As Dell slowly approached the stairs he was painfully aware of two things. The first was, he now had two injuries, one of which making an arm pretty useless and the other causing every movement to bring sharp daggers of pain.
The second was that if something stronger then him was up those stairs his exit was blocked by the beast outside, which was also, stronger then him as it stood.
"So, four outcomes. Something up there kills me. The beast outside kills me. I kill whatever is upstairs. And lastly, maybe there's a back exit that I can sneak out of" If anything, he was always in his head. He could calmy look at most situations and process the information, then attempt to use that information to take the best action.
"Actually, five outcomes. The back door, that may or may not exist, is trapped. Also killing me" Zelith wasn't a kind place to be, hunters learnt to think and keep moving at all times. Hesitation could get you torn apart, so even as he thought through all this he continued to approach the stairs. The building was laid out in an odd manner, before getting to the stairs you had to open a door.
Dell would kick the door open and dash backwards, expecting something to jump out from behind.
He let out a breath as nothing happened. However, this mini victory was short lived as whatever was upstairs was now heading towards the stairs quite fast. Dell decided to stand next to the door frame. This let him be out of view, and potentially get a free hit on whatever ran through.
He readied the bar stool with his good arm, getting ready to throw his whole body into this swing.
Fast footsteps followed by orange eyes was more then enough for Dell to take the shot.
WHACK!
The sound of wood smashing into the infecteds skull would echo through the building. The initial blow knocked it to the ground, but Dell knew better then to trust in one swing. So, again and again he slammed the stool against the infecteds head until he smashed through its skull and snapped the stool on the ground.
Pant... Pant... Pant
After a brief few moments he would slowly slug up the stairs and after searching a few of the rooms fount a makeshift bed.
"Probably another hunter, wich also means a back exit" Dell exclaimed out loud. He would slump onto the bed, and seeing the red stain quickly follow he would realize.
"Ah of course, outcome six. I fucking bleed out here" Adrenaline was a magnificent thing, especially for a hunter. But, once you settled back down one would truly realize how much pain they were in.
Hundreds of thoughts were blazing through his head by this point. None of his struggles added up to much if he bleeds out on a makeshift bed in some random pub. But his options were limited.
As he thought about what to do, he was already sitting up and tearing some of his clothes off to then attempt to tighten the cloth around his shoulder and ideally stop the bleeding. It didn't quite achieve the desired result but he wasn't bleeding as much.
He would get up and start moving in an almost robotic manner, searching much more thoroughly in each room in hopes that whatever made this sick city decided to put some medical supplies in this building.
But, no luck. Slamming his hand into the hallway wall he would curse to himself. Despite his good luck of finding a relatively safe place to rest, that didn't mean the place would also have anything to help the wounded.
"Fuck this, lets try that back exit" Dell said aloud. But, unknown to him, something was listening.
Dell slowly made his way down the stairs, gritting his teeth through the pain he was in. It wasn't like he had any other options and dying while attempting to live sounded better then dying while in despair.
He would make his way through the door, looking around the main room from before. The beast hadn't given up trying to get in and was now trying its luck with the door, wich was starting to give way. "Are you fucking kidding me. What twisted bullshit is this" Dell would growl as he hurriedly looked around. Going behind the main bar he would find a back room, a kitchen of sorts. He prayed that knife or something would be in the run down room.
But again, no such luck. Unarmed, injured and tired Dell would drag himself towards the back door. Whatever was watching him was amused by his efforts and silently followed him.
As he stepped into the cold alley he felt something was off so he quickly dashed forwards and turned around to check behind him while also creating distance.
His jaw dropped at the sight before him. It was a white slug type creature, one large red eye, a circular mouth displaying rows of teeth and a forked tongue. It was around the size of a kitten.
Slowly, but surely, it approached him.