his idiotic whims to endanger hundreds of lives?”

Ace folded his arms. “Because you know he will refuse help.”

“And you know he needs it,” Sydney said, mirroring Ace’s stance. “He can’t do this alone.”

“The Class he has is Hero. It’s the most powerful we have ever seen,” Ace reminded her, almost helpless. Sure, he would love to help Roy, but…. He had taken a man’s stance, and he had his pride. He refused to force Roy to give up his dream that had carried them so far up until now. The dream of justice. The dream of fairness. The dream of a happy ending.

The dream of a hero.

“A tribulation comes for your weaknesses. They will not fight him. If it comes with a pretty face…” Sydney left the rest unsaid.