Chapter 67: What Should An Executioner Do?

Abraham and Roy passed by the webbed street in camouflage, making a detour to a safer path towards their destination. However, the next street was woven in webs too.

Such feats of modern architecture looked so broken and out of place standing side-by-side with bulky trees and vegetation. Now, with webs of some monstrous creature running through the trees and buildings, there was nothing left to say other than:

“Nice. Seems like we’ve given it our all.” He looked at Abraham. “Time for us to go home.”

Black Zero merely glared at him and observed the webbing up ahead. As of the moment, they were hiding behind a deadened sedan vehicle with grass growing out of its passenger seats.

“There are cocoons of varying sizes hanging from the web, similar to the one on the other street,” said the executioner. “I wondered why the abyss creatures were quite few in this area. There’s our answer.”

Roy swallowed heavily and asked in a hushed manner, fear slipping into his voice, “You mean the abyss creature making these webs curbed the other strong abyss creatures in the area?”

At this point, he was wondering what sort of demon possessed him to volunteer for training outside of the city. He didn’t even want to begin to imagine the size of the creature that formed these webs.

“A Beast, most likely Fallen,” Master Abe said aptly.

“Fallen Beast?” Roy repeated unassuredly. “How are you sure it’s not a Monster?”

“We have gone through this before. What makes webs? Spiders. And what did I tell you about Beasts and Monsters?”

“…”

“What?” Abraham urged him to answer.

Roy reluctantly droned on, “Something about Beasts twisted versions of earth’s animal kingdom, while Monsters are more like twisted chimeras.”

But Roy quickly added, “What if it’s a humanoid spider? Or… Or a spider with—”

“Roy. Focus.”

Master Abraham stood up and peered ahead. “We’re not sure whether the field mission team members are still alive, and at the same time, we have to pick our battles wisely. The enemy has an army, and the combined force of our team doesn’t compare. As an executioner, what are you to do?”

“Abandon the suicide mission,” Roy answered seriously, recalling when Abraham lectured him on the classes of executioners and how they fared against the threat levels of abyss creatures.

“Wrong,” Master Abraham stoically said. “You do what you can.”

“But we can’t do anything,” Roy said with an exasperated, frustrated sigh. He really didn’t want to come across the creatures that made these webs.

Master Abraham was patient. He voiced, “Think, Roy. Don’t let fear take hold. What is in our capacity to do?”

Roy looked at the confident face of his master and closed his eyes briefly, reassuring himself that as long as Black Zero was here, he would surely live.

’We’re not goddamn cowards,’ he repeated to himself the words of encouragement he gave his elder brother.

He scanned the webbing up ahead and pondered for a few seconds.

Slowly, he raised his hand and pointed to the wrapped cocoons. “We can find out which of the cocoons has a person in them,” he said with a stern gaze ahead, “rescue them, and heal them if possible. And then, we burn the web. If the abyss creatures tapped within aren’t dead yet, I’ll get some exp for free. This will draw out the bastards and allow us to find out how many they are and what they’re capable of.”

“Very good.” Master Abraham patted Roy’s shoulder. “That is a rudimentary plan. Now, it’s time for you to think of the logistics.”

Roy, feeling quite proud, rubbed his chin. “If the survivors are more than one, how will we extract them without getting caught? We can’t carry them on our backs…”

Right then, Black Zero brought out his holoRadar and continued, “I had Hillary provide me the topography of this fallen city. Right beneath us, there are old utility tunnels. An underground path has its issues, but we will take it one step at a time. First, find the cocooned humans.”

Roy nodded and stood up too, but Master Abraham grabbed his shoulder and forced him down, much to Roy’s shock, and took out his dataPad.

On the see-through device, the thermal signatures of the surroundings appeared. However, the cocoons were dead cold. This didn’t mean that the beings within weren’t alive; it just meant the webs obstructed the sensors.

Abraham explained this to Roy, who then voiced, “What other methods do we have? We can’t start cutting them down one by one.”

Master Abraham allowed his dataPad to fold, and he answered measuredly, “We have time.”

He raised his hand and took out an old, antique watch from one of his pouches and watched the clock tick. “Preparation is key. First of all, let’s check the tunnels.”

Roy’s gaze followed where the C-Class Executioner was pointing and settled on a rusted manhole in the middle of the wider road just a few metres behind them, covered with moss and more.

’How did he even recognize it?’ Roy wondered.

They advanced stealthily in camouflage, and the experienced executioner cleared the greens all over it and placed silent bombs at the corners of the manhole cover. With a very low-sounding explosion, it pried open.

Krrrrr~

The metallic cover scraped against the tarred road and dried leaves that littered everywhere.

Inside, there were steel bars that served as a ladder, and with no hesitation, Abraham put himself in and began climbing down.

Roy crouched at the opening and yelled down, “Master, wait! Aren’t you going to throw a camDrone—”

Pausing due to the sound of heavy breathing and galloping, Roy glanced at his side, and his face paled.

Just at least fifteen metres away, a four-limbed, bipedal monster with three eyes on its large head, standing at about six feet. It has red and black fur coating its body, along with mouth and teeth so deformed and jagged that there was nothing to describe it.

Charging at Roy like an enraged gorilla, the kid could only mutter, “M-Master! Master!”

“Gurruah!” The abyss creature lunged forward, but one of its legs was caught in something by the ankle, stretched taut… and its foot literally fell off! Acrid blood gushed out from the wound.

Before the abyss creature could scream, Master Abraham undid his camouflage and appeared from the side with his chainsword grinding.

Bzzzt~ Brrrr~

Slash!

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