Upon its fall, Alex wasted no time in jumping onto the wounded beast. She pushed the button on the handles of her chakrams, aware of the subsequent transformation.
She ran across the creature's bare, muscular back, halting at its neck. The chakrams had magically transformed into wakuzashi's. She wasted no time in plunging her sleek blades deep into the beast's neck. She cut across, stabbed it, and slashed it, time and time again. Until all forms of resistance from the beast ceased.
Her movements were so fast and decisive that the beast simply had no time to express its protest. Its red balls for eyes lost all light and took on a darker, duller shade. Alex did not rest after her apparent victory. Instead, she slid off the monster's disfigured neck and made her way to its face.
She silently observed the creature, still very much on guard, before skillfully extracting the lifeless red orbs from the eye sockets.
These eyeballs were soft, but withering. They seemed to be hardening as the seconds went on.
Alex's eyes flickered to the red writing at the top of her vision.
1:23:47
She dropped her weapons beside the door, then prepared to do the second most disgusting thing she had ever done.
She nodded before crawling into the creature's eye socket. The black matter was soft and mushy, allowing her to carve her way through the beast with her bare hands. Fortunately, she didn't keep nails or the cleanup would be much harder.
Whatever it was within the beast that was emanating the pressure was still active, though the force dwindled with each passing second. Alex was hoping to discover a bit of truth, a ray of light in the endless unknown abyss she had thrust herself into.
Digging past unidentifiable substances, Alex's hand hit a solid substance that seemed to pulse with life. She grabbed it in her left hand before a struggle-filled escape from the zombie's remains.
Once she had emerged from the lifeless creature, she was ready to analyze the reason behind her recent venture.
The tiny crystal could be held comfortably in one palm. She curiously examined the iridescent crystal. Its gleaming light was gradually dimming.
Alex tried everything she could think of, feeling the crystal, dripping blood onto the crystal, squeezing the crystal, meditating with the crystal. It was all for naught, all the light dimmed and Alex was left with a dull empty shell.
' I don't have to eat it do I? '
Her expression froze before she showed a small smile.
' Nah, I'll just convince someone else to eat it. I would be doing them a favor by feeding them something so precious. I'm a bit too kind aren't I ? '
She hummed in agreement with her thoughts. Right after, she grimaced. She smelt a pungent odor coming from herself, which perfectly suited how she felt.
She was dripping with a murky mixture, intertwining itself with every part of her. She could feel both the dry and fresh remains of her enemies on her flesh and it was not enjoyable, to say the least.
She checked the timer above her before trudging to the closed door. She placed her hand on the pad beside it, watching as it flashed green. Soon after the door opened and she was shocked to see a surveillance room with multiple functioning screens. They displayed what she believed to be real-time coverage of the entire labyrinth.
' There's no way I missed cameras, though ' Alex mused. She did not pause for long, instead, she left the room. She urgently needed a shower not more unanswered questions.
The surveillance room had two more doors, these had no panels or handles. They were automatic.
Shortly after, Alex found the shower block. She discovered almost the entire layout of the labyrinth's shelter as well.
The labyrinth was similar to the underground nest, however, there were certainly differences.
There was no meeting hall in the labyrinth nor were there hundreds of weapons. The labyrinth had a plethora of traps and mechanisms to thwart the advance of enemies. It was much better equipped than the underground bunker. The surveillance room also had a control panel that controlled all these traps and mechanisms.
The bunker was equipped with thousands of grenades.
Instead of ten special weapons, it had ten special suits with different symbols and designs on mannequins. One of which Alex was now wearing.
She had chosen the one with the cube symbol. It was an oversized grey T-shirt with grey cargo pants.
The entire outfit had neon blue lines running on it, all converging at the right shoulder where a cube symbol was placed.
Whenever she willed, the small cube would rapidly expand into a larger cube with four sections in which she could store whatever she pleased. This larger cube would detach itself from her shoulder and hover in front of her. It was large enough to fit eight single-person beds.
She had taken the time to test out the cube's abilities. Once anything was stored she would only have to picture the particular item in her hand, then it would appear. Unlike the stressful process of storing, retrieving was much easier.
The other suits boasted of different abilities represented by their corresponding symbols.
One suit enhanced speed, another strength, another vision. While a suit allowed whoever wore it to shoot an unknown amount of bullets from their palm at a reasonable speed before they would have a cool down. Then another allowed its wearer to manipulate the walls of the labyrinth. Another allowed the owner to become a luminescent body. They could vary the output of light as they desired depending on the amount of energy they were willing to give. Another one allowed them to make the ground of the labyrinth either extremely hot or cold for a limited amount of time. Another with a goggle symbol allowed its owner to see through the walls of the labyrinth and one with a fire symbol allowed them to manipulate the fire from the torches in the labyrinth.
The mannequins had a tag that gave a summary of each suit's ability. Alex truly hoped she would be able to take everything she had amassed out of the first stage.
She checked the red numbers at the top right corner of her vision before mentally issuing a command.
00: 06: 43