"Hey, Ironarm, where exactly are we going?!"
As she fought her way forward, Gavo asked coldly.
Griffin pointed at the tower ahead.
"There. We're going to find the Planetary Defence Force."
Gavo's gaze shifted. Looking at that towering structure, a question flashed through her mind.
Would the Planetary Defence Force really help them?
After all, this kind of mutation could not possibly have built up in a short time.
Looking at the nearly endless horde of madmen before them, she dared to conclude that half of the northern district had already been corrupted by the power of Chaos and had hidden themselves underground in advance.
And yet, faced with a disaster on this scale, the Planetary Defence Force so close at hand had done nothing all this time...
There were far too many things about that worth thinking about.
"Will they really help us?"
Gavo could not help asking.
"They have to."
Griffin narrowed his eyes, and a nearly deranged light flashed within them.
It was a survival light similar to Gavo's, but even more extreme, the sort of gaze only the fiercest and most solitary beasts possessed.
It meant that this lone wolf would use absolutely any means necessary to survive.
What Gavo, who was fighting on the front line, did not know was that the rear she thought was safe was currently under heavy attack.
Those things that had only known mindless slaughter before had suddenly grown clever for some reason. They gave up on the two hard bones, Gavo and Griffin, and instead focused their assault on the rear of the formation.
Rabbit-Mouth held an iron pipe in one hand and pushed the cart carrying Gavo's adoptive father aside from a savage charge, then barely blocked a sudden strike from a twin-bladed freak drenched in blood.
"Wuwuwu, Uncle, there's something I've always wanted to tell you. You're the best person I've ever met."
"I was stupid before. I cursed at you, and I even threw rocks at you. I'm really, really sorry, wuwuwu."
"I'm scared that if we both die in a minute, I'll never get the chance to say this, wuwuwu..."
Rabbit-Mouth cried and blurted out those strangely heartfelt words while desperately struggling to fend off the monster's relentless attacks.
But he was too weak. In less than ten exchanges, a tremendous force smashed into him, splitting open both his palms, and the battered iron pipe in his hands finally broke into two pieces.
As the monster approached with a vicious grin, Rabbit-Mouth's heart hardened, and he stepped in front of Gavo's adoptive father.
He was crippled trash among trash, a defective product among the lower class.
From the day he was born until now, he had suffered contempt and torment. Aside from Mir and the others, nobody had ever treated him like a human being...
As the bloodied twin blades swept closer, endless fear filled his eyes.
Yes, he was afraid of death. After all, he was still just an underage child, a piece of scum who had not lived nearly enough.
...
He felt like an idiot.
Why was he standing in front of that guy's father?
Just because that man had once given him a can of food and a bottle of water?
Or just because that man had treated him like a person?
...
The wind from the blades brushed against Rabbit-Mouth's face, and tears instantly burst from his eyes.
He felt sure that the sight of himself standing in front of someone else while his legs shook like sieves had to look ridiculous.
But even as urine soaked down his thighs, he still gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand straighter.
At least, in the end, he would die in front of the uncle who had treated him like a human being.
At this moment, Rabbit-Mouth was not trash. He was not a cripple.
He was a living, breathing person.
Splurt!
Blood sprayed everywhere.
"AAAAAAAH!"
Rabbit-Mouth let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.
He felt hot blood splatter across his face.
It was over. This time he was really dead.
"Rabbit-Mouth, get your head straight!"
A low shout snapped Rabbit-Mouth out of it, his legs still warm and trembling.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw that the twin-bladed freak had already started going in two different directions.
Judging by the spiral-shaped break at the neck, its head had been twisted off alive.
As the headless corpse slowly collapsed, the towering figure behind it came into view, his body bristling with all kinds of embedded weapons.
"Boss Mir!"
Rabbit-Mouth looked at Mir, and tears immediately started pouring out again.
"How come you call Mask boss, call Ironarm boss, and call me boss too...?"
Mir looked at Rabbit-Mouth helplessly, then casually raised the severed head in his hand and hurled it into a howling attacker in the distance, smashing it to its knees.
Then, with a roar, he charged into the oncoming monsters like a ferocious beast.
He did not have Gavo's speed. He did not have her combat technique, nor her talent that let her ignore pain.
But his vitality was horrifying. Wounds that would have been fatal to anyone else were nothing more than scratches to him.
And on top of that, he was one of the very few people Gavo knew whose raw strength actually surpassed hers, even with Infinite Growth.
The monsters drove their weapons into Mir's granite-hard body, only to discover in shock that they could no longer pull them back out.
Under the contraction of Mir's monstrously dense muscles, those weapons became like steel welded into his invincible body.
And once they lost their weapons, those creatures became like beasts deprived of their claws and fangs, left to be pounded into meat paste beneath the giant's destructive fists.
Watching Mir fight like he was borrowing weapons from the enemy, Rabbit-Mouth said worriedly,
"Boss Mir, be careful. Don't die."
Mir had no face skin, so he could not twitch his lips. Instead, he rolled his eyes.
Then he yanked a decent weapon from his own body and tossed it over to Rabbit-Mouth.
The others nearby looked at Mir, full of wounds yet still leaping around like nothing had happened, and for a moment they could not tell which side the real monster was on.
With Mir anchoring the rear, the pressure on the breakout formation started to ease.
At last, under Griffin's lead, the First Warband, now with more than half its people lost, reached the purification tower.
Griffin anxiously looked up toward the top of the towering structure, waiting for the Planetary Defence Force stationed there to make some kind of move.
But nothing happened.
Even with crowds of madmen gathering beneath the purification tower, they made no move at all.
They did not even lower an elevator platform.
"Damn those bastards!"
Griffin was furious, but he still forced down his anger and shouted as calmly as he could,
"Officers of the Planetary Defence Force, we're a strike team from the Tearblood Gang!"
"Look down here! The situation is critical. Can you help us, or at least let us up there?!"
After Griffin shouted, there was still no response from above.
In their despair, the madmen they had barely shaken off came surging toward them once more.
Just as they were preparing for a final desperate stand, a lazy voice finally drifted down from above:
"Oh, so it's a strike team from the Tearblood Gang."
"And what exactly is it you want from us?"
"Scum."
(End of Chapter)
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