CHAPTER 44: SIX EYES IN THE DARK

"Be vigilant, the creatures can counter us any moment from now," Kinji said, tightening his grip on the handle of the war disc and gesturing at Kai and the other five soldiers to follow suit. When they reached a four-way junction, they stopped, noticing dog-like creatures coming from a far distance.

One leg after another, the creature closed in, roaring and signaling other creatures of the same kind in the direction it was moving toward. In an instant, the creatures surrounded the soldiers, bursting from all directions, closing in. The creatures surged forward at great speed, making dust blasts wherever their claws pierced in the air.

Kinji, who stood at the front, moved his right leg and arm back, and threw one of the war discs, making it spin and tear through the air, striking two of the creatures in the head, cutting them and leaving open wounds on their heads.

After the disc flew back, the wounds left on the creatures began mending on their own, healing.

The five soldiers standing behind Kai moved forward, spinning their swords and surging them at the creatures, sending them roaring and flying, and crashing hard on the ground, dead.

After a short while, the remaining dog-like creatures stopped and ran back, making dust spiral in the air after fifty of them had been slammed by the seven soldiers and left dead.

"Why choose seven people for a one-person job?" Mike said, spitting on the ground and stepping on the heads of the dead creatures as he cuts their fins.

Kai and Kinji turned, looked at him with a strange stare, tilted their heads back to the path the creatures took, and began following. As they moved far from where the dead creatures were, the tails of the creatures began twitching, and after a short while, they began cracking their eyes open one at a time, while the torn parts began mending themselves together, healing.

...

Dust gushed out from the shattered window of the building they were walking by, and when Kai tilted his head and looked at the building, he felt two different vibrations from the one he’d been receiving from his men coming from the inside of the building.

Without hesitation, he tightened his grip on the handle of the daggers, jumped through the window, landed in the building, and began scanning around before following the direction of the new vibrations.

The six soldiers left outside sighed and continued, each moving through the doors of the buildings they moved past and separating themselves one at a time.

As Kai moved passed a hall filled with burned picture flames and walls dressed with deep claw scars, chattering sounds echoed, yet he didn’t stop; he kept moving forward at high speed, until he reached a closed door and stopped.

When he tilted his head toward the dark corners of the room, he saw six bright red eyes shimmering, followed by roars that sent chills through his spine.

When the creature with the six eyes stepped out from the shadows, Kai stumbled down, as he remembered seeing such a creature in one of his dreams. And before he could rise from the ground, the creature moved, striking its claws at the boy’s head, which got blocked by a slight raise of the daggers in his hands, which pushed both the creature and himself back.

He moved forward, slamming the daggers at the creature in the head, but got caught by the fins on the tail of the creature, piercing him in the waist and in the chest. Kai shouted, forcefully turning and moving its sharp edges through the tiny hole and cutting the tail of the creature, and letting himself loose.

Even with a wounded tail, the creature roared, raised its right claw, and slammed it at the boy’s chest, sending him flying in the air and crashing through the shattered window and landing on the road, spiraling dust in the air. And when he raised himself slightly, he saw the creature’s eyes shimmering through the window, and jolted in the air, flying toward the direction at which he stood on one knee, panting.

Just a moment before getting crunched by the creature, a war disc flew and struck the creature in the neck, forcing it back. And when Kai followed the direction of the war disc, he saw Kinji helplessly slamming countless dog-like creatures that had surrounded him and were almost conquering him.

...

Elsewhere in the city of Bion, Gray, Wang, Max, and other soldiers walked toward the warehouse, slamming their boots on the ground with force that sent the ground shaking and rumbling. One after another, they entered the gate and walked toward Drake, who was slapping the other soldiers lined up horizontally at the warehouse door.

"HEY!" Gray said, shouting and grabbing Drake’s hand mid-air. He pushed him back, then alerted the other soldiers to move out of the way, enabling Wang, Max, and the other soldier to enter the warehouse.

The moment they entered, Mike’s eyes lit up, but no sound came from his mouth. Though it was only visible in his eyes, Wang saw it and frowned.

Outside the warehouse, Gray moved toward Drake, gave him a dirty slap, and pushed him, letting him slam his butt on the cemented ground.

"Where were you when the incident was taking place?!" he said, pressing hard on Drake’s shoulder and hardly making blood seep out of the area his hands were held tight at.

"I was here... but told them to go and check, but no one did," Drake said, saddening his face and pointing at the soldiers he had slapped and who were holding their cheeks.

"Weren’t you the one told to be inside the warehouse no matter what?!" Gray said, not listening to what Drake was trying to tell him.

"Yes, I... I’m the one told to do that, but... but..."

"BUT WHAT!..."

"One of the soldiers you sent from the barracks and joined us today was among the thieves that looted the warehouse..."

"WTH! Didn’t I send you the pictures of all those I’m sending...!"

"You did... but I... I... I didn’t have the time to check... have you forgotten all our devices had been left at the changing room in the barracks?"

The moment Drake finished speaking, an electronic sound rang from the pocket of the trousers he was in.

...

Back at the city of Babel, Kinji threw his hands helplessly, slamming his war disc and his legs at the creatures, and sending them flying in the air.

"Kinji...!" Kai shouted, moving forward and leaving the creature, which was now weak and panting slightly, and jumping in the direction Kinji stood, slamming the creatures with both the daggers and his legs.

After a short while, both Kai and Kinji were dressed in the blood of the creatures they had slammed, but when they turned and tried moving out of the ocean of still creatures, a sharp object flying in the air and aimed at Kai was blocked by Kinji’s war disc.

But sadly, another set of objects came, piercing Kinji in the neck and sending him crashing to the ground. Kai, who caught Kinji mid-falling, cried out when he felt no movement as he placed his hand on Kinji’s chest.

"NO...!" There, Kai saw the shadows he’d been controlling coming from all directions and entering him one after another. At that instant, his eyes forcefully closed, sending him memories of the dreams he had dreamed of and seen.

Cracking his eyes open, he saw two glows in the far distance, moving and running. A strange smile tore on his lips when he rose from the floor and placed Kinji’s body in one of the beds in the room.

There, he began running toward the direction he saw the glow at, but the speed at which he ran sent dust and stones flying in the air wherever he moved past. Though Kinji wasn’t dead, his body wasn’t responding either.