30 Swallowed Whole

A fist headed from the torso of the Gorritropod to his approaching body.

Dennis raised his arms to block at the last moment when the fist, which was three-quarters the size of his entire body, rammed into him.

Bang!

Dennis felt like he was hit with the moving force of a train as his entire frame got sent flying.

Bone-cracking sounds rang out as he slammed into the wall on the other end and even broke through it.

The aggressive Gorritropod didn't wait for a second as it charged at Dennis's figure, which was lying in the pile of debris that had collapsed around him.

"Hngh!" He groaned in pain while trying to push his body off the ground.

He noticed a looming shadow over him and quickly rolled to the side.

Bam!

Just as he did, the Gorritropod landed at the spot he initially laid on.

Dennis hurried to his feet and began to run in the opposite direction while holding his left arm.

'Is it broken?' He felt extremely numb on that side of his body.

The bloody trail on the left part of Dennis's head was also a vivid depiction of the damage he had taken from just one hit.

Dennis knew he couldn't afford to take another hit despite reacting in time to block the attack. His body was sore all over, but he kept pushing himself since he knew that any little mishap would spell his end.

Thrrihh~ Thrriih~ Thrrihh~

Web strings shot in every direction once more, causing Dennis to repeatedly swerve sideways to evade them.

He sped around the halved church and entered some of the small spaces to slow down the creature since he knew that outrunning it would be impossible.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Unfortunately, the creature kept trashing different parts of the building, leaving it even more desolate than before and whittling Dennis's chances of using the terrain to his advantage.

He moved towards a spot within the church's second floor and found a space to hide while the Gorritropod trashed around.

Its arachnid legs burrowed through the ceilings as it came through, looking for its prey.

However, Dennis was safely hiding behind a pile of shattered bricks with his body crouched. His breaths were hurried as he seemed fatigued, but he made sure they were very silent.

The beast slowly crawled around like it could tell he was nearby but couldn't pinpoint his exact location.

The whole scenario had only gone on for ten minutes, but to Dennis, it felt like an hour and it was mostly because he had to push his body to actively perform at peak state or he would be food for the beast.

Not to mention that he had already gotten injured.

Any normal human would have met their end already.

< "We are almost there. Get to safety!" >

A loud voice drifted from the black watch attached to his wrist.

Dennis's eyes widened as he immediately placed his hand on the watch to reduce the volume.

Unfortunately, the deed was done...

He slowly raised his head to spot the Gorritropod crawling on the walls above him.

"Shit!" He cursed the moment the creature's multiple eyes darted in his direction.

Dennis jumped to his feet and sped forward as thick, sticky webs shot across the air from the beast. In a bid to evade its attacks, Dennis leapt through one of the windows, dropping from a height of seventeen feet.

However, at the same moment, the beast blasted a hole through the wall to create a large enough space to get through.

Before Dennis could make it far, it leapt forward and landed right before him.

Bam!

The Gorritropod yanked him from the ground, squishing Dennis intensely between its giant ape-like palms.

"Hnghh!" Dennis groaned intensely in pain as the beast's fingers covered his entire upper body, leaving him without the opportunity to resist.

His arms were locked in as the creature raised Dennis and slowly lowered him in the direction of its wide-open mouth.

Dennis stared down and could see its massive set of brown teeth and the hole that led straight to its throat.

He struggled ever so fervently in a bid to free himself but to no avail...

As the creature lowered him, a part of its giant finger was pressed against Dennis's left chest area.

It ended up ripping his clothes, and the finger made direct contact with a circular device planted onto Dennis's skin.

[ Activating Memory Data... ]

[ Operator Recognised ]

The moment the voice rang out from the device, the creature dropped Dennis into its agape mouth.

"Dennis! No!"

A loud yell was heard from up ahead, accompanied by the roaring sound of multiple vehicles.

Twhii~ Thwwii~ Thwhii~

Red bolts were fired from weapons before the newly arrived group even got out of their vehicles.

The creature was blasted backwards from the impact, but it didn't change anything as Dennis had already been gobbled down.

Instructor Anne jumped off one of the trucks and rolled across the ground.

Her eyes lit up in fury as she dashed in the direction of the beast while firing from the massive weapon in her grasp repeatedly.

Twwhii~ Twwhii~ Thwwii~

"I will kill you!" She screamed while leaving holes in the body of the beast.

Bruhhhhhh!

The Gorritropod growled in pain while jumping and swerving from side to side in a bid to dodge the fires from the weapons that were inflicting pain on it.

Milky threads were shot in Instructor Anne's direction, but she was very agile, accurately dodging them and furiously firing even harder.

Other military operatives jumped down from their vehicles and opened fire on the beast as well.

As it came under even more fire, it was forced to retreat and began fleeing in the opposite direction.

"You're going nowhere!" Instructor Anne was like a flaming furnace as she charged forward while the military operatives doubled back to get on the trucks and give chase.

She leapt onto the back of one of the trucks in the process, and they continued their hunt for the creature.

Pandemonium wreaked across more streets as the creature shot out sticky webs to catch others in hiding while trying to escape.

It would seem that it wanted to devour more people to regenerate itself.

"Speed up! Let us make sure there are no more casualties!" Instructor Anne yelled out.

"We're trying, I'm not sure we can get there in time," one of the drivers responded without much enthusiasm.

The beast was on the run, yet it was close to gobbling three more civilians, and it looked like the military operatives would not be able to get to it in time.

Just as it was about to swallow one of the three, it suddenly paused.

Kurrroouhhh~

The beast's stomach suddenly began grumbling, causing its face to twist in discomfort.

It fell onto the ground and began trashing around in pain.

The military was left in confusion, but the sudden occurrence allowed them to catch up.

At that moment, a loud pop rang out, and upon closer look, a glowing blue blade had protruded from the belly region of the creature.

The military was clueless as to what was happening until the blade cut a large hole through the belly of the beast, allowing its stomach contents to burst out like a dam.

An intensely putrid stench engulfed the air immediately after.

Along with the stomach contents of the beast, came a giant eight feet tall figure in a menacing-looking battle suit.

It was black and streamlined with multiple circular red glows at different spots. Despite being covered in stomach content and blood, the purple window at the helm glowed glamorously.

In his grasp, was a five feet long glowing blade as well.

The beast had fallen weakly to the ground, but the person in the battle suit still swept forward while swinging the blade out.

Screeevv~

The head of the beast was severed neatly from its neck, causing blood to gurgle out like a fountain.

After its decapitation, the creature's body twitched repeatedly before laying completely still.

"Deactivate suit..." Dennis's voice rang out.

In the next instant, the suit began to retract and pull towards a side of his chest while everyone around watched in awe.

"Dennis... you're okay?" Instructor Anne slowly lowered the weapon in her grasp with an expression of disbelief.

The moment the suit was completely deactivated, Dennis spoke, "I'm fine... just a little so..."

Before he could complete his sentence, Instructor Anne lunged forward and pulled him into her embrace.

"I thought you were dead," She voiced with a tone of great concern while her arms were wrapped around him.

Dennis smiled before hugging her back, "I am fine."