Obscure War (21)

Bryan Moon flew back inside the abandoned apartment where his equipment was. He sat on a wooden chair and reached inside his backpack, taking out his binoculars.

While he examined the grey dome, he could hear a munching noise in his left ear. It was the sound of flesh pulled and ripped, leaving an ooze of fresh blood— which Ejiro drank to quench his thirst.

"Ejiro?" The sound was coming from his earpiece.

Ejiro stood up from Stana's corpse, licked his red lips and wiped his face with his forearm. "Yeah, sorry, I really had to eat. Still haven't regained much strength, though."

"You're alive?! What's the situation?" Bryan jumped from his seat.

Zephyr's wife was drooling on the floor.  Underneath her green sand scales, her skin had become dark and rigid like ebony. The two headless bodies of the twins were a bit farther away. Ejiro sighed as he turned his back.

Aaron was sitting against a wall, lying next to the elevator.

"Aaron overused his mana and is in a coma. Everyone else is dead."

"We thought you were dead for sure," Adia entered the depressing conversation and changed the subject. "I can't break you out of this fortress. There are too many guards around the dome. Maybe you should just wait down there."

For a time, Ejiro walked around the corridor. He found his Dragonsword and black jacket in a storage room. However, he didn't want to leave Aaron alone.

"Huh? What's over there?" Just as he was about to sit down next to the young wind mage, he noticed the end of the corridor, where he hadn't ventured. It was as if the passage shifted into a pitch-black tunnel after a few hundred metres.

He attached the sword to his back and carried Aaron into one of the numerous rooms. 'Bryan and Adia told me I was at the dome's lowest floor. There must be more to it than empty spaces. I have nothing else to do anyways.'

…

Gabriella Rivampe had bruises all over her body. She brushed her moist red hair away from her squinting eyes and forced herself up. However, the reptoid was already above her.

He punched in the air as she flew away with her long wings. Christopher plunged onto the tall reptoid with all his werewolf mass. They both pushed against each other, and the reptoid flipped Christopher on his back, thanks to his inhuman strength.

Gabriella dived down, but the reptoid put his hands under his chin again, blocking her attacks. She swiftly dashed behind the giant and kicked his injured leg, which Christopher had chewed on. He didn't react at all.

With an injured foot, Gabriella flew up again before he could turn. "How is he both so strong and so fast?!"

The vampire couldn't feel her foot as she dived towards the reptoid again. However, figuring the reptoid would block her attacks, she diverted her trajectory and hid on a large pipe directly above him.

"Where are you?!" The reptoid had lost sight of her.

Gabriella flew a bit higher and dived down. She was coming from behind, going faster than ever before. She screamed as the air pressure fought against her.

"Just die!" The Vampiric Queen crashed feet first onto the reptoid's back, sacrificing her own legs to shatter his scales.

Christopher Fireblood abruptly got out from his daze, howling, and penetrated the reptoid's tibia with his teeth.

"Argh!" The lizard monster fought back. He hit Gabriella's stomach multiple times, but her brain refused to process the pain. He fell to the ground and felt her sharp claws enter his mouth, piercing through his nose and out of his green, glowing eyes.

Gabriella ate his soul, trapping him and using the energy to recuperate a little. Christopher had reverted into his human form beside her.

They both felt like they would become corpses from their bruises and wounds. Around them, the second layer's soldiers had laid down their weapons. All of the reptoids were dead. Many werewolves, too, but the majority had survived.

The reptoids that had surrendered were all executed.

"It's over." Gabriella sighed in relief. She looked at the ceiling's lights, unable to get up. 

"I thought I was going to die here. That wasn't so bad, Gabriella." The humbled Werewolf Alpha fell asleep over the small grassy field next to the streets.

…

Ejiro explored the corridor with a tiny orb of light that he formed with his magic. The once smooth walls had turned into mould plants, and the metal floor's cracks caused Ejiro to slip many times. The air was damp, and even his breath echoed far away into the dark tunnel.

"Hello?" He arrived at the end. There was an empty doorframe leading to a room. He couldn't see past five metres with his light, and the room seemed much bigger than that.

"A lightswitch?" He flipped it. The high ceiling's white light flooded the room. It glistened onto steel cages where hundreds of starved humans looked at him from behind the metal bars.

Ejiro was too worn out to show any reaction. He stared at them blankly. 'Slaves, it looks like. There are even kids. Not uncommon in the Obscure Guild, but this- this is too many.' 

He couldn't see anyone above fifty. The captives all seemed very young.

"I came here to save you, I guess… Any idea how to open these cages?"

Ejiro couldn't hear what they were saying because of their dry mouths but could tell they were relieved knowing he wasn't there to hurt them. A girl pointed towards a desk located in the centre. It controlled the cages.

…

Far away, Slitherland's snake gate. Isaac arrived and joined the army.

"Where's Seth?" He asked a man with radar vision goggles at the front. They allowed him to see through walls by emitting electromagnetic waves.

"He teleported to the other side with his strange powers. The gate's opening anytime now."