The moment José barely smiled, a crossbow was already aimed at the back of his head!
"Don't move from here on!"
José's light smile froze immediately, and his expression reverted to the distressed and submissive look he had worn before. Slowly, he turned his head to look at Daryl, his face showing confusion.
Seeing José still pretending, Daryl said nothing. He just gave a mocking smile and tilted his chin toward Jason.
José quickly turned his head and looked at Jason, who was walking toward the corner of the wall he had pointed out. At that moment, Jason had already reached it, and just as his head peeked around the corner, he saw a metal baseball bat swinging directly at him.
Jason's reaction was quick. As soon as he sensed something coming toward his head at high speed, he leaned back instantly and launched a powerful kick downward, knocking the attacker to the ground.
With some quick shots, Jason managed to hit the enemy's hand. The attacker, injured and off-balance, dropped the bat, slowing everything down for a second.
A loud metallic sound echoed as the bat hit the ground, followed by shots, exclamations of pain, and the attacker's groans.
"Ahh! My hand! Damn it!"
But that was just the beginning. Barely had Jason dodged the first stealth attack when another figure appeared behind the first attacker, wielding a dagger. The figure was already on top of Jason when he had just shot at the first.
Jason had anticipated this. He quickly turned his body to the side, dodging the dagger, and seized the opportunity to kick at his new opponent.
However, as if anticipating this reaction, the attacker swiftly raised his leg to dodge Jason's kick and forcefully countered with a direct kick to Jason's face.
"Thud!"
The blow was brutal. Seeing he couldn't dodge in time, Jason could only brace for the impact.
The force of the kick caused him to lose his balance; he stumbled over the bat on the ground and fell. The aggressor didn't waste any time: he lunged at Jason and, with the dagger in hand, tried to stab him in the neck.
"Damned martial arts..." Jason murmured as he desperately blocked the dagger's advance toward his neck.
"You shot me!" the attacker yelled, clearly angry.
In that instant, Jason felt another danger coming toward his head. Without letting go of the dagger, he barely managed to tilt his head slightly to one side.
Argh!
He felt a shallow cut on the side of his head. Rage exploded inside Jason, and without hesitation, he pulled out a dagger from his leg and plunged it three times into the attacker's abdomen.
Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!
The enemy, gravely wounded, fell to the side, spitting blood onto Jason's face.
Jason quickly got up, just in time to see the first attacker grabbing the bat again to attack him. Without hesitation, he pulled out his gun and shot twice.
Bang! Bang!
At the same time, José, who had been behind, had taken out a short dagger at some point. Taking advantage of the confusion, he dodged to the side and slid the dagger into Daryl's arm, forcing him to drop the crossbow.
However, Daryl, thanks to Arion's reminder, had been alert to any suspicious movement. He jumped backward, aimed the crossbow at José, and was about to shoot when the opponent lunged at him before he could do so.
The crossbow fell to the floor with a thud. Before Daryl could draw another weapon, José had already directed the dagger toward his chest.
Instinctively, Daryl grabbed José's wrist, and both entered into a violent struggle. José, taking advantage of being on top, used all his body weight to try to drive the dagger in.
Daryl frowned, frustrated for having held back earlier, but the dagger kept coming slowly toward his chest. The imminent sense of death hit him like a lightning bolt, and with a fierce burst of strength, he managed to push José slightly to the side. Still, he couldn't completely resolve the situation.
At that moment, a gunshot rang out down the hallway.
Bang!
Daryl barely felt the enemy's strength weakening in his arm. Taking advantage of the opponent's exhaustion, he pushed José's body hard to the side.
Then, he took a few short breaths, stood there, and looked back, only to discover it was Rick following him.
Reaching out to grab Rick, Daryl turned around and got to his feet, just in time to see Jason, with his bloodied face and cold expression, shoot the two people who had attacked him in the head.
Daryl and Rick fell silent, watching Jason show his anger; it was the first time they had seen him in such a situation.
After finishing off his enemies, Jason didn't return immediately. He stayed staring at the corpses. It was the first time since he had known he was in this world that he had been so close to death because of a simple mistake.
Wanting to avoid killing his enemies, Jason had tried to change his habits a bit, but that turned out to be a mistake. He hadn't been out of prison for long and hadn't truly experienced how the world had changed. Although he knew, this time he had acted too recklessly and understood that he shouldn't do so again.
Seeing that Daryl had already subdued another enemy, Jason simply walked toward him.
He then turned to signal Daryl and Rick to move forward, as there was nothing more to search for in this place.
Rick and Daryl irritated the hooded man, and then they saw other people running toward them.
"Guys! Are you okay? We just heard gunshots!" Glenn shouted loudly as he approached.
Rick raised his hand in greeting and patted the python he wore on his waist. "I shot. That bastard wanted to kill Daryl."
Several people looked at Daryl with concern, scanning him from top to bottom.
Daryl felt uncomfortable under so many gazes and said with a dark face, "I'm fine, damn it!"
"Those bastards almost broke my head..." Jason muttered, then looked at Glenn, simply shaking his head. Though the cut on his head didn't seem very big, any wound in that area bled profusely.
Hearing Jason's words, everyone turned to look at the cut on his head.
"Jason, are you okay?"
"It's just a small cut. All of this was my fault," Jason responded with simple words, clearly upset about getting injured in the events. Though it was dark and the ground was slippery, he knew they were heading toward a possible ambush.
"This group probably wanted to rob our weapons. It's a shame they sent an idiot to lure us."
After hearing Jason's words, T-Dog couldn't help but comment, "This place is way too dark. We can barely see anything, and it's tough to illuminate it even with flashlights."
Rick looked at Jason and then said, "It was an unpleasant situation, but luckily it was resolved quickly."
Just as several people were discussing things lively, Jason kicked the long-haired man lying on the ground. Looking at him closely, he noticed that the man was still conscious.
"Ah! Don't kick me, don't kick me!"
Jason lifted him, threw him against the nearest wall, and stepped on his knee hard, asking in a cold tone, "Who are you?"
Crack!
"Ahhh! My leg! I told you already, I'm José! My name is José!"
"Who were your companions?"
"One was named Martín and the other we called Rana..."
The name Martín sounded familiar to Jason, but that no longer mattered—he was dead.
"Why did you attack us?"
The man, crying and enduring the pain in his knee, answered, "As you said earlier, we didn't have weapons and planned to leave here just when you guys arrived, but seeing you had weapons, we planned to ambush you to steal some."