Chapter 31: A Weakness

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: A Weakness

The whispers returned, and the white eyes of those specters lit up like floating candles. Victor instinctively took a step back, his hands trembling as he gripped his assault rifle.

Brika frowned and clenched her teeth. Was she going to resign herself to death again? Victor could hear her hesitating once more, and that was enough to bring him back to his senses.

Terrified, but with his survival instincts working at full throttle, he said:

"Run..."

She took a step back. Victor clicked his tongue and shouted:

"Run!"

Without giving it another thought, Victor ran in the direction they had been heading for some time. That set off every alarm the monsters had, and eight pairs of eyes floating in the darkness like flames began to scream.

That horrible, deafening shriek rang out. Brika snapped back to her senses as pain shot through her ears, and when she saw Victor running away, she followed him, moving faster than he could.

The eyes flew after them, so close that they could both feel the whispers right behind their ears.

’Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!’

How the hell were they supposed to escape those things? Declaring that he was going to kill them all had been much easier than actually trying to do it without any preparation. Still, this was exactly why he had convinced Brika to follow him.

She opened her System window and pulled out four fragmentation grenades. As she ran alongside Victor, she grabbed his hand and placed two grenades in his palm.

"Follow my lead and use these!" she said. Then she ran even faster through the darkness, pulling ahead of him.

At times like this, Victor hated being so useless, but he didn’t have time to dwell on his own inadequacy. He picked up the pace, focusing as hard as he could on his sense of smell. All the scents blended together before him, allowing him to piece together the scene in his imagination.

Brika ran ahead of him, tracing their route with her distinctive scent of dried blood. Victor followed her like a bloodhound, but then he felt the sharp claws of one of those damn things graze his back.

That forced him to push his body beyond its limits, fleeing with everything he had. Maybe he had managed to get a little distance between them, but he wasn’t entirely sure. It was harder to focus on the scents while running for his life.

’I have to do this!’ he told himself, trying to work up the courage.

He remembered how to use a grenade, so he pulled the safety pin and released the safety lever. The first grenade was ready. He turned his attention behind him and, with a tremendous effort of concentration, tried to sense the movement of the scents at his back.

When he could finally make out those bastards through the dark mist, he threw the grenade.

He heard the grenade strike a wall and, immediately afterward, explode, destroying everything within its small blast radius. Then one of the monsters screamed, and the horrifying stench of decay began to seep from the area.

Victor nearly stumbled face-first as he struggled to endure the smell, but it also gave him several clues about what might be happening to those creatures.

’They have no scent! They’re not supposed to have a scent!’

Yet, at certain moments, he could smell the horror those specters dragged along with them. That was extremely important to Victor: a possible weakness hidden within the mystery of this darkness.

Barely a couple of seconds later, the smell of gunpowder passed over Victor’s head. It was a grenade Brika had thrown without hesitation. Since the specters were closer to Victor, using him as bait was an easier way to make them fall back.

Victor understood this pretty quickly, as the grenade had landed far enough away that its explosion wouldn’t reach him. A brief moment later, it detonated, and the specters shrieked like a thousand birds.

Once again, Victor’s nose wrinkled at the horrendous smell. There was no doubt about it: something about the grenades was forcing the specters to reveal part of their true nature. However, that brief stench of decay faded just a second later.

’The smell... the explosions! There’s something there I can use!’

He just needed to figure out exactly what it was. The specters had now retreated far enough for Victor to be certain they wouldn’t rip his spine out with a single swipe.

Further ahead, Brika caught up with Victor, and together they continued through the city’s streets.

"There’s something wrong with those things!" he said.

Brika waited for him to explain.

"I couldn’t smell them before, but when the grenade explosions hit them, I could detect their scent."

That sounded far too important to ignore. At the same time, Victor tried to remember what had happened earlier, when he was attacked in the dark room. Brika had done something that caused the creature to give off a scent.

The pistol? Some hidden ability Brika possessed? No, that wasn’t it. What had happened when the specter turned toward her? ... That was it. He had been caught in the flashlight’s beam! That was the most plausible explanation.

’Light is their weakness...’

That was why the scenario was completely dark. Those damn monsters needed the darkness to remain invincible. Victor smiled without realizing it, prompting Brika to look at him with narrowed eyes.

"Eureka..." he whispered.

The specters screamed again as they flew after them at high speed. Surprisingly, Victor hadn’t had much trouble escaping them so far, thanks to the valuable feather he carried in his pocket.

Without that thing, he would have fallen behind from the very beginning.

Brika continued guiding Victor between the houses. Moving through the alleyways was better because they would make it harder for the monsters to follow, and he didn’t hesitate for even a second. Knowing they had a significant advantage, Victor realized it was time to make use of it.

Victor took out the silver bell he had obtained at the beginning of this journey and, with determination, prepared to ask Brika a question.