Spinning around, I decapitated the closest xenormorph with Blood Angel, using blood magic to shield myself from the splatters of acidic blood. The second xenomorph smashed through the blood barrier, screeching as it tried to bite me. Its secondary inner jaws surged toward me like a piston, but I ducked.
Augmenting my physical strength with blood magic, I whirled about and kicked it in the solar plexus with such force I sent it hurtling away. The poor creature struck the laser net that I had activated about a minute or two ago and was sliced into many pieces, acidic blood spraying and corroding the sewer walls.
Breathing heavily, I looked around for more of the creatures, but it appeared that I had dispatched all of them…for now.
"Only four?" I wondered out loud in disbelief. That couldn't be possible. Had I overestimated the creatures' breeding capacity?
Then a blinking icon at the bottom corner of my lenses told me that I hadn't. Turning around, I swung Blood Angel and decapitated the xenomorph that had just risen from the waters behind me, its lips peeling back to reveal razor-sharp fangs. Once again, I had to conjure a screen of blood to shield myself from the sizzling acidic blood.
"Ugh…"
I plunged Blood Angel into the waters to wash away the acidic blood. Originally, I was worried that the highly acidic blood would corrode the blade to nothing, but it turned out that the ancient and highly revered weapon was protected by magic. Mana continued to course through its blade, protecting it from the corrosive effects of the potent acid.
Even so, I wasn't going to risk allowing the blade to get corroded, so I soaked it in the water all the same before leaving. After ascertaining that there weren't any other xenomorphs in the vicinity, I recalled the laser traps before leaving the sewers.
"This stinks," I grumbled, relieved that I could finally exit the damned place.
Before I did so, I made sure to inscribe a few runes on the wall. The countdown had begun, after all. As promised, I was going to nuke the entire town to kingdom come.
None of these…aliens would be allowed to leave this town alive.
Emerging from the sewers, the first place I found myself in was a school where the young townsfolk gathered to study. That was unusual, given that only the children of nobles could afford to attend school. Most children were brought up by their parents and given technical training, often following in their parents' footsteps.
To think there was a school here. Most likely it wasn't as prestigious as the institutions in the capital, Royales. Even so, it was a school all the same and I felt some fondness for it. Perhaps in another life I would attend a magic academy and learn to become a mage, but in this world I had to learn magic on my own.
Even so, to see the death of so many students in this school was…tragic. The first thing I saw when I explored the school was a pile of corpses. Apparently the monsters had caught the poor children in the middle of a class and slaughtered them all.
"I'm too late," I whispered, doing my best to keep the despair from my voice. I tapped my glasses irritably, even though I knew it wasn't its fault that the trail had gone cold. If I had just been a bit earlier…
No. I wasn't totally too late. When I paused, I could hear something. A guttural noise and slurping, as if something was feeding.
Blending into the shadows, I stalked the school, arriving in what appeared to be a gymnasium. Probably where the young nobles learned horse-riding or archery or all that outdoor nonsense. There were more students there, all of them dead.
A single black monster was among the corpses, feeding on them. Its inner jaws were firing out rapidly again and again, tearing huge chunks of flesh from an unfortunate student. Evidently it was feeding. I didn't know it could eat humans for food…then again, I realized just how little I knew about this deadly organism.
Rage filled me, but I managed to control myself. Creeping up on the creature, invisible to visual sight, I stabbed its head with Nocturne, killing it immediately. My body solidified and became visible once more upon the lethal strike, not that I cared. I watched as the acid ate through the floor, corroding through concrete and leaving a massive hole on the ground.
Disgusted, I tore the monster's carcass apart with a blood spell, leaving no trace. Mouthing a prayer, I then gathered all of the students' bodies together for a mass burial. Since I didn't have much time, I used blood magic to do it. Then, absorbing their blood – since they were dead, they had no more use for their blood whereas I became stronger the more blood there was – I used it to enact a colossal magic circle for a spell.
Right now I could just nuke the entire town with this much mana gathered from so much blood, but I refrained from doing so. I needed to ensure that Flynn, his queen and the main hive were all here before I blew the place into oblivion. Not only that, I wanted to give its residents a fighting chance. If possible, I wanted to evacuate them.
By now, they were already evacuating. Outside the school, I could hear the townsfolk stampeding, gathering together with whatever weapons they had and trying their best to keep the creatures at bay. I wished them luck, but proceeded toward the next venue, my glasses picking up the trail of the monster's brethren and leading me elsewhere.
"An armory?"
To my surprise, my next destination led me to a storage shed packed with weapons. A group of townsfolk had gathered there and were stocking up on weapons, presumably to fight off the monsters that had appeared in their town.
Good. At least there were some among them who had backbone. They would probably survive this incident, as long as they didn't do something as stupid as gather in the town square and hope for an airlift evacuation, only to get nuked by the very people who was supposed to protect them.
…except that I was the one who would nuke them this time, but I had no choice. It was the only way to be sure.
"Oh."
Then I saw it. Rather, I saw them.
My glasses detected movement and I caught sight of dark shapes crawling about the exterior of the armory before sneaking in. Looked like I had no choice. The folks in the armory might have trouble taking care of the xenomorphs on their own, so I decided to give them a hand.
Blending in with the shadows once more, I snuck into the armory before any of the people inside could notice anything. They were packing ammunition into backpacks while slinging projectile weapons, slug throwers and bows over their shoulders. A few of them packed spears and clipped swords to their belts.
They were arming themselves to the teeth.
Unnoticed by them, one of the xenomorphs had infiltrated the armorer and was crawling along the rafters. It bared its teeth, barely able to keep itself from drooling, as it prepared to drop down upon one of the people.
"Watch out!" I shouted.
My warning made the difference. The townsfolk scattered, thrusting their spears at the monster who dropped in their midst. Thanks to my yell, the creature failed to pounce on any of them, and was forced to retreat as they tried to poke it with their sharp sticks.
However, its exoskeleton was tough. Their spears bounced off its hardened carapace without doing much damage. Hissing triumphantly, the xenomorph swiped at them, forcing them back.
Time to give them a hand.
I lashed out with Nigh Fang, the whip coiling around the creature's elongated head. It hissed and thrashed about, but with a flick of my wrist, I tightened the whip and cleaved through its head. The poor monster toppled over, acidic blood spilling from its severed head.
The townsfolk all stared at me when I emerged from the shadows, horrified. I retracted my whip and gestured for them to move.
"Get out of here! Hurry! There's more of them coming!"
As if to prove my point, a second monster lunged at me from above, snarling inhumanly. I spun about before kicking it. Fastening my whip to my belt, I then drew Blood Angel and decapitated it. Whirling around, I stabbed a third monster before it could slice my head off with its claws or bite into me with its inner jaws.
The creature shrieked and stumbled away, but despite the grievous wound I had dealt it, it was far from dead. Evidently anything other than a killing blow to its head wouldn't do anything. Cursing under my breath, I then yanked Blood Angel out and rolled away, ducking under its deadly tail. The spiked tip pierced through a shelf and reduced it into splinters, causing a broken shield to fall.
Whoa…the tail struck with so much power that it could even punch through a shield!
Slipping my other hand to my harness, I retrieved a shuriken before throwing it at the creature. Razor-tipped edges unlocked and spun rapidly, giving the formerly disc-shaped shuriken the impression of a spinning star.
The creature didn't know what hit it. The shuriken sliced through its head, splashing acid across the armory, before returning to me. By the time it homed back into my hand, most of the acidic blood had been blown away, making it safe for me to retrieve it.
"Phew."
I readied myself for the next attack, reversing my grip on Blood Angel to stab upward. The tip of the blade penetrated carapace and punched through the monster's skull, stopping it before it could smash the back of my head with its inner jaws. I then stepped away before the acidic blood could spill onto me, dragging my blade along its head to bisect its skull.
Flicking the acid off my sword, I then looked around for more creatures, but evidently I had cleared the armory of the things.
"You…are you all right?"
To my lack of surprise, the townsfolk hadn't completely fled from the armory. A few of them had remained behind, to see if they could help me with anything. As it turned out, they couldn't. They could only watch in awe as I dispatched the creatures with what they perceived as consummate ease.
Well, I was a veteran adventurer at this point, and combined with my vampire physiology, I was fairly capable of taking on these creatures. Which made me worried…what if the host was a vampire instead of a normal human? Wouldn't that produce quite the fearsome monster?
Not wanting to worry the regular folks, however, I forced a smile.
"Yeah. Thanks for your help."
"No, you're the one who helped us. If it weren't for you…we wouldn't have survived."
"Yeah, your warning saved us."
The townsfolk were gathering around me, bowing their heads gratefully. I waved their thanks away, feeling awkward.
"Not at all. I only did what anyone would have done in my position."
"Now you're just being modest," one of the townsfolk laughed. He resembled a sheriff…I mean the town's chief enforcer or guard. "I have never seen anyone fight like you."
"Are you an adventurer?" This time it was a lady. She was studying my armaments, not out of awe but familiarity. She nodded in approval and I noted the way she was holding a spear. She was a veteran warrior. "Those are some high quality weapons."
"That's right." I then hesitated and glanced around. "Are you guys evacuating the town?"
"Seems like we have to." The chief enforcer sighed in frustration. "The town is currently overrun by monsters."
"I'll do my best to exterminate as many of them as possible, but you should evacuate, just in case. Get away from here as quickly as possible."
"Yeah, we will, but are you really going to stay here and fight on your own?"
"It's my duty."
"There are other adventurers," the lady spoke up. I saw now that she had a daughter, who was hiding behind her mother. So that was why she didn't join the adventurers despite being a veteran. She had a daughter to protect. "They are currently fighting at the hospital, trying to buy enough time for the priests to escort the patients out to safety."
"I'm not sure they will all make it," another townsfolk said grimly. Nobody contradicted him. They all shared somber expressions.
"I understand. I will join them and buy as much time as possible for the evacuation."
I wasn't just being altruistic. If I wasn't mistaken, such a large concentration of people would most likely draw the attention of the xenomorphs. There was a high possibility that the creatures would make the hospital their lair. Their…hive.
Best to start moving right away.
"Gods willing, we'll see each other again," I told the townsfolk. Then I left the armory and sprinted toward the hospital in the center of the town.