The bright flames spread throughout the neighborhood, lighting up the street. Hissing, the black feline turned towards the screaming people. The owner of the cat, with his back against the wall, turned around to face the beast. "Whiskers, do you still remember me?" he said shakingly, legs trembling. The other three people, a couple yards away, turned around to watch the interaction.
Leo checked his surroundings, tears forming in his eyes due to the fumes coming from the blazing houses. He was completely surrounded by burning buildings, the only way out was if he could sneak pass the feline monster, which he doubt could work. He watched the man inch fowards toward the monster, wanting to see if he made a big enough distraction for him to sneak through.
"It's me, I fed you ever since you were born, when you were just a little kitten," the man said, slowly gaining more confidence as the feline monster showed no signs of aggression. The monster let out a soft meow, as if telling the man to pat its head. The man reached out slowly, hand trying to stroke the beast's pelt. Plop. A sound could be heard, everyone trying to process where the sudden sound came from.
They watched in dismay as they realize that the man's arm was cleanly chopped off, the whole limb falling to the ground. Blood spilled out like an open tap, the grey pavement was stained red. The feline monster circled the man, licking the spilt blood with its pink tongue, revealing its two long and sharp canine teeth glistened under the red flames.
To Leo's surprise, the man did not let out a single sound. Perhaps he had simply given up, or perhaps he was blinded by rage, the man swung his remaining arm at the beast, directly punching it in the face. Dazed, the beast was stunned for a split second before it retaliated, sending the man flying by ramming right into him. The man soared through the air, landing straight into the burning building. Taking out its original target, the beast spun towards the nearest person, a woman that was frozen in fear. The woman was wearing a blouse and jeans, the randomly buttoned buttons indicated that she grabbed her clothes in a hurry.
Her knees buckled from the monster's glare, a puddle of liquid formed under her. As if smelling her fear, the beast's predatory instincts were piqued. "Help me," the woman called for help with a tiny voice. Leo recognized the woman's husband, who was a couple yards away, trying to sneak away. Vows and promises were clearly worthless in a apocalyptic world. The monster seemed to have noticed the silhouette trying to sneak away, it suddenly pounced. Before the man could even realize what had just happened, he died a gruesome death under the beast's claws.
"NO!" the woman's heart wrenching scream echoed through the neighborhood, watching her husband die instantly. The other man bolted towards the dark streets before the monster could react, successfully escaping the merciless claws of the beast. Damn! Leo silently cursed in his heart, why did the cat have to be between him and the streets, it could have been him who successfully escaped. The beast turned around, slowly crawling towards the woman, who seemed to have lost her soul. "Die! You ungrateful bastard!" a loud roar suddenly broke the silence.
A fiery figure appeared from the buildings, a blast of fire assaulted the beast. Under the scorching flames, the nearby woman was instantly reduced to ashes. The monster seemed to have also take a decent amount of damage, some embers were still flickering on its pelt. Squinting his eyes, Leo tried to get a clearer look at the sudden guest. It looked like man completely made out of charcoal, but one arm of his consisted of only flames. "I have awakened in this trial! I shall survive!" the burning man laughed maniacally as he spouted words that Leo didn't understand. Trial? Awakened?
Like a shooting star the flaming man shot towards the beast, the waves of intense heat even reached Leo. Backing up, Leo distanced himself from the fight. Shooting out blasts of fire, more and more patches of fur were burned on the beast. Agitated, the beast lashed out, a silver gleam streaked through the night. Pieces of glowing coal scattered all over the pavement, deep claw marks could be seen on the man's torso. "Take this!" the man yelled, a steady stream of flames poured down onto the feline monster.
Instantly curling into a ball, the beast tried to shield itself from the devastating flames. Its black pelt was burned to crisp, revealing the pink skin underneath. A few seconds passed, the pink skin was instantly scorched black, with blood begin to leak out from the beast. The flames were so bright that it made Leo's eyes dazzle. Taking a closer look, Leo could see the fire on the man's body dim down as more flames poured out of his palms. Clearly, the attack couldn't go on forever. After what felt like an hour, the man fell from the sky, hitting the ground. The flames that used to cover his body were no where to be seen, only the slight red glow that radiated a bit of heat showed signs of the man still being alive.
The pile of lifeless coal slowly merged back into the man, who slowly waddled towards the burning building, trying to rekindle his flames. The beast, who was still curled up, showed no signs of any movement, but Leo still stayed where he was. Before the man could reach the building, the beast suddenly sprung up, dragging its heavily wounded body. Half of its face was burned, revealing the ghastly teeth that could easily rip through steel. It chomped down on the pile of coal, pulverizing it into dust. Coughing up the charcoal powder, the feline monster fell unconscious, tumbling to the ground with a loud thud.
Leo was completely unprepared for this result. He originally thought that he would have to deal with either a deadly beast that could rip out his guts with a single swipe, or a potentially insane man who could vaporize him with a single blast of flames. The safest bet was clearly to ignore the knocked out beast, escaping and then trying to find his family. But what roamed the dark streets beyond his neighborhood was still unknown, and he was troubled by the man's words. He had a hunch that he would get some answers if he somehow killed the beast, perhaps he would understand what the man meant by awakened and trial.
His throat was dry from the intense battle, the hoodie he wore was covered with a thin layer of dust. He tried to take a quick sip from the plastic bottle before he realized that the whole bottle had been melted from the waves of heat, the molten plastic covered his hand before solidifying again. Impossible! The plastic could withstand heat up to five hundred degrees, he would have been severely burned by the heat. "Unless," Leo thought, checking the soles of his feet. The cuts from the broken glass were all gone! "That sudden dizziness, it definitely caused a change to our body," Leo thought, his regenerative abilities were clearly way above human standards. It was what caused the sudden mutation, turning the cat into a weird sabertooth-like beast.
Forgetting that there was still a unconscious beast around, he ran towards the decapitated corpse, wanting to verify his hypothesis. Almost puking from the gruesome sight, he carefully observed the man's severed neck. Surely enough, the wound had already healed. If the man still had his head connected, he would have survived. Confirming that the superhuman regenerative powers weren't limited to himself, Leo was more confused by what the burning man meant by awakened.
There was only one way to find out. Leo slowly snuck near the slumbering beast, before he noticed a red shiny crystal that was glowing underneath a pile of ashes. Snatching the crystal, he slid it into his pocket quickly. He had no idea what the crystal was, but it seemed to be something quite valuable. He mustered up the strength to get in arm's reach of the beast. He could see the beast's guts exposed, the beating heart clearly meant that it was still alive. The wounds were beginning to heal, the blood that was seeping out from the tissue began to coagulate. Leo had to make up his mind quickly, or else the beast was probably going to wake up in no time.
"Oh well, the world is already ending, I guess there is nothing left to lose," Leo thought, taking a deep breath. He reached for a cinder block that was used to enlcose his neighbor's garden. But once he grabbed the block, it was crushed under Leo's grip. Surprised by his own strength, Leo decided to attack the monster directly, aiming for its beating heart. As his hands shot for the beast's heart, its eyelids fluttered open.