As Ramie stood his ground, to defend his life, Lance's expression changed.
He charged back, chasing the creature, and wanting to catch it before it reaches Ramie and the immobile Neil.
In these critical moments, Ramie knew that Lance won't make it back in time.
This was the creature's last outburst of action before its inevitable demise, so it went all out, disregarding everything else!
Ramie knew that he would die if he tried to escape, as the creature was simply very fast for him to outrun.
'You wanna take my life…? I'll take yours first!'
Thus, as the creature unleashed its last outburst of remaining strength, and leapt toward him… Ramie steeled his heart, and stabbed forward using the screwdriver, toward the leaping figure.
Time slowed down… Ramie felt his entire life flashes before his bloodshot eyes.
It was strange… as he wondered in his heart on how was it possible for him remember two decades worth of memories in such short while…
He saw it all… felt it all…
It was as if these moments were stretched out to a very long… long time…
He even started wondering at some point on when the sharp teeth would arrive at him.
He however did not have to wonder anymore, as finally, it came…
But it wasn't the sharp teeth.
He felt his hand hit something hard. On the same time, a massive force struck his left shoulder…
Bang!
Ramie felt as though he was hit by a speeding truck, feeling the raw kinetic energy spreading to the rest of his body, and sending him off the ground.
His field of vision changed, and started rotating, making him feel as though he was a weak leaf being tossed around by a violent wind.
Then, he felt himself smash against something hard, before seeing the ground approach his eyes quickly.
Finally, the movement stopped. And his vision stopped rotating…
He blacked out for a moment, before recovering back.
His thoughts were in disarray, his vision blurry, and his ears were buzzing.
For a few seconds, he didn't remember anything, not even why he was in such condition on the floor.
Slowly, his senses started coming back to him.
He felt a terrible pain in his left shoulder, as for his left arm, he couldn't feel a thing in it, except numbness.
He found that he was on the ground two meters away from his original position.
He pushed the ground with his right arm, trying to sit, and he looked at the creature.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The creature was writhing about on the ground in great agony, like a fish out of water. A screwdriver could be seen protruding off its head side.
Just as Ramie lifted his head up, Lance brought the knife that Ramie had throw it at the creature to force it away from the motionless Neil.
He held it, pointing downward, and using it like a dagger, wanting to finish off the creature. But he decided against it in the last second, as the creature started losing it strength. It was apparently going to die.
Seconds afterward, the creature gave one last violent wriggle, and gave Ramie an intense, hateful glare that was oozing with savageness and fury, before going still… dead!
"It actually ended…! And…! I lived through it…?!"
Ramie could not believe it! … He was not dead…!
Turned out… he had actually stabbed the creature on the head… delivering a crippling injury to the creature, which probably stopped it from claiming his life.
But on the same time, the creature had smashed against his shoulder with a momentum enough to throw him two meters away… which spoke of the strength of this thing!
Seeing the corpse of the creature laying still, the fact that he had survived this ordeal finally settled in.
He had survived…!!!
He leaned with his back against the wall, looking at Neil to see his condition, as Lance made his way to him.
It was simply too bizarre…
The creature's eyes shone momentarily, like a blinking flashlight, and the next thing… Neil was on the ground, petrified! Not moving a muscle… for no apparent reason whatsoever! Not even when the creature tried to finish him off!
However, just as Ramie was looking over toward Neil, the intense feeling of coldness in his hand intensified even further!
It spread to all of his hand, and then started crawling up his left arm, all the way to the shoulder!
"What is happening??!!"
Unable to make sense of the unnatural occurrence, Ramie felt flabbergasted.
The coldness started spreading to all of his body, his head included.
Then, the moment the coldness reached his head, an intense feeling of pain similar to what had happened to him back on the boat kicked in again, causing him to growl in agony.
This feeling lasted few seconds, before disappearing, completely! As if it didn't exist at all!
"What is wrong with me…???"
Then....!
Before Ramie could recover from it!
He felt a faint stream of coldness, originate from his left hand and move in great speed to his head, flashing across his mind.
Then, he felt a slight vibration around his left wrist!
On the same time, lines of information appeared in his mind out of nowhere…
< You have killed a magical beast! You have encountered magic! >
< Magic artifact has been activated! >
- Lv.1 Magic Artifact (16%)
< Activating path! >
- Path: Bloodline Magician
< Activating class! >
- Class: Subterranean Ghost Tree (Special)
< Estimating the user's magic energy units… >
- Magic energy: 9 units
< Identifying the user's innate spell… >
- Innate Spell: Unknown
< Unlocking the first spell… >
- Spell: Morphing (permanent) /inactive
< Reassessing stats… >
- Name: Ramie
- Lv.1 Magic Artifact (16%)
- Path: Bloodline Magician
- Class: Subterranean Ghost Tree (Special)
- Magic Energy: 9
- Innate Spell: Unknown
- Spells: Morphing (permanent) /inactive
"What the…?!"
Ramie fell in daze… he didn't know what to make out of this unexpected development…?
Suddenly, a certain thought sparked in his mind: "Magic artifact…!!! Wait a second! Didn't the voice say…?"
However, before he could pursue this thought, he felt a sudden, momentary vibration in his left wrist again!
Looking at his wrist, his mind went blank…
Out of nowhere, a bracelet appeared, wrapped around his left wrist!!
"How in the…"
"…"
The bracelet gave off an ancient aura, like a rare antique. It was silver in color, with a gem embedded in it. There was also three other smaller gems that were studded around the big one.
Ramie was taken, staring at the bracelet, stupefied.
However the weird sequence of events wasn't stopping just yet!
The bracelet vibrated for a moment. And Ramie felt an abrupt, inexplicable feeling… as if an invisible connection was established between the bracelet and him.
Then, without a warning, the corpse's head of the creature that was lying still in its place, shock slightly, before something shoots out of it, causing a hole to appear at the forehead.
The thing came flaying toward Ramie!
Ramie was still lost as he was staring at his wrist.
However, in the corner of his eye, he noticed the sudden occurrence happening to the creature!
Without thinking, he held his hand up in front of his face in a quick in defensive motion, to protect himself!
The thing flew directly toward his hand, landing in his hand without resistant!
"WHAT THE…!!!"
Ramie was shocked, terribly; he flinched hard, jumping, and then swung his hand, throwing the thing away!
This sudden, development had completely caught him off guard.
He was already trying to process the strange sequence of events. Then, he felt something flew toward him from the supposedly 'dead creature!'
It had be said, That the terror the creature had caused him was yet to wear off from his heart, and now something came flying at him from the 'corpse!'
This made him think that creature was playing dead all along, and now it took the chance to finish him off!
Jumping up, standing, he staggered away, toward Lance and Neil.
Lance did not miss this development, holding a nearby chair; he stood before the still immobile Neil, ready to react in a heartbeat.
Ramie moved close to him and turned to look at the creature in high alarm.
Moments passed… the creature however, still didn't make any other movement, lying in its place.
At this point both Ramie and Lance noticed the small hole in the creature's forehead.
But none of them wanted to move closer to creature.
Lance threw the chair toward the creature to see if would react or it was really dead.
Bang!
The chair smashed on the creature's head, then rolled away…
The creature's head caved in on one side, but it was still not responding…
"This damn thing…"
Only now did Ramie let out a sigh of relief, this time around, the creature was definitely dead!
However to make sure, Lance moved toward it, and stabbed its head to make sure.
The knife pierced the head all the way toward the handle!
"Finally…!" seeing the non-responsive creature, Lance muttered under his breath.
Ramie sat on the ground to pick up his breath.
From the moment they he saw the creature lurking in the shadow inside the bedroom to attacking them till now, only few minutes had passed!
These minutes were unquestionably the most intense minutes in his lifetime!
He then lay on the ground and closed his eyes, to calm down his disarrayed thoughts.
His heart was pounding like a war drum, as if he had just sprinted for hours, nonstop.
The intensity of the experience was too overwhelming. And he needed time to process it.
Unfortunately, time was not something he had right now. Just after few seconds of closing his eyes, he opened them abruptly!
They were still in the room!
It had to be said that the commotion caused by the confrontation was loud! The creatures screeches, the breaking of the furniture, and all the tossing!
A lot of noise was issued from this apartment.
And if there was another creature in the same floor, building or even close by, and picked up on the noise; then they might not be lucky enough to come out alive again.
Especially if the noise attracted one of the really, really strong creatures that caused even the military to suffer greatly!
Realizing the severity of the situation, Ramie turned to Lance.
"Mr. Lance! The previous fight caused a lot of commotion! And am afraid…" Ramie spoke to Lance in urgent tone.
"I know..."
Saying so, Lance picked up the immobile Neil, and moved toward the apartment door.
Ramie picked up the water bottles, and the noodles back from the ground; which was smashed into small pieces inside the sac due to the earlier fight.
His eyes then fell on a small shiny object across the room. And for some inexplicable reason, he felt attracted toward the thing.
He walked over, squatted, and started inspecting the object.
It was an oval shaped, colorless, translucent gemstone, the size of a large grape. There were still traces of blood on it.
Having seeing the blood, Ramie was a bit taken. Apparently, this small ruby was the very same thing that flew toward him from the head of the creature!
Ramie decided to take it with him, to inspect it further later on.
At first, he had though that this object was the final attack of the beast, but seeing it with his eyes, and knowing that the beast was dead all along, he decided to take it with him, to inspect it.
He tore off a piece of clothes from the furniture sheets, and folded it several times, before using it to pick the oval ruby up, wrap it with the clothe and put it in his pocket.
Following Lance out, Ramie silently closed the outer door, in case something sneaked from outside the building through the windows, and tried to get out from the apartment into the building.
He was utterly exhausted, and Neil was still not moving.
They weren't in a condition for another life and death confrontation, not now at least!
Ramie hoped that no creature heard the earlier commotion… he didn't want to think what would happen if that was the case…
…