Chapter 2

2: 2

The tearing pain I braced for never came.

The eerie shrieking all around me cut off in the same instant.

I forced my eyes open and looked at the horrors. They had stopped where they stood. The split-mouth woman in red, the closest one to me, only stared blankly, no lunge left in her.

I could feel it. The ability inside me had triggered.

But I was in no shape to hold it, and it would only last a little while.

The others were whispering. "You don't think she was telling the truth, do you? Can Ivy's ability really hold the horrors off?"

A few of them wavered, half moving to drag me back. Then, in the next breath, Violet stepped forward.

She brought her blade down across the split-mouth woman's neck. "Everyone saw that, right? These horrors aren't strong. Not much danger to them at all."

Then she hauled me back with a look of disgust.

"And even a horror this weak, Ivy didn't dare kill."

"What can you do besides play helpless? These things are absurdly weak. What use are you, apart from crying?"

Sprawled on the ground, I struggled anyway. "That's not it. It's my ability holding them, that's why they froze. Let go of me. I need to clean up and change and recover my energy, or there's no way we can hold off this many horrors."

That split-mouth woman in red just now was a B-rank horror at least, and pinning her had burned through most of my mental strength.

Now I was too weak to even stand.

"Clean up? Even now, still thinking about seducing men!" Ralph's face darkened as he charged over and dragged me into the building.

The squad members crowded in behind him, the women especially, jealousy plain on their faces as they looked at me.

"Good-luck charm, my foot. It's all a lie! Those horrors didn't even react to her just now!"

"It's just Violet being strong, that's all. If you ask me, she had us all fooled. She's got no ability at all!"

"I knew all along she was using us. She had Captain Harding wrapped around her finger! Someone like her, burning through our points, is nothing but a bloodsucker!"

The words dropped into the crowd like water flicked into hot oil.

The whole group boiled over at once.

"That's what I said, I've got no ability either, but even I could've gotten in a couple of swings on those horrors just now!"

"She had us all fooled! She's got no ability, she's a parasite! Freeloading off our squad!"

"Damn it, and I actually believed it. Last time, when we were trapped in the Hell Apartments, I traded points for perfume so she could pull off some charm skill, and I didn't dare trade for anything to save my own life. Cost me a finger!"