Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 97: What are you? (1)

'CLANK!'

As soon as all of the hinges popped off, general Zhang busted the door down with a loud bang, sending dust of sand everywhere.

"Kyaaah!" The moment I heard the shriek of that woman amidst the puff of dust, I used my psychokinesis to loop the rope from earlier around the area, and tightened it as hard as I could.

When I felt like I caught something, I looped the rope again a few times and tightened it even more, making sure that she wouldn't escape.

"Hurry, get inside!" General Emilio commanded, "seal the opening! Those orcs are getting near!"

"Roger~" General Zhang flicked his finger, and the moment the four of us passed the doorway, a thin net of electricity was created on the place where the iron door once was, sealing the secret entrance. Ah, it was like that time in the serpent's lair!

"Thanks!" I shouted as I covered my nose and mouth with my jacket's collar to avoid inhaling too much dust.

"Now if any of them comes, we will have free roasted meat. Tee-hee!" He giggled.

"Ew, I don't want to eat roasted orc meat. Go eat it yourself if you want to." I frowned in disapproval.

"Kkh! Let go!" The lady yelled as I felt her squirming and tugging at my rope.

"Ack! Wait! Don't resist too much!" I replied as I tightened the rope and waited for the puff of dust to settle down so we could see better.

"No! Let me go! Do you want to die!?" She shouted again.

"Gah! General Zhang, zappy zap, please!? She's too loud!" I yelled back.

"Intruder alert! Intru--"

'ZAP!'

Along with a flash of lightning, the sound of the woman suddenly ceased to exist, and I finally felt the resistance on my rope loosened.

"...Thank you for that." I let out a sigh.

As soon as the dust cleared, we were finally able to see the unconscious red-haired young woman, who was tied up from her chest all the way to her feet. Her head was down and her long hair covered her face, but it was definitely human-shaped. No elf ears, too. So what the heck was she?

"Now we can't interrogate her," general Emilio sighed, "oh well, let's storm through this base first."

"Alright. I'll bring her along." I nodded and tied the other end of the rope to my waist to make sure she followed me everywhere. A pity that we couldn't figure out who or what she was. Well, we would get to it later, I guess.

"Beneath this ladder should be a horde of vengeful, angry orcs. But they shouldn't be a problem," general Emilio explained, "the hard part will be to disable them but not to kill them, since we will need them to fight the minotaurs later."

"...That's easy, we got a walking stun gun right here," I said as I poked general Zhang's chest, "by the way, wear some shirt. Sheesh."

"Don't wanna. I want to flex my abs. Tee-hee~" He giggled.

"Do you want me to wrap your abs with my rope?" I frowned.

"Stop arguing. The longer we wait, the better prepared they are." General Emilio growled at us.

"Then, don't mind if I do!" General Zhang laughed maniacally and jumped down the hole without using the ladder as sparks of electricity flew around him.

'ZZAAAP! BANG!'

The ground beneath us shook as our vision was filled with flashes of white and blue. Occasionally, we could hear the faint screaming of the orcs in-between the lightning strikes, but aside from all the zaps, the most prominent sound was the insane eel's laughter.

"Ahahahhaha!" General Zhang creepily laughed while he wreaked havoc on the level below us.

"...Why did we even spend time studying the layout if it's just gonna be like this?" I sighed.

"At least we won't get lost when we look for the leader after this, uh, 'clean up'." General Emilio answered as he cleared his throat.

"Clean up? This isn't even clean in the slightest." Luke added as he observed general Zhang's antics without much trouble.

"Your eyes can also withstand shiny stuff? Man, that's cheating." I puffed my cheeks while squinting my eyes to avoid overworking my iris from the flashes of lightning.

"Of course~ I'm a special monster, after all~" He grinned while proudly puffing his chest.

Anyway, while we waited for general Zhang to be done doing whatever the heck he was doing, I should try contacting Jeanne and Firiell again. It should be fine since I didn't use much mana today.

Let's see, what should I say...

After fumbling with the message content for a while, I was finally satisfied with my message which says, 'aye comin through, we here, give us a sign'. They should understand, right? Alright, sent!

Man, using this skill sure was pretty tiring when done multiple times. Maybe my idea about ads wouldn't be too good, after all. Bummer.

'ZAAP!'

'THUD!'

"Hmm?" I peeked over the ladder hole when I saw that the blinding lights were finally gone, followed by one last orc groan.

"Oiiii, come down here, all of you! It's doneeee~" General Zhang said with a giggle, "be careful not to accidentally step on their head and kill them, though~ Be gentle, got it?"

"You should be the last one to say 'be gentle' here." I sighed and jumped down the ladder without using it for faster travel. Oop, almost stepped on an orc's butt there. Close call.

"Dude, this is a mess," Luke said while looking around at the pile of orc bodies on the ground, making the living room look creepier than it should've, "you sure they aren't dead?"

"Of course. I'm very good at controlling my magic, you know." General Zhang replied confidently.

'Cough! Cough!'

"Go drink some water." I replied nonchalantly as I observed around the room, looking for anything useful.

Other than the bare minimums like one single coffee table and two old sofas with a few boxes scattered around the corner of the room, nothing was remarkable here. I couldn't see very clearly due to the dim lantern lighting along the walls, but this was pretty disappointing, even for orcs.

"Who are you talking to, little cub?" General Zhang asked as he popped up beside me.

"Um, you? You coughed." I replied.

"No, I didn't. That wasn't me." He raised an eyebrow and looked over at general Emilio, which shook his head, and then Luke who also did the same.

"Huh? Did I mishear-- Oh, wait! It must've been Jeanne's sign!" I gasped as I realized that was her response to my message earlier.

"A sign? What sign?" General Zhang asked, still confused.

"I'll explain later, follow the sound!" I exclaimed in delight. Finally, we could reunite again! I wonder if they got a good sleep last night...

Although I wasn't very sure, I tried my best to follow the sound, which, to my surprise, didn't lead us to where the armory was supposed to be. According to my memory, the armory should've been further inside, but instead, the sound was coming from nearby, in one of these weirdly placed rooms.

"This way?" I nervously took a right turn and ventured deeper into the dim hallway until I could see a white curtain-- well, more like a white torn-out piece of fabric that was messily hanged on a stick across the wall.

'Cough! Cough!'

The moment I heard the cough again, and this time, luckily, it sounded much clearer, I knew I took the right path. That was definitely Jeanne's voice.

"She's here, but why?" General Zhang questioned while he walked beside me, "I can also feel that little girl's mana, too."

"Shh! Lower your voice!" I whispered as I elbowed him right in his abs. Huh, firm.

"But what are they doing in the clinic?" Luke asked with a small voice as he touched his chin.

True, this hallway was supposed to lead to the clinic if the map was correct. But their leader was in the armory, so did one of them got hurt? Oh no.

"Eel, flash." I motioned general Zhang towards the door while I activated my mentalist skill to send a message to both of them saying 'close eyez, flash incoming, thx'.

"First you treat me like a walking stun gun, and now you treat me like a walking flashbang? Geez, little cub, you're so mean~" He pouted, but still walked towards the door regardless.

"Think of it as a compliment. You're multifunction." I giggled quietly, since we had to be hush-hush about this... Well, probably too late to be hush-hush already, but why not start?

"... I think the word you're looking for is multitalented, kid." Luke said as he looked at me with a questionable expression.

"No, she's right. Multifunction." General Emilio added.

"Mm-hmm!" I raised a fist at general Emilio, to which he responded with a fist bump. An ally!

"Alright, look away and cover your ears~" General Zhang said as he crouched down and slipped a finger between the fabric. Ack, I should invest in some ear muffler after this trip, this constant blasting sound wasn't good for my ears.

We nodded and did as we told, when suddenly a loud bang was heard alongside a flash of white for less than a second, and we immediately stormed inside, not wanting to lose any time.

'Grrr?'

I immediately used my psychokinesis to lift up the bedsheets around us and used them to wrap 2 orcs that I saw. General Zhang quickly followed by making zapping noises every now and then, and in just less than a minute, no orc was seen moving inside the clinic, but no injuries were found, either. After all, we needed to preserve their limbs for when we challenge the minotaurs later, right?

"Chaerin!"

I perked up when I heard a familiar, soft and pleasant voice coming from the corner of the room, calling my name. I hurriedly flew my gaze over there, and spotted familiar blonde hair, tied into a ponytail.

"Jeanne!"