Starting from the Dragon Tribe! - Chapter 28
Starting From the Dragon Tribe
Chapter 28: Hybrid
Lighting up another cigarette, Finger proceeded, “Thereupon, a battle broke out. Since the underground room was narrow, bayonets and certain Kotodamas were restricted. A couple more students were caught off guard and thus collapsed. Ultimately, it was only the commissioner and me who drove the subject away as it escaped through the tapered hole.”
“As it was impossible for us to chase it down through the hole, we quickly deduced the other end of the hole with sonar equation. After knowing the exit wasn’t far away from the underground tunnel, the other squadrons outside the trapdoor immediately hurried toward it, trapping the subject. When I managed to get there, two more squadmates had fallen. Thanks to the sunlight, I finally got a good look at the creature.”
“It was a child. Judging by its height, it was no more than ten years old. Covered in ebony green scales, it scanned around with its remorseless gaze. Like Frigga rounds, six millimeters had no effect on it as they would bounce off like rubber bullets. Since it was triggered, claws started emerging on his hands and feet. With movements so swift and monstrous strength combined, it instantaneously pierced through one of the commissioners’ chest and dug his heart out.”
“Zombification?” Lu Chen curiously quizzed as he recalled the concept he learned in class.
“Yes. We didn’t know what its father was, but what we did know was that the subject’s blood was highly unstable and it zombified into a hybrid with immense power. Tactfully, along with other Grade A students, we cooperated with the Ace Commissioner to fend off the subject and eventually wore it out. As I was about to chop off its head, a woman rushed over. Since the subject was unusually indomitable, the rest of the Executive Department’s forces had arrived for backup, leaving the surrounding of the village unprotected. As such, the woman was able to sneak back into the village and onto the battleground.”
“For some reason, she was unexpectedly stronger than a mere human should be as she shook off one of the freshmen’s grasp and charged forward. When one of the students intended to open fire, his commissioner stopped him because it’s against the rules to harm ordinary people. If it weren’t for the burden of a creature I was facing, I would have stopped her. What ground my gears was why she would keep such a deviant in her basement, and why she hurried over so anxiously when we were battling it.”
“Without space to strategize, I held her down with one hand and my blade in the other, preparing to fight off the creature. Out of all our expectations, the young woman shrieked, ‘Stop! Don’t kill my son, don’t kill my son!’ Indeed. The monster was her son that died years ago.”
At this moment, Finger sounded sorrowful. Meanwhile, Lu Chen was imagining the battle scene—while a monster was lying on the ground awaiting its execution, its mother aggressively charged forward to protect it.
“When I caught the monster making a twitch, I instantly cut off its hind limbs while pressing its chest down with one foot. In response, the young woman started attacking me out of fear. For a moment, the students were stunned by her aggravation that they forgot to provide support. Seeing how I didn’t even shake one bit despite her assault, she started to beg for mercy.”
Suddenly, Finger chuckled, “At the sight of that, even the mofos from the Executive Department couldn’t do anything since the monster was no longer a threat and they couldn’t bear to kill it in front of its mother. Out of sympathy, I let go of the woman. I thought, rather than killing it in front of her, perhaps I should let her personally see what kind of a monster her child had turned into. For that, I received a major demerit.”
“Even to this day, I still remember how pissed the commissioner was when I let go of the woman. Exposing an ordinary woman to a corrupted zombie was equivalent to murder. Even when the monster was too worn out to fight soldiers like us, it could still kill a mere human with ease, or even devour him or her in a split second.”
“The young lady then walked past me and approached the monster. At once, the commissioners drew their guns. As the woman began to pull the monster into her embrace, the commissioners instantly opened fire. Accordingly, the zombified child rested its head against the woman’s neck and opened its jaw widely. I cussed at myself as I quickly reached out to pull her away. But what happened next… shocked me to my bones.”
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“The monster didn’t bite its mother. Instead, it spoke. Can you guess what it said?” As if he found it absurd, Finger’s expression was one full of bitterness.
“Its mother’s name?” As Lu Chen made the guess, his heart sank a little.
“Teardrops rolled down its face. Standing right in front of them, I didn’t know what to feel. My emotions were all over the place. Then, it stuttered, ‘W-Warm…’”
“As it finished, it shoved its mother away before springing itself with its remaining arms and flying rapidly toward the leading commissioner. Bang! It was penetrated by the bullet I moulded from a dragon’s ribcage which I tore apart with an alchemy knife. It then fell… and never got up again…”
“Suicide?” Lu Chen interrogated.
Avoiding direct closure, Finger continued, “After the incident, the young lady was brought back to the college and her brain was altered by Professor Masashi Toyama to erase her memories. He also discovered that the woman suffered from dissociative personality disorder. In normal cases, she acknowledged the death of her son as she was unable to accept the fact that her son had zombified. During other times, her second personality would keep the child underground and feed it through the trapdoor. When the child had grown bigger and hungrier, it started hunting for food by itself.”
“Since she locked it underground, she had never once unlocked the trapdoor. In other words, the mother and child had never met each other. Subconsciously, the main personality would avoid the trap door in order to prevent unnecessary incidents.”
“The young lady fed her monster child every day, thinking that it would be satisfied as long as it was fed and surviving. Despite that, to her ignorance, the monster’s last words explained everything. It didn’t want food from her. It only wanted… a hug.”
Then, Finger sighed, “At the end of the day, be it a hybrid or a zombified Dragonborn, we are all creatures afraid to be left alone.”
“What a depressing episode.” Lu Chen extinguished the cigarette in his hand.
“No, Lu Chen. You missed the point of the story.”
As Finger shook his head, he elaborated, “What I wanted to say is that no matter how pitiable your target is, we cannot change the fact that they are humans’ foes. Although there was still affection toward its mother lingering in it, it wouldn’t spare the slightest mercy to other men—we had seven casualties in the end. The moment the monster opened its jaw was the moment I regretted letting go of the woman. If only I managed to grab her in time… No matter what it planned to do, its death would come the next second.”
“It’s heartwarming how it suppressed its urges and chose not to hurt its mother. But unfortunately, any other story would have ended with the woman’s neck being bitten off. I almost messed up big time back then. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to spend my nights regretting over what-ifs. Therefore, I hope that you would not make the same mistakes as I did.”
On a final note, Finger lay down and covered himself with the comforter as he warned, “Remember. No hesitation.” As soon as he finished, snores filled the room as he had already fallen asleep.
Shortly after, Lu Chen turned off the bedside lamp, leaving a pair of irises glowing in the dark as if a couple of fireflies were wandering in the air.
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