Invasion

"Gyo!"

In front of him, dozens of short monsters like the ones Noah had recently seen in his house were doing their best not to get caught in the path of whatever the giant was throwing.

However, just as they finished dodging, they would quickly dive to hit as many bites as they could on the lifeless bodies of the monsters, filling their stomachs.

"GROOOH!!!"

This only further enraged the giant, who let out another roar and swung his arm, slamming into the metal walls of the warehouse, creating a large dent.

While this might seem like just part of his tantrum, it was actually a call.

Clang!

"!"

Opening the metal door of the warehouse, three figures rushed in.

They were monsters of the same type as the ones present, without a face, short in size and with long arms, but there was something different with them, and that was that unlike the others, these, aside from being larger, were a faint reddish color.

"..."

The moment they entered, the other monsters, who had been in total chaos before, quickly made way for these three, not even wanting to cross their path.

"GROOOH!!!"

Letting out another roar, as well as pointing to several smaller monsters in the crowd, the giant seemed to give them another command that only the three of them could understand.

Without needing to say more, these three monsters then motioned towards the smaller monsters, which despite their nonconformist shrieks, came closer.

In a short time, more than a dozen of these smaller monsters had gathered behind the three larger ones.

Then, without waiting for confirmation from the giant, the three monsters left the warehouse with their small battalion behind them, heading for the urban area.

After they left, the giant again raised his hand, signaling the small monsters to close the warehouse door.

Suddenly, he grabbed several small monsters in his hand before taking them to a hole in his upper torso that seemed to act as his mouth, and without wasting any time, he closed his mouth, spilling blood everywhere.

Chack!

Although he had already taken action on the matter, he was still angry, as this was the first time in a long time that he felt someone had touched his treasure.

At times like these, only food was something that could soothe him, to his luck, that was something he didn't lack.

Now, the only thing left to do was to wait.

----

After spending about half an hour studying the symbols and their relationship to the bone, Noah had made certain discoveries.

First, he had confirmed the effects of the [Ritual: Horrendous Web], which was, unexpectedly, a defense ritual.

Despite its great offensive capability, its true function was to make whoever encountered the bone desist from approaching with the use of the auras, but if this did not work, then it was time for the electric sparks to act.

Second, while the [Ritual: Horrendous Web] reacted violently when the bone was touched by something else, organic or otherwise, not all symbols had the same potency.

He hadn't noticed before due to the sudden fright he got, but after a couple more tries, this was no longer a secret.

The parts with the most power and probably the ones that distributed the energy were those surrounding the bone, with this energy traveling to the other symbols so that they were also activated.

However, from time to time, there were symbols in the web that seemed to enhance the energy sent out by the original symbols. Thanks to this, the most distant symbols also enjoyed similar power to the originals.

His final "discovery" was that he managed to memorize the three symbols that made up the web without much trouble, being confident that he could recreate them on his own later.

In fact, the only thing he would lack for this was the ink, as when he had it, he would experiment as much as he wanted.

This was something he was really looking forward to doing, as he may be rewarded by the system again.

"Now then-"

Bruum!

Suddenly, interrupting Noah, the bone vibrated slightly, the [Ritual: Horrible Web] releasing a faint stream of sparks.

'They're coming...'

"!"

The next moment, Noah clearly heard a voice in his head, with such presence that for a short time, he stood still.

It had not been the system, as the voice was not cold and mechanical, but different, coming from something that for some reason made his hair stand on end.

The answer as to who sent him this message this came shortly after, his arm aching from the words forming on its surface.

__________________________

[Warning: The "Host" has been contacted by [????], caution is advised].

__________________________

Shaking his head due to how uncomfortable the voice was, guided simply by his instinct, Noah turned to the apparent "person" responsible for this, the bone.

"...Was it you?" The young man asked, feeling strange to be speaking to an inanimate object.

Though if one took into account that he was in a mirror world, surrounded by symbols with supernatural effects and receiving information by letters appearing on his arm, perhaps this was not so strange.

For a while, Noah waited for a response from the bone, but to his bad luck, all he received was an awkward silence.

'Who was it then? Thought the young man, not sure if he had made a mistake or if the one who spoke to him decided to ignore him.

Returning to his place from before, Noah began to consider other options, like maybe who the system was referring to was not the bone, but something else , thinking that perhaps another monster was nearby.

SHA!

No sooner had he turned around, however, than the bone vibrated again, releasing even more sparks into the web.

Before he could react, Noah had already been struck by one of these sparks, feeling the electricity fill every corner of his body, the words on his arm changing in a rush.

__________________________

[Notice: [????] would like to share with the "Host" its [Grace: Distant Vision] temporarily.]

[Do you wish to accept?]

[Y/N]

__________________________

This took Noah by surprise, as it was the first time he had seen this type of system message, one that revealed new information and let him choose.

He had thought that only the system was capable of granting him graces, but apparently he had been wrong again, something that was welcome when it came to getting a grace.

Remembering the word he had heard in his head, the "They are coming," sounded more like a warning than anything else, making Noah hesitate whether or not to accept.

That the unknown entity that was communicating with him was warning him and then wanting to share a grace that had to do with vision made him think that it didn't seem to want to hurt him, at least not right away.

"..."

The young man was hesitant, but deciding to gamble his own safety, he pressed his arm, specifically the "Y" of the system's notice.

Immediately after, his sight expanded, leaving his body and being able to see the entire ground floor of his house, but it didn't stop there, but continued until he could see his entire house, then the neighborhood, and finally half of the urban area.

Thanks to this, he could see how from the road to the city, a group of monsters was approaching the urban area, being approximately 20 minutes or less away from reaching his neighborhood.

Finally, as this vision was fading, Noah could hear again the voice from before.

'They're coming.'

Then, at the same time the voice faded from his head, his normal vision suddenly returned.

"HAA!"

Taking a big gulp of air, Noah fell to his knees, his head being a mess and his senses feeling numb.

"Argh!"

This experience had been far from pleasant for him, but rubbing his head with his hands, he put away his tools and headed for the stairs.

At this point, it wasn't important whether the entity was nearby or not, as something more urgent was happening.

A group of monsters was approaching his home, and their arrival was only a matter of time.

This, while it might seem risky, as it was taking the "word" of a being from the mirror world as truth, he really had no choice.

After all, he had already seen them, and although he could not confirm that they were coming to his house, he had a strong feeling that this was true.

Without waiting any longer, the young man then began to remove all the furniture he had used to barricade the stairwell.

He didn't have much time, so improvisation and efficiency above all else were going to be key to what he had in mind.

---

Time passed, and the group of monsters had arrived, finding themselves just outside Noah's house.

"Chek!"

With a guttural sound, one of the three large monsters gave an order to the other dwarf monsters, sending them into the house.

These quickly advanced, finding doors and windows through which to enter the house

Bam!

However, when they tried to open or break them, they were met by unexpected resistance that would not allow them to enter.

Bam!

It didn't take long for them to resort to violence, banging on the windows and doors in hopes that they would open or break, whichever came first.

Unfortunately for them, no matter how hard their long arms whipped at the windows and doors, it seemed that whatever was blocking the entrances to the house was more resilient than they thought.

As a result, it looked like the process of getting into the house was going to take longer than they planned.

Clang!

"?"

Just as it was about to act on its own, one of the large monsters realized something.

On the second floor of the house, there was an open window, through which the inside of the room could be seen.

"Chek!"

Catching the attention of the others, this monster then began to climb the house, its claws digging into the wooden exterior of the house.

Thanks to its long arms, reaching the window was not a difficult task, making it in a matter of seconds before entering the house through the window.

BAM!

"GHU!"

"!"

Suddenly, all the monsters could hear as a loud sound of bones being crushed came from the same room that the large monster had entered.

For the next few seconds, there was silence among everyone, not understanding exactly what had happened, at least not until another one of the large monsters noticed something in the room.

Raising its hand, making one of its once again newly produced eyes scan the inside of the room, it managed to watch as the lifeless body of its companion was dragged away by someone else.

"GREEEEEEE!!!"

Letting out a loud shriek, the monster shouted an order to the other monsters, who immediately stopped trying to enter the house from the sides and began to quickly scale the house.

Most of them headed towards the already open window, causing the sound of bones being crushed to sound a few more times, but when the other monsters entered through the other windows, that noise disappeared.

After a small incident, the home invasion had begun.

----

Chak!

Swinging his hammer as fast as he could, Noah found himself on the stairs of the house, in front of him lay the bodies of a couple of monsters with blunt force injuries.

Evidently, this had been the product of the young man defending himself as best he could against the sudden attack of these monsters.

Starting with the large monster that entered through the window of his room, Noah had expected the other monsters to also enter through there and just use that entrance, but it hadn't gone the way he wanted it to.

Although he managed to take down several monsters, the amount that came in from all sides had ended up outnumbering him.

As a result, he had no choice but to retreat towards the stairs, attacking whenever a monster approached to keep his distance.

The staircase no longer had the barricade, so passage through it was somewhat safe, as long as one was careful not to trip, of course.

Tap tap tap

Quickly dodging the claws of one of the monsters, Noah scrambled down the stairs as best he could, while several monsters appeared behind him, frantically chasing after him.

Bam!

"GEKH!"

Due to the rush they were in, of the five monsters that were chasing Noah, all of them fell down the stairs, unable to stabilize themselves in time.

The one who went first, despite being one of the three large monsters, met the worst fate, being slammed by the weight of its companions against the hard surface of the stairs, finally ending up underneath them all as they fell to the ground floor.

CHAK!

Unexpectedly, this had been somewhat fortunate for this specific monster, for no sooner had it fallen than it began to feel a sudden weight come and go above it.

Within a short time, this sensation had been repeated almost a dozen times, and it was only then that it realized what was happening above.

"Just one left!"

Pulling the dead body of another monster from the pile, Noah rested his gaze on the last monster, who upon seeing him, despite being bruised and injured, lunged at him, digging its claws into the young man's sides.

BAM!

Gritting his teeth, the young man endured the pain and attacked with his hammer, sinking the skull of the last monster that fell down the stairs.