Apocalypse Hunter

Those bastards were on some pretty fast rides, and I need to kill them all if I want to get away on one.

Leona grabbed the bow and arrow next to her.

Good thing I brought this with me.

If she hadn’t brought the bow in case of an emergency, she wouldn’t have been able to throw the chipbox so far away. Her plan was simple. Leona strapped the chipbox to an arrow, entered an invalid password which triggered the explosion sequence, and shot the arrow at the Reavers. However, the bow was too strong for Leona to use, and she’d had a hard time even drawing it once. She was able to pull it off only once, but she wasn’t sure if she could shoot and kill people with it. She only had a knife and a bow to protect her.

Even though it could mean death, I have no other choice.

Killing everyone in one blast was possible, but dealing with four Reavers was troublesome. Running away would have been an option, but Leona did not want to do it, and she wasn’t sure if she could make a safe escape.

She was going to kill them all. She was full of anger because the Reavers had destroyed her new home, but that was not the only reason.

They were good people.

Even though Leona had only stayed for two days, all the residents of Ard Point had greeted her. Leona was disgusted by the Reavers who were kicking around the heads of the residents, and eating the residents’ corpses. She was not going to forgive the Reavers and let them go alive. She could not stand allowing them to live. This was not a matter of right or wrong for Leona, but it was more of her natural instinct. Leona drew her bow, and looked quietly at the city square. The guards that Leona was waiting for did not show up. They were all dead from getting their heads shot, but Leona didn’t know about that.

“What the hell!”

Instead of the guards, other Reavers had come out instead. They had slept inside the prison and were safe from the blast radius. There were three in total, and Leona quietly observed them.

“Bald dude, one-eyed dude, and a long hair dude.”

Leona took note of their appearances as she observed them.

“I think they’re all dead?”

“What in the world just happened? Did some drunkard throw a grenade?”

“Well, if that were the case, the boss would have killed him first.”

The explosion of the chipbox had blown away all the loot. The remaining Reavers were unable to figure out the situation. They weren’t sure if this was done by an enemy attack, or if it was a simple accident. It was the best moment to attack them. Reavers were a weird breed of people in the wilderness. They would never mourn for a fallen comrade. They expressed comradery, but not towards dead people.

Out of the three, the bald Reaver started talking.

“So, who’s the boss now?”

“The leader?”

The three were starting to get excited about the topic.

“Of course, it’s me.” The bald shouted at the words of the long-haired one.

“Bull! I’m the oldest here. The oldest person used to be the leader all the time!”

“I don’t think so, the strongest is the boss.”

“You ain’t no match for me? What are you guys babbling about?”

The atmosphere became worse as the three continued to quarrel.

What are those idiots doing?

Leona wondered if the Reavers were people like her. She couldn’t believe that Ard Point had been taken down by these Reavers who seemed dumb and careless.

“I’m the new boss!”

“No, me!”

“Whoever came out first is the boss!”

They were starting to taunt each other as if they were about to engage in a fist fight. Leona was starting to think that she’d be better off fleeing quietly rather than deal with them. Leona was thinking about what she needed to do.

Then the one-eyed Reaver looked toward Leona’s direction, and he started to murmur:

“Found it.”

“!”

Leona quickly ducked but the one-eyed Reaver was looking right at her. The long-haired one asked:

“Where?”

“Over there, fourth floor, fifth window from the left.”

“So there was a rat hiding?”

“It was a kiddo.”

“Heeheehee…”

The bald one laughed. Leona started to get goosebumps listening to the Reavers speak.

Those crazy bastards… those crazy…

The three appeared to have run out randomly, but in fact, they were forming a triangular formation. They were scouting their surroundings while acting as if they were fighting. They did so after standing in a way that allowed them to check all directions.

Reavers were insane people.

They were just as crazy as the hunters.

Reavers were able to survive in the wilderness for a reason.

Craziness did not guarantee survival. The Reavers were a crazy group, but they had something else in them. They appeared stupid so attackers would let down their guard, and they had spotted Leona.

From time to time, the Reavers were smart enough to take advantage of other people’s perception of the Reavers.

“That building has no back door. The only way out is the front door, so let’s take our time to tease her.”

The Reavers were aware of the layout of the buildings in Ard Point even though they were only staying for a night.

“I think the guards are all dead?”

The Reavers were aware of the situation, since the guards weren’t coming.

“She might flee through the window on the back, so you go towards the back of the building! I’ll go to the side! You guard the front door!”

“Alright!”

The Reavers started moving out quickly.

Now that they spotted me, I can’t stay here.

Leona was not the type who would feel terrified to death. She moved to the next room and drew the bow while perched on the windowsill.

“Houuzza!”

She hadn’t drawn the bow fully, but Leona appeared in front of the window without hesitation. The Reavers saw Leona appear on the windowsill. She had no time to aim carefully.

Please hit them!

—twaang!—

The arrow flew.

—twack!—

“What was that?”

The arrow struck the ground about ten feet away from the bald Reaver.

“You don’t even know how to shoot an arrow? Hey, kiddo! You won’t even hit a standing pig like that!”

The bald Reaver taunted Leona, and Leona grinned. It was obvious that Leona missed the target because she didn’t know how to draw a bow, and she didn’t have the strength to draw it. The Reaver kept on taunting Leona.

“Hey! Shoot me! I’m standing right here, hahahahaha!”

“That son of a…”

Leona gnashed her teeth and drew another arrow.

“Owwww!”

Leona experience muscle pain just trying to draw the bow a couple of times. A bow was not a weapon that a kid could easily use. Leona tried drawing the bow, but she couldn’t do it since she was exhausted.

The bald Reaver jumped around and laughed hard at Leona.

“Yohhhhhh! Where did the archer go? What you gonna do now? Hahaha!”

Leona was pissed.

Crazy bastards. If only I had some other weapons, I’d kick their butts. Wait, wait a minute…

Leona felt an ominous feeling. Leona had made many mistakes throughout her life. However, there was a reason why she had been able to survive this far. She did not make the same mistakes. Leona had made a mistake before. The Reavers had spotted her while she was watching them goof around. She realized that the bald Reaver’s taunts was another trick.

I don’t see the other two!

There was one Reaver in front of her, and she couldn’t see the other two Reavers. It was possible that they were inside the building and approaching Leona.

Or.

—clack! —

“!”

It was also possible that the Reavers were pretending to go around the building, and instead were bringing a weapon to attack the fourth floor directly.

Leona could spot the one-eyed Reaver aiming a metallic weapon from afar. She didn’t know that it was an RPG-7. However, feeling anxious, she threw herself inside the building. A rocket launched out with a loud bang, and Leona jumped to the next room.

—kabooom!—

There was a loud explosion, and Leona fell rolling on the floor.

“Idiot! Can’t you aim better?”

“You know that it’s night time!”

Fortunately, the rocket didn’t hit Leona, but the room she was just in had blown up. Leona shivered and stood up.

What the heck was that….

—clack! click!—

Leona heard the metallic sound from outside, and she knew that another attack was coming soon. Deafened by the loud explosion, Leona didn’t exactly know what was going on, but she knew that she was in grave danger.

I need to run away.

The enemies were using powerful weapons that she had never seen before. On the other hand, she couldn’t even use a bow. Winning was not a possible outcome for Leona, so she had to flee to safety.

One was using a RPG launcher, and the other wasn’t visible. At a crucial moment of danger, Leona realized that she hadn’t kept track of the last Reaver’s movements. As Leona wobbled and looked towards the door, she saw the long-haired Reaver looking at her and laughing in the dark.

“Hehehehehe…”

The three Reavers had moved swiftly. One prepared a direct attack to the fourth floor with a rocket launcher, and the other was ready to move into the building in case the rocket launcher attack missed.

They tricked me to think they were going to split up to enter the building…

Only fools would loudly shout out their attack plan. The Reavers might have been crazy people, but they were no fools. It was hard to figure out whether they were bluffing or not. The Reavers were able to carry out a well-organized attack plan without discussing it in detail. These thirty-plus Reavers had managed to massacre one hundred people in Ard Point. They were able to do that not just because they had better fire power. Leona finally realized how superior they were. Leona stepped back slowly, biting her lip.

“I don’t know what you were doing, but you’ve got nowhere to run now.”

The long-haired Reaver slowly approached Leona. He was bare-handed, but it wouldn’t take much effort for him to kill Leona.

“Hehehe… Good, good. My boss didn’t like us toying around with living people, but now that he’s dead, I’m going to enjoy myself.”

The Reaver slowly approached Leona who had nowhere to run to. Leona was in terror as she shivered by the window. She was shaking her head as if she was telling him to go away, trembling with her arms crossed.

“Do you want to jump from the window? That’s the only way out, isn’t it? If you get caught by me, do you want to know what bad things will happen?”

Leona would die if she were to jump off the window. The Reaver was giggling and wondering if she would jump off the window to escape him.

“Do you know what I’m going to do? Do you know that it’ll hurt? Are you afraid? I want to gouge out your eyes and pour sand into your eye sockets?”

With nowhere to run, Leona shivered with terror, looking at the long-haired Reaver as if he were a grim reaper. The man walked closer, and when he was about four steps away from Leona, he shouted:

“If you can’t decide what to do, I’ll do it instead!”

—tap!—

The man jumped, and Leona lunged towards the man with her arms uncrossed. Leona had a knife concealed under her armpit, which she now held in her right hand. Then, she stretched her arm towards the Reaver’s throat.

—shank!—

“Kaaarghh! Keck!”

The Reaver clutched at his throat and fell backwards. Leona swiftly pulled out the knife from his neck.

—shank!—

Leona stabbed his torso.

—shank!—

Now she stabbed his stomach.

—shank! shank! shank!—

To be exact, she stabbed him using both of her hands multiple times.

“Kaargh! Keck! Keck!”

The long-haired man spilled blood from his mouth and trembled on the floor after getting multiple stabs. Leona kept on stabbing the Reaver with a calm look on her face, as if her terror from moments before had only been an act.

“Phew… Phew…”

Leona finally pulled the knife out when the man lay motionless on the floor.

“Being a small kid sucks, but there are times when being a kid is better.”

—ptooey!—

Leona licked the blood around her lips and spat it out. She was covered in blood.

Kids are weak, and the opponent had underestimated Leona. It was just like how the Reavers deceived others with their crazy actions. Leona had also used the fact that she was a kid to her advantage.