The Author's POV

—WHIIII! —WHIIII!

The color red flashed throughout the whole facility. Moving in a small unit of five, a group of guards ran throughout the corridors of the facility. From what reports have said, their target was someone whose face was riddled with scars.

"Captain, where do you think the suspect has run off to?"

Fiddling with the radio transmitter in his hand, one of the five individuals looked towards the front where a tall man wearing a black uniform stood. With long black hair and sharp brows, the man was the leader of the group.

"I'm not too sure myself. All we know is that the target seems to be someone that has scars on his face."

"Do you think he has already escaped?"

"Impossible."

The moment the alarms rang, the whole facility shut down. The exit was also blocked by multiple guards. If the said target had already escaped, they would've known by now.

"Then where do you—"

BOOOOM—!

All of a sudden, cutting the guard off, a massive explosion reverberated throughout the whole facility, startling everyone.

"What the!"

"What's going on?!"

The moment the explosion rang, the whole facility shook.

"Quick!"

"Let's go!"

Looking at his squad members, the captain's face turned solemn. Motioning with his hands, he rushed towards the direction where the explosion came from. Following from behind, the squad members took out their weapons.

Moving through the corridors of the facility, it didn't take long for them to get near the area where the explosion originated from.

"ughh...help"

"Ghhh.."

Turning right into another corridor, they could faintly hear the sound of pained groans coming from the distance.

"Quick."

"Let's go."

Exchanging glances with one another, the guards sped up. Soon, turning left of another corridor, they arrived at the scene. The moment they turned the corridor and looked at the after-effects of the explosion, the guards couldn't help but frown slightly.

With smoke filling the air, over five similarly dressed guards laid on the floor passed out. Limbs and blood were splattered all over the ground, depicting a gruesome scene.

Staring at the injured guards on the floors, one of the guards pointed towards the right side of their clothes where a large number '15' was imprinted.

"Captain, it looks to be the fifteenth unit."

There were many patrol units in the Monolith. There were a total of 30 units, and each unit consisted of five individuals, each led by one captain. Currently, the guards that had just arrived were from the second unit.

"What do you suggest we do?"

Staring at the injured guards from the fifteenth unit, the captain promptly replied.

"...help the injured."

"Bu—"

"I know, but we've got to approach this more carefully." The captain paused." If there's any one of them that can still talk amongst the injured, question them and ask them how the suspect looks like and his/her approximate strength...basically anything that can help."

Not much was known about their enemy. Apart from how he/she looked like, they knew nothing about the said target. Carelessly going after the target might prove to be extremely dangerous. Especially since the target seems to be very resourceful.

"Roger."

Under the captain's orders, the unit members quickly rushed to help the injured fifteenth unit members.

"Hey, can you hear me? Are you okay?"

Bending down and taking out a small potion, one of the guards from the second unit opened the mouth of an injured guard and directly poured it into his mouth.

"Drink up."

Out of all of the ones injured, the one he was tending seemed to be in better condition than the others. Although he too was injured, his injuries only seem to affect the lower part of his body.

"Khhh..."

Moments after feeding the injured guard with a potion, the guard slowly opened his eyes. A small groan escaped from his lips.

"...what's going on?"

"You've regained consciousness." Noticing that the potion had worked, the guard's eyes lit up. "Please be careful and don't move. Your body is still injured."

"Who are you?"

Looking around, the guard blinked a couple of times. Seemingly confused about the current situation.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Balzar, and I'm part of the second patrol unit." Lifting his head and looking at his colleagues that were helping the other guards who were in a much worse state, Balzar asked "Can you tell me what happened?

"Second unit?...I see. Understood."

Taking a minute to finally realize what was going on, the injured guard nodded his head softly.

"Why you are in the state that you are in?"

"Cough...cough...I don't really remember much." The guard hoarsely said as he coughed a couple of times. "All I remember was me patrolling alongside my unit when suddenly someone called out for me and a bomb suddenly exploded. Caught off guard, we were unable to defend ourselves and found ourselves in this situation"

"...I see." The guard placed his hand on his chin. "Were you able to see the features of the individual who did this to you?"

"Just barely...From the brief moment I saw him, I could see that the person responsible for this was a male."

"Male? Anything else?"

"...mhm, his face was also filled with scars."

"Scars?" Raising his brows, and putting his hands on his chin, Balzar nodded his head. "Hmmm, yes, that does coincide with the reports..."

Turning his attention back towards the injured guard, Balzar asked.

"Do you know where the target ran off to?"

"Yes, over there."

Weakly moving his head, the injured guard looked behind him. Staring in the direction of where the guard was looking, Balzar lowered his head.

"I understand, is there anything else?"

"I'm sorry."

The guard shook his head and apologized.

"Don't be, this is good enough for now." Standing up, Balzar looked at the injured guard before saying. "I'm going to talk to my captain, I'll be back shortly. Please wait patiently."

"Understood."

Turning around, Balzar headed towards his captain. Behind him, Balzar was able to see his fellow unit members having a harder time getting information from the injured guards. They were all in critical condition.

Arriving before his captain, Balzar raised his voice.

"Captain! I've got a report."

"Go ahead."

"Understood. According to..."

Nodding his head, Balzar relayed to his captain everything that he had managed to learn from the injured guard. From how they found themselves in such a situation, to the suspects' gender as well as appearance.

Standing still, the captain silently listens to the report. Once Balzar finished speaking, the captain scratched the side of his forehead.

"I see...Good job."

Placing his hand on his chin, the captain's brows knit together.

"From what you're telling me, we can infer that the target seems to have access to explosives. Other than that, we still don't know the target's true combat abilities. But, the fact that the target is using explosives to deal with the unit members, is enough to indicate to me the target's approximate strength."

Although they were unaware of the target's true combat abilities, from how he resorted to using explosives rather than dealing with the guards directly and silently, the captain was able to infer that said target's strength could not be any higher than C.

The fifteenth unit captain was only D ranked himself. If the target was B ranked, they would've been able to deal with them without causing such a commotion. The fact that the target was unable to do that and had to directly use explosives which pretty much gave his location away, was enough to convince him about his conjunction.

Thus.

Turning his attention back towards his unit members, he commanded.

"Balzar, Remi, you two bring the injured to the infirmary. Ivan, Roman, and I will go chase the suspect."

"Understood."

Exchanging glances, the unit members unanimously shouted.

"Good. Ivan, Roman, follow me."

Having issued the orders, the captain quickly dashed towards the direction Balzar had told him the target had ran off to.

*

"Huup!"

A couple of minutes after the captain left, lifting two bodies and putting them on two separate wheeled stretchers, Balzar and Remi, the two remaining members of the second unit, quickly carried the bodies and headed towards the infirmary upstairs.

Moving forward, Remi, a fairly skinny individual with short brown hair and green eyes turned around. A trace of pity flashed his eyes.

"A pity."

Out of the five guards, only two people remained alive. The captain, and another guard. The rest were, unfortunately, unable to make it. Despite having come rather early, the extent of their injuries was too serious and thus they died within minutes of their captain leaving for the target.

—WHIIII! —WHIIII!

Running around the corridors of the facility, Balzar and Remi quickly arrived before a narrow corridor. Opposite to them was a large metallic door that was guarded by three guards. An intangible pressure oozed off of them.

"State your purpose."

Halting his footsteps, Balzar took out a token from his dimensional space and flashed it before the guards.

"Reporting. I'm Balzar, a member of the second unit. I'm under the captain's orders to bring these two injured people to the infirmary upstairs."

Looking at the two injured people in the stretcher, one of the guards asked.

"Who are they?"

Pointing towards the clothes of the two individuals in the stretcher, Balzar explained.

"This here is the captain of the fifteenth unit, and over here is his unit member. Both of them are heavily wounded."

"..."

Exchanging glances with each other and confirming that the two injured guards were indeed from the fifteenth unit, the guards stepped to the side.

"You may pass."

"Thank you."

Nodding his head, Balzar, alongside Remi, moved the stretchers forward and opened the metallic door. The moment they entered the door, they were able to see an elevator in the distance.

"Quick, we don't have much time."

Rushing towards the elevators at full speed, Balzar and Remi quickly pressed on the key and called for the elevator.

—Ding!

Moments after pressing the key, a chime rang, and the doors to the elevator opened up. Quickly entering the elevator, Balzar didn't waste any time and pressed the '1' button.

—Clank!

The moment Balzar pressed on the key, the doors of the elevator closed. Shortly after, a pushing sensation appeared underneath their feet and the elevator moved up.

"Huuu..."

Staring at the corner of the elevator that displayed which floor they were on as it moved up, Remi exhaled.

Turning his head to the right and looking at Balzar, he asked.

"Hey Balzar, what do you think is happening?"

Looking at Remi, Balzar scratched the side of his neck.

"Honestly, I'm just as clueless as you. From what I've heard, it seems like one of the experiments that professor Joseph was working on went rogue or something like that?"

"Rogue? Really? Wasn't he bragging to the higher-ups..."

Whilst Balzar and Remi were talking, unbeknownst to them, one of the injured guards opened his eyes. Taking something out from thin air, he quickly placed it in his mouth. After a couple of seconds, the injuries in his lower half of the body quickly healed up.

"You know what's worse. I heard that—Kh"

—kracka!

Cutting Remi off, was the sound of bones breaking. Before Remi knew it, he was no longer staring at front of the elevator, but at the back. After that, his vision was enveloped by darkness.

"What the."

Startled, Balzer looked up and saw two emotionless eyes staring back at him. Before he even had enough time to react, a dagger pierced him on the throat. Blood spilled on the ground.

—Thud.

Coldly looking at the corpses on the ground, Ren, who was disguised as a guard, did not waste any time. Channeling flame psyons at the tips of his fingers, the corpses of the guards were quickly ingulfed in flames. All of this happened within a minute.

—Ding!

Before long, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Fixing his clothes, Ren took a step out of the elevator.