Chapter 5: Boss... Discovered an Anomaly

"Click!"

Roel was startled by the sound behind him and quickly turned around. The iron door had automatically closed and locked itself. After trying a few times, he couldn't reopen the door. Roel turned his pleading gaze towards Kasha.

"It's locked!"

"Mm." Kasha nodded in understanding, then pointed to the path ahead and asked, "Shall we continue?"

"How can you be so calm?" Roel sighed, often feeling out of place due to his different mindset from others.

"Being nervous won't help, right?" Kasha patted the easily alarmed boy and comforted him, "Since we can't get out anyway, we might as well find Lulu. It'll be safer by her side, don't you think?"

Kasha's words had an effect. Roel nodded vigorously, "You're right! Let's go! We'll find Lulu!"

After saying that, Roel ran ahead. If Kasha hadn't been behind him, he probably would have run off on his own.

Kasha pulled out a hair clip and wedged it in the door gap before catching up with Roel.

...

The smell of blood, fresh blood...

Lulu was very familiar with the smell of blood, or rather, very sensitive to it. After leaving the Ailwa Kingdom, she thought the outside world would be a bit safer, but now it seemed that might not be the case.

Soon, Lulu found the source of the bloody smell. There was a pool of fresh blood on the ground, splattered in a fan shape, likely left behind when a sharp weapon was pulled out after striking. The color of the blood was bright, mixed with dark red, indicating that the owner's internal organs were injured. The footprints around the blood were in disarray.

Were they avoiding something?

Lulu followed the blood trail and arrived at a crossroads, stopping in her tracks. On the left was a downward-extending passage, while the right passage extended upward. Lulu looked at the blood trail leading into the left passage, where there was no light, only darkness.

"Come out."

Lulu remained facing the left passage, her back to the right one, her tone calm, "I heard breathing."

"Whoosh!"

An iron rod from behind aimed at Lulu's head. As if she had foreseen it, Lulu's right hand reached around her left neck and accurately grabbed the iron rod. With a twist of her body, her left elbow struck backward.

"Bang!"

A man wearing a Black Gold Corporation guard uniform was slammed hard against the steps of the right passage. Lulu then turned to face him. Under his terrified gaze, she reached back with her left hand, grasping the throat of another guard. Sharp claws extended from her fingertips, piercing the skin and locking onto his Adam's apple. The second guard didn't dare move.

Lulu slammed the guard she held by the throat against the wall. His head hit the metal wall with a loud "clang!" and he passed out instantly.

"There's one more." Lulu tightened her grip, and blood flowed down the second guard's neck.

"Wait, little girl!" A middle-aged man with a bandaged belly that still oozed blood emerged from the right passage.

Lulu's nose twitched, and she slowly nodded. The scent of blood on this middle-aged man matched the blood trail she had seen earlier.

Seeing that Lulu had stopped, the middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief. However, his gaze couldn't help but be drawn to the two white ears on Lulu's head. He was certain that these ears, the same color as her short silver hair, were not decorations, because they were still twitching, making one want to grab them...

"Touch them and I'll kill you."

"..." The middle-aged man wiped his sweat, "I won't touch them, don't worry. Besides, in my current state, I couldn't even if I wanted to."

"Don't even think about it."

This little girl is difficult to communicate with...

The middle-aged man moved his gaze to her face, no longer thinking about her ears, and said with a wry smile, "Alright, I won't think about it. Is that okay?"

Lulu nodded and released the second guard, letting him slide down the wall to the ground. The first guard instinctively took a step forward but quickly stopped. Seeing that Lulu ignored him, he hurried to the second guard's side to check his condition.

Although Lulu had just looked like she was about to crush the other's throat, it was only superficial wounds. The impact against the wall was more severe, and the second guard wouldn't wake up for a while.

"What are you running from?"

Lulu looked at the middle-aged man's abdomen. Due to fleeing, his wound had reopened before it could start healing. Now, in addition to the bandages, the hem of his military uniform was soaked with blood.

The middle-aged man leaned against the wall and sat on the steps to the right, catching his breath before asking in confusion, "You didn't encounter it on the way?"

It?

Not a person, but some kind of creature? Considering the unusually low number of guards at this supply station, Lulu guessed that they might have been attacked by the "it" the middle-aged man mentioned.

"Oh no!"

Lulu remembered that two boys were following her. Without further acknowledging the middle-aged man, she turned and ran back the way she came. The wolf girl from the Ailwa Kingdom was extremely fast, even able to run parallel to the ground on the walls at corners, disappearing from the three men's sight in the blink of an eye.

"Captain?" Supporting his injured and unconscious comrade, the first guard looked at the middle-aged man, awaiting his orders.

"Shh!" The middle-aged man raised a finger to him, then slowly stood up and took two steps back up the stairs behind him.

"Shh? Are you telling me not to make a sound?"

The captain didn't answer him but continued to take two more steps back. Just as the guard felt puzzled, a drop of viscous liquid fell on his head. He looked up, and a large mouth with fangs like daggers was already close at hand!

"Ah! Ahhh! Ahhhhh!!!!"

The guard screamed, and with strength from who knows where, he pushed his unconscious comrade up, threw himself to the side, and crawled towards the middle-aged man.

A sticky "splat!" sound came from behind. After passing the middle-aged man, the guard ran up the stairs without looking back. As soon as one foot stepped onto the corridor at the end of the stairs...

"Splat!"

This time, the sound didn't come from below, but from his own upper body being crushed in one bite, like a blunt knife chopping meat, smashing the bones inside, pressing down on the flesh but not cutting through.

"Splat! Crunch! Crack!"

There were figures of them both in front and behind... The middle-aged man, sitting in the center of the passage, muttered to himself in despair, "Not just one, not just one, they all got out, they all got out..."

Then, the sound of flesh being torn apart echoed through the passage.

"Rip... Splat! Crunch! Crack!"

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"