CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 52: SAY GRACE

"Wha..."

Adam froze. His mind was struggling to process the horror unfolding before him.

He had never really seen someone get eaten in front of him—it was always him getting eaten or chewed during the Game.

Was this... what Grace saw when the ratatusk was munching me?

He stared at the massive snake—its scales a mix of greens and the browns of the swamp. He then looked at its name that was hovering above it.

[Verdlecks, Lv. 2 | HP: 100%]

And finally, he looked at Grace, who had been engulfed by the impossibly large jaw of the so-called verdlecks.

But as soon as her arm twitched, Adam woke up from his stupor. Grace was still alive in there, being eaten alive.

"Ma’am!" Adam lunged forward without thinking anymore, but something in his peripheral vision made him stop. The trees of the swamp—they started to move.

No, not exactly.

It was alive with predators. The twisted branches and some of the vines were actually serpents, their bodies perfectly blending with the gnarled trees.

Dozens of them. Watching them.

"The... the monsters are here!" Adam shouted without looking back, his voice almost cracking.

"What?!" Vincent’s head snapped around, the other Heroes followed suit.

But before they could fully turn around, the camouflaged snakes launched themselves from every direction. The hiss they made was almost deafening, their fangs bared and bodies twisting through the humid air.

Eugene, who was at the front, stared at the verdlecks flying at him. And when it was only a meter away from him, his eyes glowed before a violent beam of light shot out of them—the light completely piercing through the snake and obliterating it into pieces.

Dennis, who was the closest to the other creeps, swung both his arms in the air toward the verdlecks that were rushing at them. His arms, while waving, instantly morphed into whips that were several yards long—the thorns, shredding the verdlecks in the air.

As for Vincent, he simply stood his ground, and when the snake lunged at him, he dissolved into dark smoke before becoming whole again. He then turned around, plunging a dagger into the snake’s tail, and then pulling it closer to him by stabbing it several times. His daggers practically walked and carved through it until he ultimately reached the head.

The veteran creeps raised their weapons, forming a defensive circle as they hacked and slashed at the remaining Verdlecks.

Some, however, weren’t so lucky. A few were grabbed, their legs caught in the crushing jaws of the monstrous serpents. And when a snake with a head the size of a hippopotamus’ head bites down, its fangs don’t just pierce flesh—they tear through it. Limbs were ripped away in an instant, the unlucky victims reduced to nothing more than broken bodies and fading screams.

"Argh!" The man groveled on the floor, but no one was there to help him as everyone was busy dealing with their own monsters.

Meanwhile, Adam spotted the holster at Grace’s waist and yanked out her handgun. The weight felt completely foreign in his palm—he’d never fired one before, nor held one—but that didn’t matter now.

He aimed at the verdlecks’ head, but then quickly adjusted his aim upward when he realized he might hit Grace through the creature’s body.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened.

"Huh?" Adam turned the gun in his hands, spotting a small switch pointing to the word ’SAFE’. With fumbling fingers, he flipped it to ’FIRE’ and aimed again.

The gun slightly recoiled in his hand as he fired repeatedly, each shot punching through the snake’s thick scales and hide. The creature’s body convulsed violently, its grip on Grace loosening as its blood sprayed through the muddy swamp.

Grace’s body slipped from the dying snake’s jaws, and Adam rushed forward to catch her. But his steps quickly halted. How could he not stop, when Grace’s head was almost completely gone?

Dissolved, the acid having melted through her skull.

"Sorry..." Adam whispered to himself. He was about to turn around to help the other creeps, but a gurgling sound stopped him cold. His eyes snapped back to Grace’s mangled face. Her throat, what was left of it, was moving.

She was alive.

"Do we have a healer?!" Adam’s desperate cry echoed across the swamp, but it was swallowed by the sounds of battle. But no answer came.

He looked down at Grace again. He stared at her for a moment before the exhaustion from everything he had experienced returned to his eyes.

"I’m sorry," he whispered.

And without any hesitation, he raised the gun and fired a single shot into whatever remained of Grace’s brain. Her body jerked once, and that was it.

Adam sighed and closed his eyes, but after another breath, he finally turned away to help his teammates.

But instead of shooting the verdlecks immediately, however, he calmly, but carefully, walked toward the nearest snake. The verdlecks had wrapped its muscular body around a screaming creep, squeezing tighter with each second.

The man’s scream, however, abruptly stopped as he saw Adam casually climb the verdlecks wrapped around him, and pressed the nozzle of his gun directly against the monster’s protruding eye.

And then, he pulled the trigger. The verdleck’s eye exploded, its blood spraying onto the creep. The monster still thrashed around, and so Adam lunged the gun right through its eye socket and fired again.

The man it was holding couldn’t even react to what was happening.

He could only gasp as the snake’s grip lightened, his eyes wide as he turned to Adam when he found himself free... but Adam was already moving to his next target.

It was a verdlecks with its jaw wide open, unhinged to swallow another creep whole. But Adam ran toward it, using another snake as a springboard to jump—he looked clumsy in the air, his body twisting awkwardly.

But his arm, however, was straight—the nozzle only inches away from the verdleck’s eye. And with a breath, he fired.

The verdlecks’ head snapped to the side, and the man it was holding took this chance to yank himself free and stabbed it through its already ruined eye.

Adam found another verdlecks with its mouth gaping wide at another creep. But as he approached it, the snake’s head turned toward him instead.

But Adam didn’t retreat. Instead, he stepped closer, jamming the gun between its fangs and pulling the trigger repeatedly. Each shot, causing the snake’s head to dance as the bullets tore through its soft tissue and into its brain.

Adam didn’t stop firing until the gun clicked, and there were no more bullets to fire. He was about to slam his fist on the verdlecks, but it slowly splashed into the murky water.

Adam stared at the verdlecks’ HP to make sure it was staying at 0% before quickly scanning the battle. He then rushed back to Grace’s corpse, kneeling beside her, patting her down to find more bullets.

But what he found was even better—several magazines already loaded, attached to her vest.

Adam quickly glanced at the chaotic battle, and when he was sure no one was in immediate danger, he worked the buckles of Grace’s vest.

"Sorry," he once again whispered.

The tactical vest was still slick with her blood and whatever melted flesh was sticking on it, but Adam didn’t care and slipped it over his shoulders, adjusting the straps to fit him.

He quickly stood up, and the weight of the vest and magazines was almost nothing to him—but it was still heavy; he was carrying the life of another, after all.

"Let’s... finish this."