Scarlet

Throughout the entire drive to the outer station, I find myself both tense and jumpy at the same time as I can’t stop my knee from bouncing. And the moment we arrive in front of the massive outer station, which is home to a very large magi-tech train spanning miles in length with the width of a freaking house, I practically burst out of the limo, startling the spectators for a moment. They then immediately begin cheering though, likely at the sight of a Guardian arriving.

I look back at the others to find them leaving the vehicle as well, albeit more calmly, before we all rush into the building’s entrance, which is quite large while also a little bit plain for a train station. Although while the building isn’t really much to look at in comparison to the mall we were just at – on account of it being an outer station – it’s still far grander than anything you’d ever see in a Tier 3 city. In fact, it’s grander than most of the things you’d see in a Tier 2 city.

Mostly in size though.

Without wasting a second on the people who are now bringing out their cameras, I sprint into the building, past the shield, where I find quite a number of demons. But despite the large number of demons, I don’t actually see the core. Nor do I see any other guardians.

And judging by the average demon’s levels, I don’t think we’re close to the core. Meaning the core is probably inside of the train itself.

Although…

|Demon Spawn – Subspecies: Zombie – Level 10|

Seriously, these things? Please don’t let one of them have bitten Belle or Arthur…

I close my eyes for a second to focus on my hearing, just trying to see if I can pick out Belle or Arthur’s voices, and after standing in place for long enough for the others to catch up to me, my eyes flash open.

“I found them,” I declare, surprising them for a second as I immediately begin moving in the direction of them while paying the annoyingly large price to shift my arm into that of a werewolf again. Although at least the skill is a one time payment in mana and doesn’t continuously cost mana to keep active like blood claws.

I cut down the demons in my path, most of them being close to level one, as I head in the direction that I hear her and Arthur. But I can’t help but frown as I run, quickly noticing the levels of the demons slowly beginning to climb.

That’s not all though, because the words the two are saying sends a shiver running down my spine.

“Do you think we’ll make it?” Arthur asks, sounding slightly nervous – which is unlike him. But Belle just answers with, “I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ve got this!”

What do you mean you got this? Wait, did she…

I shake my head at the thought and begin running even faster, making the others have to use their skills just to catch up thanks to my physical capabilities being higher than theirs. And if it weren’t for me not wanting to leave them behind entirely, I would also use blood sacrifice just for an added boost.

We continue running through the station alongside the massive train for nearly five whole minutes before getting close to them. But it’s at this point that I realize they’re inside the damned train.

“They’re inside,” I say while stopping outside of the train and looking on either side of myself to find the closest entrance. Meanwhile on the inside of the train, I can hear some sort of banging sound, mixed with the occasional sound of shattering glass. And the sounds only manage to both confuse me and make me even more worried as I break into a sprint towards the closest entrance.

I run into a pack of demon hounds at the entrance to the train, but I just activate blood sacrifice along with blood boil and life drain to rush up to them and rip them apart, only vaguely noticing the black particles leaving their bodies during the process before I move further into the train and take a turn immediately towards the car Belle’s in. Only to find the car before that being filled with regular people, some of whom are currently being eaten by a group of demon spawn.

|Demon Spawn – Subspecies: Zombie – Level 32|

|Demon Spawn – Subspecies: Zombie – Level 31|

|Demon Spawn – Subspecies: Zombie – Level 32|

I rush forwards and violently grab the throats of two of the zombies, one using my transformed hand and the other using blood claws, before I tighten my grip, burning a little bit of my blood in the process for the added boost. Then the creatures simply collapse after their necks are completely crushed. And when I turn to the third one, I find it already taken care of by Denise who had managed to fully catch up with me.

After sharing a nod, we both turn to look at the humans in the car with relatively dark looks on our faces. And I can’t help but feel conflicted as I see the black veins beginning to spread across the bodies of two of the five people in the car from the bites inflicted upon them by the zombies.

Nasty creatures, zombies. A single bite and it’ll infect a human into becoming a zombie themselves. Albeit an incredibly weak one.

One of the few infection based demons out there.

But also a rather weak creature itself, not having a wink of intelligence and running on base instinct alone. Pretty sure they wouldn’t react much even if they were bisected. They’d just continue crawling towards you for a bite.

Although they’re also quite resilient, and really don’t want to die. The only way to stop them in a single move is to destroy their brains or cut off their nervous system from the rest of their body through crushing their throat or cutting off their heads.

The two infected people look absolutely terrified and are sending fearful glances towards the other people including me and Denise. But everyone but us just backs away from them, terrified of being infected by them themselves.

And I guess I can’t really blame them.

Guardians can’t get infected by a zombie that’s a lower level than them though, so it’s safe for me. Assuming a half blood lycan can even get infected in the first place.

Right as I’m wondering what to do about this, Michael pushes his way through us and holds his hands over both their wounds, making a green energy suffuse their bodies that completely wipes away the black veins and the infection.

My eyes grow wide in shock as I stare at the guy, but he snaps me out of it by saying, “Let’s go find your friends.”

I nod and quickly make my way past the people towards the car where Belle and Arthur are.

Please be okay.