Chapter 13 - Monster

The feeling of sticking one's hand through a monster's flesh was very uncomfortable. That was something Kairos could definitely stand by.

After all, his hand was going through one right now.

Kairos grit his teeth and reached out for the heart, then clenched with everything he had upon doing so. His fingers pushed against the walls of the heart, causing it to burst. The monster was in the middle of attempting to slash Kairos, but roared in pain right after.

It was originally aiming at Kairos' neck, but instead slashed into his arm.

The nails tore into his flesh, peeling it back and leaving a long scar across it. Kairos saw it coming, but there really was nothing he could do about it other than grit his teeth.

Nonetheless, the monster no longer had its heart and wouldn't survive for much longer.

Kairos attempted to pull his hand back out, but his wrist got caught in between the gap of the monster's rib cage. It was almost like shoving your hand into someone's chest wasn't a real fighting tactic or something.

With its last breath, the monster attempted to bite down on his neck. However, Kairos saw it coming and pushed against its forehead with the base of his palm. The monster kept lunging forth, trying to overpower him, but it just barely wasn't enough.

Then, its struggle weakened before it stopped moving.

[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]

By now, Kairos' eyes were completely bloodshot and the adrenaline nearly made his mind snap.

However, it was still not over.

Suddenly, another monster appeared from behind the corpse he was holding onto. It lunged forth, attempting to bite down on Kairos. However, using his future vision, he was able to react in time.

The base of his palm slammed against the monster's forehead, holding it back.

This was the very last one. Then he would've killed them all.

However, he wasn't in a very good situation.

Currently, one of his hands was caught inside of a corpse and the other was holding off this monster's attempt at biting it. He was nearing his limit, unable to push the creature's head away for much longer.

And if that wasn't bad enough, Kairos saw a claw coming straight for his face.

For just a split second, he felt hopeless.

He regretted his choice of ever coming here in the first place.

However, as quick as those thoughts came, they were banished.

Kairos still hadn't gotten what he wanted out of life yet. He refused to die here.

Kairos stopped thinking and opened his mouth wide.

Then bit down on the monster's neck.

It was as though he had become the monster, using such tactics. I mean, these monsters were biting all the time themselves, it was only fair that he got to use it as well.

Though, that didn't mean it was exactly easy to.

Kairos' teeth dug into the monster's flesh, but it was incredibly hard to move it further. However, instead of doubting his decision to do so, he put his all into it.

By now, his mind hurt too much to think clearly.

Kairos could no longer tell the difference between his future vision and reality. The only thing he felt was a burning feeling from his soul, forcing him to move forward.

One that would never be satisfied.

Blood poured down Kairos' throat, nearly choking him. It was uncomfortably warm and had a sharp metallic taste.

Normally, he would find it disgusting. But instead, he pushed even harder because of what it represented.

Until eventually, a large chunk of flesh had been torn off the monster's neck.

Kairos had a wild look in his eyes along with the piece of flesh in his mouth.

As for the monster, it stood still.

Suddenly, a powerful stream of blood shot out of its neck as the monster collapsed.

The flesh was disgusting, but Kairos was still biting down on it.

Like it wasn't enough.

[Killed Creature (Challenge Kill - One Rank Superior to Killer) - 0.3 points awarded]

[Multi-kill (Type - Challenge) - 3.0 points awarded]

[First Ten To Multi-kill - Challenge Type (Ninth - by ID: 345315364923) - 10 points awarded]

As those notifications flashed by his eyes, Kairos finally began to calm down. The wild look in his eyes quickly turned into a tired one.

And at that moment, the freezer door burst open, with Nicole at the front.

"Kairos! Are you ok?"

Then she froze.

Behind her were both Harold and Sydney, they appeared with concerned expressions, but once they looked inside, they also couldn't help but freeze.

As for Kairos, he blinked a few times.

He spat out the flesh in his mouth and pulled out his hand from the monster corpse with a little bit of struggle.

Kairos coughed up some of the blood in his mouth.

"I uh... got the fire axe."

He proceeded to open up the case for the fire axe before taking it off the rack that it was on.

The other three were still flabbergasted.

Nicole slowly raised a trembling finger.

"You... you..."

Kairos tried to speak, but some of the blood got caught in his throat, making him cough it up.

Nicole's eyes widened.

"Kairos!"

She began running towards him, over all the corpses.

Harold and Sydney also had frowns on their faces.

Kairos waved his uninjured hand dismissively while still coughing a bit.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. That wasn't my blood I coughed up."

Nicole seemed to calm down a little, but then she saw several large gash wounds on his arm, where the monster clawed him earlier. A concerning amount of blood was seeping out of it.

"What! You're not fine! Gosh, we need to bandage that!"

Nicole set down her backpack and hurriedly took out the medical kit. With trembling hands, she fumbled around with the latch before getting it open. Then, she spotted the bandages and hurriedly took them out, unfurling them with clear panic.

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"Calm down, calm down. I'm not dying any time soon. Though it does hurt quite a bit."

Nicole's voice was shaking.

"O-Ok."

However, she really didn't calm down much. After unfurling the roll of bandages, she dropped it back into the medical kit. At the very least it wasn't on the ground which was covered in blood.

Sydney walked over.

"Wait, the wound has to be cleaned first!"

She reached into her bag and brought out a bottle of water with a bit of blood on it. Kairos held out his arm while Sydney unscrewed the cap before pouring the water down.

Kairos' face twitched, but it wasn't too bad for him with all the adrenaline still pumping. The blood washed out along with a tiny bit of dirt.

This wasn't actually what you were supposed to do. In reality, it would be best for Kairos to get something to lift his arm in the air and cover the wound with something until the wound stopped bleeding.

In fact, not doing so could've made him suffer severe side effects if it wasn't for his two points in endurance.

Nonetheless, this was how they did it.

After the bottle was out, Nicole then hurriedly began wrapping the bandages around Kairos' arm.

Almost immediately, his eyebrow twitched.

"That's... that's really tight!"

Nicole gasped.

"Ah! Sorry!"

She unfurled them before doing it more gently this time. After a while, the entire wound was bandaged. Sydney took out the scissors from the medical kit and cut the bandage before tying it up.

"Dear god... what did you do?"

Kairos coughed.

"Well, I saw a lot of monsters inside the freezer, but they were all sleeping. So uh, I figured I could kill them while they were asleep. But... near the end, they woke up anyway and I had to fight off a few of them at once."

Harold furrowed his brows.

"That... wasn't the risk way too big for something like that?"

Nicole frowned.

"You could've at least got us to help!"

Kairos cleared his throat as his mind rapidly thought of a lie.

"By the time I opened the freezer, you guys were already gone. I didn't want to call out as that would awaken them. At the same time, I didn't want to wait too long and give up this opportunity as they might have woken up."

Nicole furrowed her brows.

"But that was still way too dangerous! You can't do something like that again!"

Kairos nodded.

"Alright."

Though he agreed, Kairos already knew that he was probably going to do something similar at some point.

Harold pressed his lips together.

"I... I don't think this was worth just a fire axe."

Kairos raised the axe in his hand.

"Well, we got one now. Though I did ruin my weapon in the process, so our overall weapon count stayed the same. Who do you think should get it?"

A bitter smile formed on Harold's face.

"Since you worked so hard for it, I imagine it's only natural you get it."

Kairos chuckled.

"I guess so."

Nicole seemed to be on the verge of crying and shook him.

"You really can't do that again!"

Kairos raised his hands.

"Ok, ok!"

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"...But why were there so many in this place?"

Kairos sighed.

"I think it's because they prefer a cold environment to sleep in. I guess that means that hot places are better to stay at. And that also explains why there weren't too many monsters out on the streets too."

Sydney nodded.

"Ah... that makes sense."

Kairos sighed.

"Anyway... I need to take a rest. But not with all these dead bodies."

He narrowed his eyes to lower how much he saw as the stress was really getting to him. Kairos hurriedly left the freezer, put his glasses back on, and slung his backpack onto his shoulders.

Sydney's brows furrowed.

"You are... really bloody right now."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Ah, good point. Is there a clothes section here?"

Harold shook his head.

"Not here, but there is a clothing store nearby."

Kairos nodded.

"Perfect. Let's go there."

He grabbed a few extra water bottles that were still in the grocery store, as much as his backpack fit. Then, he used the extra one to wash away some of the blood on him before it dried.

The group quickly left the grocery store before heading into the clothing shop.

Kairos changed into new clothes and cleaned up most of the blood on his body. There was still a strong stench of it emitting from his body, but there wasn't much to do about that.

The group went to the back of the shop and found a pretty large changing room that could fit all of them.

Kairos yawned.

"Alright. Can someone keep watch?"

The others were also having trouble keeping their eyes open. After all, they didn't sleep last night and only had a few hours afterward. Sydney raised her hand.

"I will. I'm used to staying up."

Kairos nodded.

"Just wake someone else up after a few hours to take over. Preferably not me."

And with that, he laid down and shut his eyes.

...

After several hours, Kairos woke up. His eyes slowly opened to see another pair of eyes, startling him.

He snapped awake to realize that Nicole was looking at him.

"You... you are supposed to be watching the entrance."

Nicole shook visibly, breaking out of a trance.

"Ah, sorry, sorry!"

Kairos stretched and yawned.

"Just keep your eyes on the entrance"

Nicole nodded, then did as told.

After confirming Nicole was looking away, Kairos snuck open his status panel.

However, his eyes widened once he saw something he didn't expect.

[Private Announcement]

....