Danger situation

Mizuha furrowed her brow. She felt something strange. Why were more monsters appearing around her?

The girl leaped, aiming her pistol at the monsters' weak points. Bullet after bullet, she fired relentlessly.

She kept leaping to evade the attacks of the pack of Hell Hounds surrounding her. Occasionally, she also attacked with kicks or punches, but the sheer number of monsters around her made it difficult for Mizuha.

Mizuha reached into her pocket and found her ammunition depleted. She reluctantly holstered both pistols and drew two knives as her new weapons. She ducked, avoiding the bite of one of the Hell Hounds, then used the knife to stab the monster's chin.

She didn't stop there. Mizuha ran here and there, relentlessly injuring other monsters. Her actions were swift and precise.

She didn't try to kill the monsters because it took too long; Mizuha preferred to incapacitate the mobility of the monsters she attacked by targeting the legs of the Hell Hounds.

That way, she could deal with more monsters.

But Mizuha's efforts were still in vain; there were too many monsters gathered around her, so there would always be monsters slipping past her watch.

That certainly didn't diminish her strength; in fact, it could be said that Mizuha was more competent than other genomancers who allowed too many monsters to slip past their watch.

The escaped monsters would then target the mercenaries in the middle.

Initially, they were still in neat rows, shooting the approaching Hell Hounds. But as more Hell Hounds leaped and ran closer, the pressure became so intense that one frightened mercenary chose to flee. However, this triggered a domino effect, causing more mercenaries to flee, and the mercenaries' defense line in the middle was now in disarray.

"You all! Retreat quickly!" Akihisa instructed his subordinates. He promptly gave the instruction after seeing the collapse of the defense line.

Akihisa's command was immediately followed by the members of the fourth squad. They retreated together in an orderly manner.

But plans couldn't adapt to the situation.

One Hell Hound leaped towards them and landed right in the middle of the fourth squad, splitting them into two groups: those in front and those blocked by the Hell Hound behind.

At that moment, as captain, Akihisa needed to make a tough decision. Now with more monsters coming, if they just stood here and dealt with this one Hell Hound first, there was a possibility they would die besieged.

"You there, go ahead first!" Without hesitation, Akihisa made the difficult decision, ordering the group in front to leave first.

He then turned to the remaining members of the fourth squad.

"We can't waste time; we'd better scatter now and leave it all to our luck. The situation will be more dangerous if we stay here," Akihisa explained to his remaining subordinates.

"Understood, Captain!"

Even in such a dire situation, some still listened to Akihisa's orders. Ren, who happened to be in that group, also followed Akihisa's orders and started running to the right.

His eyes soon found Nishino's figure. The girl was also running in the same direction as him.

Ren glanced back and found the Hell Hound running towards him. This made Ren furrow his brow in worry.

Without delay, Ren immediately accelerated his pace until he managed to catch up with Nishino.

The wall to their left suddenly collapsed, a Hell Hound leaped from its hiding place, ambushing the two humans.

Thanks to his agility, Ren managed to evade the attack at the right moment, but Nishino was hit and fell.

"Nishino!"

Without hesitation, Ren quickly stopped and rushed towards Nishino. At this point, he no longer held back his genomancer strength; he ran at full speed towards Nishino.

The sharp claws of the Hell Hound were ready to shred Nishino, who had fallen, but just before Nishino was hurt, Ren managed to save her by pulling her into his arms and then continuing to run.

"What are you doing? Just focus on saving yourself, you fool!"

Instead of being grateful, Nishino insulted Ren. But Ren didn't pay attention to it.

Unfortunately, the incident caused some Hell Hounds to start chasing them. Hell Hounds were running on both the left and right sides, keeping an eye on Ren and Nishino, and there were even more behind them.

While Ren was focused, he suddenly felt a pain in his back. When he was distracted, Nishino suddenly jumped off his back and pulled out the pistol she still had.

"Go, I'll divert their attention," Nishino said in a low voice.

She hated her father for his foolish actions. But now, in these critical moments, she was following her father's actions.

No matter how many curses and complaints Nishino threw at her father, it wouldn't change the fact that she loved her father deeply.

Tears suddenly flowed down her cheeks. Nishino gathered her resolve, preparing to fight the horde of monsters approaching her.

A pat on her shoulder snapped Nishino back to reality. Ren, who hadn't left yet, said, "I can't accept your sacrifice. If you want to die, let's do it together."

"You... Are you trying to make my sacrifice in vain?!"

"I don't need your sacrifice."

"You foolish child!"

Slowly, Ren unleashed his entire genomancer power. Physical changes occurred in his body. The striking change naturally also caught Nishino's attention.

"Isn't that a genomancer transformation? So all this time, you—"

Nishino didn't continue her sentence, understanding that this was Ren's secret that she had to keep.

"I'll try to hold them all off, you can help me from behind." After saying that, Ren ran to meet the monsters attacking him.

A powerful kick Ren delivered instantly made the frontmost Hell Hound stumble.

Not stopping there, he leaped high and landed on the head of one of the Hell Hounds, causing it to stumble. Ren struck the head of the Hell Hound with all his might.

He performed a backflip to dodge another Hell Hound's attack. Ren didn't have time to relax. He immediately continued his fight by striking several Hell Hounds approaching Nishino.

Although the number of Hell Hounds seemed to increase, Ren continued to try his best to protect himself and Nishino.

Of course, Nishino didn't stay idle either; she helped Ren several times by destroying the monsters' eyes.

Under tremendous pressure, they managed to work together effectively. However, their situation was still dangerous because they were still trapped amidst the wave of Hell Hounds.

Although very difficult, hope still remained there.