Falsely Accused, I Started Plundering Monster Traits

The corpse giant kept rising until its shoulders were nearly level with the rooftops on either side. Three or four stories’ worth of corpses had been crushed together into the shape of a man, with armor and broken weapons jutting from layers of dead flesh while countless faces and limbs disappeared into the massive body.

The four younger knights closed around Lucia almost at once. One of them had already gone pale. The older knight stood in front of them with his sword gripped in both hands, and the easy confidence he’d shown when preparing to cut through ordinary rotters was gone.

Then the corpse giant took a step.

Its enormous foot nearly spanned the entire street. Corpses burst beneath it as it came down, and the impact traveled through the road into the buildings on both sides, shaking dust and bits of masonry loose from the walls. The knights backed away with Lucia while the thing kept advancing.

The older knight watched the corpse giant bearing down on them, his voice turning grim. "Sir, can your weapon stop it?"

"Only one way to find out."

Lin Yan raised his rifle and drove the muzzle toward the giant’s chest. A stream of rounds poured into it, blowing apart the outermost corpses and sending flesh, bone fragments, and pieces of armor tumbling down. He quickly tightened his fire onto a single point and started boring deeper, layer by layer. Every time the crater opened up, however, the corpses around it were dragged inward by the same unseen force. Mangled torsos, severed limbs, and armor packed themselves into the wound almost as quickly as he could tear them apart. By the time the magazine ran dry, the deep hole in its chest was already writhing shut, while the heretic remained safely buried behind several feet of flesh.

The corpse giant had already crossed more than half the street.

The older knight’s expression hardened. "Then it seems I have no choice." He stepped across Lucia’s path, placing himself fully between her and the giant, and his voice became strangely calm. "Sir, I entrust the Saintess to you."

A faint glow appeared along the edge of his sword.

At first it was little more than a thin line of light, but it quickly spread along the blade, growing brighter by the second. Pale radiance pushed back the surrounding fog and washed over the older knight’s face as the color steadily drained from it. His hands tightened around the hilt while power seemed to pour into the sword from somewhere deep inside his body.

Lin Yan saw it and immediately grinned.

"Ha. Knew you had something up your sleeve."

The glow around the sword kept building.

"But from the look of you..." Lin Yan raised an eyebrow. "This one burns your life or something?"

The older knight’s silence answered for him.

"Then save it." Lin Yan let the empty rifle drop against its sling. "If you’re gonna trade your life for something, save it for the dragon."

He reached up and pulled down the heavy machine gun he’d been carrying on his shoulder for so long it was starting to feel like a damn mascot. The stock settled into place, and the muzzle rose down the length of the street until it locked onto the giant’s chest.

The corpse giant charged.

Once a body several stories tall actually started moving at speed, the pressure changed completely. Every stride covered several times the distance of a normal man’s, and each enormous foot smashed down into the corpses carpeting the street, squeezing flesh out from beneath it as the shock traveled through the pavement and slammed into the buildings on either side. What glass remained rattled violently in its frames, while dust and loose stone poured from cracks in the walls. The giant’s shadow rushed toward them amid the pounding impacts, and the heretic buried deep inside its chest broke into wild laughter, his voice spreading through a body made from hundreds of corpses until the entire street seemed to hum with it.

"Mortal! Now you understand! Before the might of my lord, your pathetic power—"

The heavy machine gun opened fire.

The roar swallowed the entire street.

It sounded nothing like the sharp, rapid crack of a rifle. Each shot landed low and heavy, distinct enough to hear the rhythm between them, but once they began rolling together, it was like a line of massive hammers pounding the air one after another. The pressure rolling off the muzzle churned the fog ahead, and dust already shaken loose by the giant’s footsteps came pouring from the walls all over again.

The heretic’s voice vanished beneath it.

The four younger knights who had been retreating around Lucia stopped almost in unison. Pale light was still gathering along the older knight’s sword, but every one of them was now staring at the heavy machine gun in Lin Yan’s hands. Even Lucia peered between them, the flickering muzzle flash reflected in her eyes.

The gunfire lasted only a few seconds.

Lin Yan released the trigger.

When everyone looked back toward the street, the corpse giant was still frozen in the middle of its charge, one enormous foot hanging in the air—but everything from its breastbone down through its upper abdomen had been blown away.

The torso that had once been several feet thick and packed solid with corpses and armor now had a hole through it large enough for a man to stand inside and nearly two men to stand shoulder to shoulder. The 12.7×99mm rounds had punched straight through from front to back. Dead flesh peeled outward around the edges, snapped ribs, severed limbs, and mangled plates of armor jutting from the torn cross-section while black-red blood ran down through the layers of bodies beneath. Through the opening, the street and fog behind the giant were plainly visible.

A few scraps of torn red cloth hung from broken bone along the rear edge of the cavity, swaying gently with the last of the giant’s forward momentum.

Then the raised foot slammed back to the ground and the huge upper body pitched forward. The chest collapsed first, followed by the shoulders and arms, and hundreds of corpses that had been crushed together under the spell began coming apart. Bodies, armor, broken swords, and shattered bone poured down in a thunderous cascade. Within moments, the monster that had towered several stories high had become a mound of corpses covering the street.

The older knight’s sword was still glowing.

Lin Yan lowered the muzzle, looked at the pile of bodies, and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah."

"You were absolutely right."

He patted the smoking barrel and broke into a grin.

"This thing really is pretty pathetic."

A familiar chime sounded in his ear.

[Trait acquired: Grave Whisper — Green]

[Allows limited communication with lingering consciousness in the recently dead.]

Lin Yan’s grin froze.

...That’s it?

Without the heavy machine gun, there was a damn good chance he’d have died here. And after all that trouble killing a fucking corpse Gundam, his reward was the ability to talk to dead people.

Lin Yan stared at the green notification for a moment before slinging the heavy machine gun back over his shoulder. Heat from the barrel immediately washed against him.

"Fuck. Hot."

He adjusted the barrel outward so it sat away from his body, then opened his Trait list. Grave Whisper was still sitting there in green, and he swapped it in.

The moment the Trait took effect, a faint sound came from the pile of corpses ahead. At first it was too indistinct to make out, almost like the soft shifting of bodies settling against one another, but then it came again.

"...should have killed her..."

"Who?"

A rasping laugh drifted out from somewhere deep inside the corpse pile.

"...before she awakens..."

Lin Yan glanced toward Lucia. Barring some spectacular coincidence, the dead man was talking about her.

"What happens when she awakens?"

The lingering presence was already fading.

"...the Dragon dies..."

Then it disappeared completely.

Lin Yan ran those few words through his head again.

After years of novels and TV, he knew this kind of setup pretty well. When the bad guys were all desperately trying to kill a girl before she could "awaken," it usually meant whatever happened after she woke up was going to be a very big deal.

And once she awakened, the Dragon would die...

So what, is she some kind of weapon the Church is keeping around to kill the Black Dragon?

That would certainly explain why they were so desperate to protect her.

Perfectly logical. I really am a genius.

Lin Yan opened his Trait list again and swapped Grave Whisper back out.

The moment his physical Trait returned, the heavy machine gun on his shoulder felt noticeably lighter.

At the same time, the pale lines running across the buildings were beginning to fade. Marcus’s radio suddenly crackled back to life, and a voice pushed through the static, still repeatedly calling their names. Marcus immediately grabbed the radio and answered.

Lin Yan glanced at the others. The four younger knights were still rooted to the spot, clearly nowhere near recovered from what they’d just witnessed, the shock written plainly across their faces. The light around the older knight’s sword had already faded, yet he too was still staring blankly at the heavy machine gun on Lin Yan’s shoulder. Lucia stood quietly among them, watching him.

Seeing their faces, Lin Yan had to fight to keep the corners of his mouth down.

Oh, that felt good. Yeah, I definitely looked badass just now.

"Let’s move."

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