First Blood

Whatever was being experimented upon in that sealed chamber in the past, was now loose — right here in this building.

"IN… TRUDER… ELIMINATE… FOOD…"

As if on cue, Cyanide heard the deep, raspy, and mechanical voice of some mysterious creature coming from behind him. He immediately spun around and widened his eyes as he saw a zombie-like monster standing there, silver claws stained with blood and circular eyes shining a bright, robotic red like electronic lights.

'Shit… I couldn't sense it since my ears are not what they used to be…!'

The zombie-like creature slowly began walking towards Cyanide, leaning on its right leg more than its left. Its body, made of unknown material, was stained with dried crimson blood that gave off the scent of copper.

"GRRR…" The creature made a low growling sound, like that of a beast. From its mouth, drool dripped out, eager to consume human flesh.

"Tch…" Cyanide narrowed his eyes, analyzing the new enemy. It appeared to be quite slow, given how it was not attacking immediately. Either that, or it was just intelligent enough to employ trickery, making Cyanide think it was weak. If the latter was the case, things did not look good.

To test this theory, Cyanide dashed forward and pulled out the pen in his cloak's breast pocket in one smooth motion, taking the creature by surprise with his sudden spur of movement speed, then plunged the writing utensil into the creature's neck — right where the carotid artery was.

But the creature did not fall.

"What the…"

No blood spilled out of his wound, even after Cyanide dislodged the pen. It was then that he saw — beneath the creature's inhuman flesh, there lay machinery. This thing… it was a robot. Wires were its veins, electricity its blood.

Suddenly, while Cyanide was shocked in thought, the creature whipped his head around and grabbed his wrist with its sharp claws. Cyanide's attempted to dodge, but his new body's movements were slow and sluggish.

"Shit-!"

"GRAHHH!"

SMASH!

The creature locked its hand around Cyanide's wrist and threw him painfully into a wall with such force that Cyanide felt his bones shatter, but he didn't cry out. Pain was nothing but a superficial feeling that induced fear and weakness, two things an assassin did not need.

"…" Slowly and silently, Cyanide got back up, now unarmed. The pen had been knocked out of his hands from that impact, and there was nothing else he could use as a viable weapon nearby…

He looked up.

Well… not a handheld one, anyway.

Escape was not an option anymore, now that his body had been damaged this much. He needed to find a way to defeat this thing — and he had just the plan in mind to do that.

As the zombie lurked closer, Cyanide suddenly kicked up some of the accumulated dust from the floor, blinding it momentarily, then performed a low leap to get behind cover vanish out of the creature's line of sight, completely ignoring the pain that reverberated through his every bone.

Once the dust settled, the zombie stopped, rotating its head around in confusion as it wondered where its prey went. Cyanide, hiding beneath a table and noticing this, furrowed his brows a little.

'As I thought… it's not very smart. It seems its eyes can only see what is directly in front of it, and it doesn't know how to look up or down… perfect.'

Next to Cyanide, a long rectangular plank of wood that had originally been part of the ceiling above lay on the floor. Next to it, a plastic water bottle that possibly used to belong to one of the workers here rolled on the ground. After some thought, he discretely slipped the water bottle underneath the plank of wood, directly in the middle of it.

That was the fulcrum. Now, only the load remained.

Cyanide stood completely up on purpose, attracting the attention of the creature, then ran by the simple lever he had made and ducked down once more on the other end of the aisle.

"GRRR…." The monster slowly rotated its body and began tracking Cyanide down, heading for the spot where it last spotted him. But of course, since it was incapable of looking up or down…

Normally, the creature's feet clattered loud and crisp on the marble floor. But its next step was muffled, producing a different noise — and that would be what spelled its death. Cyanide, hearing this change, knew it was time.

'Now!'

He suddenly dashed out from behind cover and leaped up into the air as high as this new body would enable him, pulling along a computer that had been on the desk in the process. Then, as the creature looked on, slack-jawed, he came crashing down on the other end of the lever. The combined weight of Cyanide and the machinery tied to the computer was enough to send the zombie shooting up into the air — directly into the patch of destroyed ceiling where broken wires of electricity lay.

"GRAGHH!" The monster roared in pain and fury as the wound Cyanide made on its neck earlier connected with the electric flow of the wires above, electrocuting it instantly.

Cyanide gritted his teeth, arms dislodged from his shoulders from carrying the weight of the computer after the injury earlier, as he waited to see if this was enough to kill the zombie. After several seconds, he received his answer.

The corpse of the creature fell from the ceiling and collapsed onto the floor, charred black beyond recognition. The faint red light in its eyes grew dimmer and dimmer, until at last… it died out.

"Hah…" Cyanide fell backwards onto the floor after confirming the zombie was dead. His entire body felt like it was completely drained of energy and on fire with pain. The last time he felt something like this… was the duel to the death he and his teacher had.

Despite all the physical pain and agony in his body, however, in his mind, Cyanide actually felt a pang of emotion. He felt… excited. Excited at the notion of having such a close fight, edging so close to death — something he had not experienced in so many years.

"Teacher… I see now. Is this why… you wanted to fight me to the death?"

Cyanide felt his eyelids get heavy and mind go blank. He was losing consciousness.

But then, a mysterious — or rather, several — messages appeared in front of his face, causing his eyes to widen.

[Level Up.]

[Level 1 -> 2.]

[You gained 10 CP and 1 SP.]