CORE

Chapter 8 - Hazard

Outside of The Castle, in the gracious, yet unknowingly isolated city of London...

Near an alleyway, there seemed to be two, shady, yet ultimately harmless men chattering on about something as many of the civilians of London walked by, not even a batting an eye on them as they focused on continuing on with their lives.

"Great, another one dead... I thought it was already over," The first one of them spoke as they kicked away a small pebble.

"You know how it is in this Area, we don't get much security over here," The second of them said in a calm yet regretful tone.

"That's not what I mean! Y'know the whole 'Jack The Ripper' thing that happened long ago? No one has been killed or even endangered ever since he 'disappeared', so why is it happening again now and so abruptly?" The first one spoke out, to which the second one slightly nodded in agreement, as it was indeed quite strange.

"Well... I guess we should just hope we or anyone else has to run into that said danger," The second one replied, taking out a lighter as they lit a cigarette they had taken out beforehand.

"You want a smoke too?" He asked.

"No, and didn't I tell you to calm down on that? At this rate your lungs are done for," The first one responded as they crossed their arms, exhaling.

"I'll do it eventually, but right now It's a little hard to do," The second one replied as they smirked.

Back in the castle...

The second floor rumbled and shook as Hero punched through two monsters, sending a massive shockwave that ripped all the curtains, the beasts being twice as large as he was, on the other corridor Justice and Sherlock casually shot down the monsters that came there way, the three of them had already blitzed through the entirety of Floor 1 and its many monsters.

"I have to say, this is a bit too easy, I almost feel bad for Hero since he has to put in the extra effort," Justice said as he snickered.

"Don't get too arrogant," Sherlock replied as he loaded up his gun, however, as he did so, a large, reptilian-like monster suddenly plunged straight out of the pile of monster bodies, taking Justice and Sherlock by surprise for a moment, due to the fact that they off-guard and overconfident.

Hero struck down at the last remaining bit of monsters that came from the hallway he was in, and of course, while he did so, he grabbed on each and every one of those Cores, absorbing them by swallowing them whole.

As Hero dropped what was supposedly the last Core he would devour, he stuck out his tongue, clearly feeling a sense of displeasure.

"It's getting harder to absorb the more I do it," Hero remarked as he turned around to see how Justice and Sherlock were faring, rolling and stretching his shoulder as he did so.

But to his shock, Justice was suddenly thrown at him, and he seemed to be grabbing Sherlock by the collar while the two were chucked at Hero.

Hero immediately held his guard up, preparing for Justice to come at him at full force, but much to his confusion, Justice swung Sherlock in the air, before vibrating his body at lightspeeds, effectively phasing through Hero before crashing and landing into the nearby wall.

Taking note of this, Hero turned around, making sure Justice was safe, before turning his attention to Sherlock as he just barely grabbed him by the arm, softening his landing as he then let go.

"Thanks for that, that was quite the special prize back there I'll tell you that," Sherlock said, as he dusted off his clothing before stretching his hands and strengthening the grip on his gun before turning to the serpent-like monster that charged at him and Justice.