The woman shrieked, flailing around, trying to get Sera's hands off her. "You crazy girl. Let go of me!"
Her yelling of surprise and fright soon turned into a scream of pain. Sera's sharp nails dug deeper into the woman's shoulders. The onlookers watched with a scared expression. None dared to get too close to both of them.
There had been such cases of people suddenly losing their mind, biting and ripping people's flesh. As the report grew, it couldn't be hidden any longer, sparking panic in people's hearts.
However, they also needed supplies to live, so most of them still forced themselves to go out. Among such people, of course, there were also groups that didn't believe it and did their activity normally–working or going to schools.
It was five days away from the apocalypse now.
Thalira hurriedly pulled Sera from the woman, avoiding each of Sera's attempts to claw at her. Luckily, she had her spiritual power to protect herself from Sera's attack, forming a shield wherever her blows headed. However, it wouldn't last long.
She hurriedly pulled a sedative from her inner world, masking it as though she were taking it out of her bag. Her hand clutched Sera's shoulder tightly, and she injected it through a syringe, hurriedly applied the needle on her exposed arm.
Unbeknownst to her, who was too preoccupied with taking care of Sera, a strange thing occurred in the surrounding street. Those who were watching Sera targeting the woman earlier found themselves in a perilous environment.
Another person with a pale complexion also lunged toward the woman who had gotten scratched by Sera earlier.
"What is happening?!" Someone screamed as they evaded a person who was trying to grab their hand and hurriedly ran away.
"What's wrong with those people?! Crazy, they are crazy!" They muttered as the people tried to escape from the street.
Sera was still struggling around, making an attempt to grab Thalira's neck, letting out a series of beastly snarls. It took approximately three minutes before Sera calmed down, lying limp in Thalira's arms.
"Oh, shit!" Thalira cursed when she realized that she had no way of bringing Sera away. Her body was still too weak to carry another human's body. She looked up just in time to find a man heading toward them.
Helpless, she pulled Sera up. Her mental power spread out to gauge the situation, and she was in a deep shock. Although they weren't zombies yet, half of the people in the streets had been infected by the zombie virus.
They had lost their minds!
While people were busy avoiding attacks, they wouldn't have attention on others, so she took this chance to put Sera in her inner world, hissing in pain at the forceful attempt.
She jumped to avoid the man's extended claw. He roared and chased after her. With depression, she ran away from the scene. Her pupils constricted as she spread her mental power again.
The virus was spread through critters in the area. Those things were slowly turning into zombies, much faster than human's transformation because of their small bodies. She cursed, not lowering her speed even once.
Some insects landed on her skin, but she used her fire ability to burn them away.
"Meow!" Thalira heard some voices of cats and cheered up inside. She stopped to find a place to hide and began communicating with her. After she turned into a cat, she could communicate with all kinds of cats.
At this moment, she had entered an alley and found herself stuck. She scooped the cat in her arms and squeezed herself into a small crack in the wall. With her nearly depleted mental power, she could sense that some of those people on the verge of turning into zombies were following her.
The cat was telling her the nearest route out of the alley. She calculated her power, considering whether to hide in her inner world. However, it wasn't possible. She had to go as soon as possible to treat Sera.
The cat seemed excited that it had found a companion and meowed. Thalira's heart dropped. Still clutching the cat in her arm, she helplessly shot out of her hiding place.
"You… why can't you be quiet?" She berated the cat. However, the small thing only meowed back and rubbed her fur at her. Probably it found her scent familiar and thus, felt a sense of kinship with her. The cat was an extremely small kitten, so it was like a newborn calf unafraid of tigers.
There was none around now, at least no sane human around. Those who had run in this alley also had been infected with the zombie virus and lost their minds.
After considering it for a while, Thalira decided to use her fire ability. A few small balls of fire launched from her hands to the snarling zombie-like people. Some fell to the ground, shaking in pain, while the rest continued to chase after her.
"The way out is that way, right?" She pointed at a path and the cat meowed in response. Thalira hurriedly went there, stumbling to a group of those zombie-like people fighting with a man.
With just one glance, she recognized this man to be someone who had rescued her from the thugs that day.
"It's you!" Thalira exclaimed in surprise.
He still had half his face covered, acting mysterious. Seeing her standing there stunned, he asked in his deep voice. "Are you just going to stand there?"
Thalira retracted her mental power and looked at him in surprise. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her once again, making her try to peek at this man's face with her mental power, but she found that it had rebounded back.
He was much stronger than her, whose mental power was bigger than others. Who was he?
When she heard his words, Thalira narrowed her eyes, and she began to fight against the zombie-like people with her slender body. She couldn't kill them yet. There was still half a chance they would turn into ability users instead of zombies. Wouldn't that be equivalent to killing people if she did that?
She was a law abiding cat!
Although she was focusing on knocking out these people through harsh means, like slamming their heads, a part of her attention was on that man. He effortlessly evaded the zombie-like people, pressing a place behind their necks before they could claw at him.
Those people would fall to the ground after that, completely still.
With him as the main fighting force, all people were knocked out in no time. She panted a bit before setting the cat back down. It was also miraculously well-behaved, not clinging to her like how cats usually act.
Another meow sounded in the distance, and it raced toward the source. A big cat, bigger than usual, appeared and the small cat ran towards its mother.
Thalira looked at it, finding that the mother cat turned out to be a mutated animal. It was a good thing, since it meant that the mother cat should be able to protect its kittens. She was also relieved.
"You can go," The man said. "I will take care of them."
Just as he finished saying those, a lot of footsteps sounded in the distance. A group of soldiers appeared not long after. "Sir, are you alright?"
Thalira glanced at the man. So, he was a member of the military. It explained his excellent skills.
"Thank you, Sir." With that, under the eyes of numerous people, whose gaze was now directed at her, she passed by them. Giving those people a nod of acknowledgment as politeness, they sent her bewildered looks in response.
Even if she couldn't find out who that man was now, she definitely would in the future!
***
After she arrived at her dorm, she let Sera out, worried that she might have awoken. Her secret of the inner world shouldn't be revealed to anyone.
Luckily, Sera was still unconscious. She woke up some hours later after Thalira channeled some of her remaining spiritual energy into her.
"Thalira…" She looked at her, scared. Tears streamed down her face as she stuttered. "What is happening to me? I bit that woman. I-I… am not human…"
Thalira looked at her with a complex gaze. "That's right…"