Léon: The Cat Killer

"Actually, we have no reason to fight each other..."

"If you ask, we have it here. Our boss will come and talk to you later. For now, please allow me to fulfill my duties as a security guard."

"……Fine."

BIU——!

Suddenly, a hand was raised, without a flash of light or any warning... The matte black pistol, held in a black glove, was fired from the waist in the night, and the longsword user who was posing in front of him fell to the ground.

In preparation for returning to covert hunting operations, Nana made a point of equipping all her weapons, except for the revolver and guard gun, with silencers while she was in the car.

Before everyone could react, the enchanted rubber bullet had already struck Red's forehead at subsonic speed... Nana suddenly felt very fortunate that she had packed non-lethal ammunition into the M1911.

After all, he wasn't planning to kill the other party, and it would be too foolish to escalate into a full-scale war with the local gangs.

Ignoring the rising and falling cries of "Lei! De! Da! Ge!", Nana turned around and, with a strange expression that seemed to want to laugh but dared not, secretly entered the target she had opened earlier.

Listening to the chaotic exchange behind her, where the girl from Felin, who was traveling with Red, was shouting, "Stop howling, he just fainted," Nana chatted with Anso while surveying the situation in the shop:

"By the way, if we let you, Ansor, communicate with them..."

"No, it's the same no matter who comes to talk to these stubborn people... They don't even care about the Royal Guard's cops, so there's probably nothing in this world that they care about."

Shaking his head and making a 'oyster oyster' sound, he secretly rubbed his hands together as he looked at the area he was free to explore.

"So, we'll start the investigation now?"

"It seems their older sister will take a while to arrive, so let's get on with our work..."

While speaking, she had An Su put on a positive pressure breathing mask and openly turned on the lights to facilitate An Su's search. Then, Nana also went into the depths of the house.

"Hey...wait a minute..."

Seeing Reid, who was using his long sword to support himself and rubbing his forehead as he got up again, Nana glanced at the red and swollen area on his forehead and kindly reminded him:

"You could actually rest more."

“But my little partner doesn’t seem to want me to sleep any longer… Don’t bother looking for her, she’s a bit afraid of you and went to urge the older sister. Everyone saw me get knocked down by you in one go, and they got beaten up like pigs… The employer probably won’t say anything, but can you tell me what Rhodes Island is doing in such an ordinary shop? The shop owner is also an infected person, but he’s very ordinary, nothing that would attract the attention of an organization like Rhodes Island.”

"It has nothing to do with the infected person... Just think of it as us... dealing with a severe parasitic disease..."

Considering that the other party came from the Snowfield Reunion Movement and trusted her to some extent, Nana added:

“You can treat it as another natural disaster... I’m here now, which is proof that things are bad enough.”

"That's really something, there's no way to refute it."

He scratched his head, but his expression contorted with pain from the bruise on his forehead. Reid sighed and looked at Nana:

"So, how do you plan to check?"

"...Aren't you afraid of having to go to the hospital for checkups after getting involved in this? I mean, I might have to force you to go to an observation point..."

As Nana spoke, she opened the water tank to check for the spread of Nether Marks, and pointed to An Suo, who was fully armed with a breathing mask and a protective suit hood pulled up under his clothes. Reid, however, didn't seem particularly afraid.

"I'd be thrilled to get a free medical check-up, unless you want me to pay for it... I came from Reunion, and I bet Rhodes Island knows better than I do how much money I have... Besides, if I'm defeated and then do nothing, my employer will still nag me. At least let me see what you've been doing."

Seeing Reid's persistent pestering, Nana nodded and remained silent.

Watching the Rhodes Island black cat carefully checking various water stains and dirt with cotton swabs, occasionally lifting the drain cover to inspect something, Red tried hard not to think about the large bruise on his forehead and casually remarked:

"This doesn't look like a medical company; it looks more like one of those rat and cockroach extermination companies... But speaking of which, I have heard from other people that strange-looking things have been crawling out of the sewers... You wouldn't be looking for that, would you?"

"Strange thing, how strange?"

Seeing Nana's sudden interest, Red gestured and described her at length, but in the end, it sounded like he was talking about something that didn't exist:

"...It's basically a monster that's neither a cat nor a dog, neither a mouse nor an Originium Bug..."

Upon hearing Red's description, An Su, who had been searching through the shop, stopped what he was doing and nodded after meeting Nana's gaze.

"Yes, that's what we're looking for. What did you do with it afterward?"

"...Just killed it in a very ordinary way... The person involved even said that the thing was very ferocious, like a dog with its bones showing, but with a split rat's head... At the time, we all thought he was joking... So it was true?"

"Where's the body?"

"So, after killing them, they just threw them into the garbage dump. They've probably been disposed of by the garbage disposal station by now."

Although Reid spoke casually, seeing Nana marking things on the map, making phone calls (presumably to the Guard Bureau to inquire about the collection route for the current garbage dump), and finally summoning a squad called 'Raiden' to inspect the landfill while saying something frightening like 'If there's a problem, deal with it all,' Reid felt a little nervous holding his long sword.

"So, it really is... a disease similar to a natural disaster?"

“You can certainly treat it as such.”

"what!"

Hearing An Suo's soft exclamation from not far away, Nana rushed over. Seeing An Suo pointing to the floor and tapping his gloved fingers on the floor with a hollow sound, Nana told him to step back. Then she started a high-intensity cluster sonar scan from that spot to the ground.

As a red dot appeared in the eyes of Rhodes Island's black cat, the SHD spell terminal used its eyepiece to mark the Sealing individual on Nana... and seeing the red dot below suddenly surge toward the ground as if it had been stimulated, Nana quickly got up to avoid it. Instantly, a segmented limb as tall as a person pierced through the floor tiles, grazed Nana's cheek, and stuck into the air.

Without time to respond to Redna's curses and questions, which included profanities from his hometown of Ursus, Nana flipped her hand and a greatsword appeared, then slammed it into the floor with the blade facing down.

"Everyone, get out of this area!"

Flames poured into the ground, and the rocks boiled like boiling water!

Seeing the shop suddenly transform into a giant, imposing blowtorch, the gang member with a swollen cheek paused, seemingly lost in thought, and said:

"Old Zhu, it's not that I'm not going to help you..."

"I think I understand why Brother Red had that expression when he heard that name..."

Upon hearing this, An Suo, who had retreated to a safe area as soon as the battle began, opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

Do these people really understand the current situation?

With a sigh, the little rabbit tugged at its ears to keep them from standing up too high, then looked nervously towards the battlefield.

PS: Waaaaaah, kitty

PSS: Axi was busy revising the fluency and forgot to upload, thus losing her perfect attendance bonus. Please be aware.

9th Dragon Gate Seafood: 350 This is why I have to sit up and fight (not really).

The ground boiled and spewed fire, and the black shadows shrieked and twisted... As a rain of metal bullets fell from the sky, the twisted monster, which had been turned into a sieve by the armor-piercing spell, did not notice the Dark Rope calling Red and his minions to run away together.

The monster, with its white chitinous carapace, now ascended along its spine. Its head, covered by the carapace, and its 'chest,' which should have been a vital spot, were riddled with bullet holes. Gushing out dark purple blood mixed with the slime on its body surface, dripping down in a slightly viscous consistency.

"What is that thing?!"

Even though they lowered their voices, the terrified cries of Red's underlings were still too obvious now that the raging subterranean fire was quickly receding.

Whether due to confidentiality agreements or the current environment where no one dared to utter a sound, An Suo made no attempt to explain... The little rabbit simply lowered its body and covered its mouth and nose, its amber eyes filled with the profile of a certain black-footed cat standing lightly on a street lamp in the night, expressionlessly changing a pistol magazine.

Even though the figure in the film wasn't particularly robust or tall, and I didn't know much about it, just by looking at the timid appearance of the monster that was as big as a small car, I knew that it was afraid of the petite figure that I had to look up to see.

"Without a doubt, that monster is Rhodes Island's target... but..."

Why here of all places?

Before Red could even start to feel a headache coming on, An Suo, speechless at the fact that his efforts to make himself inconspicuous had been completely ruined by the guys around him, continued to lower his ear and whisper:

"Not."

"……what?"

"That monster is not our target... or rather, it may only be one of our targets."

The fishy stench, the chitinous carapace and the slippery, chaotic colors, and the howl that sounded like an insect mixed with the roar of a large Film Beast... Yesterday, because the combat personnel intercepted all the Sea Siren inside the building, An Suo had no idea what the enemy looked like. Now, he is trying his best to etch the characteristics of the 'Sea Siren' into his memory.

Stay away from areas with hostile targets – this is the experience the little rabbit has gained from surviving in the old city, still healthy and lively… But how useful is this memory for a monster like Hai Si, whose characteristics are so chaotic? It’s hard to say.

As a negotiator who knew his own rudimentary skills, An Suo knew that the best thing he could do was not to interfere in the battle between the strong.

“Similar monsters live in groups, and there’s a very high chance they’ve built a nest in that place. Hey… big brother, you’d better tell your higher-ups to take a headcount and then we should get away… but not too far. If we die out of Medic’s sight, it’s not Rhodes Island’s fault.”

"...You make it sound simple..."

Ignoring the whispers between the little rabbit and the former Reunion members in the distance, Nana frowned slightly as she looked at the enormous Hai Si before her.

Without a doubt, this is a type that didn't appear yesterday, nor did I see it in the materials.

Or rather, because of the high mutation rate of Haisi, Nana has never seen a Haisi that matches the one in the PRTS database.

This individual that emerged from the ground was estimated to be over five meters long. At first glance, it resembled an armored snake with a webbed tail, but upon closer inspection, one could see six scythe-like limbs and countless tiny limbs supporting its upright posture. Two enormous pincers blocked its head and thorax like a crab, and several eyeballs, linked by nerve bundles, were held atop the pincers, rapidly rotating and observing.

Nana could see that the thickest eye among the nerve bundles was staring back at her... It wasn't that it hadn't noticed the hidden rope and the other people in the distance, but compared to those 'foods,' it was clearly more important to pay attention to Nana, the 'enemy.'

"...PRTS, record the audio. The unnamed large individual took 28 seconds from the complete penetration of the armor-piercing technique into a conventional vital point to the cessation of 'blood' flow... The preliminary assessment is that the subsequent destructive power of the .45 caliber is insufficient."

"PRTS, please expedite this message to all combat teams and forward command posts, with the subject line: ... Suspected discovery of a main combat-grade Sea-series individual."

As soon as he finished speaking, a monster that had regained its mobility, with pincers but more like an insect, and whose body was covered in carapace, was charging straight at him like a biological armored vehicle.

Accompanied by the clicking and clattering of its arthropod shells, the giant pincers, unlike any living creature, precisely gripped the streetlight and sharply 'cut' it from the ground. The fallen streetlight was then 'shorn' again from the spot where Nana had landed. As Nana leaped and dodged, the monster, which cut steel as easily as paper, had already sliced ​​the streetlight into four pieces.

If it weren't for the crisp metallic sound of the hollow metal lamppost hitting the ground, someone unfamiliar with the situation might have mistaken it for a stage prop based solely on the footage.

"Judging from its appearance, the main clamp is made of hyaluronic acid chitin, and its output is at least thirty tons."

Continuing to refine the report, she approached the monster's body from the unavoidable lamppost, using her flexible body to dodge the sweeping crab claws like a gymnast. The black cat girl still stared at the rapidly shrinking 'spiky eyes', and finally landed lightly and steadily behind the monster.

Just as the black cat raised the gunman hidden behind her and aimed it at the shrunken 'eye' and 'nerve bundle', a sudden gust of wind from another direction forced Nana to jump up and dodge again.

Although that shot, based on the location of the nerve bundle and probably the nerve nodes, was ultimately not fired due to the opponent's ADHD.

But seeing how the other party smashed part of the chitinous carapace on her head to drive her away, Nana, suspended in mid-air, became even more determined to shoot that spot.

However, just as Nana was gathering a magical springboard under her feet to prepare for a second jump, the wet and sudden tightness on her ankle made her body freeze in mid-air.

"...nerve cord?"

Watching the bluish-black flesh of the sea creature stretch and twitch under her movements, with tiny muscle bundles snapping in mid-air, Nana tentatively judged that the opponent's physical strength was about the same as her new knight armor. However, the sight of the lamppost being held by the other pincers and smashed down like a giant club forced Nana into a defensive stance, which was rare for her...

In the eyes of An Suo and his men, it was nothing more than a few seconds of confrontation.

The charging sea monster, Medic, forced to escape from the heights while simultaneously attacking the monster's pincers from a blind spot; the girl's graceful, dance-like evasions, a beautiful maneuver that made the monster fight itself... and finally, being pulled in mid-air by deformed fleshy ropes, then being swatted away by a half-street lamp wielded by crab pincers.

Even setting aside the metallic clanging sound, reminiscent of a temple bell, the sight of the deformed and bent lampposts, transforming from straight into L-shapes, and the battlefield where the road surface was smashed open, leaving the concrete cracked, made onlookers hold their breath.

Fortunately, without the need for any questions from the onlookers, the billowing smoke was immediately dispelled by the rapidly dissipating heat... Rhodes Island's black cat stood up expressionlessly under the gaze of the onlookers, the bright blue magical light on the girl's arms demonstrating the consequences of being hit head-on by tens of tons of force.

Looking at the brief report popped up by the halo system that 'the waist and leg armor have been forced to activate active cooling,' Nana subconsciously rubbed her chin, which had almost been hit... Even an 'angel' would probably lose consciousness instantly if her vitals were hit by such a huge force.

However, what Nana found even more upsetting than being "ambushed" was the damage to her bag, which resulted in the packaging of many first-aid supplies being torn and a number of "freelancer's tools" being damaged after being hit hard.

The idea of ​​Agent 77 getting angry was something that not only Nana herself hadn't considered, but even ICA's agents and supporters probably hadn't thought of it... But Nana is indeed angry now, and she's going to take off her coat and handbag to fight this monster.

Tearing open her still-dirty Rhodes Island uniform, she tossed it aside along with her handbag. The girl's armor-assisted turbine emitted a sharp, piercing whistle, and a visible heatwave emanated from behind her. Meanwhile, Ansuo, who had been secretly leading Red and his henchmen to several different hiding places, glanced at his terminal amidst the vibrations.

[Medic: When you evacuated, could you please take my bag and coat with you? I'm currently fighting what appears to be a Sea Siren military unit. The good news is that I've welded shut the location of its suspected lair with my 'sword,' so Sea Siren reinforcements shouldn't be arriving on the surface for now. However, I don't know the situation in the lower levels of the city... Is the Guard Bureau's blockade working properly?]

[Chen Huijie: I haven't received any reports of an emergency from the outer perimeter, but I've also discovered Hai Zi in the designated area. I will notify you immediately if there is an emergency in the outer perimeter.]

[Medic: Understood. Now, each group, report on the situation you encountered...]

[Chen Huijie: The Netherworld Mark has been confirmed in the old city's central district. The Guard Bureau and... Lin Yuxia are handling it together.]

[Razer: Team Razer is currently battling in Admiralty, and has confirmed a large number of Deviljho and Netherhound.]

[Texas: The Penguins have also discovered the Dark Mark in the Upper Ring area... but haven't seen Sea Child yet, and are currently tracking it.]

[Inoue Takina: The Starlight Team has inspected and cleared the mountaintop area and is currently engaged in battle with Hai Si at Xiyingpan... Sorry, due to the use of heavy firearms, we damaged some of the mobile city's electrical systems, but we also confirmed that Hai Si is suspected of using electricity... no, the behavior of Shichiu Umbrella-Ling Si Jiu consuming electricity.]

Electricity for consumption?

Before Nana could download the Starlight Team's real-time report, facing the giant monster charging at her again, Nana raised her left hand, and the silver Guardian Gun, with its crosshair-like magical light, appeared together with the halo above the girl in the bodysuit.

The incandescent beam of light, the whistling of the turbine, and countless points of light converged at the muzzle of the gun. The assassin remained expressionless as the giant pincers capable of cutting through steel were held across her chest.

The killer pulled the trigger and the monster snapped its giant pincers shut almost simultaneously. The incandescent beam pierced the pincers first, leaving varying shades of crimson highlights on the subsequent segments. The girl's raised right arm collided with the outer pincers that were slamming into her, producing a metallic clanging sound.

The small claw, which should have been close at this moment, drooped limply. The half-crushed crab claw, still emitting the aroma of roasted meat, had become the focus of the second confrontation between the two sides.

She quickly put away the revolver, which had been scorched red by the high temperature after activating the 'Judgment' spell. As the angel's right arm wrestled with the sea monster, and the 'Armor Mode' sounded, which only the girl could hear, black armor plates spread from the point of contact between the two wrestling sides to at least the girl's entire body.

[Medic: In other words, all predicted locations showed a Haizi response...]

Should we say it was expected, or that things had already come to this...? But that's not the key point.

As the knight, covered in jet-black armor plates, turned his head to glance at the greatsword 'melted' into the ground, accompanied by a female voice announcing 'Power Mode,' the knight's boots moved in unison with the sea monster raising its other large pincer. The black knight kicked the sea monster, which was as big as a vehicle, several meters away, sending it crashing into the far end of the street.

The loud noise drew the attention of the fleeing people.

"...That, is it Medic?"