Chapter 3: Fiend (2)
"Oh fuck."
...he tripped.
Hundreds of thoughts immediately ran inside Rando's mind as he fell. Thoughts like 'why did I look back?' or 'I should have just stayed inside my apartment' kept entering through his brain. But more importantly, there was a constant shouting from his heart that roused his body to take action.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.'
Rando definitely has a bad mouth, but that doesn't matter at this moment.
Immediately, Rando put his hands forward to catch the ground.
He was more or less familiar with this action. After all, not too long ago he was still doing burpees every morning. In spite of all the time that has passed, his muscles never forgot the feeling of jumping and pushing all the time, and so just like before, this time, his instincts immediately kicked in.
The moment Rando touched the ground while he was falling on the ground, he immediately pushed his hands forward using all his strength, in order to stand right back up again and start running.
From an outsider's point of view, the action of pushing oneself off the ground and immediately starting running again looked as if Rando executed it perfectly. But Rando knew deep inside that he had gotten a little bit rusty.
He forgot to lunge forward and didn't get the appropriate boost, he didn't use his legs which would have made the jump a bit more stable than when only using his hands, and his palms received small but several cuts from the impact.
But besides all that, he still managed to stand back up nevertheless, and that is all that matters to Rando right now.
It took Rando a moment to balance himself before he sprinted forwards once more.
However, unlike Rando, the slimy creature behind him didn't trip and fall. No, in fact, it continued to run and managed to accelerate so much that it actually got too close near him, just within arm's length, before immediately sending a hand towards him to grab onto his leather jacket.
While Rando was just starting to accelerate, a hand suddenly touched his jacket from behind and grabbed it, sending shivers down his spine. Although the hand was not strong enough to pull Rando, the slime existence strangely managed to pierce its hand into the back of his leather jacket, before it crashed into a wall in front of its path.
"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck."
Bites probably wouldn't pierce through his jacket, but claws can.
*Riiip~*
The sound of leather ripping apart scared the living daylights out of Rando, and it was then that he realized that--
'Its so strong!'
The hands of the outstretched arm grabbed Rando's jacket, dug its nails in, and ripped apart his jacket.
'Fuck, are the nails sharp? Is that hand a claw? How did it tear my jacket?'
In the state of panic, Rando did not realize that he was slowing down. His breathing started to become rugged out of shock and his legs shuddered ever so slightly from the sound of ripping.
However, unlike Rando, the stunned slime existence who crashed into a wall didn't pay much attention to its temporary halt and continued to move again a few seconds later.
Some of the arms and legs attached at the forefront of the blood red slime contorted so much because of the crash, but it didn't even bat an eye to its broken and bleeding limbs. Actually, it even looked more hideous now.
Rando, who was still running in a daze from the near-death experience he just went through, unconsciously looked behind him to look at the bloody existence that was starting to run and saw something that nearly made him puke.
Even during the war, the corpses that Rando saw were at most just filled with holes due to bullets and/or had blown up his arms or legs due to grenades and explosions.
But never before in his whole life did he ever imagine to see a blown up head, bursting intestines being dragged across the rocky road, and arms suddenly having more than one joint in real life.
There's more of where that came from. But Rando still needs to pay attention at hand
Anyway, Rando could only push down the rising stomach acid down his throat because it was--
'--definitely not the time to puke right now.'
Rando suddenly realized that his mistake of slowing down could make him the next bursting dead body attached to the bloody monster, and so he immediately picked up his pace and sprinted on the streets, immediately reaching the next street before turning once again.
This time, he didn't look back.
The slime existence behind him still hadn't learned its lesson, or maybe it can't, as it accelerated once more in order to catch up to the human that has disappeared to the next street.
The bloody existence chased after Rando again, leaving a small but noticeable blood trail behind itself from its attached body parts having big, open wounds.
It looks like a scene from a horror movie after the monster has eaten a character and their bones, flesh, and blood is left on the floor.
Except, the existence didn't leave behind neither bones nor flesh. Sure, some bones were piercing out from the flesh of its limbs, but it is slowly yet visibly going back in. It seems like the existence is trying to heal itself.
It recognized that it needed to absorb back the bones and flesh to be healed, and that it needed to absorb this human in order to get stronger.
That is because the limbs and heads that are part of the existence came from the littered corpses thrown away by other existences.
This type of existence is called a Collector, a kind of existence that specializes in collecting body parts, human or non-human, in order to get stronger. Torsos, limbs, heads, even if it is just fingers on the road, it will try to collect it to attach to itself. It is kind of like a self-learning computer that collects information from various sources in order to become more intelligent. As a collector existence grows in both size and flesh and bones, it will slowly learn how to better use and manipulate its body parts and therefore become even stronger and faster.
Of course, in the meantime, Rando doesn't know that yet.
'Shit, how do I kill this thing?!'
Although he didn't look back, Rando was sure the collector existence had already reached the street he was on and was already chasing after him. He still hadn't figured out what to do, and he needs to do so immediately, otherwise...
'I will die if I just keep running!'
Rando kept shouting at himself in his mind as he tried to rationalize what he is experiencing and what he needs to do. Faced with a helpless situation, it is human nature to find a way out.
Commonly, one would try to escape, but Rando...
'Wait, can I even kill this thing?'
...chose to solve the puzzle instead.
Well, he can't really escape, so one could think that maybe he's just forced to solve his puzzling problem.
'That's the convenience store! It's still intact!'
Just a few houses in front of him is a small store with quite a large open window that was built a meter higher from the ground. In times of peace, this store would be packed with food and meat and wine and whatnot, and there would probably be at least one customer at a time to buy stuff, but the store is almost empty now.
At least, that was what Rando could see.
Rando, having regained hope of survival, sprinted faster than before in order to reach the store ahead of time, while the slime existence behind him was still not that fast as it just turned a street. But the slime collector was already picking up its pace rapidly, and is now chasing just right behind him.
Nervousness spread throughout Rando's body, but his resolve to survive, although not strong enough to kill the blood collector, was enough to keep his body moving.
Rando glanced at the axe he was holding, his mind wanted to throw the axe away towards the blood red collector in order to see if it could kill the monster, he also just wanted to let go of it as it was weighing him down just so he could run faster than he currently was.
'But I have to hold onto it.'
The axe just might be the key to determine which head would be cut off.
Rando noticed that the glass windows of the store were already shattered as he was nearing it. The window wasn't that big, it is quite small if you think about it, but it was definitely enough to fit Rando.
Well, that's if he jumped and ducked at the same time.
'Can I do it?'
Doubts started to form inside Rando's mind. He was in no way an acrobat, a daredevil, or a parkour person-err, artist, whatever. He was barely out of college when he was drafted for the military. All he got from his training from the army were muscles and perhaps nothing more. Maybe gun training but certainly not stunts like from the movies.
But--
'--no. I HAVE to do it.
The small sticks of courage started to burn inside the heart of Rando. Although small, it was enough to find the will to live.
Finally, with the collector just within a few meters behind him, Rando leaped towards the window. His body's reaction was quite phenomenal as he immediately ducked at the same time in order to fit into the window. In his mind, shouts started to sound.
'I want to live!'
'I want to live!'
'I want to live!'
'I want to live!'
'I want to---'
Just as he was jumping, the slime existence stretched a hand and got hold of Rando's left shoe. It ripped apart easily like his jacket. His bare foot soon then became visible, and the slime existence stretched another hand over to grab his foot.
'What?!'
Rando instinctively retracted both his feet before the shock even came to his mind. He dropped inside the store and rolled on the ground. He immediately pushed himself up from the floor and ran towards the first door that he saw before going inside.
*Click*
Thankfully, the lock was still intact, so Rando swiftly locked the door.
He leaned on the metal door and started to pant.
'Damn it. How did things get this bad?'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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