Back To Old Habits

Damien cleared his throat.

"To start, I will say that the strategy that we just did isn't necessarily incorrect."

Killian scoffed.

"Sure doesn't look like the correct strategy though."

Damien let out a sigh.

"Let's just think about this logically. Of course, we don't have to kill all of the monsters. However, we have to realize that the moment we slip up, we will have to face all of the monsters we neglected. Doing that at the start simply has far too much risk, especially since there are monsters out there that can directly alert monsters in other rooms, as seen by the giant flower we fought earlier."

Zenos' expression hardened.

"...I suppose that isn't wrong."

Adonis frowned.

"So it's a strategy to use once there are only a few rooms left."

Damien shrugged his shoulders.

"That's probably the best application. Things may also get a little desperate, and sneaking around may be our only option. Though, I hope things never come to that."

Zenos chuckled.

"But realistically, the chances are not low at all."

Damien rolled his eyes.

"Way to keep morale high."

Killian smirked.

"No point in worrying about the future when our situation now is already pretty bad."

Damien nodded.

"It is pretty bad, especially if there's going to be another one of those lightbulbs."

Killian raised an eyebrow.

"I like that name."

Damien responded tersely.

"Thanks."

Zenos was rubbing his chin with his eyes narrowed.

"If I recall correctly, the lightbulb activated the second a light was pointed towards it, even though it was incredibly weak."

Adonis furrowed his brow.

"Doesn't that mean we won't be able to do anything against it?"

Damien shook his head.

"Though I'm not confident we can pull it off, I imagine the only solution is to slash it with our katana as soon as possible. Though it activates immediately, the screech starts off pretty quiet. Once I shot it with my pistol, it was cut off immediately too."

Killian shrugged his shoulders.

"So act fast?"

Damien nodded.

"Though we should get a designated person to cut them down, as multiple people slashing it may complicate things. And that person shouldn't be the one that holds the flashlight just so that they don't screw up because too much is on their hands."

For a moment, everyone looked at each other. After a second or so, Damien raised his hand.

"Since I have an injury in my hand, I'll volunteer to be the person that holds the flashlight rather than the one that swings the katana. I imagine it would be best that Killian doesn't either because of his injury."

Zenos let out a sigh.

"Then I'll be the one to handle it then."

Adonis frowned, but did not say anything.

Zenos then stood up and looked around him.

"Hm... it appears that the only door available is the way we were trying to go."

Killian stood up as well and let out a chuckle.

"Good thing it's wide open for us."

Adonis cracked his neck as he got up.

"Then let's go."

Damien did not say anything as he went with them.

The group had to step over quite a few dead bodies since there were many scattered about on the doorframe. Nonetheless, not a single person was fazed despite the strange squelching sounds.

It could be said that they were getting used to this a little too quickly.

Upon getting into the room, they took another look around. This room also looked rather empty, and also only had one path forward.

Killian blinked a few times.

"Looks like we never had a choice."

Damien rolled his eyes.

"Doesn't really make a difference anyway."

He turned down the light as he approached the keypad, then firmly set his hand down on it. After a brief scan, the doors in front of them opened once more, and a completely dark room was revealed to them.

Damien walked in silently, checking in every direction with his light as he traveled. With him in the lead, the group went around the perimeter. He came across quite a few monsters, some just on the ground and others clinging onto the ceiling.

Adonis took care of the ones up high, while mostly Killian took care of the ones on the ground. Despite being injured, he didn't so much as let out a grunt when he swung his katana. Whether that was because he was traumatized from when he got injured or because he was tolerant was up in the air.

Once they had killed twelve monsters, they had more or less gone through the entire room. Damien slowly brightened the flashlight in their hand to light up the entire room. There was one pale-skin they had missed at the center of the roof that began to screech as it felt the light, but nobody was concerned over just one monster.

Damien dropped his flashlight on the floor and pulled out his katana. While it was still roughly five meters away, he threw it like a whip, piercing straight through the creature's head. Its head shot backwards, but it kept its forward momentum as it collapsed onto its back, causing it to slide forwards.

Damien proceeded to retrieve his katana.

"Alright, that was well done."

Killian clicked his tongue.

"I did most of the killing though."

Zenos rolled his eyes.

"We were given roles to act efficiently. There's no point in flaunting numbers."

Killian smirked.

"Oh? Getting a little defensive are we? Seems like you're the one that cares about numbers."

Zenos sighed.

"Whatever, think what you want."

Killian chuckled.

"I will."

Damien observed the place as the two were bickering. There were a couple of tables stacked with papers on top. Some of them had nearly bumped into those tables as they were moving. He briefly glanced at what was on said papers, but they were all too worn to make out anything concrete. And from what he could gather, it looked too complicated for him to understand in the first place.

He then observed the room before realizing that there was once again only one door to go through. Then, he called out to the others.

"Alright, alright, come on we're going again so shut up. There's only one door once more, so let's continue."

The others were more or less compliant and got ready once more. Damien dimmed the flashlight before opening the door once more.

Like last time, he started by exploring the perimeter, checking every angle thoroughly as they went. This room was noticeably larger than the last one, while the floor would occasionally make creaking metal sounds, which was rather concerning. However, despite being relatively loud, it seemed as though none of the creatures caught on.

They killed only six by the time they circled the entire perimeter. Damien furrowed his brows slightly as he came to realize that there was actually a floor down. He gradually found out they were walking on a relatively narrow pathway guarded by railings.

He soon found the stairs that went down. Upon doing so, he spread his arms out and lightly pressed them against everyone's stomach, signaling for them to be careful. Then, Damien began going down the stairs. Though some didn't understand it as much as the others, they were still careful enough not to get panicked by the fact they were descending and handled it well.

There were no monsters on the stairs themselves, but when they got to the ground floor, a bulb began noticeably brightening when the flashlight shone onto it. Along with that, was a screech that started off quiet and low, like a growl.

It was the lightbulb that caused them all that trouble last time.

Zenos immediately took a step forward, which let out a small tap, but his katana flashed by quickly, beheading the lightbulb and cutting it off abruptly.

It was dealt with nearly as swiftly as possible, but there were still faint sounds of spasming close by.

Damien's brows furrowed as he realized what that meant.

A few creatures had been awakened.

He decisively turned the flashlight up slightly and bit down on one end of it. Right afterwards, he pulled out the katana and looked straight at a reacher coming straight for him.

It lunged forth, attempting to pierce his stomach, but Damien narrowly dodged before plunging his katana into the creature's head and decapitating it.

Adonis' breathing got heavy as he pulled the light machine gun off of his back. Though he wasn't outright screaming, it was fairly clear he was panicking. On the other hand, both Killian and Zenos had their katanas pulled back and ready.

Damien turned his head rapidly between the two sides so that they could see in front of them, if only briefly.

Two pale-skins were rushing forth, but the two dispatched of them immediately.

As for Adonis, his finger was just about to pull the trigger, but he just barely stopped himself in time. The others looked at him and could tell what he had almost done, but they did not make any remarks now as it was not the time.

With shaky hands, he put the gun back before retrieving his katana.

The group then dispatched a few more monsters and were able to do so with relative ease. Damien turned to light back up to reveal the rest of the room.

Killian scoffed.

"Almost couldn't hold back, huh? Baby too scared of a few itty bitty monsters?"

Adonis scoffed.

"I kept the gun up just in case. It wasn't as though I just began firing, dipshit."

Killian raised his hands up.

"Woah, woah, alright baby!"

Adonis grit his teeth.

"You-"

"Hey, hey now. Let's get along. We aren't done just yet."

Damien raised one hand as he cut them off.

The two of them fell silent, but it was clear there was still some tension between them. Damien dimmed the light and they got into positions once more. There was only one door again and it was on the bottom floor, so they opened that one.

Except, it was both brightly lit, and there was a strange figure standing at the center of the room.