Rudra needed a weapon.
His mind spun rapidly, and he considered several options in a short span of time. In the end, he decided that the best course of action was to use a knife. However, right as he was about to go into Prabhu’s kitchen, he realised an important detail he had missed.
He looked at Prabhu with a doubtful gaze. Although he didn’t think there weren’t people who dared to kill the monsters when their lives were threatened, he didn’t think Prabhu could do it, especially not with his lean and fragile-looking body.
"Where did you see this monster?" He asked.
Prabhu looked shaken. "B-behind the security door at the stairs," he stammered, his voice quivering.
Rudra’s tense nerves relaxed, and he simply nodded.
He got the knife from the kitchen and walked down.
Sure enough, the monster was trying to squeeze through the security doors that blocked the stairway. Maybe because the rain hadn’t touched the security door, its structural integrity was still intact, and the creature couldn’t bend it.
Looking at Rudra, the monster became frantic, and its growls became more manic.
Rudra was worried about its screams attracting other monsters, so he decided to strike without delay.
Rudra didn’t want to take the risk of missing the target. After all, there was the danger of the knife disintegrating the moment it touched the monster’s blood, so he waved Prabhu to go into his house while he cautiously loosened the bolt of the safety door, leaving it at the very edge and took a stance.
The door slammed open, and the monster lunged at him, its eyes filled with bloodlust and its teeth reflecting his own face. Rudra was not afraid. His hand turned into a blur, and before the monster’s stench could hit his face, the knife had already sliced through its neck, causing it to stiffen like a puppet with its strings cut and collapse to the ground.
Rudra pulled the monster’s corpse into the hallway. Worried that the corpse on the balcony could attract flying monsters, he pulled that one into the hallway as well. He locked both security doors and went into his house.
Rudra took a good look at the boy. His hands and feet looked all right, but his face was pale and bloodless, and he still looked shell-shocked.
Rudra scratched his head. "Have you eaten yet?" He asked.
Prabhu shook his head.
Rudra thought about it and brought back all the food items from within the fridge in Prabhu’s house.
He placed the dairy items in front of the boy and motioned him to eat.
Prabhu looked hesitant, but staring at Rudra’s unflinching gaze, he felt a little intimidated and started gulping down the milk, the curd, and all other dairy items.
Rudra looked satisfied and went into his room.
Lying on his bed and looking at the ceiling, he muttered, "The heck is happening?" He knew he wouldn’t get an answer, but the question was like a knot in his throat. Now that he let it out, he felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Rudra casually raised his hand and stared at it. Aside from the roughness being gone, it looked normal, but he could tell that these inconspicuous, seemingly soft hands could exert insurmountable force at will.
If his kick was enough to send the flying monster’s head ricocheting off the wall, it only planted a seed of doubt about his own strength. But when he easily lifted a 60 kg battery with just the strength of his forearm and slammed it down not once but twice, he was certain he had grown stronger. That final doubt vanished entirely when he actually caught the trajectory of the monster pouncing toward him.
He tried to sleep, but maybe because he had just woken up, he wasn’t able to.
In annoyance, he got up and went into the living room. Prabhu sat upright and stared at him.
Rudra didn’t know if he wanted to tell the kid about what he was about to do, but he heard another scream from somewhere in the town. He made up his mind and stated, "I’m going to inspect the body of those monsters. You can stay. I’ll be upstairs in your room."
Prabhu trembled. He looked terrified, but when Rudra was about to leave, "I’ll come," he said.
Rudra was a little taken aback and looked at the boy. "Are you sure?" he asked.
Prabhu vigorously nodded.
Rudra had no idea about the kind of thoughts in Prabhu’s mind, but even if he knew, he would simply shrug it off.
Due to the weird nature of the blood, he didn’t try to touch it directly with his hand but tried it with a spoon instead. However, In an instant, the spoon turned soft and disintegrated, leaving him holding just the handle.
He looked down at the pool of blood curiously. ’It can disintegrate metals, but isn’t doing anything to the floor? Interesting.’ After a moment’s hesitation, he dipped the nail of his pinky finger into the blood to test it.
Surprisingly, nothing happened.
Gathering his courage, he touched it with his skin, and almost immediately felt a cool sensation. Its viscosity was peculiar, almost gel-like. If someone told him it was actually a new form of lubricant, he might believe it.
His attention then turned towards the corpse.
He swiped his finger across its skin, and he felt a leathery texture. He pressed into it, and it was quite firm as well. Although he had mauled its face pretty badly with the battery, he could still make out the long bat-like ears and three pairs of mutilated eyes.
’Does it have ultrasound or something, or is it just sensitive to sound?’ he thought to himself, but had no way to confirm his doubts.
He brought up a machete from his own house, but looking at Prabhu, who was terrified yet refused to leave his side, he hesitated. He wanted to open its body and see if its insides were similar to humans. But would it be too much for the kid?
Ultimately, however, knowing that the boy would probably have to see much more disgusting things, he thought of it as preparing him for the future and sliced the body of the monster right through the middle.
(Boof)
Rudra was startled when blood exploded all over the place, but thankfully, it looked like it was just air from the monster’s stomach.
(Bleah)
Prabhu immediately vomited everything he had just eaten, and looking at him vomit, even Rudra felt a little nauseous.
Fortunately, he was able to hold the sense of nausea back and proceeded to look into the corpse of the beast.
It had various reddish-brown organs which he could not recognise, but there was one organ at the centre that made it look pretty obvious that it was important.
After all, it was shielded by a weird-looking grey bone structure.
The machete had been ruined, so he couldn’t use it anymore. He took a wooden ladle and attempted to crack the bones open. It proved surprisingly tough, but with his increased strength, he broke through and pulled out the clump of flesh he suspected was its heart, held back by tentacle-like strands that resisted.
He inspected the heart, but to his surprise, something solid lay within it. After cleaning away the yellow, viscous blood, he pried it open with a fork, and inside was a grey bead.
Unable to understand what the bead was for, his brows pinched in confusion.
Putting the bead aside, he stared at the bones until an idea lit up in his mind.
He dismembered the entire body, chose a long bone from among the pile, attached a long tooth to its end and tied it with a rope.
Since he could not use metal weapons to deal with the monsters, he decided to deal with them using their own bones.
Given its hardness, he felt it should last him for quite a while.
Prabhu was now looking at him with horror, but he didn’t mind. Survival was the most important.
He went downstairs and tested his makeshift spear on the corpses of the three monsters, and it worked like a charm.
The sharp tooth cut through the skin like butter, making him wonder what condition his head would be in if the monster had managed to bite him. The yellow blood had no effect on the tooth or the bone.
He broke the bone protecting the heart with the spear’s blunt side and pulled out the bead.
He didn’t know if the bead was useful, but since it was kept in the heart, his thought process was that it should be important, right?
He made more bone spears and handed one to Prabhu.
Prabhu shivered and shook his hands, but Rudra forced his hand.
"I can’t help you when I’m in trouble myself." He said.
Prabhu was still a little resistant, but he could not resist Rudra’s eyes.
Rudra nodded in satisfaction, but just then, the sky thundered, and he saw the balcony getting wet.
A bad feeling arose in his heart.