My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 174: Broad Shoulders

Kace grabbed by the Sophia by the hand as he led her away from outer walls. His eyes were fixed on the walls that protected the second circle within the city. 'If this keeps up this city will become our grave! Something has to change! If we get behind those walls, it will give me a chance to recover and think things through!'

Sylvan had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from responding. As far as he could tell the battle was already lost. Sooner or later they would be drowned by just the sheer numbers. Especially with the enemy having the ability to let its troops reorganise and rest properly. If Sylvan thought that Kace would listen to his advice, he would be telling him to abandon ship right now while he still can.

However, he had the feeling that Kace would not give up until the last possible moment. Sylvan admired this about him. It was one of the reasons he had chosen to bond with Kace and become his weapon. 'All I can do is try and find the best possible path for both of us to survive this!'

Along their way, through the streets, Kace was forced to strike down the odd hero that had somehow managed to push this deep into the depths of the first ring. Each one that he came across just frustrated him all the more. 'What the fuck are the vampires doing! Surely they could have held these guys off for a while longer?'

It was getting harder by the second for him to deny that they were fighting a lost cause. Something either had to change soon, or he would have to consider a way to escape with Sophia. For his quest to work, he only really needed a single living vampire. However, their race's survival could benefit his allies greatly when he returned to the main world. 

It would be an ideal world if he could convince Sonja to station some troops in Stonefall to bolster what he believed to be a meagre amount of forces. He still had a few friends left that called that place home. So, of course, he wanted to do all that he could to secure it. It would only be a matter of time before a hero army like this decided to wipe the monster-infested town from the map.

Kace grimaced as he thought having to attend more funerals. It was something that he had no desire at all to do again. Besides that, it would be beneficial to him to find some way to manipulate the queen into still providing himself with training in their shared class.

Kace began to set out his priorities within his mind. He had to look at this logically to determine what he was willing to sacrifice if he absolutely had to. The only thing that was non-negotiable to himself was Sophia's survival. A close second would be making it out with as many of his goblin tribe as possible. They would be helpful in their own way.

Kace marched straight past the platoon stationed to protect the next set of gates dragging Sophia along behind him. When they passed through the archway, the casualties of the war so far became apparent. Sophia immediately covered his mouth to stop herself from letting out an unsightly scream. 

Plenty of wounded was being carried past them on stretchers while piles of the dead were covered with a sheet and laid out for people to identify. The stench of death was everywhere. Kace wore an ugly look on his face as he looked over the scene placed before them. He always knew that the casualty rate would be high, but this was on a whole other level than anything he had witnessed before. 

He even wondered if it only hit him so hard because he felt a type of kinship with them both being monsters of a sort. Funnily enough, he never felt much for the humans he slaughtered. At this moment, he truly realised how much his own thought process had adjusted from his time as a human on Earth. He could only chalk it up to his natural instinct as a monster.

Thinking about it, he probably would have been repulsed by his own actions if he were still a human. Especially that part of himself that had dreamed of becoming a hero ever since he was little. 'Though with every step forward I take as a monster I guess these guys would view me as a hero.' It had been a long time since he had allowed himself the opportunity to properly reflect on his actions so far.

However, the monster part of his brain saw absolutely nothing wrong with the things that he did. So it was a little difficult to look at the situation objectively. He noticed the saddened look on Sophia's face, and he felt burning wrath rising up from within the depths of his soul. 'These heroes!' He snarled to himself. 'They do all of this in the name of justice but do they ever stop to contemplate how their actions are affecting their victims?'

That was it, his latest defining moment when he truly recognised the various monster races as something that should be protected from the human race's cruelty. 'What right do they have to take whatever they want? To look at these lives and consider them to be worth less than their own? It's not like these guys invaded Earth! They're the ones that invaded their home!'

Kace felt his wrath beginning to boil over, to those in his nearby surroundings. The air around him became suffocating. They could tell that a storm was brewing and it was not one that they wished to be caught up in. Sophia silently stared at his broad shoulders from behind and for a brief moment, had a solitary thought.

'This is the man who carries the fate of all of these lives on his shoulders'