Maximo slowly opened his remaining eye after hearing the tragic scream of a woman.

The scream came from Ellie.

Her eyes were bulging out from its socket as she stared at her hand. Her mouth was wide open as an ear-piercing scream escaped from it.

Her hand was no longer there. It was severed and separated from her arm.

The dagger fell to the ground along with Ellie's severed hand. The hand was still holding the dagger tightly in a reversed grip position.

Blood was dripping from Ellie's arm.

A few meters away from the severed hand, there stood a scaly and thick object. Moving above, one could see a blade protruding on its side. The blade was almost two feet long. At the tip of the blade, there was a red and sticky liquid flowing smoothly towards the base of the blade.

It was blood. Ellie's blood.

Above the sharp blade was a muscular and scaly leg.

Maximo looks up and sees Croco smiling playfully at him. It was as if Croco was telling Maximo to forgive him for being late.

...

After enduring the pain he felt during the process of evolution. Croco finally opened his eyes. However, the first scene he saw made Croco's body tremble in rage.

There was a woman facing him with her back. The woman's right arm was raised to the air. Below the dagger was Max's exhausted body. Croco witnessed Maximo closing his eyes as if ready to receive the sharp dagger. Croco did not dwindle his time any longer as he dashed towards the two using his quadrupled legs.

The woman didn't notice Croco's body approaching her with fast speed. Arriving near the woman, Croco immediately slashed upwards using his newly mutated arms.

His arms were now mounted with a sharp dagger each. The two sharp daggers sprouted due to him consuming the mutated stripe snake's fangs.

Croco's sharp dagger sliced at Ellie's hand. His dagger passed by Ellie's blade as if nothing had happened.

However, at the next moment, Ellie's expression turned ugly as she stared at her hand that was slowly sliding off from her arms. A moment later, Ellie realized what had just happened as pain washed over her. She lets out an ear-piercing scream while staring at her non-existent hand.

Croco playfully stared and smiled at Maximo, who had already opened its eyes by now. Croco could tell that Maximo was happy seeing him.

The next moment, Maximo used his little bit of remaining energy to let out a soft and weak 'moo.' Croco bulges his eyes after hearing Maximo.

With that 'moo' from Maximo, Croco raised his arm that still had fresh blood flowing from the blade. Maximo notified Croco to kill the woman.

Swish*!

Croco slashed and sliced off Ellie's other arm. Different from the first one, the cut this time was above Ellie's elbow. The elbow then fell to the ground with a thud.

Ellie screamed again. It was a terrifying experience for her. Somebody just chopped off both of her arms from their respective spots. What's worse was that she doesn't even know who made her hand like this.

Croco was just beside Ellie all along, but because of her shock, she was not able to notice him. Croco was just about severe Ellie's head directly when he heard two weak and soft 'moo' that came from Maximo again.

Croco nodded his head in affirmation. Maximo told him not to kill the woman first and just let it faint for now. The second moo from Maximo was to inform Croco that their master still needed their help outside.

Croco immediately took action. He bumped the back of Ellie's head using his muzzle. Ellie, who was still shocked due to her hands getting sliced off, plummeted to the ground because of the force hitting her back, she fainted.

Croco nodded towards Maximo and instantly dashed outside, destroying the door in the process.

Maximo heaves a sigh before his head drops to the floor. 'It's all up to you now, 'Cro-moo.'

...

Outside the house.

Nile called for Maximo but didn't get a response. He could only do his best to parry the attacks from his numerous enemies.

His clothes were tattered with blood leaking out from it. Although the clothes were good defensive items, they also have their limits. They might be able to block a full-force attack from a Level One° being, but enduring it multiple times was a different deal.

Nile must applaud the opposite sides for their camaraderie. They are even willing to risk their lives just to avenge their lost comrade. Nile admits that he doesn't have the courage to do so.

At the moment, Nile only had Max and Croc as his comrades. The groups he came across and helped before? He doesn't know if the next time they meet, they would still be his comrades or already an enemy.

Because of the earrings of loyalty, Maximo and Croco would not betray him. Just for that reason, he was willing to risk his life a little just to let Croco finish his evolution successfully. However, if things really came out as the System had expected, then Nile would gladly escape.

He could just return for revenge. However, the next time, he won't be as weak anymore.

'It looks like the System's evaluation is always accurate, huh.' Nile grumbled while he retreated towards a tree that was in the middle of two houses. He let his back lean on the tree's trunk as he faced Bruno and his gang. Getting attacks from the back sure was problematic. This was the only solution Nile could think of to limit the enemy's area of attack.

After seeing the whole group's strength before the battle, Nile was confident that he would be able to defeat them all. Alas, he didn't expect things to become like this.

After still not seeing or hearing a response from Maximo, Nile was already brewing a plan inside his head on how to escape.

The enemies closed into him with greedy eyes. They still have at most fifteen people at the moment. All of them had wounds from various angles. Some were deep, while some were shallow. Although they kept on harassing him, Nile would also leave a wound on their body before they could retreat.

Bruno had a deep gash on his left arm and numerous small cuts around his body. Bruno's sunglasses that he always wears now had its left lens broken. Under the broken lens, Nile could see his protruding sockets and enlarged eyeball. Nile thought that it was the reason why Bruno was always wearing sunglasses.

Streams of tears kept on flowing in Bruno's eyes as he endured the pain that he felt from the wounds. Fortunately, some of the pain was offset because of the pleasure he felt on some of the wounds.

The members also have numerous wounds around their bodies. There's even a man who had his arm cut off but was still smiling like a lunatic. There was a man who only had a small cut on his finger but was crying like a baby. The various gang members were forming different kinds of faces due to the pain or pleasure they felt.

Nile really admired the courage that they have shown just so they could avenge their comrades.

Unbeknownst to Nile, the enemies were not doing this to avenge their comrades. Previously, Bruno did it to take back the dagger that was supposedly in Nile's hand, according to Ellie. The other members also did it to retrieve the dagger. After all, they were still waiting for Bruno to die, then they could collect the dagger for themselves and boost their strength.

However, all of their reasons changed after seeing the two swords on Nile's hand. They were now only waiting for Nile to drop to the ground before seizing the two sharp swords.

Bruno, who was oblivious to his member's thoughts, closed in on Nile. He still believed that they were following him because of their loyalty. Bruno maintained a five meters distance from Nil. He extended his bloody hands that were holding the dagger and pointed it at Nile. "You had nowhere to go, boy. Drop your weapons, and I will let you leave."

Nile chuckled after hearing Bruno's offer. Coveting his weapons? "Do you think I'm a fool?"

Bruno snorted and glanced towards his men. He beckoned the dagger and pointed it at Nile. "Kill him!"

However, his men just stood there, staring at Nile savagely, waiting for the first comrade to initiate the attack.

"I said, kill him!" Bruno raised his voice a little after seeing his men ignoring his order.

His member keeps on glancing at each other. Inside their minds, they were encouraging each other to make the attack first.

However, no one wanted to risk their life anymore. They thought that their enemy was already exhausted and would fall down soon. If they attacked first, there was a chance that the enemy would retaliate fiercely to preserve his life or to at least bring one along with him to the afterlife.

Nobody wanted to be that 'one' person who will accompany Nile to the afterlife.

The atmosphere was getting awkward. Bruno was confused at what was going on all of a sudden. He was just about to yell at them again when they heard a loud bang at their left side.

A door was forcibly broken as a creature that looks like a lizard emerges from within. The creature has a scaly body. It's back was full of spiky pointed sticks. Two blades were mounted in the creature's front leg.

The creature was Croco. The barbell piercing Croco's nose shone like metal. His tongue was tucked out as he dashed towards the gathering in the distance.

Nile smiled after seeing the scene while Bruno and his gang stared at the crocodile, their mouth agape.

Woosh!*

Croco dashed madly, and with a leap, he instantly arrived at Nile's side. When Croco landed, a drop of blood fell from the blade in his left arm.

Croco positioned himself before Nile. He glared at the opposite side as he licked the nose bridge that was pierced by the barbell-like earrings of loyalty with his tongue.

A moment later, a thud could be heard, followed by another. The group's attention was then gathered towards the object that had just fallen.

They widened their eyes in disbelief after seeing it.

Rolling in the ground were their comrades...

Head!

(A/N: Crocodiles do have a tongue, but they can't move it as freely like Croco just did.)