Black Badger

Chapter 50

The vehicle shoved the mad buffalo herd straight ahead.

For a brief moment—the instant we shot out from under their noses, propelled by the accelerator.

But it quickly became clear that things wouldn't go so smoothly.

The windows filled with creatures.

Thud! Boom!

The car shook from the impacts. It was surrounded by creatures, trapped like a car in a crowd of people.

Thud! The car came to a heavy stop after colliding with the thick band of buffalo. The engine couldn't push through the dense mass of creatures.

"Aerial support!"

Ami shouted from beside me, where she floored the accelerator.

"Requesting it!" [Aerial support inbound.]

Sylvia's calm voice came over the radio.

[All drones deploying.]

Propellers whirred in the sky.

Boom, boom. Bwoom! Powerful shockwaves battered the side of the car. Drone attacks rained down from all directions. A three-eyed goat exploded on the window. Bones crunched, organs burst.

The varied noises of death drowned out by the sharp explosions that followed.

A sliver of visibility opened up.

Through the flashes of explosions, between flying chunks of hide and bone, the wasteland path came into view.

I floored it.

Vrooom!

"A path opened!"

Ami laughed wildly amid the roaring exhaust.

"Let's go! To the cliff!"

Boom!

A heavy footstep.

It echoed right next to the car. The rearview mirror filled with the creature's massive leg. The unclassified creature was enormous. Saying its body was only two stories tall meant even its ash-gray fur-covered legs were ridiculously huge.

If it stepped on us, we would have flattened.

"Two o'clock!"

Screeech!

"Eleven o'clock!"

Screeeeech!

I wrenched the wheel like mad following Ami's directions. Boom! Booom! I could feel the massive creature chasing us. The car kept getting swallowed by shadows only to barely escape from underneath.

Diagonally, straight. Brake. Accelerate. Hard brake.

Aaaaccel!

Boom!

It wasn't catching up from behind.

"We're shaking it off."

Ami twisted around to look back and muttered.

"Once we break through the creature band, open the sunroof."

"Got it."

I didn't let off the accelerator.

"Opening in three seconds."

The view cleared.

A vast wasteland stretched out, a place that slowly crumbled away under the wind's erosion.

We had broken free of the creature band. A massive unclassified creature was still hot on our heels, but we had escaped the band itself.

I reached out and hit the button.

Whirr.

The sunroof slid open.

At the same moment, a massive explosion erupted behind us.

Bwoooom!

"What was that?"

"Richard."

The wind whipped my hair wildly. My white hair kept getting in my eyes. I narrowed them and glanced at the rearview mirror.

An enormous explosion cloud bloomed where the creature band had been. From the smoke-shrouded area came the menacing roar of motorcycle exhausts.

It looked like the seniors were starting to follow. They would catch up to us, taking out creatures on their bikes along the way.

Creatures leaped into the air from the hazy cloud, defying gravity.

Maybe Walker grabbed them and flung them.

"Two o'clock!"

Thud!

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Deafening booms hammered my eardrums. I shifted my gaze back to the side mirror. The massive creature rapidly moved its limbs.

It crawled across the ground with limbs so long they tangled with each other, swish swish. Its speed almost matched the car. It was big, and annoyingly fast to boot.

Boom! An ash-gray hand smashed the left side mirror.

I clicked my tongue and yanked the wheel sharply.

"Hilde, firing a missile."

"Yes."

Ami shouldered an infantry missile as long as she was tall.

The launcher pointed toward the creature with the shadowed eye, which half-obscured the rearview mirror.

The senior called out in a clear voice.

"Bang!"

Explosion.

The sound hit my eardrums even harder with the sunroof open. The creature's ash-gray leg blew apart. Thud! It dropped to one knee. Pale smoke rose.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like a critical hit.

"It didn't take. It'll get back up."

"Keep going."

"Yeah."

Ami calmly prepared the next shot.

"Let's go for the legs."

I had memorized the map at dawn.

After escaping the wasteland surrounding the safe point, we would reach the ruined city. We would follow the cracked asphalt straight through, and we would hit the suspension bridge. A tourist spot bridged sheer cliffs. The gorge was deep. Falling in would make it hard to climb back out alive.

We would cross it and collapse the bridge, and the operation would be complete.

So far, things went smoothly. Four rounds of cannon fire had put some distance between us and the unclassified creature. Flying creatures got shot down by drones, and those attacking from range like witches got picked off one by one by Aki's gun.

Still, in the rearview mirror, creatures defied gravity and soared into the sky. Shockwaves slapped the back of my head. Noises stung my eardrums.

We were almost there. Finally, the bridge came into view in the distance.

If we could just hold out like this.

Reach the bridge without issue...

Crackle crackle crackle!

Bwoom! The back of the car lifted into the air. My view plummeted downward. Agh! Ami's reflexive scream. The cannon clattered to the ground and rolled.

My vision spun wildly. The vehicle tumbled end over end across the road.

The car slammed hard into a building with its rusted framework fully exposed.

Boom!

Agony shot through my entire body.

"Urgh..."

"Hilde."

Ami's voice was heavy.

We were inside the overturned car. I was wedged between the crumpled window and seat, dangling from my seatbelt.

Ami, who had unbuckled to fire the missile, had already righted herself in the mangled interior. I could see the wounds on her face and body slowly healing.

The scent of blood. The smell of something burning. Liquid trickled from my brow, blurring my vision. It looked like a cut on my forehead.

My body wouldn't respond.

"We need to get out. It's gonna blow soon."

Ami quickly sliced through the seatbelt holding me up with her knife.

"Or get crushed by a creature's foot."

No sooner had she spoken than the creature's footsteps stopped.

But I couldn't move a muscle. I tried, but not even a finger twitched. I watched as Ami expertly kicked through the wreckage to make an exit. She slipped out, reached back in with one arm, grabbed me, and dragged me out.

The cold wind battered my body.

Before us loomed the massive creature looking down.

"I'll handle it, so pull yourself together, get up, and head to the bridge."

Ami leaped lightly into the air as she tossed the words out.

My vision filled with the creature raising its arm to smash down on her. Gray fur with a blue glow swirled around it. Blue electricity. Crackle, crackle. Currents wrapped its body and made an ominous noise. Crackle, crack.

So it used electricity.

A fact we hadn't known about the unclassified creature. It was the part that had made the seniors most uneasy when planning the op. Not knowing what the massive creature was. Not knowing its offensive capability or attack types unless we faced it head-on.

Truth was, we still didn't know exactly.

Ami kicked off the ground and soared into the air.

Bwoom!

For a while, I could only watch the fight helplessly.

Until my body responded, all I could do was watch the battle in miserable frustration. I realized how fatal it was to have impaired recovery in a place like this.

Even more miserable was that I was the cause of all this. Ami was fast—too fast to follow with the eye—but she was getting overpowered in strength. I gritted my teeth and struggled to stand.

Get up. Get up.

Get up and grab your sword!

Boom!

Ami slammed hard into the ground.

"Ami!"

My heart dropped.

My limbs finally obeyed. I pushed off the ground with my palms, teeth clenched, and hauled myself up. The creature slowly turned its head and looked at me standing there.

The right arm that had swatted Ami down like a fly.

As I bit my lip and reached for my sword hilt, that arm was suddenly bound tight by wire reflecting the light.

"Hilde!"

Ami shot up into the air like she had springs in her feet.

The wire extended from her gauntlet. I watched as she soared to the height of the creature's head, then dove like a falcon, yanking the wire taut.

Blood burst from the bound arm.

"Go!"

"Together..."

"If you don't head to the bridge, the op's screwed!"

The flesh tore open but didn't sever. Was the diving force not enough? She had shredded the mad buffalo with that wire easily enough.

This creature endured annoyingly well, and Ami cut the wire binding its arm.

Back to square one.

The creature twisted its body and swung its electrified right arm.

Crackle crackle, boom!

The arm that hit the asphalt sent a powerful current surging right next to me. If I hadn't dodged, my body would have fried. I rolled away from the electricity and quickly got back on my feet.

Pain lingered, so my movements weren't fully smooth. But I was improving, slowly.

Ami darted nimbly between the creature's limbs.

"The bridge is right ahead. Run!"

I bit my lip until it bled.

My feet wouldn't move. But I knew I had to go. Toward the bridge. To lure the other creatures to our original target bridge.

I couldn't help twisting back for a glance at Ami.

Ami, soaring into the sky, met my eyes and frowned slightly.

"Hilde!"

She wrapped wire around the creature's neck and shouted.

"You should've been prepared to risk your comrades' lives when you dragged this mess here!"

Blood burst from the creature's neck.

The sound of flesh splattering, the creature's scream like scraping metal. I couldn't take in the scene of blood spraying. Because the moment I heard Ami's words, I bolted.

She was right, without a doubt. The operation had to succeed. The bridge had to be destroyed. And I had to believe my comrade would come back victorious.

I ran toward the bridge.

It seemed the neck hadn't been severed. The creature's enraged roar shook the air along with bursting electricity. The explosion was so powerful the shockwave hit my back hard.

The motorcycle exhausts grew louder.

From behind, it sounded like Aki calling Ami's name. Worry mixed into the seniors' voices calling for her. I ignored the tightening anxiety in my chest and kept running.

The ground trembled. The creature herd chasing me was closing the distance. The reason was obvious. First, I was noticeably slower. Second, it seemed the seniors who had been cutting through the herd had joined Ami.

What tier 7? That thing's at least tier 8.

"Why are you coming here!"

Ami's desperate shout faded into the distance.

"Richard, Richard! Help Hilde! There's still too many left!"

"Ami, over here!"

The seniors' urgent voices drowned out by the creature herd's footsteps.

"You're losing too much blood!"

"Richard! Tell Hilde to go!"

"Technically, that bastard's the culprit, so he should take responsibility!"

Jason Tvain's angry voice echoed through the air.

Loud enough to cut through the massive electrical explosion.

"What the hell did you drag in!"

The bridge.

The wide suspension bridge spanning the gorge came into view. I gritted my teeth and ran. I poured all my strength into my legs. I bit my lip and sprinted across the bridge without looking back.

It was so close now. The heavy presence of the creatures pressed from behind.

But in the end, they didn't catch me. Keeping some distance from the target, I finally completed the operation. I crossed the bridge and spun around the moment I reached the other side. The bridge, wide enough for ten people abreast, teemed with creatures. Mad buffalo. Fanged goat. Apostates had mixed in at some point.

We were supposed to blow it with explosives, but they had been flung away when the car flipped.

But I wasn't unarmed.

Boom!

The supports.

I severed them without hesitation. I hit them with the black hand. And now my body remembered the technique, with enough stamina to execute it.

The end of the bridge sliced clean. It followed the trajectory of the massive sword Yoon had given me.

It cut neatly and plummeted helplessly.

The bridge and the creatures on it sank away.

I closed my eyes and opened them, and they were gone from my sight.