Blood Nemesis

The beetles covered the sky. Their bodies, as wide as a coconut, were round and shiny. They glistened in the morning sun as Oliver flew over.

Simultaneously, hundreds of beady eyes shifted and turned to face Oliver. Within them was unhidden blood lust.

Oliver smirked when he saw that.

His body moved through the air like an arrow. The five golden tentacles behind him twisted and compressed into a thin, sharp knife.

As the bloody scent attracted the beetles, Oliver pierced the beetle cloud.

The five tentacles twisted and collided with every beetle near him, chopping off their wings, legs and guts as he moved through, losing speed.

Blood splattered outwards from the body of the beetle.

Oliver touched it with his mana and brought it instantly towards his body.

He was replenishing his blood sac while swatting and crushing the beetles.

"Ha ha ha…this is fun." Oliver laughed.

His rampant action made the beetle angry, and their eyes turned red as they swarmed towards him.

Oliver had attracted the hatred of the entire swarm while also releasing a thick scent, which drew them in.

Usually, no B ranker in his place could have done that and survived. After all, there were millions of beetles in the swarm, covering the entire horizon.

At some point, a B-ranker would run out of mana and die under their mandibles.

But for Oliver, who could replenish mana with the blood of his enemies, it was not a problem at all. As long as he wanted to, he could go on without stopping.

Mental fatigue…it wouldn't be a problem for someone like him.

'How many can I kill in a second?'

Oliver wondered as the dense swarm of beetles approached him.

His body, after crashing into the swarm, slowed down and was about to fall to the ground. So, he converted two mana tentacles to wings and flew up to maintain his position.

Then, he used the three remaining tentacles to create a spinning blade, similar to a fan and swung it forward.

The shiny golden fan rotated horizontally and sliced the beetles effortlessly. A few dozen beetles fell in a moment.

"38."

Oliver counted as he absorbed the blood he could from the falling bodies.

"Thirty-eight is not enough, I can do better."

Oliver's confidence rose.

With no care for his defence, he dived into the swarm that was coming to eat him.

—

Below, on the ground, the superhumans and a few others watched the madness in utter shock.

The golden mana that covered Oliver was like a beacon, radiating light all around him.

Even during the day, they could see him shining up in the sky like a star.

Oliver had unleashed 40,000 units of mana instantly. Despite being able to protect himself against the onslaught of the mana because of the armour, Oliver couldn't hide its brilliance.

It shone brighter and brighter as Oliver killed the beetle and approached the dark clouds.

"Who is that?"

Some of them on the ground wondered.

They had come outside, willing to risk their life to protect the city, but someone else was taking on the entire swarm alone.

They wanted to know who he was.

"I saw something like that before. It's the golden fiend."

One of them chirped.

"Golden fiend, who is that?"

"Don't you remember the gate break incident!" The man was exasperated when he realised the fellow next to him didn't recognise the Golden fiend.

"Hm…yes." The other man replied.

"Haven't you seen him on TV, then?"

"He was on the TV?"

"The 'bare minimum hero'. Does that ring a bell?"

"Oh! It's that kid!"

"Why is he here? Is he taking the Hero Academy exam?"

"Perhaps."

"Then, if he is here when the exam is continuing, he will fail."

Everyone looked at each other as the realisation dawned on them.

If Oliver fails the exam, he will not be able to get into the Hero Academy. Wouldn't that be a problem?

A person, standing in the back of the crowd, muttered in a barely audible voice,

"We should write a petition to the academy and the exam board."

Suddenly, a twinkle appeared in the eyes of everyone below.

Though they were weak and foolish, they were still people of the city.

Oliver, or the Golden fiend, was supposed to bring honour to their city; they can't let him fail.

"YES."

"YEAH!"

"We should write a petition." Suddenly, all of them said and nodded at each other.

"After the swarm retreats, let's do that. I will set up the petition through the government website. I work for the government." A young woman said in excitement.

They nodded and turned to look up at the sky.

They could see hundreds of dots falling from the sky as the golden fiend flew through the swarm. These small dots were the blood beetles, whose bodies had been sliced, cut, or crushed. A few of them were even alive because just their wings were cut.

"Perhaps, our help might not be needed." One of the people said.

He was standing in front of the school, guarding the front door.

Few nearby nodded.

From what they could see, Oliver was an unstoppable force, storming into the swarm. With each passing second, he was killing hundreds of blood beetles.

"Who knew he could fly…anyways, we should come back inside and guard the gate. The strays might come over to us."

"Yeah, there is no point standing here. He sliced his hand and attracted the beetles with his blood. They won't be coming here as we thought. We should prepare to guard from the strays."

The superhumans on the ground reached a consensus after hearing what everyone had to say.

A few of them decided to kill the beetles falling to the ground, while the rest chose to stay behind and guard the weak spots in the building.

—

A few dozen kilometres away, the group of black-clothed men who had infiltrated the city gazed up at the sky curiously.

They wondered why the swarm was condensing on one side, instead of dispersing throughout the city, inducing fear amongst the citizens.

This was not what they had intended.

A person among them walked to the sickly young man at the forefront of their group and asked.

"Boss, why did the swarm stop?" His voice was grim and unpleasant. "If they concentrated on one side, it would become far too easy a target."

"Hm…"

The sickly man hummed in affirmation. After all, he was the one who was controlling the swarm.

"You should continue with our mission. Disperse and seed the humans. I will figure out what is happening to the blood beetles."

The sickly man, with a pale face half-covered, turned to look in the direction of East High School. Then, coughing slightly, he jumped over a car and moved in that direction.

The rest of the black clothed men clutched and counted the objects within their jackets.

Following their leader's order, they dispersed and moved into the city.

Each of them was moving in the direction of other examination centres.

The object within their jacket, neatly tucked inside, was demon seed.

The clumps of flesh that can transform a person into a demon.