[ADAM] Chapter 27: Verdrakill

"Wha…"

Adam froze. His mind was struggling to process the horror unfolding before him.

He had never really seen someone get eaten in front of him—it was always him getting eaten or chewed during the Game.

Was this… what Grace saw when the ratatusk was munching me?

He stared at the massive snake—its scales a mix of greens and the browns of the swamp. He then looked at its name that was hovering above it.

[Verdlecks, Lv. 2 | HP: 121%]

And finally, he looked at Grace, who had been engulfed by the impossibly large jaw of the so-called verdlecks.

But as soon as her arm twitched, Adam woke up from his stupor. Grace was still alive in there, being eaten alive.

"Ma'am!" Adam lunged forward without thinking anymore, but something in his peripheral vision made him stop. The trees of the swamp—they started to move.

No, not exactly.

It was alive with predators. The twisted branches and some of the vines were actually serpents, their bodies perfectly blending with the gnarled trees.

Dozens of them. Watching them.

"The… the monsters are here!" Adam shouted without looking back, his voice almost cracking.

"What?!" Vincent's head snapped around, the other Heroes followed suit.

But before they could fully turn around, the camouflaged snakes launched themselves from every direction. The hiss they made was almost deafening, their fangs bared and bodies twisting through the humid air.

Eugene, who was at the front, stared at the verdlecks flying at him. And when it was only a meter away from him, his eyes glowed before a violent beam of light shot out of them—the light completely piercing through the snake and obliterating it into pieces.

Dennis, who was the closest to the other creeps, swung both his arms in the air toward the verdlecks that were rushing at them. His arms, while waving, instantly morphed into whips that were several yards long—the thorns, shredding the verdlecks in the air.

As for Vincent, he simply stood his ground, and when the snake lunged at him, he dissolved into dark smoke before becoming whole again. He then turned around, plunging a dagger into the snake's tail, and then pulling it closer to him by stabbing it several times. His daggers practically walked and carved through it until he ultimately reached the head.

The veteran creeps raised their weapons, forming a defensive circle as they hacked and slashed at the remaining Verdlecks.

Some, however, weren’t so lucky. A few were grabbed, their legs caught in the crushing jaws of the monstrous serpents. And when a snake with a head the size of a hippopotamus’ head bites down, its fangs don’t just pierce flesh—they tear through it. Limbs were ripped away in an instant, the unlucky victims reduced to nothing more than broken bodies and fading screams.

"Argh!" The man groveled on the floor, but no one was there to help him as everyone was busy dealing with their own monsters.

Meanwhile, Adam spotted the holster at Grace's waist and yanked out her handgun. The weight felt completely foreign in his palm—he'd never fired one before, nor held one—but that didn't matter now.

He aimed at the verdlecks' head, but then quickly adjusted his aim upward when he realized he might hit Grace through the creature's body.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened.

"Huh?" Adam turned the gun in his hands, spotting a small switch pointing to the word 'SAFE'. With fumbling fingers, he flipped it to 'FIRE' and aimed again.

The gun slightly recoiled in his hand as he fired repeatedly, each shot punching through the snake's thick scales and hide. The creature's body convulsed violently, its grip on Grace loosening as its blood sprayed through the muddy swamp.

Grace's body slipped from the dying snake's jaws, and Adam rushed forward to catch her. But his steps quickly halted, however, as Grace's head was already completely gone. Dissolved, the acid having melted through her skull.

"Sorry…" Adam whispered to himself. He was about to turn around to help the other creeps, but a gurgling sound stopped him cold. His eyes snapped back to Grace's mangled face. Her throat—what was left of it—was moving.

She was alive.

"Do we have a healer?!" Adam's desperate cry echoed across the swamp, but it was swallowed by the sounds of battle. But no answer came.

He looked down at Grace again. He stared at her for a moment before the exhaustion from everything he had experienced returned to his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

And without any hesitation, he raised the gun and fired a single shot into whatever remained of Grace's brain. Her body jerked once, and that was it.

Adam sighed and closed his eyes, but after another breath, he finally turned away to help his teammates.

But instead of shooting the verdlecks immediately, however, he calmly, but carefully, walked toward the nearest snake. The verdlecks had wrapped its muscular body around a screaming creep, squeezing tighter with each second.

The man's scream, however, abruptly stopped as he saw Adam casually climb the verdlecks wrapped around him, and pressed the nozzle of his gun directly against the monster's protruding eye.

And then, he pulled the trigger. The verdleck's eye exploded, its blood spraying onto the creep. The monster still thrashed around, and so Adam lunged the gun right through its eye socket and fired again.

The man it was holding couldn't even react to what was happening.

He could only gasp as the snake's grip lightened, his eyes wide as he turned to Adam as soon as he found himself free… but Adam was already moving to his next target.

It was a verdlecks with its jaw wide open, unhinged to swallow another creep whole. But Adam ran toward it, using another snake as a springboard to jump—he looked clumsy in the air, his body twisting awkwardly.

But his arm, however, was straight—the nozzle only inches away from the verdleck's eye. And with a breath, he fired.

The verdlecks' head snapped to the side, and the man it was holding took this chance to yank himself free and stabbed it through its already ruined eye.

Adam found another verdlecks with its mouth gaping wide at another creep. But as he approached it, the snake's head turned toward him instead.

But Adam didn't retreat. Instead, he stepped closer, jamming the gun between its fangs and pulling the trigger repeatedly. Each shot, causing the snake's head to dance as the bullets tore through its soft tissue and into its brain.

Adam didn't stop firing until the gun clicked, and there were no more bullets to fire. He was about to slam his fist on the verdlecks, but it slowly splashed into the murky water.

Adam stared at the verdlecks’ HP to make sure it was staying at 0% before quickly scanning the battle. He then rushed back to Grace's corpse, kneeling beside her, patting her down to find more bullets.

But what he found was even better—several magazines already loaded, attached to her vest.

Adam quickly glanced at the chaotic battle, and when he was sure no one was in immediate danger, he worked the buckles of Grace's vest.

"Sorry," he once again whispered.

The tactical vest was still slick with her blood and whatever melted flesh was sticking on it, but Adam didn't care and slipped it over his shoulders, adjusting the straps to fit him.

He quickly stood up, and the weight of the vest and magazines was almost nothing to him—but it was still heavy; he was carrying the life of another, after all.

"Let's… finish this," he muttered to himself again, checking the gun one last time before rejoining the fight.

The remaining verdlecks were dispatched quickly. The element of surprise helped the monsters first, but as soon as the Heroes settled and started coordinating their attacks, it was over.

And when the last snake fell, the silence that fell over the swamp was deafening—only the heavy breaths of the creeps could be heard.

The result of the battle?

Three creeps, dead. Ten remaining, including Adam.

Most of the creeps were tending to their wounds, while the others had already begun harvesting the parts from the verdlecks—scales, fangs, and anything they could get from the corpses.

Only Adam, however, waded through the swamp to collect the bodies of their fallen. No one else seemed concerned with the dead, too busy collecting their spoils.

Half of the spoils they gathered, however, belonged to the guild. But none complained, as they would still also be compensated based on their contributions in the exploration.

The guilds also had their own expenses—fees for the rights of the Leak, and they also had to pay 20% taxes for the treasures they received.

The world was dead, and humanity had turned it into business.

Adam arranged the three corpses side by side on a large root, straightening their limbs and closing their eyes when possible, or just covering their heads with fabric from their clothes.

He stared at the corpses for a moment, and then whispered to himself,

"We survive... and then we ask for forgiveness."

"The IBAA's famous line."

A voice came from behind him. Adam turned to see who it was, and it was the veteran creep that was under the Nightraptor guild, Rick.

Rick approached with an awkward smile, blood spattered across his cheek. "Thanks for saving me back there. Chris, right?"

"Saving...?" Adam glanced at Rick’s face, finally recognizing him as the creep who had been strangled by the second snake he killed. "Oh... it’s you."

Rick laughed, shaking his head. "I thought it was weird that you didn’t bring any weapons," he said, his gaze drifting to the bodies Adam had arranged. 

"But... I guess a veteran like you already knew there’d be casualties, huh?"

Adam didn’t respond, only offering Rick a brief glance before turning away.

It seemed Rick had completely misunderstood—Adam hadn’t brought weapons because he didn’t know where to legally buy them. He had searched online but discovered that only creeps registered with the IBAA were permitted to purchase them.

Unfortunately, Adam had no papers. And besides, he was still trying to avoid the Hospital. Registering with the government would only make it easier for them to track him down.

Rick didn’t mind his silence, however, as he stood beside Adam and offered a silent prayer of his own to the fallen.

Adam was about to leave him alone, but Rick spoke before he could.

“I’ll be sure to tell them to give you a lot,” he gestured to the Heroes, “You can have some of my loot too, that’s the least I could do for saving me.”

Adam looked at him, slightly confused at his words. “We’re…a group. I just did what I had to.”

“Huh…” Rick looked him in the eyes, nodding his head at him with a small smile on his face, “...would be nice if everyone thought like you.”

And with those words, Rick walked away and joined the others in looting the verdlecks corpses. Adam watched them for a while before grabbing a knife from one of the corpses and heading to the first snake he shot dead.

But someone else was already looting it.

“Oh…” Adam blinked. He was about to turn away again, but as soon as the creep who was looting the corpse saw him approach, an awkward laugh escaped his mouth.

“We…we weren’t trying to steal from you!” the man hurriedly said, placing the pair of fangs he had already carved out on the snake’s head before scampering away.

Adam watched him run away and stumble, confused as to what had just happened. There were a lot more monster corpses he could loot, so he didn’t actually mind someone else scavenging his kill.

Was there a silent rule about explorers he didn’t know about?

“Huh…” But whatever it was, it worked out for him. He grabbed the two fangs and placed them in a large pouch. He then watched the others carve the monsters, following their lead and copying what they were doing.

And after a few more minutes, Vincent clapped his hands.

“Listen up!” Vincent shouted, “I think we scouted enough and decided to return outside! This Leak is more unpredictable than we thought because the verdlecks could easily camouflage themselves on the terrain!”

“What!? But we barely explored anything!”

“Shut up, man! We barely explored anything, and we’ve already lost three! We’re way in over our heads here!”

Some of the creeps complained, but all of them agreed as soon as they heard Vincent’s next words:

“We won’t know where the Boss is located since it would also be camouflaged—we do not want to be caught off-guard. We will also not protect any of you if the Boss appears, we just paid for this Leak—we’re not accidentally killing the Boss until we looted everything. So, pack up your things and all the loot you can get, we’ll be leaving in three minutes! We’ll rest outside for a few hours, and then return once we’re more prepared!”

Some of the creeps still groaned, but all they could really do was rush in looting everything, and follow the Heroes.

Once again, Adam found himself at the back of the group as he was still not used to trekking such terrain. He was a lot faster than before, however, as he was within reach of the next creep in front of him.

He could have been a lot faster if he had looted the boots of one of the fallen creeps, but they were too big for him.

“Ha…” And so, Adam could only sigh as he followed everyone else. But he heard something that made him stop—it wasn’t only him, everyone else heard it too.

Adam quickly looked to the side, only to see the trees being pushed away.

He narrowed his eyes at the sudden rumble at first, but then they immediately widened when he realized what it was.

[Verdrakill, Lv. 1 | HP: 100%]

It was a larger variant of the verdlecks. No, perhaps larger was an understatement.

The verdlecks’ head was the same size as the head of a hippopotamus. But a Verdrakill’s head?

The Verdrakill’s head was the same size as an entire hippopotamus by itself—and its wide jaws were heading straight for Adam. And it was very, very fast.

“Ah…” Adam didn’t even bother to move out of the way; all he could really do was whisper and utter, “...Not again.”

And as soon as he said those words, the massive serpent crashed into him like a truck, swept away, and mowed him down completely.

***

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AUTHOR NOTES

Adam being eaten would be a very common occurrence in this story...if you know what I mean.