“This seems to be its turf. What do you say we kill it so that nothing will ambush us from the back?” Tuilë proposed nonchalantly.

“Yes, let’s evade— Wait, what?!”

“Kill it. I think I said that loud and clear.”

“Wait, wait, wait! That thing could kill us in one attack!”

Just then, there were several white humanoid freaks like the one that attacked Raymond’s village roaming about. The mosquito quickly swooped in, stabbed one of them with its huge proboscis, and brought it to the sky before sucking it dry of bodily fluid in less than a second.

I clenched my hands into fists; this was worse than I had previously thought. Intrigued and a bit frightened, I checked its information through the status screen.

Species: Blood mosquito (mutant)
Sex: Male
Age: 5 years old
Height: 604 cm
Source Level: Second Order
Source Element(s): None

Stats:

• STR: D (47)
• AGI: D (55)
• VIT: D- (43)
• SRC: D (46)
• SPR: E (32)

Accumulation Points: 22 [D]

It’s only a Second-Order mutated monster. According to my calculations, it shouldn’t be impossible to take it down with our weapons. Besides, the environment around us could provide cover for us since it wasn’t an open field.

“Alright. But I want half of the source crystal,” I stipulated.

“That’s fair. Now, you just have to take a position somewhere and shoot it when the time is right. Aim for its weakness — its head. I’m much faster compared to you, so I’ll lure it.”

“Mm. I’ll find a good spot to hide.” I gave my confirmation with a nod.

There were a bunch of buildings cloistering about in the area. It shouldn’t be difficult to hide while targeting the disproportionally large mosquito.

With that in mind, we acted in accordance with the plan, and I ran into one of the five-story empty buildings. It wasn’t completely empty, however, filled with mutant rats, but they scurried away once I stabbed one of them with my hunting knife — showing who was the predator here was enough to scare them away. Then, I quickly took a position on the highest floor.

“Crap, I forgot there’s no scope for this gun…” Although it didn’t matter at this distance, I had to aim extra carefully.

“Maxim. I’m detecting several of those white monstrosities from earlier coming this way. The noise you caused must have attracted them,” Lunaria suddenly commented.

She had been hiding inside my backpack all this time, barely chirping a sound. Now that the watch of other people wasn’t present, she must have used this chance to shine.

“Seriously? Where are they?”

“They’ve already entered the building; I suggest we change location.”

“No, let’s kill them all.” I cocked my gun, ejecting the bullet inside. Whoops.

For one reason or another, I was extremely indignant at these creatures. Perhaps driven by Raymond’s remaining ego, or simply mine, I wanted to eradicate them all and end their suffering.

The room I was in only had one small entrance, I could use that to my advantage by making a blockade and leaving a hole just large enough for me to shoot at them. In case things got ugly, I’d secured an escape route from the window beside me.

That said, I moved the drawer to the side and blocked the door. All that was left was for the enemy to get here—

“Human… Presence…” The first to appear growled, forcefully tearing open the upper section of the door and peering inside through the gaping hole.

“Oh, shoot!” While somewhat perplexed by the sudden outburst, I still managed to point my rifle forward and pulled the trigger.

“You have to sever its head to kill it,” was what Raymond’s dad said in the past, so I promptly did that.

The bullet was shot out from the barrel of the rifle and severed my enormous assailant’s head from its body. Taste that, you freak! Haha!

But it didn’t just end there, more of them were trying to get into the room, thrusting their arms inside to get me. Every time, I shot at their long neck, killing them one by one — their corpses worked as extra sandbags.

They were thankfully weak and weren’t even at First Order, but there were several bigger ones at that stage mixed in, making it dangerous. The door, even parts of the wall, collapsed under the pressure of the larger ones.

“Die!” I pulled the pin of the grenade and threw it at the approaching large freaks while simultaneously jumping into the window that led outside.

The grenade exploded as I held on to a railing right outside the window. The wind pressure as well as the smoke coming out from the window almost blew me away. Almost. It was truly a split-second difference.

“Crap. I forgot about Tuilë” I tried looking for her while getting back into the building.

At this time, she was being frantically chased by the mutant mosquito, but she was able to keep the distance between them throughout the chase. In fact, she was able to counterattack with her gun, but it wasn’t as powerful as I had initially anticipated. Or maybe the monster was just that strong.

The entrance to the room was now choke-full of those white freaks, but I didn’t bother to rummage through to gather source crystals and instead went to backup Tuilë. I only had to find that one exact moment when they were the closest for me to shoot. The only problem was that she didn’t know where I was located.

To give a signal for her to follow, I asked Lunaria to turn off Luna-1’s strode lamp at Tuilë periodically. She was quick to notice and lured the mosquito to this place. It was easier for me to aim for its head because I was higher, so I would try to give it a critical injury.

Wait…

My heart was palpitating under the immense gravity of the importance entrusted to me, loud enough that I heard it clearly, which in turn made me all the more anxious; the gun almost slipping out from my sweaty hands.

Now!

I pulled the trigger at the giant mosquito that was only two dozen or so meters away from me. To my horror, the mosquito was able to detect me and react in time. It rose higher into the air, but the bullet was too fast for it to dodge at close range, thus piercing its body.

“H-How?!” I could feel my mouth falling, unable to accept the fact of what was happening before me.

I had miscalculated its speed. At closer range, it was even faster than seeing it from afar.

“You know, mosquitoes have a wide vision that can cover their whole perimeter,” answered Lunaria.

“Thank you for the needless information, Ms. Obvious.” I quickly pulled myself deeper into the room, dashing toward the entrance.

But because of that one shot, the mosquito changed its target toward me. It forced its way into the small window, breaking it apart at every moment. Its long, lance-like proboscis would have stabbed me if I didn’t slide on time.

Although it was safer to stay inside the building, this building had been abandoned for god knew how long. It would crumble under immense pressure from a giant mosquito and especially after the assault of the white freaks before.

Fortunately, I had a couple of grenades left with me as my ace in the hole, but before I was able to use them, the mosquito had gotten in — well, it was mostly its head and part of its body. In response to that, I put all my strength to escape, vaulting the mountain of monster corpses littered before me and the entrance in a single leap.

I ran and ran, jumping out onto the roof of the other buildings. But then I realized that it didn’t follow me here. No matter the reason, I kept running until I was some distance away from the first building that I stopped to catch my breath.

“Why the fuck is it so strong?!” I was panting heavily, about to collapse if not for the rifle that acted as support.

“Hey, you okay?” A voice appeared right next to my ear, followed by an intense electric shock on my back.

“AAAHH!!” My formerly exhausted body was immediately straightened and energized, like a sharp tremor coursing through my body. “Tuilë… What was that just now?! I thought I was electrocuted.”

“Hehe, it’s my source power.” There was electricity crackling in her raised palm. “It’s good at getting rid of fatigue… Oops, I digressed.”

“Next time, please warn me before you do that. So, what do we do now?”

“Well, it is heavily injured after I kited it for a few minutes. Why weren’t you shooting? And I heard a loud explosion noise from where you were at.” She had one of her hands on her hip, looking a bit annoyed by the whole ordeal.

“Some of the white freaks chased me into the building…” I told her the whole story of what had transpired.

“White freaks? Ohhh, those mutant people. That sucks. The mosquito must be sucking them dry right now…” Tuilë suddenly stared at me with concern and raised her voice. “Wait! You are fine, aren’t you?”

“Y-Yeah. I’m all fine. Why?”

She heaved a sigh of relief and explained, “Well, be careful when fighting them as they carry the red fog inside their body that they could use to transform people into one of them… And since you’re not yet a source user, you have no resistance at all.”

“I-I see?” Ah… No wonder the inhabitants of Raymond’s village got…

“But,” she added, “this is our chance.”  

“Our chance?” I puzzled over her words, my brows furrowing as I tried to grasp her meaning.

“Mm-hmm.” Tuilë put her gun on her shoulder. “That thing will be full to the brim for sucking too many at once. We just have to poke its belly to kill it.”

“Oooh!” I clapped my hands; having someone that knew the inhabitants here was so useful.

“Alright. This is the plan…”

After listening to what she had to say about taking down the mosquito, we returned to the first building. Just as expected, the mosquito had its belly swelled like it was pregnant with something its size. Putting a hole through its stomach would be enough to cause a fatal injury.

“Let’s begin.”

Tuilë began charging her electromagnetic gun and aimed at the unaware mosquito, but it didn’t take long for it to notice. All I had to do was to draw its attention to me in the meantime.

On closer inspection, the mosquito was riddled with numerous small and big wounds. I had underestimated the fatality of Tuilë’s gun — it was almost as powerful as my semi-automatic rifle, but it seemed to work differently.

“Hey!” I shouted at the mosquito, making all sorts of movements to annoy it. “Come here, you little shit! You think that the corpses you just dined on were free? Pay me with your life, fool!”

Even though the mosquito didn’t understand what I was saying, it ignored Tuilë’s presence and went to chase me. Unlike before, however, it was slowed down by its bulging stomach, and it could only exhibit half its speed.

Tuilë had told me that she needed about thirty seconds to charge her weapon to the maximum, so I used that chance to dash into the alleyway, using it to circle around the complex while continuously shooting at the mosquito from a safe distance. Each well-aimed shot perforated the bloated abdomen, causing blood to ooze out.

The narrow confines of the alleyway restricted the mosquito’s movement, making it difficult for the creature to navigate through the tight space. Cutting through the wind, I employed a kiting strategy, darting in and out, making sharp turns, and maintaining a safe distance while peppering the mosquito with shots.

As I neared the end of my square trail, almost thirty seconds had elapsed, and I could see the finish line ahead. But what I didn’t expect was that the mosquito was now in front of me; it was hovering in place as if anticipating my arrival.

I braced myself and aimed my rifle at it, but in a flash, something ruptured its body, causing a large hole with a diameter taller than me to burst open from its stomach.

As its body slowly crumpled to the ground, a rain of blood and bodily fluid appeared. Droplets of green and red liquid dyed the ground yellowish green.

Tuilë’s gun was amazing, to say the least; it shot just like a cannon. Loud and deafening.

Sucking in a deep breath, I took cover while still admiring the sight before me. Although only the red fog was capable of infecting and transforming people, the liquid that the mosquito had sucked came from the white freaks, so I was just playing it safe.