74 Escape

'Glug'

The Turtle Zombie swallowed the pigeon and patted its belly. Its snakehead that hovered a couple of metres above its body swerved its head in the direction of the baby pigeon that had almost reached the hole in the wall. Its eyes focused on the escaping prey as its snake head coiled until it almost looked like a fat stump and plunged towards its target like an arrow that was released from its string.

Its body swam at a faster speed while its neck region further elongated as the snakehead approached the baby pigeon.

Ugly Shaggy transmitted its image of approach and dissolved into purple smoke. It didn't want to receive an attack from it which might reduce Prakash's attainment level and further weaken it.

While in transformation, the pupils of the baby pigeon constricted as its perception of time slowed down to a crawl. It could now observe the surroundings at a slower pace. In the final image transmitted to its senses by Ugly Shaggy, the opened mouth of the snake, fangs revealed was just a foot away from it.

The baby pigeon lifted its wings wide and drastically increased the air resistance it faced in an instant, rapidly bringing its body upwards. Diverging away from its initial path and barely escaping the snakehead.

'Schick'

The fangs of the snakehead brushed past its belly, drawing out a thin line of blood as the baby pigeon dissolved its transformation.

The moment it grazed past the stomach region of the baby pigeon, the vision of the snake was clouded by the purple smoke that had appeared in its periphery while a tiny insect flew out of the smoke from the opposite side, entering the hole in the wall.

'Hisss'

The snakehead felt anger at getting tricked as it too entered the hole in the wall, chasing after the mosquito by tracking its smell. Even if it had turned small, the aroma it emitted still possessed the same intensity as before that acted as a tracking beacon for the Turtle Zombie.

'Kieee'

Followed by the high pitched sounds that erupted due to the frequency of the flapping of its wings, the mosquito escaped the range of the snake by making use of its tiny body to nimble away from the snakehead that was relatively clumsy as compared to it.

'Kieee'

The mosquito landed on a concrete slab and dissolved its transformation to reveal a panting Prakash who had a long gash on his stomach.

"Guh," Prakash felt pain in his stomach region as he tried to walk forward, all the while keeping an eye on the snakehead that had peeked out of the hole. The hole was too small for its body to come out as the snakehead gazed in his direction with bloodlust.

'Thump'

'Bang'

The Turtle Zombie proceeded to smash its hardened fists at the edges of the hole, in order to open it wide enough for its one-metre high body to pass through. Anyway, there were numerous cracks that had formed all across that section of the wall, possibly due to some heavy object that might have crashed into it during the floods.

All in all, it meant that it wouldn't take long for the Turtle Zombie to break through and chase after him.

"There is a chance that it would sense Vikram if I go beyond its visual range. I should better stay within its sights for the time being so that its focus would remain on me." Prakash thought as he rummaged through his surroundings until he found a piece of POP (Plaster of Paris) and began to write on the concrete floor.

He wanted to leave a message for Vikram, should he happen to see it while tracking for his whereabouts. Anyway, it wouldn't get destroyed for a couple of days, so it should be more than enough time for Vikram to find it intact.

"Plans have to keep up with changes. I hope we would be able to meet in the future." Prakash heaved a forlorn sigh as purple smoke rushed towards his eyes and transformed them into a pair of dog eyes. He also turned his ears into that of a dog's to further heighten his senses and to keep a track on the whereabouts of the Turtle Zombie.

"I…..kill…eat….you.."

A hissing sound emerged out of the hole in the wall as the snakehead peaked out of it and hovered 3 metres from it. Its body was trying to squeeze its way through the widened hole.

"Damn, that is one freaky long neck." Prakash cursed as he hurried to find a path of escape.

'Clack' 'Clack'

Crabs began to climb out of the murky waters, one after the other as they walked towards Prakash. They were constantly making ramming sounds with their pincers as they rushed towards him like an army.

"Can't you guys leave me alone for a second?" Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated to form a cocoon that wrapped around him and shattered to reveal a baby pigeon from within.

The baby pigeon took off to the skies and hovered 3 metres in the air. The faint moonlight that shone through the clouds barely illuminated his surroundings enough for its eyes to see.

Purple smoke rushed towards its eyes as Prakash tried to transform them into that of a dog's but had to stop immediately when his senses were assaulted by unbelievable pain.

'Chiii'

Faint blue smoke coagulated around its eyes and began to spread to the rest of its body. Ugly Shaggy emerged out of its body at the next instant and entered the body of a crab. The blue smoke was rapidly transferred into the crab's body while the baby pigeon regained its balance in the air.

"That was reckless I guess." Prakash thought as he faintly made out the situation of the Turtle Zombie through the sounds it made. It had already broken the wall wide enough for its body to fully squeeze through.

The baby pigeon cautiously increased its altitude until it reached four metres in height from the ground surface.

'Boom'

With a punch from its armoured fists, the Turtle Zombie blasted off a broken section and emerged outside. Landing its foot on the concrete block, the Turtle Zombie gazed at the baby pigeon hovering in the air, as if taunting its futileness in failing to capture it earlier.

"…..curse…you…" The Turtle Zombie hissed in response to the provocation as its snake head elongated until it grew to 3 metres in length. The snakehead then flew towards the baby pigeon while its legs made crunching sounds on the concrete surface with each step it took. It cared not for the lives of the crabs it squished under its foot as it chased after the baby pigeon.

'Chii'

The baby pigeon let out a sharp cry as it further raised its altitude and began to fly towards the east.

The ground surface was uneven, with streams of murky water filling up practically everywhere in sight. Only some patches of concrete blocks peeked out here and there, strewn amidst wreckages that ranged from crushed vehicles to the trunks of trees.

The Turtle Zombie retracted its neck and jumped into the murky waters before it, keeping an eye on both its prey that escaped in the air and at the water path that it needed to swim in. The waters were filled with sharp debris, it had to be careful to not get entangled with them and lose its prey.

The baby pigeon took a look back and gazed at the concrete structure of the shopping mall that was looking further and further away from it and at the sight of the Turtle Zombie that was hot on its heels. Purple smoke gushed out of its body and materialised into its 'Record'.

Prakash noted the amount of Pigeon Karma he possessed and calculated the amount of time he could stay transformed as a pigeon based on his comprehension levels. He roughly had around 10 minutes of flight before his Pigeon Karma became empty.

"How do I escape out of its range? I can't go on forever like this. I would become a plated dish the moment I expend my Karma reserves." Prakash thought as he further increased his altitude. Anyway, he had flown quite a distance away from the shopping mall meaning, the chances of the Turtle Zombie going back to the mall were steadily decreasing.

As he continued to increase his altitude, Prakash observed that his mini Victoris had manifested once again.

When he had arrived outside and gazed at the crabs, he wanted to unleash his mini Victoris at them and gain a unit of their Crab Karma.

If he managed to comprehend their Karma to one-percent, then his defences would have improved once again. But unfortunately, no matter how many times he had urged for it to appear, his mini Victoris seemed unable to materialise.

Now that he had gained some distance from the Turtle Zombie, his mini Victoris had materialised once again. Even Prachi materialised and gazed at the chasing Turtle Zombie with fear.

"Does it possess something that suppresses my manifestations? Ugly Shaggy doesn't seem that much affected. Maybe, it's because it is a Karmic art?" Prakash wondered when Ugly Shaggy sent him a mental message detailing to how it could sense the presence of a Karmic art within the body of the Turtle Zombie.

"No wonder it is so scary." Prakash mentally screamed in realisation as the baby pigeon flew towards a tall building. Circling around it once, the baby pigeon landed inside a balcony of a house on the topmost floor that had its doors opened. Dissolving its transformation, Prakash took a deep breath to calm his throbbing heart and entered inside.

The interiors were lavishly decorated. Prakash marvelled at the sight of his pristine surroundings as the lights were still functioning, possibly due to their generator having enough juice to support the running appliances.

The reason he had picked this house wasn't due to its eye-catching appearance in the dark night. It was because this house was situated on the 26th floor, a considerably tall building in their city where concrete structures like skyscrapers were seldom seen. Moreover, it gave him enough breathing room to think up a plan against the Turtle Zombie.

Worst comes to worst, he could just fly out when the Turtle Zombie managed to climb 26 floors. That would give him enough window to fly far away, right?