Gradually Logan's flexed muscles went back into his body. He was breathing heavily when he saw David standing up. Apart from a few splashes of red blood and black goo on his robes, he looked perfectly fin in Logan's eyes. The same couldn't be said to Logan himself as he wanted to stop fighting the urge to faint.
Logan bent down, clenching his knees to support his body from falling down. The rest of the team was too spent to gawk at Michael in surprise.
"Keep your shit together big guy, we have one more thing to take care of" Michael gave a shot pat on Logan's shoulder before walking towards the rest of the group.
On his way, Michael picked up a crossbow bolt from the ground. They all wondered what's he doing
Bam!
Their bodies again tensed up when they saw Michael lift Jessie by his neck and slam him against a tree. The tree trembled as leaves and twigs blasted away by the force,
Marcella immediately raised her crossbow at Michael while the others also had serious looks on their faces.
"What the hell are you doing?!" H shouted,
Instead of answering, Michael just stared at the masked face of Jessie for a few moments.
"What..." Jessie tried to speak but words barely escaped through against Michael's clutch.
"Did anyone notice that the black panther never targeted Jessie or attacked him?" They were all confused by Michael's question. In the heat of the battle, they never noticed anything weird.
"He stayed out of its target range, so what?" Marcella growled, refusing to let Michael manhandle Jessie like this. She knew and trusted Jessie more than Michael
Giving no answer to Marcella, he just ripped off Jessie's cloth covering his arm. The moment H and everyone saw Jessie's right forearm, they took a step back from him. Marcella's eyes went wide as her body jerked in shock.
Jessie's forearm had a two-inch diameter circle bite mark. The area around the mark was riddled with yellow and blue veins.
"It's...nothing..." Jessie mumbled,
"He was already infected when the battle started, that was why the panther never targeted him, that was why he was stumbling on the way"
The first thing that raised the suspicion on Jessie was when he stumbled down. If Jessie was here, it was obvious he's an expert thief. Otherwise, Ross or H wouldn't have hired him. A single misstep would cost a thief's life hence they trained themselves to take each step with utmost care no matter where they are. For an expert thief like Jessie, falling down clumsily was pretty unusual.
The next thing was when the team fought the panther, although it focused its attacks on him, Logan, and Marcella, it never seemed to target Jessie. Besides, he also kept scratching his forearm instead of throwing the throwing knives hidden inside his cloak.
"How long?" H asked, gently patting Michael's hand, wordlessly telling him to loosen his grip.
Michael did loosen his grip but didn't let go,
"Grhh" only a menacing growl came out of Jessie's mouth. Jonah cautiously stepped towards Jessie, adjusting his glasses to examine the wound.
"Judging by the color around the wound, I'd say three hours"
"That's approximately the time we faced the undead monkeys," said Brownie. Thinking weak undead such as the monkeys managed to bite Jessie, he just shook his head in disappointment.
"If my guess is right...he will turn undead in...one hour" he stuttered in fear. The reality of someone he knew will be undead in a matter of time freaked him out.
"Whatever he's here for, we have to do it without him" Michael's face was calm. There was no shock or fear on his face despite holding a soon-to-be undead in his hand. He spoke looking at H and Ross since this was their operation and only they knew the real reason to bring a thief to this island.
H just nodded, without stating the obvious.
"Sorry dude, any last words?"
"Grrrrah,"
"Suit yourself"
Pulch!
Michael stabbed the crossbow bolt he was holding in the other hand through right between Jessie's eyes, killing him quickly and painlessly.
"Check yourselves, I'd hate for you to turn into an undead" H said, quickly hiding his concern from showing on his face. With the system on his side, Michael couldn't care less about losing a thief. It was indeed a pity for the team to lose one but at the end of the day, it was expected.
"You cannot leave him like that" Maria protested against leaving Jessie's body.
"We don't have time to give him a proper burial" Ross sighed but the others showed no concern for Jessie's body. After all, Jessie died and it was just the mortal shell.
"It's the least we can do for him. Undead or not, he was a human being"
"Let's move" H ignored the protest of this naive young girl. Michael followed H behind. Although he trusted Gaya to find and stop the other team from reaching the center, he still didn't want to waste any time doing cores for this stupid girl.
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