47
Ch.47 Anger
Yoo Anna had always known that something like this would happen.
Until just a little while ago, she had been waiting for a day she didn’t want to come.
And then, at some point, she stopped waiting.
"Ugh…"
[Two heroes have been defeated! B-rank Kim Hyuk-jun and C-rank Oh Cheol-sik are dead! I repeat! All B-rank and below, evacuate the area immediately! Please wait in the safe zone!]
The urgent transmission cutting through the night fog made Yoo Anna replay the events of just moments ago in her mind.
Seven Crush-class monsters had appeared in District 8, and the heroes on-site had responded to the alert.
Then, along with an emergency alarm, shocking news had echoed through the building.
The Black Cat wasn’t hunting monsters—it was hunting heroes.
"Why…?!"
Could it be that Kim Hyuk-jun and Oh Cheol-sik had secretly been up to no good?
For a brief moment, guilt washed over her for doubting her fellow heroes—her comrades—but Yoo Anna refused to believe the Black Cat had done this without reason.
Maybe there was some misunderstanding. No, why would the Black Cat start hunting humans now?
That thing used to just eat beef. Why?
Thorn-like thoughts twisted painfully in her head.
This was stupid.
The Black Cat was a monster.
"Now, of all times…!"
With a sonic boom trailing at her feet, Yoo Anna shot toward District 8, biting her lip.
In the end, this was how it had to be.
She must have known, deep down, that this was what monsters were like.
The Black Cat was a monster that devoured humans.
Monsters deceive—only fools fall for it.
She should never have trusted it.
And yet, even Yoo Anna had thought the Black Cat was different.
Like an idiot, she had believed in it.
She, the hero who should have been the greatest threat to the Black Cat in W-City, had let her guard down.
[The B-Black Cat… The shelter… Ah…]
This was the result.
The operator sighed as she watched the footage from the scene.
Just the word shelter was enough to tell her what was happening.
The Black Cat had found it and was tearing into it—like a lunchbox filled with human meat.
A shelter under attack by a Despair-class monster like the Black Cat wouldn’t last more than a minute.
To a Despair-class monster, a shelter was nothing more than an annoying fruit peel.
No—maybe not even that.
Because the Black Cat had Devourer, the ability it gained from devouring heroes.
[Life signals detected… Correction—current fatalities… Shelter No. 21 in District 8, all occupants deceased. Registered occupants… 52 total. Five children, 47 adults.]
"Aaaaaaah!"
At the transmission in her ear, Yoo Anna screamed and accelerated even faster.
Disgust at herself forever finding such a monster cute. Guilt that people were dying because of her. Betrayal—by the Black Cat.
Betrayal? What had she even been trusting in the first place?
The night sky blurred past her. The moment the Black Cat had landed before her, it vanished like a distant cloud left far behind.
A monster that protected heroes. A monster that protected children. A monster that protected humans.
A monster that stayed still when she petted its head. A monster that cried cutely. A monster that understood words. A monster that didn’t attack humans.
The Black Cat was a monster.
What the hell had she been expecting from it?
And yet, she had wanted to believe.
Why?
As District 8 came into view, Yoo Anna accelerated even more toward the black figure in the distance.
Accelerating—accelerating. Among S-rank heroes, Yoo Anna was renowned for her destructive power and flight speed. The technique she often used when making first contact with a monster.
A fall from the sky—Meteor Fall.
Between her stretched vision, her hero senses took in the horrific sight she didn’t want to see.
A black cat chewing on the corpses of several children, their eyes unfocused. The bisected remains of heroes are scattered around it. People who seemed to have been killed just for fun.
All of them—dead.
Weak humans were snacks for monsters. Monsters were humanity’s natural predators—humanity’s enemies.
"BLACK CAAAAAAT!"
"Kyyaaoooh?!"
BOOOOM!
Yoo Anna’s foot slammed into the black monster’s body as she crashed down, kicking aside the shredded remains of people turned into lumps of meat.
The moment the cat’s cry rang out, she felt a hollow sensation, as if she had stomped on empty air.
Sssshhk—
The Black Cat, dispersed into black mist, reassembled itself in front of her.
"Nyahaa…"
"You… You…!"
Grind.
Clenching her teeth, Yoo Anna forced her chaotic thoughts into cold focus.
Her tightly clenched fist trembled as white flames swelled around it.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Engulfed in flames up to her head, Yoo Anna swung her fist at the Black Cat.
"Now, of all times! You—YOUU!"
If this was how it was going to be, why did you help me back then?
No—I know. Because you’re a monster.
Is it because you think you can take me on now?
Because after eating all those other monsters, you finally think you can beat me? Because now’s your chance?
In the end, the Black Cat started hunting humans because Yoo Anna was weak.
These people died because Yoo Anna was weak.
Yoo Anna trusted the Black Cat because she was weak.
She was still weak.
Still.
"AAAAAAAH!"
Covering her entire body in superheated plasma, Yoo Anna charged at the Black Cat as it scattered like mist.
The technique that had made her nickname Eraser even more infamous—a sphere of destruction that would melt any monster below Despair-class just by approaching her.
Even if she had to destroy the entire city with her own hands, she would kill this Despair-class monster.
Before it could slaughter every human in this city.
Grrrrrl—
The space along Yoo Anna’s trajectory melted and collapsed.
As if replacing the tears that had dried up from betrayal, steam rose into the sky, and the ground turned to glass, shimmering.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Stretching both hands toward the Black Cat, who was fleeing with another ability—Shadow Mist—Yoo Anna summoned lightning from the Guryongseong into her body. A technique she had refined after realizing she could channel lightning-like energy into plasma.
An improved version of her technique, was created solely to strike the fleeing Black Cat.
Homing Flare.
The light shot from Yoo Anna’s hand curved through the night sky, chasing the Black Cat’s flickering form.
"Nyaaaaahk!"
Ping! Ppang!
The moment the flare struck, it exploded inside the Black Cat’s body. Letting out a pained screech, the monster twisted and clung to a building’s wall.
Baring its fangs at Yoo Anna, its bladed tail lashed wildly—as if it would pounce any second.
Then—Fwoop!—the tail sank into a window.
A hole tore open in the night sky behind Yoo Anna as blades shot out.
The blades burst in front of her—Shwaak!—scattering into tiny fragments that spread like mist before embedding themselves into Yoo Anna’s body.
"Nyahahaha~"
The Black Cat’s laughter, thinking it had landed a hit on a careless Yoo Anna.
But Yoo Anna sneered at the monster for daring to laugh at something so pathetic, letting the blade fragments—unable to pierce her flame barrier—melt and fall to the ground.
"Did you really think… That just because you got a few new abilities… You could beat me now?"
You stupid thing—was this all you had before attacking humans?
Unable to suppress her boiling rage and regret, Yoo Anna’s voice shook as she drew a circle in the air.
A circular saw blade, shining like the sun—a new technique she had developed while researching ways to amplify the destructive power of her flares.
The Solar Ring, originally prepared for a different Despair-class monster, began spinning rapidly in midair.
"You’re delusional! You stupid bastard!"
Yoo Anna overlapped two rings, spinning them in opposite directions.
Tiny spheres of destruction, just like Yoo Anna herself, orbited around her.
Satellite Sun.
As she launched miniature suns the same way she did her flares, the Black Cat—sensing danger—turned into shadow mist again.
Shwaak!
The spheres melted holes through buildings as they pursued the Black Cat, followed by curved beams of light.
Dodging the destructive light filling the air—Bang! Bang!—The Black Cat flickered through the sky, bursting black mist with each teleport.
Then, Yoo Anna appeared in front of it.
"...Die."
The Black Cat’s eyes widened as it looked up at the sun overlapping the moon.
In that instant, Yoo Anna’s tightly clenched fist smashed into the monster’s head.
BOOOOM!
A pillar of fire bore through the underground, leaving behind a glass-lined vertical tunnel glowing on the surface.
Above, in the scorching steam that incinerated even embers, Yoo Anna radiated killing intent, spreading waves of energy.
The Black Cat was a monster that would flee rather than fight to the death.
The moment its head should have exploded from Yoo Anna’s punch, it vanished.
If she failed to kill it here and now, W-City would be subjected to the Black Cat’s one-sided war of attrition.
Just as Yoo Anna had chased but never caught the Black Cat before, each repetition of its playful human hunts would only increase the casualties.
Crrrk—
Clenching her fists until they nearly broke, Yoo Anna once again realized just how troublesome the Black Cat was as a foe—and cursed herself for not dealing with it sooner.
She shouldn’t have let her guard down just because the Black Cat seemed to respond well to her act—shouldn’t have thought it was cute.
She would kill it now.
Whoom! Whoom! WHOOOM!
Spreading waves to locate the hidden Black Cat, Yoo Anna sensed the monster’s presence on the roof of a cracked building and shot upward.
The reaction was far too weak for a Despair-class monster—but that was the Black Cat’s nature.
Sure enough, when she reached the roof, the Black Cat was there—eyes brimming with bloodlust.
"DIIIIE!"
BOOOOM!
As Yoo Anna thrust her fist forward, the Black Cat sank into the shadows, dodging.
This time, anticipating the ability, Yoo Anna stared at the shadow slithering beneath the horizontal pillars of fire she had painted across the sky.
She raised a finger—and pulled the sun she had left below the building upward.
Whoooom—
The silent ascent of the sun melted and severed half the shadow.
The Black Cat, writhing in pain, burst out from within it.
"Grrrrrl…"
The Black Cat’s body turned translucent, like a cloud obscuring the moonlight—an ability to phase through objects.
But Yoo Anna’s flames burned through abilities.
Whoosh.
As the Black Cat sank into the building, Yoo Anna lowered the sun after it, dragging the monster back out in front of her.
"I won’t… Fall for it… Anymore!"
BOOOM!
A pillar of fire pierced through the Black Cat’s lower body, blasting another hole into the ground.
"I won’t… Let you kill anyone else!"
One after another, wounds tore into the Black Cat’s body as it failed to evade the pursuing sun.
"WHY?! WHY?! If this was how it was going to be—WHY?!"
CRACKLE!
The flames of destruction rained down toward the ground.
The Black Cat, its head blown apart, landed.
Right in front of a shelter that had already been ripped open—a metal case covered in claw and fang marks, filled with blood and chunks of meat.
The Black Cat, standing before it, lowered its half-destroyed head toward the human flesh and blood.
As Yoo Anna raised her fist, gathering energy to unleash, a fleeting image passed through her mind—the Black Cat sniffing at beef.
Had even that been an act?
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOUUUU?!"
An emotion no hero should ever feel—betrayal by a monster.
Furious at herself for falling for it again, Yoo Anna’s fist, brimming with rage, shot toward the Black Cat.
To kill it in this single strike, she enveloped her entire body in a massive pressure of flames—
[Ooooooooh!!]
The moment the Black Cat let out a deafening roar, the surrounding space distorted.
Just as Yoo Anna controlled her flares, the Black Cat—wreathed in flames and wind—created a wall of heat, dispersing her energy.
A new defensive measure against the long-range attacks Yoo Anna had developed to chase it.
Just as Yoo Anna grew stronger, so did the Black Cat.
But at point-blank range, her flames could still—no, they could inflict even more fatal wounds now.
[OOOOOOH!!]
"Gh—?!"
As Yoo Anna tried to rush the Black Cat again, the ever-growing roar made her halt her energy for a split second.
A sound that shook space—no, an ability overlaid on the roar.
The sound itself hardened, carrying force far and wide.
Spreading the cry across the entirety of W-City.
[OOOOOOOH!!]
"...What?"
Whooom! Whooom!
Just as Yoo Anna did when chasing monsters, a massive wave erupted from the Black Cat’s body, spreading through the entire city.
Feeling the vibrations, Yoo Anna’s expression stiffened with an indescribable emotion.
The monster’s pulse striking her body was telling her one thing,
The Black Cat is angry.