「WHAT?」
He screamed into the phone.
「I found it.」
「Where?」
His tone changed immediately. Something broke in his background, followed by violent clatters.
「The building with the antenna on top.」
「On my way.」
Without saying any additional thing, he hung up.
Good thing the city is in a turmoil and it's going to go unnoticed. I can only imagine the expenses required to cover up the mess Michael is making. Glancing over in the tower's direction, I extended my hand towards it.
No need for a fancy spell this time. I just need to…
As I manifested my intent for the action, the Arcanum flickered to life once again and I was hurtling forward the split second later. Like a stone fired from a catapult, my elevation increased and it almost felt like I was flying.
It was another application in the 「Phase 1」of my Arcane Arts. 「Ferrum Field」
Using the loosely and haphazardly scattered magnetic domains inside a metal, I am able to align them in a specific direction using an external magnetic field and can then amplify it, to either pull it towards myself or pull myself towards it. The latter one, in my current situation. As soon as I got close to the building, the skyscraper beside me rumbled before the glass window of the upper floors broke down.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Michael with a grin over his face as he hurtled like a comet towards the designated building. "This one's mine!" He jeered, his teeth flashing despite the dark of the night, which continued to get darker by the minute.
The reflecting waves refracted suddenly, dropping down its defences, as the creature disabled its attempts at communicating using the special frequency and became acutely aware of our presence, closing in on it at an alarming speed.
Michael was the first one to make an impact with the building's glass window. While maintaining the minimal hold over the magnetic domains that were close to getting magnetised permanently, I covered my eyes with my hand to avoid the flying shrapnel making their way into them.
My feet made contact with the blood stained marble with a sickening quelch. The metallic stench of blood was pungent, lingering in the air like a fog. The light overhead flickered a few times, revealing the broadcast room.
"Fucking hell…" Michael exclaimed, his voice trailing off towards the end as he took in his surroundings.
Corpses. Or rather, half corpses. They were badly mutilated.
Not in a clean way, no.
The method was much more primal. Not out of anger. But out of nature. Some people had their heads bitten off, while the others had their middle section ripped open, intestines sprawling like worms all over the stained and broken marbling of the broadcast room.
A waste of expensive material.
The stench was disgusting. Although not enough to make one throw their guts out. And by guts out I mean metaphorically. Not like these dead people, who literally have their guts thrown out.
…
…
Nevermind.
*scrrckkkkkk*
The grating sound of something sharp against a broken piece of marble reverberated in the entire room. I looked back, over my shoulder, in Michael's direction. Behind him, sticking to the uppermost corner of the wall was a wide silhouette of something. Although I could see its head and feel its gaze, there was something really wrong with it.
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In a split second, it was right behind Michael, the long and thick arm making its way down like a hammer striking an anvil. Spinning on his heel, Michael turned around and raised his arm upwards, absorbing the impact.
The force of the strike made his feet dig deep into the floor, until it eventually gave out. The wall and the roof shuddered as a spider web of cracks ran all along the floor before crumbling. A nasty snarl made me look back as it had jumped to the wall behind me and was attempting to lunge at me.
The creak of its joints as it lunged was audible.
Somersaulting to my left, I avoided the bull charge and the crumbling floor. Catching a hold of it with my right hand, my left hand pulsed with a crackling bolt of lightning before ramming it into its body. The lightning sparks frizzante, followed by a sizzling pop as the skin scorched and a foul stench filled the air.
A loud thud indicated Michael had landed on the lower floor. The creature snarled and whipped its head towards me, flicking its saliva towards me. The caustic nature of its saliva made my own skin burn, like a piece of coal had been placed on it. Letting out a loud groan, I hammered repeatedly at its skin while still being airborne.
「Phase 1 — Forge」
The heavy metal ring that Albert had slipped into my pocket turned malleable before sliding out of pocket and slithered towards my hand. Using my knee, I turned the creature down and made it crash into the ground with me on top of it.
The impact, once again, cracked the floor and we were hurtling down again.
Focusing on the ring, I moulded it, taking a desirable shape. As I was doing so, Michael arrived and kicked the side of the creature. The shockwave from the impact broke every glass in the vicinity—computer screens, windows and even tables—expelling the creature and me both outside the building.
As the shards of glass rained down on me and we were expunged out, the light of the full moon finally revealed the creature. I felt my eyes widen for a fraction of an inch and panic surged from my guts.
Kicking it away from me, I created some distance as its meaty claws flailed in the air. Flipping backwards, I repositioned myself midair and Arcanum flowed through the nodes in my legs with a fast speed, allowing me to cushion the impact.
With a swish, Michael landed beside me, a thick layer of Arcanum augmenting his fists and legs while a thin, translucent sheen stuck as armour all around his body.
"It's surely dead, isn't it?" He asked without looking at me. "It fell from 40 stories, for crying out loud!"
I tilted my head. "If it was anything else, then it would've." I replied, taking an offensive stance as the ring that had turned ductile a while ago moulded itself in midair, like kneading a dough before taking on a coherent shape.
The shape of a knife. A double-edged blade with a symmetrical dagger-like profile, tapering to a sharp point. The blade was around 6 to 7 inches in length and was perfect for both stabbing and slashing. Or even better, really efficient at puncturing existing wounds. Perfect for the current scenario.
The handle of the knife was slender and cylindrical, with a symmetrical shape that fit in my hand like a glove. "Suit yourself."
As the dust settled, Michael was finally able to see it properly and I caught a glimpse of its form correctly as well.
Standing underneath a limping lamppost was an eight to nine feet tall, dark green quadrupedal creature with eerily long limbs and snout.
From the first impression it looked like a carnivorous reptile, almost similar in appearance to chasmosaurine dinosaurs.
The lack of eyes in its eye sockets greatly emphasised the two unblinking eyes, each one located at its shoulder. Its head had three lines or… runes that resembled straight lines—like Roman numerals—etched deeply into it, like a tattoo.
The side of its head had retractable membranous frills that extended outwards. As it did, it started vibrating. A force like the dull side of a knife scraping against the bone of my skull invaded me, making me wince back.
Clenching my teeth, I threw the knife at it. The knife lodged itself into the right frill as it let out a loud roar. Michael exploded from my side towards it. Taking a steady breath as the interference from the monster vanished, I lunged at it as well.
Flicking my hand backwards, the knife lodged itself out of its frill as Michael punched at it. Using its long front arm, it attacked and clawed at him, however, Michael simply side-stepped, letting the claw land on the road and break it. The force of the blow made the road cave in and the creature to stumble into the sudden dent it had placed.
With a huge grin on his face, Michael kicked the thick area of its long, slender front leg, which was its knee. Its bone creaked from the impact and a shockwave followed from it. It raised its snout upwards and roared in pain.
"Oh shut up, you fucking lizard dog."
Enjoying it so far, Michael punched it again, making it stumble backwards. Quickly stepping into the frantic and berserk clawing movements, he grabbed a hold of its back leg and elbowed it, breaking the bone and twisting the leg at a grotesque angle.
Its left frill opened once again.
It is going to try to convey a message once again.
Holding my palm towards it, I send a radio wave towards it. As it interacted with its own transmission, I matched the wavelength and balled my hand into a fist. The waves of same and different natures at the same frequencies collided and interfered with each other at the source, making its left frill explode.
Right before it could let out another screech, I boxed in, lowering my stance and stabbed its throat with my knife. Right where its vocal cords are supposed to be, I twisted my dagger and then slashed to the side like a C-section, opening up its throat. Withdrawing the dagger, I stood up and then stabbed the upper side of its neck, once again twisting it and then incising along the line of the tissue fibre, severing the thick muscles of the neck.
The half-severed neck dangled loosely before its body fell down with a loud thud, kicking up a small wave of sand.
"Good riddance." Michael spat, disgust visible on his face. "What on fucking earth was this anyways?"
Rubbing the blade against the handkerchief I had used to wipe my own blood earlier, I returned the knife to its original shape—a silver ring—and wore it on my ring finger of the right hand. Looking up at the sky… the moon, I heaved in a deep breath. "Can't exactly say but…" As I was racking my brain over it, he interrupted.
"Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?" The scorn in his voice was awfully palpable.
"No, I am not supposed to be anything." I replied. "Although from what I can tell it's something from Chinese folklore. If I remember correctly, they represent the grave sin of Gluttony." I pointed out at its mouth that it was agape.
"Oh I can tell it's gluttony. The fucker ate like 50 people upstairs."
I tilted my head once. "It didn't eat it." I spoke, crouching down. Using my left hand, I opened its mouth, revealing parts of people upstairs stored in the side of its mouth. "It's trying to take it for someone else." I felt my brows furrow. "But who?"
"Fuck knows." Michael spoke as he walked over and placed his foot on the creature's face. "But Chinese, eh? They're always up to some nasty shit."
I cocked my head. "It's not like they made it. It's a part of their culture. Folklore. Fables. Whatever you want to call it. Remnants of stories from Eden."
"Ye, ye, whatever, 'Mr. I am a nerd'. This thing got a name or something? Or we calling it a dino-doggy?"
"Wújìn Tānshí, is what they are called." I replied, remembering what I had read about them. "Translates literally to boundless hunger." I recalled. It made sense now. From the start, I had issues conducting my Arcane Arts. Why did I not think of it before?
"Wu—ehhh? Wugin?"
"Wújìn Tānshí." I corrected.
"For someone speaking fluent Chinese, you sure acted hella surprised when I talked in Korean."
Shrugging my shoulders, I replied. "Compulsory courses. Had to pick something practical. It is the most spoken language in the world, afterall. And it's called Mandarin not Chinese."
"Ye, ye, whatever. But the most spoken language is English for sure." He argued back with a snort. "An uneducated bas–" Before he could finish his sentence, a strong radio wave washed over the entire city.