The fact that Captain Lain was helpless to stop the creature because her power was insufficient devastated her. Many people died, and she was powerless to intervene.
She knew it wasn't her fault, but maybe, if she had been stronger, at least she could have saved someone. Despite her training and strength, she felt helpless against the gigantic creature, and once she thought again about the horde of monsters marching toward the city, she felt depressed.
There was basically no way to stop the horde from marching toward New Alexandria, and it was less than a week away. The beast was still alive but now too weak to escape death. If the thaid tried to escape instead of attempting to kill the humans, they wouldn't be in this situation by now.
The beast was still trying to fight at that point, but it was clear that there would only be one outcome for it due to its blood loss. A few seconds later, the warriors surrounded the animal and attacked it mercilessly.
But the beast was still fighting. It had lost a lot of blood but refused to die. It was bleeding badly, and its movements were slow, but it wouldn't fall easily. The wounds accumulated on its body; the poison was ravaging its insides.
All of that was a lot, despite its strength. The beast kept killing more soldiers, bringing the total number of people down to one hundred and fifty, who continued attacking the beast. The monster killed another person, a woman whose name Captain Lain didn't know.
She looked at her lying lifelessly on the ground, and resolve arose in her eyes. "You motherfucker!" she shouted. Lain had her sword up and was slashing and stabbing the creature, but its wet fur made it impossible to create wounds on its body; it was too durable, almost as hard as steel.
A soldier from the Zamora Clan shot a bunch of fireballs at the beast, which burned it in some places. He was powerful, and after expending a considerable amount of mana, he caught the beast's attention. The thaid turned to look at him; it was angry and decided to kill the pesky man once and for all.
It came at him full speed, drooling from its mouth and showing off its sharp claws and teeth. Every time it moved a paw, it made a loud noise that echoed throughout the vast forest.
"F**K!" Captain Lain shouted; she needed to help the man. Luckily, due to the beast's wounds, it was slower than before, giving the woman time to help the man escape.
"HEY!" Lain shouted; she slashed at the beast again, drawing its attention.
SWOSH
Sergeant Greene placed herself on the side of the chasing beast and fired at its snout, making the beast roar in pain. The thaid didn't know what to do anymore; it was partially blind, had lost a lot of blood, and felt weak because of the poison.
Then it did the only logical thing it could do in that situation: it started running away in a desperate attempt to survive. However, everyone knew that the monster couldn't go that far due to its injuries, so Sergeant Greene and the others continued to fire at it, determined to bring it down; however, she also ordered to chase it.
"Bring me its head!" Sergeant Greene shouted.
The soldiers kept attacking the beast from behind, and the few remaining melee soldiers, including Captain Lain, gave chase. But the monster was still too fast, as it had a gigantic stride, and no matter how hard they ran, the soldiers were still too slow to catch it. Soon the beast disappeared between the forest's trees.
"F**K!" Dylan said. "We were so close!" he added.
"I don't think the beast will survive," Nico chimed in. It had too many wounds, and the bleeding was too intense, so let's try following the trails..." he said.
"Good idea," Sergeant Greene replied. "Did you hear him?" she then shouted. "Let's go…"
The group started marching; around one hundred and fifty people were left, as almost half of the company had been wiped out during the battle, but some stayed behind to collect the remains of the ones who died and to bury them properly. They didn't want to leave the corpses in the open and wait for the Thaids to eat them, so as a sign of respect for their lost companions, they collected the corpses.
However, they had to be careful since they probably ended up with Heniate's parasites inside their bodies, and the group had to make sure that none of them got infected, as the last thing they wanted was for the parasites to spread.
Sergeant Greene and the others kept following the blood trails the Hekratinl left until they went deep into the beast's territory and arrived in front of a gigantic cave.
"It entered here," Dylan said. "Yeah," Lain replied.
She had a look of resolve inside her eyes as her sense of duty arose sharply from within her. She clenched her teeth and tightened the grip on her sword as she steeled herself for what was about to come. She turned to look at Sergeant Greene, and then she said, "I'm going to see if it is still alive." And then she walked forward.
As she approached the entrance, she noticed a bloody paw print on the rock wall, and her stomach churned at the thought of what might be hiding within. There was no doubt about it: the beast was inside. She paused for a moment, gathering her courage and steadying her nerves, then took a deep breath before stepping into the cave's darkness.
Inside the cave was a mess; thaids' skulls littered the ground, and some were from puppies. Several dead bodies were scattered around the chamber; all of them had been ripped apart, and most had been eaten. Lain approached a body and carefully examined it to determine what had happened, but it was clear this was the work of the Hekratinl. That must have been its cave before he got infected by the Heniate, and it probably came back here as it used to do before being infected.
The young woman kept walking; the cave was empty, and no other was beside her. The only sound that reached the captain as she walked alone through the dark passages was the creaking of the stones she unintentionally kicked.
There was no wind in this place, not even a breeze. It was dark, but the young woman could see in the darkness thanks to her night goggles. The air was moist, and a faint rotting odor permeated it. After a little bit of searching, she finally saw the Hekratinl.
Under the beast, there was a pool of blood under the beast, and the woman could swear she saw wriggling things inside the red liquid, probably the Heniate's parasites. The beast exhaled its last breath, and the woman sighed in relief as the Hekratinl died in front of her.
Now it lay dead beneath the sun filtering through gaps between the rocks, giving the beast an imposing appearance. It took a couple of minutes until Lain finally found the exit from the cave. She looked around, seeing that all the other soldiers were looking at her. However, since she was out unharmed, what had happened to the beast was clear.
"It's dead," Lain said to the people present. Cheers erupted; everyone clapped their hands. Their mission was done, and now that the most dangerous beast to the gate's integrity had been killed, they had to rejoin the army to kill more thaids. Lain thought deeply; he missed her family and had had enough of the horde.
She had been fighting, fighting, and fighting since all of this started. As much as she enjoyed the company of his fellow soldiers, she longed to be home.
"Hey, you alright?" A voice called out to her as she was daydreaming in front of the cave while the other soldiers brought gasoline to burn the bear's body. A hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. When Lain faced the person, she realized who it was. Emma.
"I'm fine," Lain replied.
"You look tired," she commented.
"I am. Of all this... I think I need a little bit of rest after this hunt..."
"Let's have a walk…" Emma said.
They went with some other people back to where they had just fought the bear; they still had work to do and needed to help the others collect the bodies. From a distance, Sergeant Greene was looking at them, as she knew what she had asked Captain Lain was a lot.
As Emma and Lain walked, the duo didn't talk. They only drank a little bit of water and cooled down. After a while, they returned to the fighting zone and started collecting the dead men's and women's bodies.
After they were done, the remaining people crossed the river and took their vehicles to go back to the army.
"Hey, captain," Emma said. "Do you think the city will be ok?"
Lain shrugged, "I don't really know," she said. "This is the biggest crisis New Alexandria has ever faced. The horde is too big…"
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