NOVEL WEB Chapter 313 - Crawlers
Stillwater City
In the heart of the tier-2 city, home to millions of people, the once-beautiful skyscrapers of Stillwater city have been ruined, and the bustling streets have become a battlefield, littered with rubbles and shattered glass.
Fiends, parasitized beings who were once humans, roamed the streets en masse and made it a living hell for those unaffected and without strength, forcing them into the confines of fortified buildings and underground subways.
Boom… Boom…
The sounds of battle raged in various parts of the city.
Hunters used guerrilla warfare to whittle down the fiends, little by little, and one step at a time, before they retreated to safety for resupply and rest.
Day after day, the Hunters repeated the routine, and little by little, they grew with the experience they gained.
The situation inside the city was not as grim as the outside assumed, but it wasn't exactly good either.
…
The day before…
Outside the Stillwater Hunter Association Branch, the Hunters charged out the buildings and commenced their attack on the parasitized humans and bugs.
"Charge, Hunters! Kill as many as you can within five minutes before we retreat!" the Stillwater Branch Leader led the charge.
Dozens of Hunters followed, but their confidence wasn't high.
"There's too many of them, Branch Leader! We should have waited for reinforcement from outside and launched a joint attack together!"
"There won't be any reinforcement anytime soon after yesterday's failure!"
The Branch Leader stated as he hacked through the ranks of parasitized humans that have all turned into grotesque monsters that could only be found in horror movies and games.
Amongst the parasitized humans, the most common appearance they took was the crawler-type.
They have rib bones protruding out of their stomach like spikes, and they crawl on their backs with their limbs bent backward, heads twisted 180 degrees, and sharp teeth like the Anglerfish.
Anything human about them was long history.
"I don't understand, Branch Leader! Shouldn't there be more reinforcement when the city has already fallen to this state?" a B-rank Hunter asked.
His sword blurred in a flurry of strikes, and several crawlers were diced in an instant.
"Although the city's situation is like this, there are people in both the government and Hunter Association that actually want to prolong this kind of situation," the Branch Leader explained before adding, "I don't think I need to say why."
The Hunters immediately understood.
Ordinary people greatly suffered under the parasitic bug outbreak, but it was different for the Hunters, who viewed the city as a big hunting ground for EXP.
There weren't many such opportunities better than the Scruxs outbreak to quickly improve their strengths.
"The EXP is great, but innocent lives are being lost here! How can the higher-ups be so selfish?!"
"That's just how it is. People at the top don't care about the people down below. They only care about their own self-interest."
As the Branch Leader slaughtered the nearby crawlers, he added, "But we don't have to worry too much. We have Hero Wudi to join us today. If not for him, we would not have known about these bugs parasitizing the humans in the city."
"Is that so? But where is he?" another B-rank Hunter asked before adding, "I don't see him anywhere. Did he not follow us out?"
"Hm?" the Stillwater Branch Leader glanced back.
Only then did he realize that they had been fighting the crawler-type monsters without Cao Wudi, who was supposed to be with them.
"Hero Wudi! Where are you?! We need you!" the Branch Leader called.
…
Back inside the branch building, Cao Wudi heard the person's call and sighed.
He couldn't hide any longer.
"Why did it have to come to this?" Cao Wudi lamented.
Initially, everything went smoothly.
With the help of Polemos, a cure was quickly created to kill the parasitic bugs without harming the hosts.
They steadily brought parasitized humans into the branch building and treated them in secret without alarming the enemy of their doing.
Yet, the enemy still found out, and everything went to sh*t from there.
The parasitic bugs mutated their host and caused irreversible changes, rendering the cure useless.
It was impossible to save the parasitized humans after their mutation into monsters.
…
Cao Wudi took a deep breath before charging out of the branch building to join the battle with the other Hunters.
"I'm here! Make way, haaaa—!"
Cao Wudi charged into a group of crawlers with a sword and shield before his fear intensified at the sight of their horrid appearances.
"Haaa—!"
The crawlers smiled dreadfully as if they just saw a prey and caused Cao Wudi to panic immediately as he attacked in a frenzy.
"Die, die, die! Die for me!" Cao Wudi cried with bloodshot eyes.
The will to live burned intensely and his body exploded with strength in kind, allowing him to fight with great killing power.
For a short period, his killing speed even exceeded the B-rank Hunters.
"Haaa—! Die!!"
Cao Wudi cleaved the crawlers apart with his sword in hand and bashed their heads in with his shield in the other.
"What the…f*ck?"
As the nearby Hunters noticed Cao Wudi's abnormal mental state and watched him fight with such ferocity and savagery, they were immediately stunned.
"Holy sh*t, what's going on with him? Did the Scruxs murder his whole family or something?" a B-rank Hunter exclaimed with shock.
"Hm?" The Branch Leader suddenly frowned.
Although Hero Wudi's killing power was great, he was charging too far into the enemy's line without any sign of retreating.
"Ooiii, Hero Wudi! What the f*ck are you doing—?"
The Branch Leader wanted to tell Cao Wudi to get back to safety, but the person immediately replied, "My f*cking best!"
"…"
Branch Leader's lips twitched before he roared, "I can see that, but it's not safe! You're going too deep! You need to fall back!"
A few moments later, the ground began to tremble, and many ghastly cries were heard in the distance before everyone's expression changed.
"Time's up! Our battle has attracted a larger group! Everyone, quickly retreat inside the branch!" the Branch Leader warned.
Everyone immediately dropped their battle and ran.
Even Cao Wudi was no exception as he seemed especially awake.