I didn't even turn to see what was going to happen. My only aim now was to get away as far as possible from the upcoming explosion, or else my body would be caught in it and instead would be burnt by fire.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Boom!"
Just as I cleared two hyenas from my way and ran for a few meters, a small explosion occurred. The almost empty tank I left on the ground nearby exploded first.
Its might wasn't that big, however the wave of light and heat it created brought weakness again to those hyenas.
And this was my chance to slip away from them.
I didn't even look behind and kept pushing forward. I could see the obvious hesitation and fear on the faces of those monsters. Yeah, shake in fear, bastards! That's what you got from messing with me.
Just as I crossed twenty meters and was close to what remained of my group, the second explosion hit.
This time it was really massive and violent. The sound it created was like a golam hitting the ground fiercely with its giant fist. But no golam could create such a strong shockwave that threw me off balance. I fell on my face for meters ahead before rolling a couple times.
"Damn! I never thought it would be this violent!"
As I stood up and tried to regain my composure, I couldn't shift my eyes away from that big fire tongue that stretched high in the air. The explosion didn't occur once, but I heard more explosive sounds coming as more tanks got hit by the fire inside.
"I hope you enjoy your fast ride to hell," I snorted at Arnold's fate then carried over the scattered tanks on my back before I turned to check my group, or what was left from it.
"Good," I expected a few people to survive this round. After all, the retaliation of the hyenas would be fierce. However over a dozen youths stood firmly on the ground while almost five or six were on the ground, deeply wounded.
They were forming a small circle that protected those wounded ones. Isabella wasn't in the center but she was fighting in the circle fiercely against those monsters.
"Hye, this way… Hurry!" as the explosion occurred, everyone turned to look at me. The shout of Isabella wasn't needed as I already started running towards the group.
"Sh*t!" However, as I started running, I soon noticed that I seemed to get a new injury from that fall. I was limping. I felt from the severe pain in my ankles and knees that I sprinted some ligaments there.
However, that didn't prevent me from reaching the group. The monsters all around were in a state of shock and fear from that mighty explosion. Those who were near it were caught in the middle of the explosion and were burning and roaring in unimaginable pain.
"Here," as I reached the group, I didn't hurry to get a moment of rest. I knew this wasn't enough to stop the next attack of the monsters, which would be the fiercest in this night.
"What to do with these?" A few youths finally had a chance to take their breaths as monsters seemed to be paralyzed. However they looked at a loss when I threw two tanks I held on my back onto them.
I only managed to carry five tanks from that room. One was used to start this explosion, and now two were in the hands of these youths.
"Spill their content all around," I hurriedly said before pointing around as I added, "try to make the circle wider and make sure to empty the two tanks all in there."
"O… Ok…" the youths' faces shown under the dancing yellow light of the fire told me how surprised they were by my plan.
"Where are you going?" Isabella noticed me turning around after throwing the remaining two tanks in the middle of the group and started to limp my way towards the nearest group of monsters.
"We need to clear a space for them," I firmly said before I started my hunting spree, 'I need to get my own revenge on them… and money.'
The monsters were all in a state of weakness and shock at this moment. So it was also logical to hammer on the iron when it was still hot. I waved my club and regretted not having my stats at the moment, regretted not having my body intact and healthy like before.
I could already hear the angry shouts roaring from my surviving group members. I wasn't the only one being suppressed here, they also held a deep grudge and immense anger against those monsters.
"We are ready," one of the youths who had the task of splashing the gasoline said, "come back now."
"Not yet," I didn't stop. In fact I didn't plan on using that tactic this early. There would be a moment when this setting would be needed, but not now.
I kept moving in the middle of the monsters killing all I could reach. At some point, a mighty roar came from outside as if more hyenas awakened from their shock.
"Just in time," despite that I didn't retreat. The fire that was now burning wildly at that generator's room was the strongest weapon we had right now. And the coolest thing was that these monsters wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it.
So they would come from the opposite direction. These hyenas weren't as smart or cunning like wolves. They would naturally select the safest point away from that threatening fire to come to me.
It was their instinct of animal survival, and I already read through their movements beforehand.
I was now standing in the opposite direction of the fire, waiting for the incoming brutal wave to arrive. In the meantime, I kept hitting the monsters all around, while trying to leave a trace of dead bodies between the group and me.
That was intentional. After all, gasoline wouldn't burn on itself. Any fire needed wood to keep itself alive. It just happened that these huge monsters worked as the best wood here.
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
As expected, the wave that started to come from that direction was really big. I didn't doubt that this was all that the hyenas had around this field. So crushing them meant winning this quest. Surviving the next minutes meant our win as well.
Finally our odds of winning this quest rose exponentially by what I did. At last I could finally retreat while killing anything that dared to come near me.
However, how could I leave such a meal? I retreated while killing as many monsters as I could.
The more I killed the more that came at me. I only needed one hit, one smash of my good club and the monster would die.
But even if I didn't want to retreat to the group, I finally had to. The monsters that came were really overwhelming in numbers. I killed around thirty of them but I could see over a hundred running my way.
"Should we light that gasoline up now?" one of the youths asked in a nervous tone. Unlike what others expected, I shook my head firmly. "Not now," I said while standing beside Isabella.
She was fighting in a fervent way. She was really something else. Without any prior experience in fighting, this weak looking girl was killing the most monsters in our little group after me.
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
The monsters surrounded us in layers so dense that no one could easily see through. I knew they would bring everything they had and come at us in such a domineering way.
But this was all within my calculations.
"Hye… What should we do now?"
At this moment the hyenas surrounded all of us without attacking. The road I came from was literally covered in thick dead bodies, making them more enraged.
But they wanted to invoke fear inside us first, an animal tactic that looked pretty damn old in my eyes.
"Give me your club," without saying much I extended my hand over while the other moved to grab one of the two tanks I left behind.
I didn't throw them there to rot anyway.
"... here…" the look she gave me was priceless. If I asked anyone to do that in such a situation, refusal would be the answer if he didn't know the reasons behind my request.
But she didn't ask or say anything. She was smart enough to know I wasn't doing this for nothing.
"Watch and learn," I moved a few steps outside the tight circle of our group before I shouted, "be ready, when I give you the mark, attack at once."
"..."
All I got back was eerie silence. It was expected. After all, who was in their right mind to ask them something like that? To attack such densely packed brutal and enraged hyenas with such few numbers and no weapons?
However I wasn't simply anyone.
"Glug!"
"Glug!"
"Glug!"
I instantly opened the lid of the tank and let enough gasoline fall on the ground. "For the sake of those who fell today from us," I said it like I was holding a liquor bottle and emptying it over the honor of the dead soldiers in battle.
My actions made everyone around me more shocked and startled. I could already feel their piercing gazes at my back as if they were wondering if I lost my mind or what!
"Phew!" as I poured enough on the ground in front of me, I threw the tank towards the distance. I wasn't just throwing it, but aiming towards a certain point there, a point I and the team made possible.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
Without any hesitation I grabbed the two clubs and hit them against each other. In just a few strikes, few sparks finally were born. Sparks turned into small fire as it caught the gasoline on the ground before it followed the trail left by the tank I just threw.
"Whoosh!"
The fire first extended fast towards the monsters. They weren't fools by now and instantly tried to move away.
However, that was only the start of their nightmare.
"Sizzle!"
"Sizzle!"
"Ready!" as the fire reached the large pack of dead monster bodies with the tank over them, it finally started to grow larger and become fiercer.
However, that wasn't all.
"Boom!"
A small explosion happened when the fire tongues touched the tank. That pushed many monsters and forced them to fall on their faces on the ground. And then fire started to extend in an arch, following the gasoline my group left before.
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
It happened so fast and in the end, the tightly packed angry monsters were cut in the middle by a circle of fire. The sudden appearance of fire alongside the chaos caused by my tank explosion made more hyenas to catch fire.
Things started to become ugly for them, and much easier for me and my group.
"Attack!" without waiting any longer, I simply threw the club back to the all shocked Isabella and started to run towards the trapped monsters.
After all, I waited all this time just to let enough of them enter inside the circle of fire. This way I wasn't only able to block any monster from attacking me and the group in the remaining minutes, but I also trapped a large number of them and decreased their numbers.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
The muffled sounds of the falling dead bodies kept ranging with the fierce sound of the fire eating the flesh of the monsters outside. Painful roars kept coming from out there but I only saw justice in that fate.
They wanted me dead, and I was only repaying their kindness double.
"Don't leave a single bastard alive!"
"Kill them! Kill them!"
"Aaaahhh!"
Many shouts, cries of anger, and even unrecognized roarings came out from the group behind. I could faintly smile as this was the first step in evolving ourselves in the apocalypse.
The first quest was important as it demarcated a clear line between our peaceful life before and our brutal life after the apocalypse.
From this day onward, all of them would be fierce fighters, one with a potential of a good future.
The remaining minutes ended fast without anything new to develop. From the start I knew wolves wouldn't dare to come near here as they feared nothing more than fire.
Since the explosion I caused back at the room, their role here ended before it even began. I was relieved that we didn't have to fight that damn alpha at this stage, not without a system and unlocked stats at least.
Those who left and tried to find sanction at the subways were the most cursed ones. All subways were underground with no possible source of light at all. Even if they tried to run, they were already trapped inside a gigantic underground maze.
"Huff… Huff… Where are they going… Huff… Huff…" Isabella wasn't the only one feeling exhausted here. Everyone else felt the same, me included.
"The quest is finished, I guess," I couldn't help but fall on my knees while my wounds and blood loss finally took over me. I wasn't careless to be absorbed in fighting without any consideration for my body.
After all, I knew what would happen next, so I wasn't afraid of fighting even in such a messy state.
"Damn! You are hurt like hell man!" At last the group started to catch their breaths and be relieved. So they noticed how bad my injuries were.
"Hye… you fool! You didn't even try to stop the bleeding!" I sensed a tinge of anger in Isabella's tone in addition to a ton of worry, but there was no blame there.. I could only smile while waiting for the next step to unfold.