Chapter 375: Severed Arm

Although their squad technically had the ability to handle Anomalies that had just stepped into Rank-3, that did not mean Rank-3 was some common, casually dismissible term.

Between different Rank-3s, the gulf in power could be heaven and earth.

Without proper descriptors, the target they faced had transformed from a fierce hound into a lion or tiger—same fundamental life essence, but a completely different threat level!

The former, they could swarm and kill together.

The latter? Swarming it just meant serving themselves up as food. It could even down them one bite at a time.

Without question, when Poppy assigned the mission, she absolutely had not anticipated such a development.

Whether it was because the Remnant Sovereign’s containment had left her too occupied to consider such details, or because Poppy’s own strength was so overwhelming she had subconsciously overlooked the possibility that “leftover Anomaly sub-bodies might mutate”...

Either way, they had to come up with a solution—immediately!

“Sir!”

A terrified shout yanked the squad leader from his brief stupor.

He jolted violently, forcibly suppressing the panic rising from fear, and barked the order:

“Call for help! Contact the four masters immediately!”

“Betty... Betty! Do you hear me? Hurry! Use the Palmfiend!”

Before the words had even fully left his mouth, disaster struck.

No warning whatsoever.

The twisted skeletal feline before him suddenly blurred.

The speed was too fast—so fast his perception couldn’t even track its movement!

It was as if a single frame of footage had been skipped entirely.

The squad leader’s heart seized with alarm. A chill shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his skull.

Instinctively, he tried to sidestep, to retreat, to swing the weapon in his hand—

But it was too slow.

His body couldn’t keep pace with his thoughts.

Even his thoughts themselves felt sluggish against that inhuman speed.

It wasn’t until a full breath later that the other squad members’ cries reached his ears:

“It moved!”

“It’s coming!”

“Sir, watch out!”

The voices flooded into his mind all at once, but all he felt was a droning buzz.

Not because the sounds were too loud, nor too chaotic.

But because—

From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of his right arm.

He felt nothing there.

No pain, no weight, nothing at all—as if that arm had never existed in the first place.

And the image before his eyes confirmed the feeling...

His entire right arm had been bitten off by the Anomaly in that lightning-swift exchange.

The severed edge was impossibly clean. Bone, muscle, and blood vessels lay exposed to the air in horrifying clarity.

Then, blood gushed like a spring.

It sprayed out, splattering across the floor, the walls, and his own face.

The warm liquid carried the rusty stench of iron, sharp and overwhelming.

In that instant, the Anomaly had launched its attack.

His body had reacted on instinct, attempting to force the creature back with a counterstrike.

But it was useless.

The creature couldn’t have cared less about his hasty retaliation. Its intent was plain—to take him down in a single blow!

The assistant squad leader had desperately intervened at the critical moment, striking at the Anomaly’s exposed lower abdomen with a wall of bone spikes as it lunged for the bite.

Without that, his head would now be lodged in the creature’s jaws.

He had survived. He had even left a crack in the Anomaly’s body.

The price: that arm, completely torn away by the monster.

The severed arm landed in the Bonebeast’s maw, chewed into pulp.

Now, the squad was still covering the squad leader’s rapid retreat.

The assistant squad leader half-carried, half-dragged him, continuously releasing bone-spike walls to erect makeshift defensive lines behind them.

The bone spikes erupted from floor and wall, jutting crisscross through the corridor.

Every so often, he would glance at the squad leader with deep concern, but the squad leader could see through that thin veneer to the profound fear beneath.

The instinctual dread of death.

Behind them, the Anomaly did not seem eager to follow.

It appeared as though the bone walls were holding it back, but in truth, they weren’t.

The squad leader knew it with crystal clarity—those bone walls couldn’t stop that thing at all.

With the speed and power it had just displayed, if it wanted to, it could easily demolish them, catch up, and bite them to death one by one.

It wouldn’t take long before they were all dead.

In such a short window, the Rank-3 masters couldn’t possibly arrive in time.

The only reason they were still alive right now was simply because the Anomaly was allowing it.

Anomalies shouldn’t possess emotions, yet at this moment, the squad leader felt he could read a certain mockery on the great cat’s hollow skull.

It was like... a cat that had spotted a pitiful cluster of mice. No rush to bite. Just watching with interest as they scurried in vain.

The squad leader despaired at his fate.

He knew the squad’s strength all too well.

Only he and the assistant squad leader could barely hold their own for a few exchanges against an Anomaly of this caliber.

And the other members—they probably couldn’t even withstand a single pass of the creature’s lunge.

So while there were six of them, only two could truly participate in the fight.

Two peak Rank-2s against a powerful Rank-3 Anomaly...

Damn it! How was that even possible!

The squad leader’s eyes were bloodshot, streaked with red.

Blood still flowed from the severed arm. Though the assistant squad leader had tightly bound the wound with cloth strips, the crimson liquid continued to seep through, dripping from the stump onto the floor.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

In the dim corridor, each drop fell with unnerving clarity...

Just then, a trembling voice suddenly rang out in everyone’s ears.

“Sir... Lady Pandora responded!”

The speaker was Betty.

The round-faced girl, also the logistics member primarily responsible for communicating with the Rank-3 masters.

Her voice was laced with unmistakable tremor, but she fought to suppress it, striving to keep her tone steady—as if doing so would somehow make her less afraid.

“Lady Pandora... she says to use that thing! Her experimental item!”

Betty’s words sent a flash of light through the squad leader’s mind.

Right.

In his tactical backpack, there was still the experimental item Lady Pandora had given him.

He had stored it away with great care, but because he had never actually used it—and because it was an “experimental item”—he couldn’t help feeling uncertain. In the life-or-death moment just now, he had completely forgotten it!

Because it was an experimental item, he didn’t know whether its actual effect could match what the lady had described...

Would it really work at a moment like this?

“Hurry! Right now! Sir! There’s no time!”

Betty’s urging voice came again, tinged with a sob.

The squad leader didn’t hesitate any longer.

His left hand darted into the tactical backpack, fingers rummaging through the messy equipment until they brushed against a cold, hard crystal.

He pulled it out.

It was a crystal.

The crystal was exquisitely formed—about the size of an egg, sharp-edged, fully transparent.

A gray substance flowed faintly within it, like imprisoned mist, slowly coiling and drifting between the crystalline walls, radiating an indescribable sense of mystery.