"Oh, he's here again," Issi said as he stared up to the sky, his long blue hair flowing in the wind as if it were underwater.
"What is he going to do this time around?" Derel couldn't help but frown.
The removal of the timer had put them on their toes and had made the competition interesting for maybe just the first 2 monsters.
The remainder of the time they had waited for the monsters had instead just become annoying.
"Something tells me it's about to get even more annoying," Drake said from the side.
Before Ning could say anything, Genesis started speaking aloud.
"Hey Everyone! How is it going? Are you having fun?" Genesis said with audible glee in his voice. "Was my little gift interesting enough for you?"
"Well—" Genesis stopped halfway through and instead said, "WHAT?!" in the most offended tone Ning had ever seen anyone speak in.
"You did not just say that little miss," Genesis spoke keeping his offended voice. "My changes are not troublesome. They are interesting, just how I want them to be."
"In fact, I am going to add to this and make it all the more interesting."
"So… have fun."
Genesis disappeared again.
"What did he do this time?" Drake couldn't help but ask.
"I'm afraid we won't find out until the monster spawns again," Issi said.
"He must have increased the difficulty again. Be careful," Ning said. "We might not face a snake this time around."
Everyone nodded.
None of them knew how long it was before the monster would spawn, or what monster it would even be.
As they waited, they started getting increasingly nervous. What could have possibly changed?
The time neared the spawn point of the monsters and all 4 pairs of eyes were focused on the spot in front of them.
Then, they heard a 'BOOM!' sound from somewhere around them. Ning didn't want to look away, but he had to. As he turned around, he managed to see the vanishing words '4 points.'
"What?!" he cried out loud and suddenly ran towards the spot nearly 150 meters away from them.
Ning looked up to the tower and saw the turret move back to its place. It had attacked just now.
"It's over! The monster is dead," Ning shouted back to their group.
"Huh?" Derel asked. "Where?"
"Right there, the tower shot it," he said. "Dammit! We only got 4 points."
"Did… did the monster spawn somewhere else?" Drake asked.
"I'm afraid so," Ning said.
"Dammit! Now we not only won't know the time of the spawn but also the location?" he shouted.
"I'm afraid that might be the change he did this time around," Ning said. "Shit! He just made this even more annoying."
"Do we take advantage of it and spend our points on the monsters?" Issi asked.
"No! Hoard!" Derel shouted from the side. "You little worms don't know how to sit on your fortune. This little farce is nothing. We will fight the monsters easily."
"After all, it's not just us that are going through the same thing," Derel said.
Ning nodded. "Let's prepare for the next ones coming from random directions then," he said.
Drake went 100 meters to the east. The rest stayed right at the edge of where the turret would attack the monsters.
Ning went to the west with his spear in hand and waited for the monsters to come.
Issi went to the north and Derel to the south.
As they waited, the next monster that popped up was a Deer-like monster with black skin and purple lines throughout its body.
It appeared somewhere between Drake and Issi, so Issi sent out a slash of water and destroyed the beast in a single attack.
Once they saw '16 points' floating in the air, they sighed in relief. That was quite fast.
They rested for the next 20 minutes and only got serious around the last few minutes. As Ning waited, a monster appeared, the same Deer about 20 degrees to his left.
Without hesitation, he threw out his spear as if it were a javelin and destroyed the Aether Beast's head in a single strike.
The strike was so fast that Ning himself couldn't believe that he had responded so quickly.
Still, he only got 18 points. Even such speed wasn't able to compare with one of the groups.
He wished he could know which group it was that did it, but when the monster appeared, his focus needed to be on it, rather than the group.
A few hours went by as such. By now, the monsters were coming 3 times in a single hour, as opposed to 2 just a day ago.
Fortunately, Ning and his group were able to earn on average 50 points per hour.
As the day slowly passed by, Ning was feeling the mental strain of the nearly 2 and a half days' worth of competition.
He created a block of ice on his hand and placed it on his forehead to cool himself off a little. Even then, he kept his focus in front of him at all times.
The small robot with blasters, or whatever upgraded monster that might come from ahead of him, he was ready for it at all times.
Suddenly, he heard a whistling sound coming from somewhere around him. Before he could even wonder what it was, he sensed danger and immediately ducked.
However, he wasn't fast enough. A bloody chunk of his ear was split open and he could sense fresh blood slowly start to flow.
It didn't hurt him physically, but he still frowned at the fact that he had been caught off guard. He immediately caught his ear and hid it as it began to heal.
At the same time, he couldn't help but think of just how strong whatever that was had been. If it were strong enough to rip away his ear, then most definitely it would be able to pierce through his skull.
This was, without a shred of a doubt, a murder attempt.
