Lear and Sherry saw Jill fleeing in desperation under the Nemesis's onslaught.
Lear's expression grew grim as he cursed under his breath, "Damn it! Just what I was afraid of."
He had been worried earlier that Jill would encounter the Stage 2 Nemesis in such a cramped environment, and she really had managed to push the thing into its second stage.
Lear spoke softly to Sherry:
"Sherry, go find a place to hide first. I'm going to rescue Jill, then I'll come back for you."
Sherry nodded obediently and hid behind the slide in the Orphanage pavilion.
Once Lear saw Sherry was hidden, he looked around and found a section of abandoned iron fence.
He walked over to the iron fence and, using his raw strength, tore the bars out one by one. He twisted the removed bars into several spiral-shaped spears and then looked up at the Nemesis on the roof.
"Hey! Jill, run down here!"
Hearing the call, Jill instinctively looked down. When she saw it was Lear, a smile broke across her tense face.
She knew this kid would be fine.
Jill immediately ran downstairs with the Nemesis hot on her heels.
The moment Jill ran out of the Orphanage, the Nemesis pounced from the roof.
At that exact moment, Lear moved, hurling the spears at his side with brutal force toward the mid-air Nemesis.
Suspended in the air, the Nemesis had no way to dodge. It could only cross its two front claws in front of its face, attempting to block the incoming spears.
The first spear, carrying immense power, slammed into the Nemesis's body, stopping its pouncing momentum dead in mid-air. The spear pierced through its claws and embedded itself deep into its chest.
Before the Nemesis could even let out a scream, the second and third spears were already upon it, skewering its body in quick succession.
The terrifying force sent the Nemesis flying backward, finally pinning it against the Orphanage wall.
Lear didn't stop. Following the principle of "killing it while it's down," he threw all the remaining spears.
Arms, hind legs, chest—spear after spear struck home.
The Nemesis's body was riddled by the consecutive hits.
Jill looked at Lear as he kept hurling the spears.
It seems a lot has happened while I was away.
Jill didn't interrupt his performance, instead silently walking up behind Lear to watch the show.
Suffering heavy trauma one after another, the Nemesis pinned to the wall let out a series of roars.
Lear looked at the last spear in his hand.
"I'll give you something to yell about!"
The spear flew out, sinking straight into the Nemesis's wide-open maw.
The Nemesis's roar stopped abruptly. Its clouded eyes stared fixedly at Lear's figure for a moment before its head slowly slumped, its struggling ceasing entirely.
Looking at the Nemesis pinned to the wall like a grotesque parody of the crucifixion, Jill suddenly spoke up, asking airily:
"Are you Superman?"
"Huh?"
Lear was momentarily dumbstruck, taking half a second to process what Jill was even talking about. "If I were Superman, I wouldn't have gotten hurt." He shrugged helplessly. "If I were Superman, this thing wouldn't still be hanging there; it would've been turned into barbecue long ago."
Just then, Sherry's voice drifted over from the side:
"Sister Jill—"
Seeing that the battle was over, Sherry immediately ran out from behind the slide.
Jill turned her head. The cold hardness on her face vanished instantly, replaced by a gentle smile as she stepped forward and pulled Sherry into a light embrace.
"How are you, Sherry? You weren't scared, were you?" she asked softly.
"No, Sister Jill is amazing. You can deal with such a big monster all by yourself."
Jill chuckled softly and looked at Lear. Her eyes held a hint of playfulness and scrutiny.
"Your Brother Lear is the truly impressive one. He's the one who pinned that thing to the wall with raw strength."
Then, she looked Lear directly in the eye and asked seriously:
"How exactly did you do it? That kind of strength is already beyond the scope of a normal human."
"I... I'm not really sure myself." Lear paused. Before he understood the cause of his body's mutation, he didn't want to say too much. "I just felt like my strength increased after I woke up."
"It didn't start only after you were unconscious, did it?" A meaningful expression flickered across Jill's face. "I saw that Tyrant's corpse at the Police Station. Its arm was ripped off by your bare hands."
"Huh?! Ah, that was probably just the adrenaline. People always get a bit stronger when they're in danger." Lear rubbed his nose and gave a hollow laugh, trying to play it off.
Jill looked at the man who had resembled a god of war moments ago but was now awkwardly trying to change the subject like a young boy. She couldn't help but smile softly and didn't press him further.
Everyone had their secrets. As long as he was still himself, that was enough.
Right then, Lear suddenly spoke up: "We should go. Let's head back, find another car, and leave Raccoon City."
In truth, Lear's gaze hadn't left the Nemesis on the wall. He knew very well that this kind of monster didn't die that easily.
Hardly had the words left his mouth when he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye: the previously motionless Nemesis's claws suddenly twitched slightly.
"Now is not the time for chatting." Lear's body tensed instantly as he stared ahead warily.
Jill followed his gaze and immediately understood Lear's concern. She nodded slightly.
"Yeah, it's time to go. But wait a moment."
She turned and called out toward the interior of the Orphanage: "Come out, it's time to move!"
A moment later, the sound of footsteps came from within the courtyard.
A young woman in a dress with reddish-orange hair stepped out. She looked to be in her early twenties, with a clear, pretty face and an air of refinement.
"Let me introduce you: Katherine Warren, the Mayor's daughter," Jill said simply. "Let's go. We'll leave here first and talk about the rest on the way."
With that, the four figures—three adults and one child—turned and left the Orphanage.
Not long after they departed, the Nemesis on the wall began to quiver violently, as if something were about to burst out from within its body.
The four of them found an abandoned vehicle on the road and drove toward the Police Station.
The sky was grim and dark. It was too dangerous to leave the city right now, so they planned to return to the Police Station to rest for the night and find a way out of Raccoon City at daybreak.
As the car sped along, Lear asked Jill about her ordeal and about Miss Warren.
In the original game plot he remembered, Katherine Warren was supposed to have died at the hands of Irons, her body turned into a specimen in a tragic end.
"After I got separated from Sherry, I led that big guy in circles around the city. I wanted to shake it off and come back for you both, but it kept closing in."
Jill paused before continuing:
"Finally, I lured it to a nearby construction site. That thing has quite the arsenal—it even had a flamethrower. I blew up the fuel tank on its back, and after the explosion, I thought it was all over."
"Well, you saw the result. The thing turned into that monstrous mess and ambushed me on my way back. I had no choice but to retreat all the way to the Orphanage."
Lear nodded.
Jill told the story with such understatement, but he could imagine exactly how narrow the escape had been.
After hearing Jill's experience, Lear looked through the rearview mirror at Katherine sitting in the back seat.
A person who, in his memory, should have been dead.
"And what about you, Miss Katherine?" he asked softly. "Why were you at the Orphanage?"
(Translated by yourtl.app)