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Two enemies.

One was like a huge tumor with arms and legs, more disgusting impossible. The other still retained its human form, but as Lunar Remnant it had been a creature made of what looked like tightly coiled steel wire, barely containing the moist, pulsating organs inside, roughly corresponding to those of a human being, though nothing was in place.

And who knew how many more were around, ready to transform and jump on him, or on the innocents caught in this death trap. Who counted only on him and could do nothing to escape.

How many would there be? How many members did the organization of... the hybrids? It was the first name that popped into his head, that would come to anyone's mind. The hybrids, neither human nor Lunar Remnant, but something in between. Good.

How many would there be?

Sylvester had to reckon that there would be enough of them to be a problem, many more than in that hotel, which after all he had gotten out of without a problem.

With no more problems than even more innocent blood staining his hands, at any rate.

The hybrid in human form took two steps forward, brandishing the dagger stained with a mixture of his and Sylvester's blood. Trying the same thing again, as if the outcome would change.

Well.

It definitely changed, though not in his favor.

Sylvester slashed the arm he was holding the gun with, and both went flying, followed by a thick stream of blood. Like a geyser. The hybrid didn't react to the pain, or at least not in a sane way. If he could feel pain, it was linked to pleasure in his mind, as he burst out laughing.

As he transformed back into that monster of wire and throbbing organs.

The two hybrids threw themselves on top of him.

Sylvester leapt upward before they collided with him, grabbing onto the lamppost to keep himself in the air long enough. They weren't stupid animals, his enemies didn't collide, they reacted fast enough to change trajectory.

Instead of going down after them, he climbed up the lamppost, standing on it. The flickering light reminded him of the blood-stained bulbs in the hotel, casting a macabre light over the lobby, turning it even more into a scene straight out of hell.

He couldn't allow a scene to repeat itself here, in the rational light of day it would be even more macabre, not less.

That shouldn't happen. They shouldn't exist in this world.

The wire monster crashed into the lamppost, making it shake, but Sylvester kept his balance effortlessly.

Then its companion did the same, and then the lamppost, which had already withstood quite a bit more than was expected of it, buckled. The wire creature climbed onto the lamppost, starting to crawl up it, throwing it further off balance. He wasn't sure how it hadn't touched the ground yet, actually.

Sylvester didn't move.

He stayed where he was, waiting for the creature to reach him.

Only to step aside when it did, somersaulting over the creature, propelling himself towards the other enemy. Sylvester plunged the katana up to the handle, thrusting with both hands, into that mass of tumorous flesh.

He swung the sword up and down, left and right.

He achieved little.

The creature bled green. It looked more like swamp water than blood.

Inhuman being, inhuman blood. That was how it was supposed to be.

Sylvester pulled back before his sword could get stuck in the enemy's flesh, before it could turn around and crush him like a bug.

Behind, those wires closing in. They might only be two enemies at the moment, but they were coordinating well.

They didn't allow him a moment's hesitation, ready to punish any waste of time. Sylvester dodged it and although it didn't crash into his companion, it did fall down the stairs.

The stairs? Yes, the ones at the entrance to the subway.

Sylvester came down after it, chasing after it, and pushed it further down, sending it rolling. There were people in the subway too, even if he couldn't see them from his position yet. But there would be fewer people than out there, and the terrain would be more favorable to him than one so open and full of obstacles.

The Remnant of the wires dropped all the way down, Sylvester went down with him, and the other monster followed them.

So the three of them ended up in the subway.

A simple change in the battlefield. Actually there was nothing simple about it, it could change everything.

"I realized that my question was silly," Sylvester said. "You were both monsters before you transformed. That's why this was inevitable, huh? Let me..."

Sylvester dodged the charge of the two Remnants once again.

They were big, strong.

But, by the same token, easy targets. And fast, but not fast enough to be worthy opponents.

"Release you from your suffering."

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Sylvester brandished the katana, taking with him a bundle of wires. He cut through the flesh hiding underneath easily as well. It wasn't any armor, it left everything exposed.

But this one didn't bleed. Peculiar.

Its organs opened up before the katana blade, but not a drop of blood or other fluid escaped the wound.

The tumorous mass rose up to crush him even before he completed the turn he had made when attacking the other enemy. That said, they coordinated well, they were used to fighting together.

But they were a little too slow.

He fired the claw of darkness.

It buried itself in the enemy and, with the force of the impact, sent him flying into the train stopped at the station. Had it not been there, it would surely have gone through the wall on the other side.

Using the enemy as a chain, as his own weapon, he swung the claw of darkness and hurled it at its companion.

The enemy took the blow, crossing its arms, catching it. But it didn't stop shit. It slammed them into the wall, breaking the glass and a good chunk out of the booth where you had to take your ticket.

He’d be lucky if that was all the damage today.

The wall caved in and collapsed. A slab of rubble buried them, followed by a dense cloud of smoke. They didn't stay down there for long. They hurried to get out, out of there and out of each other's way.

They were nothing more than beasts that bore little resemblance to any human being, but he saw them nervous. Embarrassed, even.

-Not so much fun now, eh? You can't do as you please when encountering a monster bigger and better than you.

Sylvester grinned from ear to ear. The people in the subway had hastily hid, but well enough, he hadn't seen or heard anyone yet. That didn't mean he could strike without reservations, but compared to what he could do upstairs, surrounded by such a dense crowd, here he was free and wild.

He'd been screwed out of his day off, but he'd do his best to enjoy it anyway.

He went back to the fight.

Instead of crashing into him, the tumor destroyed one of the pillars in the room. Sylvester flew skillfully through the rain of debris, heading towards the other enemy. And this one rushed to meet him as well. With open arms, and mouths.

They didn't even collide.

Sylvester fired a bolt of energy from his open palm.

The beam enveloped that mass of entrails barely held in place by the wires. It pushed it against the wall and beyond, opening a gaping hole. Again and again, he couldn't say when the destruction stopped. Not even if it had taken an innocent human being with it.

He heard no screams, not even of surprise. But, that energy beam would have swallowed them even before they had a chance to scream.

In any case, it had finished one of them off. There was no way it would have survived that, even if he couldn't see its mangled and scorched body from here.

So, he focused all his attention on the other enemy.

They were weak. The outcome had been decided from the beginning. It didn't matter how big and strong they were if they couldn't reach their prey and had no way to attack from a distance.

They weren't just weak. Punching bags. They were like punching bags prepared just for him. That's how helpless they were.

They should never have come here.

-Fucking bastard! -His first and last words to Sylvester, as if they had the right to take offense when all he was doing was defending himself against things that had attacked him.

Just things. They had stopped being human beings a long time ago.

It pounced on him. Stretching out all its arms, spilling fluids. Not blood, but other bodily fluids from the tumor its twisted existence had reduced it to. It was disgusting. It spread disease wherever it went, and it was disgusting.

So, he cut it off.

Definitely beyond repair, he cut it into more than forty chunks of flesh.

Now it looked like a massacre had happened here, not that he had killed a single being. It was completely unrecognizable as a living being, human or otherwise. But somehow it was still alive.

Its head looked up at him. From that pool of anonymous flesh, a small arm reached out to him as if trying to take him with it in the last seconds of its life.

-We're not the only ones. You will see. Even if it was our fate to fall here, the true humans will emerge victorious.

-True humans? You're even less than the shit under my shoe.

And that's what he turned it into. Shit under his shoe. He crushed his head, finally erasing him from this world.

Sylvester walked out of the train station and emerged into the cold, rational daylight. The chaos hadn't died down one iota. That was because it had already begun.

Simply put, the others had already arrived. The main square already reeked of blood. In fact, the water in the fountain was painted completely red. Too many people had already died. Too many people were in agony now.

And all this because they wanted to finish him off.

He was used to the Lunar Remnants causing atrocities. But this was different, this was even more horrible. Monsters rampaging through the crowd.

If they were all hybrids, then they had chosen this. They had turned their backs on a normal life for, for what, for what exactly, damn it?

We're the real humans.

Oh. That's right. Pure arrogance.

I see, he thought. I see.

Before he knew it, he was among them, sowing death.

There was a giant ant chewing on the torso of a dead woman. He grabbed its disgusting head with one hand and crushed it as if it were a watermelon.

There was a spider woman, catching all kinds of 'flies' in her web, preparing to eat. He set her on fire. Then, with the energy beam, he sent her skyward to be reduced to ashes before she could harm anyone else.

Of course, he also made sure to put out the fire before it could reach those trapped in the net. He would not forget something so important.

There was something that could only be described as a human centipede. It might seem to fit the animal theme of the monsters he had most recently killed, but nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, it wasn't a humanoid centipede, that would have been more bearable.

It was a centipede made of ordinary human beings. He was used to fighting things that didn't belong in this world, but this was a bit much. He never wanted to see anything like it again. He made sure to reduce it to ashes as well.

No, that not even the ashes were left. What heart had given birth to such a monstrosity?

He didn't want to know, but he couldn't help but wonder. Not for the first or last time, he wondered what he would look like if he fell. He didn't want to know that either.

Besides, it didn't matter. He would continue to fight on the side of humanity. That was all that mattered.

There was a humanoid one, but one that in no way could be mistaken for anyone else in the crowd. And not just because it wasn't scared. It was wearing what looked like a robe, but in reality it was its skin, just another part of its body. It had no eyes or nose, only a mouth sewn shut.

Worst of all was its head. It was constantly vibrating and twisting, making three hundred and eighty degree turns. If it weren't for the fact that he was special, he wouldn't have noticed that his mouth was sewn shut. Probably not even that its eyes and nose were missing. He moved too fast and wouldn't stop.

But its head was the only thing that was fast. He caught it and tore it to pieces.

There were...

There were too many. Just too many. Sylvester was just one man trying to defend the lives of thousands of people. Whatever he did, wherever he went, countless people were paying for his decision even if he managed to save the people he had chosen to save.

The civilians were completely trapped. Wherever they went, they only hit the impenetrable barrier at the end. He had to stay there because otherwise this chaos would seep into the rest of the city, but that didn't make it a good thing. Caught between a rock and a hard place, they were being mercilessly crushed.

They all depended on him.

They all called out to him for help, even if they could only wring wordless cries, a voiceless voice, from their throats. And he...

He was only a man.

He felt the weight of the world every waking moment, but now it was so strong that his legs trembled. And he began to hallucinate. Or so it seemed, because a mirror manifested in front of his eyes. It was a surreal image even in the midst of this complete chaos.

What was it?

He didn't have time to find the answer.

Then, he saw the grotesque grin of a shark-toothed man.

More mirrors appeared, surrounding him. He was caught between their reflections. Before Sylvester could do anything, he was lost among them and swallowed up.