We triggered no more aggro while running away. Whether it was pure luck or our enemies focused on more crowded spots, demons hunted around, and it would only get worse with time. I was tired of running away, but staying was never an option.
Our group tried their best to keep moving despite the heaviness brought forth by New Qi. Corpses became a common sight, some of them without a single wound. Some looked as if they had seen hell even before dying, others died with their hands on their throats, as if trying to breathe.
Forgetting this scene of destruction would take a long time. I had nightmares for years. Some never forgot.
The earth trembled more than once, loud crashing noises echoed from the northern edge of the city.
“Earthquake?”
“No. The buildings up north started to collapse,” I answered.
“What? Why?!” Jiwan shivered.
“I told you, didn’t I? Things from our world won’t last long. Buildings, weapons, even clothes…”
“WHAT? I am going to be naked??” Jiwan covered himself suddenly, then unconsciously looked at the Class Rep for a second.
“You’re thinking it might not be that bad, right?” I teased him by saying his thoughts out loud.
“What? NO!”
“You damn pervert…” The Class Rep glared at him.
“Lies, lies!” Jiwan tried to defend himself.
“I am amazed you can still joke around in this situation…” Haze said.
“They’re two fools!” The Class Rep added in angrily.
It was better for us to joke around than to face reality. Without distractions, the human mind broke. The buildings up north started collapsing, but the southern exit of the city was close.
Nova City was an engineering marvel, a smart and innovative city full of breath. Everything was connected, from domestic appliances to doors and cameras, which only hastened its downfall. The Nova Bridge was the primary way out of the city from the south.
A long bridge, built to cross the Nova River. The uninspired naming sense surrounding the city was all because of the corporation behind the creation of the city itself, which practically owned the entire city.
People rushed in droves to the bridge once the chaos started. What once was a marvelous piece of technology and infrastructure became merely a colossal chunk of metal.
The other exits wouldn’t be as crowded, since there were no bridges to halt passage. Yet none of them led away from the danger, even straight to what would soon be Ath’Taren territory.
“Look!” Sooyeon pointed to the bridge.
People tried to leave the city in a hurry. Some tried to fix their cars and get them to start. Many carried what they thought would be valuables: miscellaneous items, food, smartphones, and even money. Useless.
The corporation-built Nova City to host people from different parts of the world, creating diversity unable to be found anywhere else. It was humanity’s greatest city, and yet it would become the greatest threat to humanity. The Heart of The Ath’Taren Demons.
The army and police set up a roadblock after the systems stopped working, containing people before the bridge. Traffic was heavy even during the night, which contributed to avoiding accidents when the cars stopped working out of nowhere.
The defense forces thought it was an attack or invasion, even bringing up the possibility of terrorism, so they were still screening people before letting them through. How could they know the extent of the chaos that engulfed the world?
Without cars stopped, a crowd 0swarmed the bridge. It was only a matter of time before the Longclaws made their way there in great numbers.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to pass like this,” Haze said from afar. While running, I told him what I have told the others before about the world, and he seemed to believe me. After all we have been through, I was glad he did.
“Not the bridge, it’s too dangerous. It will collapse soon,” I said, still thinking of alternatives.
Jiwan jumped in surprise, “What?! Seriously?! What about all those people?”
I said nothing else, only shook my head.
“We need to warn them!” The Class Rep spoke.
“And who would believe you?”
“But… we need to try at least!” Sooyeon had the same mind.
I released a long sigh, “You all… you still don’t understand. Not only they won’t believe, you will die with them when the Longclaws come. There’s worse coming soon. MUCH worse.”
They stopped asking me how I knew those things by this point, only occasionally giving me puzzled looks. As I had been right so far, they didn’t doubt me as much. I tried to keep things as realistic as possible without giving them too much information at once, or else they would call me a lunatic.
“What do we do?” Haze also wanted to help, but after what he had been through, he wasn’t as naïve as the others.
Jiwan trusted me, waiting. He knew I would help if I had a way to do it.
After thinking of the possibilities, I threw away the ones with the least possibility of working and chose, “There’s a private dock further down there. We’ll borrow a boat there. If the boat doesn’t make it, we swim.”
“Whaaat?” Jiwan’s mouth opened wide.
“I-I can’t swim…” the Class Rep said shyly.
“Jiwan will carry you if it comes to it,” I answered with a teasing smile.
“M-me??!” They looked at each other, blushing, “Okay…”
“I was only joking, fool. Right now, the water from our world isn’t the same anymore, either. You won’t drown easily,” I avoided saying it was because of the [Timeless First Day] and the [World Merge].
“This… this is just too crazy,” Haze facepalmed.
“I will say it again. I am definitely not making you do anything but saying how you will survive. I’m going to survive. I have to. If you want to warn people, go; I won’t wait, even if it’s you, Jiwan.”
I was dead serious, and they knew it. Even if their inner survival instinct and morality battled inside for a while, they followed me. We made our way to the private docks. In my past life, we found it by luck, using it to run away. In the end, too much time had passed since the beginning. The boat collapsed, and some of us didn’t make it alive. We rushed here early. The boat probably had enough time before it lost durability and collapsed. Our best bet to survive.
Private docks weren’t common in Nova City, for security reasons. This one was a special case, belonging to the man who runs the corporation that owns half of the city, one of his many properties. In normal times, security was extremely tight, mostly unmanned with drones, security bots, cameras, and high walls. None of these mattered anymore. What once was a high technological fortress turned into a useless building.
I wasted no time in kicking the doors open. The others were still shocked at the sight of once extremely durable materials simply breaking apart. Hiding behind walls and buildings would do nothing against demons. The metal door broke easily with my newfound strength. We crossed the pathway on the side of the house, straight to the docks.
The door to the boats was open. There was even a boat ready to go with paddles, but no sight of people. Someone tried to start the boat, in vain, as the keys were still in there. Perhaps they ran away, or died, and disappeared on the spot, rejected by this new world.
The inner door to the warehouse was broken open. I had a bad feeling.
My bad feelings were always right. And scary.
A shadow emerged from the open door, covered in blood, claws twice as long as the longclaws from before. Instead of being over two meters tall, it was thirty to forty centimeters shorter, as its lower limbs were much smaller but also thicker and stronger. The natural black-grey colored hardened skin carried many spikes, and the demonic mouthed face had no changes.
A [Ranked Longclaw]. “Clawer” type.
Killing people and fighting gave the Longclaws experience, and they could develop into a unique and powerful form. This one specialized in claw attacks, although losing mobility while gaining extra jumping power.
However, that was not the scarier part. A Ranked Longclaw had intelligence, losing his mindlessness.
The entire group shivered as the new monster came into sight. They only felt its oppressing aura and already cowered, not even knowing how scary it truly was. Those who didn’t experience it before saw only a slightly different Longclaw. We took on many before, and survived.
Maybe it was good that they thought we had a chance. Even the Black Lab was quiet, shivering. He knew better than to face that thing.
“GO!!!!” I rushed the group through the door, taking the rearguard. The Ranked Longclaw turned his eyeless self to me, but didn’t move. Because of its nature, it probably found prey running amusing, as if it could deal with it any time.
“Haze, Jiwan, you get them on the boat and paddle. Don’t stop even when cross. I will lure this thing away and find you after.”
It was the first time in this life I felt truly nervous. Every hair on my arm stood up, every cell in my body told me to run away.
“What are you saying! Let’s fight hi-“
“JUST DO IT, DON’T GET IN MY WAY! I WILL FIND YOU!”
I screamed desperately, making it clear this was no joke. Jiwan and the others grit their teeth and got to the boat. I closed the door behind them, turning back to face the Longclaw.
I didn’t close the door to stop it. It couldn’t stop it for a second. I did it so I wouldn’t get distracted by my friends and focus on surviving. This time, I couldn’t worry about them.
In front of this thing, I could only worry about my head.