Chapter 18: Escaping the building

Unfortunately, after searching the entire kitchen, not even a speck of food was found, only rotten remains in the refrigerator.

However, Ramie did manage to find two bottles of water, one of which was half full…

As for the tap water, there was none of it.

"The water station…"

He guessed that something must have happened in the water station that was supplying this city with its water.

Feeling the increasing pressure of the situation, Ramie sighed deeply, and went back to the bedroom, waiting for Lance and Neil to wake up to decide their next course of action.

Time went on… one hour… two hours…

However, neither Lance nor Neil woke up. Thus, Ramie decided to search the rest of the apartment for anything that might be of any use to them, especially sharp objects. After all, there was no telling of what kind of creature they might face on the short term.

However, after around half hour of search, aside from one really long knife with thick blade that is used to cut meat, not much else was found.

Then, just as Ramie intended to go back to the bedroom and wait, to save up his remaining energy… Suddenly, he felt a powerful aura approaches this place slowly.

At once, an electrifying sense of warning rose in his heart, sending him into state of alarm. It was as if he knew that something extremely dangerous was getting closer and closer!

Subconsciously, he squatted to the ground, intending not to move or make any noise.

Not that he was making any before… but the danger he felt from the terrifying entity that was moving closer to this place made him unsettled.

His frightening yellow irises started shining with an eerie glint of faint yellow light, which expressed his rising battle intent.

Ramie was taken aback by the battle urge!

The last two times he fought, he did it to maintain his life! To survive! And he was scared witless in both of the occasions.

But now, instead of fear… he could feel a rising urge to battle and fend for his life!

The battle intent in his heart was rising. And even the fear he had was melting into this impulse.

Ramie could faintly feel his bloodline throbbing with battle excitement.

In a moment, a sudden thought came to Ramie.

'It's the morphing spell…!'

Hurr! Huuuuurrrrrr!

At this moment, Ramie could hear a loud sound of heavy breathing coming from the corridor outside, interrupting his thoughts.

It signified that the inexplicable intense reaction he just had was actually on point!

Gazing at the apartment door that was barricaded with a heavy couch, his eyes shone with an intense yellow glint.

He prepared his heart for the incoming life and death battle.

At the moment, Ramie started sensing that the powerful entity outside was moving slowly.

The radiating power he sensed was like a heat signature, moving through the corridor! And he could perceive it, even though there was a wall between him and the creature.

Although he did not know how, but Ramie could perceive the power of the creature clearly.

He had no idea how he could know that? But… he somehow did!

But this was not time to ponder on this matter right now.

Refocusing on the current situation, Ramie decided to inform Lance and Neil of the imminent danger they were in.

Reaching this conclusion, he didn't waste time, immediately moving to the room as quietly as possible.

As he went to wake up the two, he was surprised for a moment…

Looking at the two, he felt a certain aura of power was coming from them…

It was of different nature from the creature's radiating power that he just felt.

It was even different between the two.

Comparing to the creature, the aura their bodies were radiating felt less threatening… less oppressive…

Looking at them, assessingly, he estimated that the aura Neil was radiating was of a similar nature to his own aura, albeit weaker.

As for the aura that Lance gave off, it was different from his aura. And Ramie could feel that it was weaker than the creature outside.

Grrrrrrrrrr!!

Hearing the creature's low growl, Ramie snapped back to present. And decided to wake the two up in case worse comes to worst.

He feared however that one of them might make noise when waking up to his face, thus alerting the creature to their presence.

And even if that happened, he couldn't blame them for it. As, even though they had witnesses the change in him yesterday, there was no way to get use to such sight, especially considering the precarious environment they are in.

Simply… that how terrifying looking he was right now!

Which is why he went to wake up Lance first, as he was much more steel minded, as someone who had served in the elite force in the army.

So, Ramie figured that Lance had the highest chance of managing to keep his mouth shut after waking up to his horror face and not scream out their position to the creature.

Luckily, after waking him up, Lance measured up to his expectations and did not disappoint.

He actually almost managed to keep a straight face when he opened his eyes to Ramie's terrifying face, and his expression fluttered for only about two second before he managed to recover to straight face.

Ramie didn't give him time to apologies, before hinting toward the apartment door direction with a piercing look.

After realizing the situation, Lance in turn went to wake Neil up, to avoid an overreaction to Ramie's looks.

The crisis lasted few moments before coming to an end.

After hearing some low growls from the corridor, the heavy steps started getting away.

And on the same time, Ramie felt the aura source moves away, and the feeling of crisis followed suit.

Ramie breathed out in relief, as for now, they were safe. But that was only for the time being…

Ramie could feel that the strong aura was still nearby, meaning that this creature was still in the building.

Lance and Neil tried to act normally around him, but only Lance managed to do so, as for Neil, his expression was fluttering every time he made an eye contact with Ramie.

Ramie tried not to pay attention to this matter, as even though it bothered him, there was nothing he could about it.

So, he decided to change his vacation clothes to something more 'concealing.'

Luckily, he wasn't disappointed. After few minutes of searching, he found what he had in mind.

He wore clothes that covered every bit of his skin; he even covered his hands with cloves, his neck and almost all of his face with a scarf. As for his eyes, he wore sunglasses.

He also wore a hoodie to cover the black flower on his head, and he pulled it down to cover his forehead's skin.

After finishing, not even a glimpse of his skin could be seen. And although it made him feel a bit uncomfortable, at least he won't be shot down by the military on sight when he goes to the camp.

Seeing him change his clothes, Lance and Neil too, changed their clothes to whatever they could found in the bedroom.

Unfortunately, the clothes they found were a bit tighter on their bodies', as their build was sturdier, and larger than Ramie. Apparently, whom ever inhabited this apartment; had the same frail build as Ramie.

But they had no choice, as their clothes were too dirty, ragged, and even had traces of blood on them.

After a while…

Even though the creature was no longer on the corridor outside, but Ramie could still feel an aura of power reeks from within the building.

It made him feel intense discomfort and unease. He decided to urge Lance to leave the building as soon possible, as he was still capable of sensing the danger source roaming the building, intensifying once, and weakening another.

Apparently, the creature was discovering its new territory or… it was looking for preys…

Whatever the reason was, Ramie felt an urge to leave the building as soon as possible.

Approaching Lance, Ramie spoke in a hushed tone that was barely audible:"Mr. Lance, I think we should leave this building as soon as possible. I can feel…"

"I agree." Lance responded without hesitation. Not even letting him finish his sentence.

Hearing the immediate answer, Ramie was taken a bit.

He had expected Lance to suggest fighting the creature and taking their time before leaving… so as not to put themselves in inescapable danger due to acting rashly, or to wait for some time before leaving the building.

To that response, Ramie was prepared to tell him that he could somehow now feel the power that was coming from them, and the creature. And that according to which, the creature was stronger than them, even stronger than Lance.

He would also add that his senses were alarming him to an increasing danger coming from this building.

However, Lance agreed right away, making him think that Lance too might be getting the same vibes of danger.

At this moment, Neil interjected in a low voice:"you mean we go to another place for food, or go for the harbor?"

Neil asked Lance in concerned tone.

"No! The way to the harbor takes a lot of time, which means that we will be on the streets for a long time. It's a bad idea to do it now, at least not before we have a proximal idea on what is lurking there first. So, the less we spend on the streets the better. We'll go for the nearest place that has food in it!"

Ramie approved of this thinking, as indeed, the streets were very dangerous, especially when considering the creature's cries that they heard during the early night yesterday, which probably continued throughout the night even after they slept.

Thus, the less time they spend on the streets the better.

After agreeing to this matter, Ramie proceeded to inform them of the effects of his morphing spell to sense the creature's power and to estimate it, and of how he can sense their own auras and compare it to the creature.

He thought that this ability would be of great help for them to avoid the creature's they can't win against, and also to estimate their chances of defeating the threats that they can't escape from.

"You're serious? You actually sensed the thing before you could hear it?"

"Yes." Ramie nodded in response.

At his confirmation, both Lance and Neil were pleasantly surprised to learn that his morphing spell had such great use.

This would definitely increase their chances of avoiding deadly confrontations…

"This is very good! We might actually reach the camp without a fight!" Lance said, smiling.

…

5 minutes later, they were prepared to leave this building…

The way downstairs was off consideration, as Ramie's sense of the threat kept fluctuating close and far, they also started hearing the sounds of breaking doors…

Apparently, the new landlord disliked the fact that it didn't have full access to its new hideout, or it was simply looking for them, as since the snake headed creature was smart enough to use bone as a weapon, they couldn't rule out the possibility that this new creature was smart enough to figure out that the snake headed creature was killed by someone, and that someone might still be hiding here in its newly claimed lair.

So, since going though the stairs was not an option, they decided that they should leave through the fire escape ladder from outside.

"Are you ready?" Lance asked, as he stood in front of the window, ready to go out and climb down the fire escape route.

"Go!"

Ramie answered firmly, and beneath the sunglasses, his yellow eyes shone with an intense yellow glint of determination.

With this perceptive ability of his, he could finally see a trace of hope to live through this crisis...

…