Chapter 117: Burn to Ashes

Chapter 117: Chapter 117: Burn to Ashes

Le Nianzhou gripped the grenade in one hand and reached behind his back with the other.

Only then did Xiang Yi notice the short blade hanging at his lower back.

An instant later, he vanished from Xiang Yi’s sight entirely.

Xiang Yi immediately accelerated his thinking and caught a glimpse of Le Nianzhou’s figure — he had already closed in on the Type-C Flesh Beast.

The lean frame Xiang Yi was used to seeing was gone. Every inch of Le Nianzhou’s body was now visibly corded with muscle, and it was that muscle driving both his speed and his strength.

The short blade carved across the Type-C Flesh Beast’s charred, brittle shell and left a gash far longer than the blade itself had any right to make.

That still wasn’t enough. Le Nianzhou’s muscles surged again, and in a flurry of rapid cuts he tore the wound open even wider.

Chains erupted from thin air, latching onto the edges of the gash and wrenching it apart to hold it open.

Still bulked up, Le Nianzhou shoved the grenade deep into the Flesh Beast’s body.

The moment it was in, he spun on his heel and ran.

The muscles faded as he sprinted, and with them his speed dropped sharply — down to the point where Xiang Yi no longer needed to use his Spiritual Energy to keep up with him.

He threw himself behind cover, and the exhaustion on his face was plain to see. Using that much Spiritual Energy in one burst had clearly cost him.

BOOM——

A thunderous explosion ripped through the tin-shack district, and a rain of flesh and gore came down with it.

The ground where they had just been fighting was blanketed in layer after layer of shredded meat.

Le Nianzhou and Sister Yin charged out immediately, burning through the last of their Flamethrower fuel without a second thought, hosing it all over the remains.

Even so, two long, spindly limbs pushed their way out from inside one of the larger chunks of flesh.

Then came skulls, torsos, and legs.

"Type-B Flesh Beasts! That many?!"

These were Flesh Beasts that barely held a humanoid shape, with new bone-sickle limbs grotesquely jutting from their shoulders — creatures that clawed their way out of a Type-C Flesh Beast’s remains after it died.

The muscles on their limbs were chaotic in structure but enormously thick, and one look was enough to know that the force behind those swinging bone-sickles would be devastating — and their speed would be nothing to scoff at either.

From the shattered remains of the Type-C Flesh Beast — the one formed from forty people — a full seven Type-B Flesh Beasts hauled themselves out.

And that was only after the Flamethrowers had already burned away a good portion of the mass.

If they had been even a step slower, there would have been at least three more.

The grotesque Type-B Flesh Beasts tore through the membrane coating their bodies and lunged at the two nearest targets.

The burst of speed they hit was even faster than the smaller Type-A Flesh Beasts.

Le Nianzhou and Sister Yin opened up with their Flamethrowers and swallowed the two leading Flesh Beasts in a wall of fire.

But even as they burned, the creatures kept charging — still pressing forward right up until they were fully reduced to char, soaking up damage that would otherwise have hit the ones behind them.

Click-click——

Le Nianzhou’s Flamethrower sputtered dry. He yanked it off and flung it forward without missing a beat.

Sister Yin called on her Spiritual Energy one more time and sent a chain snaking out to restrain the nearest Flesh Beast.

The thinness of that single chain made it obvious — her Spiritual Power was almost completely spent.

And yet four Type-B Flesh Beasts were still standing and still coming.

Le Nianzhou’s hand tightened around his short blade.

He wasn’t in great shape, but he had no choice. He had to push forward.

"Sister Yin, go. I can buy us a little more time."

He knew that if he held the rear, there was still a chance he could walk away. If Sister Yin tried to do it, she wouldn’t make it out alive.

"Okay, I——"

Sister Yin’s voice cut off mid-sentence. She crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Le Nianzhou felt it then too — a sharp, stabbing pain rippling through his mind.

He turned toward the source.

A compact Spider-shaped Robot was picking its way toward him on eight stubby legs, with something antenna-shaped mounted on top of its head.

Given what he was feeling right now, that thing had to be a Mind Pulse Generator.

The little robot caught Le Nianzhou staring and gave a friendly little wave with one of its legs.

"What the——"

Before he could make sense of it, he realized that every single Type-B Flesh Beast that had been charging at them had collapsed.

They’d been hit by the Psychic Pulse too, obviously.

Xiang Yi leapt from the hoverbike onto a nearby rooftop, then dropped down from it and landed close to Le Nianzhou.

"Sorry about that — no time to be careful. Had to go a little unconventional."

Sure, the Level 2 Psychic Pulse had knocked out one of his own people and left another barely standing, but it had also successfully dropped seven or eight frenzied Type-B Flesh Beasts in one shot.

"No worries."

Le Nianzhou pressed a hand to his throbbing head.

They were wearing Silent Alloy Armor, at least. A Level 2 Spiritual Ability User like him wasn’t going to get knocked flat by a Level 2 Psychic Pulse.

And a Level 1 Spiritual Ability User’s brain wasn’t going to get fried outright either — worst case, she’d have a hell of a headache for a few days.

But getting swarmed by Type-B Flesh Beasts would have been a death sentence.

He was grateful Xiang Yi had shown up at all. A little friendly fire was the last thing on his mind.

Xiang Yi raised his Laser Rifle, drew a bead on the limbs of each Type-B Flesh Beast in turn, and fired, slicing every single one of them off clean.

The laser’s cutting power was solid, and it did carry some cauterizing effect — but against Flesh Beasts, that searing heat was barely a nuisance.

If they weren’t dealt with properly, those severed limbs would start pulling themselves back together before long.

Xiang Yi walked back to where Le Nianzhou and Sister Yin were and picked up Sister Yin’s Flamethrower.

"Mind if I borrow this?"

"Go right ahead, take it." Le Nianzhou said quickly, then added: "But are you — are you okay?"

"Why wouldn’t I be?"

Le Nianzhou glanced at the Spider-shaped Robot nearby. "That thing’s been putting out a sustained Psychic Pulse of at least Level 2 this whole time, hasn’t it?"

"Oh, that? It’s fine. Just a bit of a headache."

"Just a bit of a headache..." Le Nianzhou studied Xiang Yi’s face through a wince. There wasn’t a single trace of pain on it.

Xiang Yi had a pretty good idea what was going through Le Nianzhou’s head.

All he could say was — he’d gotten used to it.

Le Nianzhou had heard that Xiang Yi was only a Level 1 Spiritual Ability User.

But right now, Xiang Yi looked impossibly large to him.

Xiang Yi raised the Flamethrower and swept fire across the remaining Flesh Beasts, burning them down one by one.

A few chunks of flesh tried to creep together and reform right in front of him — he caught them early and torched those too.

He went over every patch of the area where any remains were still present and burned it clean, until the Flamethrower ran dry.

Xiang Yi tossed the empty Flamethrower into his vehicle and took a look around.

There shouldn’t be enough flesh left anywhere to rebuild a Flesh Beast.

Any Abnormality Material that might have been here had almost certainly been incinerated along with everything else.

Still, on the off chance there was something left, Xiang Yi casually pulled up the panel on one of his items and checked whether there were any materials nearby that could be used for unique modifications.

The panel opened.

And there on the list, right alongside [Blood Crystal], was something that hadn’t been there before: [Flesh Heart].