novelones Chapter 300 The Heroes' Resolve
Chapter 300 The Heroes' Resolve
"Warning! We're under attack by a strange entity."
"Strange attacks by monsters have suddenly occurred in multiple locations in the port city. All on-duty and standby heroes are immediately dispatched to evacuate the crowd and be alert to the monsters' movements."
The piercing alarms echoed from the Hero Association headquarters.
From the air, the entire port city was filled with explosions and smoke, and there were strange noises and disturbances everywhere. People were running around in panic.
But Hong Kong hasn't seen a monster attack of this magnitude in ten years, let alone one like today—
Two-digit numbers of strange individuals are wreaking havoc across the land, wreaking havoc on everything in sight.
But if it were that simple, it would be acceptable. However, if people saw the strange beings attacking each other, they might feel confused and puzzled.
The tiger-like monster bared its teeth on the overpass, while a large bear-like monster stood opposite it. The two faced off across the bridge, neither launching an attack immediately.
A giant dragonfly flew through the air, while a giant bird relentlessly pursued her, leading to a tense chase.
The gorilla monster was suppressed by the black wolf monster, but quickly turned around and punched the black wolf away. They fought fiercely in the stadium, neither able to defeat the other.
Such chaotic battle scenes can be seen almost everywhere in the port city.
Even the heroes from Chengdu who rushed to the port city to provide support were confused by the situation on the big screen.
"...What's going on? Am I seeing things?"
Chengdu Heroes Association S-class hero, [Meteor].
Meteor sat in the association's lobby, looking somewhat lost.
The screen in the lobby displays almost all the camera footage available from all over the city. The large central screen instantly switches between different perspectives, making it dazzling and forcing viewers to keep their eyes glued to one screen.
The person in charge of controlling these screens sat not far in front of Meteor, his eyes fixed on the huge temporary screen in front of him.
Guangzhou City Association S-class hero, [Thousand Eyes].
"Uncle Qianmu, can you even keep up with all these screens?"
A woman in a black office lady uniform stood below the screen, one hand gripping the main cable, azure sparks flickering between her fingers, responsible for the signal output and overall control of all these monitoring screens.
Chengdu Association S-class hero, [Electromagnetic].
Add to that the S-class hero [Moira] busily working in a makeshift operating room not far away, and [Messiah] standing at the operating room door directing the entry and exit of the wounded...
Several S-class heroes gathered in the lobby of the Port City Association headquarters.
Chime did not immediately answer Electromagnetic's question, but remained focused on the flashing images on the screen.
After he had looked through all the images, Qianmu took a deep breath, picked up the thermos next to him, took a sip of strong tea, and remained calm.
"How is the situation?"
A meteor poses a question to a thousand eyes.
Having the ability to teleport, she received an emergency rescue request from the Port City Hero Association ten minutes ago and immediately brought all the S-class heroes from all over the country who responded to the call to Port City to participate in the evacuation.
The psychic ability [Spatial Maneuver] grants Meteor the power to instantly travel to any corner of the world, as long as there is a psychic beacon she has installed there.
Qianmu from the Guangzhou Heroes Association is the best candidate to summarize the current situation.
His psychic abilities allow him to simultaneously observe around 1000 surveillance screens and integrate the information to create a real-time 3D image covering the entire city, making him the ultimate expert in the field of information processing.
Especially when there are no magical girls involved, his unified image will not be affected by the magical girls' cognitive biases and will become incredibly accurate.
But when Qianmu showed a strange expression, Meteor sensed a hint of unease.
"……strangeness."
"There are a total of 174 strange people in various parts of the port city, but they all attack each other and there has been no instance of them actively attacking residents."
"The weirdos are attacking each other? They're fighting amongst themselves?"
"Electromagnetism," Qi Yun said, looking puzzled.
The astral monsters are a massive disaster that causes destruction to cities, and only magical girls can effectively deal with them.
The unprecedented number 174 alone is enough to raise a global alarm, but if these oddballs start attacking each other... then the alarm will likely rise to an unprecedented level.
"The sheer number of these strange individuals appearing so frequently and in such an organized manner is definitely a very bad omen."
The speaker is the Messiah.
A pale-skinned, white-haired girl appeared beside Qianmu at some point, calmly watching the last surveillance footage on the screen.
The crab monster knocked down the carp monster with a single pincer strike, and then used its shell to block the shark monster's water jets, creating an opportunity for the scorpion monster behind it to launch a ranged attack.
Judging from this battle alone, the monsters clearly engaged in two-on-two combat, which is enough to illustrate a terrifying fact:
"Someone is directing them from behind the scenes."
Messiah said softly.
"Based on the information we currently have, there is only one person capable of controlling the monster's actions, and that is a fox-woman magical girl who claims to be a villain."
"Heart Moon Fox," Qianmu nodded and said.
"It just so happens that Xin Yuehu is also in Hong Kong recently, so I reasonably suspect that she was involved in this."
"Cobra, the S-class hero who resides in the port city, chimed in."
Behind him was a gloomy girl carrying a travel bag, wearing glasses as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle, her hair almost covering half her face, looking like she was about to run away.
S-class hero [Palette], another resident hero of the port city, is purely a support staff member. She doesn't know why she was pulled into this lobby discussion group.
This discussion group is full of heavyweights!
Not to mention Meteor, who has the ability to teleport, and Qiyun, who can freely manipulate electricity and electromagnetic waves, the mysterious and unpredictable Messiah alone is enough to make the palette tremble.
"I say... if it really is a monster summoned by Shingetsu Fox, then why would she make the monsters fight each other?" Mustering her courage, Palette voiced her thoughts.
Everyone was stunned.
"The color palette makes sense."
Qianmu said,
"A message came from the magical girls: they successfully broke through the underground barrier in the center of the port city, but found a bound astral beast inside the barrier."
Hyacinth initially thought it was a bomb set by Heart Moon Fox, but upon entering, she discovered it was an ancient binding barrier. With Heart Moon Fox's help, she managed to escape from the giant beast and return to the ground.
Upon hearing the term "Astral Beast," the S-class heroes fell silent.
This is not the first time a giant beast has appeared in the world.
According to foreign reports, more than 30 years ago, an astral behemoth appeared in the suburbs of New York City. Almost all the magical girls in the country participated in the interception and paid a huge price to defeat it.
"...Do you think it's possible that the behemoth itself possesses the ability to summon and control monsters?"
Messiah frowned and proposed a hypothesis.
A brief silence.
Qi Yun decisively stopped maintaining the screen camera, and Qian Mu immediately put down his teacup and stood ready. Apart from Moira, who was busy in the operating room, all the heroes gathered together.
"The port city is immediately placed on the highest alert level. All personnel are to evacuate to safe areas. Ensure that everyone within a 15-kilometer radius of the port city center is completely evacuated!"
"Furthermore, all combat personnel are on duty, ready to provide all possible assistance to the magical girls if necessary!"
"—We must deal with that astral behemoth."