Chapter 261

Crashing through the glass window of a four-story office building, Trisha rolled across the floor for a few seconds before springing back to her feet.

Her sword lashed forward instantly, parrying a sharp scythe swing that was aimed directly at her head.

The beast staggered from the impact.

That brief opening was long enough for her VMS boots to activate, sending her rocketing toward the spider before leaping completely over its frame.

She descended with a fluid, sweeping slash that tore through the vital veins holding its head in place.

The spider fell to the ground lifelessly, its heavy head hanging by only a few strands of tissue.

Looking around the room immediately, the female Aspirant spotted several scattered tables and chairs, but there were no humans in the immediate vicinity.

"Five different holes in the glass windows," she noted quietly.

"Which means five beasts entered. One is down, four more to go."

Lifting her gaze, she caught sight of a closed door at the end of the room.

Calmly and cautiously, she began walking toward it, keeping her guard up.

Within a minute, she pulled the door open, her sword heavily covered in ice as she kept it lifted and pointed forward, ready for any sudden sneak attack.

But there was none.

She took a cautious step forward into the next area.

Crunch! 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Looking down, she spotted a few broken glass shards scattered across the floor.

Before she could take another step, a loud, terrified shout echoed from a nearby corridor.

Unhesitatingly, she bolted in the direction of the scream.

Leaping from wall to wall to maximize her velocity, she skidded around a corner into the main hallway, where another door stood right ahead.

With no delays whatsoever, she charged toward the entrance with blistering speed and immediately smashed it open, sending the door flying completely off its hinges.

Luckily, the flying piece of wood whacked hard into a spider, sending the creature sliding away from a group of humans who were huddled together in absolute fear.

The office workers!

The beast quickly regained its composure after the impact and darted toward the girl, its scythe-like hands whipping toward her with blazing speed.

Weaving expertly in between the lethal strikes, she pounced forward, executing a sudden thrust toward its eyes.

Before the blade could land, the spider’s talons hurtled toward her flank, forcing the girl to leap backward for a moment to reset her stance.

Swinging her hands forward, she unleashed a dozen ice spikes that shot toward the beast.

The creature quickly crossed its scythes in front of its face like a shield.

Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!

The spikes struck the natural armor and ricocheted off its hard scythes harmlessly.

However, when the monster swung its limbs away from its face, Trisha was already gone.

She was no longer standing in front of it.

Before the creature could even spin around to locate her, the female Aspirant descended upon it from above.

Her blade severed the tendons holding its neck together, causing the spider to crash into the floor tiles with a loud, hollow thud.

Landing a few feet away from the dead beast, Trisha scanned the humans, who were shivering with intense fear as they stared at the carcass.

"Are there any other humans remaining in this building?" she questioned firmly.

One of the survivors hesitated, thinking for several long seconds as he scanned the other six people who were huddled beside him.

It was as if he was mentally calculating the numbers.

"We were thirty people who worked in this office," the man stammered. "Twenty managed to escape downstairs in time, leaving ten of us stuck up here."

Trisha scanned the group with her cold, blue eyes. "So, three more are still left stuck somewhere in this building."

The man nodded quickly.

Gripping the hilt of her sword tighter, she thought to herself,

’I have slain two out of the five beasts. That means three more are left roaming around.’

Looking at the survivors before her once again, she gave a concise nod.

"Follow me closely. Let’s go look for the others so we can leave this building for the bunker as fast as possible."

She turned back toward the destroyed entrance and took three steps forward when she suddenly paused in her tracks.

Looking behind her, she could see the survivors still frozen in place.

She was confused.

Why were they not moving? Or didn’t they hear when she said they should follow her?

"Is there a problem?"

The man who had been speaking for the rest looked at his colleagues, then turned toward the girl and replied;

"We—We are scared. Wh—What if we die if we leave this room? Yo—You might have just defeated one of the beasts, but at the end of the day, you are just an—an Aspirant."

"...?!"

"Fine then. Your call," Trisha shrugged and then continued on her way.

"... If you feel like cowering here while awaiting death is better than following someone who has the slightest of chances to defeat the beasts and save your lives is the right choice, who am I to refuse?" she spoke over her shoulders and then stopped at the entrance.

The survivors glanced at one another in dread while thinking for a few seconds.

The female Aspirant then took in a deep breath while touching her ear.

— Aspirant. A drone has reached your location. We have spotted a beast in the bathroom of the building. Still searching for the others.

"There are three more workers stuck here. I have gathered seven. It will be helpful if you find where the others are."

Her ear was silent for a few moments, then the voice replied;

— Roger.

Sucking in a deep breath, she took a step forward, about to vanish away when the survivors hurriedly scrambled to their feet.

"We—We will follow you."

She halted.

She didn’t turn around nor acted like she heard them, but she did.

"Good."

Her foot hit the ground, and the survivors rushed toward her location with a speed they didn’t know they possessed, afraid that at any moment she would vanish, therefore leaving them behind.

Then what if their luck ran out and, almost immediately, a beast appeared?

They would surely be dead.

They had cheated death once by sheer luck, as the spider’s scythe was almost upon them when the door Trisha had destroyed smashed into it.

Drip!

One of the survivors glanced down to see a drop of blood land on the ground.

It was her blood.

Touching her cheek, she realized that it was from the spider’s scythe grazing her skin earlier on.

She had been the beast’s first target, but due to the door, the scythe merely scratched her face instead.

"Keep up."

She walked out of the room fully while the survivors followed after her with a hurried pace.

The search for the others began.