Chương 177: B3. 18.2 - A Furry Swiss Cheese

There they are! A crowd of people! I wriggled my nose, taking in a bunch of smells. Human stench. Living ones. I would've barfed if I had inhaled with this much detail in my original body. Would make me think people were close to me. Even without my keen sense of smell, their shouting gave their location away. And they were running toward the destroyed building.

"An Adumbrae attack!" shouted a female voice, maybe a hundred yards away. Excitement threaded her voice instead of panic.

"Hurry! We have to record it!" said someone else.

"Move fast before the BID arrives!" Yep, it really was the crazy Adumbrae content creators. No hint of survival instincts when there was a chance to get that juicy, juicy video of an Adumbrae for lots of views. I had watched a few such channels on the internet during high school, looking for some real Adumbrae investigation. But they had none. Either they'd discuss cases that were already known or visit an abandoned place rumored to house an Adumbrae, but they ended up with nothing.

If they went to a place with a recent Adumbrae attack, the police shooed them away. Things were different in La Esperanza—the party was just getting started. I headed towards the excited voices. Thinking about it, wasn't I being nice to them? They get to meet an actual Adumbrae for free! Plus, they knew of the dangers of their nonsense hobby. I'd think of them as having signed a waiver or something. And I wouldn't kill them because that'd violate Rule #4.

But not my fault if civilians were in the way of my fight with Corebrings. A bird flying to my left. Had to be Trepanner. Some cat running on a ledge. Probably also her. Movement in the shadows of an alley I passed. Gravel monsters reforming. Another one up ahead. I flipped a car to smash it. Good the Corebrings were following. But I couldn't tell where Clive was. He had to be somewhere where he could see me, right? I stayed on the street so that the buildings on both sides would cover me.

There weren't any buildings tall enough to spot me from afar. Did he decide to sit this one out? He might be afraid that I might take away his spear this time. I knew that wasn't the last I had seen of him. I shouldn't forget there was a fourth Corebring. During my vision thingy with Glowy Erind, I spotted four orbs of light that might've been Corebrings. The pain in my chest disappeared as my flesh muscles finished stitching themselves together, skin covering them like a blanket.

Just a slight itchiness as my fur grew back. Breathing became easy with the hole gone. If Clive poked my head and enlarged his spear, I might die. Might. This wasn't my real body. Given the setup with Pino, my original body would probably just poof back, and my soul would return to it. I also gambled that Clive still wanted to take me alive rather than dead to find out about Deen's Core energy. The Corebrings had their work cut out for them trying to catch me. And here was attempt number one.

Well, number two, after Clive's failure. A manhole cover flew in the air, thrown up by a geyser of dark material. Some special kind of gravel monster? Was the third Corebring hiding underground? The powerful fountain solidified into a serpent taller than a three-story building if it straightened its body and wide enough to swallow me. It drew back, glaring at me with several purple eyes for a moment before opening its wide mouth. It lunged with surprising speed for its size.

Leaping on top of a parked car, I evaded the serpent's bite. I expected the massive critter to smash the pavement. But it liquified itself at the last moment, exploding into a loud splat, sending waves of the dark, gooey gravel towards me. The waves shoot out tendrils. I hopped onto the sidewalk. The tendrils grabbed the car I was standing on and squeezed it flat in a second. Wouldn't want that to happen to me, I thought, leaping up to squat, boxy bank, according to its signage that I tore off as I passed.

More manholes I passed exploded as a mass of tendrils bubbled from the underground and flooded the streets. The third Corebring must be nearby, continually spewing out this sticky stuff. The tunnels were off limits. Pan's animals would see me outside. Hiding in a building would just be cornering myself. Not sure how I'd get out of this situation, but I was surprisingly exhilarated rather than nervous. The more danger there was, the more I felt indestructible. Kinda weird indeed.

Latching on to walls with my claws, I swung my body from one building to the next like a chimpanzee, trying to outrun the yucky flood. The Corebrings were trying to force me to go on topside for Clive to see me. I wasn't allowing that to— I was about to grab onto the ledge of the next building when the stupid spear burst out of my right elbow, spiraling down and almost hitting my leg. I swung my other arm, stabbing my claws into concrete to hang on. Gravel tendrils continued to creep upward.

The spear disappeared into my right arm before I could figure out how to grab it. Clever idea to hit me there. Then the spear stabbed outward from my left palm that was grabbing the wall, pinning me to the building like stuff on my corkboard. I immediately kicked the wall to break it. Again, Clive retrieved his spear. I pulled my body into the building. A wave of supernatural slimy gravel slapped the building's façade. Everything shook. Glass shattered. Gravel tendrils burst through the windows to look for me.

The third Corebring was really powerful to make this much material out of seemingly nothing. Ramming my way through cubicle dividers, desks, and cabinets, I headed to the other side of the floor. I ran on all fours while wondering about how the spear worked. As Clive had injured me again, my hunger raged anew. But he really wasn't nearby. He didn't even stay at the demolished building. Went further away, it felt like. But how could Clive still hit me? Did he not need to see me after all?

There was also something odd with the way the spear came out of my body. If Clive didn't want me catching his spear again, he should make it come out of my back. I doubted his power was limited to the front side of the target's body—that damn spear had come out of the front and back of my hand. However, the trajectory was always downward. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I rammed a window and the wall around it, bursting out of the building.

As I fell, with bricks and dust coming down with me, I spotted a bird flying atop the building across the street. And it also saw me. A burst of pain—the spear pierced through my back before I landed on the sidewalk. Everything clicked. The bird! I thought Clive just had enhanced eyesight or something, but that wouldn't work now. Actually, he was somehow looking through the bird's eyes. The spear would come out the other side of the target in its sights. That made sense for what had happened so far.

I caught a falling brick and launched it at the bird. It burst into a mist of blood and feather confetti. Flapping wings told me that other birds were coming to take its place. Gravel slime poured out of the building I had been in and the gutters beside the sidewalk. I led the tendril flood to the content creators. Some of them were about to come into view. Just around that café by the corner.

"Holy Mother Core!" A woman, wielding a phone with its flashlight on, stopped in her tracks when she saw me bounding towards her. She was too pale, much paler than my cute Erind self, so it had to be makeup. Heavy eyeliners, too. Definitely makeup.

"What is it, Regina?" A man rounded the corner and crashed into her. Two more people followed. They all tumbled and rolled on the street. Their screaming was understandable—a ten-foot-tall werewolf was indeed scary—but it was incredibly grating, especially the banshee-like shriek of the goth woman. But I chose to save her, grabbing her around the waist with one hand, because she wore the shirt with Red Hood art on it. I found her again! My fan! I should present my best image.

And I also saved the guy next to her, carefully biting his jacket's collar and carrying him like a kitten. Some more plus points. Actually, I could've saved all of them, but I needed some people to die. Die to what? The gravel flood of writhing tendrils that bulldozed trashcans, streetlight posts, and cars as it chased after me.

"Help!" Goth Fan screamed, pounding her tiny fists on my arms.

"Let go of—! Oh my god! Freya!"

"Freya! Martin!" yelled Plus Points Guy, trying to twist his body to reach back. Good for these two to care about their fellow content creators. I thought there'd be some drama and rivalry among them. But they couldn't do anything, and I didn't want to turn back. Cries for help from their left-behind friends abruptly ended. Goth Fan and Plus Points Guy screamed louder. The fresh smell of blood tickled my nose.

I climbed the two-floor bank behind the café and deposited the two people I had heroically saved on the roof. True to their content creator nature, they didn't run away. Instead, they pointed their cameras at me.

"Red Hood…" Goth Fan breathlessly said. She could be guessing, having read rumors that I could transform. I nodded.

"Yo-you saved us," said Plus Points Guy.

"It's true what they say. You fight Adumbrae!" A warm and fuzzy feeling wrapped my heart. I didn't know it was awesome to be thought of as a hero.

"Thank you," said Goth Fan.

"We're indebted to—" I jumped off the building before she could finish her sentence because that was what cool heroes should do. A quick exit. Shouldn't bask in the gratitude, because heroes didn't need them. I also didn't want the gravel flood to come up here and kill my fans. I landed on the street. The writhing flood stopped climbing the bank, diverting to chase me. Down the one-way street, two cars were performing their best three-point turn to escape.

Around a dozen people ran away on foot, some were filming as they did. Witnesses to my heroics! How to show off? What if I made it look like I was trying to stop the flood from destroying the city? No one would guess that the flood was controlled by a Corebring hunting me, an Adumbrae. The red sedan crashed into a pharmacy, the driver panicking while turning it around. The driver jumped out and joined the other people running. I could use his car.

Insurance probably wouldn't cover this—most policies didn't include destruction due to Adumbrae attacks. But since the flood would crush his car, might as well use it. I dragged the car out of the pharmacy. Then I sank my claws into its hood, swinging it sideways as a sort of fan to sweep back the flood. Sweep one did beat back a wave. Sweep two, and only the front part of the car remained in my claws. Oh well, at least I hoped someone got some good footage of me.

"Ah! Help!" A woman tripped and fell hard, failing to see the gutter because she was pointing her camera at me. She was calling for me to rescue her. That phone had to be saved. A man tried to come to her aid. He stopped upon seeing me heading to the woman, too. Couldn't really blame him for turning tail and fleeing. I picked up the woman, flailing in fear, and deposited her on top of another building. As much as I wanted to hear some thanks, I wasn't getting it.

The woman curled up into a fetal position and chanted gibberish prayers. I hopped off to find someone else to rescue. I went for the man who had wanted to save the woman back there, pulling him out of the way of the flood just in time. Of course, the flood was there because of me. But those I had saved shouldn't sweat the details. Don't get carried away! I still needed to find a way to transform back and escape. This commotion wasn't enough of a distraction.

Scanning the surroundings from the balcony of an old building, I pushed my brain cells to come up with a plan. I spotted a bird in my peripheral vision. Was that controlled by Pan? Clive hadn't attacked for some time. Police sirens were getting louder. More of them converging on my location. BID agents shouldn't be too far away. I'd lead the flood to them, and let us see how they'd figure stuff out. I turned around, about to enter the building, when a sudden burning sensation bubbled under the skin of my chest.

Clive? What was this—?

"GRHHOAAARGGHH!" I roared in pain as a massive blade pierced out of my chest. Pain like I had never felt before! It was like my flesh was getting cooked under my skin! The blade crackled with power, causing my fur to stand on end with static. Lightning erupted from the blade, taking the form of snakes coiling through the air, matching the red and gold of my fur with their own glow. My fur caught fire. I bellowed as the blade kept growing. Now, the pole of the spear had appeared.

This was as large as the spear that caused the apartment building's collapse. But this was also different, with immense energies that made what remained of my struggling heart throb in fear. My entire body was covered in flames. Fur and skin turned to charcoal as they regenerated. Blood inside my veins boiled. Fucking Clive! His stupid ultimate move wasn't going to end me! I grasped the spear to break it, but my palm disintegrated upon contact with the pole. My entire hands followed.

Liquid light poured from the stumps of my arms and from my chest like it was blood. Was I going to die here? No! I refused to die! Need some help? I've brought someone along. (Such an unfortunate night this is, my child.)