It was at that moment that loud sirens were triggered around the city flaring loudly, the sound almost deafening.
Simultaneously, Mr. Valen—along with everyone nearby—received an SMS that read:
A temporary passageway has appeared at Latitude: 39.1928° N, Longitude: 96.5823° W. Proceed with extreme caution.
"Shit, shit, shit," Rigg cursed as he spotted those silver claws, his breath hitching as he stepped back.
Mr. Valen, on the other hand, was expressionless, watching curiously as the being emerged. After all, it was too far away to reach them immediately.
"My god," Mr. Valen's eyes lit up at the sight of such a monstrosity, wondering how a being like that could even exist.
The passageway closed up quickly, and a rather small and slender beast emerged from it, one which Mr. Valen, even from his distance, observed to be six feet tall, a rather small size when one took into account the size of the rift from which it came.
It had a humanoid appearance, but its posture was hunched, almost predatory, its limbs thick and sinewy.
It possessed long webbed arms that dragged slightly when it walked, ending in razor-sharp silver claws.
Black, slick fur covered most of its body, but it looked damp, soaked even, dropping sadly.
It had a fin on its back that glowed faintly and rippled like some sort of jellyfish, its purpose unknown.
The top half of its face seemed bat-like, huge black bulging eyes with no pupils that made it seem as though it were staring beyond you.
Its pointed ears twitched and turned as though looking for a certain sound while the bottom half of its face was skull-like with jagged outward-facing teeth visible to any observer.
It seemed confused, its movements fast and jittery like a spider in an unfamiliar environment, it almost looked cute, but then, as though sensing something, it looked at him.
"Shit,"
Mr. Valen thought as he turned to Rigg, "We should-"
He stopped himself as he realized that Rigg was no longer beside him, he had taken off.
Mr. Valen turned to the beast and discovered that its body language had changed from that of confusion to focus.
Even he was not intrigued enough to remain standing so he moved, sprinting into the factory.
Upon noticing that its prey had moved, the beast moved as well, its legs like breaking into a full sprint while its hands clawed at the ground, acting like slingshots that propelled it even faster.
"Whoosh!"
It went from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds propelling itself with so much force that it basically flung itself over the factory's tall gate.
But unlike what one would expect, it did not follow Mr. Valen into the first floor; rather, it leaped onto the structure itself, its claws digging into the factory's wall.
Meanwhile, Mr. Valen felt a rush of adrenaline overcome him as he looked around, "Where are you hiding?" He thought to himself.
The fence surrounding the factory was too high for a man of Rigg's size to scale without equipment, meaning that there was only one place he could have gone, which was up.
He was currently on the third floor, and the factory had four floors. Additionally, there were nothing but scattered crates around him, so he resolved to get to the last floor.
Not before spotting the shadow of a man hiding behind a stack of crates.
"How in the world," Mr. Valen suddenly muttered as he observed a pair of black eyes peering at him through the window, and before he knew it.
"Bam!"
"Bam!"
A succession of loud thuds resounded as the beast pounded its balled fists against the glass, cracking it with each collision.
With what he observed before him, Mr. Valen knew that he could not outrun the beast but his expression did not change.
«If I don't use him as a buffer, my death is almost certain, and yet even that buffer would only delay the inevitable.»
"It's too strong to confront and too fast to outrun, what a perfect predator," Mr. Valen thought as he ran towards the stairs leading to the fourth floor.
But as he ran up the stairs, he heard a series of footsteps followed by heavy cursing, that drew ones attention, "shit, shit, shit, you led it here kid?" It said.
The voice belonged to Rigg, who trailed far behind him, but Mr. Valen was not surprised; he had seen him hiding on the third floor.
Rigg's voice echoed just a little too loudly through the stairwell, and upon hearing it, Mr. Valen didn't respond—he didn't need to, the creature had already heard him.
The loud sound of shattering, echoed for all to hear, the beast had burst through the window on the third floor, it was within the building.
And both Mr. Valen and Rigg did not wait to meet it; instead, they ran upstairs, but even as they ran, there was an unnatural silence to the atmosphere.
One would expect the beast to give chase but there was nothing, no pounding, no claws, no sound at all.
But then Mr. Valen ran past a window along the stairwell, and in that moment, he saw through the corner of his eyes a beast ready to pounce. It had not entered through the third-floor window and was instead attempting to break through this one.
"How did it know to scale up? How did it even reach here so quickly?" Mr. Valen thought to himself.
Fortunately, he was able to run through before the beast could strike, but the same could not be said for the man behind him.
«Leaving him to die would be of little use, but if he survives because of me, he would prove useful.»
"Turn back, it's right-" Mr. Valen tried to warn, but it was too late.
"Crack!"
The window exploded inward as the beast crashed through, shards of glass flickering across the dusty stairs.
It had appeared with so much force that it seemed as though it would pass the stairs entirely and fall to its death.
Its black, dripping fur flickering in the air as it twisted mid-leap.
Suddenly, it latched onto the stair rail with one hand and forced itself back onto the stairs, landing on all fours with a wet slap.
Rigg froze halfway as the beast observed him, his eyes winded in terror.
"Wait—wait—!" he yelled as he stepped back, his will to fight non-existent.
But the creature didn't wait; rather, it moved.
One second it was crouched on the ground, and the next it was on him, pinning him to the stairs, its silver claws digging into his flesh as its mouth extended so much that its cheeks tore, revealing even more teeth.
"Noooo!"
A gurgled scream was all Rigg managed before his voice was swallowed, muffled by the thing's mouth clamping around his midsection before tearing it open, blood and organs splattering everywhere.
Repeating the process, the beast bit down on Rigg's head, this time with a sickening crunch.
Even in his mutilated state, Rigg's legs kicked wildly before going limp, one last fight before death.
After devouring Rigg's head the beast seemed to lose all interest in his body.
It chewed once, twice, before tilting its head and letting the mangled remains fall with a splatter.
Then it turned.
But Mr. Valen was gone, disappearing faster than Houdini.
In reality, he had taken to his heels around the time the creature pounced on Rigg.
Unfortunately, there was nowhere to run, and the creature seemed to know that, following his scent with precision.
Said scent led it to a large room where it found its prey observing it.
Mr. Valen did not flinch as its gaze landed on him. Rather, he stared back, seemingly unfazed in all outward appearance but internally, he was weighing his odds.
"Its distance is about fourteen meters. Based on its previous speeds, it would reach me in less than three seconds, but I can extend that time by portraying a confident front. Predators tend to be wary around confident prey," He thought as he observed.
And his tactic indeed seemed to be working as the creature hissed, not with malice, but curiosity, as though trying to understand why this prey was so fearless.
But although Mr. Valen was confident he was still prey, the beast lunged after that small moment of hesitation aiming for his head
But Mr. Valen was prepared ducking just in time to avoid a clean decapitation while using his left hand to block in case he could not dodge.
At the same time, he twisted his form, hurling a short metal rod he had hidden behind him at the abomination.
"Shrek!"
The beast screamed as it was impaled, but as soon as it landed it latched onto the rod and pulled it from his side, the wound healing faster than it had been created.
Upon seeing this, Mr. Valen's eyes widened, but the beast's healing speed was not the sole factor in his shock.
He observed that the beast seemed to be chewing on something which confused him, until he felt it.
That was when reality kicked in, he had not been fast enough to avoid everything.
"When did it?"
"Ghh!"
Pain suddenly flared through his right hand forcing him to take a step back, bearing the pain with all the adrenaline-fueled strength he could muster.
Three of his fingers were gone, stolen by the beast in a shocking spectacle of speed.
Blood flowed from his fingertips or where his fingertips were supposed to be.
But there was no helping it, his face expressionless as he clutched his mangled hand, the bone exposed where flesh had once been.
The pain was incandescent, so much so that he roared in his mind—but his face didn't twitch.
Mr. Valen's expression grew a few shades colder, but he knew he could do nothing in this situation, so he waited for the beat to finish what it had started.
But something was off, after waiting for a few seconds, the beast did not move to continue attacking, instead its body language became defensive.
At first, Mr. Valen was confused, but then he heard the sound of something cutting through the air, too fast for the eyes to register.
"Swoosh!"
The object tore through the beast's flesh, earning another screech from it, but this time the wound did not heal immediately; in fact, it did not seem to be healing at all.
Turning back, Mr. Valen spotted a familiar woman with glowing purple eyes.
It was the woman he had met in the elevator, the one who dressed like a man, and true to the accusation, she was indeed wearing a suit.
Fortunately, she was not focused on him at the moment, rather, her attention was latched on the beast before her.
The beast, sensing the threat, whimpered slightly before turning back, lunging out of a nearby window.