Wait, System! Stop Helping The Protagonist!

All of a sudden, Ashton spoke, breaking the awkward atmosphere.

"We are about to arrive. Be careful!"

’When will I finish the beginner part of the story? The protagonist gets so easily riled up. Was it difficult for the author to portray him as cool and collected at all times?’ Ashton cursed the author once again in his heart.

After going down several more steps, the exit to the staircase was finally visible.

Passing through it, they saw rows and rows of ward beds, empty without patients. The bedsheets were rotten, turned brown and yellow. The wooden legs were jagged with holes visible. One even wonders if a single touch would have made it collapse.

Suddenly, Lovia spotted something to her right. She pointed her fingers in that direction and asked the group for their attention. "Look, there is someone standing there."

Everyone followed Lovia’s direction and saw a man standing with his back facing them.

Perhaps because the man heard Lovia’s voice, he turned his head.

"What the!" The man’s appearance instantly frightened them.

The man had no face but a gaping mouth filled with sharp, spiky teeth. Tentacles wriggled out of his chest, and his stomach bloated like a pregnant woman’s.

’Baby Holders.’ Ashton looked at the Filth with vigilance while also surveying his surroundings.

"Break the beds!" Ashton yelled as he swung his sword.

Others quickly followed, understanding what he wanted to achieve.

As they were destroying the beds for better movement, the Baby Holder screeched, grabbing the attention of others like it. From under the beds, Baby Holders began to rise.

Ashton asked without looking at Lovia. "Miss Lovia, can you make out what these things can do?"

Lovia organised her thought process as to how she could not sound like she knew everything.

"Ashton, do you feel anything inside their bellies?"

Ashton acted like he was sensing them before answering. "Yes, there is a dormant power lying in their bellies, just like those Sharp Bumpers outside."

Anastasia’s and Rias’s eyes lost colour after hearing that. They knew how difficult it was to kill Sharp Bumpers, and now another type of Filth was attached to it.

"What should we do, Lovia?" Anastasia asked, as Lovia was her only hope.

Closing her eyes, Lovia pondered for a little. Suddenly her eyes shot open, and she answered. "I think we should strike their bellies first. If we don’t remove the Sharp Bumpers first, then our mind will always be alert for a sneak attack."

"Kill the Sharp Bumpers first, huh?" Rias muttered, looking at the Filths running towards them with their giant maw and dancing tentacles. "This will be hard."

Ashton also steeled his mind while comforting Rias. "It’s okay. As long as we are not dead, we can keep on kicking these creatures’ asses."

"Do these things even have functioning asses?" All of a sudden, Anastasia asked, very curious.

Everyone’s faces turned astonished, especially Ashton’s. His face darkened as he cursed. "Miss Anastasia, that is a completely irrelevant topic! What I said was a metaphor. A Metaphor!"

Ashton cursing and Anastasia’s question make Lovia and Rias chuckle, easing the tension.

"That is a metaphor? I have never heard anything about it?" Anastasia was further confused.

’Of course you wouldn’t hear it because it does not belong in this world.’ Ashton held his emotion still before shouting. "I will tell you about this later. Now let’s kill these things!"

Everyone’s minds were freshened from this banter. They braced themselves with a heart as still as a frozen lake.

’Now.’ Rias’s eyes shot open as he lunged forward. He thrust his halberd at the Baby Holder in front of him. His goal – the belly. However, one of its tentacles gave a strong side slap to his halberd, diverting the strike’s direction.

Seeing the halberd not blocking its path anymore, the Baby Holder jumped with its maw wide open, wanting to swallow Rias whole.

Instantly, Rias’s eyes shone as a clear solution formed in his mind. He gave a horizontal swing from that position, and his target was the belly.

Rias succeeded. He succeeded in cutting through the belly.

Now, he had to counter the Baby Holder lunging on him. He had to sidestep or backstep, but he didn’t, as there was someone to finish the job.

A flash of light flew on top of Rias’s head. He looked up and saw Anastasia hovering in the air with a pair of golden wings flapping behind her. She was holding a spear, and that Baby Holder was impaled in it. It didn’t move as it turned into specks of green light, announcing its death.

Ashton dodged a Baby Holder’s attack and did a quick glance at Anastasia.

Lovia, who was behind him, whispered, amazed. "Angel Maria’s Wing. The most broken ungrowable Inner Bon."

Ashton also recalled its ability in the book.

[ Angel Maria’s Wings: Blessed with the wings of the valiant Angel Maria. Gain the ability to fly. The flight quality depends on Life Essence output. Have an overall 20% speed boost. Any attack against Filths does 50% more damage. ]

This Inner Bon can be called a simple stats boost with the extra ability to fly, but what made it broken was the fifty percent damage boost against Filths, the same Filths that are cheat codes to reaching the top.

Ashton sometimes wondered if Rias had completely copied this Inner Bon, would the world have not suffered that ending? Even a portion would do it, as Rias didn’t get it in the book because as his lover, they didn’t fight, resulting in Rias not copying anything on this Inner Bon.

Shaking away his jumbled thoughts, Ashton focused his mind on the task before him—clearing the Baby Holders.

However, he also had to protect Lovia, as she had zero combat experience. The short sword and the knife she had in her hands were not in form!

Lovia might have hogged the protagonist, but she didn’t receive anything useful to her yet.

’Is this the fate of every female lead?’ Ashton shook his head in dismay.