A Familiar Face

Alexander could feel something terrifying in the general direction of the demon group. His fight or flight instinct immediately kicked in. He had to leave this place while he had a chance!

However, before he could do anything, someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him aside.

"Hey!" He shouted angrily.

But then he noticed that the man pulling him was already demonized.

'Damn!'

Alexander immediately summoned all his strength and punched the man in the jaw. The punch wasn't strong enough though and the demon only stumbled backward several steps.

'I need a weapon! I can't do much damage to them even after all my training!'

At this moment, the man had already recovered. Now that Alexander knew what kind of opponent he faced, he decided to use the skills he learned in his martial arts training. Alexander focused his energy on his legs and jumped over the man, landing next to him.

Then, using the momentum he gathered from jumping, he landed a spinning kick on the side of the guy's knee. Instantly, he felt the man's knee break. Even if these demons possessed higher strength and stamina, their bodies were still mostly human! Their bones weren't indestructible!

As the demonized man fell to his knees, Alexander used this opportunity to deliver another kick. This time, to the back of the demon's neck. Crack! Another one bites the dust!

[Hunger Demon Level 1 Defeated]

[Accumulated Soul Force + 14]

"Huh? It is more this time?" Alexander noticed the small discrepancy in the report. However, he paid almost no attention to it since he didn't know what did Accumulated Soul Force mean. He had to escape to safety first!

Disregarding the comfortable feeling he got after defeating the demon, he rushed away from this place. He did not choose any particular direction, instead, he was simply trying to gain distance from whatever was that existence that made his hair stand on its ends.

Soon, he came across a group of three men fighting against four hungry demons. One of the demons was eating a random passerby alive! Alexander immediately leaped towards the nearest attacker and attacked.

Using his agility, he was able to land multiple blows on the demon's midsection, forcing it to back off, but not doing any significant damage to it. It was too late, however. The person that the demon attacked was already dead.

"Try to break their bones, it is way more efficient!" Alexander shouted towards the men who were still fighting.

They were using mostly improvised weapons such as metal pipes and bats with nails. Hearing Alexander's voice, one of the men seemed to recognize it and turned his head around to face Alexander.

"It's you?!" The man really recognized Alexander. It was one of the thugs that assaulted him almost a month ago! However the current situation demanded his full attention, so he instantly got back to fighting a demonized middle-aged man.

As soon as the man turned around, Alexander unleashed a flurry of kicks aimed at one of the demonized men's knees. Immediately, the demonized man's posture collapsed and he dropped to the floor.

"Ha!" He delivered an axe kick to the demon's neck, killing it instantly.

[Hunger Demon Level 1 Defeated]

[Accumulated Soul Force + 13]

Alexander felt the dull pain in his leg bones, likely caused by the impacts, slowly erode under the relentless advance of that cool feeling that washed over his body every time he defeated a demon.

Emboldened by Alexander's victory, the three men started to attack the demons with renewed vigor. After all, they would be killed otherwise!

"Aim for their knees!" Alexander shouted.

One of the men successfully struck a demon's knee but failed to break it. This provoked an immediate counterattack from the demon and cost the man his life. Alexander rushed over, but by the time he was close enough to do something, the demon already had sunken its teeth into the man's neck.

"Billy!" one of the other men shouted. But being locked in a fight with a demon himself, he couldn't do anything.

From the moment the demon bit the man, it seemed to forget about everything else in the world, so Alexander used this opportunity to finish off the demon. Billy, though, was already beyond salvation.

[Hunger Demon Level 1 Defeated]

[Accumulated Soul Force + 16]

Alexander didn't lose any time and directly attacked another demon while it was still locked in a fight with one of the survivors. When he turned his head in the direction of the last one, he saw the thug bring the metal pipe to greet the back of the last demon's head. It died instantly.

Breathing heavily, the thug fell on his bottom. "Thank God." He muttered, relieved that there were no more threats nearby.

The remaining survivor looked at Alexander and nodded in acknowledgment.

"You saved us," said the man. "We owe you our lives!"

"No need for thanks." Alexander waved his hand.

"You're the guy who broke the boss's leg." thug added, "I never knew that because of this, my life would be saved."

Alexander didn't quite understand what he was talking about until his gaze fell upon the demon that thug was fighting against just a moment ago. He looked closer and realized that it was the same guy whose leg he broke at the collapsed bridge all this time ago.

This made Alexander feel a bit weird from how ironic the situation was, so he decided to change the subject.

"Did you guys hear about the obelisk?" He inquired calmly. If they didn't it meant Alexander really did suffer brain damage and was hallucinating. Maybe in reality he was a crazy serial killer on the loose now! However, the thug's answer was affirmative.

"You mean that strange voice in my head? Along with the video game stats panel? Weirdest shit I've seen in my life. Well, aside from people turning into those ravenous fuckers."

"Since the obelisk is supposed to be in a safe zone, I plan to first go there. You two can fight, so it is better if we stick together. This way our chance to survive is higher."