Valeria grabbed one of the corpses through a rag, and displayed it for anyone outside to see. Sure enough, it was immediately pierced with three arrows, all from the same area.

  Valeria adjusted her makeshift mirror to see in the general direction of the enemy. They didn’t even make an effort to hide, and so she easily spotted their whereabouts.

  ‘What in the…?!’

  The enemies were see through.

  Not entirely, but their ribcages, legs, and whereabouts were not entirely what you’d expect of living things.

  Valeria held her meat shield in place, and peeked to look directly. She then leaned on the wall, sat on the ground, and greatly regretted having rotting corpses nearby, because she could use a long, deep breath.

  “Skeletons. Skeletons with bows.”

  And to think she deemed Holy water a non essential item.

  There were three skeletons across the canal. They stood there in a group, and aimed their weapons at the door she was going to exit through. They showed no intention of crossing the canal, likely confident in their superior range.

  She briefly entertained the idea of going back and taking a priest from a local church with her, but she figured they wouldn’t be working to this late at night anyway.

  “Now then. Would shooting a skeleton even work?”

  Well, yeah. Her trusty python would definitely bust a skull or two, but who is to say a skeleton won’t move even without it?

  I mean, it walks around without so many organs already, why would it specifically need a skull?

  Valeria decided to try. If the gunfire attracted something weird, she would have to deal with it then. She cocked the hammer of her revolver, aimed it across the canal, and…

  *Bang!* Shot the skeleton that pointed at her with its bow.

  Its skull fell apart, and it started to move erratically, but didn’t go down. Rather than that, it looked like it just panicked. But that actually made it easier for Valeria.

  The panicking skeleton jerked around, trying to shoot anything at all, and interrupted the aim of its’ bone buddies.

  Valeria run for the nearby bridge, and crossed the canal. She couldn’t hit them due to how much they jerked around, but the same could be said for the bony assailants. And She would have an opportunity to figure out how they moved once she got close.

  The first skeleton to recover aimed its bow at her, but too late, as it was crushed under her heavy boots. The panicked one lost its bow along with its arm, and the last one got immobilized.

  ‘Now then. Is this considered cruelty?’

  Valeria cracked the lumbar spine of the skeleton.

  It’s legs twitched for several seconds, but stopped. The upper body (?) continued to try and kill her.

  The same went for arms. Crushing a skull definitely didn’t work, but the one with its everything pulverized definitely stopped moving.

  ‘Is it the ribcage?’

  She tried crushing the ribcage. Indeed, thoracic spine seemed to be a weak point, except… The skull still rattled its teeth at her.

  Once the skull was crushed, the skeleton was defeated.

  ‘Alright then, current theory is that I need to crush both the thorax and the skull to permanently put these things out of action.’

  That meant her revolver would still be useful, but not as much as she hoped. Its optimal use seemed to be exactly how she utilized it this time. Make one of them interrupt the others, close the distance, and crush them.

  Now that the fight was over, Valeria felt like she was the one with her bones in pieces.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  ‘Crap, I’m gonna have to put throwing those bodies away on hold. It hurts, dammit!’

  After a short breather, she walked over to the bridge. Slowly, to not upset her joints any more. Her backpack was still in the house, and inside the pack, there waited a snack and her collection of ointments. Valeria didn’t use painkillers as a rule.

  None of them worked without dulling senses, most affected thought processes, and a lot were addicting.

  She’d seen enough drug addicts for ten lifetimes. Becoming one was definitely something she kept far away from her to do list.

  It was maybe an irrational fear, but so is claustrophobia, but you don’t see people forcing themselves to enter trunks of their own cars to fight it.

  Just as she crossed the bridge, Valeria stopped in her tracks. There was something snacking on those corpses she left.

  She started breathing through her mouth, the silent way, and creeped closer to the entrance.

  “Munch, munch, slurrrpp!”

  ‘What in the…?’

  The creatures snacking on corpses looked like more or less humanoid clad in rags, rotten skin tightly pressing against clearly visible bones. They looked quite similar to extremely starved Krokodil addicts, with a few differences, such as their gaping maws filled with jagged teeth, and claws that almost looked like they belonged to an anteater.

  If there is a one thing about anteaters, is that you shouldn’t mess with anteaters.

  ‘If those things were called here by gunfire, then shooting them all is just going to drag more to this place. Maybe I’ll just wait until they finish eating and leave. It would sure save me trouble of carrying all this weight.’

  But that was not to be, as Valeria felt something behind her. It was just a feeling, but like so many times before, she dodged forwards in order to not get stabbed.

  It turned out to be a good move, as she was almost scratched by claws as long as her entire hand.

  “Fuck, and they are quiet to boot?”

  Those damn things had qualities of a seasoned street thug.

  “Aeeaerrghhhhrtaer!!!”

  The call of the last creature attracted full, undivided attention of the three that were already there.

  And they were not in the mood for a conversation.

  First, Valeria escaped the encirclement by bolting right, and kicked the back one in the knee.

  She jumped aside, in a way that lined up the creatures in a way that no more than one at a time could attack her. A tried tactic against thugs. Luckily, those creatures’ team work was even worse than that of an average group of drunk muggers, because they simply charged forward.

  She couldn’t afford to be hit with those claws. They looked much too sharp for comfort, and seconds ago, they were cutting disgusting, rotten corpses.

  Valeria quickly noticed two things.

  First, was that only the one that got behind her was moving with absolute silence. The rest had ragged breaths and regular footsteps.

  Second, was that the silent one held its arms much lower than the rest.

  ‘Why are you guarding your pelvis? Did that stealth made you forget how to fight properly?’

  She struck in its throat, but the creature barely slowed down. Next strike made some of creatures’ serrated teeth scatter on the ground. Nothing again.

  ‘It would seem this creature doesn’t need to have its guard up.

  And yet it held its arms in front of its body.

  ‘Let’s see… are you defending a vital organ?’

  The tip of her weapon slipped between its claws, and arrived below the navel.

  *IAIAAAAAIIII!!!*

  The creature screeched in pain, and kneeled on the ground.

  “How curious. Wait here for a bit.”

  Valeria switched her grip on the shepherds’ axe she held, and began cutting every tendon made available to her.

  But the wretched creatures, however sluggishly, however harmlessly, but continued to move.

  Until she cracked their skulls. Not a lot of things survive that.

  The silent one showed signs of recovery, so she hit it again, harder.

  “I told you to wait, didn’t I ?”

  She started going through their pockets. In one of them, she found a glass lens, similar to a magnifying glass.

  The difference was that it didn’t magnify anything.

  She held it in front of her face, no doubt looking like a grandma with her first smartphone. Suddenly, red, glowing letters lit up on the glass.

  [Ghast, rank D+]

  ‘Hmm?’

  She waved it around more. Nothing happened, until she put it on her hand. This time, the glow was blue.

  [???/?/ Mana interference resistance.]

  ‘What the… Does this thing tell me what is what?’

  She grabbed the last remaining [ghast] by its neck, and put the non magnifying glass on its forehead.

  [Ghast, rank D+, affinity: Decay, stealth.]

  “That device seems useful. I wonder if its weak point is in some way related to that ‘affinity’”

  “Fhhurkkinghelrh!”

  “Did this thing just reply to me?”

  “Akyuhrdwia!”

  “Okay. If you can understand me, nod.”

  The [Ghast] moved its head.

  ‘Hmm. So it can understand speech, but it can’t speak properly. I guess that’s because of this long tongue. Also, possibly those teeth I’ve broken.’

  “Alright. Do you know if a child was passing through around here? Nod if you know.”

  The creature remained still.

  “Tch. Guess questioning a men eating monster wouldn’t yield desired results.”

  ‘Then again, maybe it’s better if it doesn’t know. If it did, David would probably have been eaten already.’

  “Crunch!”

  [Ghast] twitched his last, as its skull lost shape.

  ‘Let’s see what’s inside.’

  She produced latex gloves, and crouched down.

  Knowledge is power. In order to prepare herself for future encounters, Valeria cut its stomach open, and started searching through the guts displayed on the ground.

  Overall, its insides looked pretty much like that of a human.

  ‘Oh? I don’t think I know this organ?’

  On the ground, an orb was rolling. Valeria reached to grab it, and accidentally damaged a membrane it was covered in.

  Inside, a dark gem the size of a pea grain could be seen.

  Were those things an exotic clam species?

  ‘It’s probably this thing. I should put it away.’

  The pearl was stored away in a ziplock bag.

  It was time to continue the search.

  ‘I suppose I simply need to look for signs. I hope little David was smart enough to leave his trail nice and marked.’