World of Karik: A Game of Villains 21 New Power

I tortured the poor Caterpillar for a bit, earning another endurance point. My stats began to grow much slower after that. I expected that that would happen. It made sense, after all. The higher your attributes were, the more difficult it was to improve them each time. It took me half an hour to get another point. Looking at the bars of the other skills, I felt a little upset. My strength went up by only 2%, and dexterity by four. I'm definitely going to need a new tactic for these.

"Cat!" Alexander's cry rang throughout the forest. "Vasily!"

"I'm here!" I shouted in response, not leaving the zone in which the monster could hit me.

"Over here! Quick!" he sounded alarmed. "Something's wrong!"

"Don't leave!" I strictly said to the bound Caterpillar, and, after the Curse had disappeared, ran over.

Alexander and Archer were standing near Vadim's collapsed body.

"Maybe he chickened out?" Dasha suggested.

"Quite possibly," said Alex.

"What happened?" I asked, shifting my gaze from the fat man's corpse to Alexander. I didn't look at the girl. It was unlikely that the newbie could tell me something useful.

"He was killed by the Skeleton," Dasha didn't pay attention to me ignoring her.

"An hour ago," Alexander added.

The journey from the base to the cemetery took about twenty minutes. Despite him being in bad shape, he should have returned by now.

"Maybe he got lost?" I suggested although I did not believe it. Not even for a second. "Where's Andrei?" I added.

"He went to the base to find out what happened," Alexander said.

"Maybe we should go back, too." Dasha looked confused.

Alexander nodded and looked at me, "I'll go first… You and Dasha keep your distance, okay?"

Something in his voice bothered me, but I nodded and answered, "Fine."

We reached the base in less than fifteen minutes. The area in front of the cave was empty, and thick smoke was pouring from the forge. Looking closely, I saw the toppled cooking pot, next to which were a pile of wood and some rags... I shuddered. What I thought were rags at first was actually a dead man. Andrei.

"D-damn it!" Alexander gasped.

Gesturing to me and Archer to hide in the bushes, he ran over to Andrei's corpse and bent over him.

"Where are the others?" The Major crept up to him so quietly that it took me by surprise.

"Leveling-up at the cemetery," Alexander answered casually. "What happened? Lera brought the Reaper here?"

What a fool! If the Reaper had been here, no one would have survived. Take your weapon out, you idiot! Should I come out? Warn him?

"Fortunately not," said another voice. Petrovich! Too late.

The man came out from the other side, lance at a ready.

"Andrei has left us," he said with fake sympathy. "Suren, too."

"What happened here?" Alexander looked around, anxiety and fear in his voice.

"Something that should have happened a long time ago," Petrovich replied. "I'm in charge now. Andrei and Suren have failed."

"You locked them?" Alexander said in a low voice.

I didn't immediately understand what he had meant by that, but then I guessed that he probably thought that the guys were sitting naked in the bunker with their tombstones. Like prisoners or criminals. But where were the others?

"I killed them," Petrovich smiled. "Broke their tombstones… Both of them."

Alex looked thunderstruck, the Archer wanted to scream, but covered her mouth with her hand just in time. I felt a chill creep down my spine. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest. Is this really happening? I assumed that something like this could happen, but it was one thing to picture events in your head and quite another to face them in reality.

"You bastard!" Alex suddenly cried and summoned his hammer to attack the Lancer who had seemingly been waiting for this. He dodged the attack with ease and pierced Alex with his lance. Alexander screamed, and Petrovich began to gut him furiously. Soon, Alex's body went limp, hanging loosely on the lance.

"What's happening?" Dasha whispered, her eyes wide with horror.

"Quiet!" I shushed her.

"Mikhail!" Petrovich called, knocking Alexander to the ground and pulling the lance out of his body with an unpleasant squelch. He even put a foot on the corpse to make it easier. "I hope you cracked his tombstone, too."

"I did," the Major confirmed grimly.

"Well done," said Petrovich. "I told you that he wouldn't understand. You even defended him."

The Major said nothing and stood looking at Petrovich with a fearful glance.

"Call Semyon," said the Lancer. "We should clean up before Cat and the new girl come back."

So the cop is involved in this, too. A pity… I thought that my joke would keep him away for a while.

"Maybe they won't kill us," Dasha said with hope in her voice.

I looked at her grimly and said nothing. We had to decide what to do next.

Chapter end