Chapter 119: The Amusement Park Ambush

Morning sunlight pierced the thin, oily mist hanging low over the ruined concrete canyons of Silvermont City. The early light cast long, skeletal shadows across overturned vehicles and choked intersections, offering no warmth to the desolate world below.

Ethan and Daisy had followed their elusive target through the labyrinthine ruins all night, tracking its faint energetic signature across three separate districts until they finally reached an abandoned children’s amusement park on the city’s eastern outskirts. Once a vibrant sanctuary filled with childish laughter, bright neon lights, and the sweet scent of cotton candy, the park was now a grim graveyard of broken rollercoasters, rusted iron railings, and faded, peeling cartoon characters staring blindly into the empty distance.

A deafening crash suddenly shattered the eerie morning silence, vibrating through the cracked pavement beneath their boots.

Ethan raised a hand, stopping near the main ornamental archway, and looked toward the center of the park.

The place was an absolute, chaotic battlefield.

More than thirty Mutant Bats, each boasting a leathery wingspan of nearly two meters, swooped erratically through the air in a screeching, black swarm. Their massive wings blotted out patches of the morning sunlight as they launched wave after wave of coordinated diving attacks against two enormous, heavily mutated elephants.

The elephants trumpeted furiously, shaking the ground with every stomp as they swung their massive trunks and drove their gleaming ivory tusks into anything that came within reach. One of the enraged beasts slammed its colossal head directly into a rusted, skeletal carousel, sending twisted steel beams and shattered wooden horses flying like toothpicks across the paved central plaza.

Nearby, a blood-soaked pack of Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys darted frantically between the rolling wreckage. Their once-glorious golden fur was heavily stained with dark, coagulated blood, and their razor-sharp claws flashed viciously whenever they leaped upward to ambush the swooping bats. One particularly bold monkey sprang onto a bat’s back, tearing savagely into its thin wing membrane, only to be violently hurled against a concrete pillar moments later.

The battered bat struck the ground with a wet thud, screeched a harsh note of pain, and immediately dragged itself back into the air to rejoin the melee.

Thick blood spattered the brightly painted, abandoned children’s rides. Broken feathers drifted downward through the pale mist, mixing sickeningly with clumps of torn fur and shattered chunks of concrete. The three distinct species were locked in a vicious, unyielding territorial war, tearing each other apart for dominance over the ruined park.

"Found it!"

Daisy suddenly gripped Ethan’s forearm, her fingers tightening as she pointed past the wreckage toward a tall, skeletal sightseeing tower standing near the eastern perimeter.

The tower had once offered park visitors a sweeping, panoramic view of the entire amusement park and the surrounding suburbs. Now, its high observation platform was cracked cleanly down the middle by old blast damage, and several sections of its heavy rusted railing hung precariously over the void, swaying gently in the wind.

Something was clinging upside down in the heavy shadows directly beneath the cracked platform.

It was a Mutant Bat, noticeably larger and sleeker than the chaotic swarm below, featuring unusually dark, obsidian-like fur and a distinctive, stark tuft of pure white fur right on top of its head. Even amid the raging chaos of the battle below, that single patch of white was impossible to miss against the dull concrete.

"The Streak of White," Ethan murmured, his dark eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

They had finally found the primary target they had been hunting since the previous night. Unlike the rabid, mindless bats fighting in the square, it wasn’t participating in the bloody slaughter below. It remained entirely motionless beneath the platform, its small, beadlike black eyes fixed intently on the carnage, analyzing every movement.

Every time one of the mutated elephants stumbled or a golden monkey was driven back, the bat tilted its head slightly to the side as though coolly assessing the outcome of the skirmish.

Ethan’s expression sharpened. So you’re the one directing this whole hunt.

The creature’s calculated, detached behavior completely confirmed his earlier suspicion. It wasn’t just another feral mutant beast; its high-level Mental Ability allowed it to track specific targets and telepathically coordinate other creatures across the district, making it exponentially more dangerous than its physical size suggested.

If Ethan could secure its Core, he might finally unlock a viable method to break the mental conditioning and help Rose recover her lost consciousness. He tightened his grip on the wrapped hilt of his combat sword. A brand-new day had officially begun, and his spatial reserves had fully reset. This was his absolute best chance.

If the Streak of White managed to slip away now, tracking its energetic signature across the ruins again could take days. Worse, it might dissolve into another massive horde of mutant beasts or be torn apart by something even stronger before he could close the distance.

Ethan turned toward Daisy, his tone absolute. "Get back into the Survival Space. I’ll get close and finish it quickly before it realizes I’m here."

Daisy opened her mouth as if to argue or insist on helping, but one look at his unyielding, resolute expression made her swallow her words. She bit her lower lip. "Just... don’t get yourself killed out there."

"I’ll try not to."

He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and stored her safely within the pocket dimension of the Survival Space.

Then, he activated Teleportation.

The world dissolved into a blinding white flash of distorted space. A split second later, Ethan appeared quietly on the tower’s observation platform. The heavy rusted metal beneath his boots creaked softly under his weight. A cold morning wind swept across the exposed terrace, carrying the distant, frantic screams of the battling beasts below.

The Streak of White hung upside down just eight meters away, completely oblivious to his arrival.

Ethan lowered his breathing to a near-stop and drew his sword from his hip. He wasn’t going to give the creature a single second to react or sound an alarm.

A thin, razor-sharp black line formed instantly in his palm. Spatial energy gathered and condensed until the dimensional distortion became almost entirely invisible, resembling a hairline crack torn directly into the open air. It crept slowly toward the bat’s exposed wing, moving silently like a sliding shadow.

Three meters. Two meters. One meter.

The precise microsecond before the spatial blade could sever its wing, the Streak of White snapped its head around with unnatural speed. Its small, beady black eyes suddenly blazed a violent, bloody red.

Ethan’s heart skipped a beat. It sensed my spatial fluctuation!

"SQUEEEEE!"

The bat released a piercing, high-frequency ultrasonic shriek that echoed like a siren. The sound wave seemed to drill straight through Ethan’s skull, sending a blinding wave of agony across his brain. A violent mental shockwave slammed into his consciousness, instantly disrupting his intense concentration and throwing off his precise control over the Spatial Cut.

The black line veered sharply off course. Instead of cleaving the bat’s wing clean off, it merely sheared through several white-stained feathers and left a shallow, bleeding gash along its flank.

The Streak of White immediately dropped from its perch, letting go of the platform. Its massive wings snapped open with a loud pop, and it shot straight into the gray sky, screeching another frantic order.

This time, the cry sounded less like an expression of pain and more like a sharp, tactical command.

Three larger, elite Mutant Bats immediately broke away from the brutal battle raging below, abandoning the elephants and monkeys to bank sharply upward and swarm toward the tower.