novelraw Chapter 148: Riding the High
Chapter 148: Riding the High
Su Zhan was lying in ambush.
He suddenly detected faint footsteps behind him.
He spun around.
A black-robed figure wearing a "Wails-of-the-Dead Mask" stood three meters away.
That mask looked similar in style to Su Zhan’s current "Blue-Faced Fanged" mask, except it had several blood-red streaks.
"Blackclaw? What are you doing here?"
The Wails-of-the-Dead Mask glanced at the black scales on Su Zhan's palm. "Wasn't the boss supposed to have sent you to the East District monitoring point?"
Su Zhan's heart tightened, but the expression under his mask didn't change at all.
He mimicked the hoarse voice of the aberrant from before: "Plans changed. The boss specifically reassigned my task. If the boss didn't tell you, then I can't tell you either."
"Alright, I know the rules… heh heh… those Purifiers are indeed trickier than expected."The Wails-of-the-Dead Mask sneered disdainfully. "Especially the one with the chains — pretty hard to deal with. But no worries, soon they'll become fresh feed."
Su Zhan responded in a low voice: "Just a bunch of trash."
"Enough. I won't waste time with you."
The Wails-of-the-Dead Mask turned to leave. "I have a job. I'm off."
Just as he turned,
Su Zhan's claw silently shot out.
"Pfss—!"
The claw pierced precisely into the heart from behind.
The body of the Wails-of-the-Dead Mask stiffened violently; the eyes beneath the mask widened to the max.
"You…!"
Su Zhan pressed close to his ear, his voice still hoarse: "The boss also asked me to… see you off."
He twisted his wrist, rotated half a turn inside the body, and utterly crushed the heart.
Gotta admit—stealth attacks are really effective!
He was starting to get hooked on the feeling.
No back-and-forth brawling.
Just the critical strike, the lethal strike.
End the fight in one second.
Pure bliss!
The Wails-of-the-Dead Mask’s body went limp and collapsed.
Su Zhan smoothly retracted his claw, propped the corpse up, and gently placed it on the ground.
Then he beheaded it as a finishing touch.
Next,
he quickly checked his spoils.
Besides that distinct Wails-of-the-Dead Mask, he found a hand-drawn map tucked inside the black robe.
Several red circles were marked on it, one of which pointed to the direction the Purifiers had retreated.
There were also a few green circles.
Those were probably where his teammates were located.
Su Zhan pocketed the map.
He glanced at the body cooling on the ground and said indifferently, "Looks like the mist creatures in this area have all been mobilized… Of course, I'm not interested in saving people. You fight your fights, I won't disturb you—hope you won't disturb me."
Finally,
he tossed the corpse into a sewer.
Su Zhan walked toward the other side of the map,
an area with no red or green circles.
This zone probably had few people, or rather, no aberrants.
He didn't need to save the Purifiers, nor did he want to meddle in the aberrants' schemes.
For now, he only needed slaughter.
Su Zhan turned and stepped into the unmarked zone.
The air smelled of blood.
The surrounding buildings were dilapidated—clearly the ordinary residents who hadn't evacuated had been slaughtered by Fissure-bodies.
Hmm… maybe there were still a few stragglers.
But—
the reason a straggler is called a straggler is simply that it hasn't been discovered yet.
Su Zhan's pupils narrowed slightly; black scales surfaced beneath his skin, claws tore through his fingertips, and a bony tail bristling with spikes extended from his tail vertebrae.
He fully released his aberrant form.
Then he thought for a moment,
and retracted the tail.
This state would make him look similar to the "Blackclaw" that aberrants had mentioned.
"Hiss…"
A Fissure-body seemed to have smelled its prey and crawled forward slowly.
Its twisted torso was still draped with scraps of clothing.
Obviously well-fed.
On the surface, its power was Low-Risk Tier 8!
The Fissure-bodies Su Zhan had seen earlier were about Low-Risk Tier 7.
This one was stronger than those.
The Fissure-body emitted a hoarse hiss, then lunged!
Its mangled left arm abruptly lengthened; the bones segmented and separated, forming a whip of connected bone fragments that swept horizontally.
The Transcendence Society has special means to command mist creatures not to attack designated aberrants.
But clearly,
Su Zhan was not designated.
"Eyes of the Abyss, slow."
Su Zhan lowered his posture.
A flash of golden light flickered.
The bone whip's speed suddenly slowed.
Su Zhan could even make out the black viscous fluid seeping from each bone segment.
He sidestepped and sliced into the creature's joint with his right claw.
Crunch!
The entire bony arm shattered on impact.
But the Fissure-body used its momentum to twist around; its right shoulder split open, and three sharp ribs shot out like projectiles!
Su Zhan's pupils contracted. His pocket watch spun again.
"Eyes of the Abyss, speed up."
Su Zhan casually tilted his head; the ribs brushed past his scales.
At the same time his left claw thrust forward, five blade-like nails ripping into the Fissure-body’s chest, striking that malformed heart.
Pft!
Black blood spurted.
But the creature counter-attacked in its death throes; its jaw dislocated as it opened wide, revealing rows of backward-facing fangs, and lunged for Su Zhan's neck!
Su Zhan's right hand became a claw,
piercing upward through the creature’s lower jaw.
When the bony claw emerged from the skull, it plucked out a pulsing green nerve knot.
But these mist creatures had ridiculously strong vitality.
Su Zhan launched into a frenzied assault.
He ripped at the ribs.
Shkraa—!
Five deep, bone-revealing gashes opened on the creature's flank; black blood sprayed.
Yet the monster didn't budge.
Muscle fibers at the wounds writhed and began healing at a visible pace.
The Fissure-body's counterstrike came suddenly.
Its right arm warped and reshaped itself into a bone blade and swept across.
He used both the slow and speed buffs simultaneously.
Seizing the chance, Su Zhan closed in, his paired claws raining down like a tempest.
But the Fissure-body seemed impervious to pain; all wounds slowly sealed.
It suddenly opened its chest cavity and spat out a glob of black viscous fluid.
Su Zhan failed to dodge; the left arm's scales hissed as they corroded.
"This thing's vitality is stronger than cockroaches," he muttered.
Instead of retreating, Su Zhan advanced, circling the Fissure-body rapidly under accelerated state.
He no longer sought a one-hit kill.
He pursued sustained output.
The seventh claw tore muscle!
The twelfth claw shattered joints!
The nineteenth claw gouged out an eyeball!
...
The Fissure-body's regeneration began to slow.
Its movements lost fluidity; every heal left ugly scars on the surface.
The black blood stopped spurting and became a sticky ooze.
Three minutes later,
there wasn't a single intact bone plate on the monster's body.
Five minutes later,
its regeneration halted completely, and its motions grew slow and clumsy.
Su Zhan seized the moment and, while sped up, darted behind the creature.
His claws crossed; ten knife-like fingers plunged into the Fissure-body’s head from both sides.
He twisted his fingers, feeling the tactile destruction of the brain tissue.
The Fissure-body finally crashed down with a thud!
And what followed was more hunting!
This Fissure-body was only representative of the many Fissure-bodies Su Zhan hunted!
In this territory with only Su Zhan present,
he hunted mist creatures by the second.
After all, the mist's arrival opportunities were scarce.
He had to hurry and rapidly strengthen himself.
Besides, this time Su Zhan had gotten smarter.
The biggest source of suspicion from the higher-ups had always been those teammates.
Next were his survivors.
But now his teammates were gone.
As for survivors…
Oh no…
Su Zhan thought inwardly.
This whole area had been completely slaughtered by Fissure-bodies.
How could there be any survivors?