Chap 110: Splattered

The shuffles from Snickers’ cage broke the silence after Zod spoke. If he was right, there was a monster in their living complex growing at a rapid rate. Soon, it would tower over them.

“Are you sure it’s not a XenoSapian?” Miko asked, her voice still shaky.

“It isn’t,” Zod replied. “The egg I mistook for a pebble must’ve come from the Leak we faced today.” He nodded, hand under his chin. “Yes, that explains why it can disappear and reappear at will.”

Kie stared hard at the ground. The muscles bulging at his temples were hidden by damp hair sticking to his skin with sweat. He was biting down too hard on his lower jaw.

Saeda held Snickers’ cage with both hands. Only the yellow bars separated her from her precious. Since the monster wasn’t a XenoSapian that only preyed on humans, Snickers had to be protected.

Tee couldn’t recall a moment when the Leak they faced earlier had vanished. “When did that Leak disappear and reappear?” she asked, turning to Zod. “I saw it the entire time.” When her mind connected the logic, she gasped. “Unless it did—but my Absolute Vision made me see it. So, you and Saeda aren’t blind after all.”

“It’s like a ghost,” Zod said. “It can fade through anything, but I don’t think it can control it like its mother. That’s why everything’s a mess—”

“Enough talking,” Kie cut in. “We need to find that thing and kill it. Zod can clean up the mess later.” He turned his back and headed for the kitchen.

Zod’s jaw dropped. “Me?”

Tee and the others followed Kie inside. Kie yanked one of the aprons from the rack. He pulled it so hard it cracked the air and sent a rush of wind into the faces behind him.

Miko couldn’t take her eyes off the unhinged cupboard doors and shattered ceramics. The faint crunch beneath her shoes made her glance down at the fine brown particles scattered on the floor. She looked up at the broken shelves that once held seasoning and spices. Most of that good food would have to be thrown away. Her heart sank.

Kie tied the apron around his waist and began loading knives into the front pocket. Tee reached for the large butcher knife Miko never used. Her reflection shone clear on its surface, and she smiled. She wasn’t good at making meals, but she knew how to use a knife.

“I still think the large swords from the training room would be better,” Miko said. She didn’t like Kie taking out all the knives she usually used to prepare their meals.

“Negative,” Kie said. “I’m not giving that monster another second to get bigger.” He stared at the last knife he held. It glowed blue, but no flame appeared, and he sighed.

“You and your girlfriend can get cozy again washing all the knives we use,” Saeda said, placing Snickers’ cage on the counter. “That is—if they’re still in usable condition after we make a few more holes in the walls.”

Both Tee and Kie kept their heads straight. They didn’t glance at the brave soul who’d said those words, because it was true—they were on dish duty, utensils and all.

The invisible needles prickling over their bodies came in silence, and they all froze. That feeling of being watched crept in, and their sense of hearing sharpened. Heavy breathing made them dart their eyes toward the bottom entrance of the kitchen. The faint gallops from something bolting out of that area told them the critter was there. Saeda shivered from the creepiness. Tee activated her foreseeing vision to start scanning for it.

Zod slapped a hand to his forehead. “That’s it. That thing’s hungry. After I chased it out of my room, I found it in the dining room. It was sniffing around before I chased it into the telegram room to keep blasting.”

Kie shot him a look. “You were in the dining room with that thing?”

Zod walked over to Kie and placed a hand on his shoulder, turning him away from the dining room entrance. “Trust me, you don’t want to see what it’s like in there.”

Kie gritted his teeth and pulled away from Zod’s hand. “Fine. We’ll attract it with food and kill it in the least destructive way possible.”

“That might work,” Saeda said. “If it’s anything like its mother, it can’t turn ghost while it’s eating. It stayed visible when Zod fell toward its mouth, remember?”

Tee spotted the critter heading back toward the kitchen, sniffing the ground. It stopped and glared at the entrance with glowing red eyes—then bolted in the opposite direction.

What a stupid animal, she thought. Any closer to that doorway and she would’ve sent knives straight for its neck. She slammed her fist onto the table and blinked out of her foreseeing vision. How were they going to kill it if it kept running away? Folding her arms, she listened to her teammates.

“Fine, we kill it while it’s eating,” Kie said. “But unlike the one we faced today, we don’t seem to be on its menu.”

“What about the bacon I planned to make for breakfast?” Miko asked.

“Nah,” Zod said. “By the time that’s unfrozen, that Leak’ll be big enough to eat us whole. We need something fresh.”

Miko didn’t get the chance to suggest baking it in the oven. Zod’s eyes had already darted to the cage on the table, and Saeda blinked. When she opened her eyes, Zod’s face was an inch from the cage, staring too intently at her precious inside.

“Poor thing must be starving,” Zod said. “But it won’t attack something larger than itself. It probably couldn’t find anything except the smell of our dinner lingering in the air.”

Saeda pulled the cage off the table into her hands. She didn’t like how Zod’s head turned to follow it, his eyes never leaving Snickers.

“Snickers is not bait—since Zod is,” she said.

Zod blinked twice at such an irrational statement. Why would the monster suddenly charge at him when it had only run away before?

“Why should Snickers get punished for your stupidity?” she fumed. “You’d think after my mistake, you’d think twice before bringing back some cool, harmless object! You’re an idiot. You’re only good at regurgitating things, but nothing ever sticks in that thick skull of yours.” Then she hissed at him.

“Saeda,” Kie said.

Saeda bit her lip.

“...Snickers is bait, and that’s final.”

The wall lamp outside the kitchen crashed to the ground. Saeda’s shaky eyes met Kie’s half-opened ones. When his serious expression didn’t flicker, she realized it was a useless battle and looked away.

“Tsk. Fine,” she said, lifting the cage back onto the table. “How will we make sure he doesn’t get eaten? Leaving him in the cage isn’t safe since that thing can fade right through it.”

“More importantly, how do we get Snickers to stay in one spot with a ravaging beast rushing at it?” Zod cut in. “I don’t want it running up my leg.”

Saeda’s brows furrowed the moment Zod mentioned Snickers. It was his fault Snickers was in that mess, and she didn’t even want to hear his voice. She opened the cage and held her trembling furball in her hand. Smiling when his large black eyes focused on her, she said, “He stays still when he’s eating. We just need to give him something to munch on.”

A minute later, Snickers was on the ground outside the kitchen, surrounded by a circle of nuts. The five Sentinels stood silent, several inches away from the entrance, each holding a knife.

Kie slowly pushed a knife past the doorway, its flat blade facing him. From the reflection on its surface, he could see down the hallway. Snickers was on the ground munching away. When two red glowing eyes appeared in the reflection, he held his breath.

Saeda stood right beside him, eyes fixed on the knife. When the critter bolted toward Snickers, her heart skipped a beat. She made a soft ticking sound with her tongue to call Snickers back to her.

Snickers stuffed the last nut into his mouth and scurried toward the kitchen. The larger critter was faster. It closed the gap after turning at the entrance. The monster’s sharp claws brushed against Snickers, startling him. Instead of running into Saeda’s hand, Snickers darted past her feet.

The creature—about half their height—didn’t make it past its second step into the kitchen. Sharp-tipped knives dropped from above, stabbing into every inch of its body.

Heavy breaths filled the air at the kitchen entrance. Everyone except Saeda stared at the ground, where the knives were jammed deep—but the monster was gone. It had turned ghost to dodge their strike.

Tee hadn’t blinked once. She’d seen everything with her Absolute Vision. “It faded into the ground,” she blurted. The moment she heard her own words, she blinked and sighed at the unlucky truth. She was going to be up far longer than she’d hoped.

Tee’s teammates couldn’t take their eyes off the knives stabbed into the ground at the kitchen entrance. Something was missing. Where was the critter that should’ve been oozing blood and trapped beneath them? When Tee’s words reached their ears, it all made sense. The creature had faded through the ground to avoid their attack.

Zod dropped to his knees, his forehead pressing against the floor. A low moan escaped him, his face hidden in shadow.

Saeda turned back toward the kitchen, making soft ticking noises with her mouth. Her furball didn’t come racing into her hands, and her heart sank. The low moans from Zod didn’t even register to her. She couldn’t care less what was happening with him.

Miko glanced between Zod and the cooking knives, their blades half buried in the floor. She couldn’t decide which sight was more worrisome, and her chest tightened painfully.

“It’s a pity I can’t see through objects,” Tee said. “That monster might still be fading downward—maybe all the way to the earth’s crust.”

Kie’s twitching eyes stopped glaring at the knives lodged in the ground. He yanked two more from his apron. “We split up. There’s only one of that mutt and five of us Sentinels of the planet.” He dashed out of the kitchen and down the hallway toward the elevator.

Zod straightened and pulled two knives from the floor before turning to search the kitchen. “Why do I have a feeling this thing is still in here?” he muttered, voice cracking. “It’s trying to mess with me!” He kicked over a metal pot on the ground to check inside.

Miko and Tee exchanged a look before darting out of the kitchen toward the elevator. Kie would check the floor below for the monster, while Zod and Saeda stayed behind in case it reappeared.

Miko sprinted past Tee, and in a heartbeat, the elevator doors slid shut with her inside. The faint shriek that followed made Tee stamp her foot and skid to a stop just before the doors. Miko was gone—cut off, leaving Tee alone in the hallway.

The sharp-tipped spider legs stabbing at her back were her super sense—warning her of danger closing in. She spun around, eyes widening at the sight of the critter, half her size, galloping toward her on four legs.

“What the—!”

Why was it charging at her? Couldn’t it see how much bigger she was? She clenched her fists, then froze—she wasn’t wearing her summoning gloves. Kie had taken the knives before she could grab one. Why hadn’t she pulled one from the ground before leaving the kitchen? Damn it. She was so stupid.

The critter tore its snout open and leaped at her. Tee’s last heartbeat spiked with pain as its claws came within an inch of her face.

The growl in her head wiped her mind blank. Her own claws shot out from her fingers—her only defense. Her hand moved on instinct, slashing through the air in front of her face.

The crack of the creature’s neck echoed when her claws tore four deep gashes across its face. The critter’s body flew backward, smashing into the wall hard enough to leave a web of cracks.

Tee’s eyes widened at the lifeless body lodged in the wall. It slid down and hit the floor, splattering purple blood. Her chest heaved as she looked down at her hands—black smoke curled off her claws.

“No…”

Her vision began to spin, her hearing sharpened unnaturally. A sharp squeak rang out, but her rattled mind couldn’t place it. She turned just in time to see a fast-moving blur darting toward her. She slashed again, hitting nothing.

“Huh?”

The black blur grazed her boot, sending a chill through her body. Instinct took over—she stomped hard, crushing it beneath her heel. A harsh vibration shot up her leg. When she lifted her boot, her eyes widened at the small splattered body on the floor.

“Snickers,” she gasped.