The Scream of Healing
When I turned one more corner at the intersection, I finally spotted them. Two creatures charging straight toward us down the middle of the road. The ones Belpe hadn't managed to finish off.
'Huh. So that's why Belpe pulled back.'
The moment I saw what they looked like, it all made sense. They were barreling forward, frantically flapping those thin membrane-like things on their backs. What could I even call them? Grasshoppers? Maybe this was what a grasshopper would look like if it mutated into something grotesque. Their bodies were the size of large dogs, their leg joints bent the wrong way, and their heads were covered in lumps that might have been eyes or tumors. I couldn't tell if they were flapping those wing-like things to fly or just to intimidate, but either way, they were definitely the most repulsive insect cosplay I'd ever seen.
'Please don't fly. Flying would be such a pain.'
Luckily, even as they flapped their wings, they kept running on all fours. And just as expected, both of them charged straight at my shield in a perfect line. The massive black shield must have looked like a rival monster's maw to them, because they completely ignored Sirius and Felis on either side and focused solely on me.
'Good. Just like we planned.'
I thrust the shield forward and gave a short command.
"They're coming straight for the shield, so take them out."
"Yes, Mama."
The reply came instantly. Crack! Crack! Crack! Gunshots rang out from both wings at the same time. Two shots from Sirius's side, two from Felis's. The bullets slammed straight into the creatures' heads while they were distracted by the shield. Their ugly grasshopper bodies folded their flapping wings and slid across the asphalt at full speed before collapsing. The second one dropped almost simultaneously.
It was an absurdly anticlimactic end.
"Clear."
"Clear."
Sirius and Felis reported in order. My reliable wings had handled it cleanly once again. I kept my eyes forward and didn't stop walking, but I listened to the presence behind me. Spica was right on my heels. She hadn't fired, but that was only natural—her role as medic was to conserve ammo while staying behind me. What mattered was something else.
She was nothing like the terrified rookie from our first deployment. She'd received new combat gear and had been training with the team. Even in this brief engagement, there was no hesitation or shrinking back. She held her rifle firmly with both hands, scanning left and right from behind me while holding her position. She was doing what needed to be done without being told.
'Hmm~ She's getting more reliable by the day~'
I didn't say it out loud since I was still watching the front, but the corners of my mouth twitched upward.
We stepped around the grasshopper corpses and kept advancing. The streetscape was gradually changing. Until now, the buildings on either side had been covered in decades of grime from the 60s and 70s. With each alley we passed, the walls grew cleaner, window frames shifted from wood to aluminum, and signs changed from handwritten to printed fonts. It felt like we'd stepped out of a time machine from old Korea and were slowly returning to the present. The neighborhood was living up to its name as the modern-contemporary district. Walking across the boundary between the old and new eras would have made a decent tourist route—if not for the ugly monsters.
Just as we crossed that boundary, Belpe's voice came through the headset again.
"Mama. Multiple monsters confirmed at the target Pottery Museum."
"Got it."
The Pottery Museum. On the map inside my visor, it was marked with a red dot—the building closest to the civilian shelter. If monsters were gathering there, they must have smelled the people hiding inside.
"I see some long-range attackers. I'll take them out first."
Before Belpe even finished speaking, two gunshots rang out from somewhere above us. Crack! Crack! Immediately after, a cacophony of monster cries erupted from up ahead.
"Kiiik~"
"Kung kung!"
"Kieeeek~~!"
The discordant chorus echoed between the buildings and rolled toward us.
'If Belpe took out the long-range ones first, that means the rest are mostly close-combat types.'
Which also meant they were about to charge us. I stepped slightly forward while maintaining formation, raised my shield straight ahead, and pressed the shotgun tight against its side so only the muzzle peeked over the edge. A stance that let me shoot while hidden behind the shield. I'd taken this position hundreds of times before.
'Come on, then. Mama's waiting.'
I advanced far enough that Sirius and Felis disappeared from my peripheral vision, and finally the monsters appeared. A colorful swarm poured out of the square in front of the Pottery Museum. Four-legged, six-legged, more grasshopper-like ones, even ones with carapaces rising from their backs. Their one common trait was that they were all artistically ugly. And once again, they were all charging straight at the shield without a single thought in their heads.
'If they could just stay this ugly and stupid, that'd be great~'
Back on the bridge during rescue work, the monsters at least had enough instinct to spread out and try flanking. Even the dumb ones showed some cunning by trying to surround us. But these guys? Were they just enjoying the fight, or were they overconfident because of their numbers? They were fearlessly charging in a neat horizontal line straight into the giant monster's black maw.
'Is it because this is an art village? Even their stupidity is artistic.'
Not that I was complaining. If they lined up like that, it made my job easier.
"Opening fire."
With those words, I pulled the trigger on the shotgun I'd kept pressed against the shield. Crack! Crack! Crack! The shots shook the square as the anti-monster rounds I'd preloaded tore through the air in brilliant blue flashes. The special ammunition, far more penetrating than regular buckshot, slammed into the creatures.
"Kyaaak!"
"Kieeeek!"
'Hurts, doesn't it? It should.'
The lead monsters at the front had their heads blown apart by the anti-monster rounds and collapsed. When their ugly heads burst, blue flames erupted. Strangely enough, that blue light was almost beautiful in the moment it bloomed.
'The only pretty moment for monster carcasses is when they die. How ironic.'
Even after the leaders fell, the ones behind didn't slow down. They trampled over their comrades' bodies and kept charging straight at the shield. Their eyes still saw my shield as a rival monster's maw, and their primal fighting spirit seemed ignited.
Crack! Crack! I fired two more rounds and dropped another pair charging down the center, but the rest were closing in fast.
'Oh... this time they're jumping.'
One of them suddenly pushed off with its hind legs and leapt as if trying to clear the shield, while another lowered its head and charged straight at the shield's center. A simultaneous attack from above and below.
'Are they learning, or was that just lucky timing? Either way...'
I pressed the button beside the handle. Clack! Clack! With a crisp mechanical sound, the shield began extending outward on all sides—left, right, up, and down. What had only covered my upper body when folded now became a solid iron wall that completely enveloped me.
Thud! The monster that had charged head-on slammed into the expanded shield. The impact traveled up my forearms, but its momentum was absorbed by the massive metal plate. The recoil sent it tumbling across the asphalt.
And from above—tap! The sound of claws scraping the top edge of the shield came from right over my head. The creature hadn't cleared the now-taller upper edge and was dangling from the top, struggling.
Its filthy, ugly underbelly was completely exposed right above me. It was the worst possible sight.
'Oh my~ Did you want a hug from Mama~?'
I let go of the shotgun and reached up with my empty hand, grabbing the flailing creature's body and yanking it down. Then I gave it a generous dose of Mama's healing touch. Warm light spread from my palm as mana flowed through my fingertips into its body. The healing energy sought out wounds, regenerating torn cells, reattaching cracked carapace, and reconnecting damaged nerves. I felt it all through my hand.
But I knew better than anyone how excruciating that process was.
"Kiiiiiiiiiiiiik!!!"
The monster let out a scream of agony it had probably never made in its life, thrashing wildly. They said it felt like thousands of ants crawling through your bones, right? I wasn't sure if monsters had such refined senses, but judging by the volume of that scream, it was feeling plenty. Unable to endure the pain of healing, it twisted free of my grip and was flung onto the road like a ragdoll. It lay there convulsing, limbs twitching.
It almost looked pitiful.
'Poor thing... It must have been hurting a lot since it was so injured.'
What would it feel like if healing hurt that much? Your body recovering while your soul was being torn apart—if even human patients needed gags and ended up covered in tears and snot, there was no way a monster could handle it.
'Don't worry~ Don't worry~ My teammates will put you out of your misery.'
Crack! Crack! Two bullets fired from behind pierced cleanly through the convulsing creature's head. The poor thing that had been beaten by Charon and still couldn't return to the land of the living was finally embraced by the real Charon.
'...Rest in peace.'
Beyond the fallen monster, I could see the one that had bounced off the shield earlier already lying limp. Sirius and Felis must have finished it while I dealt with the one above.
I folded the expanded shield and raised the shotgun again.
"What about the others?"
"Thanks to you, Mama, they're all frozen in fear."
At Sirius's report, I looked through the observation port. The monsters that had been charging so bravely moments ago had completely lost their momentum. They must have seen their comrade get smashed in front of the shield—that was still a death they could understand. Getting shot was common in this line of work. The real problem was the one I'd healed. A comrade that had climbed onto the giant monster's maw suddenly screamed like nothing they'd ever heard before, got thrown away completely healed, then convulsed on the ground and died from a gunshot. Even their stupid brains could probably grasp that something was wrong with that.
'That's right~ That's the normal reaction. Scary, isn't it? Isn't Mama terrifying?'
The frightened monsters were dragging their feet backward. The way the shield expanded and contracted must have looked to them like a maw opening and closing. And the comrade who'd climbed into that maw had thrashed in agony before dying. Of course they'd be scared.
But I had no intention of sparing them just because they were scared and frozen.
"Finish them. Time is lives."
"Yes, Mama."
The moment I gave the order, footsteps rapidly moved on both sides. Crack! Crack! Gunfire erupted first from Sirius's direction. Felis's shots followed right after, and the sound of their guns approached together.
I pressed my eye to the observation port to see what the monsters were doing. They were hesitating. In front of them stood an unknown giant thing whose maw kept growing and shrinking, while bullets flew from both sides. Trapped between two threats, they stomped in place before starting to fall one by one under the hail of gunfire. Heads bursting, legs buckling, some dropping without even a scream. A few still had enough instinct left to turn tail and run, trying to escape down the alley behind the museum. But—crack. Crack. Two distant gunshots echoed. Belpe. The fleeing monsters' hind legs gave out, and they slid face-first across the asphalt at full speed.
It was a bit pitiful that they couldn't even escape, but so what? As long as they were roaming around, civilians were in danger.
"Clear."
At Sirius's voice through the headset, I pulled away from the observation port and looked back at Spica. She was gripping her rifle tightly with both hands, eyes fixed forward. Her muzzle was slightly raised, tension in her shoulders, but no trembling.
'Good girl~'
She was nothing like the terrified kid who'd frozen up inside that building on our first deployment. Of course, she still hadn't fired a shot herself, and she'd need more real combat experience. But she was holding her position right behind me, never taking her eyes off the front, and performing the basics of a medic's role without wavering. That alone was enough for now.
I glanced at her for a moment while turned around, then silently faced forward again. Praise could wait until after the mission was over.