Chapter 149: Heavy Rifles

"Where did you come from?" His biological father asked him as soon as he entered their house.

Filmos ignored him completely, pushing aside the scattered belongings cluttering their living room floor.

He walked straight into his bedroom, closing the door and ignoring the rest of the world before him.

He had gotten the necklace back, finally. But at what cost... He had turned the syndicate directly against him, and surely, they would take swift retribution.

’What should I do?’ He thought, biting his lower lip until it almost bled.

’Should I just ask for Jake’s family’s help?’ He considered the thought for a brief second, then shook his head aggressively to banish the idea. ’No. I can’t do that. This isn’t like any other task where I just need their advice. This is something heavy, and I can’t drag them down to burden themselves.’

Filmos walked back and forth around his room, pacing mindlessly while buried deep in his thoughts. In truth, his mind was racing so fast he didn’t even know what to think about anymore.

There were so many pieces he still couldn’t put together.

’Fuck! Fuck! Should I just attack them again and kill some of them? I could do that... but that would turn me into a hunted fugitive.’

Filmos tried to force himself to calm down. Yet, his frayed nerves kept his heart beating wildly against his ribs.

’Fuck... Should I just run away? What about them?’

Filmos turned around, staring blankly across the closed bedroom door toward the living room.

Even though he hated his parents with every fiber of his being, the thought of abandoning them still wasn’t pleasant to him. Leaving the city meant he was indirectly condemning them to death.

With what the syndicate was capable of, his parents would surely be dead before they even realized he had escaped the city.

"You sure about this place?"

Filmos felt a sudden bolt of lightning strike through his nerves as an unfamiliar voice echoed from right outside his bedroom door.

"Yeah, I am sure," a second, stern voice replied.

Filmos looked around frantically for a place to hide, but stopped midway. Why should he hide? He was already an official tamer.

Instead of hiding, he moved silently closer to the door to overhear any possible information that could increase his chances of survival.

’They must be from the syndicate...’

Filmos had already expected this. With how much damage he had dealt to the men whose illegal beasts were just confiscated by the city, there was no way they wouldn’t retaliate.

"Alright. Then it’s time to get what’s ours."

BANG!

Filmos’s bedroom door went flying inward as a heavy kick connected squarely against the wood.

In an instant, Filmos lifted his arms into a defensive guard position, preparing for a fight.

But hell, he didn’t actually know how to fight with his fists. He just instinctively raised his hands because he didn’t know what else to do.

His other hand rushed into his pocket and grabbed his Pocket Sanctuary Card, summoning the Green Anaconda in a burst of light. The snake’s slithering body immediately reached up to his hips, wrapping securely around his torso. Filmos didn’t flinch. The Green Anaconda was fully prepared to protect his body from any incoming danger.

Two men dressed in black tactical gear barged through the broken doorway, their faces completely obscured by dark gas masks.

They immediately locked eyes on Filmos, who stood alone with the massive serpent coiled around him.

The two men exchanged a quick glance before nodding to each other. They raised what appeared to be heavy assault rifles, pointing the dark barrels directly at Filmos’s chest.

"Kid, surrender that beast!"

Filmos swallowed hard, his throat dry. The very first thought that entered his mind was definitely not to surrender.

A surge of desperate confidence—and perhaps sheer foolishness—made him believe he could somehow dodge a hail of bullets.

He crouched down in a split second, dropping the anaconda low toward the two men. Then, against all odds, he sprinted straight toward them.

"Spray them!"

The Green Anaconda reacted instantly to the command, snapping its jaws open and spraying a dense stream of green toxic venom directly over Filmos’s shoulder.

Caught completely off guard, the two men opened fire, but it was already too late. The sizzling toxic venom splashed over their chests, eating through their heavy tactical gear in seconds.

’Shit! Agh!’

Filmos felt a sharp, agonizing burn tear through his other shoulder, but he didn’t have a single second to check what it was.

The deafening roar of automatic rifle fire forced him to dive and roll across the floor, away from the two men and closer to the broken doorway.

As soon as he got a clear line of sight, he planted his foot firmly on the ground and pivoted sharply to change direction.

A spray of bullets chewed up the floorboards behind his heels, but thankfully, none of them caught him. Meanwhile, the men’s tactical gear had proven completely useless, as the intense toxicity melted straight through the heavy fabric and reached their skin.

"The hell?! That beast wasn’t reported to be like that!"

The men rushed forward, giving chase as Filmos darted out of the room. But as they rounded the doorway, they didn’t expect Filmos to be waiting for them.

Instead of running away, Filmos had set an ambush. What met the two men as they turned the corner was a massive wall of acidic venom released by the Green Anaconda.

Anacondas weren’t naturally venomous creatures. But that was a detail Filmos never bothered to question. All that mattered right now was that his beast was more than powerful enough to overpower these two invaders.

"ARGH! MY EYES ARE BURNING!"

"FUCK! FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS THING?!"

Seeing both men thrashing on the ground, Filmos knew he had to escape immediately.

He turned to run, but before he could even take a single step forward, he failed to notice how much blood was rapidly trickling down his wounded shoulder, draining every last bit of his energy.

His vision suddenly blurred, spinning out of control.

Before he even realized what was happening, his legs gave out completely. His entire body surrendered to the darkness, and the last thing he heard before losing consciousness was the loud thud of his own body crashing onto the floor.