The first wave of enemies were quickly ripped to pieces by the combined firepower of the Shades and READ soldiers. The second wave, however, was met head-on by Xiaoye herself, and Roderick barely dodged in time to avoid a decapitated head flying his direction.

It was true that ever since he met Xiaoye, Roderick had always wondered how a cambion fights. All the cartoons, anime and manga he’s watched or read usually have cambions fighting like berserkers or using some superhuman power with cheesy, cool-sounding names that they announce before unleashing.

But here was Di Xiaoye, turning the whole thing into a very lethal bar fight. What she doesn’t slash apart with her left claw, she shoots with her gun or kicks in the face. Anything not rooted to the floor, she pick up and throws at the enemy. And all of it was done on the flow: Xiaoye was clearly thinking on her feet throughout the fight and not one of her attacks were wasted, for every missed attack was quickly used to transition and reposition her body for another attack, and she only shoots when the target cannot avoid the bullet.

It took thirty seconds for the first wave to fall, and the second wave took two minutes. As the Shades and the soldiers prepare for the third wave, Xiaoye motioned for them to exit the lift, pointing with her pistol at the retreating enemy.

“We’re safe, for now. Where’s the hive thingy that elven prick of an inspector mentioned?”

“You really hate Inspector Hamlins, eh?” Roderick asked Xiaoye as the rest of the team carefully made their way across what appears to be an office.

“Of course. He was one of the officers who arrested me thirty years ago, and he was an arsehole about it. Still an arsehole now, but he doesn’t fancy my old man popping up in his office unannounced so he holds his whisht nowadays.”

That’s right. Roderick has heard that Xiaoye was the only convicted felon to become a police officer in the entire history of Singapore, but he never did dare to ask about it for fear of offending her or bringing up bad memories she did not want to recall, but he soon snapped out of his thoughts as Lieutenant Lim of READ approached them both.

“This whole place smells wrong,” Lim commented.

“First time hunting monsters, lieutenant?”

“Second time, actually, but I was part of the perimeter guard during the first time. Only fired a few rounds at some ghouls and that’s it.”

“Ah, I remember. The Kranji Dam ghoul attack. You’ll get used to the smell eventually. You too, Roderick.”

“Hate to interrupt, Xiaoye, but look at these creatures. I do not recognize any of them,” Ajibade said as he kicked one of the corpses over.

The insect creatures the team just killed appeared to be a hybrid of a praying mantis and an antlion, and Roderick could see confusion spreading across Xiaoye’s face as she bent over to take a look.

“You’re right. I do not recognize this creature myself. Could it be a type of chimera?”

“Who knows? And their bodies. They’re supposed to be insects but it feels like they’re made of human flesh.”

“That’s really disturbing…”

“Sir, ma’am, target located, awaiting orders,” one of the READ soldiers said as he pointed to the far end of the office.

Roderick felt chills go down his spine at the sight of the hive. It was grotesque, like human skin covered with blisters and tumours. Green liquid seeped from it and it appears to be breathing, and as the team got nearer, the stench got stronger.

“Well, at least we know where the stink’s from… Grenade it, lieutenant,” Xiaoye said as she covered her nose and mouth with her left claw.

“You heard the lady, men! Get behind cover and blow that stinking thing up!”

Roderick prayed that whatever crap was inside that “hive” doesn’t splatter all over him as he ducked behind one of the many office cubicles with Amirah.

“Smells like rotting corpses… The stench is all over my uniform too,” Amirah complained.

“Yeah, it’s going to be one hell of a laundry day once this is over.”

“Did you fire any shots?”

“I did, maybe two or three… I don’t know if I hit anything.”

Amirah nodded.

“I didn’t.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t know, I just… I just froze when everyone else was shooting-”

A loud series of explosion cuts Amirah off as several windows were heard shattering. This was followed by several unnatural screeches and shrieks that rippled throughout the entire building. Peeking out from where they had taken cover, Roderick felt an urge to throw up at the sight of the destroyed hive, for it reminded him of a video he once watched that had been taken from inside an illegal abattoir-

“Roderick, is it done? Did they destroy it?”

“You might not want to look, Amirah. But it’s done.”

“Okay, this is rather anti-climatic, also a wee bit fucked up. Everyone without an iron stomach, just turn around straight without looking and go back to the lift,” Xiaoye is heard saying as the team prepared to leave.

Roderick stopped a curious Amirah from sneaking a peek at the destroyed hive, merely shaking his head when she turned towards him. No way was he letting her see such a disgusting scene.

“Hey, Ajibade, check on our Hero, see if he and Farhan are doing any better?” Xiaoye said to Ajibade, who smirked and complied.

“Inspector Farhan, we blew up our hive. How’s everything on your end?”

“Things got hot. One of the READ soldiers rushed forward despite my warnings and got his right arm torn off. Jackie’s bringing him to the medics, but at least we got our hive too. Disgusting pile of flesh and I don’t know what… Shit, the smell’s so foul, I feel like vomiting,” their colleague replied.

“And our super-Hero?”

“Flexing his Taoist magic at everyone within his sight. Can’t blame him, though. How many times do that mangkuk get the chance to show off his powers? We’ll met you all at floor twenty-one.”

“He’s probably regretting not bringing his sword,” Xiaoye joked as Ajibade made sure everyone had entered the lift before making their way up to the rendezvous point.

“Which sword are you referring to?”

“The metal one, of cour- No dirty jokes, Ajibade, we have a lady here.”

“Don’t you mean ladies?”

“Nah, I’m more of a nice bitch. Amirah’s the only lady in the group.”

Roderick was uncomfortable by the fact that Ajibade and Xiaoye were practically having a normal conversation despite having just shot their way through a swarm of insect monsters and blowing up some kind of flesh-hive-thing with the mental image itself making Roderick nauseous again. Even Lieutenant Lim was giving the two nervous glances as he reloaded his shotgun. Roderick could understand Xiaoye’s behaviour given the fact that she’s probably fought all kinds of disgusting creatures during her seven-year career, but Ajibade was only one or two years senior than him and Amirah.

Speaking of Ajibade, he appeared to have noticed Roderick’s discomfort and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Keep talking, junior. You’ll go mad otherwise.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The things we of the Special Hazard Exorcism Unit have to fight, there are times we face something that even our half-demon here can barely stomach… If we let this get into our heads, we’ll quickly go mad. So keep talking, try to do something normal during times like this, so it doesn’t affect you mentally. Once this mission is over, all of us have to undergo a mandatory counselling session, so don’t you worry too much.”

“I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”

The lift suddenly jerked to a halt, and half the lights began flickering.

“Shit, don’t tell me there’s enemies in the shafts?” Lim asked.

“I don’t think so. Those bugs were pretty noisy before they attacked us… We’re somewhere between twenty and nineteen. We’ll need to force the doors open.”

“No need for so much brute force,” Amirah suddenly spoke up.

“Why?”

“Roderick, help me with the panel?”

Intrigued, Roderick helped pull the panel covering the lift’s electronics. He and the others then watched as Amirah pulled cables out of the panel and plugged them into a tablet she had been carrying with her, typing in several strange codes that resulted in the doors of the lit opening, revealing a spacious room with overturned furniture, smashed televisions and damaged lights.

“So, not just a medic but a hacker too, eh? You are a handy young woman,” Xiaoye commented to Amirah as she and the others began crawling out the lift, to which Amirah merely smiled.

“Farhan, we had some issues with the lift. Meeting you at the stairs on floor twenty,” Ajibade radioed Farhan, who responded with a simple “Roger” moments before he stuck his furry head out a doorway leading to the stairs, with Captain Andrew right behind him.

“Let’s go,” the harimau jadian said as he beckoned for everyone to follow him, uniting both teams into one.

“So, Hero, you finally get to perform your special skills?” Xiaoye teased Weijin as they headed up the stairs.

“Only because one of the soldiers decided to pull off a, what did they call it in the past? Leroy Jenkins? Yeah, that. One of those damn insect things just seized him by the arm and tore it off…” her colleague replied with a serious tone and expression, a full contrast to his supposed Casanova persona.

“Fuck. Captain, is your soldier going to make it?”

“I don’t know, I highly doubt it though. Even the shoulder was torn off… I’ve never faced an enemy like this,” Captain Andrew admitted glumly.

“Ironic given what you asses nicknamed me, but as Bradley like to say, you die first if you play the hero.”

Roderick mentally swore at hearing what Weijin had just said. He had been afraid when he first entered the building, but now he was terrified. He was already aware of the reality of being part of the Special Hazard Exorcism Unit, he knew full well that anyone who transfers to this division because they want to feel heroic fighting monsters and mad mages would most likely get killed or quit the force entirely, but now he was truly getting the full realization of how dangerous his new position was.

“My God, what happened to the roof?” Captain Andrew uttered at the sight of the wreckage that was once the twenty-first level of the building.

“Looks like an explosion went off on this floor,” Farhan added.

As Roderick registered the sight of the wreckage around him, he spotted in the middle of two pillars a Chinese man with shredded clothing floating eerily in mid-air.

“Over there, look! Is that Zhang Meng?” he called out, alerting everyone to the floating man.

“Damn right it’s that one we were shown during the briefing, but why the hell is he floating around like that?” Weijin asked.

“You think he’s aware of us?”

“Play it safe and assume he knows. Everyone be on the ready, we’ll approach him slowly. Roderick, you and Amirah watch our backs,” Xiaoye replied as she and the others slowly advanced on the floating man.

It was at this moment Roderick sensed something off. He peered at the face of the floating man, Zhang Meng, and for some reason, he could see bulges on the man’s exposed skin just as Zhang Meng’s eyes opened. In that instant, all his senses started screaming danger at him, and he barely had enough time to scream a warning at the others before throwing himself at Amirah and a READ soldier, knocking them to the ground just as something flew past them and blasted a large chunk of a ruined pillar off.

“What the hell? Get to cover! Now!”

As everyone dove for the nearest cover, one READ soldier was struck by the one of the blasts of energy shooting out from Zhang Meng’s eyes. Heck, it was almost cartoony, the way those energy blasts were shooting out, except one could barely see them with the naked eye given how fast they were being fired, and the soldier that got struck now laid lifeless on the floor, a gaping hole in his upper torso.

As the energy blasts continued, Zhang Meng’s body began twisting and contorting in a disturbing, unnatural manner. Roderick watched in silent horror as the bulges he saw on the man’s body burst apart to reveal insectoid limbs that resembled an elephant’s leg covered in beetle carapaces.

“Xiaoye, what’s happening to him?” Roderick asked Xiaoye, who was behind one of the few standing office cubicles near him and Amirah.

“I don’t know, but that’s not Zhang Meng anymore!”

An ear-piercing shriek emitted from Zhang Meng’s mouth right before his entire body literally exploded into blood and broken bones. Amirah threw up, and Roderick had to fight off an urge to flee, knowing full well that he might get killed. The energy blasts, meanwhile, have finally stopped, but what stood at where Zhang Meng had been was a strange creature. Six legs, a pair of wings that resembled a dragonfly’s combined with an eagle’s, no visible head apart from what looked like a locust’s mouth on one end from which acidic saliva dripped and a huge butt on the other end. That was the creature that Roderick was currently staring at.

“By Goetia,” Roderick heard Xiaoye utter, and was stunned by the unmistakable tone of fear in the cambion’s voice, “That’s Hundun.”