6 1.6

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I should have felt disgusted at my 'teammates' for letting Travis and Tobin, a literal child, die, but I felt nothing.

That's not right, I did feel something. A shameful feeling of petty glee for having stopped their plan, by saving Becky.

I didn't like Hunter any more than they did, but fuck them. It wasn't their fault I had lost them either, but fuck them. Fuck them all, I'm not going to die here, not after all this.

Grasping Becky's hand in mine, I said, "I don't want to lose you, hold onto me."

Becky nodded slightly, and I led the way.

However, even after walking for twenty minutes, which felt like hours because of the field's time distortion, we were still surrounded by grass.

With hindsight, I would have tried to bring the raven's corpse with me, as maybe it would have helped with the field's spatial distortion, but it was too late now.

These twenty minutes, which I could only count thanks to the watch, did allow me to understand more about the state I was in however, and regain some of my stamina.

My left arm was most probably broken, and even if it wasn't, I was unable to use it for anything. I couldn't even lift it.

My vision was quite severely impaired too, as while I could still see with both eyes, my vision had turned blurry. I could still see well enough to orient myself, but anything beyond a few meters would become too blurry for me to really see.

My left side also hurt quite a lot, I may have fractured or broken ribs.

All in all, not very good.

But after these twenty minutes of aimless wandering, I heard an explosion from close by. Remembering what Hunter had done, I led Becky towards the explosion without any hesitation.

If there was one person who wouldn't want Becky to die, it would be Hunter. So going there would not only ensure her safety, but I would also be safer, as any danger to me would be a danger to her.

I also got time to think about the plan Chris, Karl and Geraldine had mentioned before, and having killed a character myself, I knew for certain Hunter had lost 2000 Points.

However, that didn't mean he would necessarily die. While Karl believed Hunter didn't come with any points, I preferred to be safe and take into account the possibility there were some things we still ignored that made him keep Points.

But I also believed he had gotten in the negative with those two kills, as he had looked quite desperate when he rushed into the field.

Taking all the numbers into account, if he had not completed any side quest, then he was probably somewhere between 0 and -1000 Points.

In other words, as long as he didn't complete a side quest, then if Becky died… No, I don't want her to die. She might be a character in a movie, she was more real than most people I had interacted with in the real world.

I grasped her hand a little tighter as I sped up, and before long, we managed to reach our destination.

It was a small space where there was no grass, which was quite the novelty in this field. However, there was a large rock in the middle, surrounded by several people.

On the ground laid the mangled body of Travis and Geraldine, whom I only managed to distinguish thanks to their clothes.

Next to their bodies were Chris, Karl, Clara and Jonathan, all four alive, although Chris looked a little messed up.

But most importantly, there was Hunter, currently in the process of ripping apart a man with a head made of grass.

The man's, or monster's body looked like a brittle chopstick as Hunter easily tore it apart, before his gaze fell onto me and Becky.

It was hard to really distinguish his face from the distance, but I heard in his voice that he was smiling.

"Good, you've brought the girl! I can go all out without fearing to kill her now!"

As he said that, he suddenly punched towards the nearby grass, where more grass men I had not even noticed before were.

He only punched in their direction, not even hitting them or the grass, but in the next instant everything that was in front of his fist… disappeared.

It was followed by a loud explosion, and Hunter's laughter as he continued punching around, leveling the grass around them and killing the grass men in droves.

Before long, the surrounding grass had been almost completely destroyed, and only now did I start understanding how ridiculously powerful Hunter was.

Finished with the grass men, Hunter turned to the rock, which had been doing what a rock does until now, nothing, and cracked his fists, "It's you and me now, rock."

As he said that, he disappeared from my sight, and as I heard another loud explosion, I saw Hunter next to the rock, his fist against it.

Most shockingly however, the rock did not break. A long crack did appear on its surface, but the punch that could level dozens of meters of supernatural grass and reduce any human to droplets of blood had only made a crack in the rock.

Hunter seemed surprised too, but as he was about to throw another punch, he suddenly jumped away, just in time for a large hole to open in the ground.

Looking down into it sent chills into my spine as I saw hundreds, if not thousands of skeletons buried under the dirt, wailing in misery.

I couldn't see how deep it went, but it seemed to go down into the very bowels of Hell.

From the hole several skeletons climbed up, throwing themselves onto Hunter.

The veteran player punched them too, and while they got destroyed, only the ones directly hit were destroyed.

Hunter frowned, but he didn't look like he was in any trouble as he punched the skeletons to ashes. More of them came out every second, and while they did not manage to do anything to Hunter, they did manage to keep him in place.

Moreover, one of the skeletons managed to slip away from him, instead going for the second closest target, who happened to be Karl.

The business man sneered and took out a knife I did not even know he had, and slashed it at the skeleton's head.

There was only a sharp cling, before the skeleton ran its arm through Karl's head.

The man did not even understand how he died as his fresh corpse fell to the ground, the skeleton's skull unblemished.

I glanced at Hunter, and noticed he was looking over. However, he made no effort to come as he smiled grimly.

I then understood he wanted us to die. I did not know why, but I also knew we stood no chance against these skeletons.

"The rock has a hole in it!"

As I was thinking things over, Becky suddenly whispered something into my ear. I looked over to the hole, but I didn't see anything because of my bad vision.

However, I decided to trust Becky.

Chris, Jonathan and Clara tried to run away from the skeleton, but it was faster, and got to the slowest of the three.

Jonathan, who wasn't injured, was the fastest. Then, it was between an injured man and a pregnant woman.

The military training won over.

As the skeleton ran its hand through Clara's belly, I ran past it, picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground, and ran to the rock, where Hunter had punched it.

As I got closer, I spotted the hole Becky had mentioned, it was exactly where Hunter had punched, and very small, but as I arrived next to the rock, I noticed something within the hole.

Something was inside, it was beating… it was a heart. Definitely not human, although I couldn't really see it well, but I could recognize an opportunity when I saw one.

Both my hesitation and innocence had died out along with Ross, and so with a quick, resolute strike, I stabbed the dagger into the hole, piercing it into the heart.

The moment I did, a loud ringing sound came out of the rock, which made me feel like my brain was being melted on the spot.

The ringing soon stopped however, and was replaced by a now familiar, but still dignified voice.

[You have eliminated the American Mysterious Stone! Rewarded a Rank B Reward and 5000 Points!]