"Hey, little sister! Need some help?"Anna was too busy defending and pus.h.i.+ng the carriers that got up of the hood. She took a few steps back to catch her breath and when the meaning of the sentence registered on her brain, she quickly searched for the person. She found Jun staring at her and just like yesterday, found his face familiar—extremely familiar at that.
Jun kept his smiling face until he realized that his younger sister appeared not to recognize him. His joyous smile turned wryly as he said, "I"m a bit disappointed that you don"t recognize me, but that"s okay. You can just give Big Brother a hug and everything will be okay."
The people around him haven"t recovered after being surprised by the sudden revelation, but his words further surprised them. Was he a siscon? Most of them frowned at him but gave him the benefit of the doubt.
"Brother? Is that really you? What happened to your hair?" Anna said probingly. "You look like trash now."
Jun could still accept her doubting him, but her snide comment made him flinch. He stared in shock at the woman on top of the van. There were a lot of similarities from his little sister, and could also see the resemblance of her mother"s face, but there"s a stark contrast with their bearings made him feel astonished. The way he remembered his little sister was a cute, elegant girl that would always rely on him.
As he was about to reply, he saw several carriers climb the hood of the van. A bonespear appeared on his right hand, then after aiming for a bit, it flew in the air and struck the carriers chest. He cleared the nearby carriers and said, "Let"s stop talking for now. Focus first, I"ll be there in a second."
Anna nodded and chose to focus on defending the little s.p.a.ce she had for herself. She tried to stab the head of a carrier on the hood of the van when it suddenly roared. The way it roared was unique as if it was a dragon breathing fire, moving its head from side to side. The sword went inside the mouth and went out through the cheeks. When the carrier"s head wriggled from roaring, the sword"s blade cut through the cheeks flesh, making its chin and neck draped with dark blood.
Anna almost lost her balance since she was forced to sway by the sword"s momentum. The carrier took this chance to lunged upward, which she took advantage off. She grabbed the carriers head and pushed it of the side, allowing her to stabilized her footing. Afterwards, she stashed the s.h.i.+eld and sword, swapping them with her much familiarized recurved bow. A quiver followed and she quickly wore it on her shoulders.
She started shooting every carrier that got up on the hood with excellent proficiency. Her prowess with the bow made people that were observing her feel that she was a professional. Every time she releases the string, the arrow would hit its mark. One shot, one kill.
Though she could still use the sword and s.h.i.+eld, using an unfamiliar weapon didn"t allow her abilities to s.h.i.+ne. It was like giving a kid a shovel and telling him to mix the concrete mixture without even teaching him how to do so.
Jun with his personal guards were able to arrive beside the van, easing the pressure on her little sister. Anna easily defended herself but she was almost out of arrows. When she reached for the quiver, her hand searched around and found the last arrow.
At this time, two carriers climb at the same time but one of them slipped from the blood on the hood while the other used it as a stepping stone. Before it could even raise itself, the string was released unleas.h.i.+ng the arrow. The carrier was. .h.i.t on the head and slipped down.
The carrier that was kicked away came back and stepped on the dead body, using it as a stepping stone to climb up. Anna didn"t have any more arrows and was considering swapping back to her sword when someone rushed to the van"s side and pulled the carrier"s leg.
"Stay there." Jun said, then collected a few arrows from the dead bodies.
"Don"t take them all." said Anna. When Jun looked at her in puzzlement, she elaborated herself, "If the arrows stay in their head, they don"t come back up."
Jun was a bit surprise and kept this on the back of his mind. He handed the arrows to her, then focused on clearing the carriers. He noticed that there were more people gathered here than earlier.
Although they were a bit late to react, the towns people rushed here after seeing the column of light. Initially, they ignored the strange event but when several new faces came running back and reported the horde of carriers, they realized that something illogical was happening and came to help. With the addition of hundreds of experienced people, they easily killed of the horde of carriers.
After confirming that every last carrier was killed, Jun finally sighed in relief then looked around, searching for his little sister. As the people killed the dismembered leftover carriers on the ground, Jun received a notification.
[Second Wave will arrive: 5:00]
The timer started its countdown just as the last carrier was truly killed. Jun looked up to the skies to see if there were hints but he found nothing. The sky was still the mixture of white and blue.
"Start looting! We need to hurry. They"re coming again." said Jun as he knelt down and looted the nearby bodies. He used both hands to be time effecient, which actually worked.
At that time, someone came and talked to him. It was the newly appointed branch head, Executive Master Sergeant Paolo Canlas. He said with a frown on his face, "What do you mean by that?"
Jun looked at him, then replied, "There"s another wave. I don"t know where but its coming. I"m sure you know the basics, right? Loot the bodies first unless you want them to reanimate. We have five minutes."
Though he still have questions in mind, he saw the seriousness in Jun"s voice and action. He followed after him and looted the bodies nearby. As they were close to each other, EMS Paolo Canlas made some small chats. "I don"t care about your previous deals with Cedric but I don"t want any part of it."
EMS Paolo Canlas expected a fierce reaction but it never came. When he turned to the side, he saw Jun in a daze, staring in thin air.
It was true that Jun was dazed, but it was not on thin air. He was staring at the notification that popped infront of him after successfully looting the dead body.
[Power increased by 0.1]
[Speed increased by 0.1]
Jun looked around the area. He noticed that people who finished looting the dead bodies were having the same expression as him. Astonishment!
Everyone here already has experience on fighting and killing a carrier. When a carrier was killed, it can be looted or be salvaged for its resources. It was the norm and the common understanding after surviving for a month on this new earth.
He felt astonished since he received a stat increase after looting a regular carrier. He then examined the dead bodies on the ground, trying to find any difference with the regular carriers they fought daily, but couldn"t find any except for the deskinned ones, revealing their tissues and muscles for everyone to admire.
He knew for sure that with skin or no skin, these regular carriers would give increased stats because he looted one skinned carrier and one deskinned carrier. Which further shocked him! Because there"s hundreds of dead bodies on the street. If he looted everything by himself, the total increase he could have received would be higher, but the ticking clock on his peripheral vision forced him to share. Unless he could have dozens of arms to loot, monopolizing the dead bodies would be impossible.
Jun felt the pinch of losing people on their last trip and regretted not recruiting more experienced people to fight for him. With this catalyst event, he reminded himself that establis.h.i.+ng a private army is a must.
Looting hundreds of bodies was too quick when there were hundreds of people dividing it for themselves. The number of people in town has almost reached 400, thanks to police force"s keen rescue operations.
Almost everyone was looking around for dead bodies to loot but there was nothing to be found. People gathered in small groups, revealing which factions they were in. There were small and medium groups formed in the crowd. The smallest were five and the highest was the police force and its volunteers, easily numbering around sixty. EMS Paolo Canlas already went back to his subordinates, but still glanced in Jun"s directions a few times.
Jun became the center of his group; his personal guards, the new recruits and his little sister"s circle of friends. He explained what"s happening, the column of light and the horde of carriers. He then shared some of his speculation and called the summoned carriers body as "special carriers".