My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 180: Cleaning Up

The pressure suddenly eased up on Kace's end as the heroes began to retreat. Word was slowly trickling in from the rear lines that their reinforcements had been thoroughly shattered and now they were caught between two enemy forces! Seeing that the enemy had lost the will to fight Kace, brutally drove home his advantage. 

With a ferocious yell, he eagerly chased down any of the heroes that were attempting to flee. The vampires, who saw this powerful army apparently fleeing before a single warrior, raised their own war cries. Leaping from the safety of their walls to join the battle. Many of them were eager to earn some payback. It simply was not fair for them to barge into their housed expect to leave unscathed.

Surprisingly enough, Sophia was the vampire leading the charge. She was eager to be paid her pound of flesh for all the vampires that the invaders had slaughtered! Like a lioness, she pounced on the weakest of the heard. No mercy was shown as she savagely cut them into multiple pieces. Blood sprayed everywhere as if the retreating army was a chunk of meat that was being put through a grinder.

Kace took the chance when it presented itself to prepare a quick bite to eat. Turning a hapless hero into a makeshift barbecue as he roasted him with liquid fire before tearing off his arm to chow down on as he continued his slaughter. As they drove the invaders back towards the main gate, Kace became reluctant to let a single one escape from their fate.

He took to his Spider Thread to outmanoeuvre the heroes and reached the archway first. Like a spider, he hung there and prepared his trap before the first hero came into sight. He covered the entire archway with thick webbing. He was confident that they would be unable to break through it before the vampire army could finish its massacre.

'Look at that Sylvan! Everything worked out!' Kace said in utter disbelief.

'Yeah, somehow! I'd really like to know what's happening outside of the city! Why would they suddenly start retreating? It makes no sense if you ask me!"

'Don't be such a worrywart. At least this way we get to have plenty of fun with our new friends.'

Sylvan felt like Kace's smile was contagious. It was getting hard to tell who was the worse influence on the other. Sylvan just wanted to kill the heroes, but Kace seemed to enjoy crushing their spirit first. It appeared to be an excessive level of cruelty, even for a monster. Though, that would depend on the race of the monster in question. Trolls were known to do far worse things.

The first hero ground to a halt as she rounded the corner to find her route of escape blocked off. She swore loudly as she tried to turn around and run in another direction before it was too late. However, unfortunately for her, Kace had already spotted her. The moment she took her eyes off of the massive web and Ice Spear found its mark. 

'That's some nasty brain freeze.' Kace blurted out without thinking.

The dark humour caused Sylvan to laugh. If anyone else had heard this joke, they probably would have found it corny more than anything else. However, Sylvan was a parasitic weapon with no prior experience of jokes that were in poor taste. Kace continued to take his time in picking off the pack leaders as soon as they came into view. 

Soon enough though a few turned into too many as the main body caught up. The bloodthirsty yells of vampires could be heard hot on their trail. Cries of despair began to become the background music for the inevitable slaughter as the heroes realised that they had nowhere to go. Kace had pretty much had his fill by the time they were cleaning up the last remnants that were still clinging onto their lives.

Kace did not bother to help out any more. These heroes were so low levelled that he did not gain even a single experience point throughout the entire battle. To top it off neither of his racial skills kicked in. Leaving him with a big fat zero for his efforts. 'I wonder if I can get a reward from the queen?'

'I doubt it. You'll be lucky if she lets you keep that armour of yours.' Sylvan snorted at the evident greed that Kace was beginning to show. However, Sylvan was not averse to accumulating wealth along as it could go towards wiping the heroes out somehow.

Before they could congratulate themselves on a job well done, the busty figure of Sophia running towards them emerged from the blood-drenched crowd. Without a care in the world, she leapt towards Kace and embraced him in her arms. Kace was so taken aback that he momentarily froze in place.

'I think this is the part where you hold her back.' Sylvan snickered, finding delight in Kace's discomfort.

'Fuck off! That could give her the wrong impression!'

'Yeah, I think that ship sailed long ago Captain.' 

Kace grew agitated at the echoes of laughter in his mind from his partner. Not being able to stand any more embarrassment, he softly but firmly plucked Sophia from his chest. Keeping her at arm's length, he studied her to make sure the merchandise had not been damaged. After all, he needed her to be in top form for all of the travellings they would have to do together. There was no way that he would carry around any dead weight!

Sophia had a complicated expression on her face as she watched Kace scrutinising every inch of her body. 'One little hug and he's become so bold!' Yet again she had gotten the wrong end of the stick. She was too busy assuming that he was checking her out freely to notice that there was no warmth behind those golden eyes of his.

'Seems like she's all good. That's something at least.' Kace, of course, remained oblivious to the inner workings of a woman's mind while Sylvan could only sigh in the background