Scarlet

“Now what do you humans call this? I think I’m blanking on the term…” Tar’s voice echoes in my head as I run straight down the damned cafeteria while being chased by a pack of twelve hounds. Each of whom are about the same level as me. “Ah, right. Was it karma? Or that term people call ‘jinxing something’?”

“Shut up!!!” I shout while leaping over a bunch of tables and running straight past the bunker where I’m willing to bet people are watching my little escapade before going towards the door on the other side of counter. Then immediately after making it there, I grab the door knob with all my strength – crushing it ever so slightly in the process – before yanking it open and slamming it shut again.

I don’t pause even after getting to the other side of it though, because the hounds simply slam into the door, knocking it off of its hinges as I continue running through the kitchen towards the other door at the back. Which if my hearing is to be believed, should be another hallway. And that belief is confirmed after opening and slamming this door as well, once again destroying a doorknob in the process.

Good thing I won’t be charged for collateral damage.

A grin makes its way onto my face when I enter the hallway, only to circle around and go right next to the door. Then, when the door is slammed into by the hounds, I activate all three of my combat active skills at once, targeting each of the three hounds that pass through first with blood boil and life drain before I proceed to tear strips out of the side belonging to the first hound to appear. It lets out a howl of pain as it slams into the other two, but I don’t stop there as I leap forward and slam my shoes against the newly formed pile of hounds, following which I group my fingers together to form a single point with the claws and stab it straight into the hound’s gut, feeling the blood in my blood bank and in the hound’s body strengthening my claws in the process.

After I get a message from the system about a stack of blood thirst being applied, I rip my claws out of its corpse and jump back right before two more hounds come leaping through the door. They both proceed to slam into the wall, missing me since I’m no longer on the hounds while the other two beneath the dead one try to get out from beneath its corpse.

One down, and four stunned.

I hurriedly duck down, letting a hound I’d heard charging at me fly straight over my head before I swipe my claws at it, tearing chunks out of its gut. Then I reach down and stomp on one of the hounds still stuck under the dead one, causing a massive bruise to be visible beneath its dark fur.

A wave of pain comes from my leg as I feel teeth clasp around my shin, but I ignore it to swipe my claws down at the other hound buried under the dead one, tearing out its throat in the process.

I grit my teeth as the pain in my leg grows stronger, only held back a little by my life draining of three of the hounds at once – which would be more, but the skill’s current level can only handle three. The pain grows a little bit after I stomp on the hound whose fangs are locked in my shin, but then fade a bit again after it lets out a yelp on my third stomp.

Then I run down the hall, escaping from the hounds again as the remaining four or five begin to enter the hallway.

I continue running – in the opposite direction of the knight, of course – until I find a room and quickly open it and shut and lock it once I’m inside.

Please have a window. Please have a window. Please have a window.

After searching through the suite for several seconds, I fail to find a window. And after a brief moment of honestly pondering over if I should punch a hole through the wall in the hopes of making a makeshift window, I hear sounds of the hounds beginning to slam themselves bodily into the door.

Guess the window doesn’t matter.

I hurriedly look down at my leg, only to find that the wound isn’t as bad as I’d thought. Mostly due to my life drain skill. It’ll still be annoying, but it shouldn’t get me killed at least.

I quickly make my way back to the door before hiding in wait just like I did in the hallway. But on the other side of the door this time, because who knows if they learn from past mistakes.

Just like last time, the door is knocked down, landing with a crash on the carpet floor, following which four hounds this time come through, one of which I quickly grab and tear the throat out of. Then I reach for another that begins entering the room after them, activating both life drain and blood boil on it to make it stumble and lose its footing, allowing me to tear long gashes across its back and drain its blood in the process.

The other three hounds who’d first entered the room immediately turn around after landing on the carpet, snarling all the while as they see me finish off a third hound. Which makes a total of five dead and 2 wounded. Leaving seven alive, five of which are uninjured.

I grimace as I begin to run out of the room, only to run straight into the other four still living hounds. But I still continue running past them, getting a claw to the side in the process a total of three times. Then I proceed to lead them through the halls till I find a dead end and enter another room, this time without having the time to close the door behind me.

The room ends up being under construction of all things, only having a single room open at the moment besides the entry hall.

Shit.

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