The Devil’s Cage

Kieran was standing on Dublin Street.

Behind him was the wealthy district for the rich and in front of him was the slums for the less fortunate. Not only was the light on the street dimmed, a horrible sinful feeling lurked around the dark corners as well.

Hard smashing noises could be heard from metal rods onto someone’s body and iron knives stabbed into flesh, bleeding the target out.

All the disturbing noises sounded like it occurred beside Kieran’s ears with his A+ Intuition.

He carefully took in all the noises and tried to differentiate each of them.

After locking onto a single noise, he headed towards that direction.

Dublin Street was actually a complete block rather than a single street, including a couple of big factories and abandoned buildings. There were around 20,000 people who lived in this block alone, most of them unemployed or homeless, plus gang members.

All vicious and buff fellas were glaring at Kieran the moment he stepped into Dublin Street.

The vicious men were judging whether Kieran was a fat lamb that delivered himself to the wolf’s den or a formidable person.

That’s right, a fat lamb that delivered himself to the wolf’s den.

Although Dublin Street was connected to the beautiful wealthy district, only a few would go through the street to that place or vice versa.

Not only because of the police cruisers that were posted almost 24/7 at the entrance of the street block but also because it would attract unwanted troubles.

Anyone who walked into the wealthy district through Dublin Street would be marked down by the police.

Those filthy cops wouldn’t allow their precious taxpayers to be hurt, not even allowing a single hair to fall off their head.

As for the other way around, those who came from the wealthy district would definitely be the targets of the gang members, the passerby kept addressing them as fat lambs.

However, certain incidents that occurred lately made them a little more obedient and honest. Otherwise, the moment Kieran stepped into Dublin Street, questions would be asked.

The police would only keep their jurisdiction within the wealthy district.

There was a certain peace treaty that was formed between the gang members and the police within Dublin Street, a set of rules that both parties had to follow like a chess game.

Kieran slowly moved forward, eyeing his sides from time to time.

The gang members exchanged a gaze and two of from the bunch and couldn’t help but start to trail Kieran.

”This guy is mine! See that cape and that big bag? It’s definitely worth a lot!” One of the taller stronger men said while trailing Kieran. The bloated one beside him thus hastened his steps.

The rest of the gang members turned their attention to the man who was sitting in the corner. The man was wearing a big leather jacket, bald and had a pentagram tattooed on his face.

”Idiots! Look at where that punk is heading, you idiots want to get turned into specimens?” The bald buff man sneered.

The gang members around him quivered instantly.

”Let’s go, we have a big case to do tomorrow, that crazy f*cker…”

The bald buff man said angrily at first but dimmed down at the end uncontrollably.

He then spat heavily on the ground and turned around to one of the abandoned buildings.

A big group of gang members then followed in his footsteps.

...

Kieran stopped at a small alley.

What would a small alley look like within Dublin Street?

A filthy place filled with trash, feces and dirty water mixed with all kinds of color.

Compared to this small alley, the backstreet in the commercial street was like heaven.

The vile stench that assaulted his sense of smell was even fouler than a rotten corpse, causing Kieran to frown.

Even though Kieran wasn’t a clean freak with OCD, the horrible environment before him forced him to be careful with his steps.

He could bear with dust and dirt but not a puddle of sh*t or filthy water.

To be honest, the gang members who lived nearby couldn’t adapt to that alley either.

”Hey, punk! Stop right there!”

Two men who came in behind Kieran yelled loudly at Kieran.

”Hand over all your belongings!” The bloated one said straightforwardly.

Kieran turned around and saw the two men. He already noticed they were trailing him a while ago, but he wasn’t concerned, instead, he was quite happy that someone was following him because they would at least serve as a means of creating a scene. Such a scene to a commoner was very minimal because common sense would allow them to know what was going on. However, to those non-human existences, it became quite a problem.

As both gang members were approaching Kieran in an intimidating manner, the wall behind them started to distort and bloat. A figure then squeezed itself out of the wall silently.

The figure was big and fat, its appearance completely sealed off the entrance to the small alley.

The taller, stronger one of the two seemed to have noticed something behind them. As he wanted to turn around instinctively, before he really laid eyes on what was behind him, his head was grabbed by a huge hand.

PAK!

His head was torn right off his body! The blood gushed out like a geyser on the bloated one beside. He wanted to scream, but it stopped just as the sound escaped his mouth.

Fuuuush!

A giant butcher knife was slashed down from his head, slicing the bloated one in half without any obvious reaction.

The stench of blood was mixed with the existing foul stench.

The fat body was grumbling loudly, slowly approaching Kieran.

After some light was shed on its gruesome body, it revealed the greyish white skin that looked similar to a withered dead body, its head consisted of multiple pust and was even more terrifying.

”After transforming into a fiend, its human intellect has worn down and it started to follow its natural instinct? Even its body started to change?” Kieran thought in his heart.

He had a very limited understanding of fiends, all he could do was rely on educated guesses.

Of course, Kieran was eager to put on a good performance when his ”audience” was watching him.

Fuuung!

The giant butcher knife was slashed right at Kieran.

Kieran moved to the right slightly and easily dodged the slash. [Python-W2] appeared in his hand and was fired repeatedly.

Bang Bang Bang!

The bullets were fired directly at Rudd’s fat body, yet even with [Armor Penetration Lvl 1] attached, all the bullets did was scratch its skin.

Green blood oozed out from the bullets wound.

Rudd who seemed to not feel anything switched his frontal slash into a horizontal sweep.

Kieran jumped up and stepped on the wall aside, as if his feet had grown roots that stuck him on the wall, allowing him to wall run with ease.

[Python-W2] didn’t cease its fire. Bullets were poured down at the hideous fiend but different from the previous normal bullets, [Bullets of Blessing] were fired this time around.

Still, [Bullets of Blessing] which were effective against negative energy beings had no outstanding effect against fiends.

When the bullets landed on its body, all it did was make it cry in pain but none of them were fatal shots, even those fired right into its head.

”Fiends are not just simple negative energy beings!”

Kieran thought and his left hand quickly hurled out a couple of grenades.

Ding Ding!

After several bounces, a couple of [U-II] grenades landed on the fiend’s feet.

KABOOOM!

A bright explosion occurred.

Shrapnel was splashed in every direction, the fiendified Rudd didn’t avoid the blast and was engulfed completely.

Thick green blood gushed out of its body, dying his body green. Its fat body started to wobble.

Right after the explosion, [Arrogant Word] was swung down from up high, performing a downward slash.

Puuuush!

The fat disgusting body was slashed in half right away.

Kieran quickly took a few steps back, avoiding the splashing blood and panted heavily as well.

Until the black bird flew away, Kieran then quietly clenched his fist in excitement after he felt the flaps of the wings.

”Yes!”