02:08 P.M.
Team Zero teleported in front of an S-Rank gate in District 15. A gate had opened up inside a carwash storage room.
With the size of the gate being bigger than the storage room, the whole building got swallowed up by the gate, including the civilians. According to the report, a total of six people were inside.
"Our priority will be the rescue of civilians, so control your skill, especially you Cedric."
"Alright, whatever."
I glared at Cedric, giving him a warning. Even though Cedric was the most versatile in our group, his control was affected by his emotions. There was already a case where he froze a whole bridge because he couldn't control his anger. It would be bad if he froze the ones we should protect.
Ilyas tapped my shoulder, "Do you need more guiding before we go?"
I turned my gaze away, feeling embarrassed. I had fallen asleep in front of Ilyas again and he just let me sleep through the whole guiding session.
"No, it's fine. Let's go in."
Brushing my embarrassment aside, I led the group inside the gate. When my shoes stepped on the uneven ground, I immediately raised my head. What greeted us inside was piles of metal chunks and broken parts of machines. It looked like a garbage dump for metals.
"Ah shit, it would be hard to search for survivors in a vast place like this."
Xain was right. With an area like this, where mountains of metal chunks of uneven height gathered, it would be easy to miss a civilian hiding behind or inside them.
"Do you guys have a search skill?" I asked.
"I only fight with my fist, nothing else."
"I don't have any either."
The two answered without hesitation.
Honestly, I didn't have any specific skill related to search either, but there would always be a way for this kind of situation.
I pulled out a dagger from inside my suit and rolled up my sleeve. The familiar faint scars on my arm were revealed.
"What's on your mind?" Cedric asked curiously.
"Trying my own method of searching the civilians," I answered and, with no hesitation, slashed my forearm.
"Ethan! What are you doing?!" Ilyas panicked when he saw blood flowing down.
He had quite a strong heart. The last time I did this in front of others, some fainted on the spot.
"Calm down, you know what my ability is, don't you?"
"Ah, blood manipulation."
"That's right, if I manipulate my own blood, I could feel anything it touches. It'll be quicker to find people this way."
Ilyas hesitated for a bit, then asked with a slight worry in his tone, "Are you going to be okay?"
I smiled as I assured him. "It's fine, it's not that bad."
Though the feeling of touching metal directly with my blood felt weird, it's not impossible to detect movements using it. So whenever there's a constant movement in the area, that means there were either humans or monsters in that area.
I just need to confirm them with their body temperature and body shape.
"One, two, three… hm?"
"What is it? Is it a monster?" Xain asked, his stance ready to jump into battle.
"The report said there are six people trapped right?" I frowned, "So why is there a seventh person?"
Cedric asked lazily, "Are you sure it's not a monster? Maybe a humanoid monster or something."
That might be true, inside the gate anything could happen.
To make sure, I formed two small dolls out of blood and handed them to Xain and Cedric each, "Let's check it out, these little ones will show you the direction. After you find the survivors, bring them here immediately."
"Alright." Xain and Cedric followed the dolls, leaving me and Ilyas behind.
A sigh involuntarily escaped my lips, dizziness from lack of blood had started settling in.
'After today ends, I'll serve myself a hot, warm tea and relax under the bed cover.'
My mind already wandered everywhere even before the raid ended. A rookie mistake I shouldn't have done.
"Agh!"
Ilyas screamed as he got pulled by a monster. From beneath the pile below our feet, a humanoid amalgamation rose. It had the height of a regular human and one red eye that glowed like a sensor. It grabbed Ilyas' neck and retreated to a distance.
Recognizing the danger, I immediately move my body.
Dashing toward the monster at high speed, I formed a blood sword in my hand, taking my stance.
But when I saw the light brown hair being held in front of me, I stopped my swing mid-air and redirected my sword.
Unable to stop the momentum, I crashed into the pile of metal.
CRASH! THUD!
"E-Ethan…"
Ilyas weakly called my name. The monster had just shielded its body with Ilyas in its grip, making him a hostage. That's the level of intelligence that shouldn't be owned by a monster.
I gritted my teeth. I was careless. I shouldn't have taken my eyes off Ilyas.
Fortunately, there's only one enemy. Unfortunately, this one enemy seemed to be the gate's boss.
"Haa...."
I took a deep breath and calmed my mind. My blood had been flowing underground this whole time, but I didn't detect any movement from it, that meant it either hadn't woken up before or was smart enough to wait until we let our defense down.
In this case, it might be the latter.
'That means it knew my ability too.'
Having finished weighing the situation, I stood up on my feet. Xain and Cedric would take some time to get back here, especially since they'd bring civilians along with them. If I wanted to save Ilyas, I couldn't delay any longer, who knows what kind of things it would do to him.
'I only have one goal.'
Once again, I raised my hand. Lines formed by blood shot up beneath the boss' feet, crawling up like strings to catch him. It immediately dodged out of the way and a chase happened.
With a tap of my feet, my vision blurred as my body moved, stopping right behind him with my blade in hand.
As expected, it used Ilyas as a shield – thinking it would make me back down.
It clearly underestimated me too much.
My hand didn't stop swinging toward Ilyas' neck. His face paled as my sword inched closer every second.
He might actually think I would kill him.
'I'm sorry Ilyas, I'll apologize to you later.'
The hardened blood sword that almost touched Ilyas' neck turned soft one second before the impact, scattering into small beads. It slid under the boss' arm and entered its body, destroying it bit by bit from the inside. Creaking sounds of metals falling apart soon resounded.
The boss realized too late.
The moment it tried to launch an attack against me, the blood strings chasing it from the front had already caught up and tied its body – holding it on the ground.
With its hand being slowly chipped away from the inside, it loosened up, freeing Ilyas from its grip.
Without hesitation, I caught him and dashed away to a safe distance.
"Are you okay?" I asked Ilyas in my arms without tearing my gaze away from the boss.
"Uh- yeah, I-I'm okay." his word wasn't convincing because his voice trembled a lot, but we were still not out of danger, so I quickly gave him an order.
"Use the emergency button on your wristwatch and ask Xain and Cedric to come here."
"Y-Yes." I could hear him fumbling with his watch for a bit until I could hear a faint beeping sound used for emergency warnings.
"Once they arrive, I need you to take care of the civilians they brought. I'll handle the boss for the time being, so I need you to find a good hiding spot. Can I leave that task to you Ilyas?" For the first time, I broke eye contact with the boss and glanced at him.
His face paled at my words but he still nodded in understanding. Even though he was afraid, he still knew the weight of our situation.
I released him from my arms and tried to stand up, but as soon as I raised my body, my vision spun, which made me buckle on my knee.
"Ethan!"
Ilyas panicked as he tried to support me. My ears started ringing and blood flowed down my nose.
Two guiding sessions didn't help much stabilizing a year of accumulated impurities. And my reckless behavior over the year had come to bite me now.
'Even then, I would never regret becoming an esper.'
I wiped my nose and stood up once more. The edge of my mouth curled up into a smile.
"Stay hidden." I addressed Ilyas before I dashed toward the enemy.
Launching my body at high speed, I could feel the wind brushing on my skin. And the adrenaline that came with it made my stomach flutter.
'Yes, over the course of my career, I have never once thought of quitting this dangerous job.'
CLANG!
The sound of my blood sword clashing with the metal body of the boss resounded in the air.
Hearing the crisp sound, a wide grin formed on my face.
'After all, I'm a battle maniac.'