'Fuck!'
He cursed silently and glanced around, looking for anything he could use as weapons.
If he used his shotgun now, the noise would draw the other creatures outside the subway to him.
Finally, he spotted some broken rebar sticking out from the rubble nearby.
He quickly ran toward the rebar, setting down his backpack and shotgun.
Then he pulled out salt from his backpack, snapped off the pieces of rebar, and coated them with the salt.
The sound of the snapping rebar caught the attention of the two creatures, and they growled instantly.
Quickly, they leapt and, within moments, were at the spot where Kael was hiding.
Their bodies were pitch black, with exoskeleton-like frames, heads adorned with numerous tentacle-like appendages, legs jointed like those of four-legged beasts, and arms so long they reached the tips of their feet.
As one of the creatures jumped onto the rubble to look over it, a long piece of rebar suddenly pierced its head through one of its glowing red eyes.
Disgusting green blood spurted out from its wound, splattering all over Kael.
The creature roared in pain, but he immediately stood and pushed the rebar he was holding deeper into its head.
He jumped up and pushed the creature with his foot, causing it to fall onto the railways. He then drove the rebar, already lodged in the creature's head, even deeper, until it completely pierced through.
The creature writhed in pain, letting out high-pitched roars, until it finally stopped moving.
Still with one foot resting on the monster's body, he turned toward the other creature and charged at it.
The second monster roared, revealing sharp fangs inside its wide mouth. Its unnaturally long arms stretched forward, trying to grab Kael.
He ducked quickly, but the creature tried to lunge at him with its wide mouth.
He dodged to the left and immediately thrust the rebar he was holding into the creature's mouth, driving it into its throat from the inside.
The creature let out a gurgling sound, but its long arms still reached out, trying to grab Kael, who was now directly in front of its body.
Because of its overly long arms, the creature couldn't reach the human standing before it.
With a grin, Kael jumped up and drove the rebar even deeper into the monster's mouth until the monster fell to the ground, causing a heavy thud.
After landing back on the ground, he quickly ran to where he had left his backpack. He strapped it onto his back and immediately left the area, carrying his shotgun.
Without hesitation, he moved towards the part of the subway where the ceiling had collapsed, at the back of the ticketing room. There was a large hole leading to the surface above.
As he looked up at the hole, he heard several growls coming from the subway stairs.
'They've arrived...' he thought.
Then with a single leap, he reached a height of several meters, and both hands grabbed the edge of the hole.
Just as the shadows of the creatures began moving under the flickering, broken lights of the ticketing room, he had already climbed out and started running away from the area, heading north.
***
Running swiftly, he headed toward the ruins of a mall near the subway.
He skillfully leapt over scattered debris and the wreckage of cars.
Now that he had obtained Ambrosia and become Awakened, his body was lighter and stronger.
What he needed then was a good weapon he could use to take down those monsters.
He knew that all kinds of weapons had mysteriously appeared on Earth recently, but not all of them were good enough to kill certain types of monsters.
For instance, there were the tentacle-headed monsters roaming the city.
Their bodies were made of tough, shell-like skin, but their heads were soft, could be penetrated only if the weapons were coated in salt.
And as for automatic weapons, they had limited ammunition.
Because of that, he had to rely on weapons like swords—especially a good sword that could slice through the monsters' necks without needing salt.
He knew there was a fine sword inside the mall he was heading to.
The problem was, he didn't know its exact location, as in his past life, the sword had been discovered by another Awakened.
He was likely to spend the night in the mall, even though it was clearly not a safe place.
This was because, right at midnight, a second type of monster would emerge through the another gate, similar with one of the tentacle-headed monsters had come through.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a child crying nearby.
He stopped and searched for the direction of the sound.
A little girl was hiding behind a large building pillar, most of which had already collapsed, sitting and crying there all alone.
"Hey, kid," he called out, trying to speak gently.
The child immediately stopped crying, then suddenly stood up and pointed a knife she was holding straight at him.
"Hey, relax. I'm human," Kael said, raising both his arms.
The little girl still pointed her knife at him, her hands trembling. She looked about seven years old.
Her eyes studied him for a few seconds, then she lowered the knife, and sobbing softly.
Kael smiled and crouched down. "Are you alone?" he asked, making no attempt to take the knife from the little girl's hand.
She nodded, and he noticed her body had no injuries at all, even though her clothes were torn in several places.
This meant the little girl had already consumed Ambrosia, making her one of the Awakened.
However, he had never seen her in his previous life.
"Would you be willing to come with me?" he asked.
The little girl simply stared at him for a few moments.
"If you're alone, the monsters could kill you," Kael urged again, without wasting words.
There was no need for small talk in this chaotic world. If she didn't want to come, he wouldn't force her.