I Possess the SSS Skill: Future Sight-Chapter 72: Saint Hilarius Hospital (4)

Kraaack... khssssss...

I froze in place.

I raised my left hand, signaling Eva to stop immediately.

The sound hadn’t come from the cages filled with humans.

It was a coarse, wet sound—like steel claws scraping against rusted iron and damp flesh.

And it was coming from everywhere.

From the dark ceiling above us, and from the pipes that twisted like thick serpents between the cages.

"Do you hear that?" Eva whispered, her back instinctively pressing against mine, forgetting her hatred for a single second to cover the blind spot.

"They’re the cage wardens..." I whispered, my crimson eyes narrowing to pierce the green darkness.

"The Flayed."

Suddenly, something dropped from the ceiling, cutting through the green light, landing directly in front of us.

It hit the metal grating with a wet, disgusting sound.

It wasn’t human.

It was an abomination.

A humanoid body over two meters tall—but completely skinless.

Pulsating red muscles, white tendons stretched like the strings of a warped instrument, and swollen blue veins were fully exposed to the cold air, secreting a viscous substance to keep them from drying.

Its limbs were unnaturally elongated, its joints broken and reformed so it could crawl on all fours like a flayed human spider.

Its head had no eyes or nose—just a massive mouth stretching from ear to ear, filled with three rows of needle-like translucent teeth dripping with black acidic saliva that corroded the rust beneath it.

The creature didn’t roar.

It hissed—like toxic gas leaking from a ruptured pipe—and lunged straight at me!

"Die!"

I didn’t step back an inch.

I raised my right magnum, my hand steady as stone.

Bang!

The explosive Etralium round fired, carving a glowing line through the darkness, entering directly into the creature’s open mouth.

BOOM!

Its skull exploded from the back.

Black brain matter and bone fragments splattered across the nearby cages, terrifying those inside.

The flayed creature collapsed at my feet, twitching for a second before its elongated limbs spasmed and went still.

"Don’t relax!" I roared at Eva.

Because the death of the first creature was the dinner bell for the rest of the pack.

From every direction—between the hanging cages, from the dark ceiling, from the edges of the abyss below... they came.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of flayed creatures began crawling at terrifying speed toward the narrow walkway we stood on!

They were like a wave of writhing flesh, surging forward to tear us apart and devour us.

"Damn it!" Eva shouted, firing her tactical pistol.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She hit their heads with sniper precision, but their numbers were overwhelming—and her pistol lacked the stopping power of the rifle she had lost.

A flayed creature lunged from above, its pus-coated claws aiming for Eva’s neck from behind.

I moved like a demon through the corridor.

I kicked the creature mid-air in its exposed chest before it could touch her—the Ghoul-enhanced force shattering its ribcage and sending it flying into the abyss below, its hiss fading into nothing.

"Behind you!" I shouted.

She turned—only for me to see three creatures crawling toward me across the grating at lightning speed.

I opened fire with both hands.

The magnums roared like thunder across B1.

Each shot tore a creature in half, red flesh spraying everywhere, coating my clothes and bare face in hot droplets.

The fight turned into a brutal, merciless bloodbath.

We were trapped in a corridor barely two meters wide.

No room to escape. No room to maneuver.

Either we killed—or we were eaten alive.

Eva emptied her first magazine and drew her black tactical dagger with her left hand while reloading with her right.

She fought with the ferocity of a wounded elite.

A creature lunged at her waist—she drove the blade straight into its skull, then yanked it free, slicing its throat open as black blood washed over her hands and pale face.

But I was the center of the massacre.

I didn’t use the "Forgotten Blade."

I feared it would consume what remained of my lifespan and leave me paralyzed—and I needed to save it for the S-rank entity leading this floor.

I relied entirely on my Ghoul Core-enhanced speed, my monstrous physical strength, and my dark survival instincts.

A creature leapt at me from a cage hanging to my right.

I dropped my empty magnum and caught it mid-air by its slick, flayed throat!

"Gggghhh!" it hissed, trying to bite into my arm with its needle teeth.

I tightened my grip.

Kraaaaaack!

I crushed its throat and neck vertebrae with my bare hand until my fingers met through its flesh.

I used its heavy corpse as a shield to block two others rushing me—then hurled it at them, sending all three tumbling off the edge of the walkway into the void.

I drew my black tactical knife—and began the Joker’s dance.

Spin. Stab. Sever tendons.

I moved like a crimson shadow in the sick green light.

Every strike was precise—tearing vital arteries.

Blood coated the metal grating, making it dangerously slick.

"Kyle! The chains!" Eva shouted, gasping, pointing upward in desperation.

I looked up.

The creatures were gathering by the hundreds on the thick chains holding the cages we were crossing—trying to snap them with their weight and claws to drag us down into the abyss!

"Run!" I roared.

We sprinted at full speed across the blood-slick metal walkway.

Behind us, cages began to fall—thousands of tons of iron crashing down, dragging the trapped humans with them into the dark abyss, producing a horrifying sound like metallic meteors striking the bottom of hell.

The creatures chased us like starving hounds, running on all fours, jaws snapping greedily, dripping acid.

My ammo ran out completely.

My magnums were now useless scraps hanging at my belt.

Eva’s dagger had snapped inside the skull of one of the larger beasts.

We ran, gasping, the cold, corrupted air tearing through our lungs.

Then—

We stopped abruptly, nearly falling flat on our faces.

The walkway ended.

Completely cut off.

Ahead of us was a massive ten-meter gap—the other side of the corridor swallowed in absolute darkness.

No bridge. No rope.

And behind us...

Hundreds of flayed creatures blocked the path entirely, forming a wall of living flesh.

Their blind eyes fixed on us, their mouths dripping acid and pus—ready for the final charge.

"We’re trapped..." Eva whispered, her voice breaking completely.

She dropped to her knees, her black eyes staring at the crawling army slowly approaching to savor their meal.

"It’s over. We’re going to be eaten here. Damn you, Kyle... damn me for following you."

I stood in front of her, breathing heavily.

My body was completely drenched in the creatures’ viscous blood. My coat tore with every breath.

I pulled my right hand from my pocket.

The black veins still pulsed faintly—waiting for command.

Do I use it?

Do I summon the Forgotten Blade and tear through this entire pack?

But if I do... I’ll burn through my lifespan—and might have nothing left to face the monster of this floor.

But just as the creatures pulled back slightly—preparing for their final collective leap—

Something strange happened.

They stopped.

All of them.

They took a step back. Then another.

The savage growls in their throats suddenly turned into low whimpers...

Whimpers of pure fear.

Like insects sensing an approaching wildfire that would wipe them out.

Then—suddenly, in a frantic, collective motion—they fled.

They climbed the remaining cages, leapt into the abyss willingly, scattered into side corridors—as if absolute death itself was chasing them.

In less than ten seconds...

The path behind us was completely empty.

Only Eva and I remained.

Alone.

In absolute silence.