CHAPTER 225: CH 225

Without needing to shout, Dave raised a single hand up and snapped his fingers once. It wasn’t loud, but it carried power. Then, coming from the gate behind him, a new rumble began.

Beasts... his own tamed beasts... could be seen coming from behind him. A pack of fifty beasts emerged from outside of the walls, their eyes glowing with intensity and rage.

With clawed paws slamming on the ground, and snarling fangs baring in anticipation for blood. Dave’s beasts charged forward towards the 100 beasts before them. They were much sure, but quantity didn’t mean quality. At least not in a world we’re ranking is very essential.

Compared to the 100 beasts before him, who consists of mainly basic tier beasts, Dave’s own tamed beasts include only intermediate beasts, which had happened to even out the odds.

Dave couldsummon more to match the numbers of the beasts. He had the power. But that would take time and right now, time was a luxury he wasn’t willing to waste.

Yet, the purpose of making his beasts attack wasn’t about domination. This was about creating chaos and distractions, while he took care of matters silently in the shadow.

With a whispered command, his beasts surged forward, not in a tight unit but in waves, spreading and crashing into the approaching beasts like a tide of fangs and fury. Dust exploded into the air. Roars clashed. The battlefield turned into a blur of motion and violence.

And just like that, Dave vanished.

One heartbeat, he was astride his Berad beast, calmly surveying the scene like a war general. The next, the spot where he sat in was empty, leaving only the beast standing in the same position it the same position it had been since.

Dave didn’t actually disappear, he merely just got off from his position, but with his speed, he was able to move very fast without anyone knowing. Besides, with the beast war ongoing, no one could really see him like they did before. They couldn’t even see the beast he was sitting on.

Like a bullet loosed from its casing, Dave streaked across the field, weaving through the chaos with supernatural speed. His eyes locked onto a knot of figures in the distance; the masked men lurking behind terrified civilians, using them as shields, thinking themselves as safe.

The charging beasts were nothing more than a smokescreen. A diversion to scatter focus and allow the masked men to retreat back inside unnoticed. But what they didn’t know was that Dave had already anticipated their move. He’d seen the hesitation in their eyes, the way they edged backward rather than forward. It was the oldest trick in the book: create chaos, then vanish in it.

That’s why he’d abandoned his initial post the moment the battle began. Now, hidden in the jagged shadows of a collapsed archway, Dave crouched with rifle in hand, as he observed the scene before him.

His gaze was razor-sharp as he scanned the retreating figures of the masked men, he picked out the ones slipping between the crowd toward the building’s front entrance.

He waited just long enough to confirm their intent before he acted.

With a smooth flick of his thumb, he cocked the handle on his rifle, the mechanism clicking with a satisfying clack. He raised the weapon. Then with steady arms, and a precise aim, he started shooting at them.

Crack! crack!crack!

The shots rang out like thunderclaps.

One by one, the masked men dropped, their bodies crumpling mid-step before they could reach the entrance. The dust swallowed them whole, and the remaining ones froze, terror rooting them in place like statues.

Still, Dave didn’t flinch a bit. Perhaps it was due to everything he’d endured so far, the bullying from Tyler, the multiple deaths he had faced since the apocalypse started. Maybe all of that had dulled whatever part of his conscience once trembled at the idea of taking a life.

Or maybe it was just the clarity he found in knowing who deserved to die.

And these bastards? They absolutely deserved it.

The crack of the gun echoed through the compound, a sound that jolted everyone into a frenzy. Screams pierced the air. People dove for cover, clinging to each other in panic.

Someone then gazed at where the gunshot was coming from, and they instantly recognized it to be from Dave. The man who had somehow been helping them take down the masked men, so far.

"It’s the gun guy! He’s the one killing them. He won’t kill us." The person shouted, and it had caused everyone else to turn their heads toward Dave’s direction. Oddly, they could feel a strange sense of relief passing through their minds like a ripple.

After everything Dave had done, they didn’t think of him as the enemy. It was now that they started realizing what Peter, Kurt and Jeff were talking about.

The masked men froze, disbelief flickering in their eyes as they spotted Dave standing among the ruins, far closer than he should’ve been. He’d closed the distance without a sound, like a phantom born from the smoke and gunfire. Their plan had unraveled, and now, cornered and outmaneuvered, they had no choice but to face him head-on.

One of them, a lanky man with a nervous twitch in his limbs rose abruptly from where he crouched at. His grip tightened around his sword, its blade glinting in the light, then with a furious yell, he bolted toward Dave.

"Stop hiding behind that gun and fight me like a man!" he bellowed, his voice full of forced bravado.

But the challenge barely left his mouth before a bullet punched clean through his forehead. The man’s body stumbled mid-run, legs folding beneath him as he collapsed into the dust, dead before he hit the ground. His mask had fallen out of his face, and those who were nearby had shifted away from his corpse.

Dave didn’t even lower his weapon. He exhaled slowly. "Sorry," he muttered coldly. "but I don’t have time to waste."

From his high vantage point, Dave watched the crowd with a cold, calculating stare. Despite Peter’s desperate shouts, despite the truth spilling from the mouths of the three men who once stood beside these people, the crowd still clung to denial. Only a few of them moved. But it was expected since after all, their loyalty ran deep towards the masked men who had saved and protected them.

Their judgment had been compromised; blurred by gratitude, loyalty, and the illusion of protection. These people had trusted the masked men, followed them, even revered them.

To them, the danger was Dave who stood before them. They couldn’t see the rot growing in their own midst. But Dave would make sure they did.

He could have just walked away, left them to their own blindness, had it not been for Peter’s words about who Kim Hyun really was.

Moreover, Dave was given a warning and a quest from the system.

[A bomb has been set, rescue the people and prevent them from being killed]

’Just like before,’ he thought, his grip tightening on the rifle. ’He’s planning to do the same thing again.’

Kim Hyun wasn’t just spreading chaos, he was repeating it. And Dave couldn’t bear to see innocent lives get killed, so he was going to make sure he prevent any death from happening.

"I’m not the type that like heroism, but I have no choice. I have to rescue my wives, so why not save some innocent people as well. Besides, with their beast taming powers, they would be a good addition to my faction."

The civilians still didn’t understand what was going on. They stood in clusters, tense but loyal, unaware that the men they trusted were slowly encircling them like wolves.

The masked men moved subtly, slipping behind the crowd, using them as cover, weaving through bodies as if they were nothing more than human shields.

And the people let them, thinking they were trying to take down the enemy.

Though, they still don’t understand why Peter, Jeff and Kurt had told them to get away from them.

They still believed that the danger was Dave, who wouldn’t stop shooting at their protectors.

Dave’s jaw clenched, his expression hardening.

"Fine," he muttered under his breath. "If they can’t see the truth... I’ll just carve it out for them to see."

He raised his rifle again. The weapon moved with practiced ease, as the barrel glide like a predator’s eye, scanning for weakness, for deception.

From atop his massive Berad beast, he had the high ground. Every movement in the crowd below was visible to him, every flicker of fear, every shift of confusion.

Dave’s finger hovered over the trigger. "No more warnings. No more levity." It was time to show them what they were truly standing beside.

Through the chaos, his eyes locked on a masked man crouched behind a slender young civilian, barely more than a boy, his face pale and frozen in confusion. The masked man thought he was safe, as he nestled behind an innocent blood.

But Dave could still see him, just enough of a profile, the glint of a blade, the edge of the black mask, peeking from over the boy’s shoulder.

"They must think I can’t take the shot since they’re hiding behind those people," Dave muttered under his breath. A small smile ghosted across his lips.