Chapter 476: Salia VS Julius and Chronos

Thankfully, Julius somehow managed to catch it one way or another.

Clack-thwack!

The metal cuffs bit into his claws before he could fully register what happened.

The thing Bryan had thrown through the air was a pair of talon sheaths. It had heavy metal cuffs perfectly sized for massive raptor claws.

The moment they locked into place, the air around Julius’s hands began to vibrate.

VREEE—

Each sheath had a slim, hyper-vibrating plasma blade.

Because this was their regular place to hang out, Grayson and the others had decided to make custom-forged weapons for fun.

At that time, they enjoyed designing custom weapons and fitted equipment that they even explicitly designed a few for their semi-transformations.

It was honestly just been done purely for fun—a wealthy beastman’s eccentric hobby. But now, as the plasma cast sharp shadows against the concrete, Julius couldn’t be more glad that they had these made.

There were a lot of these things around the estate that they didn’t even remember where they put the weapon for whom. Good thing they had a friend like Bryan; keeping him alive and healthy was really the highlight of the day.

How did he even find these in the middle of all this wreckage?

Julius would have laughed out loud if not for their current situation.

To think that I would use these for the first time against a high-ranking Zerg, he thought, his instincts flaring as the heat of the weapon warmed his skin. I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate. Honestly, it’s probably both.

"Hold on tight, you bastards!" Julius roared as he flew down.

He maneuvered sharply in mid-air, a massive flap of his wings—WHOOSH—sending a cloud of dust billowing out. With a brutal, deliberate motion, he slammed his foretalons into the metal sheaths.

CLICK-CLACK.

He felt the blades heat up, their energy fields adjusting automatically to fit the edges of his stolen claws perfectly. The inside of the cuffs flashed a violent green, signaling that it was locked in place.

With a perfect prey to kill in front of him, the primal beast inside Julius took the reins. Unlike his normal self, Julius excitedly folded his wings against his back. He minimized the air resistance and then dove straight down into the shadows.

The sheer speed of his descent could really peel off a feather or two. Creating an arc, then climbing back up to slot in flawlessly alongside Chronos’s black streak.

Hssssssss!

Salia shrieked, her antennae trembling as the two predators closed the gap.

The chase was a vicious, breathless experience. At first, Salia had the head start. Then, with Chronos’s unmatched, phantom-like speed, quickly caught up in Salia’s pace. Meanwhile, Julius took his time to cover Chronos’s attacks with his plasma blades.

Clang! Swish!

The two herded Salia to run in a narrow pathway in a wide open land. Every time Salia tried to go astray, Chronos’s blade would flash—snip!—cutting off, preventing her from moving away.

Every time Salia tried to get high and avoid Chronos’s attack, Julius would sweep down from above. His claw-blades would leave deep, glowing lines left behind by the fast attack just inches from her wings.

"Zero! Drive her left!" Julius shouted, his voice cracking with the thrill of the hunt.

Chirp-chirp-hiss!

Salia’s overlapping armor plates clicked frantically as she was forced to pivot. Her movements were growing more erratic and mad by the second.

From a distance, Grayson tracked their movements with only half of his attention. His silver eyes were cold and analyzing. His gun still raised, waiting for the perfect moment.

Clack-clack, whirrrr.

Salia, with her barely healing wings, every single movement cost her a massive amount of energy. She looked incredibly listless as she tried to balance her wings.

Her shoulders twitched violently as she attempted to pivot through the air, move forward, and simultaneously fight against the dual pressure of Chronos and Julius.

Flap-flap-drag. Flap-thump.

Looking at Salia’s deteriorating condition, Grayson was certain that Chronos and Julius would manage just fine on their own.

But Salia, as a bona fide high-ranking Zerg, proved that she wasn’t that stupid. She painfully knew what Chronos and Julius had been doing this entire time.

They weren’t trying to land a clean, lethal blow through her armored thorax—at least, not yet. They were draining her energy because Chronos and Julius bot knew that they wouldn’t be able to put her down cleanly.

Because even if she was weak to the fire, she was still faster and more agile. The recovery rate was even faster than Keres. Therefore, their little attacks were nothing to her.

Swoosh! Spark!

Julius’s claws grazed Salia’s shoulder, leaving a trail of smoking, melted armor.

But hard to kill and easy to fight were two entirely different things. The thing that bothered Salia the most was the fact that those two had not taken a single break.

When Julius’s wings grew heavy, he had to circle wide to catch wind. Chronos’s blade would instantly appear out of nowhere. He would close an attack towards her and occupy her vision.

They coordinated perfectly to cover their "breaks" in a seamless rotation. They were completely unlike those weak, soft-hearted humans left in the living room.

Those humans had taken their sweet time to gasp, to digest the horrifying fact that their friend, Lilianna, had become a Zerg before they even thought of firing.

It seemed like, for Chronos and Julius, a Zerg was a Zerg. The moment a human body transformed into a Zerg, it was immediately subjected to being killed, regardless of whose body it wore.

They were the kind of enemy you couldn’t shame. You couldn’t bargain or appeal to their mercy. The only thing you could do against dogs like these was escape.

That had been Salia’s initial plan. She had been scanning the high rafters for an extraction vent, until that plan changed in a single, desperate sweep of her fractured vision.

Far in the distance to her right, she spotted Keres. And hanging over his forelimbs was a female human he had taken hostage.

Click-click-click.