Lord Shadow

It want to eat and ripped the h.o.m.o sapiens to shreds. Its anger is uncontained, hurt by a mere sapiens.

Azief also sense the beast anger towards him but that work to its advantage. At least that is what he thought until he remembered again he is not dealing with a human.

Human in anger will slip up and open up openings because of their chaotic state of mind. But not for animals. And certainly not for an alien animals.

He need to take some distance first as he sees the beast become even more stronger, his paw strikes is accompanied with a swoos.h.i.+ng sound and the air almost look distorted.

Azief jumped leaping the walls of the neighbor house while the beast pounces on the walls of the neighbor house cracking the pillars of the small stone house.

Another strike and the walks crumble.

Azief feels alarms are ringing off in his heart.

"f.u.c.k! The beast only keeps getting stronger! f.u.c.k this logic!" Azief could not help but curse seeing the strength of the beast.

Then Azief take some distance again leaping to another house while Tan maintain a considerable distance from the beasts but near Azief so that he could cast heal if the circ.u.mstances allows it.

But the beast is not using only its paws this time. It also uses his tail this time, determine to destroy these humans.

This time the beast began using his tail and tries to whip it to Azief. It was fast, and it was powerful.

Azief was caught unprepared by this attack from the beast tail and was thrown back five meters destroying another neighbor house walls.

It was like someone throws a sledgehammer to his body.

Blood drenched from Azief mouth because of the internal injuries. A few of his bones is broken and the pain is unimaginable.

This is the worse conditions Azief have ever experienced in all of his life.

"Wait for me!" Tan yelled

Tan is running to Azief with urgency and quickly casts heal on Azief wounded area. Slowly the pain leaves Azief body, replaced by a pale faced Tan.

Tan then handed him a few vials and Azief gulped them down quickly and his stamina returns.

It was only at this time Azief noticed that the beast has tails like that one dinosaur that have spiky tails.

But the beast has something like dull sword in its tail. A sword tail if he has to describes it. It was a mace. Something like that.

This time both Azief and the beast stare at each other. Azief did not use all his strength yet but his vitality and stamina is decreasing speedily.

If not for the heal that Tan provides and the stamina vials, Azief would be dead by now. He wiped out his blood from his mouth with his hands.

He is stubborn. He will not die to this beast! He did not just survive a zombie infested area, to be eaten by something that look like a combination of a tiger, a cat and some f.u.c.ked up combinations of other animals.

He will live! He will survive! And he will thrive in this new world! His determination is like a flame that gives him strength to get up and look into the eyes of the beast with courage in his heart.

It is foolishness.

But some people says that bravery is one part stupidity one part stubbornness. His internal injury is partially recovered.

Tan is doing his best but even his healing has cool down. Azief wanted to use his heal technique but he need to free up his hand and that might cost him.

He fears when he is healing his body will be strikes with that enormous paw and he will die of insta kill.

It also takes some time before the healing light shone down on him. This is why he task Tan with healing him.

The beast and Azief is locked in a deadly battle.

This is not like the zombies that he always slices like they were mere leaves, when he reaches level 10. Zombies are easy.

He slices zombies like paper but now his attack rarely does him any good confronting with these beast.

Truly there are many more horrifying creatures roaming the earth right now. Azief truly believes that the world he live snow is more dangerous….and more exciting.

Magic, monster and G.o.d know what else?

Azief is just one step away from level 20. But this beast manages to force him to this pathetic state.

This just shows that the beast is high level.

With all his buffs he still could not do any considerable damage other than the injury he inflicted to the beast legs.

It restricts the beast speed but that did not make the beast any weaker. Only its speed is restricted.

They circled each other, in a battle for superiority. Then the beast roars again, and it leaped, toward Azief like a gust of wind.

Azief dodged this attack with difficulty, narrowly escaping from the attack, and jumped sideways, landing a few meters from the beast.

Azief activates Slas.h.i.+ng Wind, his body gain strength and speed.

And then he slashes with all of his strength and combine that with his agility the power that was released was extraordinary for normal human…no…it surpa.s.s human power already.

This skills last for five minutes and has a cool down of 10 minutes. He needs to try to win this in the next five minutes.

His blade made a half moon arc and it slashed the beast front legs. With a clinkering sound blood gushed out from the wounds. It was like hitting steel!

Azief finally realized how powerful this beast body really is.

The beast also recognize the danger it is in and leaped ,distancing itself from his prey, and landed a few meter away from Azief.

This time it is truly angered.

ROAR!!! The beast roars again, almost like it is howling to the moon.

Ignoring the wound the beast leap towards its enemies, with eyes that is fill with killing intent towards Azief, blood drenching its skin, and confronted with such sudden burst of speed and unexpected power, Azief was pinned down by the beast, sending him straight to the tar ground, his face was scratched and blood seeped out from his wound.

The pain of having your face crash to a tar ground is a new experience and Azief could not help but curses again.

And blood spurted out from his mouth before he even has the time to curse at the beast. He could only curse the beast in his mind.

The sound of bones cracking can be heard, and the tar ground cracked.

Tan on the other hand also look at this battle with trepidation. He could not run because he is sure the beast could catch him.

He hopes that Azief could defeat it. If not he will become the meal. But Tan also noticed something seeing the battle from a distance, one that is overlooked by Azief. One tiny detail.

The bulge on the beast head. It"s been bothering Tan since the beginning of the battle.

Then something struck Tan

"Could it be?" Seeing Azief pinned down, with an expression of pain in his face, it might be their only chance.

Tan then yelled, hoping to G.o.d he is not wrong in his observation and conclusion.

"The forehead Azief! Smash the forehead!"

Azief on the other hand has a shortness of breath, feeling dizzy and he feels that he could be flattened to the ground.

The beast is like a steam roller. But then he hears Tan yells. He looks at the beast head and he too realizes the bulge.

Is that it? he also mused, his mind reeling from the shock of the beast and finally he sees a ray of hope.

And that is all he needs. A chance to fight back. At that moment his desire to live is strengthened because…he now at least….maybe....have a way to defeat this colossus obstacle in front of him now.

Hope….gives him strength.

He then uses all of his strength to punch the bulge and the beast was shocked and roar in pain.

It release its claws from Azief body and Azief quickly take this chance to jump away, still in pain, but alive.

"HEAL" Azief yelled.

Quickly Tan cast heal and Azief drink the stamina vials and vitality vials. His wound closes up and he feel he could breathe again.

The bulge! Azief realizes and is confident this time.

It might be the beast weakness. This time the beast takes precautions. It moved a few meters away from Azief and then its gaze turned fiercely to Tan.

Azief on the other hand is trying to lure the beats to him thus he distances himself from Tan not knowing that underestimating the intelligence of this beast is disastrous.

Azief believes that the beast would focus on him since he has wounded the beast. He is wrong.

It understands that the other human is helping the pinned down humans. The alien beast has intelligence that could match human intelligence.

They are not like zombies.

It changed its target and this time it leaped to Tan without warning. Azief seeing this from a distance could not help but feel shock.

Tan was far from Azief and at the time Azief was preparing for the attack by the beast, not antic.i.p.ating the change of target by the beast.

"f.u.c.k!" Azief cursed as he realized he could not be in time to help Tan. Tan was a sitting duck.

Tan invest all of his stats to spirit not strength or endurance, and in a split second a shrill scream can be heard.

Tan lost his hand in one swipe, blood gus.h.i.+ng from the wounds as Tan fall to the ground.

He is not yet dead but he is about to. Azief jump to Tan position, trying to at least, defend Tan, even though he might have been too late.

He in midair positioned his blade to aim at the beast forehead.

With his speed combined with the beast just attacked Tan, and not expecting Azief speed, his agility s.h.i.+ne.

He stabbed the bulge and like a fountain the bulge is gus.h.i.+ng with red blood and the beast fall down.

It shrieked and try to make a last swipe to Azief but it was a dying struggles, blood gus.h.i.+ng out like a dam that has crumbled, the tar ground turns even blacker in the cold night, illuminated only by the moonlight.

Azief strikes another one at the beast stomach and blood spurted out again from the open hole.

It still breathes and tried to make another claw strikes but weakened and slow, Azief easily dodge it.

This time Azief stab the beast at its heart and then at its eyes. After stabbing it for another 10 times, the beast fall down and a notification appears.

YOU HAVE ADVANCED TO LEVEL 20. YOU HAVE EARNED 2 STATS POINTS AND ADDITIONAL 5 STATS POINTS FOR BEING THE FIRST 25 PERSON OUT OF 100 TO LEVEL TO LEVEL 20.

SKILL POINTS UNLOCKED. EVERYTIME YOU LEVEL UP YOU WILL BE REWARDED WITH STATS POINTS AND SKILL POINTS.

"All to Vitality" Azief said. Today he learns how important vitality really is. Then another notification appears.

YOUR SOUL ABSORBING ABILITIES HAVE REACHED THE REQUIREMENT FOR EVOLUTION. CHOOSE YOUR DESIRE SHADOW LORD ITEM TO EVOLVE.

"Sharp sword" Azief said quickly his eyes could not leave the pathetic state of Tan bodies. And another notification appears.

YOUR SHARP SWORD HAS ABSORBED THE REQUIRED SOULS TO EVOLVE. WILL YOU ACCEPT ITS EVOLUTION?

"Yes" Azief said as he rushes to attend to Tan injuries. He runs to Tan sides.

THE SHARP WORD HAS EVOLVED TO BE THE DARK SWORD OF SOULS.

DARK SWORD OF SOULS

ATTACK: 30-55

SNEAK ATTACK: 40-70

DURABILITY: 1220/1220

HAVE ABILITY TO SELF TRANSFORM WHEN IT REACHED THE SOUL REQUIREMENT

Azief did not care about all the messages from the World Orb when he holds Tan in his arms, his head on his embrace.

The red blood near Tan arms is turning black and his vein is turning blue. Azief look at this occurrence and is confident that Tan in infected.

And it is fast. Could the beast have certain infection rates? Azief expression turned hard. He does not know what he had to do in this situation.

He knows he has to make the hard choice. But he doesn"t want to. But he has to. And that is why it is so hard.

"I"m infected aren"t I?" Tan said. Azief said nothing only nodding. Tan coughed.

"Your face shows everything, young one." Tan smiles bitterly.

He looks upwards and he could only see the dark cloud is moving away showing some glimpse of moonlight.

Tonight is beautiful. Tan mused. A few meters from their area a horde of zombies is marching their way.

"Could you do something for me, Azief?" Azief said

"Anything."

"In my left pocket there is my wallet. I want to see it" This request make Azief feel strange but he did it anyway.

"Open it" Tan asked weakly. Azief open it and Azief realizes there is a photo of a woman wearing a cheongsam.

She looks beautiful but the picture was in black and white. It is also crumpled and beaten up.

It is an old picture. Then Azief slowly shows the picture to Tan and Tan look at that picture with a face of pain and regret.

"I guess I will never see her again" Tan said mournfully. Then Tan close his eyes and said.

"Azief, cut off my head." He said.

"I don"t want to turn like them." From the distance Azief perception has already sense the approaching horde.

Azief just nodded. It was not easy.

This is the first time he would kill a man, a living human being…and that man is the man who might have possibly save his life by telling him of the beast weakness.

Azief is not a hero type but he knows how to treat grat.i.tude…but he is not capable. There is only one choice; one thing he could do the moment Tan was infected.

"Make it quick." Tan said, smiling bitterly.

"I will" Azief replies sadly.

Azief laid Tan body on the ground and then nodding to Tan, and Tan nodding back as he closes his eyes, his mouth shows a trace of smiles with a hint of regret, and Azief slice off Tan head and the head rolls away.

Azief took all the items, the rings and the vials except the robe.

It is a meaningless gesture.

After all the robe could be used for other things but Azief feels that at least this is something he could do for him.

He does not have the heart to strip Tan out of the robes, leaving him naked. That would be too cruel of him.

This is a meaningless gesture and he knows he is being a fool. But so be it! He is stubborn that way.

Without looking back he dash on a different direction from the zombie horde by himself.

"Alone again" he whisper to himself.

**********************************************************************