A bullet left its casing and flies towards the wolf in front. It hits it directly in its left eye, exploding it into a bloody mush.
"Haing!" The wolf whimpers painfully. It immediately drops to the ground and paw the left side of its face, which has become wet by the blood oozing from its empty eye socket.
"Bark!" The one behind it immediately replace its place in front and runs at me.
But I don't hesitate to shoot it either.
I move the aim slightly and pull the trigger again. Another bullet leaves the barrel only to enter the inside of the wolf's mouth. The wolf coughs blood and falls to the floor. It managed to disorient it for a second, but it starts running again.
I shoot it again and got above its eyes this time, right in the center. It falls to the floor and slides on the floor sightly before stopping. Its mouth is wide open and blood is flowing out of its fangs. It's dead.
Right after that, the other two behind it runs alongside each other and coming straight at me.
"BARK! BARK!"
I shoot at the left one. It's scuffling with the other, trying to get to me first. I missed its head and only grazed its ear. Of course, it's not enough to stop it from chasing me.
"Tsk." I run back to the door and immediately put in the code, while also keeping an eye on their distance through the edge of my eyes.
But right after I input the code, I see the wolves lunge at me. One of them jumps at me, so I immediately step back to avoid them. But something made me trip and I fall back. Instead of hitting the smooth but hard floor, I fell on something softer and mushier.
The one that jump missed me completely. It lands on the floor a few meters from me, sliding on the smooth marble floor and giving us more distance. But the other one, the one on the left which I missed earlier, got to me.
It's growling as it opens its mouth wide and bite at my chest.
"ARGH!" I scream as I feel hot shearing pain sinking on the upper side of my chest.
I can feel something tearing inside, and before it can yank more of my flesh, I bring the gun to the side of its head and fire twice. Blood instantly explodes from the other side of the head, along with white substance which obviously is its brain.
It then stops moving and I suck in a huge breath. I whimper silently as I try to get the wolf off me.
"BARK!"
I immediately turn my head to the other wolf that just went past me. It's scrambling its feet to turn around. The sight makes me panic, but thankfully, the door opens just in time.
I frantically push the dead wolf off me. I can't hold back my scream as the fang latches off my chest with a horrifying squelch. It's so painful!
But once it's off, I scramble my way to the door.
"BARK!"
The sight of these wolves in only 5 meters, with their fangs barred and their sharp eyes staring at you hungrily, not to mention their loud and terrifying bark, is enough to make anyone faint.
And yet, here I am trying to do whatever I can to keep them here despite my own limited capability.
And blood oozing from my chest.
I cry silently as I grab the door way and push myself up. It's so hard to ignore the pain because it feels like all tendons inside is tearing itself with my every move. But I'm trying.
I get inside the Control Room, but I lean on the wall just beside the door.
I know this might seem like a very bad idea, but I know what I'm doing.
As I hear the squeaking sound of its claws closing in, I wipe my tears with the back of my right hand. Because I don't want to tear more cells with movements from my left hand.
Then I point my gun to a direction inside the room. My hands are trembling so bad, but I keep my chin up, clench my teeth, and wait.
The wolf gets in the room, and at the moment its body enter my line of fire, I pull the trigger.
The bullet penetrates the right side of its body instantly and pushed it to the left a little bit.
"HAING!" It whimpers from the shock.
But I'm not giving it time to even turn around. I approach the canine beasts and fire multiple shots.
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
The wolf beast falls down to the floor and laid on its side. Its paws clawing the floor, as if trying to push its body to get up, but I don't give it a chance. At the last shot, it stops moving, and I can see its stomach deflating as air leaves its body for the last time.
I watch the lifeless corpse and wait for a few moments to make sure it's really dead, but suddenly a sharp pain shot through my chest.
"Hukk!" I wheeze as I push my gun to stop the bleeding.
The door closes and I immediately let myself fall to my knees. I throw my gun to the floor and immediately pull off my bag.
I'm screaming potion in my mind as I fumble with the zip. As soon as it opens halfway, I immediately jam my hands inside and reach around for some potions. It has this unique design so it can't be missed.
When I get my hands on them, I immediately take out those that I can carry in my hands and put them on the floor rather clumsily. Thankfully, they don't break.
I immediately take one, pull it off its cap, and pour it on my chest. The second the liquid touches my skin, it gives off a kind of refreshing feeling. But it also stings and I can't help but hiss.
I hold myself from crying even though at this point, tears are streaming down my face. I keep pouring the potion until it's empty, and when it is, I switch a new one.
It doesn't immediately take effect, but I believe, it should be working its way inside. I hope it's really healing my inside, because it feels like it down there.
High Potion would work miraculously here, but I couldn't get my hand on any, and Jake is on his way upstairs with the others. I have to treat myself here, I can't depend on others all the time.
When the second one is also empty, I stop pouring and instead, open one potion for drink. It is to replace the loss of blood when this wound was open. It doesn't actually replenish your blood, but it hastens the cell regeneration by a few percent and heals fatigue, just enough to avoid you a headache.
I empty that bottle too and just sit down. I don't open another bottle because I need to save up for the boss fight.
Honestly, I don't know if the ones I've saved up for myself is enough for the next battles or even the boss fight, but I'm trying. I absolutely don't want to risk dying here in the beginning of the game.
The refreshing sensation in my chest gradually changes, and I try to peek from the hole in my clothes, but I can't see clearly if it's really healing. At the very least, it has stop bleeding, so I just trust in its effect and be patient.
I glance at the corpse beside me and pout. "Why do you have to come so early?"
I was referring to its kind that climbed the stairs so freaking fast. I didn't expect them to come to floor 20 this fast. But again, there is no real time limit in the game before the boss fight and the players can encounter them anytime starting from floor 18.
Sadly, I wasn't playing Rean anymore, so it's freaking hard to fight them. If I don't have this gun with me, I will be dead for sure.
"Terrence, why are you so weak?" I lament. If Terrence is still inside, I'm sure he'll also be crying.
Then suddenly, static noise resounds from my Arrow, interrupting my silent lamentation.
"Terrence. Are you okay?"
It was Natalie.
Since I have to activate the mic first before my voice can get through to her, I have to move my left hand. I grunt as I activate the mic. Then I gulp and breath in before speaking. "N-No…?"
There's a pause, but then she said. "Tell me what hurts." Her voice is calmer this time, as if trying to soothe me.
I don't feel like talking. Because even breathing is a bit hard for me right now. So I answer lazily as I slowly put the remaining potions in my bag.
"I've dealt with it."
"You have to calm down, okay?"
"I am calm."
"Terrence, I'm just trying to help."
"Then shut up. It hurts and I don't wanna talk."
"…"
She pause for a few moments there, and I really appreciate the silence. I need to gather my thoughts for a new strategy after all, and I can't do it with noisy background. It was nice before she called, when there was this short moment of silence for the fallen brave but also fricking annoying wolf beast right there.
Now it's ruined.
"Rean is coming there. Just wait right there."
Oh Rean is coming? Good. I'll just sit back here and wait until he arrives. If he's with me, then I can rest assured. I know I'll be in good hands.
He's the original protagonist after all. He's like a walking trouble-magnet, but at the same time, a halo sign is also above him. I chose to follow him everywhere because even though he attracts trouble, he can solve it right away.
"Can you hide somewhere, or you already are?"
Ruined, again.
"Shut up and tell him to come fast. I'm lonely in here."
Then I cut the line.
I thought I've already muted my Arrow. But I guess she must have pulled something with HQ to hack my Arrow and change it to unmute. Well, it saves me the energy from muting it then. If I know the operators are going to be more annoying like this, I'll just ignore them the next time that Sheena comes up again.
She's more annoying than Natalie. At least Natalie is smarter and can read people.
Is this the side-effect of being wounded? Going over the five stages of grief? I'm feeling a bit of bargaining and anger at the moment.
'Argh, I can't think of anything. Rean, hurry up and get me out of here.' I blow my hair from my forehead.