"You are too much trouble to be left alive. I will deal with you first."
"!"
Archer's entire body shivered as a voice suddenly whispered in his ear/
There was an intense oppressiveness that almost made him wet himself from that voice! Archer was a hunter and he was used to staying in one place for a long time. That meant that he was very good at noticing changes in his environment! Even the slightest movement from a rat would catch Archer's attention!
But he was not able to tell when this thing came up from behind him; he didn't even notice anything until the person spoke!
Archer immediately jumped off the tree and turned around to fire an arrow at the person, but he was stunned as he saw what was behind him! It didn't make any sense at all! Wasn't that an Anima? Then how did it talk!?
That short moment of distraction was enough for Archer to let his guard down as he was too shocked to fire his arrow and the anima stretched out its hand and grabbed Archer by the face! The Anima was the same one that the leader instructed to bring Mark to him.
Once the leader told it to come and deal with Mark, it made its way to the surface and went to the place with the most fighting because it thought that Mark would be there. But when it got here, it realized that it made a mistake.
Then, the anima felt Mark's power on the other side of the forest and it was about to make all of the other anima turn around and go towards where they could feel Mark's power.
But it was difficult for the Anima to control the other lower-ranked Anima because there was someone here who was also controlling them! Fiona's blessing was interfering with his command channel and some of the anima were not listening to the higher-ranked Anima's orders! They were being lured in by Fiona so they were ignoring every other order!
That told the high-ranked Anima that these Superhumans would have to be dealt with first before they could go and find the boy. So it sent the lower-ranked Anima ahead of it first and it turned around to deal with the superhumans.
It decided that it would be best to deal with the most dangerous one first, and after watching for a few seconds, it decided that Archer had to be the most dangerous out of them!
Swish!!
Archer suddenly released another arrow and the anima tilted its head to the other side and allowed the arrow to fly past it!
Boom!!
But the Anima didn't expect the arrow to suddenly explode once it flew past its head, and it took a step forward in surprise as th shockwave hit it from behind. But its hand was still holding onto Archer's face tight and Archer was starting to grow afraid as he realized that the anima was not going to let go no matter what.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Let! Go!"
Archer started to slam his hand into the Anima's forearm to make it let go! Archer might be a long-distance fighter, but he was still an S-rank with enough strength to destroy a building with ease! He could use a single blow to send a skyscraper into the ground! But there was no reaction at all from the Anima that was holding him! It looked like the Anima couldn't even feel the punches at all!
The Anima's arm started to tighten and Archer screamed in pain as he felt his skull getting crushed! He grabbed the Anima's arm and started to kick its body using his legs, but the Anima still didn't budge and it just continued to squeeze tighter and tighter until…
Crack!
Squelch!!
The sound of Archer's skull popping like a balloon echoed through the area and the Anima dropped his body to the ground and looked down at its blood-stained hand. It licked the blood off its hand and a sadistic smile crept onto its face as it saw Fiona staring right at it.
"Hello, Superhuman."
Fiona was very far away from the Anima, but she knew that distance was nothing for beings with as much power as them! That anima could cover the distance in no time at all! She stepped back in fear as she wondered what the hell that thing was! It just killed Archer like Archer was a bug under its feet! There was nothing she could do if that thing decided to attack her head-on!
She had to get to Tylor and warn him about it –
"You plan to run?"
"!"
A voice suddenly came from behind Fiona and she froze like a deer in the middle of the road! She glanced up to where she had seen the anima before and she was stunned when she didn't see it there anymore! It was able to move from all the way over here to behind her in just a split second! How fast is this thing!?
Fiona was not the physically strongest, but that did not mean that she couldn't follow attacks with her eyes easily.
Her senses are still better than any human could hope to be! But she didn't even notice the anima move before it was already behind her!
A cold sweat came down the side of her face as she felt that she was going to die at that moment. She was well and truly screwed! Her blessing was still active, but the anima was not even reacting to it. That could only mean that the anima was so strong that her blessing had no effects on it at all. Or was it because of its advanced intelligence?
Anima were usually mindless creatures and she could control them easily, so for this Anima to be talking, that must mean that it was far more intelligent and its mind was stronger than other Anima.
"Duck!!"
Fiona suddenly heard a loud voice echo through the forest and she didn't need to be told twice as she quickly fell to the ground as Tylor appeared from inside the forest with a flaming fist.
"Rarggggghhh!!!!"
Ka-Boom!!!
He sent a punch straight at the Anima to push it back! He then created a wave of fire and slammed it into the Anima's side and made it fly away from them!
Phwoom!!
Mark jumped off the helicopter and landed on the beach as he looked around him. He signaled to the helicopter with his hand and the helicopter slowly turned and began to fly away. The pilot would find a safe place to land and then he would come back here to pick Mark up once Mark calls him. There was no way the helicopter could stay here when they knew there were many monsters around.
There was a large forest in front of Mark and Mark knew that he would have to go in there if he wanted to find an entrance into the tunnel.
Ka-Boom!!
Suddenly, a large explosion made the ground under Mark's feet tremble and he saw a column of fire rise into the sky from deep in the forest.
Mark could tell that the superhumans were fighting against the Anima, but he didn't know who that was. He would have gone to check, but he was more interested in finding Arit. Nothing else was important right now, Mark landed in this area because he was sure that Anima would be preoccupied by the other superhuman and he could go to the underground tunnel without trouble.
Mark watched the helicopter leave before he turned back to the forest. He narrowed his eyes at the forest as he started to think about how he would go from here. But he frowned as he felt something under his feet!
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
"A tremor? No… an attack from underground."
Boom!
Mark jumped into the air as the ground under his feet suddenly burst open, and a large Anima jumped out and tried to take a bite from his feet! Mark saw the forest shaking, and he was shocked when almost fifty Anima shot out from within the forest and began to charge straight for him!
[New Mission Alert!]
[Survive the Anima Horde!]