Rise Of The Hoarder

>WHAP!!!<

A hot slap landed on Daniel’s face. The stinging sensation of Tasha’s palm resonating with his face jolted Daniel back to the realm of reality.

“Daniel! Snap out of it! They’re coming! The Hobs are coming!” She yelled.

The fog of grief that hung above Daniel slowly lifted and he finally regained his senses. Seeing Tasha’s desperate eyes, as well as the scared expressions of his teammates, there was only one thing that came to his mind.

With the termors and noise of an uncountable amount of monsters, the only choice available for the group was… to flee!

“Retreat, everyone! Run!!!” Daniel yelled.

This jolted everyone from their frightened states, and the wobbly legs they had began working once again. The order of the leader was absolute. This was one of the basics every Camo member knew.

Daniel’s words resonated within their souls, making them instinctively take to their heels.

Daniel too joined them, drawn by Tasha’s right grip. He was hesitant to leave Catherine’s dead body behind, but now was no time for dead weight. The enemies approached.

As they created a considerable distance from the fenced territory of the Hobs, everyone heard the gates open from behind them. No one dared to look behind them for the fear of what they might see.

“Pick up the pace!!!” Daniel yelled, now overtaking most of the team members.

Doing so caused everyone not to slack off.

Tasha, who was maintaining an average speed among those around her gave in to her temptation and looked behind her to see what was going on.

Her eyes bulged in response to what they captured.

A few dozen Hobgoblins holding bows and arrows had already taken their aim, directed at the fleeing group of Gifteds. The other Hobgoblins not aiming took Catherine’s dead body within the compound, dragging it into the forbidden territory of certain death.

It was only for a second, but Tasha caught a glimpse of the army hiding behind the gate… they were immeasurable!

Her lips trembled, and before she knew it herself, Tasha increased the speed of her legs and overtook everyone except Daniel.

“A-arrows!!! They have more arrows!” She screamed.

However, by the time everyone heard this, it was too late!

>WHOOOOSSSSSHHHHH<

The arrows whirred and hissed, transversing the distance made by everyone within a few moments.

>THUMP!!!<

>SQUISH!!!<

>SPLURGE!!!<

The ultra-fast arrows of the Hobgoblin archers easily pierced through the backs of the Gifteds. They spared none of those who were too slow to overtake the others. As a result, those behind suffered the cruel piercings of arrows on them.

The sharp weapons went through their skulls, hearts, mouths, throats, severing flesh and drilling holes into them like nothing.

As they ran, the Gifteds fell, one after the other. The ones who were fortunate to survive, but now the ones who were exposed to the arrows prayed that they would be spared.

Of course, their prayers were refused!

>WHOOOOSHH!!!<

More arrows darted and cut through their bodies, killing them as well. Blood flew into the air as the bodies of the dead rolled as a result of the momentum built when they ran. Tasha, Daniel, and the few who were still alive didn’t have the luxury to falter for a second or look behind to see who had died and who had lived. They were only concerned about one thing… their survival.

For Daniel, who had the alignment of a crusader, his guilt pierced his heart, but the selfish inclination to live choked him from taking any selfless action.

“I-I am the leader… I-I… I can’t die here!!!” Daniel repeated to himself as he ran, hoping that if he said this to himself enough times, then perhaps he would believe it and absolve himself from any guilt.

“GARUIIIIIKKKKKK!!!” The Hobgoblins cried.

The remaining survivors were scared, fearing it would be their turn next. However, to their surprise, the next batch of arrows never came.

The Hobgoblins had stopped launching any more projectiles and had instead retreated into the gates, with a few going to retrieve the bodies of the fallen Gifteds.

Tasha saw this as she sneaked a peek behind her, wondering why the Hobs had stopped attacking. As she watched the Hobs drag along with the dead, the desperate woman strangely felt relieved that it was them and not her.

“Haa… Haaa…” They all heaved heavily, already drawing near to where the rendezvous spot was.

With guilt and sadness evident in their eyes and the heavy weight of their selfish inclinations burdening their hearts, they would return to give the terrible news to those who expected them.

*******************************************

‘That’s strange…’ My mind rang, sensing Daniel’s group approach.

From my distance, while I couldn’t entirely decipher the details of the team members, they seemed very small in number compared to how many I expected to be approaching us.

Not only did I not sense the presence of Hobgoblins, but the presences of Gifteds were also too few.

‘Something is wrong!’

It wouldn’t be until later that I would come to realize the horrible thing that ruined the Subjugation.

Unlike the first time when everything went according to our strategy, one of the key members of the plan died at the beginning of the second subjugation attempt. Not only that, but out of the thirty-one Gifteds in Daniel’s team, only seven returned alive.

Tasha, Daniel, the one called Dexter, Dave, and three others.

Needless to say, it was an absolute defeat on our part.

Those who survived were scarred with fear and I could tell that the positive glow in everyone’s eyes had vanished.

On only the first day, we had lost twenty-four people. A true tragedy!

We all returned to the Base, defeated and demoralized. I remained behind everyone else, carrying an empty backpack that was supposed to contain the Demon Cores from a successful Subjugation. On our way back, I saw Tasha approach me with a deep glare in her eyes.

“I need to speak to you later.” She whispered to me and then rejoined the crowd.

I sighed slightly, already aware of what she wanted to say.

I had assured her of everyone’s safety in this Subjugation, yet things went awry.

“Shit!” I gritted my teeth in annoyance.

Though I didn’t necessarily care about the lives of the Subjugation team members, after all, I had already planned for some of them to meet their ends here.

However, this wasn’t how I wanted them to go! This was something I absolutely couldn’t tolerate… a deviation from my plans.

‘Unforgivable… this… is a little unpleasant!’