Escape (2)

Adelaide opened her eyes to find herself in a rotten sewer. She panicked when she realized that she was all alone and the boy she was with was nowhere to be seen. She pounded on the bronze metal door as she searched for an escape more intensively than ever before. She couldn't die like this. Adelaide had to get back to her family to check up on her dad.

Her father had pushed her inside a small wooden closet that would only fit a child like her. She remembered covering her ears while muffling her mouth as she squinted every time she heard a tortured scream. She was excited to go to the waterpark that day. But now, she caged herself inside a tiny cabinet while she did not dare to look at what was happening outside.

Maybe it was because she somehow knew that her father was losing. She always thought as her dad to be one of the strongest people in the world as he held her up in the air with his strong arms. However, the bad guy had the advantage as he possessed weapons while her father fought with his bare hands.

By the time the bad man had opened the closet doors sometime later, her father was nowhere to be seen. All she saw was pools of blood trailing to outside the room as she almost tripped from a poor quality cloth bag being forcibly placed over her head.

She pounded on the door once more as she was desperate more than ever. Adelaide knew this door would not open to the answer to what she wanted, but it was all that she knew of in terms of escape.

Meanwhile, Hazel ripped the limbs that derived from the dead skin of the ghouls with his bare hands. He winced as he couldn't stand the horrible stench coming from the ghouls. He initially thought that the horrible smell was coming from dirtied waters of the sewers, but the dead flesh gave off a more rotten aroma.

He stomped on the broken parts of the ghoul to make sure that the ghouls were completely disabled.

'Wasn't this the time for the system to give me a sign for the kill?' Hazel brutally continued to butcher the ghouls with every stomp.

[Two Ghouls have been killed]

[Hidden reward to aid the rest of mission: Holy Dagger]

A compact metal dagger appeared out of the thin air. The golden embellished handle and razor-sharp edges made Hazel smile. Hazel wasn't unfamiliar with these weapons as he often passed by his father's weapon collection he proudly displayed at home. But oddly, as Hazel looked closer at his new equipment, it appeared similar to the type of weapons that his father would collect from his frequent outings to auctions.

Hazel grabbed the dagger that floated in the air as if it was waiting to be picked up by its rightful owner. Surprisingly, the grip perfectly fit his hand as if it was created just for him to use.

To continue his mission, Hazel opened the door to stop the loud pounding noise that had been bothering him during the fight.

Adelaide almost stumbled when the unrelenting door finally opened. Her eyes trembled with hope as she stared at a tall man with cruel crimson eyes and odd animal-like teeth that hung out on the sides.

Maybe this person was a monster, but she wasn't willing to believe her saviour who opened the doors to be anything like it. She believed the real monsters were the people who had placed her here in the suffocating vent.

Her saviour pulled out his gross hand smeared with the odd dead smell of ghouls as if his intention was to escape this horrible place together. Adelaide didn't hesitate to take the hand of the stranger as she ran towards him. She strangely felt some comfort once she grabbed his cold hands like he was a dead creature. Why did he somehow resemble the boy that was once with her? What happened to the boy while she slept?

"What happened to the boy who was with me?" She waited for an explanation.

"He abandoned you, let's go now." Hazel decided to keep his current identity a secret.

Adelaide disappointedly kept her head down as they walked through the passageway in the sewers while tightly grabbing each other's hands. The walk was silent as they searched for an exit while unintentionally going deeper into the labyrinth of the sewer.

Hazel wished there was a map of the sewers. Everywhere looked the same and it felt he was going in circles at this rate. The same darkness that occupied the space, the same metal beams and waterways, the same stone passageways that acted like a sidewalk, and the strong smell of the undead?!?

Hazel stopped walking as the young girl almost tripped from the abruptness. He turned his head as he searched for the source of the rotten smell of dead flesh that was getting stronger as they walked further into the sewer system.

[Warning: A crowd of ghouls upcoming]

'Why did the difficulty level suddenly increase?' Hazel grabbed onto his dagger even tighter.

Before Hazel could run back to the direction he came from, a sudden grey fog filled the air. Fortunately, with his upgraded eyesight in his vampire form, Hazel was able to make out the faint silhouettes.

He could tell that about fifty ghouls were coming towards them with the distorted oval like heads that filled his vision. Hazel searched for a good hiding place in the open area to place the girl while he fought the ghouls.

As he quickly scanned the area, he found a large crack in the sewer walls where only a tiny girl could barely fit.

He pushed the girl to the crack as he urged her to hide.

"No," She complained with her teary eyes like she was going to be abandoned again.

"Daddy disappeared after doing the same thing. I'm not going to lose another person again!" She sternly looked up to him.

Hazel sighed as he thought of a good way to convince her.

"You're a burden that will bother me during my fight," he pointed to the upcoming crowd of ghouls.

"Either hide or run the other way." Hazel gave her a choice as he pointed to the other direction.

"I'll stay," Adelaide climbed into the crack.

With the burden of protecting Adelaide now gone, Hazel quickly shifted into his fighting stance as he waited for the crowd of ghouls to get closer.

Before the first ghoul could make his attack, Hazel rushed to pierce his dagger in the vital part of the ghoul, which was their artificially operating heart and brain. He realized where they were when he couldn't kill the two ghouls from earlier when he had damaged almost every single part of their body except the brain and heart.

The ghoul howled in pain as it slowly faded into a pile of dark ashes.

[One Ghoul Killed: +1 Experience]

Hazel stabbed another ghoul with his elbow while digging his dagger into the ghoul in front of him with the same arm. He powerfully spun to kick the swarm of three more ghouls who targeted his leg. The ghouls' heads cracked on the cold stone floor as they slowly got back up after twisting their heads.

He consistently landed accurate strikes to their hearts while headbutting the ghouls to damage their brains. His energy became more drained as the process repeated, a round body kick to damage more than one target while elbow striking another target as he cross punched the remainder who blindly ran towards him.

Rarely did he bother to rip the ghouls apart with the mass amount of targets getting up to fight again when he didn't finish them off properly.

Hazel knew he wouldn't be able to continue this for much longer as he fixed his gaze on the never ending army of ghouls. If they were living people, he would be already done with this fight by now. Unfortunately, a dead army was different as a clean cut kill needed to be painstakingly performed each time.

He tripped as a result of taking his sight off one of the upcoming targets. He faced the tall ceiling as he felt time was running slower than it usually did. His body bounced once off the ground as the ghouls took the chance to jump on him.

He stayed unmoving on the ground as the ghouls started their counterattack.

[Damage Taken: -1 Vitality]

[Damage Taken: -1 Vitality]

[Damage Taken: -1 Vitality]

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