“It’s here.”

Emily said as a last warning for everyone to get ready.

Kaan watched down the stairs as the monster slowly emerged on them. It took its time as it climbed the stairs as if it was sure its prey was going nowhere. It raised its hand on the right wall and stretched as long as it could. Kaan heard the sound of the stretching of the wall as it move upwards, the guttural sounds resembling breathing got closer.

Kaan saw the fresh blood sprayed on its face and on its chest, he swayed his head from right to left and smelled in a loud manner and then raised his head slowly towards Kaan. Its right ear along with its scalp was missing but the wound was covered with a black liquid.

Like its body, the werewolf's face was also withering, especially the fur covering its mouth area was already gone. It revealed the werewolf's damaged and decaying flesh underneath as it looked at Kaan. Its lips curled upwards to form a sinister smile as the bloodlust filled its eyes with the excitement of finding another prey.

When Kaan’s eyes met with the monster’s lifeless ones, the werewolf opened its mouth wide, the broken, dangling part of it stretched in an unnatural way and it was still containing the flesh of its last victim. Its damaged tongue reached out and as it growled swayed right to left in joy.

After that, it began to move quickly as it lunged towards Kaan, like a bug crawling towards its prey. Kaan swiftly turned back and began to run towards the Thar’s side, he could feel the warnings of his skill on his mind as the monster pursued him right behind.

It was a really strange experience, having a bloodthirsty monster right behind you. In a little mistake, you would be caught, torn into pieces and die. He had to admit its presence and actions must look scary, yet Kaan didn’t feel that much moved by its intimidating presence, he felt like he already lost his sense of fear by appearances as they were mostly deceiving.

It was his imagination which disturbed him as he thought how he could die again and again in various ways, probably watching it killing his team in brutal ways fed his mind with these thoughts. Was it the about the mentality of a prey to think about its death when a hungry predator was right behind it? Though he knew he wouldn’t be caught by it so could he call himself prey?

When Kaan reached Thar's side, Thar quickly swung the bat he was holding strongly towards the werewolf’s chest. The werewolf quickly raised its hand to block the incoming attack. With the power of the impact, the werewolf slightly slid back. It raised its head to look intruder who moved between him and its prey with murderous eyes and growled.

Thar waited after the first attack and when the werewolf lunged with its right claw he blocked it with the bat and sent a kick. The werewolf sensing its prey was stronger than the ones he hunted before, rather than ignoring the attack backstepped and examined the prey in front of him.

He didn’t seem to have any fear in his eyes as he looked at him with fierce and keen eyes and it didn’t like it. He eyed him as if he was the predator and it raised the bloodthirst the werewolf had for this wretched human in front of him. It growled loudly in rage and lunged at Thar once again.

Thar seeing the incoming attack quickly sidestepped and without giving a chance for a following attack kicked the werewolf in the abdomen, the werewolf once again moved slightly back with the impact but quickly regained its composure to continue its attack but when he lunged at Thar the ground suddenly began to shake…

Kaan looked at Emily when his job was done. He saw her on the ground with her hands touching the floor as she watched the fight between Thar and the undead werewolf with utmost focus. When the werewolf once again lunged towards, aiming Thar’s chest, she tightened her grip on the floor and closed her eyes. The ground under the werewolf collapsed loudly.

The werewolf, taken aback by the sudden feeling of loss of the ground under its feet and loss of momentum of its attack, tried to reach for Thar but he was already out of the range. The werewolf growled as it got stuck on the ground and tried to free itself quickly by pushing himself up but Thar without giving him any chance, swung the bat right at its head.

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The Werewolf raised its hands and grabbed the bat aiming his hand as he growled in rage and then try to pull Thar towards itself, opening its mouth wide. Thar smiled as he pull the bat back, the werewolf was not able to beat him in strength and tried to lunge with its open mouth but it was just a futile attempt. Emily who was free after using her skill to stick the werewolf and the ground, used [Force of Mind] to stop its head from moving too much to give Dean a better opportunity.

Dean who was watching the werewolf and Thar with sweaty hands in anticipation. Now that it was stuck on the floor, wriggling to set itself free as he dealt with Thar, he quickly dashed towards its way. He felt his heart beating loudly as he got closer to the werewolf, he thought what if he couldn’t do it right?

But when he stopped right behind the werewolf and raised his sword in front of him, he felt everything around him quietly dimmed. As if a cold wind washed through his body and cleaned any unnecessary obstacle, it was just his sword and the enemy in front of him. He raised his sword and slashed the Werewolf’s neck. It was much sturdier than he expected, the fur was acting like armour and its flesh was stout, but he didn’t wait and withdrew his sword from its neck to attack once again.

The werewolf feeling the intruder behind it and cut on its neck, began to move excessively but there was nothing he could do other than that. After the third swing of his sword, Dean was nearly halfway into the werewolf's neck. Although its injury the werewolf was still moving lively but Dean know it didn’t have a long time and raised his sword once again.

The werewolf trying to pull the bat Thar was holding suddenly pushed him off. With the sudden loss of force pulling him, Thar staggered back but quickly regained his stance. The werewolf crazily began to hit on the ground again and again, Dean didn’t give it much thought as he only needed two or three slashes to finish its job. His sword once again delve into its neck and then he once again

“Get away from there, the ground…!”

Dean heard Kaan shouting in urgency, to get away from the werewolf but Dean felt so close to finishing its job that he hesitated to listen to Kaan’s words, his feelings told him to continue but he gritted his teeth and in the end, decided to listen to Kaan’s words. After two steps away from the werewolf, the ground under his legs cracked nearly up to the beginning of the stairs and then he found himself on the first floor.

Life was really strange, Kaan thought as he watched the dust reaching and collapsed floor. You would make many plans and hope everything goes well but most of the time nothing goes as you planned. Wasn’t it strange that we hoped for the best even in the most unlikely situations?

Emily quickly rushed edge of the collapsed area to check on Dean and Thar.

“Dean and Thar, are you alright, do you hear me?”

Kaan was able to feel the anxiety in her voice as her eyes scanned the first floor. Kaan also had moved behind her and used [I See The Worst] to check their situations. The answer didn’t come for a few seconds but then Dean shouted back to her that he was alive.

Dean had a grim face as he looked at the big chunk of stone on his right leg but he still had serenity in this situation as he tried to save himself and glanced towards the side of the monster to see if it was in a better situation than them. Thar was under pieces of rubble but there was no big part on him, he looked more dumbfounded by the situation as he looked in front of him emptily.

Kaan hoped that he didn’t receive a head injury. As for the werewolf, its back was against the parts of the floor from the first collapse and its legs were stuck by the stones which he tried to save himself from.

Seeing them would be out of the action for a while, Emily decided to go down and finish the job before the werewolf saved itself but a hand held her before she could jump down.

“Let me finish this, you’re already exhausted by using your before. You can follow me after if you want.”

Kaan said looking at her state. Though she looked better in her complexion before they came into the building, it was easy to see she was worn out by excessively using her power.

Emily looked at him in the eye and for a while, she felt her worries and fear sucked up by these void eyes looking back to her. It didn’t bring a relief though, it just consumed and he felt so… empty, cold. She wondered how he could be so cold-blooded while, you know, Thar and Dean might have received serious injuries. Did he ever feel anything or was there really a skill like this?

When she first looked at them long enough in the supermarket, standing right next to Kaan she felt disquiet, frightened by those eyes but the owner of those empty eyes was the one who saved their asses, multiple times at that and right now what she felt was reassurance as they meant everything was under control. To think they only knew themselves for hours and to have this kind of trust was, strange. Was he also thought like that for the rest of the group she wondered. Killing people together and surviving believing each other must have helped in this.

“Alright, still be careful there, Kaan.”

Kaan lightly nodded and changed his looks towards the first floor.