Chapter 11. A Party of Four (1)

"Why is he even a part of this group?" Mr. Willis grumbled in dissatisfaction.

At the sudden objection to the addition of our member, I turned towards Mr. Haley to nudge him into answering the question. I looked at him as if asking, 'Why do you want to be in this group?'

He thought about it for a while, pausing his gaze on each of us for a second before finally resting on Ms. Willis. "You guys have never fought before, have you?", saying that he continued to look at me expecting me to begin the explanation of the situation, as if that one sentence answered it all.

It was true. Though, me and Mr. Willis might have trained ourselves, we didn't have any experience on fighting others until the appearance of the abominations in the morning.

I explained to Mr. Haley about the abominations, the system and the stats, including all the details that I've analysed until then. As I reached the most important part, skills, I paused to look around at the twins.

Honestly, I didn't trust the man enough to reveal my skills, but I didn't want a baggage that would hinder us during the fight due to their lack of information as well. So, I gave him an explanation of the changes that took place, while retaining information about my skills.

"My skill increases my agility." That was all I revealed to him about 'Lightning steps' and turned towards the twins to inform him about their skills as well, leaving the number of details of the skill to be described to their own discretion.

"My HEAL spell increases the regenerative ability of the recipient." Ms. Willis informed turning to her brother.

Tch… Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Mr. Willis said, "My skill attracts the attention of the monsters, like a taunt spell in the games."

As Mr. Willis was speaking; I might have to say it, though it might have just been my imagination; a faint smile made its way onto Mr. Haley's face for a moment before it returned back to a portrayal of nonchalance.

"So, what are we going to do now?" He asked, turning to me.

At this point I was basically the decision maker of this party. From my observation of the current situation, I could jot down the locations that we definitely had to avoid.

The gym and the grounds being open-places at the moment, were already crowded with several abominations. The lower floor of the building, though was relatively free of the creatures, any fight that takes place here was bound to attract the attention of all the abominations in the grounds.

The cafeteria, the main gymnasium, the laboratories and the student council block, which was where the senior year classes were held, were too far from our position and we would have to risk being out in the open for several minutes to be able to reach any of these. On the off chance that we did reach our destination in one piece, our safety in these locations wasn't guaranteed either.

So, I chose the safest of the options for us to begin our hunt.

"To the art room." I said, as I continued to lead the party to the top floor.

The top floor belonged to the art students with the art room occupying an entire side of the floor. Located on the right of the stairs were the classes for the art students and on the left was one of the biggest rooms of our campus, the art room.

On the way, I listed out the steps of my plan to the three.

"Looking at the situation right now, I think it would be safe to assume that the only way out for us would be to defeat all the monsters. At our current level, taking in the fact that Mr. Haley hasn't received a skill yet, we wouldn't stand a chance against a huge group of the abominations. So, we need to pick smaller groups. Individual ones won't be enough for all of us to level up. I don't know how many people have received skills in our campus but it would be best if we gather the people slowly, to increase the pace."

We reached the top floor as I was talking and I signalled the three to a halt. There were no monsters roaming in the corridor. I slowly stepped forward, trying to get a view of the inside of the art room. As I neared the door, I could hear sounds from inside the room. There were multiple dragging sounds, indicating that there was more than one monster but the sources weren't too many either, being somewhere on the level that I believed we could handle.

I noticed four abominations on the inside when I reached the door, searching absent-mindedly through the room. The abominations didn't seem to have a knack for locating their prey like they did in the attempts to kill it.

I slowly back tracked toward the rest and whispered in a barely audible voice. "Four of them are in there." I pointed towards the room.

Sweat trickled through Ms. Willis's forehead. "Do you think we can handle them?", she asked. Her voice slightly trembling.

I glanced at Mr. Haley to observe his reaction but he looked as indifferent as he was while facing the crowd in the infirmary. Noticing my gaze, he asked, "Do you have a plan, or do we just barge in?"

He asked the question as if he would be fine with either of the methods, and the look in his eyes never wavered. This man didn't have an ounce of doubt that he would lose.

I wondered what made him so different from the rest of us. Was it his family? Was this a show of his superiority? Was it his experience? Was it just a manifestation of his pride?

The tone of his question completely threw me off my flow. Taking a few seconds to re-focus my train of thoughts back on to the abominations, I slowly answered as my mouth curled upwards. "Yes, I do have a plan."

After I explained my plan to the three, I turned towards Mr. Willis and asked, "Do you think you'll be okay?"

The start and possibly the part that decides the victor of this battle depended on Mr. Willis. In particular, his skill, 'Roar of the Valiant'.

Roar of the Valiant:

You can let out a mana-induced roar that sets out every enemy that hears it into a state of frenzy.

This is a skill used by the valiant warriors. Don't falter even under the aggro of all those affected by the skill.

For 5 seconds after the roar, the damage you receive will be reduced by 10%.

Each roar will consume 40 MP. {1 stat in mana = 10 MP}

A skill that sends the abominations into a state of frenzy and targets the user itself. This was going to be the pivotal point of my plan.

Hesitating a little, Mr. Willis slowly nodded his head, subconsciously gulping while imagining the role he was given.

"Don't worry, I will HEAL you during the battle." Ms. Willis sent reassuring words to her brother.

"Yes, most of her HEALs will be focused on you. So, don't worry, Willis. You will do great." I pitched in, trying to calm him.

"I'll trust in you again, Ben." Mr. Haley suddenly said, in a loud voice that showed his confidence in Mr. Willis. Though it might have been a sentence that would build up pressure, it did the opposite effect in this situation.

Mr. Willis suddenly changed the look in his eyes and became more focused, not before staring at Mr. Haley with a little anger reflected in his eyes.

'Trust in you again? Again? What was the relationship between these two?' It seemed the two had a lot more complex relation than just that between 'a brother and his sister's pursuer'.

Whatever it was, it brought Mr. Willis back into focus and that was what we needed right now.

We couldn't afford him making any mistakes due to nervousness or fear!

The plan was finalised, the characters were ready, now all we had to do was rush into the art room.

We assembled right outside the door in an order, with me and Mr. Haley at the front, followed by Mr. Willis and Ms. Willis and the end.

On my signal, all of us rushed into the art room. I moved to the right using a little boost from my skill, Mr. Haley rushed to the left and Mr. Willis moved closer to the center of the room.

The sudden movements in the room attracted the attention of all the abominations with each one focusing on the one closest to it. There was one abomination in the right-side corner of the room which was bigger than the rest, two were closer to the center and one was on the left side of the room.

"Now!!" I shouted, facing the abomination, hoping that Mr. Willis would use the skill now, as I plugged my ears to block out the skill.

<<ROAAARRRR>>

A loud roar was let out at the center of the room by Mr. Willis. The sound was loud enough to even slightly pass through the ear plugs. It was then that I could feel a sudden wave of coolness wash over me, a courtesy of Ms. Willis HEAL spell, to protect us against the effects of the 'Roar of the Valiant'.

Though the spell clearly mentions 'enemy' in its description, in a situation where the enemy wasn't clearly defined, it wasn't wise to take the chances and attack without preparations. And, I was glad we made preparations for it, because I could slightly feel the effect when Mr. Willis let out the roar.

I glanced at the monster in front of me, who had a dazed expression for a moment before turning towards Mr. Willis.

This was the first part of the plan. We couldn't take down all four of them at once, so the first part was to divert their attention, confuse them and send them into a frenzy while we pick them out one by one.

As soon as the abomination turned its attention away from me, I activated 'Lightning Steps' and dashed forward while grabbing the sharpest painting knife on the way. Accelerating as much as I could, I launched the painting knife towards the abomination's head.

With a slight sizzle, the painting knife left my hand as it impaled into the head of the monster.

<<Thud>>

The biggest monster in the room landed on the ground face-first as it slowly started to turn into ash and I heard a ringing in my head.

Congratulations on killing an Abomination!

You have levelled up!

You have levelled up!