“Bang!” the fire staircase door got pulled open, and no surprise to either Jason or Caroline, the two ghostly figures behind the door lunged at them.

 

The pen in Jason’s hand was thin and it looked even thinner with its length, yet it turned out to be much sturdier than it looked - with a swift poke, the pen’s tip pierced through the bloody woman’s neck. And even though this woman tried to twist her body to disarm Jason or break the pen, she was not able to do so and got kicked in the chest and she was sent to the ground almost 20 feet away.

 

This time, the ink from the pen got into the woman’s throat, which made the situation worse for her. And the fact that she fell onto the ink spots Jason left previously did not help her at all.

 

Bright fire erupted from the woman’s body, as she rolled on the floor screaming and crying in an ear-piercing voice.

 

On the other side, Caroline bashed the overweight looking man with bruises on his neck into the door, and delivered two sweeping blows using her baton to his head. The ink mark on her shield and baton seemed to have increased the damage she could deal with these weapons, and after these few strikes, her opponent’s body exploded into dust and rags.

 

“Works better than expected.” Jason took a brief moment to catch his breath after the bloodied woman turned into several piles of ash on the floor, then turned around and said to Caroline and the other three.

 

“Hey, did the hallway light up a tiny bit? Or is it just me?” as they proceeded down the hallway to the especially shadowy direction, Brian asked.

 

No one was able to answer him, since two more ghostly figures just climbed into the hallway through the windows on the left side, and two room doors just busted open from behind, and two pale figures, one was a man with half of his forehead missing, and the other was a woman with two bloody wrists and had two black and decayed holes where her eyes should be.

 

“Holy shit! From behind!” even if they had Jason’s ink spots on their hands and in theory they could burn these ghosts with their fists, Branston, Brian and Adam still did not have the courage and experience to face them. All they could do was stumble and try to get closer to Jason and Caroline, who were just attacked by two figures covered in black smoke.

 

The two figures that climbed in through the window looked barely human, as they lost their basic human features like eyeballs, ears and clothes, there were only pieces of rag on their bodies, and their slim to the bone limbs were covered with dark markings that looked awfully like horrible bruises.

 

These two were faster and stronger than the previous two Jason and Caroline dealt with, and the black smoke that was emitting from their body seemed to be somewhat corrosive, some brief contact caused both their skin to itch and even burn.

 

Seeing that Jason and Caroline were handling ghostly figures on their side and not able to come to their aide, Adam toughened himself up for a short moment, gave out a loud roar and took a forceful swing at the woman with two bloody wrists, but then the man with half a head lunged at him and almost got ahold of him, yet the man’s left hand still scratched Adam’s arm.

 

“Get off, you son of a bitch!” Brian was also able to muster up some courage and gave the man with half a head a hard push on his shoulder, and then he delivered a hard kick on the man’s groins.

 

Adam’s attack seemed more effective - the woman’s face cracked up like glass, and smoke started coming out from the cracks, while the man with half a head had a burn mark on his shoulder, and Brian’s kick did not seem to do much.

 

Branston fell down due to not paying attention to his footing, and while Jason took a backstep to dodge his opponent’s claws, Branston’s wailing arms tripped him and caused him to fall backwards.

 

Caroline used her shield to block a pounce attack from her opponent, yet because her stance was barely steady she was knocked back a few steps.

 

“Shit!” Jason kicked up and barely pushed back his opponent, then he unleashed a full force stab at his opponent’s chest.

 

The tip of his pen only penetrated for a few inches, and Jason felt as if he poked a piece of hardwood, the vibration from the collision actually hurt his hand a little bit.

 

Adam’s courageous and slightly desperate roar was not for naught, hearing that the “civilians” still had a shred of spirit and will to fight helped Jason and Caroline calmed their minds for a brief moment.

 

Caroline quickly gathered herself after being knocked back, then charged forward with her shield in front of her.

 

Her opponent charged at her at the same time, with claws extended in front of it and letting out an ugly and stenchful growl.

 

As they clashed, Caroline landed a solid blow to the creature’s face, and her shoulders were grabbed by its claws. The creature’s tips of its claws dug into her skin, and tried to tear into her body.

 

The pain did not waver Caroline, instead it brought out her inner ruthless and savage side - with her shield up the creature’s throat and pushing it against the window, her short baton started delivering rapid and forceful blows on the creature’s head, arms, side torso and even its legs.

 

On Jason’s side, he was able to get up swiftly and regained his pose, right before the creature in front of him grabbed onto his left leg and locked its teeth into his thigh like an animal.

 

The pain also brought out Jason’s furious side, he started using his pen like an ice pick to repeatedly stab the creature’s neck and shoulder.

 

First stab, it was still like stabbing a piece of hardwood. The second stab, it got a tad bit softer. And after the first ten stabs, the creature’s biting power seemed to have weakened, and its neck and shoulder had become more like hard foam instead of hardwood.

 

“Go to fucking hell!” having a sense that his opponent was no longer biting as hard, Jason pushed his pen deep into the creature’s neck, then tried to use his bare hands to twist the creature’s head off from his thigh.

 

With a loud pop, the creature’s jaw loosened up, and its head also got removed from it’s shoulder. With a heavy kick with almost nothing held back, the creature’s body flew off to the side and tumbled out of the window.

 

Roughly at the same moment, the creature fighting with Caroline was also pushed out of the window, with broken limbs, broken neck and head smashed beyond recognition.

 

“Are you okay? Ouch...” Jason noticed the wounds on Caroline’s shoulders, was just about to go over and check on her, yet the wounds on his thighs stopped him.

 

“Yeah. Hurts but not terrible. You worry about yourself.” Caroline’s expression did not tell the same thing as what she said.

 

“Help! A little help here!” Adam and Brian tried, but still they were pinned down on the floor and the wall. Branston, while not pinned down, was desperately trying to push the ghosts away but to no avail.