The Many Faced Man

As I looked down the scope of my M24, I hesitated for a moment.

'This is probably wrong, I know that, but I will do it anyways.'

I breathed in, and after breathing out, I held my breath. My heart-beat steadied, with the breath out of my lungs, my cheek pressed up against my rifle as I settled up against it, confirming my sight picture.

Then, I pulled the trigger.

Now, I am no sniper, but I was already a decent sharpshooter before this apocalypse.

A bullet fired, so, I was expecting to see was red matter coming out the Cult Leader's back. Or, at least, to see him fall down from the impact.

That's not what happened though.

A mask appeared from behind him, as if it had come out from nowhere, repelling the bullet. The mask appeared to have even come out unscathed from the impact. At that instant, it seemed to be staring at me.

The Wooden Mask bore traces of blood red lines upon it's surface, glowing lightly, it's features like that of a four eyed horned goat. Each of the four wooden eyes seemed bloodshot with intensely concentrated veins, having pupils, like Pearls dyed red, appearing as though they were condensed of blood.

Glancing at the mask through the scope of my rifle, my mind reeled in pain, the Death Qi in my body was agitated and seemed to rapidly be depleted. I pulled away and hid under the cover of the par.a.p.et of the roof I stood on. My heart pounding wildly.

'Damn cultists!'

If I had any doubts before about whether attacking the people called cultists was right or wrong, they were squashed with the appearance of the mask.

'Satanists? Or something similar?'

Satanic cults were actually recognized as a legitimate religion in a number of places in the world now. So long as they didn't preach for mass murder or to kill non-believers, the government wasn't bothered to deal with them.

Though there are other cults here and there that are sketchy as hell, the Satanic cult is the most wide-spread.

More than likely, the government was afraid that people of other religions would feel they might be suppressed if they were to take action. Or, even more likely, they did not take these Cults too seriously. Just another random non-sense religious group.

By letting them be open, they could keep an eye on them and let people with similar ideas pool together in one place. Making it easier to take action if or when their actions began to head in an overtly dangerous direction.

But, it is obvious such efforts would prove to become counter-productive once the system keeping them in check is gone.

So, now, here they are, causing trouble for your everyday kindly Necromancers like myself.

What? Necromancers are evil too? No way~ It is only the ability of re-animating the dead, poison, corrosion, and other assorted deadly means.. it depends on how you use it!

Okay, more Necromancers, means more death qi, means more undead. I get it. But hey, I kill enough of them to balance it out, so don't try using that one on me!

...Wait, this isn't the time for this.

I started retreating from the building after recovering from the Mask's mental attack. Keeping my head low, to prevent attracting any of those 'metal birdies' towards me.

It wasn't long after that bullets started flying toward my previous position. Though those bullets would not pierce the thick concrete par.a.p.et anyways, if I were to try and shoot back at them again from that same position without covering fire, I would most certainly catch a few.

I weaved my way through a route with more undead, making it harder for them in case they were trying to follow.

Once I was sure they could not see me, I lurked, circled around, and found a new perch.

It seemed, in the few minutes it took for me to move, the gangsters and cultists had come to a lull in their conflict.. the gangsters had effectively already been steam-rolled by the cultists, and were now mostly just hiding behind cover, not daring to shoot back at them. Most of their members were already dead or wounded and bleeding out.

Each side possessed firearms, but the cultists also each bore a mask. Each mask differed slightly, but bore a similar resemblance to the one I had seen before, blood-pearl pupils, numerous veins.

The few remaining gangsters still in the fight were re-grouping behind the cover of some abandoned cars, while the cultists seem to have had a large portion of them split off and attacking the building I had been shooting from previously.

'Haha, good thing I moved out of there quickly.'

I took a look at the Cultists still shooting at the gangsters, who ducked under the cover of the cars for dear life.

I could see clearly that a few of the cultists had also been killed and wounded as well though. The followers probably wouldn't be as difficult as the leader.

I was much closer to the targets this time, so I laid out my gun duffle, putting away my rifle and taking out a Glock 19, loading it with a 10-round extended clip.

There were eighteen cultists in a semi-circle around their 'compound'. I was a bit above the position of the cultists, and I had them flanked. So, the little cover they were ducked under was useless.

Peeking out at them, I took a shooting stance and peered down my iron sights at the nearest Cultist, the one that would be the biggest pain in my a.s.s if they found proper cover after I opened fire.

Bang

A shot through the head.

A regular mask can only protect your face, and his didn't move to protect him, so too bad for him. Now he's dead.

So, from this, it seems probable that was a higher level ability, that hopefully only the leader had.

Knowing guns were still viable in this fight, I kept going.

The cultists realized they were being shot at, but couldn't instantly realize where it came from, and reflexively ducked down. The gangsters, who quickly realized they were no longer being shot at as much, peeked out with their weapons from behind the cars and started shooting again.

To the cultists, gun fire seemed to be coming from multiple directions, but they weren't sure where from due to my positioning and the gangster's cover fire.

In just a few moments, eight of their people were dead.

It was only then that they noticed where I was and some turned their weapons in my direction.

I instantly turned tail and got out of there, unwilling to be turned into a sieve just on the account of some gangsters.

The gangsters had noticed that their attention was now mostly focused on me, and they too turned to run, they were probably imagining I was going to hold the cultists off for them to escape.

Well, I was even better at running away than they were. There was no hope of pulling such a stunt on me!

I managed to escape and make it back to my safehouse, whether the gangsters escaped, I've no idea. Don't care too much either. Hopefully they did though, that way they can bring around more trouble for the cultists.

It had been a while since the apocalypse had started, and some of the more advanced people had probably long caught up and surpassed me at this point.

Fortunately, I've had some military training. At least for now, my experience and firearms can still effectively eliminate the difference in combat abilities.

Still, bullets are a limited supply now that there are no active producers around.

Class abilities, bows, cross-bows, and melee weapons, unless it is up against a large group or stronger enemies, I lean towards using one of those.

I would alternate using them whenever I was killing my way through town.

After that first encounter, I decided it would probably be best to use attacks like this as well as some more roundabout methods to take care of these groups.

Obviously, the number of people who have the system has gone up a lot. So, it had become harder to deal with them. I had to adapt a bit to deal with that discrepancy, bring them down a bit.

------------------

A few days later.

Six gangsters, walking down an alley in town.

Gangster X: "It was just me and a few bros, out to kill some undead, farm exp, you know how it is. Cultist bastard in a cloak appeared out of nowhere, green flashes of light flew out, half of us died in an instant! A small Horde of undead showed up just after he did, catching us off guard again.

We hadn't seen any in the last week or so, who would have expected them to roll up so heavy on us? I was the only one who managed to get away!"

Gangster N: "Wooah~ heard about that. Rumor is that it's not actually a cultist, but some new kind of monster. Crazy shit."

Gangster X: "Really, it was because of the attacks by the Black Cloak that we were able to get the other two gangs to work with us. We should thank him, if it had kept on being just our group against theirs, we'd have been done for. We have all suffered too much at the hands of the cultists, we can't face them unless it is together."

Gangster OG: "Tcht, don't matter who or what it is, Black Cloak rears it's head round' me, I'll tear em' up real good."

Gangster W: "OG-bro, your all talk, no game. You couldn't take Black Cloak, your still only level 5!"

Gangster OG: "F.u.c.k, you talking shit to me lil-W?!? If you wanna fight, I'm here. We both warriors!"

Gangster W: "Shit OG, chill out! I'm just telling you to be careful!"

Phht

Gangster N: "...O..OG-bro, no!!"

Gangster X: It.. it's the Cloak! Keep your head low, or he will get you! Run!!"

------------------

Gangster Leader Calos: "Today, we convene to talk about the issues of Black Cloak and the Cultists.

Our groups have all suffered serious losses, now, there are only a few of us left. If we can work together properly, we can easily take them all out, and control this town for ourselves. There is more than enough room and supplies for us all here anyways."

Gangster Leader Borus: "..there is no evidence indicating that the Black Cloak is one of the cultists. This Black Cloak, killing our people as they walked, is a threat. This is the main reason we joined hands, there is no reason to go after the cultists for now. They have only ever had conflict with your own group."

Gangster Leader Regan: "Why the f.u.c.k does it matter? We still need to kill the cultists, they are the bigger threat. If we can take them out, we will be able to keep all our forces in one place, those bullshit ambushes won't mean a damn thing. The black cloak is dreaming if he thinks he can control this town all by himself."

Calos: "Pooling our people together, we still have almost 200 brothers with us. After all our conflicts with them, the cultists have, at most, 50. We have no need to fear them."

Borus: "Sure, issue is, they all where those freaky masks that mess with your head if you look at them. Makes it hard to stare down the gun-sights to shoot them. Plus, their class seems to specialize in speed. Even when we outnumber them in a gun fight, we are still at a disadvantage.."

Regan: "If we can't effectively take the town.. it may be better to just leave and go back to one of the cities or another one of the towns nearby. The path to Jacobie City is safe enough, we could easily move over there."

Borus: "Are you crazy?! We sent scouts out that way, and it seems safer in that direction, sure. But, do you remember how many zombies there were just in this small town not long ago? How long did it take to clear them out between all our groups?"

Calos: "Other than Jacobie City, there is also Cherokee City and Wilken City, but there are Trolls guarding the way to Cherokee, and Beasts sprawling about the path to Wilken."

Borus: "Not to mention, when we get there, all we would likely find is a zombie super-horde, waiting to eat our faces off. It is just stupid."

Calos: "Then, it is all the more reason that we must fight for this town. After all, we have already established ourselves here."

Borus: "..Yes, perhaps. No, you are right. There is no guarantee the cultists would not follow after us either even if we leave. There is no telling what is happening in those addled brains of their's. If we have to fight, we will."

Calos: "Of course, as far as your men know, you are their fearless leader. Even if you ran, do you think they would follow you? Hah."

------------------

"Lord Benedict! The Necromancer has killed more our people."

"..I see. Well, they have fallen into the embrace of our dark lord, good for them. They died in the attempts towards reaching a greater strength, pursuing their d.e.s.i.r.es."

"...Of course, that is all one could ever ask for, my lord."

"The Necromancer is much the same as us, fighting, pursuing his d.e.s.i.r.es, unbiased towards the source of his power.

He would do well in the church of the dark lord. I do hope he would give us the opportunity to convince him so, before I am forced to kill him."

"Yes, my lord. He does indeed carry himself well, and seems to unknowingly follows our teachings."

"Indeed. It is about time that the fools of the Necromancer come to bite at us. It is a good opportunity to draw fresh blood."

The cultist's head bowed low, "Indeed my lord. May I ask, our other followers grow impatient. Has the time yet come to draw more Blood of the Innocent?"

"Not yet, those children are our most precious resources now. There is no telling when we will be able to find more of them, or whether any others will have even survived. We cannot risk losing them just to sate our temporary greed. Although we feed our d.e.s.i.r.es, we do not lose ourselves within them."

He smiled

"Worry not, we will soon be able to bathe in the Blood of Sinners. This will no doubt quell their d.e.s.i.r.es for a long time to come. We can patiently wait for them to recover before we drain them again."