Chapter 53: Flashback
Eight Years Ago
The dreaded alarm of the outbreak siren blared loudly through the amusement park. What followed was nothing short of chaos. People who, just minutes before, were laughing and creating cherished memories with friends and family, frantically ran in a desperate attempt to escape the onslaught of dark creatures unleashed by an unprecedented dungeon outbreak.
Richard was one of those people. He ran blind in a random direction, uncertain which way might lead to safety for his wife—whose hand he held firmly in his grasp—and his little son, their only child, whom his wife clutched in her arms.
He was forced to halt his steps every now and then after spotting a dark creature ahead dismembering its unlucky prey—innocent people, just like him.
Richard had just turned once more with his beautiful wife and child, attempting to escape a path blocked by a dark creature running amok, when he came face-to-face with one blocking their escape route.
It was a bloated humanoid with grayish skin and a belly twice its size. In its hand was the bloodied, worn axe it had used to strike down its previous victim. It wore a clueless expression on its grotesque face, head tilted slightly as it locked eyes with Richard, looking as confused as he was by the surrounding pandemonium.
Richard was everything but stupid. He knew better than to underestimate the fat nameless creature, nor did he let his guard down for even a split second.
It didn’t disappoint. The fat mass of flesh suddenly looked as if it had hit upon an idea and remembered its dark purpose and position in the food chain. A maniacal grin spread across its lips, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Then it shot forward. The nameless dark creature charged with a speed that far exceeded the logic of its mass. It ran in an awkward manner, its bloated stomach thrust forward, its arms flailing widely behind it as if carried by the wind—still clutching its axe. It was bearing down upon Richard, who had been locked in place by fear, coming face-to-face with a dark creature for the first time in his life.
But just before the nameless dark creature could reach him, a ball of flame descended from above and changed its course. The creature now ran in a random direction, being burnt and scorched alive until it tripped over itself, fell, and turned to crisp.
Richard shakily looked up to spot the familiar figure of a female Sage, with a few more flying over the scene. Relief washed over him. The Sages had finally arrived.
The female Sage was yelling something at him over the noise and gesturing towards a building not too far from his position. Richard couldn’t quite hear what she said, but he was quick to catch on and didn’t hesitate to pull his wife along as they ran towards the safe house.
There were other survivors running in that direction as well.
Richard quickly forced his way through the cramped doorway and into the crowded, but vast, room of the building. A few more people, and it just might become hard to move about freely.
Richard deliberately tightened his grip on his wife’s hand as he made his way deeper into the shelter, to ensure his family’s safety and needs were guaranteed. But he didn’t make it far into the crowd when a blood-guttural scream tore the peace and tranquility of the shelter from far behind. In a split second, it was chaos.
People began running in the opposite direction, away from the depths of the shelter where Richard was headed, and towards the entrance in a desperate attempt to escape whatever was happening.
Richard was confused and panicked. He strained his neck to look ahead, trying to ascertain the cause of the panic. He didn’t think a dark creature had somehow made it this deep into the shelter and someone had only noticed now, as there was only one known entrance into the building. But he was so wrong.
He soon spotted in the short distance the familiar bloated figure of the nameless dark creature. It was running along right in the midst of the people trying to get away from it, behaving as if it wasn’t the predator. Richard watched as it halted its steps every now and then to hack and slash at an unlucky person, before frantically running once more, mimicking the people’s desperate escape.
Richard’s stomach churned as he watched in horror the creature’s sick game of tag. He quickly turned around to run with the masses towards the entrance but was stunned once more to see a live stampede. People seemed to lose every sense of family or friendship, everyone trying desperately to save themselves. They didn’t mind if they were stepping on the head of another just like them as they tried to fit through the small entrance with no ounce of reasoning.
Richard knew it wasn’t ideal to take that path with his wife and son.
"H—Honey, what do we do?" The voice of his wife, heavily laced with fear, reached his ears as she squeezed his hand.
Richard turned to look at her and then at his son, hugging his mother’s body tightly in fear. He was faced with a great dilemma, as they were now stuck in-between the nameless dark creature charging their way and a great stampede. The safest choice looked to be maintaining their position.
For the first time in his life, Richard felt utterly helpless and useless as a man. He was scared too and wished someone could reassure him everything would be alright, the way he reassured his wife. For the sake of his family, Richard had to remain strong and tried to think of a way out in the heat of the moment.
"Uhh... umm..." He stuttered as he racked his brain in a desperate attempt to come up with something—anything.
Crack!
At that moment, a loud crash suddenly echoed throughout the shelter. Richard snapped his head up, in the direction of a high window that shattered in a burst of flames, followed by the familiar figure of the female Sage from earlier.
Relief washed over Richard and he let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. But soon enough, Richard was starting to panic once more as he watched the Sage hover above helplessly, unable to do anything about the situation below, when it dawned on him.
The Sage seemed to be a fire class caster, and below were the tightly packed people she had to save from the nameless dark creature—in their midst. If she were to hit it with her flames now, like she’d done earlier, there was the risk of an innocent civilian getting caught up in the flames as well—or worse, the entire building burning down.
In other words, the Sage was basically useless in this case... unless... unless the dark creature were to somehow stay in place with its surroundings clear of people. It was currently running around with the people and only stood in place every now and then to draw blood, before quickly running around once more, mimicking the desperate people’s escape attempt. So if it were to somehow be locked in place, long enough for people to clear its surroundings, then and only then could the Sage be given a window of opportunity to get a clear hit on it—with minimum casualty.
Richard knew he was spot on with his speculation as he carefully assessed the situation. He looked from the nameless dark creature not too far from their position now, to the female Sage hovering above aimlessly like a housefly trapped behind a window, to the live stampede happening all around him.
From the look of things, if there was anyone capable of doing the needful—pinning down the nameless dark creature long enough for people to clear the area and give the Sage the chance to get a clear hit on it without fear of collateral damage on innocent people... then it could only be him.
Richard looked at his wife once more, with a gaze that told her all she needed to know: that he was about to do something crazy. She quickly shook her head as she tightened her grip on his hand, unwilling to let go.
"Honey, I swear I have a plan—a real one," Richard said in a hoarse voice to his wife. "If things are to continue like this, a lot of lives will be lost, and I’ll be left feeling guilty because I could’ve saved everyone. I promise to make it back to you and Felix, okay?" He kissed her forehead and stroked the head of his son, Felix.