Becoming a Monster

Chapter 37 Race For Food

”Are you the fucker or the one that gets fucked?” Noah thought it would be a repeat with Arachne since the mantis was an insect too and he at least knew the story of female mantis eating the heads of males after mating. But apparently he got the opposite effect.

The mantis became frantic and looked all around its surroundings before signaling to Noah not to ask such a question, clearly it was afraid of the females.

”Buddy, you have to have more pride. If you were stronger then you would gain the females respect, but you already lost the battle of wills. We need to change that and thatʼs why we are going there” he pointed off in the distance towards the zombies.

”To become stronger! But before that, letʼs give you a name. Thatʼs Arachne by the way, yours will be…hmmm”

He gave the mantis a look over. The large beady eyes, scythe like hands and the figure of a leaf. He wanted to give a name based off of one of those characteristics, he found the scythes to be more attention grabbing and chose that.

”Iʼll call you Grim, the first name of the harvester of souls. He also has a scythe and is literally death itself, but you have two! So you can be better than him.” He nodded in satisfaction. He wouldʼve chosen Reaper but Arachne already has too many syllables so he wanted a name that was simple to say.

Grim grew excited, he didnʼt know what harvester of souls was, but the ʼpersonʼ sounded dangerous and Noah said it will become greater than it? He already felt superior to Noahʼs kind and the other prey alike but both Arachne and Noah gave it a wake call that it was still prey to others.

Now that they were done with everything, they started to make their way towards the zombies at a decent pace. Noah made Arachne drop off her latest food in a spot where they could return to get it. She wasnʼt happy about it, but she remembered that there would be plenty more food where they were headed.

”Hmm? Whatʼs wrong Grim?” They all stopped when he noticed Grim look in the direction of the cafeteria. Looking in the direction, Noah tried to concentrate as best as he could. He realized that his new pupils were better suited to spot things in the distance. What he could see was a fairly large group of people heading out towards the zombies as well. He couldnʼt tell who the individuals were but he could at least guest that it had something to do with Mark. The guy was dumb and arrogant, but he atleast knew that arrogance was nothing without strength to back it up.

”Donʼt worry about them, as long as they keep their distance then everythingʼs fine.”

It didnʼt take them long to close the distance to the zombies since they were also coming towards them. But the hoard wasnʼt as it seems, when Noah was in the distance of around 50 yards from them, a few zombies made their presence known.

”I need a better name for these things, professional actors suit them more than runners.” He muttered to himself while he set his bag and axe down. This time he decided to retrieve the two battle axes because of the opponents before him. Out of the first group of the hoard was maybe a hundred zombies, but eight of the walking zombies began to make a sprint for them when they moved closer.

Even though he considered them to be called runners, that doesnʼt mean they are running all the time. Once again he was proud of himself for obtaining Grim. He was basically walking around with two assassins.

”Ok boys! Ahem…and girl.” He quickly corrected himself before Arachne could get upset.

”You can eat what you kill, but meet back here when I give the call, letʼs go!” He shouted as he ran towards the runners. He didnʼt have to worry about reaching there first and getting overwhelmed.

Buzzz

He heard the sound of Grim before he noticed him quickly passing.

Arachne on the other hand didnʼt perform any extremely long jumps, but preferred to make small quick leaps to conserve its energy but even those leaps were close to 10 yards. They both easily surpassed him before taking on a target which just happens to be the runners who were closer.

Before Noah could even get a chance to fight. Grim made quick work of two runnersʼ necks that were aligned with one another, before he stopped to turn around to go for the third. Instinctively, it appeared that everyone besides humans knew they could become stronger by eating.

Arachne didnʼt have the capabilities of killing as fast as Grim but her way of hunting was still effective. She quickly pounced on a runner heading towards Noah, fiercely knocking it to the ground with her momentum and weight. She learned her lesson beforehand with the mantis, that she shouldnʼt allow her prey to freely attack her, so she pinned the zombies arms down with her legs aided with her weight. Sinking her fangs into the zombie, she continued to inject her venom until its movements stopped.

By now, Noah noticed an odd trait that all of the runners had in common.

”Why are they only focusing on me!” He stopped in his advances, he felt strong in his own right, but he didnʼt have a death wish. Five zombies that were faster and stronger than him were way more than he could handle at this time. Maybe if he used his mana sparingly before, then he could use his webs against the current zombies. Just before the zombies could reach him, Grim returned to take out one more. Noah was sure that Arachne would come in time to aid with another, but he still chose to activate his active ʼKiller Instinctsʼ just in case.

Unlike the other times he used it, he didnʼt allow himself to become completely absorbed in the skill. Instead of the maximum of 25% boost that could be added to his skills, he settled for around 15%. Maybe It would be more efficient to fully use the skill, but he wasnʼt sure if he could deactivate it on his own if he were to lose himself. He didnʼt need to have the extra stats to take care of the walking zombies in the distance.

”Ugh! Come on, come on!” A switch appeared to have been flipped after activating the skill. The sensation was entirely different from using it the other times. He could feel his blood pumping with bloodlust. He was becoming impatient to see blood and gore. His original idea of waiting for the zombies to come to him was no longer in effect as he was already making his way to the group of runners.

His body seemed to have a mind of its own. When he approached the first zombie, running at him with its arms reaching out as far it could. Noah swung one of the axes right between the zombies arms, before connecting it to its face.

Apparently his body was able to use his newly obtained skills better than he originally could when under the effect of his skill. Everything felt instinctive, his eyes tracked every motion and every angle, while his spines sensed and reacted to the incoming danger. Noah was aware that when he struck the first zombie that the nearest one was right upon him. But he wouldnʼt be able to pull out his axe in time from the zombie falling forward with its momentum.

Mindlessly, his body twisted in the direction of the approaching zombie on his left. While he continued moving forward, he used the rotation and his added momentum to not only easily retrieve his axe from the zombies head, but he was able to swing his axe in the same manner as before with a more intense force.

Wham!

The sound from the impact to its skull was similar to the sound of a heavy blunt object. The blow lifted the zombie in the air with its feet kicking out. He didnʼt bother to retrieve the axe this time, for he was still out for blood.

But it turned out to be short lived.

”Hey! They were mine!” He shouted towards his two creatures after they came in to steal the last two zombies from him. He felt as if he was dehydrated beyond belief and just when he was about to have a drink, all of the water was stolen from him.

ʼMy kill my food!ʼ Arachneʼs thoughts yelled back, but the foolish Grim felt that he did something bad and so he tried to scoot the last zombies head over to its body. It still remembered that there was a time where a body was able to still try to run away without one so it believed that the body wasnʼt completely dead until the head was devoured.

”Urgh forget it! I wonʼt let you take them all from me!” Noah moved swiftly to retrieve his axe before sprinting to the large horde of walking zombies while yelling back towards them. This wouldʼve been a good time to stop using his skill, yet the kill steals from before left him unappeased. He needed more bloodshed before he felt satisfied.

”No, fuck off! Let me go first damnit” Noahʼs voice was once heard again screaming in the distance. Grim was too quick to respond and followed his master before he quickly passed him which caused Noahʼs earlier outburst.

Arachne was the only one who was late to the party, she wanted to take this chance to wrap the still fresh bodies in her webs to preserve for later. But when she realized the food that was about to be claimed by her master and ʼsubordinateʼ, she dropped everything and made her way behind them. Zombies could be seen falling left and right and once Arachne finally joined, there appeared to be an unspoken race made between them all. The sound of constant fighting and the strong smell of bloodshed was drawing in all the surrounding zombies.

...…

”Come on guys! Do you all enjoy the idea of an insect being stronger than us? Or these zombies killing your friends and loved ones, without having the power to stop them? Then hurry up, so we can increase our levels! As long as we donʼt encounter those bugs from before then we have nothing to worry about!”

The voice of Mark rang out to the small group behind him. Even though it was small, it still consisted of 12 people. Out of those faces, Jasmine and Ailetta could be seen from the group. After the mantis encounter, only three people still decided to join Mark in increasing their strength. Fortunately some of the people who were already in the cafeteria decided to join them as well. They were afraid of the monsters and zombies, but they also witnessed the cruelty of the gang from before.

But the icing on the cake was when they witnessed Noah, one sidedly kill the people that easily oppressed them. They all desired that strength, but they couldnʼt find the courage to do it on their own. So when they saw Markʼs group preparing to leave again to become stronger, many of them volunteered.

The students from Markʼs original group wanted to ask what they should do if they do encounter the mantis again, but the question was stuck in their throats. Whoever asked the question would essentially be lowering the morale of everyone else here so they waited to see if someone else would bring it up first.

Jasmine noted that the people were uneasy, but she hoped killing the less threatening zombies would help alleviate that fear. She wanted to stay in the cafeteria to manage everything, since the resources there were too important. But after feeling so helpless against the mantis, she too felt the desire to become stronger. She already had a foreboding feeling that help wouldnʼt arrive anytime soon so she also needed the strength to defend herself and also….keep her little brother in check.

The atmosphere in the group was getting more intense the closer they neared the zombies, but something was wrong. They noticed that the zombies were all starting to face away from them when they were clearly heading in their direction before.

”Everyone stay alert! Donʼt forget about the powers youʼve gained today, if you use them well enough then you have no reason to be so afraid.”

Mark edged them on while they continued to draw in closer. Zombies were mindless creatures to him, he didnʼt consider them worthy opponents at all so he wasnʼt worried about the zombiesʼ weird movements.

Buzzzzz!

It was when they moved closer and heard that familiar sound that they began to grow worried. Two of the members from before were about to dart away and run back to the cafeteria, while everyone else went on high alert, but soon a voice was heard from within the zombies. No one from the group could forget the voice that matched to the horrifying and domineering figure.

”Hahahaa! Arachne, whereʼs all that pride now? Youʼve killed less than both of us!”

They all heard the voice of Noah but, why did it sound like he was having fun?

Everyoneʼs fear turned into a fearful curiosity. They were afraid to move forward but they had to know what was going on. They all silently followed Mark who quickly headed to the sound without any regard of the people behind him until they came upon the scene.

”What??”