Chapter 21 - A Monster Horde (Part II)

Eo readied his dagger-chains. He looked around and found a good vantage point to look out from. Keeping careful track of the enemies, he silently edged his way in.

The place he had chosen was a broken-down apartment building. It was significantly taller than the buildings around it, as it was a very tall building. Eo got past the broken door fairly easily and climbed several flights of stairs to the top. Finally reaching the roof, Eo got on top and walked over to the edge.

Eo felt a cool breeze flow through. He felt his body relax, much to his surprise. He had been tensed up the entire time, making his muscles sore and tired. Rubbing them, Eo surveyed the streets below him.

The crowd of monsters was slowly bulldozing through everything as they advanced through the city, even stepping on each other to keep the pace. Watching the horizon of monsters, Eo tried to think of a way to eliminate as many of them as possible.

Something suddenly broke his train of thought. In the corner of Eo's eye he caught a glimpse of a girl running with bags on her arms down the streets.

Eo held his breath in shock.

At last, Eo had managed to find another human being.

Eo was about to leave the building when he realized something horrible.

If he got out, there was a good chance he'd meet a bunch of monsters. On top of that, he was starting to get more concerned about that girl randomly stranded outside.

Eo opened the door by a crack and looked outside. Peering through, he saw her weaving around buildings, monsters, and other hindrances. Eo felt an urge to pull her away from the horde as far as possible. Honestly though, what was she doing here? She was fast, but didn't seem to be capable of fighting.

This however, was where Eo was wrong. The girl suddenly became cornered by several Phase II monsters. Eo immediately started summoning weapons when all of a sudden a bright flash covered everything.

Eo winced and looked up, spots still dancing around in his vision. He saw smoking craters in place of where three of the Phase II heads were. Eo's eyes widened (which was easier said than done, since he had just been blinded).

The girl ran up the side of the wall, jumped off, and then delivered a powerful kick from above to the last surviving Phase II. After the monster collapsed onto the floor, the girl raised both of her hands. Yellow electricity crackled between them.

Eo nodded approvingly.

(Huh, so her affinity is electricity. First I've seen in awhile.)

She finished off the monster lying on the ground by plunging both of her hands into it. A large pop was followed by several crackling noises, and soon the scent of burning flesh pervaded the atmosphere. Eo looked once more to see the monster's body blackened and charred. Eo was honestly slightly intimidated, and felt just a smidgen of pity towards the smoking pile of ash.

However, he noticed something much worse about to happen. A snake-type Phase II was about to pounce on the girl from behind. Even worse, that snake-type was an anomaly.

Eo was about to yell out to the girl about the monster, but it seemed like the girl had noticed it in the nick of time herself. She darted to the side, narrowly avoiding the snake's coiled strike. Touching the snake with her hand, an enormous surge of electricity poured out, causing the snake to spasm. Eo saw her place her other hand, and the amount of power doubled. Eo started feeling bad for the snake.

(Hold on, when did I start feeling bad for the enemies? Are these the first signs of the descent of an anti-hero?)

Eo shook his head to clear his thoughts. He focused back on the painful electrocution of the Phase II monster.

The girl was definitely destroying the snake, but she was perhaps too occupied by it. In fact, she didn't seem to notice the dozens of Phase I monsters slowly creeping up to her from every direction.

Eo raised a finger hesitatingly, as if he was about to say something.

A monster lunged out from the side, fangs drawn straight to the girl's neck.

Almost instantly after, the girl's foot shot out in response, kicking the monster back. Eo heard crackling noises right after the kick. He saw the monster sail away, writhing mid-air with arcs of electricity dancing all over its skin.

(Huh. She's good. No wonder she's managed to hold off for so long, especially in a place like here. Hmm... I wonder what zone we're in right now…"

As Eo was thinking about this he saw the girl suddenly stop her electrocution. The girl's eyes widened in shock. Confused, Eo looked around.

Behind the building Eo was in, there was a massive creature, at least 6m tall. It had to be at least a Phase III.

Eo noticed the girl immediately trying to flee. The monster shot a tendril of its own rubbery flesh and almost impaled the girl. Eo saw the girl immediately attempt to electrocute it, almost reflexively.

Eo had seen the rubbery consistency and had figured out it was a good insulator against electrical currents. So he had guessed it would be a particularly more difficult monster to take down for the girl compared to others.

As expected of Eo's deductions, the electricity flew all over the top of the arms and ran over the length of its body but didn't do anything. The monster fired off another flash of a rubber tentacle in response, grazing the girl's arm.

The girl staggered back, arm bleeding. Eo blinked. Wait, couldn't he do something about this with his element?

Eo looked at the weapons he had synthesized a couple minutes ago. After synthesizing them he had simply held it in his hands while staring at the girl, which, after thinking about it again, was kind of creepy. So Eo had just paused in place. Now, however, he had a reason to use them.

Time to use the weapons!