Chapter 4 – Moving Around

Apocalypse was called as such due to a reason. And Vale underestimated it greatly because of the novels he read.

"This is awful."

Arriving at a less populated area, he thought he wouldn't see corpses as much. How wrong he was. After meeting the couple Taylor and Jenny, he thought he would meet other people. But even when he walked a few miles now, he didn't even meet a single soul.

Monsters roamed everywhere and killed anyone they saw. As for why they were killing people, he didn't know. Perhaps instinct or just to eat them. Vale did see monsters eating people once, so that theory wasn't wrong. And among those monsters, there were strong and weak ones. And naturally, there was also a sneaky one.

Many people chose to hide rather than fight, the more reasonable choice. And others probably made a group to survive together or something.

Humans were tenacious. Vale refused to believe that he was the only human left in New York City.

"Hmm?"

Sensing something in the alley, he unsheathed his blade. Before him, a humanoid creature dressed in black robes stared at him with glowing red eyes. It had no face, only an opening on the top of its head.

Vale couldn't feel any killing intent from the creature, but there was a strange pressure coming from this one. A pressure different than even a giant monster that reached 5 meters tall.

"Who are you?" He tried to initiate a conversation.

The creature didn't respond and raised its arm instead. In its hand was a ball of red fire, which it shot toward him.

Vale ducked and slashed his sword upward, splitting the ball in two. It exploded behind him, creating a burning inferno.

"Magic." He mouthed in surprise.

This was the first time he saw a monster using Magic. The monster didn't have any expression, but it must have been shocking to see him split the fireball in two with ease.

It growled and raised both arms. This time, it shot out five fireballs at once.

Seeing it, Vale's expression turned serious. He clenched his sword and used his technique.

"One-edged Sword Style, Mountain Splitting Slash!" He charged at the monster and swung his sword in an arc.

A crescent-shaped wind flew out of his blade and headed toward the monster at lightning speed. It sliced through the fireballs and crashed against the monster's body, causing a loud boom.

Normal monsters would split in half by that attack. Even if it wasn't imbued with Qi or Mana, it was still a powerful slash that could cut through steel and concrete.

However, the black-robed monster didn't have any scratch on its body. It was only blown away by the force behind the attack, but the attack itself never reached its body.

A transparent sphere was covering its body. It was not visible before, but Vale saw it now as the monster flew back and crashed into the wall.

'Force Field. Damn, it's a proper mage.' He clicked his tongue.

A Force Field was a Magic to stop any physical attack from reaching the user's body. It was a great Magic to defend against physical attacks and could stop even his Mountain Splitting Slash.

'I am not using a full strength in that attack earlier in fear of cutting through the building, but it is still powerful enough to rival the attack that split that giant spider in half. This mage has good defense and Magic.'

"Now..." Vale didn't waste any time and charged at the mage. "Let's see if it can stop this."

Kicking the ground, he rushed forward and arrived in front of the monster in less than a second. If a wind pressure didn't work, then what about a direct physical attack?

"One-edged Sword Style, Plum Blossom Strike!"

He stabbed his sword forward, aiming at the monster's heart. The monster's Force Field appeared again, but this time, it failed to protect its user. It shattered under the immense force behind Vale's attack and allowed his blade to pierce through its body.

"Gah!" It roared out in pain as blood spurted out of its chest.

"Ah, you have blood? That means you have organs too." Vale pulled out his sword and wiped the blood off with a cloth. "Interesting."

The monster didn't give up even with a hole in its chest. It raised its hand and cast another spell.

"The organ's placement didn't match human's. You are no human." Vale shook his head and struck again, this time aiming at the head. "One-edged Sword Style, Red Snow Fall!"

He slashed downward and cut the monster's head off easily. Then, another slash followed suit to cut it in half.

The monster's body fell onto the ground as blood pooled under it. The head rolled down the road and stopped in front of his feet. Vale only glanced at it before turning away.

No blood even touched him or stayed in his sword. The mastery of his One-edged Sword Style had reached a stage where he didn't need to worry about that anymore.

'That monster is dangerous. Normal people might not be able to fight it at all.' He thought as he looked around.

Only at this time did he notice the wounds suffered by the corpses were different and there wasn't any bite mark.

'The last spell it was about to unleash was different from the previous fireball. I guess that's what it used to kill these people.'

The corpses had holes in their chests or were burned. The former had a round hole in it that was clearly caused by an invisible projectile. The latter was scorched by an intense flame that could even burn through the road and concrete.

"Yeah, it's not good."

Exhaling audibly, he calmed his breathing and resumed his mobile [Meditation]. It was one way to detect presence and increase his Qi reserve. Just like muscle, it could be trained by draining it. He needed to use Qi occasionally to drain it and build up his reserve.

"It seems there are people in a place not too far from here." Vale tilted his head toward a building. "There should be more monsters there as well."