Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Naturally, nobody took responsibility for the attack. But they all secretly believed one another was responsible. I mean what were the odds that an individual could accomplish such a thing? Not likely at all.

As for Victor, he was furious beyond belief. The raiders were a powerful harvest that he was slowly but surely nurturing for himself. The bounty of their hearts alone was worth more to him than anyone could possibly imagine. Hell, if a top ranked Tier I Horde King were to have consumed them all they would have instantly reached Tier II. Which was an absurd feat.

It was an enormous loss for him, and he immediately sent out forces to investigate the cause of their destruction. It was revealed that bombs had been detonated at key structural areas, causing the collapse of the Arena on everyone who lived there. Aside from those few Raiders who were out raiding when the attack happened.

As Zane predicted, Victor came to the same conclusion as everyone else, that one of the other parties was responsible for the attack. And because of that, he could only cope and seethe. Meanwhile, the surviving raiders had gone on the run.

Due to their past atrocities, none of the other factions would let them in, instead they had bounties marked on their heads. Those who killed these men and women would be handsomely rewarded. But unfortunately, no bounty hunter would collect.

Because Zane and Victor were competing with one another in the shadows to hunt these surviving raiders down, and claim their hearts for themselves. Currently, Zane and Gwen were zipping through the darkness of Las Vegas\'s city streets. The entirety of the night sky and the light within it were blotted out by the eternal sandstorm which affected the area.

Yet this would not keep Zane and Gwen from hunting their marks. They, after all, had natural night vision and thermal overlays which could pierce through the individual grains of sand that would normally cut any flesh they came into contact with like a razor blade.

But did Zane and Gwen have to worry about such a thing? Still, they wore their cloaks over their faces to blend in with the other survivors. Even if much of Gwen\'s body was exposed because of her armor.

It did not take long for the bounty in question to realize he was being chased by something inhuman. He tried to run, but no matter how much he exhausted himself, he felt as if he was being cornered by more than one supernatural being.

Because of this, he randomly lashed out in fear, firing his skill off, which manifested icicles that sprung from his hands.

"Stay back! I\'m warning you!"

Miraculously, the icicles shot exactly where Gwen was standing, but they were cut into pieces by a sweep of her sickles. Which the clanging of the icicles against the Stygian iron blade could be heard by his prey, causing the man to back up even further. While shrieking like a frightened child about to piss itself.

"Ahhhh! Get away from me you monster!"

However, as the man backed up, he felt himself press into something firm. Zane had been standing behind him this entire time. Causing the man to look around, and see the blood-red eyes gazing at him from behind the ragged hooded cloak, which was wrapped around Zane\'s face in a way that concealed his features.

Still, this was enough to fill the Raider with dread. But it was too late, his neck was already enveloped by Zane\'s blade. If he moved in an inch, he would cut his own throat. Because of this, he began to beg his captor to spare his miserable life.

"Please, man! I don\'t know who you are, but you\'re not one of them! Just let me go, man! I swear I won\'t harm anyone ever again! Please, man!\'

As the raider was whimpering like a thoroughly beaten dog, Gwen slowly approached him, staring at the man with her own blue eyes. She was quick to ask Zane if she was done playing with his meal.

"Are you done with that? If so, can I have a bite?

Zane smirked beneath his concealed face. His chuckle was audible enough to frighten the man even further.

"By all means, he\'s yours. Just leave me the heart, alright?"

Gwen\'s eyes flashed with sadistic pleasure as she immediately twirled her blades in a way that severed the man\'s limbs. Causing him to scream out in agony. As for Gwen, she lifted down herm ask and bit into the man\'s arms. Her teeth digging through the flesh with ease as she tore it apart and swallowed it.

Despite the horrifying sight, Gwen had a pretty smile on her face, as if she had just tasted something wonderful. The man suddenly realized that he was either dealing with cannibals or the undead. And even though cannibals were common, they typically cooked their food first. Causing his eyes to shrink back, as his vision became blurred from blood loss.

"You… You aren\'t human! You\'re one of them!?!\'

Gwen ignored the man\'s screams and continued to feast on his severed limbs. While Zane himself grew tired of the noise, his prey was making. Instantly dispersing one of his blades, Zane punched his hand through his victim\'s back, pushing it all the way through as he grabbed the man\'s own beating, crystalline heart and showed it to him.

The sinister tone in Zane\'s voice was the last thing the raider heard before his ultimate demise.

"Thanks for the meal!"

Zane then tossed the corpse to the ground. Before summoning the rest of the Horde Kings who were his campions. The group of undead would tear the body limb from limb, eating it in its entirety, and in doing so leave behind no trace to Victor that there was someone else in this city targeting the Awakened survivors for their hearts.

As for Zane, he looked at the crystalline heart in his hands, the act of which he was about to perform no longer disgusting him. Instead, he fully embraced his status as an undead monster, devouring the object in a single go. And in doing so, seeing a shocking message.

---

[Level 20 Awakened Heart consumed!]

[+300,000 xp!]

[XP: 350,000/1,000,000]

---

Zane had long since learned that every five levels he would gain a new skill point, and two additional attribute points. But in addition to this, the amount of XP he required to level up raised exponentially.

To reach level five, one would need thousands of XP. Whereas to reach level 10 an awakened survivor would need tens of thousands of XP. To reach level fifteen one would need around 100,000+ experience points.

Whereas to reach level 20 one would need hundreds of thousands of experience points. This kept increasing with every five levels, to the point where to reach level 31, Zane now needed a full one million experience points.

Luckily for him, when he consumed and awakened human\'s heart, he would gain all of their accumulated experience. Had he consumed all of the hearts of the Raiders, Zane would have reached an unimaginable level. Which led him to believe that the Horde Kings had a different exchange rate. Because Gwen consumed hundreds if not thousands of awakened hearts, and yet she only gained one level.

Ultimately, there was still so much Zane did not know about this world, and he had long since decided to give up thinking about it until he came across more information. With this in mind, after finishing up what remained of the raider he had hunted, Zane and his party ran off, leaving no trace of their activities. While also in a search of more awakened survivors to kill and devour.