As soon as the red eye appeared, it was gone.
However, that didn’t change how unsettled Kairos was, or the others. Though it was only for a short moment, he felt like he recognized that eye.
It was the cult leader’s. The person that was a part of ‘The Church of Evolution’. Specifically, The Red Priest.
Kairos gave up on closing the roof.
It was too late anyway.
He tucked the red prism into his pocket before slamming his fist down hard on the wolf he was riding.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
With a crack, the wolf collapsed to the floor. The skin on Kairos’ knuckle was ripped off, but the job was done. The other wolves acted quickly, pouncing towards him.
However, this time he directly jumped up higher, landing onto one of the wolf’s backs. Like this, he kept his balance and continued to fight off the wolves.
But this time, he was sweating slightly with a frown on his face.
When a wolf leaped towards him, his hand shot out towards its eye, before grabbing down tightly. The wolf immediately let out howls of pain as it tried to escape, but as it was struggling, Kairos punched it with all he had.
A startling crack resounded.
The wolf’s struggles noticeably lessened, but it was still alive. As for Kairos, he began bleeding from his fist pretty badly, but he had bigger problems to worry about.
Once again, he threw his fist, cracking the wolf’s skull.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
The wolf’s body fell limp, but he did not drop it. Instead, he threw it towards some other wolves in the process of pouncing towards him, blocking their advance.
Still, Kairos did not pause. He didn’t know exactly what the red eye meant, but he knew that he did not have time to waste.
Nicole was already killing the wolves she could while Kairos was distracting them. As for Chase and Tori, they both understood the urgency of the situation.
Chase decided to stay and hold the flashlight though. This was because there needed to be light for them to fight properly and he couldn’t do much at all right now anyway. As for Tori, she charged in towards the wolves despite the fact her arm was still faintly shaking from fatigue.
Kairos focused on crushing the wolf skulls as efficiently as possible. With the rising anxiety, his blow became stronger.
He directly threw his fist at the side of a wolf’s face that was pouncing towards him.
A frightening cracking sound came from both the wolf and Kairos’ fist.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
Another one lunged for him, prompting Kairos to smash down on the top of its skull.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
His fists began trembling ever so slightly. They were beginning to feel a little numb and cold. The only way he knew he still had sensation was the feeling of warmth from his own blood.
When two wolves lunged for him, he grabbed them both by the neck and transferred their momentum into each other slamming their heads together. The teeth of one ripped into the other.
Kairos pulled the two away before slamming them together once more.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
He dropped both corpses, letting them land against the floor with a thud. As for Tori and Nicole, they were already covered in blood from the rabbits, but now they had a fresh coat over their bodies after killing quite a few of the wolves.
They were pretty efficient, especially since they were all distracted by Kairos.
In fact, once Kairos smashed his fist against another wolf…
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
He found that the only one alive was the one he was standing on.
And so, he lifted up his foot before bringing it down like a bullet.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
Nicole ran up to Kairos, only able to slightly open one eye because of the blood over her face.
“Are you ok?”
Kairos shook his head.
“No. None of us are ok. We have to get out of here.”
Tori looked a little solemn.
“Does that mean we abandon the one that can’t move?”
Nicole froze up, unable to speak.
As for Kairos, he furrowed his brows and frowned deeply.
He didn’t want to give up on Sydney for multiple reasons. The primary one being Nicole might not be able to take it and the second one being that Sydney had an extremely frightening regeneration ability that made her very valuable.
Kairos closed his eyes and massaged his temple with the tip of his finger despite how badly his hands were hurting.
Was there some other option?
But they really couldn’t bring a dead weight with them if they wanted to run. Even if they didn’t bring her along, it was questionable if they could get away even then.
Kairos’ breathing became unsteady, but he suddenly paused as he thought of the underground caves where they originally got this prism. He got an idea.
He pulled out the red prism and looked at the energy value.
[Energy: 376/1000]
A tremendous amount had been wasted on building the walls that turned out to be useless. It pained his heart a little that his decision ended up being the wrong one, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
However… it should be enough to execute his plan.
“What if instead of running away, we hide?”
Chase had jogged over and overheard the conversation.
“How exactly should we hide?”
Kairos looked down at the red prism.
“I create a place underneath the ground with this thing, then close off the top. We stay there for as long as we possibly can before coming back out.”
Nicole furrowed her brows.
“…Will we have enough air?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I stayed in my room without opening the window for weeks. I even covered the vent. Though there was still air seeping in from the gap in the door, there shouldn’t have been too much.”
He sighed.
“It will get stuffy, but a few days is no issue.”
Tori clicked her tongue.
“That sounds like it’s going to be a painful experience…”
She cracked her neck.
“My arms are killing me, I’m going to increase my endurance.”
With that, a status panel opened in front of her as her shaking finger reached out to add some points. Kairos immediately held her hand back.
“No, not yet.”
Tori raised an eyebrow.
“Come on… just like one point.”
Kairos shook his head.
“It will use up your energy, making you eat more. We don’t have that kind of food right now, especially if we are going to hide.”
Tori frowned, but nodded.
“…Alright. Feels a little annoying to have so many points but unable to use them.”
Kairos clicked his tongue.
“They aren’t going anywhere. Come on, let’s do this inside the house.”
He looked up at the hole in the ceiling.
“Just in case anything else is watching…”
The group made their way back into the house. As they did so, many strange rough bristling sounds came from outside the walls. It almost sounded like an animal running through the grass, so Kairos ignored it.
Back in the house, Sydney was still laying down silently, unconscious as ever.
Kairos shut the door behind them and pulled out the red prism. Though he took back his glasses from Chase, he didn’t put them on for now.
The reason was so that he could pay close attention to the energy count left in the prism. He wanted to keep at least 10 energy after the process was finished. After all, he had no plans of locking them all inside. There had to be some left over to reopen the gap.
First, a tiny hole formed in the ground, just enough for a person to fit through. He then created a room underneath it, making it a little over two meters tall and making it as wide as he could. His reasoning was so that he could stay further away from the others justifiably.
And so, he watched as the energy counter rapidly drained from the initial 376. As it got lower and lower, Kairos slowed down, until eventually, it reached an energy level of 15. From there, he tossed down his own bag, while everyone followed suit right after.
Then he turned to look at Nicole.
“Jump down first and be prepared to catch your mom.”
Nicole looked down the extremely skinny hole that seemed to go down into a deep darkness.
“…Could you make the hole a tiny bit larger?”
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
“I made it small so that I could make the room a bit larger. Don’t worry, the only thing waiting for you down there is stone.”
Nicole seemed a little hesitant, but walked up next to the hole anyway. She slowly put one foot through after another. As she slid down, she held onto the sides of the floor with a bit of panic and slowly slid down.
One of the bulging red veins rubbed against her back uncomfortably, prompting her to frown. However, she was able to get down, albeit letting out a slight yelp along the way.
A muffled voice came from down below.
“I made it! …But it really is dark.”
Kairos proceeded to pick up Sydney, bringing her over to the hole. He made sure the feet went in first, before the rest of the body. He also made sure the arms weren’t caught on anything and especially so for the head.
After that, he proceeded to let go.
From down below, a soft grunt was heard. Then, Nicole called out.
“I… I got her!”
Kairos let out a soft sigh, before calling out.
“Try to get out of the way so that we can jump down too.”
Nicole called out.
“Alright!”
After a few dragging sounds, she called out once more.
“It’s clear now.”
With that, Kairos tucked both feet in the hole before slipping down. The feeling of the bulging red veins was admittedly strange, but it wasn’t harmful. He landed on the ground with a clear tap, now essentially in complete darkness. It felt a little cold, but otherwise, it was fine.
Not being able to see anything admittedly made him feel a little anxious, but he knew that the only thing down here was him, Nicole, and Sydney.
Kairos looked around, before quickly realizing he wasn’t going to see anything.
“Hey, where are you, Nicole?”
Nicole let out a soft cough.
“Um, over here.”
Kairos then walked in the opposite direction and called out afterwards.
“Alright, you can jump down now.”
Chase landed down the next moment with a tiny grunt. He had thrown himself down without the slightest care. He then shined the flashlight down, letting everyone see.
Some of the backpacks were knocked over. Kairos promptly dragged them to the side, then called out.
“You can jump.”
After a few seconds, Tori landed down on the ground.
She took a deep breath and looked around.
“…Alright. Guess we are going to have to get familiar with this place.”
Chase suddenly narrowed his eyes.
“…Say, how will we deal with the need to go to the washroom?”
The room immediately fell silent.
Kairos’ lip twitched.
“We can dedicate one side of the room for that.”
Tori frowned.
“Oh god… it’s going to smell so bad.”
Kairos suddenly furrowed his brows.
“Wait.”
Nicole perked up.
“You… have another solution?”
Kairos tilted his head to the side.
“Sort of? I remember I haven’t needed to use the washroom ever since the red sun rose. In fact, my stomach almost always felt empty.”
Chase rubbed his chin.
“…That is the same for me. I remember a similar situation when I was out in the wilderness with far less food than planned. I rationed it all out, just barely eating enough to survive. That lasted for a week or so, and I only needed to go once in that entire time.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“It seems that because our bodies are not as much energy as it needs, it refuses to let any of it go.”
Kairos sighed.
“…Well, that’s one less problem.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Of many.”