Chapter 177

  Ned fought to keep his eyes opeood o the door to the security trol room, leaning against the wall behind him. The HQ was very quiet, and nothing was happening. There was literally nothing to do except stand in the same spot and stare at the wall across the corridor. In his peripheral vision, he could see Kus standing at one end of the corridor. However, as Ned had learned some time ago, that guy wasn’t much of a talker.

  Just my lued thought with frustration.

  On the first floor, there were at least several guys instead of just two like on the sed floor. And he was stuck with the one who hardly ever talked. Kus never said anything if there was nothing to say. He usually responded only when asked a direct question, and his answers were very brief, often sisting of just a few words or, depending on the question, with a single-word reply like “Yes” or “No.”

  That’s probably exactly why Miller chose him to stand guard on the sed floor, hought.

  Besides his three closest subordinates, Miller permitted only a handful of hand-picked soldiers into the HQ. Ned was among them. He, along with a few other people, was responsible fuarding the most important building of the base. Of these select few, Ned had been given the most crucial duty: to keep watch over the security trol room and make sure that no ohout access attempted to break in.

  Ned should probably have felt proud to be the persorusted with su important job by the leader of the gang. Only he didn’t. The reason was simple—this job was incredibly b. Most of the time, all he had to do was fight to stay awake on his feet. Kus, at least, had the advantage of sneaking up to the roof for a smoke every now and then. Apparently, the base leaders either didn’t notice him doing so or simply didn’t care.

  Unlike Kus, Ned couldn’t risk leaving his position. He knew his job was more important than Kus’s. If he left his post, even for a minute, and the leaders found out, he would definitely get in trouble. Sure, he could sneak up to the roof for a quick breath of fresh air, but with his luck, he was certain that the leaders would choose that very moment to show up at the HQ. Ned didn’t even want to think about the punishment that awaited him if he were found absent from his post.

  Besides, he didn’t know what to make of Kus. Since he hardly ever spoke, it was hard to tell what was on his mind. What if Kus ratted him out for leaving his post? Sure, Kus went up to the roof for a smoke all the time, but Ned’s job was definitely much more important than his.

  He shook his head to clear his head of all those annoying thoughts. This guard duty was driving him crazy, that was for damn sure. He would much rather hang out with the guys outside the HQ. At least they got to roam the base, enjoy fresh air, and occasionally bark at the workers simply to eain themselves and keep boredom at bay.

  He snapped out of his thoughts when the door to the security trol room suddenly slid open with a soft hiss.

  What the fued thought, taken aback as he stared at the door in astonishment.

  His boredom vanished in an instant. He unglued himself from the wall and half-turoward the open door. The three sub-bosses—Dominic, Minh, and Patrick—had left the security trol room just a few minutes earlier. There shouldn’t have been anyone inside!

  Still, the door had just slid open for some reason. Had someone mao slip into the room? But that was impossible! Nobody should have been able to get past him. He was bored out of his mind, but he wasn’t actually asleep, was he?

  Ned tio stare at the opening, fully expeg someoo step out of the security trol room, but no one did. This made total sense, as there shouldn’t be anyone ihe door must have simply malfuned. It had never happened before on his watch, but there’s always a first time for everything, right?

  Still, Ned knew he had to cheake sure there was nobody inside. In his peripheral vision, he could see Kus watg him ily from one end of the corridor. Kus had surely noticed the door sliding open as well. He was visibly tense, gripping his assault rifle tightly in his hands. Ned gave him a small nod and stepped toward the door.

  He stopped at the threshold. The security trol room was quite small, so he immediately saw that it was empty. There was nowhere for someoo hide. Ned leaned back, ing his neck around the door frame to look at Kus, who remained in the corridor.

  “There’s nobody here,” Ned called to him. “The door must’ve acted up, that’s all.”

  True to himself, Kus didn’t say anything. He simply nodded and stepped back to the end of the corridor, rexing once agaiepped into the security trol room and turo look at the touchpad to see what might be wrong. He leaned in for a better look, but there didn’t seem to be anything amiss. Just as he had told Kus, the door must have simply malfuned. Shrugging to himself, he straightened up.

  He was about to step out of the security trol room when he suddenly noticed some movement out of the er of his eye. It looked like a tentacle unduting through the air from above.

  “What the—” Ned muttered, just before he felt something grab him and effortlessly lift him off the floor.

  He felt multiple loacles around his arms and upper torso, keeping him firmly restrained as they lifted him closer to the ceiling of the room. When Ned looked up, he saw a hellish face with rge bluish eyes and a wide mouth filled with jagged, poieeth.

  He had never entered such a terrifying creature in this world or even in his darkest nightmares. The monster was pletely bck, except for its greenish-blue eyes, which matched the color of the magical energy found in various mana ables. The creature hung upside down from the ceiling, gripping it with hands ahat must have been sticky, allowing them to adhere to the surface.

  Numerous loacles protruded from the back of the creature, a nightmarish entity that had clearly crawled from the depths of hell. Several of its tentacles were coiled tightly around Ned’s body. He squirmed and strained against his restraints but was uo free himself.

  The creature lifted him even closer, widening its jaws as if preparing to take a bite out of him. Ned was now so o the mohat all he could see was its nightmarish face, dominated by the unblinking, menag eyes and huge triangur teeth. That was when Ned lost it. Panic overwhelmed him, and he opened his mouth to scream ierror.

  However, he wasn’t able to let out any sound, because the moment he opened his mouth, the monster shoved multiple tendrils deep into his oral cavity. He could even feel some of them slither down his throat, suffog him. pletely overwhelmed by terror and half out of his mind by that point, tempted to scream, but only a muffled moan escaped his stuffed mouth.

  At that moment, a strahought fshed through his mind: if the monster wao silence his screams, why hadn’t it simply ed its tentacles around his throat?

  The horrifying ao his question came to him almost immediately. As it turned out, the monster needed his throat exposed for what it was going to do . Ned watched as a particurly strong-lookiacle emerged from the writhing mass of smaller tendrils, slithering through the air toward him. Its tip bore a menag double-edged bde.

  Ned knew he was going to die, but there was nothing he could do to prevent it. The long tendrils stricted around his body even tighter, restrig his ability to move. Then the bded tentacle with surgical precision sshed across his exposed throat, tearing it open and causing a torrent of blood to gush from the wound right into the monster’s face.

  Ned tile his body, trying to free himself, but his efforts were being weaker as life drained from him. Despite the grave injury he had just sustained, he knew he wouldn’t die too quickly, as all the skill points he had ied in the stitution attribute signifitly strengthened his body.

  The creature carefully, almost gently, lowered him to the floor and then uned its tendrils from his body. Even though he was no longer restrained, Ned didn’t try to escape. He simply couldn’t muster the strength—the blood he had lost left him weakened and barely able to move.

  The world before him was gradually plunging into darkness. He knew he had just a few seds left. He wao do something to warn his rades of the lethal threat lurking in the HQ. If only he could grab his gun and fire a single shot to alert them! However, his limbs wouldn’t respond to his brain’s signals. Merely holding onto life was draining every ounce of his strength.

  He saw the obsidian-bck monstrosity with multiple tendrils and bded tentacles extending from its back drop from the ceiling. It twisted midair and nded gracefully on its feet, bending its ko absorb the impact, causing no sound at all. Ned couldn’t help but notice that while the monster was terrifying, it moved with the elegance of a dancer, albeit one from the depths of hell.

  The st thing Ned saw before his life finally left his body was the monster gliding out of the security trol room, moving with an eerie silend fluidity, like a ghost slipping through the shadows.