Maids VS Apocalypse

Finally making it out of the truck, Mark kept a low posture and hid behind its armored frame. He peeked in the direction of the fighting and saw Lara evading the attacks of some sort of lizard, this one much bigger than those that attacked them the other day.

’It’s a Fallen...’

Seeing the crooked red Halo above the creature’s head, Mark understood that they were up against something different from the Stone Rhinos.

The monster looked like an oversized Komodo dragon with the head of a crocodile. Jagged teeth lined the sides of its maw and dark gray scales jutted out of its spine like broken glass, continuing all the way to the tip of its tail.

Despite its size, the creature was moving quite fast. It followed after Lara trying to crush her under its feet, and when the girl successfully evaded a few times it swung its tail like a whip leaving her nowhere to go.

Lara blocked the strike with ease using her Force Field then jumped back to widen the distance between them. She was clearly drawing the monster away from the truck so he wouldn’t get caught in the fighting, but her doing so only reminded Mark how useless he was.

’That said, she’s really good with the spear...’

Mark couldn’t help but be amazed by Lara’s performance. Her movements were sharp and beautiful, not to mention deadly. She wasn’t just dodging the monster’s attacks; each time she evaded a strike, her spear would flash and a cut would appear somewhere on the massive lizard.

He remembered seeing Spear Arts listed as one of her abilities, and the (Master) beside it told him she was as good as one could get with the weapon. Nevertheless, the monster’s hide was too thick and it didn’t seem affected at all. Lara didn’t look too concerned, however. Mark had no doubt that she would finish off that thing soon enough so he turned his attention to something else.

"Sergeant, you there?"

There was no response.

"Sergeant Rider?"

"He’s too busy, can’t you guess?"

The instant he heard the voice Mark jumped away. Before he could appreciate the 16% increase in strength and 20% in agility he got from leveling up, the stranger who had snuck up on his closed the distance between them and buried a fist in his stomach.

Mark’s cheeks bulged as air was forcefully expelled out of his lungs. What happened barely registered in his mind when he suddenly found himself flying through the air, slamming into a street light before crashing into and rolling on the road.

Lara’s eyes widened as she sensed the danger her master was in and she immediately turned to rush in his direction. The massive lizard moved accordingly and whipped its tail in a wide arc, creating a sharp whistle as it cut the air.

Lara was forced to block with her spear, the force causing her to slide back a few meters. Her mind was still set on ignoring the monster so she could go protect her master, but the lizard had no intention of letting her go, and the cry it released indicated as much. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Raising its body and standing on its hind legs, it then went down and slammed the road with the front ones.

The force of the strike was enough to crack the asphalt, but that wasn’t the extent of it. Instead, several patches of the broken road began to rise and hover around the monster. Then, following another cry, the floating rubble shot toward the silver-haired girl like small meteorites.

Lara dodged the projectiles one after the other, clicking her tongue after hearing the sound of each one shattering against the road.

Just when she was about to jump out of the last one’s direction she was met with a thick tail and got sent flying into one of the nearby buildings, crushing right through the metallic shutters.

Mark was too blinded by pain to even realize Lara couldn’t come to save him. He was struggling to breathe, the pain from the earlier level up having returned as if reignited by the blow to his core. It took tremendous effort just to stay awake.

In his tilted view of the desolate road, he saw the truck Natalie lent him, which was on its back now with its rear covered in the rubble of the building it crashed into.

If he had a nickel for every time a vehicle he rode was flipped over he would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Standing beside the crashed truck was a figure clad in a red cloak, most likely the one who sent him flying with a single punch. The voice he heard before told him she was a woman, but when she began walking toward him and he got a look at her slender legs he became even more sure.

All of that didn’t matter, however. The thing that caught his attention the most was the glowing red halo above the woman’s head.

Absolute terror struck him as he saw the mark of the Fallen on a human, but a part of him realized that wasn’t necessarily the case. All Awakened could use Force Runes and Halos. What made those who manifest them over their heads from those who don’t was one thing: the LRGS.

"Hey, that was quite impressive!" His assailant spoke, amusement clear in her voice. "Is this what they call talent?"

He didn’t know what she was talking about, nor did he care.

He wasn’t able to fully raise its output in time, but he was sure his Force Field wasn’t at its lowest before he received that punch. Despite that, the fist struck him like there was nothing in its way.

This was his first time taking a hit to the stomach, and although he had yet to vomit its contents, it didn’t seem like he would be able to keep them inside for long.

"Hmm... You’re still awake after that!? Maybe I held back a little too much..."

Mark realized that his mind was already giving in, seeing that he didn’t notice when the cloaked woman arrived in front of him. She crouched down and grabbed a fistful of his dark brown hair then used it to pull his head up to her line of sight.

"The old man was right; you do have promise!" Her voice still retained the excitement from before, confusing Mark even more. "It would be a waste to kill you here so... how about you come work for us?"