Chapter 26 - Outside the Core (4)

Where was the Pig?

I quickly pulled out the field guide, sweeping its screen light around me. Tense as bowstrings, Heshy and Tom switched on their watch lights and scanned the area too.

If the field guide had sounded, that meant it was here.

“Urk.”

Heshy spotted it first. Our heads whipped around, and we quickly found the creature standing in the beam of his watch light.

There it stood in a corner of the underground parking garage, an overwhelming presence.

“Why is it so big?”

The words slipped out of Tom reflexively. I wanted to say the same thing, but shock had left me speechless.

A Pig. It wasn't remotely the size of the pigs I had in mind. It was nearly as big as a midsize-to-large SUV.

Dozens of eyeballs embedded in its pig's head rolled toward us.

“Contact the seniors...”

BOOOM!

A crash hammered my ears hard enough to nearly burst my eardrums. I hadn't heard a single footstep, yet it was already beside us. We dodged the collision by a hair. Like Tom and Heshy, I flung myself sideways and tumbled across the garage floor.

“How is it that fast?!”

Heshy loaded his gun in a panic.

BANG!

The bullet seemed to hit its target dead-on, but it had no effect.

Having slammed spectacularly into the garage wall, the Pig turned. Its eyeballs rolled, then locked onto Tom right beside it.

He hadn't gotten off the floor yet.

“Tom!”

“Hey! Why are you raising your gun?!”

BANG!

Instead of dodging the Pig, Tom chose to fire. His bullet hit it in the eye.

POP!

An eyeball burst, spurting saliva.

Even with dozens of eyes to aim at, hitting one so precisely in this darkness was impressive. But instead of stopping or screaming, the Pig raised a foreleg as if to crush Tom.

THUD!

If I hadn't thrown myself at Tom and slid across the floor with him, he would have been pulp.

From across the garage, Heshy shouted, “Nice!”

“Hey, run!”

I hauled Tom upright and pushed him back.

“The guide said guns don't work!”

“What about you?”

Tom stood his ground and shot back, “Why aren't you...”

BOOOM!

The Pig filled the space Tom and I had just occupied.

We'd barely dodged it, but now it was right beside us. I drew my sword on reflex. With the target that close, there was no time to hesitate.

Gripping it firmly, I swung.

“Ah.”

The horizontal slash buried my sword in the Pig's hide.

I felt its hardness through my hands. I'd swung too hastily to put enough force into it.

Besides, I'd gone against the grain. To cut through this hide, I needed to swing vertically, not horizontally. If I pulled it out and drove it in vertically, it would go in much more easily...

I went flying.

“Hilde!”

THUD!

A heavy impact engulfed my entire body.

I tumbled across the floor with a drum. The Pig had swung its body into my stomach. Heat spread through my abdomen. A direct hit. My legs had gone weak, and I couldn't get up right away.

If I'd healed as well as the other Badgers, I'd have been up in no time.

CRASH!

The only reason the Pig's foreleg didn't crush me was that Tom ran over and rolled me out of the way.

“Can you run?”

“... Not yet.”

Fortunately, I still had hold of the sword I'd driven into it.

“Lend me your sword!”

Heshy shouted, shining his watch light on us.

“Keep running! I'll try stabbing it!”

Right. The sword wasn't doing any good in my hands right now.

I held it out to him. Just as Heshy took it, the Pig came crashing into us.

BOOM!

Tom and I rolled to the right, Heshy to the left.

Of the two directions, the Pig turned toward Heshy because he let out a yell.

“Raaaaaagh!”

Why was he yelling?

I felt embarrassed for him. Beside me, Tom averted his head slightly; apparently he felt the same way. Still, I appreciated Heshy mustering the courage to draw the creature's attention.

Heshy charged straight at the Pig.

THUNK!

What an odd way to hold a sword.

BOOM!

My brown-haired fellow recruit flew through the air. The Pig had struck him with its body and sent him flying into the wall, just as it had me.

The noise was tremendous. But Tom, who was holding me up, didn't seem particularly worried about Heshy.

“He'll be fine.”

Sure enough, Heshy sprang to his feet.

His watch, which had flipped over to shine at the ceiling, quickly righted itself. The Pig, briefly lost in the darkness, came back into view. It had stopped and was making a strange noise. Apparently the attack had done some damage.

The problem was that my sword was still embedded in it.

Heshy bit his lip and raised his gun.

“If we shoot out all its eyes, it won't be able to see!”

“Listen, I'll pull out the sword.”

As the heat searing my insides gradually cooled, I put some weight on my feet. Tom turned to meet my eyes.

“Keep your light on the Pig while I do.”

“No. You don't heal as well as we do. Who knows how badly you'll get hurt if it hits you again?”

“If that's how it's always going to be, there's no point in me being a Badger.”

My matter-of-fact reply made Tom press his lips into a thin line.

I straightened, no longer leaning on him. My healing wasn't exceptional like theirs, but it seemed useful enough. My battered body was already recovering. I could run again now. And pull my sword free from where it was lodged near that thing's ear.

'The sword is too thin and short.'

The thought came from somewhere in my head. An instinct telling me that, while it was a fine sword, it was far thinner and shorter than the kind I preferred.

Next time, I should use a thicker, longer sword.

But what kind of sword had I used before?

BANG! BANG! BANG!

I snapped back to the present.

Heshy was firing at the charging Pig. Several eyes burst, spraying fluid. Within my limited field of vision, my dark-adjusted eyes caught the charging creature.

The Pig didn't stop.

BOOM!

Once again, Heshy dodged it by a hair.

“Here,” Tom whispered beside me.

A powerful beam cut a path through the basement. At its end, I saw the creature turning its massive body.

I ran toward it.

More precisely, toward the sword stuck in its ear.

The blade gleamed in the dark underground garage, reflecting the watch light. I grabbed its hilt.

“Hey! Careful...”

SPSSSSSH!

Blood sprayed.

I pulled the sword free and slashed vertically. Red blood seeped from the straight, upright line.

Yes. That cut had gone in properly.

The creature shrieked and turned toward me. I tightened my blood-soaked hands around the sword.

It was thinner and shorter than I wanted. I couldn't swing it to drive my target back the way my body was used to.

But a sword was still a sword.

“It's coming again!”

“Get out of the way!”

THUD.

RRRUMBLE, THUD!

I met the Pig's charge with the flat of my blade, taking its full weight.

Ah, it was strong. There was nothing wrong with my stance, but it was stronger than I'd expected. I was shoved all the way back into the garage wall.

But the impact wasn't like before.

“This one's...”

Putting strength into my arms, I shoved the creature away with the flat of the blade.

“...the last.”

I drew the sword back toward me in a semicircle through the air.

The creature staggered backward. In the darkness, both my fellow recruits kept their lights trained precisely on it.

The Pig was reeling from being shoved back. I could clearly see the opening that created.

That moment when they tried to regain their footing was always the right time.

SHLICE!

I lunged forward, raised my sword, and cut down.

SQUEEEEEAL...

The sound of a pig having its throat slit.

Its high, piercing death cry echoed through the underground garage. The stroke was long. I brought the sword down from above as if splitting firewood. Flesh parted, and blood drenched me. It erupted right in front of my eyes. Red blood soaked me mercilessly from head to toe.

The creature toppled, coughing up gushes of blood.

THUD.

It collapsed onto the garage floor, knocking drums away.

Silence fell as the sharp smell of blood stung my nose. All movement in the underground garage ceased. My fellow recruits kept their watch lights on the creature but didn't move from their spots. They stood frozen, breathing hard.

Their gazes remained fixed on the creature's corpse, its presence still overwhelming.

They were caught in the aftermath of a battle none of us had expected.

The sound of someone entering the passcode broke the stillness.

“What the...”

The lights snapped on.

“What the hell are you three doing... No, what the fuck is this? Why is there a Pig here?”

“Why is this Pig so big?”

Jason Tvein stared down at the Pig, swearing. Iho came in right behind him, then stopped short.

The two seniors came to a halt before the dead Pig.

And that was how we safely discovered the cause of the missing food.

* * *

The underground garage's population density increased.

Apparently, our training officers had arrived while we'd been busily running around with the Pig.

Familiar faces appeared behind Iho: two of the training officers who'd gone to kill the Witches. Karl and Angela came to find their new recruits, looking just as immaculate as when they'd left.

They soon entered the garage and started talking.

The place that had been filled with darkness and blood filled with light and voices.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Heshy. How did you get down here?”

“Well...”

My fellow recruits spoke with their respective training officers.

Something like normality returned. With the tension gone from the air, I breathed a sigh of relief. After standing there dazed, I relaxed my taut muscles and turned toward the seniors.

I was still squinting at the bright lights, which had become unfamiliar in that short time.

I looked at Iho and Tvein beside the Pig's corpse, grimacing and muttering, “Never seen a Pig this big.”

I wanted to go home.

My shoulders drooped as the weary thought crossed my mind.

Then Yun's voice came from a corner.

“You're good.”

I jumped in surprise.

“Oh, come on!”

“I knew my hunch was right.”

I turned to see Yun wearing a faint smile.

The moment I looked back at him with exhausted eyes, goose bumps rose all over me. In his right hand was a sword about the same size as the one I was holding.

Why was he coming toward me with a sword?

And wait. How did he know I was good? There should only have been the three of us in the garage when we were rampaging around with that creature.

No, seriously, why was he coming at me with a sword?!

While the other training officers were warmly comforting their trainees!

CLANG!

I quickly blocked Yun's swing with the sword in my hand.

Everyone whipped around. I could feel their stares land on my skin. But I had no attention to spare for their reactions, and Yun simply didn't care.

The nasty smile never left his refined face.

Without easing the pressure on his sword, my training officer asked in a low voice, “Anything you need to say right now?”

“Sir?”

“If not, we'll go straight into a little sparring.”

Yun's cold smile widened.

“We need to drill this into your body before you forget.”

Fuck!

Fuck, no, wait!

“Bigger!”

Yun stared at me.

I could feel everyone looking at me in bewilderment. The air practically asked, What the hell is he talking about now?

But I still had no attention to spare for their reactions.

Desperately holding off Yun's sword, I said, “A... a bigger sword, please...”

Yun blinked.

Silence fell. But the standoff was quickly broken by Heshy's shout: “Oh, right, Hilde! Your wound!”

Yun soon withdrew his sword, and I was able to return safely to Heshy and Tom.