Becoming a Monster

Do you think you'll survive long enough when they get in without him?"

The question caused many of them to waver. The few who actually fought and earned their gold and equipment felt uneasy due to the stairs bearing them down. The stares started to make them feel guilty.

Crash!*

The sound of glass breaking alarmed everyone, including Noah. They all turned to witness one of the windows besides the door being broken into. Luckily the window was high enough from the ground that it only reached the chest area of the average zombie.

But that still was enough to break the silence of the group.

"Just give him the money already damnit!"

"Our lives matter too!"

Soon the majority of the group began to pressure the rest, putting them in a bind. The ones rejecting Noah's notion all looked towards Lucas for an answer yet they remembered that he was stuck and would probably stay that way without the help of Noah.

Finally, one person stood out from the group to approach Noah. It just so happens that it was LeRoy, the friend of Lucas and also the one who showed Noah the most hostility.

Grim remembered that last important fact as it was about to approach LeRoy to threaten him back, but was stopped by Noah.

"It's ok Grim, you just continue to watch our backs okay? If anything gets in then you can kill it." After pacifying the mantis he returned his gaze, curious as to what the man was going to do, but was stunned when LeRoy dropped his weapons and fell to his knees.

"Please…help Lucas, I'll give you everything I have." He cried and while still on his knees, he turned to face his group with teary eyes and a desperate gaze.

"You all should just do as he says…can any of you fight off all the zombies out there? Lucas is the reason most of you are alive right now, is this how you repay your debts?"

It didn't take long to convince them, it started with one before the rest proceeded to make their way towards Noah, but Noah couldn't let this happen. He didn't want to interact with all of them.

"Hold up!" He signaled for them to stop, the group grew extremely worried, believing he was gonna change his mind, but then they didn't know what they should feel regarding his following words.

"Give it to one person first and then have them give it to me. I don't need you all swarming me, I already have the zombies for that." His indifferent tone, added with his words caused many to frown and some to bite their lips in frustration. However they all still agreed to give their gold to LeRoy. The zombies were clearly breaking through and Lucas wasn't able to open the way for them. They were trapped here unless they followed Noah's demands. No matter how infuriating he was to them. But there was a problem.

"H-how are we supposed to exchange it?" One of the women asked. They all looked towards one another, yet none of them had a clue, so they turned to the one who requested it in the first place.

"Sigh" Noah held back the need to palm his face, not because they didn't know, but because now that required him to talk to them more. "Just make contact with the person, any contact will do. Then just imagine the amount of money you want to give to the person then it just happens on its own. Now chop chop! We don't have all day!"

With every step LeRoy made towards Noah, the anger and hopelessness in his heart grew. 'This is the only way, the only way….' He tried to remind himself so he doesn't do anything stupid after approaching him.

But it was difficult, especially when he approached him and Noah reached out his hand in a gesture for his, but all the while he had a smug smile written all over his face.

"I swear if you don't do as you sa-"

"Blah blah blah, I know what I need to do, it's not like I enjoy your company." Noah jerked his hand, signaling for LeRoy to hurry up.

Boom!*

Before LeRoy could accept the gesture, he became distracted when another sound of something being broken through sounded. This time it happened to be the door itself. Even though the doors were metal, the metal was hollow and wasn't enough to hold back the force of the runners who were stronger than normal and didn't rest.

Everyone in the room began to panic, but there was nowhere for them to go. But the most worried of them all was Lucas himself, at least the others could fight back while he was literally a free meal.

"Get me out of here! You're stuck in here too you bastard! Do you not see them getting through? Ugh! I can't die like this! Hey, did you not hea-"

Lucas continued to wail in the background. LeRoy was becoming hesitant in giving Noah the gold. Like Lucas said, he was stuck in here with them too, would he really leave everyone here including himself for money?

Buzzz!

The enclosed space caused the buzzing noise of Grims wings to ring in everyone's ears; some of the more sensitive people had to tightly cover their ears that were hurting from ear-piercing noise.

They looked over to the source to witness Grim almost vanishing from his original location near Noah and arriving at the broken doors. It stood amongst the barricade and the zombies that were making their way over and through the obstacles. They watched as a zombie suddenly lost its head before falling over. Soon it seemed as if it was just naturally for zombies to lose their heads whenever one approached the frightening mantis, which made them wonder if their heads weren't really on to begin with.

Coughs*

LeRoy looked back to Noah with a bewildered expression, Noah was still holding out his hand, however this time he didn't appear to be in a good mood.

"This is the last time, give me the gold or I'll start letting them in and webs stay up."

This time he didn't have a reason to hesitate. The mantis display was clear on the same level as Lucas when he transforms and yet there was still the spider and Noah who no one knew what they were capable of.

In his panic, he grabbed Noah's hand with both of his in hopes it would complete the transaction faster.

Player: Noah

Race:Human Chimera

Class: monster tamer

Gold: 748->1740

Noah's eyes lit up when he saw the total amount he had now, which caused LeRoy to quickly shrink back a few steps. It felt more than uncomfortable when looking at the four pupils that appeared excited and dead at the same time.

"Arachne" Noah couldn't be bothered by LeRoy's behavior after getting what he needed. He called out to his spider companion,but he didn't have to say anything else to her. She knew what needed to be done and was more than happy to do it. 'Finally!' He 'heard' her rejoice as she quickly made her way to the webs.

No one dared to stand in her way, they were more afraid of her attacking them than them delaying her.

"Urrggghhh! What's the meaning of this! Bastard, you got the money and that's not enough? Hey! Are you gonna sit there and do nothing? St-stay back! Get baccccckkk! …..Huh…..?"

Lucas began to panic when he saw Arachne approaching him. Since he was caught in the webs, it made it appear as though Arachne's target was him. His mind wasn't in the right place when he felt so helpless. He had almost forgotten that it would make sense for a spider to deal with the webs.

However he was finally struck by the realization when she approached and never seemed to bother with him and his spectacle. Blankly, he watched her begin consuming the webs, starting the process from the ground up. He stood and watched with his voice now caught in his throat and became embarrassed over his more than disturbing emotional display.

Meanwhile Noah began to quickly make his way to his bag. The rest of the group noticed his movements and began to watch, while they would occasionally keep an eye on Grim who continued to behead the zombies as they passed.

But there was a problem, the barricade was stretched out too far now, allowing more zombies to come through at one time.

"H-hey, HEY! They're getting through!" LeRoy was the first to yell at Noah.

Noah proceeded to retrieve his axes from his bag and turned to them.

"I said I would take the webs down, I didn't say I would protect you. Did you think I was going to protect you all? You all were apparently doing just fine before you met me, did you forget how to defend yourselves?" Most of the people in the group grew pale, they didn't have to fight. They relied on Lucas and the small group of fighters. Now they could only hope for Arachne to clear a way. Even a little space to crawl through would be enough.

However there were still people in the group who were willing to fight and it was the four that have been fighting with Lucas up till now, including LeRoy who now had to take the lead.

Noah turned his attention to the door and saw that Grim was beginning to have a hard time. It was actually being forced to retreat, which Noah knew would happen. All the humans were in the back so it made Grim the only target. He couldn't allow that, the people needed to play their part as well, even if it was only to be bait.

"Grim, come back now!" He ordered, just as quickly as he gave the command, Grim responded like how a proper soldier would. He sprung backwards, using his wings to gain distance before he stood by Noah's side.

"Ggrrr!" X?

Similar to a dam being destroyed, once Grim left his position, a huge flow of zombies began to make their way in.

"Nooo!"

"You all had us come here, you have to fight them!"

The non-fighters immediately began to panic, even the four who prepared themselves for battle were showing signs of fear. But at least one of them had enough sense to not let that fear affect them. But it happened to be the very person who wasn't capable of fighting at the moment.

"Joe! Can you block the entrance with your spell? LeRoy, Tristan, focus on defense, don't let anything pass you and Zoe, focus on the fast ones!"

Noah didn't know when, but Lucas finally regained his bearings from before and began to direct his group. Apparently, seeing that he would soon be freed awakened him from his earlier inner turmoil. However Noah happened to realize that not only did he not direct anyone else, but he didn't mention Regina either. Noah thought it was extremely stupid for anyone not to want to fight and rely on their own strength. But maybe that was the reason for the earlier achievement. To separate the ones willing to fight for their survival from the leeches.

Noah was satisfied with the actions of the group that he didn't focus on the earlier command issued to Joe until he noticed it too late.

Rumble!*

Suddenly, a miniature golem made of rock appeared around the one named Joe before an earthquake erupted in the room. The walls began to quake and the floors cracked while the cracks started to head in the direction of the door.

Noah didn't know what was going on, but when he saw the ceiling of the door crumbing down, he finally recalled that Joe was told to block the door.

"Noo!" He cried out, thankfully the sound of the quake drowned out his cries. If he wanted to block the door then he could've used his webs! How could he farm the zombies if they couldn't get through?

He gazed around the room and recalled about fifty zombies were still able to get through. If he couldn't fight them all then he couldn't allow the others to kill too many.

"Let's go Grim!" Brandishing his axes, he rushed towards the zombies to begin his next farming session, but he has yet to realize the danger on the other side.