Clare and company battle the spike monsters.Since you want my arm so bad, I'll give it to ya!Summary:Clare, Helen and Deneve are confronted by one of the monsters (reminiscent of Luciela's awakened form) formed by Raphaela/Luciela's spikes. The monster goes after Helen but is held off by Clare. As the monster sends out tendrils and blades to attack Helen and Clare, Deneve jumps on the monster's back to try to decapitate it, but she is shot in the right arm by three spikes. Deneve jumps off and fends off some tail attacks by the monster, and at this moment she notices that the spikes on her right arm and growing into monsters. Deneve rips her right arm and throws the sword (along with the infected right arm) into the monster's head. While the monster is distracted, Helen attacks from behind and decapitates that monster with the Drill Sword, but to Helen's surprise the monster is still able to move and pins her to the ground. The monster fires spikes at Deneve from its neck wound, but Clare blocks the the spikes and sends some of them flying back at the monster, and the headless monster finally collapses to the ground.After the fight, Clare explains that these monsters are not really alive, and they'll stop moving once they used up all their energy. The monsters are also parasitic and nature and can keep on moving if it can find a host. Helen regenerates her right arm and asks Clare how to deal with these monsters, and Clare states that it's best to dice the monsters into pieces just as a dozen more monster close in on the group.No one wants an out-of-control slicing-and-dicing machine running around.Not far away, Riful is dragging the wounded Dauf (both back in human form) through the forest in an attempt to escape, but the Abyss Feeders catch up to them. Riful loses an arm and tries her best to hold off the Abyss Feeders, but there are too many of them. Suddenly, the remaining Abyss Feeders are sliced up into pieces by Alicia, and Riful realizes that Alicia is no longer under control. Nearby, Beth has been staked to the ground by one of Raphaela/Luciela's spikes and the spike is taking over Beth's body.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~That was quite the action-packed chapter. These new monsters sure are tough: they got size, speed, no weak spots, and a variety of ranged attacks including parasitic projectiles. The only way to beat them is to dice them up or outlast them. Clare and company had enough trouble with just one monster, but now they are up against about a dozen. I think we are going to see a return of Clare's Quick Sword in the real world, and maybe she can use some of Raphaela's attacks as well.On the other front, I'm glad that Riful and Dauf (mostly just Riful) are still alive, although they are far from safe just yet. The Abyss Feeders might be all dead now, but Alicia is out of control and it's possible that she'll go after Riful and Dauf. In their current conditions Riful and Dauf are probably no match for Alicia. I was surprised that Beth got hit by the spikes especially since she's no. 2 in the organization. Maybe she was too busy controlling Alicia to dodge the spikes. I wonder if Raphaela/Luciela can control Alicia by taking over Beth's body. We shall see in the next chapter I suppose. Hopefully the next chapter will check on Priscilla and Raki as well. The monsters are out of Raki's league, but I really want to see Priscilla in action.
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