RVN Ch 9

Beneath the fractured ground, one could easily fall or be crushed under a collapsing building. The air was thick with sand and dust, making it impossible to see ahead, but escaping was the priority.

With no sense of direction, Renault simply ran. He couldn’t even sense Chris or Raven’s presence anymore. After running for a while, the deafening noise gradually subsided. The sound of buildings toppling one after another finally stopped. The tremors that had shaken the ground also began to fade. Whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen.

“Chris! Raven!”

Covered in sand and dust, Renault shouted. From a distance, Chris’s voice responded, “I’m over here!” He turned toward the sound. Chris, who had hurried over, coughed violently. Without a mask or bandana, he had inhaled the dust directly.

“Check where the other team members are. Don’t step in front of me until the dust settles.”

“Yes, sir!”

Before Renault had even finished speaking, Chris had already moved behind him and shouted back in a mock-military tone.

“Raven!”

Renault called again, but there was no response. Ever since they’d scattered to escape the collapsing buildings, he hadn’t been able to sense Raven’s presence. Had he really taken the order to stay out of sight so seriously that he had hidden away?

No, that didn’t suit him. It felt odd to be making judgments about Raven after knowing him for only a few days, but the idea of him hiding somewhere just didn’t fit. He was far too brazen for that.

Renault was still lost in thought, his rifle at the ready, when the ground suddenly shook violently again. A deep rumbling reverberated through the earth. At the same time, a section of the barren land swelled upward. There was no time for further contemplation.

With a thunderous crash, the ground gave way, and something burst out from below. They had said it was an insect-like creature resembling a mantis, but he wasn’t sure about that. What he was certain of, however, was that it looked far more grotesque and monstrous.

Renault smirked slightly and aimed his rifle. The creature was massive—easily as tall as a five-story building. That worked in his favor. Even with the dust clouding his vision, the target was hard to miss. Rather than being visible, it was simply too large to overlook.

Tat-tat-tat! Muzzle flashes lit up the darkness as he fired in rapid succession. Spent magazines clattered to the ground. The enormous creature, which had been moving at an alarming speed, crashed down with a sickening thud. It wasn’t just a single mass anymore—it had been shredded into countless pieces.

The remains of the monster and a thick, viscous fluid splattered everywhere, carrying a foul stench. Renault tightened his bandana and examined the creature’s remains.

“Whoa, boss, that was terrifying! That huge thing turned into a pile of scraps in an instant!”

“It was just a B-class monster.”

A B-class burrowing insect with no abilities beyond moving swiftly underground stood no chance against an A-class Esper wielding a rifle packed with power. It was no wonder the creature had been torn apart so easily.

“Check for any remaining life signs.”

There was no room for relief just yet. Raven had mentioned there were two of them, and one was supposedly A-class. There was no way to confirm if his information was accurate, but it was better to be cautious.

If he was right, that meant an A-class monster was still out there somewhere.

“Come on, after being reduced to mush like this, you really think it’s still alive?”

“Check.”

“Yes, sir!”

At Renault’s cold command, Chris finally pulled out his phone to scan the area for any remaining life signs. Meanwhile, Renault kept his rifle in hand, sifting through the monster’s remains.

It wasn’t that he feared the creature was still alive. He knew it was dead. But dismissing Raven’s warning outright left an uneasy feeling in his gut.

“Captain!”

Josh and Kevin arrived, slightly late, with grimaces on their faces. Not long after, Hena showed up as well, relieved that she hadn’t had to deal with the monstrous bug but still looking apologetic for her tardiness.

“That must have been a hell of a fight. Seriously, Captain, you’re terrifying.”

Hena muttered as she took in the wreckage around them.

“Not really.”

Renault responded indifferently as he continued to rummage through the monster’s remains. The others quickly followed suit, snapping photos and videos for the report they’d have to submit to the control room later.

“Keep scanning for any signs of life, just in case.”

“But the report said it was only a single B-class monster. We’ve already taken it down. Why are you so worried?”

“There are always exceptions.”

Renault wasn’t fully trusting Raven’s words, yet he still refused to let his guard down. That was the reason.

There were always exceptions.  Information from the operations center wasn’t always accurate. Just like a weather forecast, it could be wrong, and sometimes, unpredictable things happened.

That said, it made no sense for an A-class monster to suddenly appear in an area that was reported to have only a B-class. If Raven’s claim was true, then headquarters would have no excuse once they returned and reported it.

However, by the time they had nearly finished cleaning up, no additional life signs had been detected. The only thing intensifying was the heat of the sun beating down on them. It seemed Raven had been spouting nonsense after all.

Just as Renault came to that conclusion and was about to call for withdrawal—

“That was the mother.”

A voice rang out unexpectedly.

Renault turned sharply. Raven had appeared out of nowhere, tugging his turtleneck up to cover his nose.

“Where the hell were you hiding?”

“Hiding? I was just watching from a distance, like you told me to. Smart, right? I didn’t get in the way, did I?”

Raven leaned down slightly, gazing at Renault with sparkling eyes. He looked like he was waiting for praise. Since yesterday, he had been acting like a child desperate for validation. Renault had no idea why.

“Haah… yeah, yeah. Good job. Well done.”

The moment Renault gave a halfhearted response, Raven’s face lit up with a radiant smile. Though only his crescent-shaped eyes were visible, it was obvious how delighted he was.

“You’re saying that thing is the mother? So what?”

A strange feeling stirred inside him. It was uncomfortable, yet something else lingered beneath the surface… To conceal his thoughts, Renault kept his gaze fixed on the monster’s corpse as he asked.

“It means it was carrying eggs. And those offspring are about to hatch.”

“You’re not seriously saying that’s the A-class, are you?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Renault shot Raven a sharp glance. He still couldn’t fully trust him. After all, he had been rummaging through the monster’s remains for a while now, and there were no signs of any eggs.

Its body had been ripped to shreds, barely leaving anything intact. Even if it had been carrying eggs, chances were they had been completely destroyed in the crossfire.

“There was nothing. I didn’t see a single egg—”

Just as Renault muttered, still doubtful, a small movement caught his eye from the corner of his vision. It was subtle, like a scrap of debris stirred by the wind, barely enough to be noticeable.

Yet Renault’s narrowed gaze didn’t waver. That area had already been searched. There shouldn’t have been anything left capable of movement.

“Check for life signs.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll recheck now. H-huh?”

Chris, who had just been joking about having tuna sandwiches for lunch with Kevin, quickly pulled up the scanner on his phone at Renault’s command. His face stiffened as he stared at the screen.

“There was nothing just a second ago… But now there is. Right there. Right in front of us…”

Before Chris could even finish his sentence, something suddenly burst forth from the corpse. A dark mass shot into the air, scattering black liquid in all directions. Instinctively, the Espers leaped away, avoiding the droplets falling like rain. 

The moment the ominous black liquid touched the ground, the soil sizzled and burned into a charred mess. Poison. This confirmed it—it really was an A-class. There really had been two monsters. Renault turned to look at Raven, his mind spinning.

Could Raven actually have detection abilities on top of being a Guide? No, that wasn’t possible. There had never been a person who possessed both an Esper’s and a Guide’s abilities. While it was theoretically possible for an Esper to have two different abilities, Espers and Guides were fundamentally incompatible. No one could be both.

“That thing’s insane! How the hell did it just come out of nowhere?! And if it keeps leaping around, spitting poison like that, what are we supposed to do?!”

Hena’s panicked shout snapped Renault back to reality. He turned to Kevin.

“Kevin! Take Raven and get as far away as possible! Contact control room and request backup! We need at least one defensive-type Esper and someone from the elemental or nature classes—anyone who can hold that thing down, even for a moment! And call for a Guide and a Healer! Now!”

With the sudden shift in battle, Renault shouted out his orders to Kevin, the team’s teleportation Esper.