Sezel stood lost in the silent, dust-choked control room, his mind a tangled web of unanswerable questions and clearly who wouldn't be? He was witnessing sothing super crazy, and the biggest question of all still lood, it had been always there, What exactly is the Spirit Realm? Was it another dinsion? A prison? A playground for gods? Every answer he found only led to a dozen more questions, each one more terrifying than the last.
CLANK!
A sharp voice of glass breaking brought Sezel back to his senses. His hand instinctively flew to the hilt of his katana, his body tensing, every muscle coiled and ready to strike.
He burst from the control room, his boots skidding to a halt as he erged from the doorway. His eyes scanning around, but to his surprise there was nothing unusual, everything was just as they left it.
No, his eyes squinted. It was hard to tell because of the wilderness, but the tal rack on his left, the one that had once held a treasure trove of now-rotten food, was not in alignnt with the others. It had been moved.
He moved forward, eyes squinted, hand on the hilt of the katana. With careful steps he started inspecting the place.
At first, there was nothing. But as he drew closer to the racks, a foul, cloying stench greeted him, an odor so repulsive that he was forced to cover his nose with his free hand.
"What the hell is this sll?" he murmured.
Then he rembered. Vesta had opened one of the refrigerators, unleashing the sll of rotten at. She must have accidentally left it open.
He halted, listening to the sound on the other side, but it got quiet as soon as he stopped.
He gulped, the knot in his throat, bringing his katana out, held firm in his hand. There was definitely sothing there.
Sezel exhaled sharply, a ragged breath that did little to calm his hamring heart. He rounded the corner of the rack in a single, fluid motion, his blade held ready.
Surprisingly, there was nothing there. But he knew that wasn't true. The thing had hidden itself. Sezel was sure. The at piece, completely rotten and covered with black, viscous bacterial waste, lay on the ground as proof.
Chances are, Vesta left the door to that refrigerator open and the sll attracted so nearby beast.
He wanted to get away from here. In the deep shadows of the mall, with only the faint, ghostly light of the moons and the distant Spirit Essence, he was half-blind. And the beast was hidden, a fact that made his skin crawl. Most probably, the beast is an enhanced one, as it has sense to hide.
Sezel slowly began to trace his steps back, his eyes fixed on the empty space where the beast should be. He didn't dare turn his back. One wrong step, one mont of inattention, could be his last. Just as he turned to make a break for the stairs, his body froze, his blood turning to ice.
A beast stood at the end of the aisle. Its large, jagged teeth glinted in the faint purple light of the Spirit Essence.
Sezel stumbled back, his retreat cut off as his back hit the rusted paynt counter. There was no more room to run.
It was a Night Crawler. The sa horror from his first ti inside the Spirit Realm, a personal grudge.
He gritted his teeth. Back then, he had been powerless, a terrified child. But now… now he was different. His crimson eyes locked onto the gross, familiar features of the beast, its claws as sharp as steel blades, the teeth so long and jagged they ripped at its own mouth, making it bleed.
The beast lunged first, its maw gaping, its claws extended to catch and tear its prey. Sezel's grip on the katana tightened, and he t the attack head-on. The sound of steel clashing with claw echoed through the silent mall. He twisted to the side, using the beast's own montum to send it hurtling into the counter.
[Common Beast - Night Crawler Detected]
[Rank-3]
'A Rank-3, I see.' A vicious grin split Sezel's face. This was a chance. A chance to prove to himself that he was no longer that weak, terrified boy.
He didn't waste a single second. As soon as the beast collided with the counter, its body stunned, he drove his blade down with all his strength. The katana sliced through the air, aid for the beast's neck. It should have been a clean, fatal blow, but the Night Crawler was preternaturally fast. It jumped back just in ti, the blade leaving only a deep, bleeding gash instead of a severed head.
Sezel clicked his tongue and sprinted towards the beast, swinging his sword in a wide, horizontal arc, aid at its front legs. But this ti, too, the beast jumped, its powerful hind legs launching it into the air, easily evading his attack.
'Shit, just stay in place you bastard.'
The beast, now furious, attacked just as it landed. Sezel, still off-balance from his own failed attack, turned to face it, but it was too late. The beast was already on him. The next mont, its jagged, filthy teeth dug deep into his left shoulder.
A raw, agonized cry escaped his lips as he stumbled back, colliding with a tal rack. He stumbled back, colliding with a rack, a painful cry escaping his lips. It had probably torn all the way to his bones to cause such pain.
He desperately swung the katana, his voice a hoarse, pain-filled scream. "AHHHHHH! GET AWAY FROM !"
But the beast jumped back just on ti. The katana swung in front of its face, just inches away. It coiled again, growling.
Sezel clutched his shoulder with his other arm. Sezel clutched his shoulder, a burning, throbbing pain radiating from the wound. He was lucky the jacket had protected his neck.
"What happened?" a voice shouted from above, echoing in the vast hall. It was Shiki. Sezel bit back another cry of pain, his voice a strained, indifferent mask. "Nothing. I just found sothing."
"Okay, co up fast. We're looking around here until then," Shiki replied.
But Sezel ignored it. His eyes were now locked on the beast, his face a twisted mask of fury and pain. His left arm was useless, a dead weight hanging at his side. This brings back mories, he thought, a dark, bitter humor rising in his throat. A Night Crawler. His left arm injured.
"Coincidences are such a pain," he said slowly. He exhaled, a cloud of white in the cold air, and then, with a sudden, explosive motion, he pushed himself forward, charging the beast. The Night Crawler, reacting on pure instinct, jumped back and crashed into a solid wall.
It fell to the ground, montarily dazed. And in that mont, Sezel was upon it. His katana descended in a clean, swift arc, and the beast's head was cleaved from its neck. It rolled across the floor, its dead eyes staring up at the broken do, its body slumping into a growing pool of its own black, viscous blood.
[Congratulations, you have slain a Night Crawler.]
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