Against a homunculus

"What the hell is going on?"

Miranda and her squadmates are dashing through Mond city at full speed, trying to make sense of the situation at hand. Only a few moments ago they were having a meeting to discuss how they were going to deal with the black magicians.

"Shit! Those black magicians have finally made their move!"

She bites her lower lip both in anger and fear before turning back towards her subordinates. They stare at her in anticipation for orders.

"Aaron! Fabian! Guide your respective teams to eliminate all beasts within the city! "

"Meia will gather the rest of the manpower to evacuate the citizens!"

Miranda swings her arm backwards to gesture her frustration which prompts the three behind her to nod and hastily move to their stations.

Within a few seconds, the squad breaks apart in several directions, leaving Miranda alone, running forward.

She continues her pace until she comes across a hideous monster terrorizing civilians, slaughtering them all without effort. It looked to be about four meters tall and had various anatomy of different monsters.

"Chimera?!"

Miranda shouts her current thought.

She had heard about chimeras before. Beings created by utilizing different parts of mana beasts that they were said to be taboo monsters created by chimera makers who were lumped into the same group as the evil black magicians.

Judging from its look, Miranda deemed the chimera weak as the parts it was made with came from low ranking mana beasts.

"Flash boost."

After immediately deducing the strength of her target, Miranda shot through the air in a white light and wound up at the end of the street where her target stood.

Still maintaining her momentum she unsheathes and swings her blade.

"Flash form burst."

Her sword shines in a white color with small streaks of lightning pouring out creating a dazzling movement that was akin to eye candy.

Within a split second, the chimera was bisected in half, gushing its bodily fluids everywhere and painting the entire surrounding in monster blood.

Miranda backs away hastily so as to not get dirtied by the flowing liquids. She turns and glances at the deceased and innocents cowering in fear in a sorrowful manner.

"Go that way, the mages of the royal mage corps will protect you there."

She points in the direction from which she came from, causing the citizens' eyes to gleam in hope.

Not before long, they all start running hastily past Miranda after offering their thanks.

After assuring that they were heading in the right direction, Miranda turns and continues her pace onwards.

But then.

"AHHHHH!

"MONSTER! THIS KID IS A MONSTER!"

"QUICKLY CALL REINFORCEMENTS!"

"NO! PLEASE!"

Abrupt screams of mages reaches Miranda's ears which causes her to face the origin to her right.

[BOOM!]

A large explosion sounded once again. But this time it wasn't a simple explosion.

The smell of gunpowder reeked through the air which should have made it extremely difficult for Miranda to discern if it was the work of a bomb or not. But for some reason Miranda's intuition was telling her it was the work of something much greater.

"It's not far."

She hastily changes her direction and heads straight towards the source of the noise at full speed, jumping past all obstacles at hand.

She turns several corners and when she finally made her way there all she saw were a mountain of corpses...

And a being drenched it pure crimson lifting up a mage by his neck.

Without warning, the being swings the mage backwards before tossing him like a frisbee, crashing him into the nearby building and rendering him lifeless.

Miranda glances downwards at the bodies below the being's feet that were creating a pool of blood.

Upon seeing the sight, Miranda knew...that she was too late.

She annexes her gaze on the monster while trying to access its strength.

Long black hair, dark skin, a small stature and covered in rags. Except for the claws and sharp teeth, it looked just like a young girl.

"What in the world..."

Miranda's gaze turns frighteningly cold as she clenches her weapon with full might directing all her anger onto the wretched monster that stood before her.

She takes a step forward and gets ready to use a movement spell to close the distance, but just when she was about to make a move, the being leaps away into the direction of another explosion.

"Miranda Rangers?!"

"It's the captain of the second inquisitor squad!"

"We're saved!"

"Thank you for coming to our rescue captain Miranda!"

From behind her, Miranda heard several voices. They came from the three survivors that were trapped under a pile of rubble.

She had been so focused on the scene in front of her that she failed to recognize that others were still alive.

"Are you all alright?"

She asks in a worried tone, while trying her best to shove the fallen debris away and free them.

"We are largely unscathed except for a few flesh wounds captain, but our mana is depleted."

Miranda nods and moves slightly backwards, before readying her stance.

"Brace yourselves."

She swings her sword, breaking apart the rubble and releasing the mages from isolation.

"What happened?"

Miranda asks while helping the first mage up from the ground.

"We lost our entire team, captain. That thing was simply too strong."

Says the first mage whilst holding onto his injured shoulder that was still dripping blood.

Miranda diverts her eyes back to his face after concluding that the injury on the mage's arm wasn't all that serious.

"What was it?"

Miranda prompts the mage further while trying to inquire as much information as possible.

"We don't know...It just suddenly appeared while we were evacuating the civilians and started massacring everyone..."

"We lost over ten men."

The mage who spoke lowered his head and covered his eyes with his hand as if paranoid. The two others behind him lowered their heads in silence.

"I know you are all scared, but for now you need to regroup with another team."

Miranda glances at the damage for a second before turning back.

"Leave that monster to me, I'll be sure to-"

[Sphhlt!]

"Huh?"

Three heads fall to the ground with their bodies dropping like flies. The blood sprayed all over Miranda as she stood there, shocked.

The stunned Miranda then lifts her head upwards, while still trying to make sense of what just happened.

On the rooftop, she saw the familiar figure of the being from earlier licking away its bloodstained claws that jut out from its hand.

The cogs in her brain spun rapidly until Miranda finally made sense of the situation. In the split second that she averted her gaze, the being drenched in pure crimson swooped down and eliminated the three mages in front of her.

"YOU!"

Miranda roars in a thundering voice as she puts her right foot back before leaping into the air to strike the bloody being.

"Prism burst!"

Miranda waves her sword aggressively and a streak of shimmering multicolored lightning shone down directly at the monster, causing the entire building to rumble and collapse within mere moments.

After delivering the blow, Miranda lands and stands silently as she readies herself for another attack by lifting up her weapon and eyeing the smoke.

"Wait! Where is that thing?!"

She thinks to herself while gritting her teeth in fury.

As the smoke from her attack cleared away, all Miranda saw was debris lying about with her enemy nowhere in sight.

And then suddenly.

[CLANG!]

A loud impact came from Miranda's blade clashing with the being's claws. If she reacted any later to that sudden attack which came from her side, she most definitely would have had a hole in her abdomen by now.

Miranda glares at the being in rage while trying her best to not get slashed. While she was doing so, she couldn't help but notice a clear engraving on her assailant's neck.

It read, "No. 20".