Chapter 463: In The Gardens

Pete vanished down the stairs, and Grayson did not watch him go because he didn’t have the time to even ask.

He was in a hurry.

Grayson turned on his heel.

The barrier was still holding despite the increasing Insectoids trying to breach its walls. The creature’s bodies hammered against the outside and lit it briefly with their impacts.

In the middle of it, a man-sized hole in the ornamental hedging had been kicked outward. The green and white wood was all torn and wrecked. There was a crushed-shell path with a long, ugly furrow running across it where something heavy had landed badly and dragged.

Grayson saw his target and immediately went to join the fire with his sidearm plasma pistol already coming up in his off hand.

Thiago and Ciel, who heard another firing coming towards them, adjusted their positions to avoid being shot by the other.

The first round caught Keres high on his left side, where the ribs would have been punched a hole. However, there was a flake of compressed chitin plating the dull green of pond scum.

The round punched through with a satisfying crack and a small geyser of pale, watery blood. But as fast as the hole was punched, it quickly recovered.

Keres screamed because he could still feel the pain when he got shot.

Grayson could finally see just how huge this zerg was now that they were out in the open.

Its lower body bent backward at the knees like a cricket’s, its arms ending in long serrated forelimbs that it used like blades.

There were two enormous compound bloody red eyes and additional mandibles that worked sideways. And there was even a pair of folded wing-cases at his back that twitched but did not yet open.

Thiago came running from behind a planter, slightly limping on his right foot. Grayson noted in one half-second glance that Thiago’s white sleeves were even rolled to the elbow and red to the wrist.

"Eason—!"

"Report."

"Neville’s gone."

What do you mean by ’gone’? Grayson asked himself. His finger lingered on the trigger, trying to keep himself calm and collected.

But in reality, his fingers didn’t just linger on the trigger but actually fired at Keres.

One of the shots came through Keres’s right forelimb, and another shot came soon and just made the hole bigger.

Then they suddenly heard a deafening noise like a wet stick snapping.

Keres screamed again and rocked back. The forelimb hung at a new and wrong angle.

Ciel looked at Thiago and Grayson, who were talking not too far away, and tch-ed.

Couldn’t they focus on the fight? Ciel thought, I’m also a human with finite stamina, you know?

"Where," Grayson asked, in a serious, grave tone.

Thiago kept panting because Grayson unconsciously let out a thick pheromone, pressuring him for an answer. "Right. Right side. Colonel Vane’s holding it back."

"What do you mean?" Grayson asked, about to completely lose his cool.

"There was a huge zerg. It was mounted by a masked man, and that man seems to be holding a human who looked like Neville. I—"

Thiago caught himself and shook his head sharply.

"They’re trying to bolt out of the barrier. Colonel Vane’s doing a good job keeping them inside. But I don’t know how long the barrier could hold out."

"Punching through the inside of the barrier to get out." Grayson pondered, "The barrier won’t last for long at this rate."

"Yeah. Colonel Vane is having a hard time just trying to stop it from attacking the barrier from time to time because he didn’t have enough cartridges to kill that huge mass of an insectoid."

Grayson thought about this as he assisted Ciel in fighting Keres.

Right now, Keres was retreating low to the ground. His good forelimb was up to shield those enormous compound eyes.

The hole in his flank was still leaking but rapidly healing. He was making for the gap in the hedge that he had originally come through.

But Grayson was not going to let him.

"Do you know who took him?"

"It’s too far." Thiago hesitated for half a second. "We didn’t see clearly."

"Thiago."

"Eason, I’m telling you what I saw. It was dark out here. The mount kicked up half the patio when it came out of the wall. Colonel Vane was going after it. I saw a person on its back holding someone who wasn’t moving. The someone who wasn’t moving had—"

His throat felt dry and hard to swallow.

"—Neville’s hair."

Grayson did not stop attacking Keres. But his cold expression suddenly turned murderous.

The only thing that prevented him from simply firing through Thiago to reach Keres faster was that Thiago was his brother-in-law. He was also desperately needed right now by Chronos and Helena.

"I’ll help Colonel Vane," he said. "You—"

"Eason."

"You go back in. Pete went down for Helena and Zero. He cannot manage them both."

Thiago’s eyes flickered.

"On it." Thiago turned, "Take care of yourself, Eason."

"..."

Looking at Grayson like this, Thiago couldn’t help but say, "I’m sorry."

Thiago soon limped fast across the broken, crushed-shell path back to the side door.

"Ciel."

The shout had come from across the garden. Grayson’s head turned a little.

Ciel was standing about twenty feet to Grayson’s right with a borrowed sidearm in a two-handed grip. The borrowed sidearm was now shaking.

He had heard everything and meant that this huge, high-ranking zerg, Keres, was left for him to deal with.

"Brother—" Ciel called in a terrified tone, but swallowed it down and tried again. "How— how am I supposed to manage this thing alone?"

It was reasonable to ask that because the Marchesi family was also a military family. Their private military training was also known to produce the best soldiers in the Imperial Galaxy.

Ciel had never been alone in a fight against a zerg before, much less against a high-ranking zerg. He did fight in the front lines too, but never ever by himself. He tried his best to remain calm and do as he was trained to do, but he couldn’t help but shake at facing a zerg this huge.

He thought, f*ck, how am I supposed to fight this thing? I keep on attacking, but it just keeps regenerating!

If Ciel could compare it to any of the zerg that he fought in the front lines, he could only think of one zerg in particular. A huge worm, almost half the size of a planet. That was how dangerous he felt this Keres was.

However, that huge worm was not only big, but it was also blind and hungry, so it ate everything literally in its way. Also, that was taken down by the combined strength of two battalions because of its regenerative properties. Not to mention that all the soldiers who fought at that time used a mecha.

What was he supposed to do with just meager human arms and body? Ciel complained. He doesn’t even have the normal size of an adult human! Had Grayson gone crazy or something?!

Ciel took a glimpse of Grayson’s expression and thought, yup, that icy gaze. Yeah, Grayson had finally lost his mind.

In reality, Grayson was just having a hard time choosing. He had never had to worry about limited manpower before. There were always people available to fight around him.

Whether they were on his side or not, as long as they were useful, he put them to good use. He really thought that with the experience of everyone in here, they could successfully obliterate their enemies.

But he completely miscalculated when the insectoids began to increase exponentially and appeared out of nowhere. And a high-ranking Zerg appeared on top of that.

Where did they even come from? Grayson gritted his teeth.

He was about to turn his shoulder toward Colonel Vane’s direction when Keres attacked Ciel and was almost slammed to the ground.

When Grayson fired and was about to come over to help Ciel, Colonel Vane was also attacked and was thrown into a pile of rubble from the destroyed wall of the house.

Damn it, damn it.

Grayson wished he could divide his body into two. He thought of calling Julius, but he thought of Lilianna over there.

If Lilianna awakened as a Zerg and became a high-ranking Zerg... He closed his eyes tightly. Bryan was the only one who barely had any experience in the front lines. He couldn’t possibly fight Lilianna alone while protecting two inexperienced office workers.

In the end, he had to do everything.

F*ck

"Ciel," he said, without turning his head. "Eyes on the mandibles, the heart cluster is under the left wing-case. You will not get a clean shot at it until he opens those wings to flee. I’ll injure him faster than the regeneration, so get your wits out and survive."

"Bro—"

"You can do this."

"I—"

"Ciel."

Ciel’s spine straightened.

"Ack," Ciel said, voice tight. "Yes, sir."

Grayson turned to move, but Keres, as if waiting for him to be gone, attacked Ciel again.