I almost fainted when I saw that woman’s arm, no wonder the kids looked so scared. However, I didn’t have time to waste. I wasn’t a doctor, I only knew how to apply first aid, but I knew that woman would die soon unless I could do something, but what? The sharp pain in my head made me find the answer.

‘I have to take her to that hotel. Harry said that place could heal wounds, he said that place healed me who was almost dead after all.’

But would that be enough? That didn’t seem like a normal wound. She didn’t get bit by a monster; it looked like something was eating her flesh at that very moment.

“All right, kids. If you want to save your teacher, you will have to give me a few answers.”

“Can you help her?” That boy asked with an anxious expression on his face.

“I can try. But don’t blame me if I fail in the process, by the way, what’s your name?”

“Frank.” The boy answered.

Frank looked to be a brave kid; he was the only one who had the courage to approach and talk to me even though I wasn’t that scary. Or perhaps I was, after all, I had a scar on my ear, a half-healed wound in my head and a crossbow.

“Do you know how your teacher got hurt? Was her arm like that after she fought? She was the one who killed the monsters outside, right?”

“Yes, she killed them,” Frank answered while trembling a little, the monsters obviously scared him.” But she wasn’t hurt, but her arm was dirt with something green.”

“What happened after that?”

“She began to feel tired, and she was pale,” Frank answered while crying. “Yesterday, she didn’t wake up, and her arm began to…”

“All right, I understand. You don’t have to say it.”

Possibly, she had been poisoned. It didn’t look like the work of frogs. I guess it was that anaconda’s poison, she didn’t get bitten, but she still got poisoned.

‘A huge snake that can spit poison, and that poison eats human flesh. Fantastic!’

Since it was the work of a mutant creature, regular medicines wouldn’t work. Well, all the remedies of the city disappeared anyway. But I probably could create an antidote in that hotel, one more good reason to return. I hope the antidote isn’t expensive. The problem was: how I would carry a wounded woman and ten kids to that place while the city was infested with monsters? Better solve one problem at a time…

“All right, kids. Here are some food and the best beverage of the entire world, fill your bellies as much as possible. Because we have to walk a lot if you want to save your teacher.”

I gave them my packed lunch and the bottles of lemonade since those packed lunches were the size for adults; it would make them recover some energy. While they were eating, I searched for some objects in the school that could be useful. Carry the wounded woman would be the most difficult thing since I also had to kill the monsters along the way. Luckily I found a warehouse cart near the kitchen of the school, it was pretty big, and with that, I could transport her.

“Isn’t this a vehicle? Why didn’t this disappeared too?”

I thought a lot about it while pushing. It was impractical to use as a vehicle since it couldn’t be faster than a person running, but that was probably the reason that the object didn’t disappear. However, that would do the job. I could put that woman and half of the kids on it, and the other kids would push it while I keep an eye on our surroundings. However, since it was old, the wheels made a lot of noise while moving.

‘I have to put some oil on the wheels.’

I searched in the entire warehouse of the school, but obviously, I wouldn’t find something so useful. My luck was just that great.

When I returned, the expression on the kids’ faces had improved a lot. Although they didn’t like to drink my lemonade, well, it can’t be helped, they were too young to understand the greatness of the best beverage in the world.

Slowly, I put the woman in the cart. However, just by moving her arm, she felt a terrible pain. The kids began to cry again when they saw their teacher in pain. They liked her a lot, come to think of it. She probably searched these kids on their houses and brought them to the school. She was quite brave, the city was overflowing with monsters, and instead of getting scared, she fought searched for her students. I, on the other hand, didn’t even think about helping my neighbors. Sure, I barely talked to them, but that didn’t change the fact. I only thought about avoiding the monsters and find my family.

‘I’m a pathetic guy, I guess.’

Well, no time for a pity party. I had a job to do; I can’t let this woman die. Otherwise, I’ll become responsible for those kids.

“Listen to me, kids. I know a place where your teacher can be healed. But it’s far from here, and as you know, there are monsters out there. So if you want to save your teacher, you guys have to keep quiet and don’t move away from me. You will take turns while pushing the cart if you guys are slow she’ll die, but if you guys manage to walk without stopping, she’ll live.”

I shouldn’t have said that, but it was too late. The kids began to tremble when I mentioned the monsters and trembled, even more, when I talked about the possibility of their teacher’s death. But that was the truth; they had to understand that the city changed. However, even though they were just kids, they didn’t hesitate.

The woman’s weapon was a recurve bow, a version much more potent of my first bow. It was in the corner of the room, and I almost left it behind since I was in a hurry. But I picked the bow and the quiver and put it near her on the cart. I doubted that she would wake up and help, but it was her weapon, if she survives, she will need it.

Although I talked about speed, we didn't move as fast as possible. The sound of the wheels would attract too many monsters, and any sudden movement would make the woman feel tremendous pain. When we left the school, I couldn’t help myself but wonder; she looked familiar.

‘Where I saw her before? TV, maybe?’

She was a famous teacher or something, but I couldn’t remember. Besides, I didn’t have time to think about such things. Thanks to the radar skill, I could see many frogs around the school, I choose the safest route, but in the end, I still had to kill two of them.

‘I can’t let those things get too close; the kids may scream and attract even more monsters.’

Since yesterday, I was putting efficiency above all things, even above my safety. But I couldn’t that anymore. I had to kill them as soon as possible, even if I had to lose many of my bolts. But that was fine; I still had two bottles of lemonade. With some, luck those will be enough to make us reach that hotel.

But my accuracy had improved since yesterday, after all, I broke my sensorial limit two times. Two kill both of them I just had to shot eight bolts, two bolts didn’t hit, but I couldn’t worry less about it. I killed them before they could approach, and that was more than enough.

“Let’s move on, and remember, keep quiet.”

The kids nodded and began to push the cart carefully, the way to the hotel was almost a straight line, so I didn’t have to worry about giving them directions. I only had to focus and take care of the enemies.

Unfortunately, we encountered many frogs on the streets, since we couldn’t walk near the river. The fish attacks were too powerful, and I couldn’t hit every single of them before they could attack. Apparently, the mutant cats were also avoiding it, because I met them again just by moving away a little bit from the river. However, before they could even see me, I was already attacking them, only the most resilient ones managed to get near us. But thanks to my precision, the crossbow power, and the new bonus of the skill concentration, they barely got close enough to scared the kids.

Even though our speed was slow, everything was going smoothly. But since the city became crazy, I learned a few things, one of them was: everything unexpected is bound to happen. So I didn’t drop my guard even for a second.

At that pace, we would probably reach the hotel before sunrise, of course, if we don’t stop to rest. I really didn’t want to cross downtown at night, but I had no choice, I could see the woman’s arm been slowly eaten. If I stop to rest, she may die. If she dies, I’ll feel responsible for it. And then at some point that will become a heavy burden and then I’ll make a mistake and end up dying. I was sure of it, I wasn’t smart, but I knew myself enough to understand that.

“We are almost there, kids. If we continue walking, we will reach the place where your teacher can be treated before sunrise, can you guys continue?”

The kids nodded, but I saw in Frank’s eyes some annoyance. Well, that was easy to understand. Even though I said that we were almost there, we had to walk much more. But I had no choice; I had to raise their spirits.

‘If only exist other hotels like that one, I’ll have to search for it when I have some free time.’

It would be strange if that were the only odd place that appeared in the city, after all, the monsters are everywhere, so maybe I’ll be able to find other buildings like that hotel in the different parts of the city.

When the sun finally disappeared on the horizon, the most tiring night of my life had begun. I could hear every single thing around me, the kids’ footsteps, the wind, the tree’s branches moving, and the damn wheels of the cart. That unholy sound was slowly making me feel more and more tired, all because I believed the damn noise would attract monsters. Sure, I could see the monsters approaching thanks to the radar, but the radar only showed me the direction, not the kind monster. For each monster, I had to analyze them and change my attack pattern to kill them as soon as possible. Not to mention, I still believed that something very dangerous would appear before we reach the hotel.

‘When this is over, I’ll destroy this damn cart to pieces. But I wonder if I can create a car or something using the statue. It’s worth a try, but what kind of energy source it will use to move around? Can I change that too?’

Even though I was exhausted, and I was still focused on the job of escorting the kids. That night I had many ideas; I also thought about creating a power suit armor. That would be a lot expensive but would protect my life for almost anything. If I had the chance in the future, I would do it. Of course, only after bringing my family to this area.

The only positive point in our walk was the fact the children didn’t look scared, even at night. At first, they would tremble every time they saw a monster. But nothing was scaring them anymore, maybe it was because they saw me killing every monster with some ease, or perhaps they were too naïve to understand what was going on entirely. However, they still looked apprehensive about the condition of their teacher. On the other hand, every time the intensity of the wind changed, my heart started to beat faster. I was a natural coward.

‘Poor kids, they only saw small fries until now. Maybe that’s why they are so unfazed by the monsters.’

Although I was almost wet my pants many times during that night, nothing major happened. However, my instincts were right. When we were one kilometer away from the hotel, I began to hear the sound of destruction. Another troublesome enemy had appeared.

‘Seriously, from now on, do I have to face a new kind of deadly threat every fucking day?’

The chances of that happen was indeed high, after all, there were still many animals that I didn’t see. And to make matters worse, my city had a zoo. It was crazy, but I had already accepted the possibility of someday find a mutant elephant blocking my way. If some cats and frogs were already causing me trouble, what would happen when I see a real predator, like a lion or a tiger? I was lucky in killing the mutant hawks, but I doubt that a few walls would stop a mutant lion.

However, that wasn’t the day that I would face those monsters. Instead, I would see something unbelievable. And that was massive monsters wrestling.

‘No way…’

We still had half an hour before sunrise, but I could see clearly two hundred meters away from us a fat rat, a five meter’s tall mutant cat, and a thirty meters long anaconda fighting against each other. The kids could hear the sound of their fight, but luckily, they couldn’t see it.

“What is making this noise?” Frank asked.

“Keep your mouth shut!”

At the moment, Frank began to question what was happening, the other kids started to feel unease and making noise again. He was too young to understand that, but his actions influenced a lot the other kids. That was a bit troublesome, but it was also helpful, because his mood could affect the other kids’ behavior, and I could use that to keep them calm. But at that moment, all that I could think about was making him shut his mouth. After all, at that moment, I was using all my poor brain to form a plan to avoid the massive monsters’ fight.

‘Maybe I just should take a detour, walk one or two more kilometers it won’t change anything for us.’

However, like fate was laughing at me, the woman’s breathing weakened a lot, and I could barely hear her heartbeats. She was dying, and only an antidote wouldn’t avoid that, nor the healing properties of that building. I also had to create another medicine using the statue to heal her arm.

‘Damn it all! This can only be a joke.’

The monsters fight didn’t look like it was about to end, they wounded each other a lot, and the smell of so much blood being spilled was already making me sick. But they looked fine; they could still fight for hours. I had no other choice but to kill them as soon as possible, besides I wanted their evolution coins.

‘What the hell am I thinking? This is beyond my usual level of reckless.’

The truth was that I had to save that woman. I wasn’t responsible enough to take care of my own life, much less the lives of kids. The best way to solve that situation and to save her life was by putting my own life at risk. Fortunately, our surroundings were safe. It seemed that the weaker monsters had fled or been killed by those three. Since I killed every single monster that we found so far, the kids should be safe if I leave them alone for a few minutes.

“You guys stay here and don’t make any sound. I’m going to… make our path a little safer.”