Chapter 25: Blood (2)

The chopper fell on a garden two hundred meters away from Luke’s home and immediately exploded. However, before the explosion, Luke saw a shadow jumping from the vehicle… usually, he wouldn’t believe that someone could survive jumping from a chopper at thirty meters of height and landing in the middle of a city taken by zombies. Still, things changed since everyone could level up. So, Luke approached the place where the shadow dropped.

After a couple of seconds, Luke found a man wearing a special military vest limping while moving away from the chopper on fire. Luke could also see him armed with a machine gun and a combat knife. Not to mention, he had several magazines to reload his weapon on several parts of his uniform… defeating that guy without mana won’t be easy. Still, Luke couldn’t let him go.

Luke decided to observe the guy from the shadows while he slowly let his focus recover his mana, but he could tell that his plan wouldn’t work for long. That man was walking toward Luke, and while he was pretending to be just walking away, Luke could see him holding his machine gun as if he was ready to use it.

“His helmet… it gives him an infrared vision,” Luke thought.

That was no good. Surprise attacks won’t work on him… while Luke was thinking about what to do with him, two ice arrows hissed through the air and then hit that guy’s back. Luke hadn’t counted on that, but Amanda and Celia actually came to help. The enemy staggered for a moment due to the damage, but his uniform prevented him from suffering too much damage. Still, it granted Luke enough time to approach and then use the momentum of Stinger to kick the asshole’s head. The unknown soldier fell to the ground but quickly tried to get up while grabbing its gun. However, Luke stepped on his right arm and then pointed his rapier toward his neck.

“Why did you try to kill me?” Luke asked. “I am sure that there are many more targets than me moving around the city, and they actually are destroying things. Unlike me.”

Luke couldn’t see the face or the eyes of that man due to the helmet he was wearing. Still, he could recognize the modus operandi and the secrecy of a special forces soldier when he saw one. Nevertheless, he didn’t try to answer.

“It was really a human…” Amanda said, shocked when she approached.

The whole group approached to check things, and they couldn’t help but frown while looking at the pilot. A human really tried to kill Luke… they couldn’t help but look at him with suspicion in their eyes as well.

“Have you gone to jail before, Luke?” Celia asked.

“You think he tried to kill me because I am some sort of criminal?” Luke frowned.

“Well, I can’t imagine any other reason why someone would want to kill you…” Celia said.

“I am the son of a very troublesome military man. If I had done any crime, he would be the one to pass the judgment onto me, and my father would like it,” Luke said. “Anyway… you didn’t answer my question. Also, if you think of grabbing those grenades, this rapier will pierce your neck.”

When they noticed that the pilot also had grenades, Amanda, Celia, and the others stepped down. Luke was insane enough to taunt someone who had five very dangerous grenades, but he was fast enough to escape their range.

“I am Sorry… I received orders from my superior,” The pilot said. “We already have a lot of Intel regarding people that obtained superpowers causing trouble everywhere. So, he wants to control the damage of those before they end up destroying the country.”

Luke had imagined that. Considering that the pilot took his time to attack, it seemed that he hesitated, and his superior forced him to do so. Still, that didn’t change the fact that Luke almost died. He wasn’t planning to forgive that asshole.

“We were only trying to survive… is that a crime now?” Amanda asked.

“The number of monsters you killed is abnormal,” The pilot said. “Humans are creatures that can’t control their instincts when they have the power to do whatever they want. So eliminating possible threats is absolutely necessary.”

“Why would you assume such a thing so soon?” Amanda asked.

“They did that out of fear… they probably confirmed that firearms aren’t that effective against certain monsters,” Luke said. “Considering what he said, some humans obtained power that far exceeds our current technology. So, if the current leaders want to stay on the top, they need to do that kind of cleaning… Not to mention, many high-ranked officers probably already died, and that gave a lot of power and influence to some more… radical commanders.”

“Are you sure of that?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah… I read too much manga and Comics to know this pattern very well,” Luke said. “A greedy officer thirsty for recognition and power always tends to cause trouble in this kind of situation.”

“… Why do I keep waiting for serious answers coming from you?” Amanda said while she facepalmed.

“… You said that your father is military, is he the colonel, Mark Kennedy?” The pilot asked.

“… How do you know that?” Luke furrowed his eyebrows.

“Because you really look like him… at least your face… you are too thin compared to him,” the pilot said.

“What is the point of being a mountain of muscles?” Luke asked. “Those who want to show big muscles probably are worried about their small pride…”

“Colonel Mark is pretty famous, and usually, he would command all the operations in the area, but since he is on a trip, someone who doesn’t like him very much assumed things,” the pilot said. “I am not certain, but maybe…”

“Your current superior wanted me dead to cause trouble to my father…” Luke said.