Chapter 72 Central Dining Hall

Chapter 72: Chapter 71: Central Dining Hall

The murky floodwater reached their chests as the group waded forward slowly.

Zou Yu led a dozen Awakened, swimming silently at the front. From time to time, he would glance back at Han Ning.

"What exactly is the situation with those monsters?" Han Ning asked.

The group was swimming at a rather slow pace. Han Ning hadn’t activated the Fish Gills Technique, simply wading along behind them.

Zou Yu replied, "The Fishmen are mainly entrenched in the largest student cafeteria in the North District. That building has five floors, and I’m guessing the first floor is already completely submerged.

"These monsters... they have a humanoid shape, but they’re more like a twisted hybrid of a fish and a human. Their skin is covered in slimy scales, their fingers are webbed, their heads are flat, and their mouths are packed with dense, sharp teeth."

His tone carried a hint of dread. "Even the ordinary Fishmen are very fast and quite strong. They are incredibly agile in the water, already comparable to recently Awakened individuals.

"What’s more troublesome are the elite ones... They have the ability to control water currents, allowing them to fire high-pressure Water Arrows or whip up small whirlpools to interfere with us.

"Furthermore..." Zou Yu’s voice lowered. "They have an extremely dangerous way of attacking—face-hugging!"

"Face-hugging?" Han Ning raised an eyebrow.

"Yes!" an Awakened with a sallow complexion beside them couldn’t help but interject. "Just like the Xenomorphs in the movies, they suddenly launch themselves out of the water or the shadows at astonishing speeds. They’ll use their slimy bodies to tightly wrap around your head and face, digging their sharp claws into your flesh. At the same time...

"They’ll use their disgusting mouths to try and burrow into your nose or ears. Once you’re entangled, it’s almost certain death. We lost several companions exactly like this."

Zou Yu took over the conversation. "These monsters... they never existed in our school originally.

"About ten days ago, they suddenly swarmed over from the northwest. It was shortly after they appeared that the water levels in the school started rising insanely and abnormally, flooding all the low-lying areas."

He then looked toward the northwest, where there was only a denser curtain of rain and endless floodwaters. "We suspect that some massive upheaval might have occurred in the northwest, washing these monsters and the floodwaters over here together."

"The northwest?" Han Ning silently committed this information to memory.

The group chatted intermittently as they moved. Along the way, they frequently encountered wandering Fishmen. The creatures had slimy skin similar to a Lai Gao Bao; some were yellowish-brown, while others were a light purple, looking thoroughly repulsive.

Faced with this elite human squad, these roaming Fishmen were blasted into bloody mist by various abilities before they could even react.

About twenty minutes later, the group arrived at their destination.

They deliberately avoided areas heavily populated by Fishmen, stopping above a submerged green belt. Ahead of them was a sprawling five-story building soaked in the murky water—the central cafeteria. The floodwater had already submerged the first floor, leaving it faintly visible through the rain and mist. Inside the pitch-black windows, there was dead silence as rainwater continuously poured in.

"This is the place," Zou Yu said, coming to a halt. "Most of the monsters are holed up inside the cafeteria. They’re like amphibians; they usually stay on land and only enter the water to hunt."

After speaking, he looked at Han Ning. The implication was self-evident.

Han Ning understood what he meant. "Zou Yu, take a few men over and lure the monsters out."

Zou Yu’s expression changed. "Didn’t you... didn’t you say you’d help us deal with the Leader?"

"I don’t know the situation inside. What if there’s a trap?" Han Ning looked him dead in the eye.

Zou Yu’s face turned somewhat ugly. He shook his head. "How about we go in together? There’s no way I’m letting my men go in first."

Han Ning said nothing. Reaching down to the bottom of the water, he casually picked up a stone and lightly tossed it toward a relatively intact window on the second floor.

SWISH!

Under the astonished gazes of Zou Yu and the others, the stone accurately struck the glass window.

CRASH!

The jarring sound of shattering glass suddenly exploded, exceptionally grating to the ear.

"You!" Zou Yu was both shocked and furious.

The loud sound of shattering glass, like a pebble dropped into a tranquil pool, broke the dead silence of the cafeteria.

SLAP SLAP SLAP!

A dense flurry of sticky footsteps echoed from the second-floor floorboards.

RUSTLE RUSTLE...

Behind the windowsill, several massive fish heads came into view. Those dead, black-and-yellow fish eyes, positioned on the sides of their heads, rolled around a few times before quickly locking onto the people below.

SCREECH! HISS!

Immediately after, figures covered in slimy scales began pouring out relentlessly from the shattered windows and the submerged doorways, like startled rats. They charged straight toward Han Ning and the others. Their numbers were so vast they truly resembled a plague of rats.

In the blink of an eye, they completely surrounded the group, making it impossible to escape.

"You mother..."

Watching the Fishmen swarm toward them like a frenzied tide, Zou Yu was so enraged his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He was just about to hurl curses.

SCREECH! HISS!

The Fishmen in the front row were already shrieking and lunging right at his face, their wet, slippery claws swiping at him.

"Damn it!"

He was forced to swallow his curses. A cluster of pale blue flames burst from his palm, blasting the leaping Fishman backward. The other Awakened quickly fell into a bitter struggle.

"Form a formation! Luo, get to the front and hold them off!" Zou Yu shot Han Ning a vicious glare. Two fireballs materialized in his hands, and he hurled them at the school of Fishmen while barking out commands.

BOOM! SMACK!

"Kill them!"

The twenty Awakened from Agricultural and Forestry University were forced into a chaotic melee with the pack of Fishmen.

Meanwhile, the instigator, Han Ning, watched from the sidelines without the slightest intention of lifting a finger. However, whenever a Fishman came within two meters of him, vines would shoot out and instantly obliterate the approaching creature.

Seeing her companions under attack, Su Mingke wanted to step forward to help, but was entangled by Han Ning’s vines and pulled back. Refusing to give up, dark energy surged around her body, and her figure began to blur. The vines tightened, wrapping firmly around her waist and forcefully yanking her out of her ethereal state.

"You treacherous coward! You’re leaving them to die!" She turned and glared furiously at Han Ning, her eyes practically spewing fire.

Han Ning didn’t even bat an eyelid. His gaze pierced through the chaotic battlefield, locking onto the space behind a shattered window on the third floor of the cafeteria.

There, several pairs of cold, fishy eyes were silently gazing down at the slaughter below through the curtain of rain.

There were simply too many Fishmen. Gradually, under their fearless, suicidal charges, the defensive line began to falter.

A young Awakened reacted half a beat too slow and had his calf seized by a Fishman lunging from the side.

HISS...

The slimy body scrambled up him in just a few swift movements. Its claws dug into his flesh, and its flat fish head snapped directly toward his nose and mouth.

"Ah! Help! Help me!" he screamed in terror, desperately tearing at the creature.

SWISH!

A vine flashed past his eyes, piercing clean through the Fishman’s head. Foul blood and brain matter splattered.

The Fishman’s movements froze before it slumped over lifelessly.