"Uhh...Is this the right place?" asked the mercenary, hesitantly.

Before long, they had arrived at what looked to be a rundown clinic. It was only two stories high and some of the windows seemed to be boarded up while others were destroyed or pumped with bullet holes. The door lay on the ground in pieces and the inside had no lights.

"Yes, it looks worse than I thought...but is this all because of the bandits?"

As the two precariously walked in, the sound of broken glass cracked under their feet.

"Hello! Is anyone in there? We need a doctor!" yelled Kizu.

There was no answer. Kizu continued to walk forward into the darkness until they were in what used to be a lobby. There was a broken window on the far left end that brought some light into the room, revealing some rugged seating and disorientated files on the floor. In front of them was a receptionist desk, empty and dim, and beside it was a large metal door left ajar. On the other side of it was a dark corridor leading into the hospital rooms, but there was a faint smell of something vile in the area.

"Hold on. Why don't you stay here with your mom and I'll go find a doctor."

"What, why? Can't we search together?"

"...you're just going to get in my way," answered the mercenary bluntly. "It's better not to move your mom so much anyway. So stay here and look after her, that's all you can do right now. If something happens, you'll at least have a chance to run to the exit, got it?"

"But-"

The faceless mercenary looked down menacingly at the little girl.

"...fine,” pouted Kizu, arms crossed.

"Good."

The mercenary carefully laid down the injured woman on the lobby benches. Kizu sat beside her as she watched the mercenary head into the darkness ahead.

"Actually, here, take this knife just in case."

The mercenary turned back and took the simple combat knife from their left pocket. Bending down to face the little girl, it was the first time Kizu could directly see the masked character in front of her. With its twisting wave-like design on the mask, one could not help to look into the single eyehole, like a vortex. For a moment, the warm emerald eyes of the little girl met with a lone dull one, until the girl looked away as the cold metal of the dagger touched her hands.

"I'll come back, don't worry."

"..."

Kizu nodded quietly, clenching the knife tightly.

***

"Well. This is going to get messy," the mercenary sighed.

The masked individual walked through the dark hallway with the occasional flickering lights and countless dead bodies lay scattered on the floor, some in pieces, and dry blood painting the tattered walls black. It was evident that the patients and staff of the clinic had been brutally murdered. The smell of rotting flesh was much stronger here than the lobby room as well. However, there was no evidence of bullets or the use of firearms; rather, they were torn apart by something like a beast or wild animal. It was a gruesome sight to say the least.

Since there's only one hallway leading to the lobby room, if anything attacks it would have to go through me first...right? Dammit this is why I don't do escort missions.

The mercenary continued to look for any survivors, though the chances were slim due to how late they had come to the crime scene. By now anyone left inside would either be dead or escaped on their own.

Is there even a point in looking? If there is someone here, who's to say it's a doctor.

While slightly regretting their decision, the mercenary decided to check every room anyway since they were here. The party could not progress further when one of them is injured, so the best way was to find a doctor nearby and let them recuperate. Anything was better than carrying an unconscious body around, so the mercenary thought.

While most of the doors were open, the mercenary grabbed the door handle to one closed room and struggled to push it open. A gust of wind blew back their white hair as they stepped forward and noticed the entire wall was missing. There was a single rotting body seemingly thrown onto the bed with its head ripped off. Specifically it looked as if the head was sloppily bitten whole by a large animal, ripping the skin off the neck and leaving part of the spine sticking out. The skull was nowhere to be found. An amazing splash of blood was left along the wall by the headboard. Below the decomposing body were human fluids still dripping down to the floor. The mercenary walked around the puddle to see what was on the other side of the wall. It led to an alleyway, but currently there was no sign of movement; only the wind howled, shaking the tin trash cans on the far end of the alley.

This is way too much damage for a bunch of measly bandits. Something else was here...

At that moment, a hard slam was heard back by the entrance. The mercenary twisted their head quickly around, only to realise it was the door that had closed shut again due to the wind. But then footsteps could be heard back out from the hallway. They were light and nimble. The masked character darted back to the door and peered out into the hallway. The footsteps stopped.

"Ok. Something else is here."

The mercenary decided to head back to Kizu for now, but went through the receptionist desk so as to not have her notice and start a pointless and awkward conversation. Sneaking a peak over the desk, Kizu sat by her unconscious mother, fumbling with the knife. All seemed fine, though it was evident the young child was completely bored. Looking down at the files on the table, the mercenary thought there could be something of value to explain the current situation. However, reading through the indecipherable messy handwriting, they concluded it wasn't worth the time and effort.

The footsteps came back—this time from the left stairs on the far end of the hallway. They were heavier and slower than before. The mercenary dashed out just to see a glimpse of a human foot walk up the stairs and thoughtlessly charged forward, until a large shadow lunged from the mercenary's right side.

In an instant, the mercenary was able to skillfully pivot clockwise to face the shadow and dodge its attack. Then as black flames emerged, the mercenary launched a counter strike with their left arm. The punch came into contact with a stiff body of fur as the beast flew sideways into the hallway but landed safely on its feet. Through the flickering lights, one could make out the vague outline of a large black wolf with glowing blue eyes but with the horns of a bull and the tail of a crocodile.

"A chimera, huh," said the mercenary knowingly.

The beast growled angrily at the faceless individual and dug at the ground, head down, like a bull targeting its prey.

"So it's a duel you want…"

The mercenary took a stance as if unsheathing a sword. The chimera roared and charged. In a split second, a black sword of fire emerged in the mercenary's hand and effortlessly sliced through the beast, arriving at its scaly tail. The mercenary's black sword was extinguished as fast as it had appeared. Blue blood splurged from the opened skin as the beast collapsed, twitching slightly even after death.

"Yeah...I don't really have time for this. See ya."

The mercenary then turned back and nonchalantly strolled up the stairs.

***

Kizu sat. And sat some more. She swung her legs like a pendulum since they could not touch the floor, and leaned back against the wall. Eventually, she became bored of only sitting around and stood up instead. Next to Kizu lay her mother, still unconscious on the worn-out bench; had it not been for the blood-stained clothes and cloth wrapped around her abdomen, one would think she was simply taking a nap. Kizu was just relieved to see her mother breathing. She did not want to think about what would happen if the only family member still with her would leave as well.

On the other hand, without adult supervision Kizu's curiosity got the better of her and the little girl decided to look around a bit. There were a couple of small framed paintings still hanging on the wall near the receptionist desk. The one that struck Kizu the most was the one depicting a beach with its shimmering blue waves of water and soft lush trees. She'd only heard stories and read books about them as there were no beaches in this town, let alone a large body of water; the most they had were wells and rivers. Even more was the lack of leafy greenery in the area, due to their climate conditions.

"Maybe one day I can see it...the ocean," Kizu whispered softly.

She shuffled back to the entranceway and looked down the aisle to see a bright stream of light coming from outside. Accompanied by the silence and emptiness of her surroundings, Kizu realised she was all alone and suddenly felt lonely. She did not know when their mysterious escort would come back and the thought that they were abandoned came to mind. Kizu swiftly brushed the idea aside.

"I'll come back. That's what he said," mumbled Kizu reassuringly. "Even though I can't see his face...I think, I think we can trust him. I want to trust him."

In that moment, the light shining in from the shattered window suddenly went dark for a second, as if Kizu blinked without actually blinking. Something had passed by the window, and that something was in the room. Kizu could hear something walking in the shadows casted by the benches, but she couldn't see anything at all; the light emitting from the window just made its surroundings darker.

The knife…!

With careful steps, she shifted her body back to her mother where she had left the knife on the bench. Hastily taking the dagger in both hands, she pointed it to the emptiness in front of her. Whatever was walking around crushed the loose files on the floor indicating its location, but there was no body to be seen. Kizu's heart raced because she knew that whatever was a few feet away from her was invisible.

But more importantly, she needed to protect her helpless mother. Unlike the time with the bandits, Kizu felt more secure with the knife in her hand. She had a weapon; she could fight.

"I know you're there! Stop hiding and come out! I have a knife and I'm not afraid to use it!" Kizu yelled out, flailing the dagger around in a hostile manner.

Kizu waited, not really expecting anything, but hoping that maybe she could lure it outside away from her mother. To her surprise though, a shadow slowly emerged into the stream of light on Kizu's left, but it didn't give her much respite. What emerged was only the shadow of a four-legged beast with long hoof-like feet, the beak of a bird and a long curled up tail. Since it cast a shadow, Kizu looked intensely at the invisible figure to see a faint outline of the animal; it wasn't completely invisible, it was camouflage. Kizu could not comprehend exactly what it was, but knew it was bigger than her and it was dangerous.

The beast moved first and let out a wild ear-piercing screech. Kizu stiffened in fear, her eyes bulged wide. It was charging straight for her, or at least its shadow was. In its path, Kizu could see it tearing apart the benches which were bolted to the floor. The child jumped dramatically away across to the receptionist desk as the beast could be heard crashing into the wall, just moments away from where she was. She ran back to the side with the window, but the beast was quick to turn around. In the light, the faint outline of an open beak was coming directly at Kizu's face. The beak tore a gash into the wall as Kizu instinctively ducked and shrieked. She dropped the knife on the ground as she cowered in fear with tears in her eyes. But then the words of Kizu's brother came to her.

"Stay strong."

Kizu took a breath and opened her eyes again as she grabbed the knife boldly. While still under the beast, Kizu used all the power she had and drove the knife up deep into the beast's body. She squeezed her eyes tight and the monster screamed in pain. Kizu took the knife back out and stabbed again, until she was kicked violently in the stomach and crashed against the wall. Kizu felt like all the air left her lungs at once; saliva trickled down her mouth before she wiped it off and clutched her stomach. The thought hadn't even occurred that she might have broken her rib cage. Kizu just felt pain all over as she gasped for air.

The creature continued to scream and wail angrily as blue fluids gushed out of the seemingly invisible creature. Unfortunately, the wound was smaller than Kizu had thought.

I don't think that was enough to kill it. But I don't have the energy to run. Am I going to--

The knife, still in the body, floated around in front of Kizu, until it disappeared. Seconds after, the sound of a heavy object colliding with the wall was heard and a crater formed on Kizu's right, directly across from the hallway.

"Didn't I say I can't have one of you dying. That includes you too, y'know."

The masked mercenary had kicked the creature away and was now walking towards the monster that finally revealed itself. In a combination of the head of a hawk, the body of a black horse and the tail of a chameleon the wounded body lay on the floor. Once again, the mercenary formed a black sword of fire in their hand and stabbed definitively into the creature. It died instantly.

"I even said to run to the exit if something happened. Kids never listen do they…"

The faceless character pulled out the knife from its body and shook the blood off, before putting it back in its holster.

"Ew…" Kizu could hear the mercenary mutter.

As Kizu sat on the ground, she could see a frightened older man come out of the hallway. The man had a long face and was quite thin. He had messy black hair and round glasses. While he looked disheveled and drained, his clothes made him the ideal doctor that the trio had been looking for. The man was also carrying two strap bags across his body. When the two met eye to eye, the older man immediately rushed to her side with concern on his face.

"Are you...a doctor?" Kizu asked first.

"Yes I am. A surgeon, in fact. Dr. Junbe Seymour, at your service. Don't worry, you'll be alright now."

The man spoke softly with kindness. Kizu reached for his sleeve and shook her head.

"Please...treat my mother first…" she said, pointing weakly to the woman on the bench.

"Of course," replied the doctor.

With relief on her face, all the adrenaline left her body and Kizu blacked out.