Alice was able to notice the situation, and naturally, a few people with sharper eyes or those who happened to be looking at the opposite rooftop saw it too.
"A—A monster!!"
As if to vent their terror, or perhaps to warn Alice, the survivors who spotted the monster immediately cried out.
Their voices instantly put the already anxious crowd on edge. But before anyone else could panic, Alice spoke up first, her voice ringing out clearly: "Everyone, please don't worry! Alice is here, no one will get hurt!"
She had said similar words many times before, but it couldn't be helped.
People trapped in a panic always needed a pillar of support; the more tense they were, the more they yearned for a calm presence to give them peace of mind.
The young girl's voice once again soothed everyone's frayed nerves. In their state of anxious unrest, they just wanted to hear an unwavering voice answer them.
As it happened, Alice never minded repeating herself over and over. As long as it calmed the panic of others, it was no trouble at all.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the girl stepped out of the supermarket. The torrential rain swallowed her figure, yet it didn't cause her to waver in the slightest.
She looked straight up at the monsters on the rooftop, as if saying, 'You can come at me now.'
Realizing that this human girl seemed to be their only opponent, the monsters instantly burst into mockery. Three massive, four-meter-tall silhouettes crashed from the rooftop onto the ground almost simultaneously. Spidery cracks webbed across the road as their snickers echoed through the air.
"To think it's just a single brat. Humans really are ruthless yet weak creatures."
Alice didn't reply right away. Instead, she warily scanned her surroundings.
The reason she hadn't jumped up to the rooftop immediately was the underlying worry that the moment she left, the supermarket behind her might be attacked by other monsters.
But for now, it really did seem like there were only these three.
Sensing Alice's train of thought, the playful mockery on the three monsters' faces was instantly replaced by bloodlust and fury: "What's that look for, you little runt? Are you looking down on us?"
The temperaments of monsters were far more volatile and extreme than those of humans, and they were filled with absolute malice toward humanity.
This held true even for humans who turned into monsters, let alone these natural-born aberrations.
Unable to tolerate being underestimated by a weaker race, the lead monster's legs erupted with massive power. Bending and snapping straight like springs, he thrust his fist right before Alice's face in the blink of an eye. "To dare look down on us, you're going to pay—!"
However, before he could finish his threat, the heavy, white electromagnetic cannon drew a pristine white arc through the air.
Without encountering a shred of resistance, the flesh and bone it touched were instantly pulverized under its sheer power and weight, scattering into countless fragments off to the side.
By the time everyone snapped out of it, the monster's upper body had completely vanished.
Whirrrrr—
The Sword of Light began to charge at that very moment.
"Something's wrong! Take her serious—!"
The second monster realized that the human before them wasn't just bait thrown out to buy time or die, but...
Alice wasn't particularly known for her speed, but that was strictly relative.
The overly heavy and massive Sword of Light prevented her from making nimble movements at will, but to these Deep Sea Group small fries, capturing her speed was an absolute impossibility.
The sounds of a sonic boom and shattering bones had barely echoed when the final monster already turned to flee for his life.
However, the fully charged Sword of Light was already locked onto his body. And once a target was locked by the Sword of Light, there was practically no chance of dodging.
Boom!
The ground cracked open in a straight line from the powerful impact. At the end of that line lay only the corpse of a monster missing its upper torso.
The entire process hadn't even taken two seconds. The incredibly swift conclusion simply and directly demonstrated the vast disparity in power to the survivors. This should give them some peace of mind.
"So amazing! Hero!"
"Is this the S-Class? It feels completely different from any battle I've seen before!"
The moment Alice returned to the supermarket, the survivors cheerfully voiced their admiration. Rather than praising Alice, it was more like they were comforting themselves.
The hero was incredibly strong. With such a powerful hero protecting them, they would definitely be safe!
Alice was just about to respond and offer further encouragement to everyone when she was interrupted by the ringing of the phone in her pocket.
It was another emergency distress call from the Hero Association.
"Hero! Things have taken a turn for the worse!"
The one speaking was still Yamada, and his very first words dragged the atmosphere into the depths.
"What happened?" Alice frowned. Was it because something went wrong on Genos's side?
From the very beginning, she had established her own role: to rescue survivors along the way, gathering and protecting as many people as possible who hadn't made it to the shelters in time.
After all, the shelter was protected by Genos. After Genos fell, Mumen Rider would buy time, and then Saitama would arrive to handle the Deep Sea King.
Compared to the shelter, which would ultimately be fine, she felt she needed to pay closer attention to other areas.
"Genos sent a message to the Hero Association. He is currently engaging the leader of the monsters, but due to a careless mistake, he only has one arm left to use! His combat effectiveness has dropped drastically!"
"He's at the shelter! There are a large number of survivors taking refuge there! Hero, please head over to reinforce him as quickly as possible!"
"But...! Alice has over sixty survivors here too! They have no energy left right now, and they're all soaked from the rain. They might be found by roaming monsters!"
"What!?"
Alice's words caused Yamada's brain to short-circuit.
This... how could there be people on Alice's side too? No wonder her tracker had been moving back and forth erratically earlier; so she was searching for survivors?
But... this makes things rather difficult...
The command room fell into a stretch of silence. Yamada opened his mouth but couldn't bring himself to say the words to abandon one side for the shelter.
Isn't this just the trolley problem?
"Leave this side to me." Just as the atmosphere grew stiflingly quiet, a familiar voice suddenly rang out.
Stinger, who had been sitting on the floor wrapped from head to toe in bandages, stood up. Though his face was black and blue with bruises, a determined and bright light shone in his eyes. "I will protect this place."
"Since that monster leader is over at the shelter, then there's nothing to worry about here. Aside from that guy, no monster can break past my Bamboo Shoot."
With that, he smiled at Alice. "Even if something really goes wrong, I can hold out until you return, even if it costs me my life."
As for how to notify Alice, that was simple enough. He could just hand his phone to someone else, have them dial the emergency channel if he couldn't hold on anymore, and let the Hero Association contact Alice.
It would take some time, but there was no other choice.
Stinger's voice echoed inside the supermarket. It wasn't loud, yet it carried an exceptional resonance.
He was a highly popular hero in J-City, commanding immense prestige and the deep trust of the residents.
Furthermore, the injuries covering his body were all sustained while protecting J-City.
Even if the crowd didn't want an S-Class combatant like Alice to leave just like that, they couldn't bring themselves to say any words of refusal at this moment.
"Stinger... Thank goodness you're alright!" Yamada finally found his voice. Though the silence just now had only lasted a few seconds, standing on that moral execution dock had soaked his back with sweat.
Feeling a bit drained, he continued, "Hero! Then we'll leave the shelter in your hands!"
"Okay! Just leave it to Alice!"
Now that her worries were temporarily resolved, Alice waved goodbye to the crowd. Under their slightly anxious gazes, she sprinted toward the distant shelter.
At this moment, she felt somewhat upset. Although her combat strength was indeed enough to accomplish many things, she still couldn't protect both sides at the same time in a situation like this.
This current solution was completely a last resort born of necessity; fundamentally, it was still due to her lack of capability.
She could only hope that Herta would bring good news this time.
At Alice's full speed, a distance of three kilometers took only about four seconds. This was even with the city's high-rise buildings obstructing her way; if it were flat, empty ground, she would have been even faster.
And as Alice crashed through the dome of the shelter from high above, she saw Genos kneeling on the ground, covered in acid. At the same time, a green-skinned, fish-headed monster over two meters tall was walking up behind him with a sinister grin.
"Genos!"
Although she had anticipated this scene in her mind, seeing Genos in such a wretched state still made anger flare up uncontrollably within the young girl.
"Humph?"
Both the sound of the roof crashing in and Alice's shout were incredibly distinct. The Deep Sea King looked toward the source of the noise with utter disdain, only to find no one there.
Just as he instinctively went to look down at the ground, his entire being felt as if it had been struck head-on by a truck. Under the direct impact of the Sword of Light, he was sent flying straight out of the shelter.
"Genos! Are you alright!?"
The girl had no time to watch the flying Deep Sea King, prioritizing checking on Genos's condition instead.
"Ali...ce...!"
The good news was that Genos responded immediately.
Though his voice was somewhat distorted, his core components—or rather, his two vital lifelines, his energy core and his brain—had suffered no mishaps.
As long as nothing went wrong with those two areas, Genos's injuries wouldn't be life-threatening.
Alice finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But Genos's current state of mind was one of extreme frustration.
He had embarrassed himself in front of the girl yet again. This was already the third time. Whether it was the Mosquito Girl, Carnage Kabuto, or this time, he always ended up displaying his most pathetic state before her.
It reminded him of his mindset when he first met Alice. Thinking back on it now, it was an absolute joke.
Why... am I so weak?
"Another hero has arrived?"
"But... but what use is that? The heroes are all getting..."
"You idiot! Do you know who that is?! That's the Hero! An elite S-Class who defeated at least three Demon-level threats within less than two months of becoming a hero! With her here, we don't even have to worry about that monster!"
Hearing his explanation, the survivors—who were learning of Alice's magnificent track record for the first time—instantly felt hope rise within them.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL