บท 22: Thunderclap - Ⅲ

"Ye, ye, whatever. But the most spoken language is English for sure." He argued back with a snort. "An uneducated bas–" Before he could finish his sentence, a strong radio wave washed over the entire city. Not direct, but like an echo. At the same time, the Wujin's body twitched and it pounced upwards, throwing Michael off balance.

With its neck half cut and head dangling, it attacked him with its long claws. Still on the ground, Michael grabbed his front leg—the one which he did not break before—and blocked its strike. The next moment he pulled it towards itself and kicked its middle section, throwing it over.

Flailing its dangling snout and the two unbroken limbs, it tried to attack me. Holding the dagger in a reverse grip, I augmented the blade with Arcanum before swinging it at the joint. The blade entered the flesh and made its way towards the bone followed by a clang against the blade like it had hit metal instead of bone.

Kicking down at its leg and pinning it in place, I swung at it once again, from the opposite side and severed it this time. Following it with another stab to its head, right between its two hollow sockets, I twisted it.

However, it still wasn't dead. Using the front leg that Michael had broken earlier, it swung it like a whip. Michael arrived at my side and grabbed it with his bare hand and then placed his foot over Wujin's head.

"I've had enough of this zombie doggy." He spoke and ripped it apart. The shoulder joint connecting the humerus and scapula popped open, followed by the hardened bones being forcefully ripped out of its flesh due to him holding it in place. It let out a deafening shriek, however, I placed my own foot over its head, shutting its mouth.

With one final tug, he completely ripped its front leg apart and then tossed it to the side. A pool of green blood filled the crater underneath the Wujin and an acrid stench rose up from it. The bone that was ripped apart and was still attached to the monster's body looked like it was made of something else, rather than the usual collagen bones humans and animals on Earth have.

As Michael was looking down at it, I raised a brow. "Zombie doggy?"

Shaking his head with a smirk, he responded. "The damned thing won't die."

As if agreeing with him, the almost limbless creature withered once again. It truly lived up to its name. Boundless hunger. But why wasn't it dying…?

"Maybe we need to crush its head?" He suggested.

"Perhaps." I replied.

As if he realised something, he clutched his head. "What's wrong with me? Working together with you? EWWWW!"

Ohhhh. He just realised it?

As the Wujin kept its feeble attempts at attacking and Michael went down a spiral of self-lamentation while muttering things like 'I can't fucking believe myself', I tried to observe the creature.

It was badly mutilated. And by running a basic ultrasound at its body that was not being protected by the frequency anymore, I could tell that crushing its head won't kill it as well. That was because… it had no brain. The skull was empty. This could mean a few things, but factoring in the information we have on them, it's possible that the Wujins share a hivemind.

But it is a hypothesis at the end of the day. However, there was a way to test it.

Placing my hand over its head, I channelled a pure magnetic wave. And much to my own surprise, it stopped moving. However, as soon as I removed my hand from it and removed the waves, it started to struggle again.

My eyes glowed hot as I focused on its body once again. The anatomy was strange. It had all the faculties to maul and hunt and eat prey multiple times the size of its own body. It had a heart, but no brain. It had a mouth, an oesophagus to carry out peristalsis and a stomach to store food, but no digestive organs. No intestines, no presence of digestive fluids breaking down the multiple heads and parts of humans it had consumed.

They were just present there. Like a suitcase. As if its only purpose was to store food.

There isn't much known about Wujins so I don't know why this is the case.

It's frustrating. Lack of intel has always made me uncomfortable.

As I was looking through it, my eyes met with its own, looking at me with an intent to kill, despite the condition it was in. However, that is when I saw it. The huge congregation of nerves from every part of its body, three inches behind the actual eye that rested over its shoulder. The congregation of nerves that connected into core.

Just like humans have a primary node, monsters have cores. Different monsters have cores in different parts of their body. A core develops in a weak spot. A part where Arcanum has not slipped into and has failed to augment that part. This imbalance in natural Arcanum absorption created a weak spot and is what is referred to as cores. In the books written by Adam, at least. Or what's left of it.

The ring on my finger slithered towards my index finger and formed a long, three inches talon. Since the ring had quite a lot of volume, I could make a weapon up to 9 inches. Just like the dagger I was using before. Poking it slowly in its eyes, I pushed it.

The green liquid squirted out and I turned my neck to the side, avoiding it.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Stab the eye."

"Why should I?"

He kept looking down at me before snorting. A layer of sharp, blade-like arcanum solidified on his shoe's tip as he kicked. The blood splattered all over his jeans. As soon as he kicked, the movement's in Wujin's body died out and it let out one last growl before dying.

"Fucking hell, it works."

Standing up, I wiped the few stains of foul smelling blood over me. "Let's leave. The entrance won't hold for much longer." I announced, making him frown. "The merger between Korea and this frontier is about to happen anytime soon."

—-------------------------

3rd person POV

The clipping sound of Astrid's heel echoed amidst the empty streets as she ran towards her destination. The clamour of soldiers and heavy artillery shifting drowned out the echo as the soldiers' heavy boots stomped and shuffled, creating a cacophony of multiple noises.

Three metres away from the sealed dome of the Frontier were seven ranks of soldiers, the front line crouching while the ones in the back standing, their guns pointed at the entrance. The slimy shimmer was extending outwards from the Frontier, covering the entire dome just like how it did with the city.

Behind the soldiers were tanks, their canons already directed at the supposed entrance.

"Move in line! Go, go, go!" One of them barked, making another group of soldiers stand at the flank of the entrance. Just in case that the enemy rushes in right when it opens, so that they have them surrounded from all sides.

"Load the tanks with HEAT and APFSDS. Hurry up!"

Projectiles that could pierce any tank in the world and multiple inches of augmented, hardened steel were being loaded. Since the scale of destruction from just a creature or two was on such a wide scale, every government was extremely anxious and had done their best to prevent them. Or in a much more realistic approach, mitigate them as much as possible.

The shimmer seemed to get lighter in the sky and grow heavy on the surface of the Frontier, as if keeping it from breaking. Like a wet cloth, it stuck to it, letting out low-pitched grating shrieks. Like metal scraping against metal.

The soldiers shifted, their fingers resting on the trigger, shaking ever so slightly.

The shimmer seemed to moan and a nasty snarl filled the air.

No. Not a snarl. It was definitely more than one. The snarl came from every direction. From the other side, behind them, above them.

"FOCUS ON THE ENTRANCE!!!!!!!" The commander prompted, collecting the attention of all of his soldiers. "DO NOT WAVER!" He continued to speak, and picked up a rifle himself. "GET READYYYY!" He exclaimed as a crack ran all along the Frontier's dome. The slimy cloth got heavy, like a sentient being. Like a human trying to keep a cracked vase from totally breaking down.

The tension was almost palpable. One could cut it with a knife. The only ones who were a bit less frightened were the tank drivers, having some confidence in the durability of their ride. As everyone's senses went into high alert, ready to open fire at any moment, Astrid appeared and stopped right before she crossed the small distance between the beeline formed by tanks and the multiple assembly foot soldiers with rifles aimed at it.

In a split second, every rifle turned towards her as they panicked, ready to open fire.

"DO NOT OPEN FIRE!" The commander barked, prompting the soldiers to remove their fingers from the trigger, but it did not let them lower their guard as they still had the muzzles pointed towards her.

As he jumped down, he walked towards Astrid, his rifle pointed at her. "Identify yourself." He spoke in Korean.

Astrid shifted uncomfortably, her arms raised up in a placating manner. "I can't speak in Korean. Can you understand what I am saying?" She spoke, taking something out of the pocket in her skirt. Another soldier placed the tip of the gun at her back as they observed her movements closely. Letting out a rasp breath, she shakily showed her identification.

It was her student ID.

Taking it away from her and directing with a shake of his head to his soldiers, more than half of them redirected their attention towards the entrance. Astrid's body was shaking, the tens of guns ready to blow her body to bits making her become increasingly paranoid with every passing second.

The commander looked down at her ID card.

Frowning, he tapped at the lower part of the card.

"Norway? What… you do here?" He asked, using the movement of his hands more than actual words.

"I—" She desperately looked over the man's shoulder, "—I don't have time to explain, please, you have to let me go towards the entrance of the Frontier." She pleaded, desperation evident in her voice.

With her hands still in the air in a conciliating manner, the man behind her pressed the rifle's muzzle in a way that Astrid felt its hard texture against her back with a chilling clarity, despite the woollen dress she was wearing.

"All of you will die. Let me through, please."

The commander exchanged gazes with the one surrounding Astrid and spoke something in Korean. A moment of silence followed it. And then another.

She could feel her heart's beat in her ears. Do they finally understand? She thought to herself.

As if answering her mental thought, they burst into a barely restrained laughter. With wide smirks and condescending gawps, they stopped aiming at her and chuckled until they could no more. With a somewhat embarrassed expression, Astrid stood petrified for a few seconds, her hands balling into fists.

The commander talked, however, in Korean. But from his tone, she could tell it was not anything good. She tried to move but everyone redirected their guns at her. As they were talking in their native language, a soldier stepped up. Talking to his commander once, he stepped towards Astrid, his rifle strapped to his back instead of holding it in his hands, at her.

"Are you lost, little girl?"