Chương 176: B3. 18.1 - A Furry Swiss Cheese

My fangs crunched the seagull's hollow bones. A small burst of blood mixed with the feathers in my mouth, a very unpleasant texture. The CoreQuip wriggled against my tongue, resisting the force of my chomping jaws. Was this thing really indestructible? As I chewed, I bent down and scooped a huge handful of the cement roof, hurling it at Clive before he could recover from the surprise that I ate Pan's bird. As rubble flew toward Clive, I charged him on all fours. Close the gap. Get his stupid spear.

Nullify his pesky power. The gravel monsters aimed for me, running on their misshapen legs, as the rest of the birds flew in the air. But they were too far away. Clive didn't dodge. Clumps of cement exploded into powder as they collided with his face, obstructing his view. I was so close! I leaped at him, jaws open wide. He made a forward stabbing motion. A desperate attack? I wondered as I soared through the air, the world in slow motion as my senses analyzed my surroundings. It wasn't going to hit me.

He was aiming below me. I came from above. The dust cloud in front of Clive's face hadn't dissipated yet. All of this happened in the span of two seconds after eating the bird. The spear's blade disappeared into a silvery swirl of light that suddenly appeared midair. The rest of the spear followed. Simultaneously, a sharp pain announced the arrival of the spear inside my chest, bursting downward, to the ground. The force of Clive's thrust came with the teleported half of the spear, making me crash mid-leap.

The spear penetrated the concrete. I held out my hands and feet to stop myself from getting pushed flat on the roof. This is weaker than before? Rather, I was far stronger now. I pushed myself up, my hands and claws leaving deep impressions on the concrete. Clive raised a brow, failing to push the spear further into the portal. Realizing I could overcome his super strength, he hopped backwards in retreat. Gravel monsters rushed to shield him. There were also gravel monsters behind me.

The spear began to return into my chest. I grabbed the handle with one hand. Then two. I wasn't letting this go! Attacking my chest instead of my head meant that Clive didn't want to kill me. Yet. Never allow him to change his mind. You should've aimed for my head! An intense gnawing pain radiated from my chest—the portal sucked in the spear so much that the surrounding flesh and bone were pulled into it. There was a fucking black hole inside me! As concerning as that sounded, fury was front and center in my mind.

Also, hunger. I was going to eat Clive and all the birds here! Pain and anger propelled me forward. Running on two legs after Clive, I kicked the creepy gravel monsters in my path. I expected to send them flying to the moon, but they disintegrated upon impact, my leg cutting through them like a ship's bow through the waves. The gravel monsters' bodies felt like compacted wet sand. They didn't give off 'life', nor did I sense Trepanner's CoreQuips controlling them.

"Grhoaar! Hraargh?" The fuck was this power? The gravel monsters that I had kicked turned into slush and started to cover my legs. They were so heavy and gooey, absorbing the force of my thrashing legs, stretching before snapping back into a tighter hold. Grainy muck slapped my back as more gravel monsters endeavored to contain me, tendrils wrapping around my body. They were like slime monsters merged with quicksand. Worse than that.

They stuck and merged with the roof, weighed a ton, and seemed to be able to pull down my eight-foot bulk to the ground without muscles or structure in their material. This must be what it felt like getting buried in cement. Was this the power of the third Corebring? How do I counter this? These fuckers were going to entomb me and cart me off to the Hive! I was super pissed to be suffering the consequences of Deen's mess. Curse that invisible pet of hers! I had to survive this to get back at Deen.

My cute self shouldn't be cut open for science like the frogs that I dissected in high school biology class. Hands! I needed my hand.! One should be enough. With my right hand, I swiped away the gravel monsters encasing my lower body. If scooped them off with such speed that they couldn't latch onto my arm and bind it as well. I kept Clive's spear in place with my left hand, stabbing my claws into my palm for a firmer lock. A real challenge holding on to such a smooth object.

I tried to squeeze the spear to dent it, giving me a better hold, but it was too tough, same as Pan's CoreQuip inside my mouth. The fetus thingy stabbed my tongue with its tail, injecting some shockingly cold substance. My mouth became numb in an instant, my jaw muscles weakening. But my regeneration was quick to fight back, returning the feeling to my mouth and driving away the cold. Spit or swallow? The fetus creature, not that other thing Reo would joke about if he heard my thoughts.

Pan had hurt me, triggering my power. I craved for her, even though she didn't seem to be near enough for my hunger to detect. Could my Adumbrae stomach digest the fetus CoreQuip? My stomach wasn't just a regular monster organ; it was part of my power. Would be cool if I became stronger, same as when eating Adumbrae brains. Might as well try. More Corebrings to come in the future. Pan's tiny CoreQuip was a good taste test. I swallowed the fetus thingy. Its many hands grasped at my tongue and the sides of my throat.

Its tail stabbed madly everywhere, but nothing could stop the powerful muscles of my throat from pushing it down my gullet. Stomach, do your thing. Don't give me diarrhea or what.

"She ate my CoreQuip!" squawked one of the birds. This one had a scratchier voice compared to the seagull. The other birds equipped the first.

"She eats Cores!"

"I told you!" Clive declared. Through a gap in the incoming gravel monsters that seemed to multiply from out of nowhere, I spotted him still trying to pull the spear out of the portal.

"Red Hood has a Core she hid somewhere. You stubbornly didn't want to listen to me." This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I wanted to confirm it! Now, get my Corequip back!" Wait, what? They thought I had a Core, giving off the energy they detected? All along, they didn't think that I was protecting someone else. These two probably chatted not to waste time, but to buy time to analyze me. Now, I accidentally 'proved' Clive's wrong theory. And this was a bad thing. Very! Corebrings would continue to hound me even if I escaped now. Focus on the escaping now part! Kill Clive first. Much easier to run if I didn't get skewered.

I didn't know how to deal with Pan's animals or the gravel monsters, which endlessly flowed to me faster than I could bat them away.

"Cut her open!" screeched a chorus of Pan-controlled birds.

"I'll fix your mess once again," said Clive.

"You didn't have to test her," he added, hinting that these two weren't actually idiots. Pan had landed her seagull on my head to check if I would eat it. But why did he not immediately kill me? Did he want to know where I got a Core?

"Don't lecture—squawk!" A couple of birds got shredded as I catapulted scoops of the gravel monster at them. The other birds dispersed. But I was no longer aiming for Pan's animals. I hurled gravel monster pieces at Clive with so much force that I destroyed the other gravel monsters screening him. Some pieces reached Clive, tearing his Quality Mart uniform. I smelled a tiny amount of blood. Just some scratches on his skin. If I had hit a normal person, they would've been minced meat.

Like a windmill, my arm rotated, scooping and throwing the rising pile of gravel monsters around my waist. Clive sidestepped the hail like a basketball player doing footwork drills. During my cheerleading days, I was in the gym of my high school a lot and saw the varsity team train. Clive, of course, moved like a dozen times faster. The folds of the tattered bandana covering his face creased, suggesting the huge smirk it hid. We're getting nowhere! I was on a timer.

Corebring reinforcements were probably on the way. Clive, Trepanner, and the bastard controlling the gravel monsters were fine with buying time. BID agents were also on high alert because of the Adumbrae attacks; they'd flock here when reports would come of a huge fight. Waiting for giant werewolf mode wasn't a great idea. Roaring with a punctured lung, I moved forward, rage powering each stride. The gravel congregation tried to keep me in place.

But I didn't care if they tore off swathes of my fur or even ripped my skin off. The entire building trembled and cracked—the gravel monsters must've anchored themselves deep and wide all over.

"That was quite loud," Clive muttered. His spear glowed and started to grow wider, his feet sinking an inch into the roof with a sharp crack because of the weight. He had to wrap his arm around it because it had grown a foot wide. The half of the spear sticking out of my chest also expanded, prying my clenched left hand open. The wound in my chest grew, crushing my ribs and flooding my left lung with blood. The fucking pain! And I tipped forward because of the immense weight.

The blade, which had grown to the size of a human torso, slammed through the roof. Along with the wave after wave of gravel monsters that I couldn't get rid of, it seemed that I couldn't escape. Okay, I can't catch Clive. Not without becoming bigger and stronger. I had to be content with having one of Pan's CoreQuip in my stomach. Once I changed back to Erind, this CoreQuip would poof away with Blanchette's body to who knew what dimension. The Corebrings couldn't trace that.

I arched my back, raising the spear's blade. My bones cracked, and muscles strained from the weight. My feet also started to punch into the roof; the broken slabs were kept intact by the gravel monsters. Holding the pole with both hands to keep it steady, I turned my body left. The spear swung left as well, smashing the gravel monsters protecting Clive. As for Clive, he leaped up to avoid his sweeping blade. He landed with a loud crash, carrying the other half of his ginormous spear.

As soon as he landed, I bent down, slamming the top of his spear down. The entire roof collapsed. The gravel monsters could only keep certain parts intact, which ended up smashing down the floor below. I twisted my body to raise the spear as I crashed. The spear's weight, concentrated to a point, pushed me through the topmost floor down into the next one. A string of falling dominoes, floor after floor collapsed. I caught glimpses of bedrooms and bathrooms, falling furniture, and people. Lots of destruction.

Lots of screaming. Lots of people dying. And this wasn't even my fault. All in all, a fun time. Weeee! I smelled blood. Was this another apartment building? I noticed some people living in it earlier but didn't pay them any mind. I tried to sniff out Clive's location as the world got blended inside a massive washing machine, but it was mostly dust going up my nose. The noise was also insanely loud to my sensitive ears. The destruction didn't stop on the other floors. The rest of the building was getting demolished!

Probably shoddy construction that skirted building codes. Since I came from the rooftop, I was relatively safe from getting buried by tons and tons of rubble. I was confident that I could dig myself out. In the chaos of tumbling and collapsing, Clive's spear returned to its original size and withdrew into my chest. My hands only caught the blade, which cut deep into my palms before disappearing completely. Fine with me that he got his spear back. I didn't have to carry that shit around while escaping.

The crashing stopped. Most of it. The building, what remained of it, was settling. I pushed away the debris covering me. Too bad for the dead people, but they could blame the Corebrings for attacking me here. I didn't want to bother innocent sleepers wanting a good night's rest. What's my next move? Get underground and turn back to Erind? The tunnels should be free of gravel monsters since they had all gathered here.

But I didn't know a different entrance to the tunnels nearby; I didn't want to lead the Corebrings back to the park where Deen was. Getting lost was also a possibility. Would taking off my Blanchette mask even work? Corebrings could detect Adumbrae to some extent. They might just sense my Erind self since they were already here. No doubt that BID agents were also coming. Escaping the city might be the only choice for me after this. With this many people dead, the government and Corebrings will be very angry at me…

… and each other. I should cause more deaths! Ehem. I should bait the Corebrings into spreading more collateral damage. I extracted myself from the ruins and ran out of the dust clouds rolling across the street. Pan's animals would eventually spot me. That was a good thing—I wanted the Corebrings to chase me. They'd want their CoreQuip back at any cost, plus the other Core that I supposedly had. They'd stop at nothing to catch me. Maybe they'd even go through some meat shields made from innocent lives?

That'd send ripples up the government. Blame game would ensue about letting the Corebrings in, just for them to be so useless. I'd bet that the President would do a one-eighty and ban Corebrings from the country once again. The Corebrings would still hunt for me, but I didn't want them working with the government. And I'd wreak havoc across this little neighborhood to create as much distraction for when I'd take off my mask. That was the most crucial part.

I'd hide as Erind among the fleeing people and make some distance quickly. What I needed were eyes and cameras on the horrific acts the Corebrings would commit. And I knew just the people who had them—the Adumbrae content creators. They should be prepared for the ultimate content of their lives!