Arc 2 - Chapter 42: Benn and Loraine vs Pedro II

It was far too easy.

They didn’t attack, nor lunge toward them like usual. Instead, they kept their feet still like a bunch of mannequins.

Firing every shot from his barrel, it lodged perfectly into every zompire heart he claimed. Feeling the rifle jump, and his shoulder to rumble, both agents had no difficulty fighting. As she pummeled the zompires like baggage, she wrinkled her face the more tar had latched on.

‘How aren’t they attacking?’

Slamming into their cheeks, denting their bones with her knuckle dusters, she felt her biceps and shoulders strain from soreness. As if she was on the verge of fainting, she kept her knees in motion.

Because a thought had come to her. A thought so well thought out, that it made her pale her face.

‘Or maybe they're waiting for us to be tired … so that way they could ambush us with ease.’

Swaying her head back and forth, she honed her eyes back onto the fight. Hearing the air be rippled by Eren’s bullets, he hung back while she worked her muscles. Even though she was half a foot shorter than him, she could probably bench his weight if she wanted to.

As shown when she threw a zompire across the street like nothing.

“Someone’s having a fun time.”

“It’s boring when they’re just like this! Why can’t they at least dodge?!”

“Hey, at least we know we won’t be dying.”

Feeling his chamber about to run dry, he pulled out a simple box of ammo that he had in his pocket. Flinging out the lid, he placed his attention onto the lead he had in store, and although he was vulnerable…

No eyes were facing him. Nothing watching him, nothing dotting on him, it was like he could fully relax his guard. But he didn’t.

Keeping his eyes peeled, and turning them around left and right, he tightened his chest along with his stomach. Gritting the back ends of his teeth, he returned his eyes onto the crowd of zompires that slowly walked. And upon jabbing bullet after bullet into the chamber, he loaded them in, and placed the box back into his pocket.

‘This is just way too abnormal … isn’t someone supposed to be attacking me?’

He wanted them to leap, he wanted them to dodge, but it was like they were abiding by their reactions. It was so abnormal, that after firing half of his rounds, he lowered his barrel.

Without reloading, he kept his eyes on the crowd.

“Ada!”

With 70% of the group of zompires dead, the other 30% acted the same way. No breathing, no blinking, the crowd couldn’t attack them even if they wanted to. Same as Eren, she lowered her hands, and had them stalled onto her sides as she watched.

‘Just what are they doing?’

“This is too abnormal. Something isn’t adding up…”

“We got to let Briggs know. Or let that sharky know. You’ll be the one to tell him.”

“What is it with you and beast-humans? They’re just trying to get through life, same as us.”

“Some shark-humans, the males, are stereotyped to be pedophiles. I mean, that’s what started the—”

All of their back hairs spiked.

Gluing their dress shoes onto the pavement, with the tips of them scraping away the black leather, they honed their eyes into the darkness. Eren, who had better eyes, squinted deep…

A walking man. Looking to have all-black hair and ghostly pale skin, his eyes were tar-shot. But he had some characteristics close to what humans have.

“Hey you! Show yourself!”

Eren had his finger on the trigger, and pushed his dress shoes to be strained by his strength. Although he didn’t have much, he kept his gun shivering the more he stalled his breath.

Unwilling to take in air, as he tried to keep his lungs empty, he awaited the moment in which he’ll pull that trigger.

“I’m not asking you again, identify yourself!”

The lich stopped walking, and was ten meters in front of them.

His hands low to his sides, he slowly began to raise them up to the air. Showcasing his palms, Eren and Ada trailed his face that looked to be on the youthful side. For one, he had short wavy hair, and he looked to be tall for his age. Second, he also had—

Freckles.

“Hehe … just trying to help.”

—All the zompires exploded.—

From its stomachs, up to his heads, tar littered the battlefield. Scattering it in all directions, Eren and Ada felt their backs be washed in the hot stickiness. Their ears perked up, and their eyes shell-shocked, they slowly turned around to face the exploded zompires.

With nothing to sustain their bodies, a lake of tar was formed. Quickly turning around, they faced the lich who had the power to—

He was gone.

________________________________________________________________________

Loraine took a step back, although her eyes weren’t widened. Having them slanted, her eyelids were clouded in darkness, with some even reaching down her cheeks.

As if something had snapped, she thrusted her rope but not at Pedro. Wrapping around a fire extinguisher, she honed her shoulder muscles, and threw the extinguisher straight at him.

Taken aback by the sudden throw, Pedro moved to the side, and slid with his bare feet. As he did this, he threw one of his fists, and exploded it outward like a homing missile. Rumbling the chip bags, shaking the shelves, Loraine leaped to the right while lowering her hands.

‘How can I beat him?’

Zipping through the air, she thrusted her rope, and wrapped it around a top shelf. Using both of her hands this time, she grappled the rope with the butt of her palms, and slammed the shelf into the leaping Pedro.

But to no avail, it only made him jump forward.

Only a few meters in front of her, he arched his entire body back in a 90 degree angle. As he dragged his arms out, he had a smug grin that rivaled any devil.

“Take this you brat!”

He pushed all of his strength into speed, and rumbled the air with his pale knuckles. His head all the way back, like he was striking a pose, he couldn’t face the teenage girl.

His knuckles drawing ever so closely toward her, she let herself fall down in slow motion. Keeping her eyes on his fists, she decided to glance at a red object captained in metal. Thrusting her rope forward, she felt the air plow and ripple the top of her hair.

‘He’s not looking at me.’

Once his fists collided with the wall in back of her, he pushed up his head and chuckled out a laugh. Seeing her arm already extended, he didn’t take a hint to trail her rope, pushing him into another grave mistake.

“You think you could avoid me like always!? Whatcha trying to—”

He gasped.

Choking out saliva from his mouth, it splattered on the floor that was reeked with marble. Rolling his eyes into the back of his head, it was like a huge hammer had slammed into him. But it wasn’t a hammer…

Loraine had her hand and arm pulled back, What she had wrapped with her rope, was none other than—

A fire extinguisher.

“Hahaha! Got ya!”

And once she caught the fire extinguisher, she then dropped her nylon rope to the floor. Her right hand on the bottom, and her left hand on the nozzle, she lowered the canister and aimed the barrel.

And let it fire.

Pushing out white foam from the tank, it spewed and ravished onto the lich that tried to get up. Barely able to recover from the sudden hit, he walked backward with wobbling legs, and blurred eyes. And most of all, he couldn’t fight back, given the fact that he was discombobulated and—-

“W-What are you…”

Most of the white foam splashed onto him, covering him head to toe from his bare feet to his hair. Jumping back, he exited out of the store, and slid his feet back across the black asphalt. But once he did so, he soon realized the reason why Loraine had used foam on him…

His skin peeled from the pavement.

“Ah!”

Combined with his toes scraping and loosening against the debris, it was as if his power wasn’t working. Tightening his stomach, clenching his chest, hot sweat poured from every follicle of his skin. Unable to think, the only thing that he could do was redden his eyes…

And lower his hands down to the floor.

“You bitch! You’re going to pay for that!”

Kicking down the door from the little convenience store, was a teenage girl garnished in black.

Walking ever so slowly on the pavement, she wielded only a simple fire extinguisher. Keeping the nozzle directly pinned on the lich, she kept her watchful eyes on him while kicking away rocks. Her frown worsening, her eyes glaring, the weight of the extinguisher didn’t bother her.

“I’m not satisfied. You need to die.”

“If you’re going to kill me with cheap tricks, then so be it!”

Jumping back with scraped feet, some of his heel muscles were shown as clear as day. Along with nails scraping off, he looked to be on the verge of fainting. Because as soon as he leaped back, Loraine spewed out the extinguisher’s white foam, but it didn’t reach him.

“I’ll just use those same tricks as well!”

Both of his hands began to emit white clouds. Letting it twirl and circle around his knuckles and palms, it stalled onto his wrists as he crackled his fingers. Sliding his right foot back, he honed his glaring eyes on the girl, and with a simple push…

He leaped to the right, avoiding the column of foam that narrowly grazed his body.

Letting his strength and speed go full throttle, he zipped through the air like a raging bullet. Pulling back his arms, he glanced at Loraine’s attempt to spew him with foam. Knowing that the extinguisher only worked in short distances, it pushed Pedro to relieve a small chuckle.

‘Parry this to your fucking grave!’

Speeding through the air, and having the air circulate around his knuckles, he honed in the air like he was collecting it. Pushing up a grin, and his eyes full of crazy, he saw red. Seeing red, smelling it, tasting it, feeling it, hearing it; only vengeance, murder, pleasantry, gluttony, sin, envy, wrath—wrath!

He was filled with wrath.

“I’M GOING TO SHIT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE!!”

He thrusted both of his fists, and honed on her like missiles. Time moving ever so slowly, Loraine tried to move the extinguisher quickly, but her reaction was too dim. Unable to pin the nozzle on him, she only saw a blur of white drawing ever so closely toward her…

She began to see flashbacks. But wait … she ran through an alley. She ran and ran and she continued to run. Like escaping a nightmare she never had, she couldn’t remember. Black figures, black figures chased her. But wait, why was she remembering? She failed to remember before, but why now? Feeling death cloud her, with nothingness soon closing in, she swore she saw—

—A barrage of bullets struck his body.—

Ceasing his charging sprint, he stalled as bullet after bullet riddled his body like cheese. His head arched up toward the sky, tar dribbled out from the corners of his mouth. But there were two types of bullets that charged at him.

The first was a collection of large rounds, looking to be drawn out of a sniper. The second was a storm of bullets reeked with … his weakness.

His ears being blared against, tinnitus clouded his soul that replaced his wrath. Unable to bear the weight of his own body, he collapsed onto his knees as he continued to hear the deafening bullets. His knuckles dragging on the floor, he gaped his mouth as looked up at the heavens.

As the bullet storm ceased.

‘Just … what happened …’

Two agents walked right behind Loraine, with one of them having a smoke plow from his sniper. As the other agent stood near him, they both glared at the lich who spazzed uncontrollably.

While a shark-human breathed wheezingly.

Blood dribbling from the corners of his lips, he barely held his feet firm on the pavement. Only soaring his strength through his forearms, his entire face was brimmed to the whitest of white.

“Jesus…”

Eren lowered his barrel, and saw Benn barely honing the ability to breathe. Holstering his sniper into his jacket, he kept his hands free from metal, as he and Ada began their walk.

Leaving Loraine to be alone with Pedro.

Walking right up to him, she still continued to grip the extinguisher with both her tightened hands. Narrowing her eyes, she clattered her teeth that reeked with anger, anger that boiled and brewed from the innards of her stomach—

She stopped.

“I won’t be like you.”

She dropped the extinguisher.

Denting the road, she found that her suitcase was still stacked behind her back. To her, it was like carrying a guitar. Even though she felt like it wasn’t there, it always was, like it was a piece of clothing that she failed to take notice of.

Using her right hand, she plopped down the suitcase, and unveiled the lid. The metal gleaming under the orangish sky, her eyes didn’t. Gripping the weapon that she had stalled, it gleamed in Pedro’s barely blurred eyes, but the silhouette of it was…

He crashed onto his tailbone, and quivered his lips.

“I’ll make it painless.”

—It was an RPG.—

The same weapon she used during her raid with the Blood Eagles, she was now using it for just this moment.

Having the butt of it press onto her shoulder, and the barrel aimed at the quivering man, she had her finger on the trigger. Without unveiling a smile, without laughing or chuckling, she had a serious face brittled with no emotion.

“You kidnapped Boris. You hurt my friends. You failed to make me laugh…”

“Wait … I could explain …”

A spazz of tar vomited out from his mouth, and down his chin and onto his throat. Without hunching forward, it gurgled out from his vocals like a lawn mower, all the way until it spewed onto his legs.

Her face wrinkled from the pathetic display, Loraine only kept her glaring eyes ahold.

“All I ever wanted was to make people laugh, and myself laugh. I didn’t care what others thought of me, or my rep … but overall …”

Sweat drenched his body, as his body was already chastened in pale to begin with. Static buzzing through his hands, and his fingers, every sense of his blurred. Having tar within his eyes, he found his life beginning to flash…

—“No one hurts the people I find laughter in.”—

She pulled the trigger.

Leaving the barrel at an immense speed, it bursted the air and fluttered flames from the shell. The tip of the rocket hitting his cheek, in slow motion, the mechanism of the rocket soon clicked…

Sending the area to be deafened by the blast, every bone in her body rumbled from the explosion. Tinnitus ringing in her ears, she squealed her eyes at the sudden wave of wind. Along with her body going numb, she opened her eyes as the gust of wind soon dimmed.

Which unveiled a large hole, completely dented from the impact of the rocket.

‘I’m sorry Boris … I’m sorry Jenny …’

Lowering her RPG, she had the barrel tilted low to the pavement below. Smoke continued to pile from the barrel, she found her suitcase to the right of her. Bending down, she let the metal sleep with other metal, and closed the case with firm fingers.

Having it tucked away, she wrapped the suitcase onto her back, before walking away from the smoke-filled area.

________________________________________________________________________

While Loraine dealt the finishing blow, Eren, Ada, and Benn were huddled on the street. But they weren’t talking. Benn had his back slumped onto a nearby building, with his head scratched on the stone of debris.

“You don’t look good…”

“I inhaled pure oxygen fumes … of course I’m not fine…”

Eren took note of Benn’s ghostly pale skin, along with his eyes brimmed with blood. Pushing out a dry and raspy cough from his throat, he placed his hand onto his chest.

Some of his skin began to peel, all because of the pure oxygen running through his veins. Making Eren scour his pockets, he dug his hands deeper the more he searched.

‘I had an insulin pen somewhere, or did I give it to—’

A metallic object gleamed under a woman’s palm.

Turning their eyes toward a female agent, who wore glasses, she had her hand already extended outward. Her eyes averted to the ground, and unable to look at the shark-human especially, her lips were puckered into her mouth.

“Ada…”

Benn slowly took the insulin pen from her hands, as his fingers barely touched her palm. Pulling her hand back nearly instantly, she shook her hand, and kept her arms to herself.

Having the pen with his right hand, he stabbed the small needle in between his forearm and his main arm. Arching his back, his breathing slowed, and his face and body recovered from his ghostly pale state.

“Thanks.”

“I’m not owing you any favors after this! Got it?!”

“Crystal.”

Barely able to draw those words, Benn began to close his eyes as his breathing slowed.

As for Ada, she folded her arms and hurried her way toward the crashed jeep. Not glancing in the back of her, she didn’t want to set her soul to care for the injured beast-human.

Feeling his whole body rejuvenate from the shot, he replaced his cold frown with … a smile? Crinkling his cheeks, and his eyes closed, he allowed the ricocheted boom of Loraine’s rocket launcher to blaze the air.

As he began to sleep.

‘There’s still hope … for some discriminants … there’s still a bit in there …’