Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

High-order Demon Hunters arrived quickly, and as soon as the team was ready, they broke down the door and entered.

The sound of gunfire and screams never stopped, as if it were the New Year celebration.

Malin and his group weren't idle either, another incursion by Spirits had appeared in the east end of the city. Because all the Demon Hunters had come over to provide support here, Colin could only take his team there to handle it—it was said to be a Merchant's residence, who had started doing business in the North half a year ago. As such, he hadn't returned since, until the previous evening when his neighbor noticed someone in his house. They hadn't paid much attention at the time, but half an hour ago a local patrol officer, hearing that the Merchant had come back, went to make inquiries, which resulted in one dead and one injured. Only then did they discover that the house was occupied not by humans but something else.

"According to intelligence, there were multiple footsteps in that house. The injured officer was able to escape safely because he was standing at the back and he used a Revolver to shoot the assailant. According to him, it was a spider the size of a door that had burst through it, and it had landed right on the deceased officer's face in a very unfortunate close encounter," Malfoy said, quickly obtaining first-hand information from the local police as soon as he dismounted from the carriage.

"It's a Red-Bellied Spider, the poor unlucky one," Colin shook his head, then took a long gun from the guard—a military Shotgun, lever-action, loaded with four shells.

This was extremely effective against the trouble-level Red-Bellied Spider since a 12-gauge shotgun shell contained at least 20 small lead pellets, which were highly lethal to creatures like the Red-Bellied Spider that almost lacked any natural armor. When they moved in dense groups, a single shotgun blast could cause multiple casualties.

In Malin's hand was still that .22 Revolver, of course, he had taken an extra one as a backup. Both Revolvers had gun lanyards attached to the handles for quick drawing and switching.

Besides that, Malin also carried a short sword and a short ax, which for someone with Frost Giant lineage like him, meant melee combat was also a viable way to survive.

Speaking of Frost Giants, Malin only understood why he had such a hearty appetite when he found out he had this bloodline—with a morning's training in the Church, he could eat an amount of food sufficient to stuff two Church guards, and he would only feel 80% full.

Among his peers, he was the strongest one. Even at only 1.3 meters tall, if a fight broke out, none of the fellow Apprentices stood a chance against him. Barehand fighting only lasted one round before the instructors had to switch his sparring partners to other instructors.

Because, after one round, any brave soul who faced him ended up sprawled on the ground.

"Malin, do you remember the records about Red-Bellied Spiders?" Colin asked Malin as he attached several grenades to his belt.

Malin nodded, "Red-Bellied Spiders are quite common in Carterburg. Generally, an adult Red-Bellied Spider is about one meter in size and is usually just a nuisance. But sometimes, if you're unlucky, it can be deadly, like when they leap at the victim's face."

Colin nodded, gave Malin an appreciative smile, "Well said, so we'll bring grenades for the spiderlings and incendiary rounds for the adults." After speaking, he reached out his hand and took another Shotgun, "I'll carry two shotguns; one loaded with buckshot for the Red-Bellied Spiders, the other loaded with Hollow Point Bullets in case we encounter a possible Red-Bellied Spider Mother."

The Spider Mother was the largest type of spider known to Malin's knowledge base, a mature female Red-Bellied Spider, measuring roughly 4.5 meters. Of course, this included its limbs, which, due to its relatively small body and elongated limbs, made this spider's speed of movement much faster than one might imagine. Its pounce was incredibly dangerous—you could picture a 200-kilogram Fatty pouncing at you at 70 kilometers per hour, and its mandibles were definitely not the greasy, big mouth on Fatty's face.

The death rate from being knocked down by it was as high as seventy percent, and the survivors were usually left with significant losses.

That's why Colin was carrying so much gear.

And Malin, as the assistant, would help Colin in his operation.

"First time on a cleaning mission, how does it feel?" Colin asked Malin, raising his shotgun in front of the door just before they were set to breach.

Malin thought for a moment, pulled out a flare from his waist, released the safety, and threw it into the damaged house after it activated: "Feels okay."

After saying and doing this, Malin stepped aside, and Colin kicked in the damaged door, first pointing his shotgun at the ceiling to make sure there was nothing there, before proceeding into the house. Then Malin took out a new flare, released the safety, and tossed it into the hallway.

Nothing was visible. But in the darkness, something emitted a strange cry, and Malin immediately pulled out an incendiary grenade.

"Left side hallway, throw your incendiary grenade there," Colin commanded.

So, Malin lit the fuse on top of the prepared incendiary with a lighter and hurled it into the left-side porch. As it shattered upon impact and ignited the carpet, Malin saw several Red-Bellied Spiders trapped in the flames.

Meanwhile, Colin, holding a shotgun, began firing into the right-side porch, and Malin quickly tossed a flare over there.

They saw the bodies of three Red-Bellied Spiders.

"Use the grenade on my waist to blow out that window," Colin issued a new command.

Thus, Malin reached for the grenade on his waist. These explosive devices, filled with pre-fragmented shrapnel, were engineered by the Church: there were two types, one a heavy-duty grenade with enhanced explosives, the other designed with silver-infused fragments specifically for Spiritual Bodies.

To deal with the minor annoyance that was the Red-Bellied Spiders, the latter wasn't necessary. Malin's throw wasn't as accurate as Maya's but had plenty of force. The grenade soared straight toward the window, smashing into the window frame and causing the explosive to detonate immediately, shredding that window and its neighbors.

Sunlight streamed through the damaged window, improving the visibility for Malin and Colin and also allowed Malin to spot something in the corner: "Ghoul!"

Colin turned his head, but before he could aim, the Ghoul pounced. This humanoid creature, a spirit transformed from the dead, was a danger-level entity. Normally, they preferred corners and darkness, but as the window became a part of history and the creature was exposed to the light, it switched to attack mode rather than patiently ambushing the living as before.

But then its howling abruptly stopped – Malin had already pointed his revolver at it. The silver-infused bullet entered through its eye socket. Although the .22 caliber rounds couldn't penetrate the Ghoul's skull and hide, they found an entrance in the soft tissue of the eye socket and, after passing through the eyeball and brain, lodged inside the skull's inner wall.

That was enough. The Ghoul's lunge turned into a disaster. After Colin sidestepped, the corpse hit the floor face-first, braking with its feet, ending up in a pose that would give any yoga instructor a headache.

While continuing to fire down the hallway, Colin called out without looking back, "Good job, Malin."

"My instructor taught me how to aim and shoot better," Malin replied while pushing out the cylinder, ejecting the spent cartridges from the cylinder and loading new bullets. "I think I should switch to a revolver with a larger caliber. Bigger is righteousness."

"Of course, bigger is righteousness... Reload and cover me," Colin stepped back a few paces, while Malin advanced two steps with his revolvers in both hands. At the Church's shooting range, he had grown skilled with the revolvers. Despite their short barrels, small bullets, and low lethality, in Malin's hands they had almost no recoil – a benefit of his Frost Giant lineage – as he shot down the spiders emerging from the darkness.

Malin then fired the remaining bullets into the darkness.

The shrieks from the darkness answered Colin's unspoken why. After Colin reloaded, he switched to a lever-action shotgun loaded with hollow point bullets. After a few seconds, there was no response.

By then, Malin had reloaded using a speedloader. He lit a new flare and threw it down the corridor, the bright device illuminating the depths of the hallway for Colin and revealing the monstrous entity.

"Spider Mother, you killed it?" Colin fired a shot, and the lead penetrated the spider's belly, spilling a large amount of yellow fluid, but the gigantic creature remained motionless.

If it were a higher-level spirit, it might have feigned death, but such instinct-driven spirits had never evolved tactics.

"I inferred from the book its size and the location of its carapace. When the bullets passed through the hallway, I spotted it and thought I'd try to intercept it for you," Malin spoke the truth, revealing his genuine confidence in his marksmanship.

Colin approached cautiously. After confirming the two rooms in the hallway were safe with incendiaries, he stood before the Spider Mother, staring at the bullet-riddled entry in its head. After a silent pause, he turned to Malin, "Nicely done, was that a holy rock salt shot?"

"Hmm, Margaret Sister gave me a few boxes. They're indeed very effective against spirits like these," Malin replied, glancing at the ceiling. His UV flashlight shone upwards, "The Spider Mother came from there; the second floor looks like its nest."

"Looks like we need support," Colin observed, gazing at the ceiling's endpoint, which was punctured by a large hole. "By the way, Malin, if you were to choose support, who would you call?"

"I'd have Fatty come with his flamethrower, find a lift to break in through the outside window and flame everything inside," Malin looked at the steps covered in spider webs – it was clear that attacking from the first floor up was deadly, for no one knew how many arthropod spirits infested the second floor.