Chapter 48: The Creature

"What..."

"What are you?"

Gaius muttered in a tremble. This was the same mutant from the front of the building. It was certain it had caught sight of him at that moment; otherwise, none of this made sense.

To Gaius’s astonishment, a guttural croak escaped the creature in front of him as it slowly stretched out a hand, pointing to Gaius, that horrifying smile still playing on its lips.

"Cry...starrr."

"Fuck... it talks?!" Gaius blurted, subconsciously taking several steps back. Then he recalled he was being chased by a hoard of mutants. He hurriedly looked back; they were all there, but to his horror.... None of them were making any move; just roaring and gyrating in place, but none moved to attack Gaius.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

Gaius looked to the front, at the creature who was probably making all this possible. He was dressed in a suit that was mostly torn; Its eyes were hollowed out with black ichor like the others; it had cracking ashen skin with claws that were noticeably longer; its smiling mouth oozed with that nauseating liquid, sending a shiver down Gaius’s spine.

"Cry...starrr?"

Gaius swallowed hard, hearing that soul-wrenching voice again. No matter how he looked at it, the creature seemed to be asking him for an origin crystal.

"You... you want my origin crystals?" Gaius mumbled nervously, sweat dripping down his forehead. And to his surprise, the creature slowly nodded once in affirmation.

"Em... do you... want to initiate a trade ?" Gaius wasn’t even sure what he was asking anymore. Whatever this was, it had clearly gone beyond a mutant, and also was not human. It wants crystals, but how?

For some reason, the creature’s smile stretched. Its gaze through those pupilless eyes of his seemed like they were toying with and having fun with prey. Instinctively, Gaius understood.... This thing wasn’t asking him for crystals..... It saw him as crystals.

As that thought landed, Gaius sprinted with all his might to his left; his heart racing and almost jumping out of his chest. Luckily, his speed had gotten more than twice that of an average Olympic athlete, so in just a few seconds, he had distanced himself by quite a few meters, looking back repeatedly as he ran; the creature was still standing in place, looking at him run off with that creepy smile on its face, like prey caught in a net. But it wasn’t moving; only the regular mutants had begun to chase after Gaius.

"Fuck... shit!. What the hell was that thing? At least I’ve become so fast."

Gaius remained in relief as he sprinted for the nearest shelter; running around on the open streets like this with mutants on your tail was a bad idea, and the only way was to get them to lose sight of you and lose your scent.

SPLOOSH!

"W.....what ?!"

Gaius’s motion was brought to an abrupt end. He felt his feet leave the ground, and he saw a hand with large claws sticking out of his chest, dripping with his thick, warm blood.

Looking behind him, the creature was no longer where it used to be; it was smiling even more widely than before.

"No....no....i...I can’t die like this. Not this way..."

"Not after ...everything I’ve been through," Gaius mumbled as his blood gushed out of his mouth; a coldness took him as his mind sank in tandem with his bloodlust. With the last bit of his strength, he mumbled....

"Explosion"

A few minutes earlier, and several kilometers away. Damon was just getting out of bed. It was a night filled with confusing dreams as usual, but he was getting used to it.

The new report from the residents’ chat was that the building had finally been completely cleared; and people where thinking of starting to venture outside to earn crystals sinec it was necessary fro their survival; and someone was essenstilly threatening everyone in that chat’s that he has given a grace period of one week for everyone to start paying their rents in origin crystals.

By this point, many of the residents who had borne witness to Brad’s prowess while he was clearing floors were too scared to publicly challenge him, and they had also shared their experience with the other residents.

It was starting to look like Brad was going to have his way, making himself the ruler of this building using the ragtag crew he’d gathered. There was just one person publicly against Brad’s plans, and he too had his own crew, and that was the former building manager, and the person who had gathered everyone’s id’s and added everyone to the resident charge group. Even Brad was being very careful in dealing with this person.

Luckily, there was still a few more days given by the Brad to the residents’; so those who are too weak to either pay the fees or stand against him were planning to find a new place to dwell.

The common knowledge now was that more rural areas are far safer than these cities; so there are countless people risking their lives to escape the cities.

Damon as well as the other member of his team where in the living room as they made plans on how to approach hunting outside. The former plan Damon had was that he would have them geared up with his skills before they ventured out again, seeing as the mutants were becoming stronger and too much for them—

But their number was an issue, and Damon’s skill needed more time to grow. The best bet was to find and bring in a powerful awakened to join their team who could make them stronger; but in the meantime, they would have to rely on Nick, whose earth abilities would hopefully start working when he makes contact with the ground outside. At least, this was what was gained after doing research online regarding this Issue.

Just as the team was about to leave, everyone felt a minor tremor in the building, followed by a muffled exploding sound at the glass window—

Outside in the far distance, they all stared in awe as a similar occurrence to what they had once seen appeared before them. Only this time, more powerful, with surging flames raging through the skies.

"What in the world ?"