"Mom, will Dad join us like he promised?" a boy said, raising his head from his mother's chest and staring deeply in her eyes.
A jagged stone screeched the metal plates beneath the bus, and shaking the entire bus slightly.
The boy wrapped his hands tightly around his mother, placing his head on her chest as if burying himself in the huge melons on her chest.
The speed of the falling rain decreased as they reached a deserted land filled with slightly collapsed and fully collapsed buildings.
The sound of the tires spinning tires were on the only thing filling the air as the bus moved on the ash road filled with deep and stretched potholes.
Eyes darted around, staring through the window and gazing at the still land they were now on. No life was shimmered at all the buildings they passed, not even the crows and hawks, usually seen at deserted places.
"Don't place your forehead on the windows, else we'll be marked as an enemy in case some bandits or monsters appear on the roadside," Kinji said, turning his head slightly and stopped, seeing the worried face of the woman with three kids sitting very close to the window.
Dog-like creatures with long fins and claws flashed past the window, hissing when Kinji shifted his gaze back to the dark road before him.
…
Violent lightning tore through the sky, shining brightly like a blade giving life to a new dimensional gate. Loud roars echoed from the shattered windows on the seventh floor of a slightly collapsed building the lightning were surging to always.
Tiny stones and metals fell, slamming into a pool of blood that seemed to be clotting the wet ground.
A stone-blasting sound echoed from the sky, sending streams of lightning against the raised mountains and tall buildings with metallic poles fixed on them.
A tire, rolling and moving a twenty-foot vehicle painted with a messy mixture of green, blue, red, and white, halted, making the colorless droplets of water sprinkle from it.
In the tinted windows and shimmering edges of the side-view mirror, Gray sat relaxed at the driver's side with his eyes closed, brushing his fingers across his chin.
No sound came from his sides or behind him; everything remained cool like the air after snow.
"Hahaha!" he giggled, gazing at the wolf-like creatures circling a building as if searching for something.
"Why call us here while there are E-level skill-grade soldiers at the headquarters?" he said, squeezing his eyes for the last time and tilting his head toward the driver beside him.
"Open the doors! We're continuing on foot," he added, removing his arm from the mirror he'd placed it on, pulling the door lock pin upward, tilting the interior door handle, and swinging the door open.
Cozy air flowed in through the now open space, brushing against his tightly laced combat boots as he descended from the bus. The moment his boots touched the ground, all the wolf-like creatures' ears shifted upward, flinging.
After a short while, all five creatures howled and turned their heads in harmony toward Gray's direction. They moved their long legs one after another, piercing their sharp claws into the wet earth.
Others appeared at the spot where the first five wolves were, moving from the shadowy places the night's light couldn't reach.
Two of them surged forward at mind-blowing speed, their sharp teeth glittering under the moon's gaze.
…
"Why do I always have to fight against the weak ones before I reach the one I love to die with?" Gray said, feeling dissatisfied with the manner in which the creatures were moving toward him.
He whistled, letting one man of his men—who were now descending from the bus—run toward the creatures.
He watched as the man freely and effortlessly slammed both creatures down and surged forward, wanting to clear them all before his master began to move.
After three minutes, green ichor coated the ground, and beside the ichor, torn parts of a wolf were scattered around.
Max inhaled, walking through the gore-filled land and placing one hand in his trousers' side pocket. Every creature he passed that wasn't torn into pieces, he stamped on its head, shattering it completely before moving forward.
'Are they toying with me by sending me to fight against these low-grade weak beasts?' he thought, counting the last hundredth wolf slammed to death.
Reaching the base of the building the beasts were circling, he tilted his gaze upward, scanning for any remains and making sure his men were now fitted for the job, but found nothing and continued walking toward the direction the smartwatch was pointing to.
"Sir, seems there're no traces left this time."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Sir, I'm sure."
"Have you checked all the locked rooms of the building in case there are any?"
"Yes, Sir, I have. Not to mention we found two doors that were sealed with strong metal our weapons couldn't break. But using the vibration sensor and the thermal vision, we saw nothing inside the rooms."
"Good. Tell them to gather all the remains of the creatures and pack them at the back of the bus."
"Sir, but why?"
"Just do it. You will learn about them later," Gray said, smiling. And when the lady with huge hips and breasts that were even more visible in the black suit turned toward the twelve-man squad, who were now flaunting their weapon skills used against the creatures.
"Tell them to move in groups and search those buildings," Gray said, pointing to a few buildings ahead.
The lady nodded, checking the direction, and joined the group, later separating into groups of four, with the lady joining one, letting the grouping become unbalanced.
At every distance Gray walked, his men surged out of a building, each carrying a load on their back, rushing back to a spot they all agreed on, and placing the gathered remains there before entering another building.
He shifted his gaze toward the sky after a loud roar pierced through the night, sending countless lightning strikes across the land.
"It seems they aren't toying with me as I thought," he said, halting and focusing his eyes on the clouds after seeing something similar to a legless dragon floating above them.
…
"HELP!..." Screams tore from the building the group the lady joined entered, causing the other groups to pause and stare at the now shaking building with worried faces.