Chương 80: Ambush Predator

Enzo examined the street beyond the barricade. At the other end of the road, a similar car blockade had been put in place. But there were no corpses at that end. Of the houses, only the first two or three closest on either side of the road had been broken into, windows and doors smashed in. There was no way to know if everyone who'd been living here was dead, or if some of them were still alive, huddled and hidden in their homes.

"Pulse." Mana raced outward from where he stood. As with the time he'd tested the range of Bolt, demonstrating it to Val and Sumi just before they crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, the reach of the spell was considerably longer than his spell casting range. Four times longer. And his spell range had doubled since that day. Within a moment of casting, information boxes began to appear over everything, reaching almost eighty meters out in every direction. Enzo focused, filtering out the results he didn't need.

A few seconds later, none remained. The spell hadn't returned anything remotely useful.

"Nothing," he said.

"We can circle back," Signe said quietly.

"Take the next road over. We have time." Enzo shook his head.

"If there are Eaters here, we need to deal with them now. This is too close to home to leave alone." Pops put the kickstand down and climbed off his bike.

"You're sure this was Eaters?" Enzo frowned.

"I can't be certain, but eating the heart is typical Eater behavior."

"But only if the victim was a mage, right?" Pops asked. He unslung his bow, drew an arrow, and held both loosely at his side.

"Beasts might do it too. A large enough predator would go for the organs first."

"Maybe. But the other night, I heard an Eater cry from roughly this direction. From the look of the bodies, the timing probably lines up. And we've seen them eating people without magic." Pops glanced at him. Then he stepped forward carefully, and stopped beside the body draped over the hood of the car. Murph cocked her head, and whined quietly. Everyone else waited. Pops crouched slightly, examining the wounds without touching anything.

He tilted his head, checking the skin discoloration around the torn edges of the chest cavity, then the ground beneath the car where blood had pooled and darkened.

"Less than two days. You could be right." Then Pops gestured at the next body with his chin.

"What about those, though? Definitely claw marks." Enzo dismounted and rolled his bike closer.

"The Tier 1 Eater at the hospital had developed magical claws. But it could be an animal-type Eater. We've seen them before, too." Pops made a face.

"Can't say I'm a fan of that."

"Me either," Enzo said.

"I've been giving it some thought. With human Eaters, targeting the heart and brain is pretty easy. But if a Beast becomes an Eater, and they have small, marble-sized cores instead, does just damaging the heart and brain work against them?" Kenzo stepped over, then positioned himself between Enzo and the other side of the barricade.

"You're thinking a Tier 1 did this?" Kenzo asked.

"Seems likely. We were seeing them on the second day, and it's been months now." Kenzo turned and met his gaze.

"And you're not going to change your mind about this?"

"No," Enzo said.

"It's too risky to ignore any Eater." The others didn't look thrilled, but nobody disagreed with him.

"How are we doing this, then?" Signe asked.

"I'm still trying to figure out proper offensive magic, but I have a decent defensive spell." Enzo examined the scene again. The threat had almost certainly come from the same direction they'd just arrived, and the guy with the missing heart had probably died first. Because it looked like he'd gone down fighting, while those further in had died face down, clearly fleeing the barricade and whatever had come through it. The windows and doors told their own story about what followed.

From what he'd seen at the hospital, the Eaters didn't mind settling down to consume the corpses when they ran out of targets. But the moment they heard or smelled or otherwise sensed a fresh meal, they came running. Enzo turned to his best friend.

"I think you're the bait, big guy." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Kenzo pointed at himself.

"It's because of my dark meat, isn't it?" Signe choked back a laugh. Tricia looked like she wasn't sure if she was allowed to be amused. Kenzo glanced between the others.

"Or is it because I'm the most handsome?" Pops just shook his head. Enzo continued.

"You go ahead first and make a lot of noise. If nothing happens after a while, keep going, and we'll follow behind you."

"And if something does happen?" Tricia asked, pulling her crossbow around and loading a bolt.

"We fight. Or fall back here if there are too many." Kenzo stepped through the narrow gap between the cars. The others moved up, spreading out along the barricade while avoiding the corpse. Pops raised his bow, an arrow already nocked, while Tricia braced her crossbow against her shoulder. Enzo and Signe took up positions between them. He glanced down at Murph.

"Heel. You're on guard duty, okay?" Murph let out a quiet bark, then dropped to the ground beside him, watching under the car. Kenzo walked about ten meters in, then stopped. He cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Hey! Anybody dead out here want a free meal? Big guy, lots of protein!" His voice echoed between the houses, but nothing moved. Kenzo waited a few seconds, then glanced back over his shoulder. Enzo shrugged. Kenzo tried again.

"Come on! I even skipped breakfast! Farm-fresh, organic meat, no preservatives!" Signe lowered her head slightly. Even Enzo struggled not to laugh at the big idiot. They waited, but there was only silence.

"Maybe they left," Signe said quietly. Enzo didn't answer. His gaze moved from house to house, window to window, scanning for any sign of movement. A curtain shifting. A shadow where there shouldn't be one. Anything. Nothing moved. Kenzo looked back again and shrugged.

"Alright, let's go," Enzo said.

"Murph, on me." They grabbed their bikes and wheeled them through the gap one at a time. Pops and Tricia had the most trouble, each trying to keep a weapon ready while maneuvering their rides. They went through first, followed by Signe, with Enzo and Murph bringing up the rear. Kenzo remained out in front, moving steadily toward the barricade at the far end of the street. Everyone's heads were moving. Checking rooftops. Side yards. Open garages. Overgrown hedges and fences swallowed by grass and flowers.

A rustle in a bush to the left and a sudden bark from Murph were the only warnings they got. Something small and fast burst from the undergrowth, tearing across the street in a blur of dark fur and purple eyes. It launched itself into the air toward Kenzo, who was already turning, but half a second too slow. Enzo threw out his right hand.

"Telekinesis." The blur stopped instantly, locked in the air, claws outstretched three feet from Kenzo's throat. Enzo's bike hit the ground with a loud clatter, startling the others. Signe spoke.

"Is that a—" Kenzo didn't pause, converting the momentum of his turn into a wild haymaker.

"Burst!" The cat let out a screech. It began to increase in size, rapidly growing from common housecat to mountain lion, and then larger still all in the span of a single heartbeat. Enzo felt the drain on his mana increase sharply, then cut off entirely as the spell broke. Kenzo's strike connected with the sound of bone cracking. The cat's head snapped around, the force of the blow sending it smashing back to the ground, where it bounced, once, before it suddenly twisted and landed on its feet.

The Eater opened its mouth again and lightning began to gather between its jaws, crackling menacingly. Everyone else reacted at once.

"Reinforce," Kenzo said, tucking low and shielding himself with both arms. Earth mana poured from the big man, as cracked dirt materialized all across his body. Pops nocked, drew, then released with a single, clean motion so practiced that the arrow punched between the cat's ribs before Tricia's bolt joined it a moment later. Signe clapped her hands in the direction of the Eater.

"Crash!" A square-shaped shield snapped into existence between her and the cat, but instead of holding in place, it instantly shot toward the Eater accelerating with each additional clap. The arcane construct slammed into the cat's side hard enough to send it tumbling, before the spell dissipated into a shower of purple fragments. The cat's attack misfired, lightning tearing across the road, sending chunks of asphalt spraying into the air. Enzo aimed, index and middle finger tracking the Eater's head.

Power Bolt was too slow for such a fast, agile enemy. Basic Bolt wouldn't do enough damage to penetrate the creature's enlarged skull.

"Crystal Bolt." A thin, faceted crystal dart formed at his fingertips, widest near the middle before narrowing to a piercing point, then shot toward the cat as it struggled back to its feet. The bolt slammed into the side of its head with a sharp crack, punching an inch into its skull and snapping the Eater's head sideways. It stumbled, then twisted back toward Enzo, purple eyes blazing. Mana pulsed from its paws, manifesting as claws which tore into the road beneath its feet as his spell ran its course.

The crystal broke apart, manifested material returning to mana, leaving behind a bloody hole in its skull. The Eater lowered itself, shoulder muscles rippling and bunching as it readied itself to attack. Pops fired again and an arrow suddenly jutted from the creature's left eye. It leapt toward Enzo anyway, oblivious to the pain, magical claws extended, intending to rend flesh. A black-and-white blur streaked past him.

Beast and Eater collided in midair, then crashed to the road in a snarling, screeching tangle of fur. Murph hit the ground beneath the larger cat, jaws already clamped around its throat.

"No clear shot," Tricia called out, angling the crossbow away. Enzo threw out his hand.

"Telekinesis." This time, he pushed more mana into the spell before it had a chance to resist. The Eater jerked upward, its hindquarters hauled bodily into the air while Murph snarled around its throat and dragged down with all her weight. Kenzo slid into position beside them. He planted his foot, twisted through the hips, and drove his entire body behind a punch aimed at the same side of the Eater's head he'd struck before.

"Earth Burst!" The impact was catastrophic. The cat's skull exploded, spraying fur, black blood, splintered bone, and gray matter through the air.