Ch.47Rage

# Black Cat’s Betrayal

Yu Anna had always known this day would come.

Until very recently, she had been waiting for a day she didn’t want to wait for.

And then, at some point, she had stopped waiting.

“Urgh…”

[Two heroes down! B-rank Kim Hyuk-jun and C-rank Oh Cheol-sik are dead! I repeat! All B-rank and below, evacuate the scene immediately! Wait in the safety zone!]

As the urgent radio transmission cut through the night fog, Yu Anna recalled what had happened just moments ago.

Seven Destruction-rank monsters appearing in Zone 8, heroes responding to the alert and reporting from the scene.

Then, with the emergency alarm, shocking news echoed throughout the building.

Black Cat was hunting heroes, not monsters.

“Why on earth…!”

Could it be that Kim Hyuk-jun and Oh Cheol-sik had been secretly doing something wrong?

For a moment, she felt self-loathing for suspecting her fellow heroes rather than the monster, but Yu Anna didn’t want to believe Black Cat would do this without reason.

Maybe there was some misunderstanding. No, why would Black Cat suddenly start hunting humans?

That creature who used to eat beef, why?

Thorny thoughts painfully tore through Yu Anna’s mind.

What foolish thinking.

Black Cat is a monster.

“After all this time…!”

Yu Anna bit her lip as she headed toward Zone 8, a sonic boom trailing beneath her feet.

So it had come to this after all.

She should have known what kind of creature a monster truly was.

Black Cat is a monster that devours humans.

It was a monster’s deception, and she was stupid to fall for it.

She should never have trusted it.

Yet, Yu Anna had thought Black Cat was special.

Like a fool, she had believed.

The hero who should have been the most threatening to Black Cat in W City had let her guard down.

[B-Black Cat… is… the sh-shelter… ah…]

This was the result.

The operator’s lament as they watched footage from the accident scene.

Just hearing the word “shelter” was enough to understand what was happening.

Black Cat had found a shelter and was tearing it open.

Like a lunchbox filled with human food.

A shelter under one-sided attack from a Despair-rank monster like Black Cat could hold out for a minute at most.

To a Despair-rank monster, a shelter was just fruit peel that was annoying to remove.

Perhaps it wouldn’t even take that long.

Black Cat had Phasing, an ability gained from devouring heroes.

[Life signals detected, updating casualty count… Zone 8 Shelter #21, all occupants deceased. Registered occupants… total of 52, 5 children, 47 adults.]

“Aaaaaaah!”

Hearing the transmission in her ear, Yu Anna screamed and accelerated further.

Contempt for herself for thinking such a monster was cute, guilt that people were dying because of her, betrayal by Black Cat.

Betrayal by a monster—what had she been trusting in a monster?

The night sky rushed past her, and the moment Black Cat had landed before her disappeared like the clouds falling behind her.

A monster protecting heroes, protecting children, protecting humans.

A monster that stayed still when its head was patted, a monster that meowed cutely, a monster that understood when spoken to, a monster that didn’t attack humans.

Black Cat is a monster.

What had she been expecting from a monster?

Yet, she had wanted to believe.

Why?

With Zone 8 in sight, Yu Anna accelerated toward the black figure visible in the distance.

Acceleration, acceleration—Meteor Fall, the technique Yu Anna, with her destructive power and flight speed that ranked among the top S-rank heroes, typically used at first contact with monsters.

A plummet from the sky.

Between stretched frames of vision, her hero’s senses took in the scene she didn’t want to see.

A black cat chewing on several lifeless children’s bodies, hero corpses torn in half scattered around, people who appeared to have been burst apart just for fun.

All dead.

Weak humans were just snacks for monsters. Monsters were natural enemies of humans, enemies of humanity.

“Black Caaaaaat!”

“Kyaooo?!”

BOOM! Yu Anna’s foot, having become a mass of flesh, struck the black monster’s body as she crashed down through the torn human corpses.

At that moment, a cat’s cry rang out, followed by a hollow sensation as if she’d stomped on empty air.

Whoosh—Black Cat, dispersed into black mist, reassembled itself before Yu Anna.

“Nyahaa…”

“You… you…!”

Gritting her teeth, Yu Anna struggled to cool her chaotic mind.

Her tightly clenched fist trembled as pure white flames grew larger around it.

Whoosh, whoosh—engulfed in flames to the tips of her hair, Yu Anna threw her fist toward Black Cat.

“After all this time! You, youuuu!”

If you were going to do this, why did you help before?

No, I know why—because you’re a monster.

You think you’re a match for me now?

After eating all those other monsters, you think you can beat me now, that this is your chance?

In the end, Black Cat started hunting people because Yu Anna was weak.

These people died because Yu Anna was weak.

Yu Anna trusted Black Cat because she was weak.

Still weak.

Still.

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

Yu Anna charged toward Black Cat, which was dispersing like mist, covering her entire body in ultra-high-temperature plasma.

A technique now more famous for its nickname “Eraser”—a sphere of destruction that melts any monster below Despair-rank just by approaching Yu Anna.

Even if a hero had to destroy the entire city with their own hands, they must catch a Despair-rank monster.

Before the Despair-rank monster kills every human in the city.

GRRRRRR! The space along Yu Anna’s flight path melted and dripped away.

As if replacing tears that had dried up from betrayal, water vapor rose into the sky, and the ground transformed into gleaming glass.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! She stretched both hands toward Black Cat, which was escaping by transforming into shadow mist with another ability. A technique that evolved after she realized she could channel lightning-like energy through plasma after drawing lightning from Kowloon Walled City into her body.

An improved technique created solely to inflict damage on the fleeing Black Cat.

Tracking Light Bullet—the flash shot from Yu Anna’s hand traced a curve following Black Cat blinking across the night sky.

“Nyaaaaargh!”

PING PING PING! BOOM BOOM BOOM! The light bullets that hit immediately exploded inside the body, causing Black Cat to cry out in pain, twist its body, and cling to a building wall.

Black Cat bared its teeth at Yu Anna, swinging its blade-like tail back and forth, looking ready to pounce at any moment.

SWOOSH! When that tail sank into a window, a hole appeared in the night sky behind Yu Anna, and a blade shot out.

The blade burst in front of Yu Anna and SLASH! spread into small pieces, and the blade fragments, spread like mist, THWACK THWACK THWACK, embedded themselves in Yu Anna’s body.

“Nyahahahaha~”

The cat’s laughter, thinking it had landed an attack on the distracted Yu Anna. Yu Anna mocked Black Cat for laughing at such a pathetic attempt, as the blade fragments melted without even penetrating her curtain of fire and fell to the ground.

“You thought you could beat me just because you gained a few abilities?”

Stupidly, you attacked humans with just this?

Unable to suppress her boiling anger and regret, Yu Anna drew a circle in the air with her trembling voice.

A circular saw blade shining like the sun, a new technique developed while researching ways to increase the destructive power of light bullets.

The Light Ring, created in preparation for Despair-rank monsters other than Black Cat, began to spin rapidly through the air.

“You’re mistaken! You stupid bastard!”

Yu Anna overlapped two light rings, rotating them in opposite directions.

Small spheres of destruction like Yu Anna herself orbited around her.

Satellite Sun—as she launched a small sun using the same method as light bullets, Black Cat, sensing something ominous, transformed into shadow mist.

SWOOSH—the sphere, creating a melted hole in the building, continued to chase Black Cat, followed by curves of light.

Avoiding the destructive light filling the area, BOOM, BOOM, Black Cat blinked in and out, bursting black mist in midair, when Yu Anna appeared before it.

“…Die.”

As Black Cat’s eyes widened, looking up at the sun overlapping with the moon, Yu Anna’s tightly clenched fist crashed down on the monster’s head.

BOOM! A pillar of fire that penetrated underground layers created a vertical tunnel with a glass surface shining on the ground.

Above it, in hot steam that burned even the remaining embers, Yu Anna, building her killing intent, spread waves of her ability.

Black Cat was a monster that fled rather than fighting to the death.

The moment its head burst under Yu Anna’s fist, it vanished.

If she failed to kill it here and now, W City would suffer Black Cat’s one-sided war of attrition.

Just as Yu Anna had only been able to chase but not catch Black Cat until now, the damage would increase with each of Black Cat’s playful human hunts.

CRUNCH… Clenching her fist until her hand nearly broke, Yu Anna realized once again how difficult an opponent Black Cat was and blamed herself for not dealing with it earlier.

When Black Cat was complacent, thinking its act was working well, she shouldn’t have been thinking it was cute.

Even now, she would kill it.

WOONG! WOONG! WOOOONG! Spreading waves to find the hidden Black Cat, Yu Anna sensed the monster’s presence on the rooftop of a cracked building and shot into the sky.

A reaction too weak for a Despair-rank monster, but this was Black Cat’s characteristic.

Sure enough, on the rooftop was Black Cat with murderous eyes.

“Dieeeeee!”

BOOM! As Yu Anna extended her fist, Black Cat sank into the shadows to avoid the attack.

This time it was an ability she already knew about. Yu Anna watched the shadow sliding SWOOSH beneath the horizontal pillar of fire streaking across the sky, and raised her finger to pull up the sun from below the building.

WOOOONG! The silently rising sun melted and cut away half of the shadow, causing Black Cat to leap out of the shadow with a pained expression.

“Grrrr…”

Black Cat’s body became translucent like clouds obscuring the moonlight in the night sky—an ability to pass through objects.

But Yu Anna’s flames burned through abilities.

WHOOSH—Yu Anna sank the sun toward Black Cat, which was sinking into the building, using the sun to chase Black Cat and draw it out before her.

“I won’t be fooled anymore!”

BOOM! Another hole appeared on the ground as a pillar of fire passed through, penetrating Black Cat’s lower body.

“You won’t kill anyone else!”

One more, one more—Black Cat’s body, unable to avoid all the pursuing suns, developed torn marks.

“Why, why on earth! If you were going to do this, why!”

RUMBLE! Destructive flames aimed at the ground—Black Cat, its head burst open, landed on the ground.

In front of the shelter already pulled from the ground, a metal case of blood and meat chunks covered in claw and tooth marks.

Black Cat stopped in front of it, lowered its half-remaining head, and bowed toward the human flesh and blood.

At that sight, as Yu Anna was about to release the energy gathered in her fist, the image of Black Cat sniffing beef flashed through her mind.

Was even that delicious eating all an act?

“What are youuuu! Youuuu!”

An emotion a hero shouldn’t harbor—betrayal toward a monster.

Ashamed of herself for being fooled again after being fooled so many times, Yu Anna’s fist, filled with resentment, extended toward Black Cat.

To kill Black Cat with this one blow, the pressure of the massive flames covering her entire body descended upon Black Cat.

[OOOOOOOOO!]

As Black Cat howled loudly, the surrounding space distorted.

Like Yu Anna controlling her light bullets, Black Cat, engulfed in flames and wind, created a wall of hot air to disperse Yu Anna’s ability.

A new defense against long-range attacks, learned to chase Yu Anna.

Just as Yu Anna grew, Black Cat was growing too.

But if it was the flame of ability released at close range.

Close combat strikes could still—no, could inflict even more fatal wounds than before.

[OOOOOOOOO!!]

“Urgh…?!”

Next, Yu Anna, about to rush at Black Cat, momentarily stopped her ability at the growing howl.

A sound that shook space, no, an ability overlapping with the howl.

The sound itself solidified, carrying power far away.

Spreading the howl throughout W City.

[OOOOOOOOO!!]

“What… is this?”

WOONG! WOONG! Just as Yu Anna did when chasing monsters, a massive wave spread from Black Cat’s body throughout W City.

Feeling that vibration, Yu Anna’s expression hardened with an inexplicable feeling.

The monster’s wave hitting Yu Anna’s body was saying something.

Black Cat was angry.