The Creatures that We Are

Suddenly, the crazy, raw, and oppressive power disappeared. Gao Yang’s vision cleared. The rune corpse’s vicious face was still inches away from him, yet it had become lifelessly numb, and the red glow of its eye sockets dimmed as well.

Gao Yang didn’t dwell on it. He pushed the rune corpse off and rolled to a sitting position. When he looked up, the two rune corpses keeping Lithe Snake in place had also collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

They quickly exchanged a glance and turned to Li Zhuanghu at once.

Li Zhuanghu was still standing, but there was an arrow between his brows.

Not far from them, Xiuyi was holding his composite bow with one hand, while his other hand was now empty.

He threw his bow aside and let out a cry from his chest. “Ah!”

Finally, he hit his target!

With God of Archery, he had been an archer who never missed, and the humiliation of feeling useless had been foreign to him.

The red light in Li Zhuanghu’s eyes flickered a few times like it was struggling before vanishing. A few seconds later, Li Zhuanghu toppled to the ground.

Gao Yang had trouble wrapping his head around what was happening. They had been through all the hardships known to the world, yet their victory came to them so suddenly, without any aplomb.

Lithe Snake offered Gao Yang a hand, his chest heaving violently and his face filled with exhaustion.

Gao Yang took his hand and stood up with his help.

They took a moment to steady their breathing before going up to Li Zhuanhu’s body. Xiuyi followed them quickly.

Li Zhuanghu seemed dead, yet the Rune Circuit on his chest, connected by countless thick vessels, was still pounding slowly like a macabre artificial heart, casting flickering red light on their faces.

“Let’s get the Rune Circuit off him,” said Gao Yang. “End this once and for all.”

“I’ll do it.”

Lithe Snake drew a small dagger from his waist and crouched down, inserting the tip of the blade between the Rune Circuit and the body at an appropriate angle, pushing it inch by inch inside to cut the thick blood vessels. Then he gingerly pried the Rune Circuit off.

But then suddenly, Li Zhuanghu’s body shuddered, and his chest pushed up like someone had shocked his heart with a defibrillator.

The severed blood vessels on his chest reconnected with the Rune Circuit. Red Light rekindled in Li Zhuanghu’s eye sockets, and a hoarse growl that belonged to the devil burst out from his throat.

Growl!

Lithe Snake couldn’t have pulled back a moment sooner, yet Li Zhuanghu still managed to grab the hand that was holding the dagger.

Li Zhuanghu’s body was as hard as alloy, and he was unnaturally strong. Lithe Snake felt as if his wrist had been caught by a metal vise. And soon, he heard his wrist bone break.

Face pale, Lithe Snake ground his teeth so hard together that his gum almost bled, and the dagger was about to fall. He struggled with all he got, yet Li Zhuanghu refused to let go.

Li Zhuanghu jerked up and bit into Lithe Snake’s forearm, taking big gulps of his blood.

Lithe Snake screamed and almost fainted.

Witnessing all that, Gao Yang came to a split second decision and drew the shortsword from Lithe Snake’s waist, using what little strength he had left to make a swing.

Swoosh! He sliced off Lithe Snake’s entire forearm, and blood gushed out from the cut surface.

Lithe Snake stumbled backward, falling to the ground and rolled back, holding onto the stump of his severed arm while he cried out in pain.

Gao Yang couldn’t spare his companion another glance. He wasn’t even sure if he had saved Lithe Snake or accelerated his death.

Li Zhuanghu stood up—no, he was made upright by an intangible force, in a way that was familiar to Gao Yang.

Xiuyi was going to back away, but he wasn’t given the time.

Li Zhuanghu’s hand shot out like an agile snake and grabbed his neck. Blood flooded to Xiuyi’s face as he got lifted off the ground.

All that was left in his eyes was fear and confusion. He must be wondering how things turned out this way.

Crack.

Xiuyi’s neck broke.

When Li Zhuanghu let go, Xiuyi collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll.

Losing his calm, Gao Yang swung at Li Zhuanghu’s head with the shortsword in his hand. Li Zhuaghu blocked it easily with an arm while clutching Gao Yang’s neck with his other hand, lifting him up.

Shit!

Gao Yang kicked at him with both feet, managing to land a hit on the Rune Circuit in the flurry of movement. Li Zhuaghu shuddered like he had been electrocuted, buying Gao Yang two precious seconds. Otherwise Gao Yang’s neck would’ve been broken already.

Still, his death awaited him. Gao Yang could sense the five unbreakable fingers closing around his neck.

“Let go of Captain!”

Can shouted as she came out of nowhere, hurling a brick at Li Zhuanghu’s head.

Thud.

The brick crumbled, and Li Zhuanghu’s head remained intact with the arrow still buried in it. He turned around and made a swing with his arm.

“Ah!”

Can was sent flying away, blacking out after the back of her head hit the ground.

Seizing the chance, Gao Yang made another forceful kick at Li Zhuanghu’s chest.

This time, Li Zhuanghu’s entire body seized up, and the hand around Gao Yang’s neck loosened, allowing him to escape.

Glancing at the young man who had met a terrible end, Xiuyi, Gao Yang felt a sharp pang in his chest. He picked up the shortsword and rushed at Lithe Snake.

Meanwhile, Yellow Butterfly had arrived as well.

“Xiuyi!”

She shouted, and with reckless abandon, she rushed toward Li Zhuanghu’s back while grabbing the nunchucks at her waist.

Before she could take more than two steps, a hand grabbed her shoulder and yanked, throwing her to the ground.

She regained her senses and looked up to see Nine Frost, their captain, making it back in time, followed by Ronnie, Old Joe, Black Sparrow, and Gray Bear.

“Die, you son of a bitch!”

Gray Bear didn’t have any weapon in hand, but driven by the rage triggered by Xiuyi’s death and Lithe Snake’s loss of a limb, he knocked into Li Zhuanghu from the back, throwing him to the ground.

While Li Zhuanghu was quick to attack, his body lacked coordination, most likely because of the arrow in his head. Like a clockwork robot, he slowly turned around and went back to his feet.

“Hah!”

Black Sparrow charged at Li Zhuanghu. When he was going to grab her neck, she stepped to the side and threw a powerful punch at his chin with the brass knuckle on her right fist. Li Zhuanghu’s chin almost fell off, yet his movement wasn’t hindered at all.

He swung his arm and hit Black Sparrow in her left cheek. She flew a few meters in the air before hitting the ground, seeing stars and unable to stand up.

“The Rune Circuit in his chest!” Gao Yang shouted. “Take it out!”

Gray Bear slowly stood up and called out to Gao Yang, “Save Lithe Snake, Captain! Leave Li Zhuanghu to us!”

He then turned to Nine Frost, Ronnie, and Old Joe. “Let’s go!”

Exchanging a glance, the four men charged at Li Zhuanghu in concert.

Gao Yang had exhausted all the strength in his body. He had no choice but to trust his teammate. With difficulty, he dragged his feet toward Lithe Snake and shouted at Yellow Butterfly, “Supply bag!”

Yellow Butterfly had come up to them as well. She took off the bag on her back and stopped beside Lithe Snake, unzipping the bag and fishing out a syringe of Medicine C.

Gao Yang picked up the now unconscious Lithe Snake. “Stay with me, Lithe Snake!”

Yellow Butterfly bit off the cap and looked at Gao Yang.

“Do it!”

Yellow Butterfly jabbed the syringe into Lithe Snake’s shoulder—the one that had lost an arm—and pushed the medicine into his body.

“Hmph.”

With a muffled sound, Lithe Snake’s pale face recovered some color, and the blood gushing out from his stump slowed before the bleeding stopped altogether.

Thankfully, the medicine still worked even though their Talents had been sealed. It seemed that total silence only worked on living organisms.

Gao Yang found comfort in the fact that Lithe Snake would live.

Once the debuff of the Rune Circuit was lifted, Lithe Snake would be able to regenerate his arm with Gecko.

Gao Yang placed Lithe Snake on the ground gingerly and turned to Yellow Butterfly, “Adrenaline shot!”

“No, you’re in no condition to…”

“It’s an order!”

Yellow Butterfly clenched her teeth and took out an adrenaline shot for awakeners’ use only. Gao Yang took the syringe and jabbed it into his chest.

“Ah!”

At that moment, Gao Yang felt as if a strange energy had rushed along his spine to the top of his head, dissolving any blockage and making goosebumps break all over his body.

His head became unusually clear, and exhaustion evaporated, along with his muscle pain. His strength slowly returned to him.

“Watch Lithe Snake!”

He rose and rushed toward Li Zhuanghu.

Houseau3's Thoughts

And the boss monster enters its second phase...

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