BOA 3 (Patreon)

(3: Savior)

*Cairo's Central Military Hospital*

Despite being called a military hospital, not everyone here was a militant. In truth, such a hospital is established by the military money for the military personnel and their families as a benefit of serving the country. It would mostly have more security than other hospitals and it did but not on the scale of facing a full-fledged dungeon breaking somewhere under the hospital.

This is simply just too much. All the existing military personnel could do is to secure the perimeter, evacuate the civilians, shoot any monster that can be killed with guns and wait for Hunters from the National Hunter Guild, the NHG.

That's outside of the building. Inside the building, there was a lone wolf going across the building axe in hand and making sure he searches all the floor for signs of monster activity.

"Hunter Khalid, I think the operation rooms are in the other direction." George asked.

"Is there any monster over there?" Khalid asked.

"No… the medical team is operating but they are on edge and a few hospital security guards are covering the entrance." George reported back.

"Keep an eye on them and another on me, please. Where are the monsters?"

"Last seen around the next corner to your right. Not enough cameras there." George said, "Those goddamn management department cutting the funding on everyone else and pumping into healthcare advertisements. Fucking thieves!"

Ignoring George's rant, Khalid snuck to the side of the wall with light steps and lightly tapped the metal part of the axe against the wall causing a faint clank.

*ruffle* *ruffle* *quiver*

Strange heavy movements were heard coming from beyond the corner, the scent of blood was heavy and it was accompanied by an even stronger stench.

With the right accuracy, Khalid swung the axe from his cover and…

*Crack*

The sound of bone breaking was heard and Khalid confirmed the death of the creature when its head dangled on the ground.

It was another Ratman but a massive one. It was as if it… no, it actually did. Beyond the area where the large Ratman was coming from, there were three corpses mostly eaten and mutilated.

"Hell takes you!" Even the level-headed Khalid looked at the creature with disgust and anger.

That creature ate three people and reached the point where it became so fat that it was not even able to walk properly but for crawling on its belly.

"Holy…"

George finally managed to get a view of the side hallway and his stomach turned on him as he jumped away from the chair with every fiber of his being shivering with a feeling of skin turning goosebumps.

"George…"

At that moment, it was Khalid who spoke to George first.

"..."

"You with me?"

George was not looking at the screen but he replied.

"… Yeah…"

"What on Earth is happening?"

It wasn't clear for George judging by how apathetic and emotionless Khalid seemed but he finally felt that Khalid is as bewildered as him.

"It's… it's the monsters, man… that's what they do… they come up of the fucking ground… they do this shit to people…"

"For how long?" Khalid felt like asking.

"For what?"

"How long have there been monsters in the world?" He asked, "And how common is it?"

George turned to the radio Khalid's voice was coming from while avoiding to look at the screen.

"You're the Hunter, man, you have all the statistics." George said.

Khalid sighed as he spoke.

"I am not remembering a lot of things, George. Fill me in with the details, please."

"Like… you don't remember… anything? Like Amnesia?"

"Call it what you want, I have little memories of everything. Now, I want to understand the situation."

"Well… damn… how did you end up here? The doctors said anything to you?"

"I just woke up in this mess. Enough about me, please. This situation…"

Khalid's grim tone made George feel the pressure he was feeling.

"Right right… where to start…"

Khalid moved off the bloody scene towards the main hallway as he spoke.

"When did the monsters appear?"

"Yeah, that." George nodded as he kept up with Khalid on the camera, "This year is 5 AC."

"AC?"

"After Cataclysm."

"Cataclysm… that's when the monsters started coming up?"

"Yeah. Five years so far… the world back then was fucked up. Well, not as much as now but we managed to cope. Monsters weren't as tough when the first Dungeons appeared… that's… A dungeon is where the monsters come from."

"Dungeon? Such a… childish word."

"Pop culture, you know." George replied with a faint giggle that expressed his stress, "I think it is called Fissure of Landfall by archeologists. The ground opens up and monsters come from it. The church says it's a curse cause people have strayed from God. Muslims say about the same thing."

"Landfalls… so it came from the ground level."

"Probably. The people on the other radio say it from the parking lot."

Khalid nodded as he checked two Hallways to be clear.

"Continue please… with the Cataclysm." He said.

"So, I said it was five years, monsters and dungeons. That's right… At first, monsters were weak, they could be killed with Guns. The country fell into chaos and a lot of people died but the army handled it. Then we started hearing reports of countries falling apart. African nations, Latin America, a big chunk of India and China… next up, the second wave came and it was absolutely shit. Monsters by thousands. The dungeons would simply open everywhere. Streets, farms, deserts, underwater… anywhere!"

"Randomly?"

"Yes, it is the case until today. Dungeons can just come out where you least expect and worst of all, they act as if they are swallowing people… and… then…"

"Then send out monsters." Khalid continued.

George's silence confirmed what Khalid said.

Khalid was about to ask something but suddenly George shouted.

"THE OPERATION ROOMS! THREE OF THEM!"

"GUIDE ME!"

The two of them worked instantly and Khalid started running while following George's instructions. Right, left, right… he finally saw a few people behind a hospital door pushing it against three Ratmen. Khalid was behind the Ratmen and they heard his footsteps.

"Shit! Khalid, you won't take them all like this!"

George shouted but Khalid deliberately attracted their attention.

"Hey, ugly things! Come at me!"

Seeing and hearing him, the Feral beasts could no longer contain themselves and forgot about the difficult prey for the easy one in a mad charge.

Khalid wasn't without a plan as he grabbed a hospital bench beside him and threw it in the way of those mindless monsters. Sure enough, two of them completely stumbled upon it while the last one made a sensible decision by halting for a second. This second was all that Khalid needed to chop off the head of one of those monsters and kick the other one causing it to stagger away from him. The third monster took its time to pass carefully over the bench only to find itself stuck from its rear leg, the moment it shifted its focus towards the bench to free its leg, the axe descended towards its head.

*Clang*

It was almost about to lose its head but it had more awareness than the others and its instincts kicked in making it dodge at the right moment. Still, Khalid was way too sinister to let such a chance slip and went for the monster's right arm.

*Scream*

*Screech*

As the arm was chopped, the other monster ran towards Khalid from the back but in a strange twist, Khalid managed to cartoonishly dodge and counter-attack from a blind spot. The axe was launched in a circular long spin towards the chest of the attacking monster chopping it open and Khalid was out of harm's way.

With one monster remaining, this wasn't even to be called a challenge. The Ratman struggled to get away from its situation but Khalid splendidly claimed its head.

"Phew!"

Three monsters dead, one man walking away. The scene was witnessed by some security guards with nothing but batons and long sticks who were blocking the door to the operating rooms. One of them walked out and ran to Khalid.

"Hunter, thank you. You are the reinforcement?" A guard hurriedly ran towards Khalid panting from the short distance he ran.

"No." Khalid replied and held up the radio, "George."

"Yes. This is for the fifth floor, the fourth floor is crawling with more of them… but I don't know where to start to be honest." George replied.

"Hey, wait!" The security guard who ran after Khalid stopped him again, "Please, help us protect the operation rooms. There are important people…"

"No." Khalid replied without even giving a second look to the guard.

"There is a VIP, a Hunter Superior in the operation…" The Guard insisted.

"A VIP?" Khalid asked, "Do you expect me to ignore all the hospital and look after one person?"

"No, but…"

"Tsk. This world and its values… it drives me insane." Khalid stared coldly at the guard, "Do your duties and protect this floor. How many access points does it have?"

The guard was already flustered let alone with such a question… he started counting the service stairway, the east stairway, the elevator and…

"Hurry up!" Khalid shouted.

"Five access points, sir."

"Good. You lot go around and block them with benches. Make sure that no more monsters come from down there and gather all the survivors who can fight in a location where they can actively attack and retreat. Understood?"

"Understood, sir."

The guards didn't dare defy the stern attitude of a hunter who can slay the Ratmen like a walk in the park. Khalid's appearance may seem thin and sickly with a hobo-like hair and beard but his hostility was the real thing. Those guards have seen many hunters thanks to the fact that this is a prestigious hospital so they could tell between hunters and regular people.

Khalid waited for them to block all the floor access points before they gathered the survivors. He then took down the elevator to the fourth floor.

The same situation happened again. Khalid killing monsters, George guiding him around, the guards trying to ask him to stay but end up following his orders and blocking the floor's entrances.

The third floor and the second floor were more feisty. Survivors were less, victims and monsters were everywhere. For some reason, these monsters were either eating the victims or dragging them down to the first floor. A few shots were fired from a gun somewhere when Khalid was on the second floor which caused him to try and look through the window. From what he could tell, these were Police Forces who dress in black armor to hold transparent shields. They had guns but they were merely the first responders to arrive and all they could do is to secure the place outside and keep the monsters at distance from the patients and the medical staff that retreated in the garden outside the hospital.

There was even a helicopter flying over the place in what seemed to be filming the incident. Khalid didn't want to appear in the scene so he assessed the situation and operated where he can't draw too much attention. Well… at least that was the plan until he reached the First floor.

In most hospitals in this part of the world, the first floor would be reserved for the general clinic where doctors receive visiting patients and it would mostly be the busiest part of the hospital. This can combine two facts; the first is that this floor has the most deaths and the second is that this floor has the most emergencies. The monsters were wreaking absolute havoc with many patients and medical staff fortifying the rooms by blocking the doors in groups.

When Khalid got down from the second floor, he was struggling with limiting the access of the monster to the second floor. It seemed hopeless unless he completely gave up on defending the second floor and fully focused on annihilating whatever in his way. The axe in his hand was now only for splitting the skulls of those Ratmen abominations and he had to hold a shield of any sort in his off-hand. He used trash cans, plastic plates, bed pieces and anything that can limit the attacks of monsters against him.

He even relied on attacking and running away to lure out all the monsters he could kill. Limiting their options into fighting him in tight hallways was his best chance for survival as he ran out of breath more than he could count.

"Those… Those Hunters you speak of… they are not here yet?"

After finishing one group of monsters, Khalid leaned on a wall asking George on the radio.

"There is an army attachment breaching the building with heavy guns. They are on the east side." George replied.

"Which side is the east side?"

"Oh… it's… by the outside parking lot. They will engage in the lobby any moment now."

"Well, what are they waiting for?"

"Probably Hunter Reinforcement. It is illegal to enter a dungeon infested area without the permission of the National Guild, you know!"

"You've got to be kidding me." Khalid couldn't hold his irritation anymore.

People with actual guns and they are not entering to save the day just because of some goddamn logistics. This is why the people from this world are way too inefficient and inflexible.

Still, even though they were this slow in responding. He could see many fire trucks that have already extended their ladders and started extracting the people that are fortifying the rooms. The reason why the armed forces are waiting is probably to act freely once they get the green light.

Thankfully, now that Khalid has managed to lessen the pressure on the first floor and isolated the second floor, he felt that it can all be resolved even if he left the first floor like this.

There are still two problems left. The first is the ground floor lobby which is said to be completely infested with monsters and then the parking beneath the lobby which is the source of monsters. Things can't be that simple but surely the parking lot was mostly empty so all the monsters flooded the first floor first without stopping there… and he had to see what this thing called "Dungeon" for himself.

"George, open the elevator."

"On it."

As he stepped in and took this breath, he looked to the floor pad on the side of the elevator's door and took a deep and calm breath before pressing the letter "P".

He doesn't know what to expect down there now that he is walking in uncharted territory, that's because George has no eyes down there.

"Alright, Khalid… I've looked through the lobby camera's a few times. Everything is messy down there but I think I found the perfect way out for you… Listen… hey, you aren't… you aren't stopping at the lobby… Fuck! Khalid, you pressed the parking lot floor. Shit, man! Don't open the elevator, you pressed wrong.

"Calm down."

"Holy Fuck! I can't see anything down there…"

"Hey!" Khalid shouted, "You now get to safety."

"What the fuck are you talking about you're walking in the Dungeon alone, you madman!"

The situation was so mind-boggling as George dropped all honorifics and started shouting at Khalid. Unfortunately, the parking lot floor doesn't receive good radio reception and the signal was soon cut off.

"George… you hear me?"

"... Hold… Yo… Wai… Go…"

The signal was completely cut now that the elevator settled.

Khalid aimed his axe forward and with a deep breath, he gathered all his inner force in his arms and legs with extensive breathing as he kept charging for more inner force. Whatever devil stands beyond the door of this elevator, it is now facing the damn Beast.

And the elevator opened slowly… slower than usual mostly because the Inner Force was raging within him. With his axe ready, Khalid immediately stepped forward ready for battle only to meet…

"My God!"

… An Abyss.

There was no parking lot in his view. Merely some concrete pillars extending from the ceiling above and the floor are gone… swallowed in the land beneath it.

His left foot was in the elevator, his right was hanging in the air as he stopped himself from falling with his left holding to the elevator's interior.

On the other side of his vision, he saw the other remaining half of the parking lot barely intact with a hoard of monsters coming and going. They were dragging people with them… actual living people.

Khalid saw the people getting dragged in the Abyss by those monsters only to disappear into the darkness.

With all his years of training, there are few things that can shake him. Things this world is yet to witness… but this… this is a whole new animal.

Khalid wanted to see a Dungeon… and here he found one.