22: Canon Event

It had already been proven that guns were highly effective against normal parasites, and the higher the caliber, the better.

The three parasites that had appeared after following Migi's signal were two women and one man. Chelsea had extremely good aim. The moment the first woman's head appeared around the corner, she drilled a hole straight through the middle of her forehead, killing her instantly.

Parasites were certainly strong and possessed powerful, lethal attacks. Their tentacles were sharp and extremely fast, but their greatest weakness was that they still had to rely on the human bodies they inhabited. A single well placed injury, even one that didn't hit the head, could be enough to kill them.

In fights like these, the one who made the first move would always have the upper hand.

"Damn it! It's them!" The other two parasites became frightened. They immediately shifted into fighting mode. The second woman was slightly smarter than the man, so she grabbed the dead woman's body with one hand and held it in front of herself as a shield while her tentacles extended and wrapped around her body.

Bang! Bang!

Chelsea fired two more shots, but this time, they were ready. The bullets struck the dead woman's body instead.

The two bullets drilled through her chest, making the corpse sway from the impact, but they still failed to hit the woman hiding behind it.

The female parasite and male parasite slowly approached them with murderous looks. Although they had never met Natsuo and the others before, it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were the ones who had been hunting their kind. After all, a parasite taking over a hand like Migi wasn't exactly common.

Natsuo stretched out his arm, and a fireball formed in his palm before shooting toward them. It moved incredibly fast, slamming into the dead body before exploding into a burst of flames that engulfed the corpse and burned the parasite's arm holding it.

"Aghh! Fire! He can use fire!" The flames made the female parasite's skin turn red, and her arm was badly burned as well. She immediately threw away the dead body and tried to escape, but Natsuo had already conjured his second spell. Another fireball was already shooting toward her.

Among the elements Natsuo could use, fire was the most effective against parasites. It was faster than she could evade, and if she used her fast tentacles to smash the fireball, she would only end up burning herself.

"Aghhh! Aghhh! Spare me! I don't want to die! Aghh! Aghhh!"

Without any suspense, the fireball struck her torso and exploded, turning her into a human torch. She ran around screaming and groaning before collapsing to the ground, thrashing and rolling about until she finally stopped moving.

The last parasite didn't dare linger and immediately turned around to escape, but how could Chelsea allow him to? She threw two needles that pierced through his knees. The man lost control of his legs and collapsed to the ground.

When he managed to stand and tried to escape again, another needle pierced one of his tentacles. Chelsea then ordered in a cold voice, "Move a single inch, and you're dead."

"What do you want?" The male parasite didn't struggle. He remained still and asked.

Chelsea kept her distance from him and waved for Shinichi and Migi to move closer so they could keep him in check. Those two had been standing around uselessly this whole time. They might as well do something.

"How many of you are there?" Chelsea asked while keeping her gun aimed at him.

"44." The man answered.

"How many are there right now?"

"26. Because of you, we were ordered not to wander around, but not everyone is following the orders." The man replied calmly. He was one of the few who had refused to follow the orders, and now he was about to get fucked for it.

"Is there someone called Gotou among you?" Chelsea asked the question she needed answered the most. Their main objective tonight was to gather information about Gotou. One of their quest objectives was to kill him, and he was by far the most difficult part.

The other objectives, such as killing 100 parasites and preventing a massacre at West High, were somewhat troublesome but relatively easy to complete. They only needed to kill Hideo Shimada and slowly grind their way toward killing 100 parasites.

"Gotou? Yes." The man paused for a moment before answering.

"Where is he?" Chelsea glanced toward Natsuo before looking back at the male parasite and asking.

They didn't know whether Gotou was as strong as he had been in the anime, especially since Reiko had already been killed by them. If they could finish him off tonight, however, they would have made massive progress.

"Another one is coming!" Migi suddenly said. Then, in a solemn voice, he added, "Strange. I can detect the signals of two others. No, three? Maybe four? Weird. Their signals are very weak."

As he spoke, his tone became even more solemn. "Incredible! They're moving incredibly fast. They'll reach here in less than ten seconds."

Bang!

Before Migi could finish speaking, Chelsea pulled the trigger and killed the male parasite. She immediately shouted, "It must be him! Natsuo, get ready!"

'Shit!' Natsuo immediately prepared a fireball and cautiously looked around them.

"He is here!" Migi suddenly shouted as he looked upward. The others followed his gaze and saw a figure leaping from a rooftop and landing with a loud thud.

The man left a dent in the ground when he landed on his knees. He slowly stood up and gazed at the three of them with an expressionless face before saying, "Caught you!"

"I heard you're strong. Show me how you fight." He slowly walked toward them, speaking in a calm tone as he stared at the fireball hovering in front of Natsuo's hand.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Chelsea answered him with three bullets fired straight at his face. Her aim was so precise that all three bullets were headed directly toward his eyes.

Gotou still managed to react quickly, raising both arms in front of his face. The bullets embedded themselves in his forearms, and blood began dripping from the wounds. Gotou contracted his muscles, and the bullets were actually squeezed out of his flesh. His muscles were so incredibly strong that they could force the bullets back out.

Bang!

Although Natsuo was stunned by the scene, he didn't freeze like some anime character. He immediately threw the fireball he had prepared. It shot toward Gotou, but the monstrous parasite moved quickly and managed to dodge the attack. He was only slightly too slow, however, and the flames still burned his back.

His movements were extremely fast, and his jumping ability was absurd. This was the first time a parasite had ever dodged one of Natsuo's fireballs.

"Interesting, interesting indeed." Gotou touched the burned part of his back and muttered.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Chelsea threw three needles and ordered Shinichi, "Stop freezing like that and do something!" As she spoke, she changed the magazine in her gun and fired again.

'Why is he still this strong? Didn't Reiko Tamura die? Or is this a canon event? Even if Reiko Tamura didn't create him, someone else would have?' Chelsea thought while continuing to shoot. She alternated between needles and bullets while keeping a close eye on Natsuo's safety. He was a mage, and if Gotou managed to get close to him, he would be in serious danger.

Shinichi was trembling like a leaf in a storm. The sheer amount of bloodlust radiating from Gotou made his blood run cold, but Migi kept urging him forward. He forced his body to move, slowly stepping forward until he was within range.

Migi then joined the fight, and the battle quickly turned into a chaotic exchange. Gotou moved around at incredible speed, dodging Chelsea's bullets and needles while fending off Migi's attacks and keeping a close eye on Natsuo.

'To think we would really run into him. If only Hilda were here... Maybe it's better that she isn't,' Natsuo thought as he aimed his gun and fired at Gotou.

He didn't conjure any magic this time. With his current energy reserves, he could only fire six more fireballs at most. Since Gotou had already demonstrated that he could dodge them, Natsuo decided not to use them recklessly. Although his energy reserves were growing, it hadn't been that long since he had started training.

The fight was intense, but very little time had passed. Suddenly, Gotou leaped high into the air, grabbed onto a wall, then kicked off it and shot toward Natsuo like a comet.

Of the three of them, Gotou felt most threatened by this young human. If Natsuo managed to hit him with another fireball, he would be severely injured.

Bang!

Natsuo frowned, tensed up, and immediately cast a water shield in front of them. Gotou slammed into the water barrier, his momentum greatly reduced as water splashed everywhere.

Chelsea immediately seized the opportunity. She pulled the trigger repeatedly, firing two bullets that struck their target perfectly, one hitting his chest and the other striking his neck. Migi also took advantage of the opening and slashed at him, but Gotou's arms transformed into tentacles and blocked Migi's attack.

Seeing that Gotou was finally entangled by the others, Natsuo conjured another fireball and shot it at him.

BOOM!

This time, the fireball didn't miss. It struck Gotou directly in the chest before exploding into flames. Tongues of fire engulfed him, nearly burning Migi as well, forcing him to quickly retreat.

Chelsea seized the opportunity and fired again, sending a barrage of bullets and needles toward Gotou.

"Agh! Aghh! Damn it! How dare you! Agh!"

Gotou roared in pain as tentacles began sprouting from his head, arms, back, and various other parts of his body, swinging wildly in every direction. Chelsea was worried about Natsuo, so she immediately rushed to his side to protect him.

However, perhaps because she was too focused on Natsuo, she failed to pay attention to herself. The moment she shifted her attention away, a tentacle suddenly lashed out toward her, slashing at her!

'Eh?' Chelsea looked back in astonishment, watching the tentacle approaching her torso in what felt like slow motion.

At that moment, she remembered the scene she had watched on her phone, the one where she was killed. Her fingers were cut off, her arms severed, she was shot, and finally, her head was cut off and mounted on a stick.

Was she really going to die here?

Was this a canon event she couldn't escape?

She really didn't want to die! She had only just found hope of escaping her fate, overthrowing the Emperor, and making the Empire great again!

She had found new companions, and she had also met him...

From the corner of her eye, she glanced at Natsuo standing beside her. Even if she were about to die, she wanted to have one last look at him.

Suddenly, before she could look at him, a sudden force shoved her away, sending her rolling across the ground. Time seemed to resume in her vision as she heard Natsuo's cry, "Chelsea!"

"Ah! Fuck!!"

Chelsea immediately jumped to her feet and frantically looked toward Natsuo. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw blood spraying from his body and one of his hands severed, flying through the air before it had even touched the ground.

...

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