The group spent the next few hours focusing on getting closer to the ground floor. The trek would have been much simpler in the previous work, just a quick elevator ride down and they'd be out of the building in no more than 10 minutes. But unfortunately it couldn't be so easy.
Even before the mysterious wave hit them and messed up a lot of their technology, the elevators had been out of action. It seemed that some of its passengers weren't so lucky at the time of the transformation event, resulting in the elevator being completely destroyed. The line snapped at the floor it had been resting on. At least that was the case for the elevator for their section of the building, perhaps the ones for the lower floors would be operational and speed up their exit. The main issue was some of the staircases to lower floors being destroyed or blocked off, requiring them to spend time sneaking or fighting their way through to the next one. An issue that would also be resolved if only they had access to the elevators.
Unfortunately their dreams of a quick escape were brought to a screeching halt when they arrived on the 32nd floor and were met with a seemingly impossible sight. Between the group and the next set of available stairs was a fierce pride of beasts that seemed to be a mix of Lions and Panthers.
The floor beneath their feet was shrouded by a thick fog that, thankfully, only made it up to the group's ankles. If it filled the room properly, Seth had no doubt that they would be completely blind and would have walked straight into that pride none the wiser.
It was clear at a glance that the mist was the direct result of the beast's presence, their fur being the same muted grey as the fog. He could even see on different patches of its body, especially around the legs, that the fur transformed into curling waves of fog.
Their milky white eyes scanned the obscured office floor, looking for more prey, their mouths still red and dripping with blood from previous victims.
The worst part, however, was that their numbers were difficult to count even after a few minutes of observation, as the beasts would repeatedly dissipate into the fog. Dissolving away and becoming one with their environment, not even having the courtesy of doing it one at a time thus making it impossible to tell whether the one appearing was the same one he saw disappear.
There was only a sure fire way of knowing how many there were, which was to make them all appear at once.
Moving the group away from the staircase, he led them to a corner of the room that wasn't being affected by the fog. Thankfully, it seemed to be contained within a certain area of their presence. Once they were safe in Seth's favourite hiding spot, behind a desk he sent Coal over to draw out the beasts.
Already they had returned to the routine of Seth hiding and Coal acting as a meatshield. Yet he was determined to escape this pattern. So while Coal was advancing on the fog bank, Seth placed down the journal ready to start another download course of important survival knowledge.
However before he managed to plug it into the nearby computer, he noticed something on the previously blank page. A drawing of the beasts slowly but surely sketching itself onto the page, a page titled with the name he had mentally given the creatures. Fog Prowlers.
Putting that thought to the side, he plugged in the journal and instructed Angel to download information on butchery and preparing kills. He deemed it necessary for their immediate future, since he'd prefer not to die of a meat borne disease because he doesn't know all the different ways to skin a cat.
Shifting his focus onto Coals vision and leaving Angel to do their job, he slowly advanced onto the field of fog that the prowling beasts were creating. He barely stepped foot into the ocean of grey before one of the Fog Prowlers were lunging out of it, fangs bared and claws primed for shredding meat. But there was no meat to shred here. Only rock and stone.
Whirling around, he immediately wrapped his craggy hand around the beast's throat, stopping its advance. Not giving it time to adjust, Seth slammed the panther into the ground, inadvertently dodging the pounce of another Fog Prowler causing it to sail harmlessly over his head.
He sent a fist crashing down into the face of the Prowler in his clutches, only to end up punching the ground as it dissipated into the surrounding fog.
Not having time to be annoyed by the missed blow, he swiftly stood up and raised his arm in a defensive position. Just in time to have the maw of the second Prowler wrap around the arm, instead of enveloping his head. He didn't know if Coal would continue existing without a head, and he wasn't in a rush to find out.
The prowler's fangs, which glowed a faint blue as they seemed like solid mist, scraped against the stone exterior of his arm before finding a crack in his craggy armour, sinking deep into the arm. Once again Seth was happy that he didn't feel pain from Coals body, but he still reflexively flinched his arm and yanked it towards his chest.
He hooked his free hand into the blood stained maw of the Fog Prowler, he had no idea how the blood stains remained yet clearly the world was not operating on his previous understanding of logic.
Pulling the top half of its jaw up, he pushed down with the arm, slowly prying the beast's mouth open. However when he tried to take a step to adjust his stance, his legs refused to cooperate. Looking down, he found them also being gnawed on and held in place by two more of the Fog Prowlers.
"Dammit… Think you can lend a hand? Getting overwhelmed and I don't even think that's all of them. Stupid pack tactics."
Seth muttered, but out of his own mouth instead of Coals, directing the comment towards his cyan companion. Thankfully she had been watching the battle take place and swiftly sprung into action.
She leapt over the desk they were using as cover, taking her dagger and Seths spear with her, and immediately turning into a ball of slime when she landed. The ball quickly darted across the ground towards the battle field fast enough that it streamlined into a droplet shape, the tip of the spear jutting out the slime ball making it look like a melted unicorn.
While she was still making her way over, Seth saw Coal's vision suddenly shift. His body pitching forward until he slammed against the ground, his limbs being pulled apart and held in place by the Fog Prowlers.
Only when he poked his actual head up from behind the desk and took a look at the situation, did he realise what had happened. Standing on Coal's back was a fourth Prowler, the one that had pounded on his back and tackled him to the ground. The downside of feeling no pain and being restricted to just sight and hearing, sneak attacks like that were much harder to detect.
Even though he was looking at it, he felt nothing on Coal's back.
Whilst he was lamenting his inability to feel anything and was staring at the battlefield with both sets of eyes, he never noticed the thin veil of fog creeping its way under the desk.
Beside him, Amy only realised something was wrong when tongues of grey mist were licking at her boots and slowly surrounding them.
She shifted where she sat, letting out a stifled yelp of fear as she saw a grey head, with milky white eyes, slowly surface from the shallow fog like a crocodile in a lake.
Seth turned at the strange noise, looking behind him in confusion just in time to see a set of glowing blue fangs looming towards his face. The Fog Prowler so close with its maw agape, that he could see down its throat to the place he would soon rest.
But before his life could flash before his eyes, the beast was thrown to the side by a pair of blazing, golden beams which fizzled out soon after.
"Looked like you could use some help."
The voice belonged to the owner of the golden beams. A young man in a pristine, luxury brand suit. His blonde hair tousled just enough that it looked messy yet still handsome. He stood to the side, his hands on his hips, as he flashed them a perfect white smile that almost shined and gazed at them with his completely golden eyes that burned like two suns in his head.