Chapter 3: Search

They all knew after seeing those pig orcs that there was no chance of beating them.

"Back, back, let's get back to the stairs!"

Kennen softly yelled.

They all ran toward the stairs and thankfully, the pig orcs were chasing after the people who just ran in and didn't seem to notice the five of them. They all seemed to go toward the conference hall.

Kennen and his friends stopped on the first floor and kept an eye toward the stairs in case any monsters came up as they tried to catch their breath.

"This is even worse than I thought." Frank muttered.

This went without saying that they were stuck in the hotel now.

"What are we going to do? We're stuck here with no food or water!" Rafael asked nervously.

"I mean, I think we can outrun those pigs so maybe we can grab the food in the buffet hall?" Enzo unsurely said.

It wouldn't have been so bad to be stuck in the hotel with the comfortable beds, the still working toilets and plenty of food but the problem was that all the food was on the ground level where the wide entrance was.

Any monster could swagger in at any moment and we wouldn't know about it. They could take a turn and be greeted by some long limbed monstrosities.

Coupled with the fact that they could take the stairs and come up to the upper floors, which meant there was nowhere safe in here and that also meant they were on a timer.

Kennen felt the wall closing in on him with no way out. He, no, they needed to come up with something or they would be doomed.

Frank seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

Rafael was panicking.

Enzo was trying to cope with humor.

Evan was…he seemed to be fine.

"That's why I've been saying since the beginning that we should look for crystals!" Evan said.

Right! They could search for crystals on the floors so all of them could get powers! This was their only hope!

"That's right, our only hope is to see if we can find crystals in the hotel!" Kennen said.

The others cheered up a bit after hearing that as there was a strand of hope now.

"Let's do this. I'll stand guard at the stairs and you four can go search the floor." Frank proposed.

With a plan of action, Kennen and his other three friends started to search the floor. Every single one was locked so Evan had to harden his hand to bust up the door before they could get in and inspect every crook and crannies of the room.

There was a total of 12 rooms per floor and they were about halfway through, they busted into a room with people inside.

"AH!!"

"Oups, my bad!"

"Sorry!"

Evan and Kennen apologized to the middle aged couple in the room.

"What do you guys want?"

"We have nothing!"

The couple were clearly in fear as they huddled together in a corner.

"Uh… just checking if there's any monster?" Evan said hesitantly.

"Sorry startling you guys but you should remain in the room, we saw some monsters get into the hotel but it should be in here." Kennen tried to reassure them.

"What are you guys doing then?" The male asked, "Shouldn't you also be hiding instead of making all the ruckus and attracting their attention?"

"They shouldn't hear us and we have someone standing guard at the stairs but we'll try to keep it quiet, we just want to make sure there's no danger here."

After another round of placating them, the couple finally left them alone.

They continued to break down the door but from now on, they would try to ask if there was anybody in and try to break the lock in a quieter manner.

The entire floor had been searched by them.

But there was nothing.

There were ten floors in their hotel so still nine more to go.

They went on to the second floor and did the same.

Still nothing.

Third floor.

Nothing.

Fourth Floor.

Empty handed but they saw the three demonic wolves' corpses and were quite impressed that Evan was able to kill them.

Fifth Floor.

Still nothing.

They were searching on the sixth floor now and had since then encountered a couple rooms where there were people in it but they didn't break the door on them this time.

However, Kennen could see that the nerves had gotten to some of his friends as they started to feel a bit down.

Honestly, Kennen was starting to feel the same after they came out of each floor without anything.

"F*ck…You could have left us a crystal or two after killing the three wolves, instead of hoarding the four crystals. We would have been on a rampage by now if we all had powers." Rafael grumbled after they came out from another room empty handed.

"Mate, I was fighting for my life, I needed every edge I could get. Sorry, I didn't think about you guys with my life on the line." Evan retorted.

"Cut it out guys, fighting among each other isn't going to help us." Frank said and stopped the situation before it escalated.

Rafael was still frustrated but let it go.

They were walking silently toward the seventh floor but suddenly heard some noise when they were about to get out of the staircase.

None of them could distinguish the noises so they cautiously stepped out.

The noise came from the corridors where the rooms were lined up. The noise became clearer and it sounded like someone was banging on a door.

Since there was only enough space for three people to peek out, only Kennen, Evan and Frank did.

They saw a demonic wolf banging at a door with its head and claws, and at this rythme, the door wasn't going to hold on for long.

However, the wolf wasn't alone as there was a little creature with a black robe next to it.

That little creature resembled a cyclone with its lone big eyes except it was dwarf sized with shriveled skin.

"There's a wolf banging at the door with a mini cyclop." Evan described it in a low voice for the guys behind.

"Maybe we should help?" Frank pondered.

"Careful, we don't know what that mini cyclop can do." Kennen warned.

"We can take them by surprise." Evan suggested.

But before they could do anything, the door broke. However, a man came out of the room the moment the door broke and slammed a blue transparent shield on the wolf.

The demonic wolf was knocked back, which gave enough room for the man to run.

The man ran toward the group of friends but didn't seem to have noticed them as he looked at his back and he was right to do so.

The mini cyclop extended his three fingers hand and conjured three small spears made of yellow light before launching them at the man.

The spears weren't as fast as a fully knocked back arrow but fast enough to catch someone off guard if they weren't careful.

The man turned around and brandished his shield to block them.

His circular shield was able to block two of the spears as they exploded to particles upon contact with the shield but the third spear was able clip the man's leg.

"Argh!" The man yelled in pain and got down to his knees.

This was all it needed for the wolf to jump on the man and start mauling him. The man barely screamed for a second before his throat was ripped and blood flew everywhere.

This was the first time Kennen and his friends saw someone die up close. It was different than seeing it through a screen or far away through a window where they could barely see anything.

They were in shock as the man died in a few seconds after coming out of the room and before they even reacted and acted on their thought of helping him out.

Thankfully, it was only their heads peeking out and those two monsters hadn't noticed them yet. No, their attention was on the dead body.

The mini cyclop also approached the body as a red crystal formed on top of the body.

Then, it suddenly became tense between the wolf and the mini cyclop as both of them were eying the crystal.

"What are they doing?" Enzo asked.

This was what we were all wondering.

The mini cyclop started to conjure his spears but before they could even fully form, the wolf already chomped on the crystal.

The effect that happened was the same as if it was a human who touched it as the wolf absorbed it into his body.

The spears were fully conjured now but the mini cyclop didn't launch them, who knew what was going through its mind but the two were in a standoff.

"They're distracted! This is the perfect opportunity to strike!" Evan said and gave the rest of his friends a confident look before he just rushed in.

"Wait! Sh…" Frank tried to stop him but he was too late, so he just quickly followed after him.

The monsters were just 10 meters away.

Kennen just stood there, his body wavering forward and backward, hesitating whether he should follow or not.

Evan tried to make himself small and took a few seconds to get to them but it was already too late when the monsters noticed him.

He punched the wolf with his hardened right hand, who still had its back turn on him, and succeeded in sending it sprawling back a few steps but he hit the right tight of the wolf so it didn't do much damage and the wolf quickly got back to his four feets.

The spears flew at them right after that but Evan was prepared for that he just jumped at the open room at this right.

Frank was a few steps behind but he reacted fast enough and just crouched low enough to have them go over him.

The wolf followed after Evan and got into the room as if that punch aggroed him so Kennen lost sight of them.

The mini cyclop was conjuring new spears again but Frank quickly charged and swung his leg toward the single eyed creature but a little barrier was made to block the kick so all the kick did was crack that little barrier that was soon dismissed.

Frank decided to put some distance between them as the spears were fully formed so he could have the room to dodge them.

"Shouldn't we help them?" Enzo asked as Kennen and them stood there still peaking out of the wall.

Kennen wanted to help but his rational mind asked him what could he even do out there?

"What do you even want us to do?" Rafael retorted, "Punch them with our stick-like arms and legs? We're more likely to hurt outside than provide any help! We're just running toward our death if we go!"

Kennen hated what Rafael said but he was right, they were useless.

That was what he thought until he saw the mini cyclop's back facing them. Frank maneuvered around during their fight so now the mini cylcop's back was facing them with Frank further into the corridor.

His rational mind that was telling he was useless? It went all out of the window!

"F*ck this!"

Kennen got rid of his hesitation and charged in.

"Huh? I'm coming too!" Enzo quickly followed.

"Shit! I'll stay here and guard the stairs for you guys!" Rafael declared.

Kennen abandoned all thoughts and just ran, before the mini cyclop could react and at Frank's surprise, he just kicked between the legs of the cyclop with all his strength.

"Kek!" The mini cyclop squeaked as the strike lifted it above the ground.

The conjured spears hovering above immediately dissipated and Frank quickly followed that with a stomp on the mini cyclop's neck. A crack was heard and that was all it needed to kill it.

With one down, they turned their attention toward the room where Evan was and they saw the wolf and Evan were in a starring match.

Enzo was the closest and with the wolf's butt facing him, he rushed in and drop kicked on the wolf's behind. However, that only made the wolf take a step forward while Enzo bounced back as if he had jumped a wall.

The wolf turned back to stare at Enzo sprawled at the ground and was probably prepared to maul him down but that distraction was all it for Evan to hammer him down to the ground with his hardened hand and with a few more strikes to the head, the wolf died.

"Hell yeah!" Evan was hyped up.

Frank just sighed in relief, the same for Enzo.

Kennen also felt tension left his body and his legs started to feel quite weak but he saw the crystal forming on top of the cyclop's corpse.

Frank also saw it and gave a nod to Kennan.

Finally, it was his turn to get powers now. Hopefully, he would get something good.

Kennen reached out and touched the crystal. He felt something rush inside him and spread through his body.

Then a blue panel appeared in front of him.

[You awakened your power, Summoning.]

[Summoning: The ability to summon a unit who will protect and listen to the summoners' every order. Only one unit can currently be summoned.]