Deranged Writer's Afterword

Silence follows my proclamation.

I've seen so many videos in my past life with people shouting out the words, ' Joe Mama'. It's supposed to be very funny. But it seems like this wasn't the time nor place to try my hand at practical jokes or insults.

The back alley felt a little cramped with all the people inside it. They were all staring at me as if I was a madman, which isn't that far-fetched.

''Ahem'', I let out a little cough and say,

'' He's the serial killer.''

Lecia looks confused.

Oops, I didn't tell her about the murders did I ?

Well, I'll deal with that later.

I explain briefly about all that had transpired a few minutes ago. As my narration ends, all three of people standing next to me had a huge frown on their faces.

It was obvious that they had a lot of questions, but I'm pretty sure that they know that now isn't the time for that.

I also warn them about Joe's skill stealing tendencies.

'' What do we do ?'', Angela asks in an anxious voice while staring at Joe who was holding his shoulder with a pained expression on his face.

'' I'll fi-'' , Eric starts to speak but I cut him off and say,

'' Don't even think about fighting him alone.... he's stronger than us, but if we fight together we should have a chance.''

Eric had a disapproving look on his face, but I ignore him and stare at the bow in his hands.

Eric Grey's job was 'archer', it wasn't a rare class like 'healer' but it wasn't all that bad either. The weapon in his hand right now was probably the ' Bow Of Artemis', an A Rank artifact that his grandfather gave him. It probably cost millions, but to the CEO of Grey tech that was just cheap change.

It was given to him, so that it could be used in situations exactly like this. ' Bow of Artemis' was not your average bow. It was special in a sense that it didn't have a physical form. The artifact came in the form of a ring and the user has to use mana to form the arrow. The amount of mana that the user had determined how many times it could be used. The arrows also received a blessing from the goddess 'Artemis', it would always hit it's mark.

The 'Bow of Artemis' was one of the most OP weapons in the beginning parts of the story. So the fact that we could use it against Joe was a good thing.

'' How many more arrows can you shoot ?'', I ask Eric.

He looks surprised at the fact that I knew what the weapon he was using was, but I don't have time to care about what he thinks. Every second counts.

'' I can shoot two more.'', he replies.

'' Great. Use those two shots to immobilize him, when you see an opening.''

He nods his head and asks me,

'' What will you be doing ?''

I look at Lecia, who didn't seem understand anything that was going on and say in slow voice,

'' We'll make an opening for you to shoot.''

~~~~

The plan had been made, now it was time for execution.

Angela was on standby, so that she could heal us if anyone got hurt. I had thought about sending her away to get help but decided against that since it was dangerous for her.

Joe was probably in an unstable condition right now, if he saw that one of us was running away, he would immediately go after that person. If anything happened to Eric's sister it would be bad. Plus, by the time she runs to get help with her short ten year old legs, it would probably be way too late either way. So it was better for her stay near us, at least this way she could heal us.

I nod at Lecia and the both of us run towards Joe.

The plan was simple really, both Lecia and I would fight him head on while Eric would wait for an opportunity to to shoot his arrows. Lecia would only support me since she wasn't that well versed in combat.

Well, I wasn't that well versed in hand to hand combat either, but guess what ?

Joe wasn't that good of a fighter either.

While writing one of my novels, I had researched about many fighting styles and even tried learning a few of them. So in terms of experience, I was probably the best among us.

I try to throw a punch at Joe, but he dodges my fist, barely. He was moving sluggishly. Some might wonder how he would be this affected by a single arrow.

It was simple really.

All this time, he got stronger without feeling any pain. So when he's suddenly subjected to the pain caused by the arrow, it was only obvious that he would be weakened.

Lecia throws a punch at him from beside me, it actually hits him this time, though it probably didn't do much damage.

Joe opens his mouth wide open and a small haze of purple vapor comes outside, I drag Lecia by the collar and move the both of us back from the range of [Toxic Night].

The smug grin that dominated Joe's face earlier couldn't be seen anymore. He opens his palms and a dagger materializes, this was probably his [Duplication] skill.

With the dagger in his hand he runs towards us and once he reaches us, he slashes at us trying to do us in. I push Lecia out of the way and dodge every attack that comes my way, barely.

Joe was slowly pushing me back, I was being forced into the defensive. Just as I was getting tired of dodging his slashes, I hear the sound of two arrows whooshing past me,

In the next moment, Joe falls down butt first on the ground. Two arrows were lodged into his respective knees.

Yikes, that looked painful.

Joe's screams ring throughout the cramped back alley.

The only reason we won this fight was because of luck and the fact that Joe wasn't used to fighting more than one opponents. This is unacceptable... I have to get stronger.

First, let's get back the skills that this bastard stole.

I walk to Eric and say with a smile on my face,

'' Good Job.''

He nods his head at my praise.

Eric seems tired, this was probably too much for him but he's not dead yet so everything's cool.

Next I walk up to Lecia, she looks like she had a lot of questions to ask me but thankfully she didn't ask me anything... for now. After making sure that she was alright, I decide to check up on Angela.

While I was walking towards her, Joe screams out,

'' IT'S NOT OVER YET ! DAMN IT.''

Scream away all you want pal, but either way,

you're done.

I look at him sprawled on the ground..... wait what's he doing with that dagger ?

He's throw-

Shit.

In a last ditch effort to harm us, Joe had just thrown the dagger in his hand, he didn't even properly aim or anything. He just threw it. Coincidently the direction in which he had thrown the dagger was where Angela was standing at.

A dagger thrown by an E rank had enough power to pierce her skin. This was bad.

I run towards Angela and throw myself between her and the knife.

A second later. I feel a blazing pain in my abdomen.

Shit.

~~~~

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