Underground (1)

After Bloed swung his saber down, the place fell silent.

Eres put on a surprised expression, Liu Ying wiped a trace of blood from her lips and chuckled, Aya stopped rushing towards the enemy, and the man that received the saber slash looked at Bloed in a daze.

Then–

*Spurt!*

Blood spurt out from his legs and right arm.

Bloed's saber slash severed three of the man's limbs.

"I-Impossible…" The man muttered dazedly before collapsing on the ground.

Seeing that, Bloed put his saber back in its sheath and walked towards the man.

When he saw how much the man was bleeding, Bloed took out a hemostatic spray and applied it to the man. Then, he bandaged his injuries until the bleeding stopped completely.

When he finished, he took out a collar from his storage device and put it on the man's neck. It was something that he developed recently, designed to interfere with the psychic energy (soul power) of the user and stop him from using any kind of supernatural ability (ESP abilities or mana).

When Bloed was sure that the man could not escape, he then looked at Liu Ying, Aya, and Eres, who had walked over.

"Let's go. We still need to catch one more."

"Understood~"

"Mm."

"Understood."

Liu Ying, Aya, and Eres nodded immediately. Then, Bloed carried the injured man to Leto's back while the three girls jumped on Leto's back after him.

Once the four of them were on the metallic wolf, Leto kicked the ground and charged towards the direction where the abomination escaped.

"I'm going to activate Leto's flight mode. Regina, Aya, tell me where to go."

[Understood, master. Turn to the right.]

"I can smell him. To the right."

"Good. Leto, do it!"

"Woof!"

Leto barked and nodded. Then, it kicked the ground and rose in the sky.

Its legs disappeared, turning into thrusters that helped the wolf to rise up and fly like an airplane.

In its flight mode, Leto's speed was much faster than before. Thanks to that, it did not take long for the group to catch up with the abomination.

Less than thirty seconds later, the abomination appeared in their sights again!

The creature looked back when it felt Bloed's group approaching. For an instant, a flash of panic appeared on its eyes, however, when it looked forward again, the panic was replaced with determination.

The abomination put on a serious expression and circulated its mana at full power. For an instant, its speed became thrice as fast.

It then rushed into an alleyway at a very fast speed.

"Don't let it escape!" Bloed ordered to his metallic wolf. The wolf barked in answer and speed up, arriving at the alleyway not even five seconds later.

But then–

"It's not here…?"

"The hell!?"

Eres and Liu Ying put on stunned expressions.

Bloed was stunned as well. The alleyway was a dead end, but the abomination was not there.

He looked in the surroundings to see if perhaps he had missed the creature, but he could not find it no matter how much he searched.

"… I can feel its smell. It's nearby." Aya said at that moment.

"Could it be that it hid?" Bloed asked.

Aya nodded. "I think so. I'll try to find it."

Then, the cat girl jumped down from the metallic wolf and sniffed the ground, trying to find the creature.

Bloed, Liu Ying, and Eres jumped down as well, and Leto returned to its normal mode. Just like that, the group started to search for the creature.

"Regina, do you have any idea where the abomination is?" Bloed asked the Valkyrie that was observing the situation through the cameras in the zone.

[… Wait a moment, master. There is no camera in that alleyway. But I found a camera nearby where I can see the reflection of the alleyway on a window, however, the image is not clear. I'll need a few seconds to find what happened.]

"I understand." Bloed nodded.

But suddenly, he saw Aya walking towards a corner of the alleyway.

"… The trace ends here. Strange."

The cat girl then sniffed the air twice before looking at an odd-looking tile nearby.

"This tile…"

"Aya? What happened?"

"… Nothing. It's just that…"

With a curious expression, the black-haired cat girl touched the tile.

And in the next second, something surprising happened.

"This is…"

Bloed, Liu Ying, Aya, and Eres looked towards the hole that appeared suddenly and silently on the ground with expressions of surprise.

At the same time, Bloed heard Regina's voice in his mind.

[Master, I found what happened.]

"He is underground, right?"

[… He is. It looks like he activated a secret passage and used it to go underground.]

Bloed nodded with a bitter smile.

"Yeah. We already found the passage."

"Brother, what should we do now?" Eres asked at that moment.

Bloed hesitated. To be honest, he was not sure.

He was not keen on going underground. After all, he did not know what kind of danger he was going to encounter inside.

However, he did not want to leave someone related to the devourers to escape either.

While Bloed was hesitating, Aya jumped on the hole. She then sniffed the air twice and looked towards the depths of the tunnel.

"… Bloed, the trace continues here."

"… I understand. Come outside. I will tell Regina to come. It will be safer with her."

Aya hesitated slightly and looked towards the depths of the tunnel as though she wanted to chase after the enemy. But in the end, she nodded and followed Bloed's orders.

Putting mana on her legs, she kicked the ground and jumped outside.

But at that moment, a heavy sense of danger assaulted Bloed.

All of sudden, he saw a magic circle lit up inside the tunnel.

"Aya! Careful!"

Without hesitation, Bloed jumped towards the cat girl!

[Split Mind] was activated again, followed by [Overdrive]!

At the same time, he ordered Leto to protect them.

In the next second, a powerful explosion filled the place.

The last thing that Bloed heard was the worried voice of the Valkyrie in his mind.