Chapter 127 | Monster Outbreak
Dexter was completely unaware of the drama back at home.
He was behind the wheel of his Vanguard V4, weaving through morning traffic at dangerous speeds.
He couldn’t use the Type-6 Aegis Skybreaker as it was still daytime, and pulling a combat-grade flying SUV out of thin air in broad daylight would raise too many questions.
So the ordinary-looking armored SUV would have to do.
The GPS on his phone displayed the pinned location. He was already two minutes behind schedule thanks to the argument at the breakfast table. The Vanguard V4’s engine roared as he floored the accelerator.
In under four minutes, he crossed into the next district.
The moment he arrived, chaos greeted him.
The street was in pandemonium.
The bustling market district had become a living nightmare.
People ran through the streets with faces twisted in absolute terror, their desperate screams echoing from every direction.
"Run!"
"It’s coming!"
"Help! Somebody help!"
Children cried as parents dragged them through the streets. Some stumbled and fell, only to be yanked back to their feet before the stampede swallowed them.
Cars had collided with one another in desperate attempts to escape. Twisted metal blocked entire intersections as horns blared endlessly, some vehicles still idling with their doors hanging wide open.
It was obvious their owners had abandoned them in blind panic.
A truck slammed into a traffic light with a deafening crash.
Glass exploded across the road.
Another vehicle flipped onto its side after swerving to avoid something charging through the smoke.
"BOOM!"
An explosion erupted somewhere down the street.
The shockwave rattled nearby buildings as black smoke billowed into the morning sky.
The air was a symphony of horror.
Screams.
Gunfire.
Crunching metal.
Shattering glass.
And above it all...
Deep, loud roars that no normal creature on earth should have been capable of producing.
The monstrous cries reverberated through the district, making even the bravest civilians freeze in fear before instinct forced them to run once more.
Dexter parked the Vanguard V4 and stepped out.
The moment his boots touched the pavement, recognition flashed through his eyes.
This was the market district.
The very place where he had bought groceries and supplies during his first week after moving into the bungalow.
Only days ago it had been lively and crowded.
Now, It looked like a battlefield.
Storefronts had been ripped open as though struck by a missile.
Market stalls had been reduced to splintered wood scattered across the streets.
Fresh vegetables and fruits lay crushed beneath countless footprints, their juices mixing with shattered glass, spent shell casings, and pools of fresh blood.
A delivery truck had crashed straight through the front of a pharmacy, its engine still sputtering while flames sparked beneath the hood of the vehicle.
At the daw end of a store, a woman knelt beside a motionless man, desperately shaking his shoulders while sobbing uncontrollably.
"Husband, wake up... please... please wake up..."
"Ahhhhh!!!"
Nearby, another civilian was dragged screaming into an alley.
His cries lasted only a few seconds before ending in a sickening crunch.
There was silence, then a wet tearing sound reverberated.
The people who witnessed it screamed even louder and fled in every direction.
At the center of the devastation, reality itself had been torn apart.
A massive dimensional gate floated several meters above the ground, crackling with unstable energy.
The space around it distorted continuously, as if the world itself were struggling to heal the wound.
And from that rip in reality, monsters surged in like a swarm, leaping and clawing their way out of the gate as they shoved and climbs over one another in their eagerness to reach the fleeing civilians.
The creatures roared with savage excitement the instant they caught sight of prey.
Dexter’s eyes narrowed.
"Fiend-Class monsters..."
He recognized them immediately.
Four-Armed Goblins.
A far deadlier evolution of ordinary goblins.
Unlike their smaller cousins, these creatures stood as tall as fully grown adults, with several towering well over two meters.
Their sickly green-gray skin stretched over powerful, corded muscles that rippled with frightening strength.
Elongated snouts jutted forward, lined with rows of jagged yellow fangs slick with saliva.
Small bloodshot eyes burned with animalistic hunger.
Long, pointed ears twitched constantly as they searched for the next terrified victim.
Some possessed only two muscular arms.
Others had four.
The greater the number of arms, the stronger the goblin.
The Four-Arm goblins have two massive arms protruding normally from their shoulders, while another pair sprouted from behind their shoulder blades, giving them a grotesque, spider-like silhouette.
Each arm moved independently.
One could wield crude weapons while the others clawed, grabbed, or tore apart anything within reach.
Against ordinary civilians, they were living, breathing nightmares.
Dexter assessed their strength.
’Level 3 to Level 12.’
And they are all Fiend Class. Most F-rank heroes, would be cautious and wait for back up.
But Dexter wasn’t most people.
At that split second, a car swerved wildly, trying to bypass a goblin.
The creature’s four arms swung simultaneously, catching the vehicle’s side panel.
"Bang!"
The car spun sideways as it slammed into a building nearby.
The driver crawled out, bleeding from the head, as he stumbled away on foot, panicking.
Not far from him, a young couple were running together, as they fled from a four-armed goblin chasing after them.
The Four-arm Goblin chased after them. It’s speed fast as its mouth stretched wide in a horrifying grin.
The man’s expression changed. Them all of a sudden, he grabbed the woman by the side and shoved her backwards.
The woman was stunned and she stumbled backward by the force, falling tk the ground as her head hit a nearby car.
"S-Simon!? What are you doing!? Help me!!!"
She wasn’t Valentin finish her sentence when the goblin descended on her.
The boyfriend didn’t look back but ran faster.
Although it took a while to explain m, everything happened in a split second.
With Dexter’s hearing, he could map out everything in a 300 meter radius and it would be visible to him as though he was there, rendering a 3d image of the surroundings to him.
Dexter raised an eyebrow. A flicker of disgust crossed his face, but he didn’t waste time judging. He was already moving.
[Flame Burst Step]