Chapter 45 - No Time (5)

No Time (5)

More than thirty Awakeners stood in front of the gate’s 5-meter-wide cracks.

All were members of the local government.

“This is the first time I’ve had such a high rating… Isn’t it dangerous?”

“If you have enough people, you have to make time. You just have to hold on until the Aegis comes,” the man replied to not make his anxious colleague worry about their situation.

The government immediately asked Aegis for help when the B1 class surprise gate appeared in Belgium.

Then, the government scraped all the available power right away and dispatched all of them.

“More over there,” the man pointed toward the sky.

Two helicopters, which had departed in a hurry from the city next door, were flying side by side.

Not only those two helicopters, but the Awakeners were coming from other places as well.

“Oh, he said Mertens is on one of the helicopters?” said the other Awakener who was sending and receiving text messages.

Then, there was a stretch of admiration.

As one of Belgium’s leading stars, no one probably in the entire country doesn’t know about the B Rank Awakener.

“Really? I thought he was abroad working in Haman. So, are you fighting together?”

“What are you going to do about it? If Mertens isn’t the problem, then the Aegis will come soon. Do you want to have a heart attack by then?”

“Oh my god. I can’t believe it.”

Laughter arose from the other Awakened as well, the man actions covering his face with both of his hands.

Perhaps as long as he worked in this industry directly, the admiration for high-ranking Awakeners including Aegis would always be more prominent rather than smaller.

After all, their funny conversations made them less tense and created a little bit of a light atmosphere.

“For a while……”

The Awaken’s strange sensation stopped.

At the same time, blood cracks shook the entire place.

The gate fluttered as if it were a beating heart that had instinctively aroused emotions, but rather, the silent sound of death was more repulsive compared to its violent movement.

All of the Awakeners around them pulled out weapons and stepped back to prepare for the fight.

The tension that came back crushed everyone.

It’s always been done, but this time the grade letters were different.

The simple alphabet used to teach them a lot of things.

And finally, the monster appeared in the crack.

A giant fire scorched its entire body.

Its body was 4 meters tall, and there was a colossal hammer burning in one of its hands.

From its eyes like a skeleton, there was a light emanating from it, creating a sensation that made it hard for them to see.

“An Ace Monster……?” the man muttered while looking blankly at it.

The giant also looked down at him.

Then, he held the hammer over his head.

The man yelled, and the Awakeners started running everywhere.

“Damn it! Ace is out! He was the first bounce!”

They were initially intended to take as much time as possible.

As expected, as soon as the gate opened and the B-rank monsters came out, attacking it was pointless.

Kuuung!

A hammer of fire struck the ground.

At the same time, a massive shock wave emerged and swallowed up the city and stretched out in all directions.

The city lights disappeared, and the helicopter approaching in the air staggered.

“Ugh-oh-oh!”

Helicopters lost sight of the man who fell under the shock.

Two helicopters circled round and round until both aircraft lost its balance and entangled with one another and eventually exploding.

That was the last sight he was able to see.

Thud!

The floor is crushed.

* * *

“Oh, awha!” the man in the flames screamed.

He rolled on the floor to extinguish the fire on his body, but the not so ordinary flames couldn’t be destroyed, and it swallowed him in a defenseless state.

In front of him was a vast, hunting, laughing dog that stared at him as he struggled in pain.

The base monster of this gate, like the giant, was all over its body.

“Such assholes!”

When he had no choice but to see someone die on the other side, the man spurred.

He leaned behind the wall and tackled it, stabbing it on its head.

Leaning back behind the wall, he blackened his head and killed himself.

“Toby! What do we do?”

“What are you doing? I couldn’t stand it. When is the Aegis coming?” The man hurriedly opened the fertile coat.

Due to the monster’s unique ability, all the electronic equipment in the city got shredded. The communication coming from the outside was cut off and isolated, and the defense coat and AT-class weapons ceased functioning.

If not, strong monsters have these nasty abilities they didn’t have an answer to.

People also had to deal with monsters with their bare hands in situations where they couldn’t evacuate properly.

It was a desperate state that they can’t even fight a base monster properly.

It was difficult to expect reinforcement to come quickly because the helicopter didn’t work when they approached the vehicle.

“Wow!”

Then, a sharp scream came from the streets next to them.

It was a scream with not just one, but several voices.

Then, the sound of the alarm rang. The citizens who hadn’t yet evacuated were chased by the monsters all over the place.

“Ha… Shit.”

The man and his colleague looked at each other.

Taking the lead here was suicide.

But even before he thought with his head, his body moved reflexively.

“Erai!”

The two ran with their swords at the same time.

As expected, a group of citizens were chased, and soon after, they got caught up and was surrounded by monsters in no time.

Nine people gathered in response to the sound that wrapped around them.

It loved playing with people. Instead of killing them right away, it watched them panic.

Fook! Pooh!

Two Awakened vigilantly intruded from behind.

The hunting dog with two swords on his back twisted his body.

It was the usual fatal blow that should have made him fall, but this time, the AT-sword in their hands was not working.

Even with the power of the Awakened, it was difficult to easily penetrate the thick leather of the guy with a sword that lost its function.

“Oh!”

However, the two of them scrambled with all their might, and one hound soon lost power and fell.

Only one was killed, but eight other hounds surrounded them.

Meanwhile, the citizens fled Burinake in the other direction, and the two that held the AT sword—and it was nothing more than an ordinary sword.

This was their satisfaction.

“Let’s take one more.”

“I hate to die like this.”

The two of them laughed, facing each other.

They thought this was their last moment, so they did something in vain.

Yum!

The guys screamed fiercely and rushed to hold their breath.

No, they tried to rush.

Suddenly, an unidentified vine was wrapped around the ankles of the hounds, and the guys were turned over or fell in place.

It was a thin gray vine, but it was so hard and tough that they could not cut it off.

They tried to get their bodies out, but then they had a seizure—the results were the same whenever they try to get out.

“What happened……?”

While both were embarrassed, a man fell from the sky out of nowhere.

He was an Awakened or wore a black coat and was a young Asian man.

When he stretched out his arm, a large, colorful bird, suddenly seen for the first time, sat in his left arm.

“It was almost your big day. Are you guys okay?” Il-hyun said.

But the two men couldn’t understand his words and couldn’t answer.

“Oh, right. The communication device’s also broken.” Il-hyun muttered as he scratched at his head.

Due to the monster’s ability, GPS, communicator, and interpreter functions built into the communicator became unavailable.

However, the high-grade core and the black defense coat didn’t get affected by the monster’s ability.

“Then……”

Il-hyun shook his hand, and thorns rose from the floor.

The heads of the eight monsters whose feet were tied were pierced at the same time and simply died without a chance to rebel.

Il-hyun approached one of them and pulled out the core at once.

The exact location of the core in the monster’s body is clearly visible, and unlike previous ones, one pull was enough.

“How should I use this?”