Strange Situation (Part Two)

Soul Drinker raised an arm and swatted at the two spirits while crushing one of the rodents beneath his clawed foot.

The other rats climbed up the assassin's twisted body. Another was bitten in half and swallowed by a huge mouth that suddenly opened in his abdomen, while the last was crushed in his fist.

The spirits lasted a little longer. They wheeled above the assassin's head, attacking with shrieks and icy tendrils.

They left several bloody wounds, but they too could not escape the masses of sinew-like tissue extending from Soul Drinker's hands. They were quickly ensnared and shredded by those tendrils.

The assassin watched the wraiths vanish into the air, and his curiosity finally gave way to fury.

But the Calculator had not wasted this delaying tactic.

He pulled a short, thick cylindrical object from a hidden pocket and hurled it at Soul Drinker, then immediately dove clumsily in the opposite direction over a damaged table.

The twisted monster shot out a hand like lightning and caught the object flying toward him, but it was a grenade.

When they had returned to camp to resupply, Astinno had found a previously hidden ammunition box. It contained only this single grenade, but it was crucial.

With no scent of gunpowder, Soul Drinker initially sniffed the object. Then he gave a muffled cry and staggered backward.

It was full of the scent of destruction.

He flung it away in disgust, but it was too late.

Boom~~!

The grenade exploded with a muffled roar, and the cavern was suddenly filled with countless metallic particles, like a glittering crystalline cloud.

In an instant, the assassin dropped to his knees and screamed.

It was as if his mind had been flayed and carved apart, as though a razor-sharp invisible blade were peeling away his