Chương 128: A Hairy Situation

Kasia grabbed my arm.

"Hecate? Should we run?"

"Nah," I said, deactivating [Disguise Self] and [Forged Credentials] to stop them draining my mana.

"I want that big head." I glanced down at Vasil.

"Alright, you go first."

"What?" he said, right before I punted him at the horde and activated [Haste]. I didn't want to accidentally harm the woman or her unborn baby, so I couldn't use my [Push] bullets on the strzygi yet. They were too close and the shockwave was pretty nasty, especially with the 70% added damage from [Generous Gift]. All of the strzygi except for the matriarch were distracted by Vasil. All of them were moving in slow motion except for the matriarch. She either was super fast or also had a [Haste] type skill.

Unfortunate, because now it might turn into a real fight. As the matriarch moved around the statuesque group, I rolled into the hall in the opposite direction, keeping her minions between us. I fired several [Clean Entry] infused bullets into the group of half-man, half-bird demons. I wasn't aiming for the heads, I just wanted to cause some damage and sow some chaos. One of the bullets went straight through one of the smaller ones and caught the matriarch in the side, taking out a chunk.

The matriarch shrieked, but appeared otherwise undeterred. A clap of her wings sent all the smaller ones tumbling at me. The pregnant woman was bound to the stone slab, so she stayed in place. I heard some commotion coming from the direction of the cage, but didn't have time to see what was going on due to the strzygi-avalanche headed in my direction. I blinked behind the matriarch and readied a [Clean Entry]. An enormous claw coming straight for my head forced me to [Blink] away again.

I didn't want to destroy her head so my options were a bit more limited than I would have liked. I glanced back and noticed some of the smaller ones had also sped up, so they definitely had something like [Haste]. They weren't nearly as fast as I was, so it was either a different skill or their Dexterity was lower than mine. There were still a lot of them though. Another problem was my Stamina. I couldn't let the fight go on very long, because 7 points wasn't much.

I had to find a way to take out a bunch of them at once and end the fight as soon as possible. I didn't want to lead them to Kasia, to the cage, or to the pregnant women so I blinked into the corner of the hall. All of the strzygi immediately turned in my direction and charged. The bastards were practically tripping over each other to get at me. The matriarch followed.

All the blinking and killing had resulted in my mana being uncomfortably low, so as the first one reached me I jumped on its head and pushed off into the air. The matriarch suddenly sped up even more and I barely managed to dodge one of her giant claws as it raked the stone wall. I had to [Blink] out of the way of a second swipe and repositioned myself next to the stone slab. This time I aimed for the heads and emptied my [Push] revolver, infusing each round with [Clean Entry] before firing.

The matriarch must have understood what was about to happen, because her eyes widened, she pushed herself to the side and used her massive wings to shield herself from the absolute carnage that followed when the first bullet found its target. The strzygon's head exploded, and the shockwave pushed what remained of its body into the ground while at the same time tearing it apart. Thanks to the extra damage the kinetic energy ripped through the pack as other bullets also hit. Enjoying this book?

Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. The entire hall shook as shockwave burst into shockwave, disintegrating the demons and sending their thick black blood raining down on us all. I was pelted with shards of bone and fragments of stone, but my mana pool—which was completely refilled now—barely took a hit. The strzyga matriarch got slammed into the opposite wall, cracking the stone. Clumps of feathers were missing and strips of flesh hung loosely off her body, shredded by the impact and shrapnel.

I could see her ribs through her wounds as she sagged against the wall and released a wet rattling screech. [Generous Gift +130% Damage] [You have gained 2 levels.] [You have gained 1 skill point.] [You have gained 1 skill upgrade point.] [You have gained 6 stat points.]"Oh my god," I heard someone shout behind me through a variety of terrified screams. I quickly glanced at the pregnant woman behind me. She had her eyes closed and was feverishly praying to Stvora. She seemed unharmed.

I had shielded her from most of the debris with my own body. The sound of claws on stone pulled my attention back to the matriarch. She was on all fours now, black ichor leaking from gaping holes.

"Whooo arreee youuuuu," she hissed. I shook my head. Why would I tell my name to something I was going to kill anyway? I raised the pistol that didn't have any [Push] bullet in it. The matriarch raised a claw.

"Wwait! I hhave something for you. Don't killll mee."

"Yeah you do," I said, then blinked next to her and shot her in the neck with [Clean Entry]. [Generous Gift +135% Damage] [You have gained 1 level.] [You have gained 1 skill point.] [You have gained 3 stat points.] I cast [Headhunter] on the decapitated head.

"I'll take that, thank you very much." I held it next to Bogumir. Funny enough, it was a bit smaller than his.

"You looking for a girlfriend?" I asked him.

"Fuck off," he replied, which made me chuckle. It was so easy to get under his skin. Then I realized it was suddenly very quiet. There was no more screaming, no more praying, nothing. I glanced at the tunnel to see Kasia staring at me with her mouth open. I turned to the pregnant woman who had one eye open and was staring at me like she was expecting me to shoot her in the face next. Everyone in the cage was looking at me wide-eyed and slack-jawed. No one said anything.

"What?" I asked, suddenly feeling self conscious.

"Is there something on my face?" A deep sense of dread filled me.

"It's my hair, isn't it? Something happened to my hair." Softly whimpering, I closed my eyes and slowly moved my hand to the top of my head. If those bastards had made me go bald I would find a way to get into the hells and kill them all over again. I held my breath and cautiously touched my hair. My fingers brushed against the familiar voluminous, silky, now slightly damp locks. It was all there. No bald spots.

"Thank the Goddess," I said, exhaling. The relief was immense. I felt something hard and pulled it out. It appeared to be a tooth. Must have belonged to one of the strzygi. I shrugged and put it in my satchel. I glanced around and everyone was still silently staring at me with stunned faces.

"It's alright. I'm not bald," I said, giving them a reassuring wave. Vasil hopped next to me.

"That was quite impressive, Hecate."

"Was it?" I asked, scratching the back of my head, pulling what appeared to be the tip of a strzygon finger out of my hair. I put that in my satchel as well.

"It was, indeed. You killed about ten strzygi in less than five seconds."

"It was twelve. Thirteen if you count the big one. Felt like more than five seconds."

"I am sure for you it must have. You were quite fast back there. Did you take [Haste]?"

"I did. I didn't want to risk anything happening to Kasia." He smiled.

"Very good."

"What's up with everyone?" I asked, nodding at the people in the cage.

"Why are they all looking at me like that?"

"Well, they probably thought they were going to die. Then you showed up and five seconds later their captors are spread across the hall. I doubt they were expecting to be saved, least of all in such an… explosive manner. They likely believe they just witnessed a miracle."

"Yeah, I could see that. I also wasn't expecting it to be as explody as it was. Those [Push] bullets sure are something. I gotta be careful with those things." I gestured at the destroyed corner, covered in black and tiny bits and pieces.

"I mean, there's barely anything left. Caught me by surprise." My face felt wet and sticky, and I wanted to use my shoulder to wipe some of the demon blood off my face, but I was drenched in it. It wouldn't do much. Vasil laughed.

"No. You. You are the miracle."

"Oh, stop it, you," I said, waving him off.

"A-Are you an angel?" I heard the pregnant woman mutter. I looked down at my demon-soaked kit.

"Uh… This what they usually look like?"