Science/Magic

[Everywhere…]

Camilla's expression changed. She did not hesitate to close her eyes and spread her psychic power to the surroundings. Instantly, she found thousands of life signals.

"This is…"

"Mother, what happened!?" Bloed asked.

A serious expression appeared on Camilla's face. "We are surrounded. There are around one thousand monsters around us, probably even more. Tito, I need the exact number."

[Master, I have detected 2456 life signals, and more incoming.]

"Dammit. Bloed, let's go."

Bloed nodded. He held a gun on his hand and followed his mother through the debris of the village.

Even after knowing the number of enemies, Bloed remained calm. He wasn't affected in the slightest by the fact that the enemies had surrounded them.

As someone that had survived in the hell known as the Exiled Lands, Bloed had lost the count of the number of life and death situations he had faced. Even if he knew he was going to die in the next second, he would not lose his calm.

Plus, he had realized that despite the urgency in her tone, Camilla was also relaxed. It seemed as though this number of enemies was nothing to her.

And in fact, for an S-Grade ESPer, numbers were meaningless.

"Tito, report the situation." Camilla said.

Tito hovered beside her. [The monsters are rushing towards us. ETA: Two minutes.]

"Good. Find me the best place to face them."

[Understood. Turn to the right now. There is a small hill 200 meters away.]

"Thanks. Let's go, Bloed."

"Yes, mother."

After climbing the small hill, Bloed and Camilla understood the gravity of the situation.

Monsters of all the sizes and shapes were rushing towards them. The monsters' bloodshot eyes shone with the sun, and their fierce appearance made them look as though they had been starved for months.

As a scientist, Camilla quickly noticed something wrong.

"Strange, why are those monsters not attacking each other? I thought that we were facing a herd, but most of those monsters are from completely different species… Bloed, is it normal?"

"… It's my first time seeing something like this."

"As I thought... Tito?"

[According to my scans, the monsters show erratic brainwaves. Similar symptoms are found when a mind manipulation ESPer controls a target.]

"So we are facing a monster that controls other monsters to attack us, huh. This world sure is interesting."

[Master, the weapons are ready to fire.]

"Huh? Weapons?" Bloed was startled, but Camilla just smiled.

"… Light up the fireworks then."

[Understood.]

Then, a metallic arm grew out of Tito's body.

The arm was holding a small metallic box and let it fall to the ground. But before touching the ground, the metallic grew tens of times bigger, until becoming in a giant artillery battery.

Bloed's mouth opened wide. "That is…"

"Spatial compression technology. It allows carrying objects in a space smaller than their size. Unfortunately, the energy it consumes increases exponentially with the object's size, so its uses are very limited."

At that moment, Tito's mechanical voice sounded.

[Opening fire in three, two, one…]

Then–

*BOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!*

Tens of surface-to-air missiles were shot simultaneously, flying towards the sea of enemies.

The explosion made the ground shake. Hundreds of meters were engulfed in burning plasma. The smell of burning hair and flesh filled the entire village.

Bloed's eyes lit up. The scene of tens of missiles exploding at the same time could be described as breathtaking.

When the explosions finally stopped, a tenth of the monster had been killed.

"Hahahaha, the weather is great today, Bloed."

[Unfortunately, I used all my missiles in this attack.] Tito said.

"Hahaha, don't worry about it. Tito, how many survivors?" Camilla asked.

[I counted 325, most of them gravely injured.]

"Perfect! Bloed, do you want to play a game with your mom?"

"Huh?"

"The one who kills more monsters wins. Don't worry, I will not use my ESPer powers."

Bloed looked at Camilla and smiled savagely. "I'm in!"

"Hahaha, that is the spirit. Tito, keep the score."

[Understood, master.]

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!"

The next second, Camilla jumped towards the monsters.

Instantly, Bloed realized that he had been duped.

Camilla's jump covered thirty meters effortlessly, and her movements were incredibly fast. In a second, she had appeared before the monsters.

"Dammit!" Bloed cursed under his breath and charged towards the monsters too.

Taking the gun out of the holster, he started to shot.

Most of the monsters were pretty weak, with the strongest being the equivalent to a C-Grade ESPer. Of course, Bloed was not strong enough to face a C-Grade monster yet, but Camilla seemed to know that, so she proactively went after the stronger monsters and left the weaker to Bloed.

As for D-Grade monsters and below, Bloed could barely handle them with the help of technology.

Like that, a game of killing monsters started. Bloed used his weapons freely, making use of his ESP ability to its greatest advantage. But even like that, he could not be compared to Camilla.

Camilla did not use guns and only fought the monsters with a military saber, but her armor and her combat techniques gave her an overwhelming advantage against them. She never needed more than three swings to kill a monster, no matter how strong it was.

Furthermore, her stamina seemed infinite. She did not seem tired even after thirty minutes of battle, even though Bloed was already sweating cold.

"What happened, son? Too young to win against your mom?"

"… You are a monster."

"Hahaha, thanks for the compliment."

Bloed shook his head. To be honest, he felt a bit disappointed after losing. He knew that Camilla was stronger than him, but he did not expect that even without her ESP abilitites the difference was so big.

Even without her ESP abilities, Camilla's armor and battle techniques were overwhelming enough to leave Bloed ashamed.

"Hahahaha, this old mother wins this time, Bloed!" Camilla laughed happily. She then looked towards Bloed and grinned.

But suddenly, her expression changed.

"Look out!"

With an expression of terror, Camilla charged towards Bloed.

Bloed was surprised. Before he could react, Camilla had pushed him away.

The next instant, an enormous monster jumped out of the sand.

Then, it swallowed Camilla whole.