(Dr Fujimoto Pov)
We got out of the elevator, the people in it curiously watching us move out but I didn't specially pay them any mind and looked to the right through the view in front was just another part of the megacomplex. Layer upon layer of floors making it seem all the more congested. I looked above to see the up above and all i could see was a metal ceiling outstretched up above.
I huffed and remembered how this place is nothing of an illusion and everything was laid bare for just practicality unlike the illusion that the canopy district has.
Aizen kept moving without stop and me and my students followed right behind, "They really are just trying to fit any person they can in here." I said not particularly to anyone but more to myself.
In between our walk on my left are the compartments each marked with unit numbers, small identifiers, and signs of personal life...scratches, worn panels, minor decorations that broke the uniformity just enough to suggest individuality and regular intervals on the left wider sections opened with all kinds of different shops in between filled with kids running around or adults buying something.
All this was going normally when aizen suddenly burst forth without saying anything. "Aizen.....?" I called, startled by his sudden burst of speed but he didn't slow down.
I tried to run behind him barely catching his silhouette. One turn after another blurred by.
My breathe was ragged barely able to keep up with the guy. "Huff...Huff.....Huff....Young people surely are too energetic for my own good." I barely made to the unit the address was for the gate was open.
Just as i about to enter i heard a loud scream continuing of a woman full of terror. I slowly entered through the door and stopped, the scene inside was one of like a storm has passed through, The table in the center had been split apart, its pieces scattered across the floor. The sofas around it were ripped open, their insides exposed.
The walls bore deep gouges...five long marks carved into the surface as if something had dragged itself through them and right next to it was a strange thing its body marred with small eyes all over its body its torso had multiple libs and one long arm even longer than its own body and other long arm through the iron door likely grabbing the woman whose screams were filling the room.
Seeing the thing made me pause a bit thinkin, fear gripped my heart by what even am i seeing right now.
For a moment, I couldn't move. The woman's screams filled the room, sharp and unrelenting, yet they felt distant like my mind refused to process them fully. My eyes remained locked on the thing in front of us, trying to make sense of it, trying to fit it into something familiar. "What even is that?" I ran my brain through everything but couldn't pinpoint to anything i knew.
(Should i run away.) I had a thought for a moment i looked at my two students who were similarly terrified seeing whatever the thing was standing still like statues. I slowly looked at aizen his face wasn't visible but his body was weirdly composed, nothing indicating that he was fearful or panicking (Or maybe this is own way to cope.)
"Aizen" I called in a very small whisper careful not to alert the thing, he didn't respond or in all this screaming my voice simply didn't reach him but in that moment he crouched down and amidst the wreckage picking a sharp piece of splintered metal.
He then slowly turned towards me. His face was not the usual expressions, not his caution not his smiling face but a strange smirk spread across his face. "Fujimoto-san," he said quietly, his voice low enough that it barely carried beyond us, "take your students and leave." I frowned, instinctively stepping forward. "What are you saying...."
"Report this as a possible bioweapon incident," he continued, cutting me off without raising his voice. "Evacuate the surrounding area immediately and contact the authorities as soon as possible."
My mind simply thought of something similar but nothing of sorts came to mind. I shrugged those thoughts and asked him "Why are you saying as if you are not coming with us." He simply looked at me " I would remain and try to see what i can do, If that thing tries to get out i don't think that iron door would really stop it in its tracks. So, go out quickly and quietly specially you two." They stiffened, but nodded immediately their faces pale and rigid.
I hesitated for only a moment "Fine.." I moved first and gestured the two of them to follow. We carefully and slowly stepped back out and i was already out of the unit but a sharp sound of glass breaking filled my ears and terror filled my mind and as i looked back one of my student has accidently stepped onto a piece of broken glass and the thing eyes embedded all over its body shifted from the iron door in front of him to the back towards us.
It plunged right in front was aizen who jumped out of the way at the very last possible moment but it continued and grabbed my two students by its long appendages its five long claws simultaneously plunging into their bodies.
A painful scream got out of the two of them but i didn't wait to meet the same fate and simply ran looking in between to confirm the thing was not following me.
(Aizen Pov)
The moment fujimoto fled , the room fell into silence. The two students of his were dead and the thing just turned and stared at me with all its eyes boring right into me. I focused on the thing ready to try and get out of its way. I felt the shard of metal in my hand adjusting it in my hand for a timely use. The thing didn't rush forward and instead threw the two bodies right at me.
I ducked the first one letting it smash into the wall behind but the other one came almost immediately since i couldn't evade it instead I raised my left shoulder slightly and turned my torso, letting the impact land across my side instead of my chest and making me take a step back while my balance almost crumbled and all this time was all the thing needed to be right in front of me it long arms extended outward from both sides, cutting off any lateral movement.
One came high, the other low, both angled so i couldn't dodge in any meaningful way to avoid harm.
In the moment instead I used the body as a shield using my one hand and the other with the shard of metal against its other hand. A heavy impact slammed into the corpse, the force traveling through it into my right arm. My shoulder absorbed the shock, muscles tightening to keep the joint from giving out.
Metal met claws, The force nearly tore it from my hand, the edge of the shard plunging in my own hand taking out some blood. the thing didn't gave me time to relent and instead with its claws pried the body right out of my hand and instead threw a kick right onto my stomach violently which i had no time to dodge, my body crashing into the wall alongside the remains of the corpse.
Air forced itself from my lungs, my vision blurring for a fraction of a second, but the thing didn't give me any time to recover. It surged forward immediately, both arms extending again, aiming to tear through me the moment I came within reach.
I forced myself upright and pushed off the wall behind me at the last possible moment, my footing barely stabilizing as I shifted my body out of its direct path. Its arms carved through the space I had occupied an instant ago, it's claws gourging out the wall it's arms got stuck there.
From behind, I tightened my grip on the shard, ignoring the blood pouring from my hand, and drove it forward with precision rather than force. The jagged edge plunged into the joint of its arm, slipping through the gap where its structure shifted.
A sharp, distorted screech tore from it as its body convulsed, its limbs jerking violently as it tried to pull free. I didn't stop, I kept on plunging it inside its thick hide again and again, forcing it into the same joint until the resistance gave way and the long limb finally went limp.
The moment it went limp the thing went still for a moment before it other arms stuck in wall came crashing on my body like a whip no longer trying in any way to control its arm. The force was enough to send me flying my feet no longer on the ground to control my landing in any way and crashed into the wall.
The impact drove through my back, the shock spreading across my ribs and spine as the breath I had just regained was forced out again. My body collapsed forward from the rebound, my knees nearly giving way as I caught myself just before hitting the ground.
I steadied myself with one hand against the wall, the other still gripping the shard loosely, blood trailing down my fingers. My body full of so much pain but I couldn't stop to think about it.
I couldn't wait to think, Its body surged forward, closing the distance without hesitation. The damaged arm dragged behind it like a dead weight, but the other remained loose, flexible, coiling slightly as if preparing to strike at full extension.
I stood up trying to anticipate its movement and rolled towards the only opening available, towards its damaged arm and denying it any chance of getting a hit on him through its legs.
The thing crashed into the wall with a heavy impact, the already formed crater deepening further under the force. Fragments broke loose and scattered across the floor, but I didn't stop to look. That moment of imbalance was all I needed.
I moved towards the doorway while keeping an eye towards it, not letting it give any chance of attacking which it did.
Its claws reached for my face, the distance closing in an instant. I ducked under it, letting the strike cut through empty air above me, the force distorting the space it passed through.
At the same time my other hand with the shard plunged it into its remaining working arm swinging it in its joint as hard as I can and the moment it sank in, I let go and moved past it, stepping through the doorway without hesitation.
A sharp, distorted scream tore from it behind me. All its eyes snapped towards me no longer filled with just the aggression as earlier but a certain madness its eyes which seemed normal earlier were now all filled with black and red colour and spreading and elongating seemingly connecting to each eye.
My senses were telling me something was wrong but I couldn't show my back against that thing, it is too unpredictable to show such a moment of weakness
I stepped fully into the hallway. The space opened around me immediately, devoid of the destruction and covered in shadows making the area darker than the room inside. My eyes kept glued on the thing which was growling, the shadows spread all over us seemingly mixing and merging, standing up from the ground.
My eyes narrowed and my muscles tightened for any moment. The shadows had white maw running all over its body with a multitude of eyes opening adjacent to the its mouth dwarfing even the thing in its size.
The shadow surged upward, no longer flat. Its full mass tearing free from the surface in a violent rise. The maw opened wide enough to swallow me whole, passing through the space I had occupied an instant before.
The timing was narrow, even my implants couldn't help me here... If i move too early the shadow would adjust and if I did it too late..I would be caught in its long set of sharp teeths.
I had barely did the safe duck at the right still in standing postion but my shoulder was bleeding heavily caught in shadows maw barely and this was enough to take a good chunk of my flesh.
The hallway was a now a smokescreen of dust..my eyes concentrated to see the creature from the front of the shadow from the back. Truly caught in the worst possible scenario.
That was when I saw a blur of mass with countless eyes along the body which i couldn't dodge after just barely getting my footing, it's clawed long arm still with the shard of metal stuck...plunged through my stomach.
Pain....intense pain followed but instead of wlalowing in pain i instead dused its own momentum of its movement.
My hand at its long arm instead of getting it out pulling it towards me and Its motion hadn't expected that. Its stance faltered slightly as I used the momentum of its own strike, stepping in instead of back, closing the distance completely.
Then I shifted my weight and let it fall below me with me on top of it. The ground vanished beneath us. The wall behind of the hallway was already destroyed by its shadow and me being in that position was already a sure death way.
The air roared past instantly, tearing against my skin as the layered interior of the megacomplex stretched endlessly below platform after platform, rails, beams, suspended walkways, all blurring into vertical depth.
The shadow didn't stay behind. Fragments of it clung to nearby surfaces, leaping downward in jagged intervals, reforming across walls and beams as it chased us. Its maws snapped open mid-descent, trying to intercept.
The thing still didn't give up and dinstead using its smaller limbs clawing at me, tearing across my sides and arms, shallow but relentless. The strike kept up against my arm, my back but I didn't relent and ignored them.
My grip tightened against its long limb and with slow movements began pulling its arm out of my body. The resistance was heavy, every movement dragging pain through me, blood trailing behind in thin streams as gravity pulled it downward.
Slowly but surely it came out a little bit.... halfway through.
The creature lashed again, trying to regain control, but falling had stripped it of precision. Its movements were no longer calculated but just violently trying anything it can.
The shadow also kept on leaping downward in broken intervals. It stretched across walls and beams, reforming in pieces as it chased us, trying to tear apart a piece of me again.
It's rows of sharp teeth coming from above and I just twisted slightly letting the shadow graze the thing and again reforming onto a piece of wall or empty space.
(And finally..) I broke the long limb from my body, the moment it came free I didn't let go of it. I held onto the torn limb as both of us continued to fall, its body twisting as it lost all control.
For a brief moment, I expected the shadow to strike again.
The scattered fragments that had been chasing us withdrew instead. One by one, they abandoned their broken forms along the walls and beams, stretching inward, pulling themselves together.
Below us across one of the passing corridor the shadow gathered once more. It spread across the hallway like a living surface, swallowing the light that fell upon it. Its shape stabilized, the jagged maws reopening across its body, eyes forming in clusters.
I let the shadow act and do whatever it want stop and springboard the landing and the shadow coiled its entire mass tightening trying to tackle and save the thing towards a fixed point.
(A predictable point) That was enough and adjusted my descent subtly, letting the implants assist with the timing small corrections, nothing drastic.
The moment came and the shadow surged upwards its maws opened wide as it launched toward the creature but I moved at that exact instant, pushing off the thing just enough to let the creature slip slightly behind me instead of directly below and breaking it's trajectory justto let the shadow miss it.
The shadow rose toward the position it had predicted and I entered that space instead. For a fraction of a second, my body met its surface.
Neither solid nor liquid something in between and it held even with all my momentum and I let myself slide across it. Using it like a surface rather than resistance, letting the momentum carry me along its distorted mass as it struggled to stabilize under the unexpected contact.
The maws snapped open around me, too slow to react properly at that speed then I pushed off. Using that brief contact to redirect my fall towards ledge of a hallway of the megacomplex.
My forearms slammed into the metal edge first. The force shot through my arms instantly violent enough, like something inside them had shifted out of place. My body didn't stop. It scraped forward across the ledge, friction tearing through fabric and skin as momentum carried me toward the drop beyond it.
My chest hit next then my side enough to make the air being forced out of my lungs in a single, broken breath.
I was already slipping before instinct took over. My hand shot forward and caught the edge just barely, my fingers curled over the ledge, the weight of my entire body dragging downward. For a fraction of a second, they slipped blood making the metal slick before i tightened my grip not letting myself fall.
Pain flared through my hands and forearms, muscles straining, joints protesting under the sudden load. My other hand came up slower, weaker, but it found the edge. I stayed there just hanging on it before I pulled myself over to the hallway through the ledge.
I just collapsed right then and there letting my broken body rest while letting my one hand pressurized to my stomach not letting the blood go out and letting my PV on my eye and activating the Micro implants do their job for stopping the blood loss.
My gaze shifted, the corridor was no longer empty. My eyes scanning the place when more people came.Some stood at a distance, hesitant, unsure whether to approach or flee. Others had already raised their PV interfaces, translucent screens hovering near their eyes, recording, transmitting capturing everything.
No one stepped closer, though I didn't really need anyone right now just a little rest and I can patch myself back to normal.
I closed my eyes for a brief moment thinking of everything that happens today and a brief thought came to my mind.
(What an intersting day indeed....
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Again..guys sorry for the delay...was busy in my exams and project and what not and even though had these two chapters but some scene i kept working on and on again.
Now.. same thing so tell me what can be improved or anything or want to see and any mistakes or improvements that can be done are always appreciated and that's all for now...