Chapter 5: Chapter 5. First Encounter
The two monsters reached the gate, holes in their bodies. They fell down with dark colored blood-like liquid all over them. The guards hurriedly closed the entrance gate. With the gate closed, everyone was breathing again.
Several people came to help pick up the woman and her children. She was saying thank you repeatedly. She and her children were brought to one of the couches.
"Look! Look! They... they're not human," a tenant who went near the thick glass door pointed at the two monsters corpses.
Many people got close and took a good look. Murmurs were heard everywhere. I probably could not understand what they were saying, but judging from their reactions I assumed they now saw what I had already surmised from much earlier. Even though I was quite certain that they were not human but I was glad when I could confirmed it up closed like this.
What was I thinking? How could I be glad at a time like this?
The monster's skin was nothing like us. If I had to make a comparison then I'd say that they looked like a soft layer of scales. The scales were almost transparent. The layer of scales was only apparent from this distance. I counted that they have only four fingers on each hand and feet. Both hands and feet were also larger than ours. Much larger. They weren't wearing shoes. Judging by their size it would be tough getting any shoes that could fit. Their nails were nothing like ours. The shape was like cheetah's claw with length about 1 to 2 inches. Those nails would be more appropriately called claws. I guessed this was their main weapon. Judging from the thickness of the claws, it would be a frightening weapon.
In addition to all that, another significant apparent difference was their faces. Definitely no way to mistake them as human.
The monster's face was like a mutated human. Its jaw was wide and looked very strong. I wasn't kidding when I thought they could probably chew turtle shell with such a jaw. Its nose was slanted upward, like a deformed pig. Its eyes were big and eyebrows thick. Its hair was lush but untidy. The other one had the same big and muscular body and type of the face except for being bald but bearded heavily.
'What is that?' I uttered inside my head.
On top of each of their fallen bodies there was a translucent but darkish tiny marble-like things. If people were not paying attention it was easy to miss them. People might mistake them as part of the body. Like a tumor or something of that resemblance. However, I was paying attention thoroughly from the start. That translucent darkish marbles weren't there before. They only appeared after the monsters were dead. Such a weird, dying after-effect. It was probably natural for them, so I dismissed it.
When the people were busy looking at the corpses, I glanced a look at the security who had firearms. The two of them were talking to each other in a low voice. I saw one of them holding his pistol and checking the cartridge. So, they were having problem with ammunition, I thought to myself.
It was normal and to be expected. Ammunitions were regulated and limited to prevent abuse. Normal security guards didn't carry extra ammunition for doing their daily job. There was no need for it. Firearms were rarely used.
At this time, I suddenly heard the surrounding people gasped. I followed their gaze and was also stunned. There were several monsters appearing from the roads and buildings nearby!
My first guess would be the sound of gunshots attracted them. One by one they moved toward the hotel. If there were only two or three of them, I wouldn't this worry but it seemed more than five had already appeared. I was afraid to continue counting after that.
"So many of them...," the voices trembled.
The people inside hotel lobby were backing away from the door as the monsters were closing in. Their eyes intensely looked inside. They didn't even take a look at their comrade corpses, focusing all their attention on us.
"What should we do?" one of the tenant asked in trembling voice.
Bang!
One of the monster started banging at the entrance gate. And then the few others were banging too. The sound was deafening. It was deafening to the ears and numbing our hearts. Their strength was surely above us human. Some of them started clawing at the glass door. The sound of their claws against our only protection was heart-wrenching. It was literally taking our breath away.
Bang! Screeech! Bang! Bang! Screeeeeech!
When every each of the monsters increased their power, the sound made several people passed out from fear.
The glass, no matter how thick, would not seems to be able to hold out if it kept getting battered like this. On the monsters side, I could have swore I see delight on their faces. It was so weird to see glee mixed with savageness on their expression.
Unconsciously I reached for the box containing the sword I bought for my grandfather.
The security guards were yelling something to us and the staff hurriedly translated to us non-Korean, "We have to get to the 5th floor. The doors starting from 5th floor are only a few and made from metal. It is safe there until help comes."
'Help?' I said faintly. They were still hoping for help after this long? The police, the army or anyone in charge should've been sweeping the city from hours ago if that was the case. I highly doubt they were in control of the situation now.
"Hurry up. Hurry up!" with the hotel staff guiding them, the others were gathering and started moving toward the elevator. The staff said something and they now moved toward the emergency stairs instead. Some people were helping the others who passed out. The glass door seemed to be ready to break any moment now. The guards were hurrying everyone.
"Going up?" I thought to myself. I had to return to my grandparents. How was holding up on a hotel soon to be swarmed by monsters going to help me achieve my goal? I made my decision. I opened the gift wrapped box I was carrying and took out the sword.
At that time, suddenly the door from the kitchen far away was kicked open. It was a swing door and it was broken immediately. Our eyes all saw what would be our nightmare, if we were not in one already.
A monster was standing at the door. It was looking at us. I could just imagine what it was thinking, 'livestocks, where are you going?'
People started yelling and screaming, running toward the emergency stairs faster than before. However there were too many of us. The monsters at the entrance glass gate were ecstatic and they were banging and clawing more vigorously.
And then the monster at the kitchen door started to charge toward us.
One of the security guard immediately fired his pistol. The deafening sound was once again reverberated. It missed the target and at the same time made the shooter the focus of attention of the monster.
That agitated monster jumped over tables and couches, going straight line toward the security guard. It was not fast, I thought it was a bit slow as a matter of fact, however it was definitely very focus. It crashed through some wooden tables and still went on the path.
Looking at the destroyed tables, the guard supervisor, holding his pistol, was also shooting at the monster. He was more successful compared to his subordinate. His bullets hit the monster. That monster was slowed down to almost a stop. It was in obvious pain. However the supervisor seemed to have emptied his ammo, so he immediately reloaded.
Then, another monster appeared at the broken kitchen door. It was obvious that at this time the loading area must have been broken through.
By this time, a lot of people already got through the door to the emergency exit. I followed the crowd. Before turning toward the door, I slipped by and went through different path. I followed it up until in front of me was a small store. It sold apparels, bags and shoes. Usually it was frequented by hotel guests, tourists who needed certain things for special places that they weren't originally planning to go. I remembered this place because Susan mentioned it once during our conversation.
There were no one here. I looked around and found what I'm looking for. I took down a small size backpack from a display then laid it down side by side with my luggage. I moved several of my clothes and necessaties from my luggage to the backpack. I left everything else along with the luggage. There was no way I could run freely and safely with such a big luggage. I left all of my office stuff in it except for a usb where I always put backup of my work every night.
I left the money for the bag on top of my luggage. Although the price of my laptop that I left behind alone could cover the price of the backpack I took, I did not feel too good just taking without paying anything at all.
At that time I didn't hear any yell or scream anymore. It seemed the people had already gone up. I had to get out of this hotel before it was overran by the monsters.
I left the store and moved toward another back entrance. A hotel this big should have its own power generators for back up and that could lead to another exit.
I found the entrance to the room and hurriedly entered it. It had short stairs going down. I looked around. Good things the light was still working so I did not end up in the dark. It was easy to see the other door. That should be the exit. I was happy and hurriedly walk toward it. However, when I got to the door, I was disappointed because it was locked.
Well, it made sense. If it wasn't locked it would be silly. Now I had to look for the key. It should be somewhere in the only office available in this area. So I made my way there.
There was only one desk, several chairs, a table and a couple of lockers in the room. On the wall near the desk several sets of keys was hanged.
"Gotcha!"
One of them should be the key to unlock the exit door. I took all of them down and started to walk toward the door when suddenly a loud bang was heard.
Someone was banging on the exit door. I stood frozen. That hard banging definitely was not a human. "What a great timing!" I cursed.
I couldn't go back inside the hotel since it should now be crawling with monsters who broke through the entrance door. The sound of banging was very loud and it was coming at fast irregular rhythm. I guessed there were more than one monster at the door.
The banging was so loud I was afraid it would attract other monsters inside the hotel. But what could I do to prevent it? Almost nothing! The only thing I could do was to hide myself now. Without wasting any more time I crouched down behind the desk. I unsheathed my sword. It was the only thing that could be called a weapon here. It might not be in the quality of real sword used for combat but it would have to be sufficient for now. At least this sword was made to be used in a sport activity, not for decoration only, so it had some strength.
The banging got louder and now mixed with the sound of metal creaking. Bombarded with this many strong hits, the door would not hold out for long. I did not think the monsters would have such strength. This kind of door, even 10 normal humans, wouldn't be able to break it down without using some kind of tools.
BANG!
And then, the door was broken down.
Since I was crouching down under the desk, I had no way of telling exactly how many monsters went through the door. I did hear the sound of their movements though. They were not subtle at all. Well, why would they need to be? One on one, they could butchered us human.
The only thing that would tip the balance was if we use weapon. Long range one would be better, and as noiseless as possible. A bow came to mind. I looked at my sword, this was all I have right now. It had to suffice. I was glad that my grandfather liked swords. Imagine what would happen if he liked cooking instead?
The sound of them moving from the exit door to the door leading to the inside of the hotel had started to subside. It seemed they had all gone through. I waited for a full minute before doing anything. Then slowly I tried to take a peek.
It was empty.
I gathered my courage and stood up from under the desk. As I was about to exit the small office, my eyes caught a movement. As fast as I could I slammed my body down the floor.
Did it see me? I was sure that another one of them just appeared at the exit door. Not sure whether it saw me or not. I did not have the chance to go under the desk, which was at the far end of this small office, so right now I was crouching under the partition wall.
There was sound of movements. The monster did not go to the door leading to hotel inside but it went nearer to the small office. It probably caught sight of me or my movement. That monster was moving faster as it reached in front of the small office. It should be very near to me now and it did not slow down.
I was holding my breath. I felt like my heart was beating too loud. You see, I wasn't someone particularly strong. I was fit, yes, since I liked and did sport, however, I was never the fighting kid. But I knew that I had to deal with this. There was no way it wouldn't see me when it turned around. I couldn't expect it to walk backward, could I?
I saw its big ugly foot when it crossed the threshold of the partition wall. The big ugly foot with claws passed me by. It still did not see me.
'Now!'
I braced myself and lifted myself up. The monster saw me jump from the corner of its eyes but it was too late for it. My body arched with my waist as my center and then my sword swung down. It came with every strength I got and sliced its neck.
Unfortunately, the sword was not sharp enough to cut through it but the wound was long enough for blood to pour out like flood.
"Zeeee...," the monster seemed shocked. Not only were the monster ugly, it even sounded awful. It tried to cover its wound, however I didn't give it any chance. I swung my sword once more and this time it made a big wound in its chest.
It growled and looked at me with savageness. I regretted not having sharper sword. At the same time I also suspected that the reason of my failure to cut through it twice was because the monster body was tougher than us human.
Since the monster also had a humanoid physique, I then stabbed it at the place where the heart was for normal humans. This time I succeeded.
The monster was staggering and then it fell down. A look of dissatisfaction was all on its face. Its savageness dimmed, its life gone.
Then, at that time, an arm swung at me. I barely had enough time to throw myself on the floor and slided under the table.
It was another one of the monster! How could I miss it?
I blamed myself for this recklessness. My sword was still embedded on the first monster, and I had no weapon with me. The previous fight took a lot of courage on my part. My adrenaline was pumping wildly. I tried to steady myself to face this second monster.
The monster leaped on the table. It growled at me, looking very mocking. It thoroughly looked down on me, like I was some kind of insect to it. It did not even care that I just killed one of its kind. There was no hatred in its eyes, I was simply not worthy. It only had a jeering face with saliva drooling down its jaw.
The monster swung its arm downward. It was aiming to crush my head. I put my feet on the underside of the table and then used every strength I had to lift it up. The monster lost its balance and was thrown off the table. It scowled and landed upside down near the door.
I picked up a chair and threw it at the monster. It was trying to stand up but still managed to block the chair with one arm. Even though it did block the chair but the monster seemed to get hurt by it.
This told me something I suspected. The monsters might be strong but they were still flesh and bones. They felt pain!
The monster being in pain gave me a little bit time. I stepped on the corpse of the first monster and pulled my sword. The second monster now already stood up and charged at me without delay. Although it did not move fast but because our distance was small it was covered in an instant. I swung my sword to its neck. The monster was not afraid at all and swung its hand.
Clank! My sword met with the monster claws in the air.
My hands went numb and trembling because of the impact. The sword was broken into two parts. The break was almost near the hilt.
I was shocked to see this. The monster's claws were comparable to metal? However the monster was not without damage, as well. It was holding its arm down so I could not see clearly how much damage did it suffer. The monster was growling in a low voice. It seemed the damage was not light.
'A chance! All or nothing!' I said to myself.
Before the monster was ready I charged ahead while holding what was left of my sword. The short part of the broken sword lodged in the monster's neck. It screamed in pain and using a backhand hit me on the chest. I managed to block it, but still was thrown back and fell on the floor next to the corpse of the first monster.
The pain was terrible. My arms felt like broken in pieces and my chest felt like getting hit by a boulder. I had trouble breathing from my nose and had to breath through my mouth. I tried to get up but the pain slowed me down a lot.
The monster was pouring blood massively. It seemed that I hit an artery as brownish blood was flooding the monster body and clothes. The monster was swaying, probably lost balance because of losing so much blood at such a short time.
It now looked at me with hatred. Now I was its enemy. This insect had hurt it.
I gritted my teeth and snarled tauntingly, "Got you!"
"Zeeeeee!"
"Yeah! Screw you too!" a useless banter but I still did it anyway. It made me feel better.
I managed to get up by holding on a chair. But the monster in front of me, despite bleeding profusely, scowled in madness and lunged at me. It went crazy and wanted to kill me with its dying strength. It wanted me to accompany it into the abyss of death. Disregarding the pain in my chest I pulled the chair and slammed it against the monster.
The chair was smashed, broken by a swing of the monster's arm, but it didn't stop the beast. I fell down because I didn't have any energy left. The monster also crashed into me, pinning me down. It wanted to claw me but the floor prevent this move and the beast was losing strength. It was still struggling to move though, so I swung my hand and stabbed the back of its neck with what was left of the chair on my hand.
I could hear the monster low growl directly next to my ear before it changed into heavy sigh. Another muffled growl and then silent. It died.
I had to get away from here as soon as possible before any more monster appeared. So I summoned my strength and tried to push it away. At that time the dark translucent marble-like thing emerged from the chest of the dead monster. Because of our close proximity, the marble-like thing directly touch my chest. I managed to push the beast away but, at that time, the marble-like thing detached from it.
"What?" I was stunned when I saw the thing detached and fell on my chest.
I grabbed it with my trembling hand and brought it close to my eyes. The look of this tiny translucent marble was fascinating. It felt like I was holding a rubbery ball. Certain aura was transmitted by it but I could not understand it. Neither could I continue to observe it because my hand was shaking so badly.
I lost my strength and on the way to losing my consciousness. My body was limping down the floor. The translucent darkish marble slipped through my fingers. It fell down right into my opened mouth. I could not stop it. Well, I did not have enough energy to care. The marble melted right after touching my tongue.
My body jerked slightly, and then I started floating in the air. I had no control of my body at all. In that instance a booming voice was suddenly heard in my head.
"Human Shi Huicheng, you have open the first door to my realm. I am your god!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone