Chapter 209 - 203: Line of Fire (3)

Chapter 209: Chapter 203: Line of Fire (3)

Her mind raced as she retreated.

The way this monster moved was incredibly bizarre.

If it truly wanted to kill them, the moment it finished reforming would have been the perfect opportunity to strike, but it didn’t. It didn’t pounce on them, nor did it use the surrounding ruins to sneak in for an ambush.

It just stood there, constantly taunting them, making itself a living target out in the open with no cover, getting blown apart time and time again, only to reform each time.

’Assuming it’s intelligent, then there’s only one possibility...’

’It’s stalling for time!’

’I don’t know what it’s stalling for. Is it waiting for reinforcements? Or for some unknown trap to activate?’

’But whatever it is, we can’t let it control the pace of this fight!’

"Let’s move! Get in the vehicles!"

When Tan Wei and the militiamen heard Ye Qingzhou finally give the order to retreat, it was as if they’d been granted a royal pardon. They scrambled around and piled into the two assault vehicles, which were already running. Following their earlier plan, the drivers didn’t even wait for Ye Qingzhou’s group to get situated. They slammed the accelerators to the floor, and the vehicles roared off, disappearing into the curtain of rain.

"Our turn!"

Ye Qingzhou, Hu Chen, and Zhang Wenyuan, along with Su Qing and Chu Zhaozhao who had been covering their flank, quickly converged on the last assault vehicle that had been left for them.

However, the instant their fingers touched the door handles, just as they were about to climb aboard...

WHOOSH—!

A sharp, piercing whistle suddenly cut through the air, even drowning out the roar of the fire.

A dark, whip-like shadow as thick as a wrist, part branch, part tentacle, shot out like an arrow from a dark crevice in the ruined building to their side!

It moved with astonishing speed, leaving an afterimage in the curtain of rain as it shot straight over the wall of fire. Accompanied by a whistling sound, it flew directly toward Ye Qingzhou’s group of three, who were on the outer edge of the formation and the first in its path!

CLANG!

The resounding clash of metal rang out!

Before the brains of the three ordinary humans—Ye Qingzhou, Hu Chen, and Zhang Wenyuan—had even processed the visual signal, the only two Awakened Ones on the scene had already reacted, their bodies moving faster than their conscious minds.

The instant the tentacle shot toward them, Su Qing stomped forward. Instead of retreating, she advanced, placing herself in front of Ye Qingzhou’s group. Hoisting her shield, muscles tensed, she assumed a standard defensive stance and met the whipping tentacle head-on!

THUD!

The tentacle slammed heavily against the face of the shield.

Though it appeared to be just a "branch" as thick as a wrist, the kinetic energy it carried was immense!

As the two collided, Su Qing felt a massive force travel up her arm and surge through her entire body. The impact made her shoulder go numb. She stumbled, losing her balance and skidding back several steps on the slick asphalt before she could barely steady herself.

She glanced down and saw a deep dent hammered into the center of the shield, surrounded by a fine web of cracks!

’This was no simple impact!’

Upon closer inspection, Su Qing saw that the tentacle’s surface was coated in a translucent layer of energy that distorted the light around it.

Luckily, the shield in her hand was no ordinary item. Though damaged, it had resisted the strange energy and withstood the blow!

Meanwhile, Chu Zhaozhao hadn’t been idle. Her stamina and energy regeneration were poor, meaning she lacked staying power, but that didn’t mean she had lost her ability to fight.

The half-day of grueling training she’d endured had already burned this kind of split-second tactical coordination into her muscle memory.

The instant Su Qing blocked the tentacle, Chu Zhaozhao was already in motion.

With no flashy opening move, she acted on pure instinct. Letting the longsword in her hand guide her, she instantly closed in on the tentacle just as its attack had spent its momentum, leaving it momentarily vulnerable.

"Break... for me!"

Chu Zhaozhao gritted her teeth, squeezing out the last dregs of her energy and pouring it into the blade. Her ability flared, wildly accelerating the longsword as she brought it slashing down hard onto the middle of the tentacle!

CLANG—SZZZZZZ!!

First came a piercing shriek, like the grinding of metal on metal!

The kinetic energy she’d channeled into the blade’s edge unexpectedly grated against the energy flowing across the tentacle’s surface.

The two completely different forces annihilated each other on a microscopic level, letting out a sizzling, grinding sound.

The seemingly indestructible energy field was forcibly torn open by her strike! The exposed, branch-like flesh underneath stood no chance against the razor-sharp edge of her blade.

THWACK!

With a dull thud.

The longsword, its momentum unstoppable, sliced through the limb as if it were rotten leather, nearly severing the tentacle, flesh and bone alike!

VMMMM—!

That one strike was like kicking a hornet’s nest!

An impossibly high-pitched hum, yet one that carried a low-frequency vibration, erupted from all directions without warning.

RUMBLE—

The ground beneath their feet began to shake violently! The asphalt instantly shattered into a web of cracks. For hundreds of meters in every direction, every building—from the gas station behind them to the crumbling ruins on their right—groaned as if shaken by an invisible giant hand, slowly beginning to tilt and collapse!

"Damn it! It can trigger localized earthquakes!"

Ye Qingzhou realized what was happening with a single glance at the bouncing rubble on the ground. She grabbed Su Qing, who was still unsteady on her feet, and yelled to Chu Zhaozhao up ahead:

"Don’t get drawn in! To the vehicle, now!"

Having landed a successful strike, Chu Zhaozhao didn’t press her luck. Using her remaining energy, she let the longsword pull her backward like a nimble swallow, soaring toward the others and landing steadily right beside the vehicle’s door.

Meanwhile, within the wall of fire ahead, the sight had become even more horrifying.

At some point, the shattered body of "Jiang Jing" had already begun to reassemble.

But whether it was due to the energy interference from Chu Zhaozhao’s last strike, or perhaps because it had simply lost all patience, this "revival" was utterly twisted and frenzied.

It no longer maintained a human form.

Countless wildly growing tendrils of flesh coiled around the two severed legs that lay scattered in the sea of fire, forcefully fusing them to the sides of the torso in a biologically impossible configuration—one high, one low—making it resemble a deformed spider.

Its entire upper torso, which had been blasted apart, had now morphed into a single, enormous, twisted, and flattened human face!

The face consumed its entire body. It had no nose and no ears, only two enormous, frantically rolling eyeballs that were fixed squarely on Ye Qingzhou and the others.

Two thick streams of bloody tears flowed from those eyes, dripping into the roaring flames below with a SIZZLE and instantly burning away into black smoke.

The huge, gaping mouth in the center of its torso opened and closed, but the sound that emerged was no longer the voice of Jiang Jing.

It was a piercing vibration, a sound composed of the layered screams of countless men, women, and children—of innumerable tormented souls. It tore through the curtain of rain and slammed directly into the depths of their minds:

"Don’t go!!"

"Don’t leave me behind!! It’s so cold!!"

"Why would you hurt me?! I trusted you so much!!"

"I am the master!!"

"You’re nothing but insects!!"

"I HATE YOU!!! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!!!"

"VMMMM—!!!"

Countless frenzied, contradictory, venom-filled voices erupted from the bizarre monster. It was no longer just sound waves, but a tangible psychic assault!

Amidst the bloodcurdling roar, the very air seemed to vibrate. Every falling raindrop seemed to scream along with it.

The world started to spin around them, their heads swimming with vertigo. Under the terrifying sonic assault, even the fire-lit, rain-swept world before their eyes began to twist and stretch, as if the very boundary between reality and nightmare was collapsing!