49
Ch.49 Bad Cats
Already, more than 10 people inside the shelter have died.
The more they eat humans, the stronger their superpower output becomes.
Each of them is still individually weaker than me—Despair-class… But if this continues.
There’s no time.
The longer this drags on, the worse it gets for me.
I land on the rooftop of a deserted city, where a cold wind blows, and quietly suppress my core.
To avoid detection by them, while simultaneously sensing them so I can rush out the moment they appear.
Mixing the abilities of a monster’s physical body—its fur—into my transformation, I puff up my spiky, needle-like fur.
Holding my breath, I focus on every speck of dust in the air—when suddenly, something my size is sensed far away.
I immediately release all tension in my body and leap toward the ground.
Embracing the earth, I sink silently into the ground and flow through it like water. Then, from a hidden shelter, a sweet scent of fear tickles my nose.
The direction of the sweetest smell is where they are.
"Kroooar!"
"Nyaaaoo!"
The moment I burst from the ground, I charge straight at them.
The one tearing open the shelter’s outer shell leaps into the air as if accustomed to this, vanishing with a poof before reappearing, clinging to a building’s shattered window.
"H-Hiiik! Hiiit…!"
"H-Huuk…! Uuugh…!"
The sound of people sobbing leaks through the cracks of the broken shelter. The shelter’s outer shell can withstand pure pressure for over three minutes, even against an Annihilation-class monster. But the moment a Despair-class or higher uses their superpower, it becomes nothing more than a wooden plank that can’t even last a minute.
That brief moment is an alarm signaling their location. I must follow the sound of their claws scraping against the shelter or the wavelength of their power and arrive before it’s too late.
This time, I wasn’t late… But the real problem starts now.
The time limit is 30 seconds. If I don’t kill that annoying bastard within that time, Starlight will arrive.
"Nyahahaha!"
Having experienced this multiple times, the bastard knows this too well. It disappears into thin air with poof, poof, repeating its escape.
Even if I detect its core’s wavelength and lunge toward its escape path, it creates tiny spatial rifts to vanish again.
Experiencing firsthand just how infuriating it is to chase a fast-running enemy, I wreathe myself in lightning and slash with my claws.
Zzzzzt!
In an instant, my body turns into particles, tearing through space and materializing in front of the bastard—only to slash at it with lightning.
Then, another one appears beside the lightning-struck bastard and lunges at me.
"Nyaaoo!"
"Grrrr…!"
Schlick!
I dodge the wide-sweeping tail and claws, along with the torn space, landing safely on the ground as the two monsters cling to the wall, glaring down at me.
This is one of the reasons why I’m so pissed.
Two Despair-class monsters—not one. Every time it seems like there’s only one, the moment I chase it and leave an opening, the other appears out of nowhere to attack me.
"Nyahahaha!"
"Kuhohohoho!"
Their mocking laughter. The chance to kill one of them is already gone.
If I chase after two Despair-class monsters, I’ll die. But right now, they can’t kill me either.
In five seconds, Starlight will arrive.
Knowing this, they don’t recklessly charge at me, maintaining a safe distance instead.
"Kyarrrr…!"
Now comes the most infuriating part.
If I leave first to avoid Starlight? The remaining bastards will attack the shelter.
If I stay to protect the shelter? They’ll flee far away, hiding their presence, and I’ll get attacked by Starlight.
If I get injured, they’ll secretly stalk me to hunt me down. If I escape successfully, they’ll move on to the next shelter.
This is a vicious cycle—a battle of attrition between me, the two monsters, and Starlight.
The moment I realized this, I tried to team up with Starlight.
Communication—if I speak now, they might think a high-intelligence monster is deceiving them, backfiring. But trying is better than not trying at all.
However, the moment I attempted to talk, the bastards used an superpower from afar to silence me.
The result? Starlight, who still sees me as just another monster, attacks.
If I don’t counterattack, maybe they’ll notice something’s off and stop?
But the moment I’m injured, the two monsters will start chasing me.
That’s no good either.
What if I change my form and tell Starlight that I’m Black Cat and that the others are different monsters?
The moment I transform, the bastards will split—one will hold me down while the other goes off to hunt humans.
If Starlight catches them, they’ll hide their presence and vanish like I do—and I’ll end up getting attacked again.
To chase them without being detected, I need to maintain my cat form.
To escape Starlight safely without getting hurt, too.
But in this form, the only superpowers I can use are ones they can block.
If they overpower me, humans die.
If humans die, they grow stronger.
The stronger they get, the more I’m overpowered.
No matter how much this vicious cycle repeats, there’s nothing I can do.
"Grrrr…"
These monsters are weird.
No matter what I do, they counter everything.
Almost like they’ve studied how to deal with me.
"Nyaaaoo~!"
"Kroooong!"
Then, the two monsters staring at me let out laughter-like cries before quickly vanishing into the shadows.
Like how I erase my core’s wavelength when escaping, the two monsters do the same—just as Starlight descends like a meteor in front of me.
BOOOOM!
Landing with an explosive sound, Starlight stares at me silently, her superpower radiating killing intent.
"Grrrr…"
And I, preparing to escape from Starlight… Freeze in place.
A hunch—something instinctual—whispers in my ear.
Kill Starlight. Eat her.
Then, I’ll be the strongest here.
If killing Starlight is too hard—what if, while I’m still slightly faster than them, I eat the humans before they do?
To save more humans, a few must die.
To save humans, I must kill humans.
"Grrrrrr…"
Chasing ideals won’t accomplish anything.
To survive, I must choose reality.
The worst or the lesser evil.
No—this isn’t that kind of choice.
Between monster and human…
"...Black Cat."
Baring my fangs, I clench my front paws, ready to move—when suddenly, Starlight, who had been silently glaring at me, suppresses her superpower.
Gulp.
Swallowing dryly, Starlight exudes a scent of mixed emotions, crushing a button on her hero suit with her hand.
Her other hand slowly extends—not in the form of a technique used for long-range interception.
"Tell me… I was wrong."
The height of her trembling hand—the same as when she tried to pat my head before.
A desperate scent radiates from Starlight as she plead,
"Tell me I was wrong, that it wasn’t you… Who attacked people!"
Begging, yet simultaneously ready to stab me again at any moment.
"Please, I’m begging you!"
The moment I hear those words, my conversation with Yoo Hyena flashes through my mind.
If you chase ideals because reality is painful, nothing will improve.
Starlight, who attacked me, is the first to clear up the misunderstanding and reach out—this situation is too ideal for me.
So, I don’t even hesitate.
I unclench my front paws and lower my body again.
[Oooooooh!]
"Eek…!"
Letting out a loud cry to draw attention, I charge at Starlight.
At that moment, Starlight, eyes tightly shut, reveals despair—swinging the fist she had hidden behind her back.
I slash past Starlight, gritting my teeth.
"Huh…?"
As I create distance, Starlight looks at me—her fist having pierced straight through my stomach—with a complicated expression.
"Just now… You deliberately missed? Why…?"
"Ghk, kuh, kgh…"
"B-Black…?"
A wound that won’t regenerate. Shredded organs. Blood gushing from my throat.
Vibrating my monster core intensely, I sink into the shadows and flee.
Starlight noticed it.
When I vibrate my core again, Starlight responds by emitting her own wavelength.
That’s it. Don’t lose track of me.
"Black Cat!"
In the daily cycle of chase and escape, Starlight has learned to track me—no matter how much I suppress my core’s vibration—through the chaotic reflection of her wavelength.
Barely regenerating my wounded body, I swim through the earth, leaving a trail of blood.
Dodging Starlight, I circle once before diving deeper—shaking her off.
Further in, widening the distance.
Descending into the deep underground, I hear the creaking of space in the pitch-black earth.
At the same time, the wavelength of a monster core spreads through the ground.
They’ve come for me, wounded.
Unlike me, who need to materialize to deal decisive blows, they tear through space in their shadow state to attack.
"Ghk…!"
I try to swallow them whole in my shadow form, but they isolate space to block me.
Even attempting to devour the torn space, gghk, gghk—the sound of steel bending clashes with superpowers.
Our powers are equal in output—but there are two of them, not one.
Every time a chunk of space is erased like a footprint, another wound tears into my spine.
Their laughter echoes amid the intensifying stench of blood.
"Nyahahaha!"
"Kroooar!"
Ooooooh!
Spreading a wide wavelength—a warning not to come closer—the two monsters circle me underground, accelerating the speed at which they tear into me.
Like a scream, the wavelength spreads wider, drowning out their own signals in the noise.
Above, sensing the reflected ripples, I surge toward the surface.
"Grrrr…"
I emerge in the center of the cold, lifeless city—where people have hidden in shelters these past few days.
The two monsters, rising like smoke from the shadows, bare their fangs and laugh at my bloodied state.
"Nyahahaha!"
"Kghhu!"
The two Despair-class monsters charge to end my life.
The moment a monster is most excited is right before a successful hunt.
I instantly regenerate my hidden wounds, transform into a shadow, and burst from beneath one of them—biting into its neck.
Poof!
The bastard vanishes into black smoke just before its neck is torn out, fleeing into the air—only for a massive hole to blast through its body.
"Nyat…?!"
A tiny sun.
The monster’s cry mixes with the sound of bloody foam as hidden heroes unleash their powers simultaneously.
Unlike monsters, human superpower humans presence is hard to detect.
Had Starlight not deliberately resonated with my widely spread wavelength, I wouldn’t have been able to escape here.
"Bad Cats confirmed!"
"They really were different monsters!"
"These goddamn bastards!"
A-rank, B-rank heroes—all of them—with Starlight at the center, spinning a miniature sun.
Every superpower human in W-City fires their powers at the two monsters.
"Krooooooar!"
"Nyaaaaaa!"
Telekinesis for direct restraint. Air manipulation for crushing pressure. Lightning formed from combined electrical powers. Beam cannons. Flames. Soundwaves grating on a monster’s nerves.
Amid the storm of mixed abilities, I use powerful telekinesis to pin the monsters in place.
Yoo Anna leaps into the storm, burning all her power to create a space where nothing exists.
Absurd flames that ignore all resistance, delivering unbearable pain.
The sun that kills monsters.
A sphere that erases them silently, swallowing even sound, now heads for the two monsters.
Even Despair-class monsters can’t evade this fatal blow.
At that moment, the larger monster bites the wounded one—hurling it toward the tiny sun.
"Nyaaaaaa!"
"Kgh!"
Poof!
A pained cry as the tiny sun grazes the wounded monster’s body, releasing black smoke like a smokescreen.
The injured one abandons its fatally wounded companion, poofing away to escape the heroes’ encirclement.
A monstrous decision—throwing an injured comrade as bait to flee when cornered.
As I leap to chase, Starlight shouts while attacking the remaining monster,
"Leave the last one to the Black Cat! We’re killing this bastard here, no matter what!"
Leaving one to Starlight, I chase the lone monster through the sky.
Already wounded by Starlight’s attack, our positions are now reversed—it flees from me in desperation.
If it can’t regenerate, that means it’s severely injured.
A wounded monster. The scent of blood. I can catch it. This ends here.
The moment I think that the monster lands in a grassy field past the city, licking its wounds—regenerating.
The exact same trick I used to lure them.
[So this is how you deceive and lure prey? Using a monster’s instinct to chase blood.]
This time, I realize—I was the one lured.
The monster’s superpower mimics human speech.
Not meaningless word jumbles—proper sentences.
A talking monster.
[I learned something good, CXI.]
A lab experiment.