He turned his eyes on the approaching small band of demons. They let out guttural squeals and screams. They no longer resembled pugs to Pierre. In numbers, the spawns looked like a school of Piranhas.
For a moment he panicked. He remembered to have thrown the coin away. Then he felt it again in his hand, magically appearing every time he thought of it.
Now, he was not clueless about what to do next. He rolled the coin in place and aimed his sights on the target. The coin left his hands in the same manner as it did earlier, whistling in the air and blurringly fast. And it incurred the same damage.
The spawn in the lead received the coin right on its forehead and died upon impact.
[You have killed Spawn]
[You have gained Experience]
When he had lost sight of the coin, it appeared again in his hands. No dent, not a single smudge of blood, and sparkling as new. It did not work like a boomerang. There was no need to catch it.
Pierre grew more comfortable with the relic. After the first two spawns died with single shots, he started to think that perhaps he did not need to fear the spawns. He was a relic user and as the interface described it, these demons were the weakest in the horde.
The second spawn got hit in the neck. He had to watch it stumble onwards with a partly-severed head before it shut down and dropped to the ground. The third spawn got hit in the face, the coin carving through the left cheek and deforming what was already an ugly appearance. The last one had the coin enter its stomach and its tainted innards burst out.
He did not remember himself to be a marksman. It must then be the relic at work. It was like firing with an auto-aim, and an auto-kill cheat.
Pierre noticed Clementine staring at him. She had a baffled look on. Her lips mouthed something, but no words came out.
"Are you alright?" Pierre asked.
"Thank you," she swallowed and then smiled. "Let's get out of here."
---
Chaos had taken the streets. Burning buildings, burning cars, and dead bodies were left and right. The ones to blame were horned and winged. Unlike spawns, most of the demons he saw outside the campus, had the height of an adult man and the musculature of a trained athlete.
Those who resisted were quickly overpowered. He saw them lifting cars with ease, breaking down doors as if they were made of cardboard, and killing and eating humans like scything down wheat.
It took every bit of him to keep his eyes on the windshield. He saw bodies being eviscerated and guts spilling out, while the victims were still alive, screaming in horror and agony.
In less than an hour, the demons had taken Greystone. They were everywhere, and by the time Pierre and Clementine left the campus, there were more of them than live humans. The creatures were busy feasting on the abundant supply of human meat, which looked awfully familiar to pork or venison meat. And that busyness might have played a part in why they had gone so far without being attacked.
They were about to leave the last block of the city proper when they heard a loud thud, too close for comfort. Something heavy landed on the top of the car. The hoof shape imprinted on the dented metal gave them a clue.
They weren't guessing for long. Soon a hole was punched in the ceiling of the car, before the clawed hand proceeded to tear the roof like a sheet of paper, exposing the back seat. Fortunately, both of them were seated in the front. That did not make the situation any better, however.
Clementine wasn't screaming as he thought she would. She gripped her seatbelt tightly and closed her eyes, perhaps trying to ignore what she did not have control with.
Acre took one of his hands off the wheel and summoned the relic.
He had the coin ready at his fingers when something slammed to the side of the vehicle. The car swerved and he was forced to return his other hand on the wheel. A demon had broken the glass of the right window in the back seat and clung like a leech to the door.
When he got the car stabilized from swerving, he summoned the coin again. Then he realized he had no clear line of sight. He would have to wait for either to enter the car to be able to attack. But that would be too close a distance. A miss might end it all.
Gunshots rang out, and at once, the car lightened. When he looked again, there was no longer a demon on either the door or the roof.
To their luck, two police cars had taken position to the left and right side of the road right about the exit of the city. Four officers armed with assault rifles, aimed at their sights and released a continuous burst of fire. Clementine also noticed them, and for the first time sat up straight in her seat.
"We're safe," she whispered with a wide smile.
Pierre drove past the police cars and emerged out of the city. He looked at the side mirrors; to try to see the damage the officers were dealing against the demons. The smile on his face disappeared.
A small swarm of demons, perhaps one he had helped bring, charged at the police officers.
He could not believe his eyes. He just saw a spawn take a load of bullets before dying. The winged demons, on the other hand, were barely taking damage at all, only being inflicted superficial wounds and slightly pushed back.
His relic already had inflicted more damage than all of the rifles combined. That realization made him much more important and the situation a lot grimmer.
Now he wasn't so sure the firepower of the military would bring a swift end to the crises.