They waited for a while to see if whatever was outside would continue, but it seems like whatever it was that made that sound stopped. Only when Riku thought it was safe did he stopped covering Eliza's mouth and he apologized.
"Sorry about that."
"It's fine, anyway, what the hell was that."
"I'm not sure, let's go check it out."
Riku suggested as he turned on his phone's flashlight, Eliza took the bat Riku gave her as she followed him. They source of the sound came from the entrance, just as they were approaching, they noticed a nearly 2ft tall hole on the door and the shutter, bloody footprints of an animal of some sorts can be seen before it disappears.
"We should block the hole first before we start looking for, whatever that creature that managed to break that security shutter." Eliza said as she started pushing whatever can block that.
Riku thought it was useless looking at the other "barricades" they used scattered on the floor, but it must've been for the false sense of security that's keeping Eliza calm. Compared to Eliza, he was actually quite calm, thanks to the passive skill he could calmly analyze the footprints.
"The size of the hole seems to have come from a large dog, but the footprints, doesn't match one. Has the world started changing?" He thought to himself as he helped Eliza. He wasn't an expert on animals, but he at least didn't know that there were no dog breeds with paws like that.
"So, do you have any idea what the creature is?" Just as they finished Eliza asked.
"No, I don't recognize the footprints." He sighed as he answered the question. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be feeling relief that it was small or if he should be scared that it managed to break in.
"It's a small creature, it probably has a strong body, but it's not stronger than steel and was probably injured." He thought to himself.
A few steps away from the bloody footprints were drops of blood. Eliza, who wouldn't cause that much damage swinging a bat with one hand, decided to simply hold the two phones and light the way for Riku who was holding his two hatchets as he led the way.
They followed the trail of blood, which only led them in between a shelf that was far from the entrance and a wall. No blood could be seen and that was when Eliza pulled the hems of Riku's clothes as she pointed to top of the shelf. There were dark red eyes that shone with anger. Eliza immediately pointed the flashlight to where it was and the creature at the same time jumped at her just before the light hit the creature.
Riku, who wasn't that far from Eliza pushed her aside and in the ended was pinned under the creature. His shoulder was scratched and he was almost bitten, but he ended up holding what seems to be the creature's mouth. They were in the in an awkward position, Riku was holding the creature's mouth with one hand while his other hand was trying to stop the creature's two arms.
"Eliza! Help me!" He screamed.
The pain in his shoulder was increasing he left his strength disappearing, he knew that if he let go of either the arms or mouth he'll die so he screamed for help.
Eliza, who was in a dazed state, woke up thanks to Riku's scream. She was shaking from fear as she immediately started running away. Seeing this Riku couldn't help but curse.
"G*dd*mn it!" He felt regret.
He regrets the fact that he saved her, he regrets his weakness but most of all he regrets the fact that he underestimated the creature. When there's an animal that is smaller than humans, chances are humans will view it as small and weak, Riku was one of those humans, the moment he knew that it was quite small he thought of it as weak. He couldn't help it, just like what they say seeing is believing. Besides, he didn't think that the animals would evolve this early on.
"If I knew I was gonna die to a rat, I would've just let the zombies eat me with my parents." He thought to himself.
He wasn't giving up, it's just that no matter how he tried he couldn't see how he'll be able to kill it. The pain in his shoulder was increasing and he was becoming weaker, the scales were now leaning towards the creature.
"Arghhhh!"
Just as he felt his grip on the creature getting loose, he heard a scream filled with desperation and fear and the sound of footsteps approaching them fast. Thanks to the light from the phone which slid away a while ago he could see that it was Eliza running with a bat in her hands.
She swung the bat towards the creature's sides which made it fall on Riku's side. Riku, instinctively took his two hatchets and swung it to where he could see the creature's dark red eyes.
He felt the hatchet pierced what he thought was the skull and the creature no longer moved.
It was only then did he lay on his back and felt the intense pain from moving his shoulders, but more than that he felt happiness as he fell asleep he heard an announcement in his head he couldn't hear everything though.
[Congratulations! You are now level 3 and you have gained an additional 3 status points and 2 skill points]
[You-]
Seeing the dark red eyes and feeling the intense pain as the creature scratched him, Riku suddenly sat straight up before feeling the pain in his shoulder.
"You should rest for a while, I could only perform some basic treatment on your shoulder. Luckily the scratch didn't go that deep." Eliza said after getting surprised by Riku's sudden movement.
Riku looked at his shoulder only to see his shoulder covered with torn clothing wrapped around his shoulder.
"I didn't have any gauze, I only had gauze pads so I could only tear a part of my shirt." Eliza explained.
Only then did he realize that Eliza took care of him, in fact, she was wearing what was once called a T-shirt, but now it looked like a crop top since she tore the bottom half.