NOVEL WEB Chapter 314 - Reinforcement Arrived
The following day, present time…
After retreating the previous day, the Hunters stayed cooped up inside the branch building without another chance to continue their guerrilla warfare.
From time to time, a few Hunters peeked through the closed curtains on the upper floors to check on the situation outside.
"How's the situation?" inquired the Branch Leader after walking by.
"Not good, Branch Leader." The Hunter shook his head and said, "It's still swarming outside the branch's entrance since yesterday's battle. We won't be able to leave for a while, not with that many around."
The EXP from the crawlers was great, but it wasn't worth losing their lives over.
"We can just clear them out under Hero Wudi's lead. He showed such explosive strength yesterday," another Hunter spoke.
Although his words seemed like praises, he was actually ridiculing Cao Wudi, blaming him for their current situation.
"Don't joke around. With that many crawlers swarming outside, they will flood the building and overwhelm us once we open the gates," the Branch Leader sternly stated.
The limited space inside the branch would heavily impact their battle.
Not only was it an unfavorable scenario, but there was also a high chance of losing their safe zone and getting wiped out.
"If only we have reinforcements to distract the crawlers and steer them away from the entrance…"
"That's just wishful thinking. There won't be any reinforcement—"
Boom…
The ground suddenly trembled.
"What was that? It sounded like something heavy just crashlanded outside," the Branch Leader said with surprise after feeling the tremor.
The Hunters quickly took a peek outside again before one of them excitedly said, "Branch Leader, you should come to take a look! Reinforcements have arrived!"
"Reinforcements?" the Branch Leader's eyes brightened before he quickly asked, "How many?"
"There is…"
The Hunter's excitement quickly died after seeing the exact numbers before he replied with disappointment, "One… and a half."
"One and a half?"
The Branch Leader frowned with confusion.
…
…
…
Outside the Stillwater Hunter Association Branch, Albion heavily landed on top of the numerous crawlers in the area with Fenriri on his shoulder, crushing a few crawlers underneath his feet before the force further transferred into the ground.
Boom…
The ground shattered, and a small crater was formed.
A few moments later, the crawlers immediately gave a ghastly cry and threw themselves at Albion, head first with their sharp teeth wanting to tear into his flesh.
Albion's brows slightly creased.
Pak!
He threw out a slap in the next moment, and the crawler's head exploded into oblivion before the force of wind blew everything away.
"Goddamn, what an ugly mother f*cker," Albion commented.
The crawlers jumping right into his face like that certainly gave him a slight scare. He knew they were ugly, but they were even uglier up close and personal.
They all deserved to die.
Nevertheless, he only managed to kill a small fraction of the crawlers. There were at least another ten thousand of them in the area.
Fenriri had been feeling nauseous from their flight, but after seeing the grotesque monsters, her face quickly greened.
"Bleurgh…!"
She ended up puking over her master's shoulders.
As the army of crawlers rushed at them again, black flames shortly appeared on Albion's hand before he waved it at the incoming horde.
Swoosh—!
The small black flame quickly grew into a large blazing black cloud of destruction and swept away at the crawlers.
Upon contact with the Asura Flame, the crawlers disintegrated in black ashes and vanished with the wind, clearing the area in the blink of an eye.
Ding!
<You have killed a Lv.17 Mutated Human>
<You have killed a Lv.23 Mutated Human>
<You have killed…>
…
Ding!
<You have leveled up!>
<You have reached Lv.51 Hunter>
<EXP Progress: 102,800/1,000,000 (10.2%)>
…
Albion received a heft sum of EXP from the kills, but it wasn't actually that much, considering he wasn't far off from a level up to begin with.
"Ugh…" Fenriri groaned due to her queasy stomach before she wiped her mouth and asked with disgust, "What are those things, Master?"
"That's a good question. Why don't we ask them?" Albion casually suggested.
Fenriri wasn't sure if they would get an answer even if they asked, but she quietly agreed and followed Albion after he placed her down on her own two feet.
Shortly after, they found another crawler wandering in the area.
"Grsss!"
Albion wasn't sure whether it was trying to growl or hiss, but it immediately shot over aggressively after spotting them.
Strangely, its bite went for Albion's face like the previous one.
However, Albion immediately it by the neck with his vice-like grip before questioning it, "What the heck are you?"
Snap, snap, snap!
Without any surprises, the crawler tried to snap at Albion's face like a crocodile's bite. His neck shrunk backward like a turtle to avoid the bite before a frown hung on his face.
'Did its intelligence regressed?' Albion thought.
Since the crawler's body was originally human, it might have been possible for the parasitic bug to acquire the human's intelligence after their integration.
However, it did not seem that way.
Perhaps something went wrong in the evolution process to become one with their hosts, which turned them into the present abomination.
Albion attempted to establish communication with the crawler, but it continued to snap and claw at him.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
In response, Albion broke all its limbs and even broke its jaws, causing the crawler to become limp and powerless.
"That ought to calm it down."
"…I think it's dead, Master."
Fenriri poked the limp crawler with a stick after Albion dropped it on the ground, but it showed little to no reaction.
"Nope, it's alive. But… it probably can't talk now even if it did had the ability…" Albion muttered.
He used his hands to play with the crawler's broken jaws like he was trying to put it back together but to no avail.
"Yeah, nah. It's f*cked." Albion quickly gave up and said, "Go ahead and can kill it for EXP, Riri."
"Yes, Master." Fenriri complied.
She stabbed into its neck with an ice claw and put her master's experimental lab rat out of its misery.