Clearing the Dorms (Part 2)

In the same dorm, on the second floor, in one of the many rooms, two girls were huddling together under one of the beds, shivering as they stared at the pair of legs and vines walking around their rooms.

The null was coming closer and closer, and the two girls could already feel the scythe of death on their necks. They knew that if nothing was done, they were going to die.

As explained in previous chapters, nulls could sense life force, so there was no way these girls could hide from the null in the room.

Two green vines with thorns on them quickly moved under the bed and caught the ankles of the girls, so fast that they had no time to react.

Before they knew what was happening, they were upside down looking at the monstrous face of the null in front of them.

There was a split moment of silence, then...

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

A scream of pure horror escaped their mouth, reaching every end of the dorm.

But of course, this null was emotionless and only knew how to feed, so its expression didn't change. It looked at the two screaming girls indifferently.

Suddenly, the thorns on the vines around their ankles stabbed into their legs and they started feeling weak.

They wanted to say something, at least reason with it, but they were too weak to say anything. Despair set in, and the reality that they were going to die now hit them.

As all their hope for life was gone, they suddenly heard a loud crash as the door to their room burst open, so strongly that it flew off its hinges.

Once in their life, a girl, after watching a fairy tail or something wished that they would have their prince charming, riding on a horse to come save them. They always imagine what it would feel like and what emotions they would feel.

Well, these two girls were having that experience first-hand. And the emotion they were feeling, seeing this devastatingly handsome young man with serious violet eyes, wearing a black cloak and a white-bladed sword in his hand, was hope.

Hope that maybe with his help, they would be able to live another day.

Their pleading eyes looked towards Zayden as he rushed into the room. He swung down his sword coated in oblivion flux, cutting through the two vines like a hot knife through butter.

Quickly he caught the two girls before they fell to the ground, and he could feel their bodies shuddering. Feeling this, he thought maybe he should reassure them a little.

So without taking his eyes off the null, he said.

"No need to worry, you're safe now I'm here"

Saying it, Zayden could feel that it was cringe, but these two girls thought something different.

His firm chest, and broad shoulders along with his soothing voice gave them a feeling of security, that as long as he was here, they were not going to die. Unknowingly, their shuddering reduced.

Zayden felt that their situation had stabilized before he placed them on the ground, his gaze never leaving the null.

This particular null was the strongest null on this floor of the dorm. It was supposed to be guarding the stairs that led up to the next floor but it wasn't.

Because it was hungry.

Hungry to the point that it ate one of its kind, increasing its levels by a whole lot. With the floor free of nulls, it turned his attention to the only few humans still on this floor.

Thankfully, Zayden came just in time and stopped it from killing the few survivors.

But this null was strong, way stronger than the normal nulls on this floor, at least a few steps away from the boss monster of this dorm.

****

Meanwhile, back on the second floor, Amara and Aiden were facing off against one of the nulls.

After they heard the scream, Zayden rushed passed the null in the direction of the scream and left them to defeat the null that was there.

The null was strong but wasn't as strong as the nulls they faced during the horde.

"Let me take care of it"

Aiden already formed his feather blades and slowly walked towards the null, the sharp edge of the blade reflecting the flickering like of the bulbs in the hallway.

The null felt Aiden's life force and snapped its head towards Aiden. Without a moment's notice, red vines were shot at Aiden.

Aiden was unperturbed and calmly started deflecting the vines coming towards him. He could feel the heat on his body, but his expression didn't change.

Valeria's battle with the blade null made a large impact on him. The fact that she was able to use the null as a whetstone to train her skill with her life on the line.

Aiden knew that he didn't have that courage, but he wanted to become better so he had to take the initiative to put his life on the line also and hone the few skills that he had.

With the two feather blades in his hand, he kept blocking the hot vines of the null, moving closer and closer to it.

Once close enough, he formed five smaller sharp feathers and shot them at the null. The feathers impaled the vines of the null, sticking it to the wall.

Aiden cut off the limbs of the null before calling the rest of the team to get a hit in to get a share of the exp.

Finally, the lowest person in the group killed the null, making all the unevolved level up.

That null was the boss of this floor, so its exp was enough for the unevolved to level up at least once.

With the null dead, there was no one stopping them from going the the next floor.

They cautiously climbed up the stairs, looking out for any null that might appear in front of them, but they found nothing.

There were no humans or nulls as they walked through the halls. All they could see were piles of dust, amounting to about fifteen.

They could only shake their head slightly thinking about the multiple lives that must have been lost.

Before long, they reached the room where Zayden saved the two girls. They saw the two girls with identical faces huddled up together in a corner of the room, while Zayden was battling the null.

Well, it couldn't be called a battle; rather, it was a beatdown.

Sword wounds could be seen on multiple parts of the body of the null. They were deep enough to cause pain, but not strong enough to kill the null.

Zayden beat the null to only an inch of its life.

Within a few minutes, only a limbless null remained.

Zayden turned to look at the two girls, handing both of them daggers that he made.

"Kill it"

They were confused by what Zayden said, or more accurately stunned. This thing had almost killed them a moment ago, and Zayden wanted them to kill it. It seemed like he wasn't your normal prince charming.

"If you don't want something like this to happen again, kill it"

Those were the last words Zayden said before he started walking out.

The twins picked up the daggers, a firm resolve in their eyes. They never wanted to be in this sort of situation again. Unable to do anything and just waiting for fate to help them. It wasn't guaranteed and it wasn't what they wanted.

They walked up to the null and started stabbing into it.

Before long the null turned into golden light particles that entered into the two girls as well as Zayden leaving behind two green orbs.

The two girls managed to level up five times thanks to the null; after all, it was more than seventeen levels higher than them.

They looked at the green orbs with confusion on their face.

"Go ahead, smash it"

Amara said with the most welcoming smile she could put up.

They didn't waste any time and smashed the orbs, revealing two skill books.

They both picked up one of the books that was floating in front of them and opened it up. As soon as they read the first line of the book, it turned into white light that entered their heads.

They were dazed for a few seconds, but their eyes gained some clarity sometime later.

"Welcome to the group"

Aiden said as the duo joined them. It wasn't noticeable, but there was a subtle change in the personalities of the twin sisters.

One of them was more cheerful, even though it wasn't shown; after all, they didn't know ninety percent of the people in the group.

The other was a lot more reserved, not shy, but had an uncaring expression, as if she would care if the world were to burn.

Zayden smiled as they continued towards the final floor of the dorm.