Under the Veil of Night

Tommy picked up a bag from the corpses near the entrance. When they came in, numerous people died in the first encirclement. After a few hours, this place gained numerous fresh corpses, painting the entire landscape with a dark red color.

"Tom, how many have you found that are still edible?" Jason walked over with several cans of food in his arms.

"Not many," Tommy replied. "Most of the cans burst open from the sheer force of the attack."

"Let's search again."

"Wait, has Rei managed to eat?" Tommy asked hurriedly.

Jason nodded. "She threw up a few times, but finally managed to make the food stay in her stomach. Don't worry, she's already stuffed herself full by now."

"You didn't force her to eat, right?"

"What are you talking about? She forced herself to eat, not me," Jason shook his head slightly. "She's far stronger than what you give her credit for."

Tommy eyed Jason suspiciously. "She was still a little princess from a wealthy family just a year ago. How do you expect me to see her as strong?"

"Trust me, those from the rich families are not always pampered," Jason shrugged. He put the cans into his bag. "If you're that worried, we can just check up on her."

The two of them made their way back to the storage room. Not far from the storage room, Kanae was standing in front of several monsters. She bent her body slightly, and in the next second, she reached the monsters' flank, killing them with ease.

As the monsters fell down to the ground, Kanae turned around to see her friends.

"You have returned?" she asked cheerfully.

Tommy nodded. "It's time for some food. I'm sure that you should be hungry from fighting so much."

"It's your turn, Tom."

Tommy smiled wryly. They were taking turns to deal with the incoming monsters so as to train their bodies. At first, it was hard for them to cope with the monsters because there was always more than one coming towards them. However, it didn't take long before they could fight alone with ease.

"You're pretty scary now, Captain."

Kanae could only smile slightly. "You can say that."

"What's in your mind right now?" Jason asked curiously.

"The moment I stepped in here, I should have been resolved to die. In this place, there's no regard for one's life. If I don't want to die, I have to fight back," Kanae replied slowly.

"That's a good sentence, Captain," Tommy raised his thumbs up.

"Tom, you should just focus on the fight. You're the one that is taking more than one move to kill those monsters."

Tommy's face scrunched. "What can I do? They're basically stronger than the ones we first encountered."

"That's not an excuse…"

BOOM! BRUCK!

The sudden sound near them alarmed them greatly. There were several buildings in this area and not far from them was a three-story building. Just now, the building's wall was destroyed from an explosion. The unstable building was leaning over in their direction.

"RUN!" Kanae yelled as she pulled Tommy's arm with her.

Jason immediately ran when he heard her while Tommy was dragged by the two of them. It took another second for Tommy to realize what had happened as he stabilized his footing and ran by himself too.

One step, two steps, the building was growing closer as they could see the shadow looming over them. The windows of the building hung over them as they almost reached the side. At the last moment, Kanae stomped her foot on the ground as hard as possible and jumped forward with Tommy right behind her and Jason by her side.

BOOM! BRACK!

The rubble jumped and rolled across the entire area. The cement from the building broke off and fell towards them.

BRUK!

'It's close!' Tommy stared fearfully at the large piece of rubble that landed next to his head. If it had fallen one inch to the right, his head wouldn't have been spared from the impact. Thankfully, he was fine.

"Tom, Rei, are you two alright?" Jason turned his body over and inspected his own body as he looked around.

"I'm fine," Kanae answered. Her body was covered in dust from the building's collapse, but she was unhurt. Looking towards the collapsed building, her eyes narrowed because she could sense several people coming out.

PRANG!

Several monsters crawled out from the windows. They had lost an arm or were bleeding profusely, but they pounced the moment they saw Kanae and the other two.

Raising her sword, Kanae blocked the sudden attack. She pushed them back as she used the force to somersault backwards and landed standing. Sensing another one behind her back, she twisted her body and slashed her sword horizontally.

"Be careful! They're stronger and their skin's tougher!" Kanae shouted when she noticed that she felt more resistance from these monsters. She didn't understand why there were such discrepancies between them?

"Yes, Captain."

Tommy leaped back and drew his sword to face these monsters. They looked towards the three of them and pounced forward. It was as if they saw every single person as an enemy.

Slash, slash, slash.

It didn't take long for them to finish the fight with the monsters. Their swords were already covered completely in blood, and their breathing was rough. The fight had their stamina greatly.

"I need some rest," Tommy remarked as he inspected his arm. It was already numb from the countless fights he had today.

Kanae nodded her head. She too would gladly rest because she was very tired. Having to kill these monsters for hours drained her mentally and physically.

"We can take turns to keep watch. Luckily the storage room is still intact, so we can use it," Jason offered.

"That's a good idea," Tommy smirked.

Kanae was about to nod when she sensed danger. Her body sidestepped quickly as a bullet passed through where she stood just now.

BANG!

"Who's there?"

"Cheh, it missed," a man grumbled as he still pointed his gun towards the three of them. Beside him, several other men were standing with their weapons ready.

Jason's heart fell when he saw this scene. He knew that they wanted to kill them. Even though he was not sure of the reason, it was plain obvious that these men did not come with peaceful intentions.

"Why are you shooting us?" Tommy yelled indignantly. "We're allies!"

Hearing Tommy's outburst, the men laughed. One of them pointed his gun at Tommy. "You say allies? There's no such thing as allies in the competition."

As he said that, he pulled the trigger.