novelraw Chapter 306: The Plague Butcher
Chapter 306: The Plague Butcher
The aftermath of the internal explosion gradually subsided. The scorching air was filled with the strange smell of burnt protein, which mixed with the original stench to form an even more foul odor.
Brewer lowered the arm he had used to shield his head and face, looking at the boiling sludge covering the ground. He let out a low whistle, his heart still pounding with lingering fear.
"Madman," he said, looking at Lin Jie, a trace of admiration flickering in his eyes. "You're an absolute madman. I like it."
Lin Jie didn't respond to Brewer's praise, silently reloading a new cylinder into [Serene Heart].
White Ghost walked to the center of the devastated battlefield. Using his damaged brass arm, he poked through the sludge for a while, seemingly searching for something.
A moment later, he stood up and shook his head.
"No loot," Lin Jie said for him. "This sludge is a pure aggregate of Aetheric substance. After being blasted apart, its spiritual nature will return to this domain, leaving behind no valuable core."
However, their goal wasn't to collect materials but to open a path.
This point, all three of them understood clearly.
The massive passage ahead, previously blocked by sludge, was now completely clear.Darkness surged from the depths of the passage. In the silence, the heavy thumping of a heartbeat seemed audible.
That was the road leading to the final stage.
The three men adjusted their equipment and stepped into that deeper darkness.
This passage was more magnificent than the previous path. The walls were carved with indistinct totems belonging to some Native American tribe.
These totems depicted mountains, rivers, and a terrifying plague sweeping across the land.
As they continued deeper, the concentration of corrupt energy in the air grew exponentially. Lin Jie could see green spiritual particles floating in the air, resembling fireflies on a summer night.
Finally, a sickly green light appeared at the end of the passage.
After passing through the final dark veil, their vision suddenly opened up.
An unimaginable underground space appeared before them.
The dome of this space was at least fifty meters high. Several sewer tributaries converged here from all directions, forming a vast but shallow underground lake.
And in the very center of the space stood a small hill piled from pale white bones.
Human and animal skeletons intertwined, forming a blasphemous death throne.
Upon the throne stood the final target of their mission.
The Butcher.
It was even more terrifying and more real than the image Lin Jie had seen in old Delacroix's memories.
It stood over three meters tall, its massive body forcibly stitched together from rotting corpse parts.
Its skin showed an ominous bluish-purple hue, covered with constantly splitting and healing pustules.
Most chilling was its head—a massive, disproportionately large, rotting pig's head.
Two hollow eye sockets burned with eerie green plague flames.
In its hand, it held a rusted slaughtering hook, thicker than an adult man's leg.
It casually dragged the tip of the hook along the ground, carving a deep groove into the rocky floor.
Every scrape sparked blinding sparks, accompanied by sharp, grating sounds.
It paced back and forth like that.
As Lin Jie and the other two stepped into this space, the eye sockets burning with green flames slowly turned toward them.
Substantial malice instantly enveloped the underground space.
The battle erupted directly!
The Plague Butcher moved.
Its body erupted with speed disproportionate to its size, transforming into an out-of-control heavy steam locomotive charging toward the nearest Brewer with devastating force!
"Scatter!" Lin Jie roared. The three immediately rolled away in three different directions.
"BOOM!"
The spot where Brewer had been standing was smashed into a crater over a meter in diameter by the massive hook. Debris flew everywhere.
"This thing's strength..." Brewer got up from the ground, looking at the crater, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Had he been half a second slower just now, he'd be a puddle of pulp.
Failing to hit with its first strike, the Plague Butcher immediately turned and locked onto Brewer again.
It seemed to have decided that this man with the long gun was the priority target to eliminate.
"Come on! You fat pig!" Brewer roared, rapidly retreating while raising his Spencer.
The [Noontide Badge] on his chest emitted a faint glow. The surrounding air distorted like heat waves.
However, this defensive armament, which had been invincible in gunfights, failed this time.
The Plague Butcher's charging trajectory didn't deviate in the slightest. It was completely unaffected by the visual distortion.
"Useless!" Lin Jie's voice echoed through the cavernous space. "Does it look like it relies on eyesight for targeting?! It must be smell or spiritual perception!"
Before his words finished, the Plague Butcher's hook swept horizontally.
Brewer desperately leaned back, narrowly dodging the lethal strike.
But where the hook swept through, the dense methane gas in the air seemed to find a vent, igniting instantly!
"BOOM!!"
A chain of explosions occurred!
A fan-shaped wall of fire appeared out of thin air. The scorching blast wave sent Brewer flying violently.
"Cough... cough..." Brewer crashed heavily to the ground, feeling as if his internal organs had been rearranged.
His leather jacket was scorched black. Fortunately, the special material prevented more serious burns.
The Plague Butcher gave him no chance to catch his breath, taking heavy steps to close in again.
At this critical moment, a white ghost cut into the battlefield.
White Ghost's figure appeared at the Plague Butcher's flank and rear. His [Emptiness] prosthetic, carrying silent killing intent, aimed straight for the monster's vulnerable lower back.
"CLANG!"
A deafening sound of metal clashing rang out.
White Ghost's prosthetic felt as if it had struck granite. Not only did it fail to penetrate, but it was also repelled by immense force.
His slender body flipped once in the air before landing steadily on the ground.
"Its... skin... has some kind of... spiritual... armor," White Ghost's tone carried frustration.
Simultaneously, Lin Jie's attack arrived.
"SWISH!"
An armor-piercing round struck the Plague Butcher's flaming eye socket.
However, the moment the bullet contacted the green flames, it was corroded and dissolved by an invisible force.
Ultimately turning into a wisp of smoke.
"This fire is a bit strange," Lin Jie frowned tightly.
"Terrifying strength and astonishing speed, formidable defense, plus a built-in area corrosion aura and environmental detonation ability..."
"This BOSS is a bit tough..."
After the initial chaos, all three realized a cruel fact.
Their combat experience and equipment seemed somewhat inadequate against this purely overwhelming monster.
Brewer's [Noontide Badge] was ineffective.
White Ghost's [Emptiness] couldn't penetrate.
Lin Jie's bullets couldn't get close.
But this didn't make the three immediately abandon resistance.
In this sealed arena, they were like three ants dancing on knife edges, exhausting every effort to maneuver around this behemoth.
Every time the Plague Butcher swung its massive hook, it stirred up a bloody wind, smashing the surrounding rocks to pieces.
But with the intense, high-momentum movements, Lin Jie, who had been calmly observing, keenly detected a trace of abnormality.
Whenever this monster launched those powerful, heavy attacks, its bloated body, stitched together from corpse parts, would tremble violently.
"PLOP."
A piece of rotten flesh the size of a washbasin suddenly fell from its ribcage, crashing heavily to the ground and turning into a puddle of pus.
Where that rotten flesh fell off, dark red, moist muscle tissue was exposed underneath.
Lin Jie didn't hesitate.
Raised his hand, fired.
This time, the alchemical bullet didn't dissolve in the flames.
It drilled into that exposed muscle tissue. Although it failed to penetrate deeply, it exploded into a small, black blood flower.
"ROAR!"
The Butcher let out an angry low roar.
Although this injury was less than a mosquito bite compared to its massive size, it proved one thing.
Its defense wasn't absolutely impregnable.
"This thing is a 'defective product.'"
Lin Jie's brain, operating at high speed, reached a conclusion.
"This is a body forcibly rushed to maturity. Maintaining Kingdom-class intensity operation places an immense burden on its physical form."
It was like an overclocked steam engine.
As long as it continued consuming spiritual energy, that cobbled-together flesh would continuously break down, fall off, exposing more attackable weak points.
If they could just drag it out, this body would likely collapse on its own.
This should have been encouraging good news.
But then, even deeper despair descended.
The Butcher also realized its body's disintegration.
It suddenly stopped walking, raised its massive pig head, and emitted a series of low grunts resembling pig snorts.
From the pipes around the underground space connecting to the sewer tributaries, simultaneously came a scalp-prickling "rustling" strange sound.
That was the sound of flesh rubbing against pipe walls.
One after another, infected living corpses surged out from those pitch-black pipes!
"Seriously, how do we fight this?" Lin Jie looked at the corpse tide with a bitter smile.
They were the workers who died in the slaughterhouse and the innocent residents of Delacroix town, now all become the Plague Butcher's most loyal servants.
"Damn it! It can summon too!" Brewer struggled to his feet, his expression turning very grim.
Before them, an invincible monarch. Behind them, an endless tide of corpses.
This was a thoroughly hopeless dead end.
"Brewer!"
Just as Brewer was about to abandon hope and consider retreating, Lin Jie's voice pierced through the gloom.
"Abandon frontal attacks! Guard our rear! Don't let a single one through!"
Brewer was stunned for a moment, then understood Lin Jie's intent.
Yes, the battle wasn't over yet.
"No problem!" The ranger's eyes reignited with fighting spirit.
He turned to face the surging tide of living corpses behind him.
Brewer worked the forend of his Spencer M1882 shotgun with a series of sharp "clack-clack" sounds.
"White Ghost!" Lin Jie's voice rang out again. "Find the high ground in this area! Help me with coordinate marking and fire attraction!"
White Ghost didn't reply, but his agile figure was already swiftly climbing upward along the protruding totems and pipes on the wall.
And Lin Jie himself?
What was he going to do?
He was going to play the... most dangerous role.
Lin Jie would become that monster's sole target.
The moment Brewer and White Ghost each moved to their positions, Lin Jie also moved.
He actively advanced several steps toward the Plague Butcher.
Then he raised [Serene Heart].
"BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!"
Five bullets shot toward the ground around the Plague Butcher at tricky angles.
These bullets didn't cause direct damage to the Butcher, but the sparks they stirred up ignited the dense methane in the air!
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
A series of small-scale explosions occurred at the Plague Butcher's feet.
Although the power couldn't injure it, the feeling of being provoked successfully enraged this plague monarch.
Its eye sockets burning with green flames locked firmly onto this tiny yet audacious human.
"Success," a faint curve appeared at the corner of Lin Jie's mouth.
He turned and ran, utilizing his long-honed footwork and agility to play a game of cat and mouse with that colossal creature in this topographically complex underground space.
A tactic led by Lin Jie had now unfolded!
Brewer transformed into an indestructible mobile artillery platform.
He firmly guarded the passage entrance they had initially entered. Every roar from his Spencer shotgun would precisely blow off the skulls of two or three living corpses.
This veteran's shooting rhythm was steady and efficient, firmly holding back the surging corpse tide outside the defensive line, creating an absolutely safe rear for Lin Jie and White Ghost.
White Ghost became a ghost haunting the dome.
Utilizing the intricate network of pipes and sculptures, he moved at high speed through the darkness, occasionally launching harassing attacks on the Plague Butcher from impossible angles.
Although his attacks couldn't cause substantial damage, they were like annoying flies, constantly distracting the BOSS's attention.
White Ghost also used internal Association codes to mark the monster's real-time position and upcoming attack directions for Lin Jie below.
And Lin Jie displayed the essence of guerrilla warfare to the fullest.
Every time the Plague Butcher charged, Lin Jie would use terrain cover to dodge at the last moment.
Every time the Plague Butcher swung its hook causing explosions, he would predict the blast radius in advance and find the safest dead angle.
His figure flashed behind broken stone pillars, leaped over piles of bones, and waded through murky sewage.
The silent characteristic of [Serene Heart] was perfectly integrated into the chaotic ambient noise of the entire battlefield.
Every bullet wasn't for killing, but for provocation and guidance.
Lin Jie wanted to firmly anchor that clumsy behemoth's hatred on himself alone.
This was a dangerous performance.
Lin Jie stretched his nerves to the limit. Every dodge and shot was a brush with death.
He could feel the green flame aura emanating from the Plague Butcher continuously eroding his stamina and spirit.
Small blisters began to appear on Lin Jie's exposed skin, and his breathing grew increasingly labored.
But he couldn't stop.
In this battle, delay was the key to victory!
Although Kingdom-class UMAs were powerful, maintaining such a massive body and powerful domain must also incur astronomical spiritual energy consumption.
As long as they could hold on, the scales of victory would eventually tilt in their favor.