"SHIT!" Lena grunted, pushing the glass bottles from the table hastily.

A glass-breaking sound echoed in the lab as all three empty glasses slammed on the floor and shattered into countless pieces.

Julie's heart heaved as she saw the fourth bottle holding the green mixture they had made, floating and almost touching the ground.

Without hesitation, she dashed forward, threw herself, grabbed the tip of the bottle, and slammed it back on the broken glass.

"OUCH!!" she screamed, closed her eyes, and gritted her teeth the moment she felt some of the glass piercing through her skin.

Blood seeped out and streaked on her white lab coat.

Neglecting the pain she was feeling, Julie placed her left palm on the top surface of the glass and pushed herself up.

"Take it easy," she said, her voice echoing in a soft tone, yet it carried the taste of pain flowing through her skin and bones.

Droplets of blood seeped out of Julie's left palm as she extended the bottle to Lena.

"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME WHILE I WAS AWAY!" Lena turned a sharp gaze at Julie and screamed. "WHY!!!"

All the bottles on the counter and the tables shook as she slammed her fist on the top of the table for the third time.

Seeing how vigorous Lena was, Julie gestured to Ryo, who stood at the gate, to move closer. When Ryo reached her side, Julie handed the glass bottle to him and added a syringe to it.

"Take this," she said, placing her right palm on Ryo's shoulder. "Run and go to the basement, where Oin is, and hand it to Senior Corporal Max."

Without hesitation, Ryo nodded and dashed out of the lab, skittering over a table that blocked him until he reached the black elevator door.

Pressing the button with a door symbol, Ryo breathed sharply, following the same pace as the mechanical sound erupting.

When the metal door opened, he entered, pressed the B button, and exhaled sharply as the door closed.

…

Inside the lab, Julie moved two steps back and looked at Lena while she shook her head.

'I shouldn't have answered her when she asked for the name of the Lieutenant.' Thoughts reeled in Julie's mind so hard it made her feel like a bad person just by telling her friend the truth.

The lights in the room flickered as Lena slammed her fist on the wall closer to where the light switch was.

She closed her eyes as the tears that had welled up in her eyes began to fall, one drop after another.

She turned and placed her back on the wall, and placed her palm, engulfed in gloves, on her face, neglecting the number of chemicals she had touched with the gloves.

Sobbing sounds echoed in the room the moment Lena slid on the wall and slammed her butt on the ground, letting a soft sound erupt as her huge and rubber-like ass bounced on the ground.

Julie moved closer to her, lowered herself until she was at the same height as Lena, and placed both her left and right arms on Lena's shoulders.

"Everything has its purpose, Lena," Julie said after managing to make Lena look at her eye to eye.

When she noticed Lena's eyeballs shaking, Julie moved forward and hugged her, wrapping her body against hers.

Soft wind shoved into the room through the slightly opened window and flashed on Lena's face.

The more the air flashed at her, the more the tear lines dried. And when no tear erupted from her eyes, she pushed Julie backward and straightened herself.

Lena brushed her palms on the white lab coat she was in, shook her head, and let her long brown hair ripple through the air.

"I'll find the boy after the situation here is in good condition," she said, brushing her palms on her face, clearing the tiny drop of tear that sneaked to her chin when she stood up. "That's what he would have wanted me to do, if and only if I was around at that time."

Hearing Lena's words and the power they carried, a tiny smile tugged on Julie's lip.

Silence ruled between them for seven minutes, but at the eighth minute, Julie rushed out of the lab the moment she saw Lena move out.

Lena and Julie walked in the hallway like soldiers going to war. Not stopping, not turning, and not pausing a single step. Even when they reached the black elevator door, the door opened for them as if it was waiting for them to approach.

…

At that same time, inside the basement, Ryo shifted his gaze from Max, Mike, and Nich countless times. And in all those movements, he found no right time or space to throw the syringe now filled with the green liquid he had extracted from the glass bottle.

"STAB THAT AT OIN'S NECK!" Max screamed in a loud voice that shook both the chain he held onto and the room itself, the moment he saw the lab assistant standing there and shaking profusely.

"HEY!" he added, loosening his left grip on the chain and pointing it at Ryo.

Ryo tried to move but paused when he saw the glowing red eyes of the chained Oin. He swallowed hard when he saw the jagged teeth of Oin opening wide like the jagged metal of a grinder.

Before Ryo could even react, a blur of movement erupted from behind him, followed by footsteps.

Lena shot forward like a silver streak while her long hair trailed like flames behind her, and with one swift motion, she snatched both the bottle and the syringe from Ryo's hands.

Her fingers locked around them as though they were an extension of her own body as she moved forward.

The dust that tiny dust that shot up left Ryo frozen with a mixture of awe and panic rippling through his bones.

All eyes in the dimly lit room turned toward Lena as she ducked under swift claws that would have ripped a veteran into two separate parts in a second.

Behind Ryo, Julie stood there with a frozen heart as she watched her friend dash toward the chained uncontrollable Oin.

Though everyone saw her to be betting death, Lena moved with precision and determination, ducking and weaving under the thrashing, sharp claws of Oin.

Each strike the half-human, half-zombified Oin threw were ones that could have torn her flesh and bone, yet Lena moved as though gravity itself was bowing to her.

Series of clawing sounds erupted as the claws kept on streaking across the ground and letting sparks fill the room like snow.

And when a claw came for Lena's head after ducking under a claw that flew over his face and tore some strands of the hair around her eyes, a tense silence filled the room.

For a second, everyone thought Lena had died, but the moment the scraping of the chain and Oin's growls echoed, they saw Lena sliding beneath an outstretched claw.

Lena's palms moved in circles on the ground as she spun around like a wheel and lay flat on the ground.

Though she had saved herself, the glass bottle leaped out of her palms and floated above.

And when it slammed on the ground, all the green liquid splashed on the floor, the walls, and on the side of the chain where no palm gripped.

Looking at the stretching liquid moving on the ground, a crackling sound echoed around Lena as she pushed herself upward.

She tightened her grip on the syringe, squeezed her eyes, then shot forward with an unwavering speed toward Oin.

As soon as she reached Oin's side and raised the syringe, a loud roaring tore from the room and flowed through the elevator space, reverberating through every hallway and shaking all the transparent windows.

When the sound died, Lena closed her eyes as she forcefully plunged the metal pin of the syringe into the rigid neck of Oin.

With an unyielding precision, Lena pressed on the top of the syringe and watched as the green liquid moved from the syringe and vanished into the skin of Oin.

The moment the last drop vanished, Oin thrashed his right arm violently in Lena's direction. Luckily, Lena stumbled two steps back before the claws moved, enabling her to save her neck from getting savored.

Seeing the doctor miraculously performing in a strange stance, Max's grip loosened, letting the rattling chain slam on both his and the two guys standing at his back's waist.

All three of them got slammed against the walls, hitting their heads on the hard concrete walls.

Now not being under any restraint, the roaring Oin dragged the chain toward him at full pressure, letting the wall in which the chain was tangled around also break and shoot forward at him.

Oin's now red eyes glowed with an unholy rage and a monster-like fury as it turned toward Lena, who now stood at where the door was.

Steadying her breaths, Lena raised her hand and slapped it on Ryo's face, snatching him out of his stillness.

The moment Ryo came back to his senses, he screamed when he saw the chained Oin now unchained.

He stumbled backward, fell on the ground, but crawled his way to the far distance where the elevator door was.

Back at the door of the room the half-zombified Oin was in, Lena slid sideways at lightning speed and pulled Julie aside.

In that instant, the square cemented part that had been torn from the wall flew upward and slammed at the exact position Lena and Julie stood at, shattering into dust.

When the dust cleared, Lena moved back to the chain, grabbed it with her left arm, and frowned.

She pulled the chain with great force that pulled the relentless monstrous Oin forward. Lena raised her right leg when the flying monster reached one foot away from her and slammed it at the temple.

The impact from the kick pushed Oin backward, breaking the chains and sending him crashing on the other side of the wall.

A roaring sound erupted as Oin smashed on the walls, letting dust fill the air as the wall itself shook.

Slowly, the red glow in Oin's eyes dimmed and got replaced by a stillness that seemed impossible to occur.

Lena sighed and moved forward. And when she stopped by Oin's side, she tightened her knuckles and turned a sharp gaze at Max, who was now helping himself up.

A loud sound erupted as Lena slammed her fist on the temple of Oin, sending him into a deep sleep, and then moved back to where Max was.

"This isn't over," she whispered, almost to herself, as the fog of dust faded, leaving the bloodied chain shimmering as the early moonlight fell on it through the small window at the top corner of the room.

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