novelraw Chapter 266: The Third UMA
Chapter 266: The Third UMA
Ethan's eyes were filled with nothing but visceral disgust.
Born into nobility, he had witnessed countless human evils and conspiracies, but he had never imagined that the so-called foundations of civilization and progress could be built upon such barbaric and blasphemous crimes.
Imprisoning a living, mythical being possessing Kingdom-class power, piercing its body with countless cold electrodes and pipes, and extracting its energy as if it were a mere machine.
This behavior transcended mere cruelty, reaching a level of icy arrogance that viewed all things as mere resources.
"Beasts..."
Ethan spat the word through gritted teeth.
A fire of noble honor and hunter's dignity raged within his chest.
At this moment, he only wanted to charge out, use the powerful repulsive shockwaves of [Evening Star] to blast all those cables and pipes connected to the UMA's body into fragments, and grant that pitiful creature release.
Compared to Ethan, Lin Jie wasn't too surprised. After all, he had seen this kind of thing more than once. The Eternal Serpent had done something similar before.
"Birds of a feather really do flock together. Two completely unrelated organizations actually came up with the same idea," he couldn't help but mentally complain.Inside the body of the UMA called the Deep Sea Moon God, a faint mist swirled around the nebula-like rotating energy core.
It was crying.
"We must find a way to cut off the energy output."
Lin Jie's voice sounded in Ethan's ear.
"Observe those main cables. They all converge into a giant transformer array below the tower base. That's the energy hub and also the most vulnerable point."
"How do we cut it off?"
Ethan forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and quickly entered combat mode.
"The guards here are watertight. Once we make too much noise, soldiers from the entire base will rush over in less than ten seconds."
"So we can't fire our guns recklessly."
Lin Jie's gaze swept across the panoramic view of the power room. His brain, like the most precise difference engine, rapidly analyzed all possibilities.
"We need an accident, a chain reaction that appears reasonable and is triggered by equipment failure."
His gaze finally locked onto those pipes constantly pumping green nutrient fluid into the UMA's body.
"Those are nutrient delivery pipes maintaining its vital signs."
Lin Jie's speech was extremely fast.
"If we can damage a few of them, causing an imbalance in the nutrient fluid supply, it's very likely to trigger its stress response. An energy loss of control from a Kingdom-class UMA, even for just one-hundredth of a second, would be enough to completely overload that transformer array, achieving physical paralysis."
This was an extremely bold and dangerous plan.
They knew nothing about this UMA's physiological structure. Any rash action could lead to unpredictable consequences.
But in the heart of the enemy's stronghold, they had no choice but to gamble.
"I'll go down."
Ethan made the decision immediately.
"I'll carry out the sabotage."
"Too dangerous."
Lin Jie immediately vetoed it.
"The patrols in the power room come every fifteen minutes, and there's no discernible pattern to their routes. Once you're exposed in the open area, you won't even have a place to hide."
"That's still better than the two of us just sitting here watching!"
Ethan retorted.
Just as the two were arguing over the course of action, the "thump-thump" sound resembling a giant's heartbeat suddenly had an extremely subtle and discordant pause.
Immediately after, a new spiritual fluctuation, carrying primitive wildness and an ominous aura, silently spread from the shadows behind the biological battery.
Lin Jie and Ethan's argument abruptly ceased.
They sensed this new threat at the same time.
It wasn't an engineer, nor a patrol guard.
It was pure malice.
Under their tense gazes, a gaunt, skeletal figure slowly rose from the shadows behind the Deep Sea Moon God's body.
At first, they thought it was just a shadow cast by some maintenance equipment.
But as it stood up straight, its full appearance was finally exposed under the cold white fluorescent lights of the power room.
It was a humanoid UMA nearly three meters tall.
Its skin showed a sickly, bloodless grayish-white, tightly wrapped around its bony frame, like a mummy dried for hundreds of years.
Its limbs were elongated to a completely disproportionate degree, especially those nearly two-meter-long arms that almost hung down past its knees. The tips of its ten fingers ended in black keratinous claws.
Most areas of its body were covered in sparse, coarse black hair, especially dense around key joints.
The most terrifying part was its head.
That inhuman skull was a long, narrow head resembling a horse's, with its mouth slightly open, revealing two rows of fine, sharp teeth.
And in its deeply sunken eye sockets burned two deep red points of light.
On its back, it also grew a pair of huge fleshy wings completely disproportionate to its body.
The surface of the wings was covered in twisted blood vessels, currently tightly folded against its back like a tattered black cloak.
This monster seemed like a forced amalgamation of a horse, a bat, and a human corpse through the most evil sorcery, a creation from the depths of nightmares.
It just stood there silently, motionless.
But both Lin Jie and Ethan could feel that those two red points of light had locked onto the ventilation duct where they were hiding.
They had been discovered.
"What... is this thing?"
Ethan's voice was full of wariness. He couldn't find any corresponding UMA in I.A.R.C.'s database.
Lin Jie's brain, however, was racing at this moment.
He remembered.
In Karl's diary, there was a file marked "Extremely Dangerous" that described exactly the monster before them.
Lin Jie silently recited the file's contents in his mind.
"Codename: Jersey Devil."
"Ecological Description: A highly aggressive nocturnal UMA primarily inhabiting the pine barrens and peatlands of southern New Jersey. Legend says it was transformed from the thirteenth child born to a local witch in despair. It is inherently cruel, feeding by terrifying and hunting solitary travelers."
"Core Ability: Unknown. Its cry is described as a 'scream capable of tearing souls'."
The Brotherhood of Light had actually captured and tamed such a notorious local UMA!
They had made it the "Guardian" of this power core imprisoning the Deep Sea Moon God—a demon guarding another enslaved deity.
Just as Lin Jie was rapidly recalling the intel, the UMA called the Jersey Devil moved.
It raised its long, narrow horse-like head.
Immediately after, a sharp buzzing sound emanated from within its body.
Lin Jie and Ethan then noticed that at key joint areas of the UMA's body, such as shoulders, elbows, and knees, some external mechanical devices composed of brass coils and vacuum tubes, bearing the style of the Brotherhood of Light, had been implanted.
Currently, those devices were flashing with dangerous blue electric arcs, the coils spinning at high speed emitting a sharp buzzing.
"Careful!"
The moment Lin Jie's warning fell, an invisible force erupted with the Jersey Devil at its center!
"Creak—creak-creak—"
The ventilation duct beneath Lin Jie and Ethan, made entirely of steel, groaned under the strain of that pulling force.
The heavy iron plates forming the duct were violently twisted and deformed as if being repeatedly kneaded by a pair of invisible giant hands.
The rivets connecting different duct segments, bearing immense internal pulling force, were being "plucked" out of the iron plates one by one!
"Damn it! Its ability is to manipulate magnetism!"
Ethan struggled to stabilize his body. He felt all the metal items on his person, including the bullets at his waist and the keys in his pocket, vibrating violently as if they were about to burst out of his body the next second!
"No!"
Lin Jie's observation was more meticulous than Ethan's. "It's not its own ability! It's those mechanical devices! The Brotherhood of Light modified it! They implanted some kind of strong electromagnetic generator inside this UMA, turning it into a... living electromagnet!"
This was a transformation more terrifying than mere taming.
They hadn't just enslaved this UMA; they had twisted its very mode of existence with their cold scientific theories.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
A series of rivets, unable to withstand the powerful magnetic pull, were "plucked" from the duct connections. They were then captured and accelerated by the chaotic magnetic field, turning into shrapnel flying everywhere and smashing against walls and equipment, bursting out a series of blinding sparks.
The entire ventilation duct was on the verge of disintegration!
"We must get out!"
Lin Jie made a decisive decision.
This narrow duct made entirely of metal was nothing less than a sturdy steel coffin in the face of this "living electromagnet."
Rather than passively being crushed into iron pancakes, it was better to take the initiative and seek a slim chance of survival on the relatively open ground!
The two used their daggers to pry open the grate beneath their feet.
Amidst the "rainstorm" of countless metal parts and iron plates twisted and attracted by the magnetic force, two figures leaped down from the ceiling.
They adjusted their posture mid-air, executing a perfect roll to dissipate most of the impact, and landed steadily on the power room floor, forming a direct confrontation with the Jersey Devil that had just attacked.
Free from the narrow, oppressive duct, Ethan felt a long-lost sense of freedom.
Without hesitation, he raised his twin revolvers. The muzzles of [Morning Star] and [Evening Star] gleamed with a cold luster under the white fluorescent lights.
Seeing the two actively reveal themselves, the Jersey Devil slowly lowered its horse-like head and stopped its attack.
It took a step forward.
Its movements were extremely bizarre. Those disproportionately long limbs made each step appear both stiff and yet possessed of an indescribable sense of coordination.
It didn't seem in a hurry to launch the next attack, but was instead scrutinizing these two puny humans who dared to intrude into its territory.
Lin Jie and Ethan also didn't act rashly.
They took small steps back, maintaining a safe distance from this unknown UMA. Both their minds were racing, analyzing every tiny movement of the enemy, searching for possible weaknesses.
This battle occurring deep within the earth's heart was on the verge of erupting.