24 – Her Pain

"Run as far as you can, Ciara!" I gave the order.

The super soldier jumps around, slashes at the roots that want to entangle her, and performs blitzes to escape. Meanwhile, the monster tries to chase her.

After exiting the rooted area, she and her opponent attacked each other. However, after a while, neither was able to injure their opponent.

"Give up!" The monster was getting agitated. "Embrace me! Unite with me!"

"I still have to serve Master Axel!!!" Ciara replied in a louder voice. "I will not submit to you!!!"

Finally, the super soldier managed to slash her enemy. But the monster just staggered back unharmed.

She's invulnerable to the plasma sword?

Instead of continuing to attack, Ciara squeezed her forehead instead. The monster took advantage of that opportunity by clawing the super soldier.

And Ciara's energy shield bar immediately decreased by a third.

It was clearly something dire, but I focused on watching the opponent instead of panicking. We have won many times against strong opponents.

Still squeezing her head, Ciara blocked the claw attacks from the monster. She was overwhelmed, and finally, one strike reduced her energy shield again.

"Just hold on a little longer, Ciara." I encourage her using the remote communication device. "I know you're in excruciating pain, but I guarantee it will all be over any minute."

And finally, the roar of the hoverbike echoed. The mind control monster's attention turned to the vehicle approaching rapidly from a distance. That thing is in autopilot mode, so no one rides it.

An opening. Ciara uses full boost to launch herself, then catches the monster's body. The super soldier uses the momentum to throw the creature.

I aimed the hoverbike with the remote control system, aiming at the monster.

The vehicle then hit the creature's body hard, sending it flying farther away.

And Ciara was ready with her sword. She strikes a pose like a baseball player about to hit the ball. The light on her sword became even brighter, a sign that it was about to reach full power.

The mind control creature's body was immediately split in two as Ciara slashed it with her sword.

I saw the monster's upper and lower body parts rolling on the asphalt and away from each other.

Ciara knelt down and used her sword as a support.

"How is it?" I approached her. "And don't tell me you're okay. You're definitely not. If something's wrong, let me know."

The face of the super soldier is so pale indeed.

She was stunned for a moment but then put on a smile. "I still have the headache, but the voices have vanished."

"Good." I sighed. "I'll check out those entangled humans. When you're feeling better, come over to me."

She rose to her feet. "I'm ready, sir. You want to help them by asking me to chop the roots, right? I think the sooner, the better."

She didn't completely disprove me, and her argument made sense again. Those people have suffered so much, maybe for years.

I can't let them be like that.

"Ler's go, then." I'm hovering over to that place.

However, once I got there, I noticed something strange. There was no agony on the faces of those trapped by those roots. They looked like they were sleeping peacefully.

"Shit." I hastened my movement and checked the pulse of one of them with the tiny stethoscope inside me.

My eyes only see flat lines on the transparent screen that appear on my viewing lens. I switched to another human and did the thing again. The result is the same. I can't detect the heartbeat of that person.

"They died." Ciara lowered the wrist of the woman she was examining.

I'm speechless. My gaze wandered around, scanning the entangled humans. Their number was close to a hundred.

Ciara killed the monster because it was under my leadership. That is, I killed them indirectly, and this is different from when I killed those hoarders. At that time, we had no choice.

But now? We could escape with the bike and go as far as possible instead of killing that monster. And maybe with a bit of patience, we can find a method to free those people.

So, does that mean I'm the one to blame?

Maybe that's true. But I didn't know killing that monster would mean taking human lives.

But there's no use grieving over this.

"Sir, are you okay?" Ciara approached me with a worried tone.

I paused for a moment and answered. "Let's go back to those military vehicles. That's our real goal."

Yes, it's better to focus on what I have to do.

And when I turned around to leave that place, I found an object the size of a human head in the center of this expansion of the roots.

It was shaped like an egg stuck to the roots, and its white shell was slightly transparent. I can see the silhouette of the horned embryo inside that thing.

"Smash that egg, Ciara." Just like when I was at the military base, I felt uncomfortable seeing that strange object. "Though I doubt it will stop a new mind-control monster from being born. The egg will surely spawn again in no time."