The Hopeful Ones

"AAaaaah! It hurts!"

"It hurts so much!"

"Why would you do this to us?!"

"You were our hope!"

The monster spoke in multiple voices all at once as he trembled with fury.

"The hell are you on about?" Superstes was ready to rush forward to carve through the monster once more but he violently slammed his uninjured hand up at the wooden beams.

They shattered like twigs under his ridiculous strength, bringing the ceiling down and rising up all of the accumulated dust in the room and the one that used to be above.

The dust irritated Superstes's eyes and impeded her vision, the monster used this opportunity to make use of his extraordinary stealth to silently slip away from his original position.

'I'll just extend my blade and-' just as she prepared to slash everything the entire building, she sensed something rushing towards her from behind.

Her reaction was immaculate and the source of the attack was cleaved in half.

It was just the hand she had almost severed moments ago.

The real threat had approached without making himself known, bursting out the settling dust with his jaw open, revealing countless other heads and jaws hiding inside of his mouth.

"You were supposed to protect us!" the monster admonished her as he grab her like child would grab a small wooden toy, squeezing her lanky figure for an instant, screaming right in her face with enough power to momentarily deafen her.

Then throwing her across the room, through a wall and almost through a second one.

Superstes had slammed her arms into the second wall before she went through however, cutting her momentum and allowing her to land on her feet.

She put a hand on her right side, feeling each of ribs one by one.

She knew that something had cracked somewhere, but it wasn't a rib by the looks of it, with the adrenaline pumping into her veins, she felt no pain either.

She only felt discomfort as cold wind went over the numerous cuts she had sustained, splinters stuck all over her back.

The wall she had avoided going right through had still given in, behind her was a narrow street.

'Almost hit a stone wall too...' all in all, she wasn't as injured as expected, though the monster didn't care as he strolled in through the first wall, his eight eyes brimming with indignation.

"Imposter!" bellowed an old lady's voice.

"Fake hero!" a little boy's voice cried.

"Look at what we have become..." what sounded like thousands of voices spoke in perfect harmony.

"...Because you weren't here!"

Superstes was beginning to get an idea of what had happened to this city, though it still didn't make much sense to her.

'Golden eyes' she thought in her mind as her eyes were once again infused with her golden energy.

She hadn't spent too much time finding a name for this ability, either the system had one for her, or she put the minimum amounts of words to refer to it.

Golden eyes was a simple, but surprisingly versatile ability, more so a testament to the golden glow's inherent flexibility than anything else.

It allowed her to read the past as shown before, see in the dark, simply give her eyes an all-around boost that wasn't small by any means and lastly, detect weaknesses in her opponents.

If what she had just assumed was the truth, then this monster wasn't so simple, at least in origin.

She was pleasantly surprised to discover the typical weak points.

The heart and joints were to be seen.

Although the head and other organs were all missing, not registered as vulnerable spots for her to strike.

This could only be explained by three things.

One: The monster was powerful enough that he no longer needed a brain or organs to survive.

Two: The monster had no brain and organs beside his heart, meaning that everything was centralised around it, which would explain why it was even more prominent as a weak spot than on normal humans.

Three: His skill was so high that even though they were technically weak spots, she wouldn't be able to strike them, ever.

That last one was only observed on her teacher, Sir Solitar, his body wasn't immortal but he was just untouchable for her, a weak spot that could never be hit wasn't a weak spot.

It was improbable however, his heart of all things should also be counted in that case.

The blade of the sword she was holding ignited with the brilliance of gold and extended as she swung it at the monster.

He saw it coming however and leapt up to avoid the strike, punching straight through the ceiling and by the sound of it, all the way through the roof.

"Trying the get the drop on me again? That only works once you stupid bastard!" she taunted with a cocky smile.

"I am the hero that will defeat the monster queen, you get it? Queen, Q U E E N, quuueeeeeeen! Nothing like you peasants!"

"You sham!" as she had hoped, her taunt was effective as the collective of voices made itself known like a bunch of idiots.

This allowed her to pinpoint their exact location, slashing through all obstacles without a care, soon greeted by the enjoyable scream of pain of her enemy.

Without the element of surprise, the monster only had his incredible strength going for him, another case of a monster with not enough tricks up his sleeves.

With his cover blown, the monster roared like a beast as he charged straight through an entire house.

'My bad, he is faster than expected' Superstes realised as she dodged the charge by a hair.

The monster would be vulnerable to a crushing blow once his brutish charge came to an end, he wouldn't be able to get up and running immediately, he would stand still for a moment.

A single moment was enough to decide of his loss and death.

"Fuc-" Superstes's taunt must have been even worse than she thought as the monster did something only an enraged psycho would consider doing.