The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 46: Bloody Battle

Under his glasses, his now all-white eyes bulged unnaturally, and his facial features twisted into a monstrous mask of fury, saliva dripping from his mouth in hunger. Half of his body had already entered the house. He chanted, “Human, humanhumanhuman...”

Bang! A bullet hit his eye.

He screamed in pain, and a sharp blade buried into his open mouth, penetrating through his—its throat. Ah-Zhi’s entire body spasmed until it gradually stopped moving.

Shing! The moment Qing Ling pulled her Tang Dao back, a splatter of blood hit Wang Zikai’s face.

Wang Zikai stopped moving. Although he had screamed about killing monsters with the most passion earlier, he realized at that moment that he wasn’t as brave as he thought he was, and he didn’t enjoy killing as much as he thought he did.

“Move!” Officer Huang yelled at him.

Wang Zikai was startled into action.

“Die!” With a kick, he sent the monster stuck in the door flying the other way. He was undoubtedly strong as a young monster.

Bam! Bam, bam! More monsters rushed through the front yard to slam into the door. Already damaged and frail, the door gave in, toppling to the floor. Three half-transformed villagers crawled up, ignoring their kin, Wang Zikai, and lunging straight at Qing Ling and Officer Huang.

Bang!

Swoosh!

Gunshot and the swing of the blade overlapped as blood splattered everywhere, and two monsters collapsed. The monster in the middle was grappled by Wang Zikai. His two arms wrapped around the monster’s waist and transformed rapidly, turning into a pair of bronze vise-like limbs.

With a yell, Wang Zikai tightened his arms and cut through the monster’s flesh and spine with a series of cracking sounds. The monster screamed in pain, opening its mouth in its moment of death and biting into Wang Zikai’s shoulder with red fangs.

“Ahhh—” Wang Zikai yelled.

Bang, bang, bang! Three bullets buried into the fanged monster’s head, the force pushing its neck backward while blood splattered from the gunshot wounds until the monster stopped moving.

Noticing that the monster had died, Wang Zikai loosened his arms with heavy breaths, and the monster fell to the floor, transforming back into its human form. It was Sister Fan, who had served them tea at the reception.

Wang Zikai’s shoulder was torn open, and his face was covered in blood—both the enemies’ and his own.

This was his first time killing a monster. Excitement, fear, anger, and a plethora of other emotions rushed through his head, breaking his reason and what little intelligence he had.

“Gahhhh—” Wang Zikai tipped his head back and howled. The muscles of his legs, chest, and back bulged and transformed into firm, bronze-color flesh and skin like a more handsome Hulk.

There were countless monsters outside, and they rushed to get through the door frame. Staring at the incoming swarm, Wang Zikai charged out.

“Wait!” Gao Yang yelled, but Wang Zikai couldn’t hear him.

All alone, he rushed into the incoming swarm and swung his arms and legs, breaking a monster’s head with every punch and sending a monster flying with every kick. He rampaged about with reckless abandon, seemingly lost in the killing spree.

Wang Zikai fought much better than anyone could imagine. He had killed seven or eight monsters with that series of moves. However, the majority would always defeat the minority in the end, and as more monsters lunged at Wang Zikai and pinned him down like wolves ganging up on a lion, biting and tearing into him, Wang Zikai was soon lost in the pile.

The other monsters moved around them and rushed into the house. One after another, they were killed by Officer Huang’s bullets and Qing Ling’s Tang Dao. However, there were simply too many of them, and the defense line the two of them put up was crumbling.

A monster suddenly stood up among the bodies and pool of blood. It was the village chief, Patriarch Wu. Although its neck had been sliced by Qing Ling, she hadn’t cut through it completely, and the head dangled to the side with a small part of flesh and skin still attached, revealing most of the inner tissues of the neck.

It shot out both hands and lunged at Qing Ling. She had just stabbed a monster in the heart, and there was no time for her to make another swing even though she had noticed the danger.

“God of Blades!” Gao Yang activated the replicated Talent and rushed forward to stab Patriarch Wu in the heart with his dagger.

He immediately pulled it out. He couldn’t waste the remaining seven seconds he had with the Talent, and with a leap to the side, he moved between Officer Huang and the monster lunging at the man while he reloaded. Gao Yang thrust his dagger toward the monster. However, its chest was covered in sturdy scales, and the dagger stopped short of piercing its heart.

The scale-armored monster sent him flying into the mud brick wall with a slap. Gao Yang saw stars when his head hit the wall.

Just when the monster was about to charge at him, a bullet hit it in the right eye, and a sharp blade sliced through its head from the back.

Qing Ling pulled her Tang Dao back and ordered, “Get back!”

Fat Jun quickly helped Gao Yang retreat to the corner of the room and pressed both hands into his chest. Feeling the burning pain, Gao Yang looked down to see a long gash.

“Soon...soon... It’s okay...it’s okay...” Fat Jun trembled all over, his brain overtaken completely by fear, and he repeated the reassurance on autopilot.

Thud! Then an arm covered in brown hair like those of an ape shot through the window and grabbed Fat Jun by the neck, dragging him backward.

Fat Jun screamed. It was thanks to his big body that he got stuck at the window frame rather than getting dragged out immediately.

Gao Yang forgot about his injury and jumped to his feet, burying his dagger into the ape-like arm. It retracted with a scream.

“Help, mom! Help...” Fat Jun couldn’t even thank Gao Yang for saving him. Instead, he crawled under a desk like his life depended on it and put his arms around his head, curling into himself. He had broken down completely.

Gao Yang knew Fat Jun had done his best. There was nothing to blame him for.

Covering the wound on his chest, Gao Yang got to his feet. Countless bodies could be seen on the ground outside the door.

Officer Huang had run out of bullets. He cast the gun aside and picked up a rusty machete before pulling back to Gao Yang’s side. “You good?”

“I’m good!” Gao Yang tightened his grip around the dagger and ground his teeth together.

An agile monster charged through the door on all fours like a leopard. With a graceful leap, it dodged Qing Ling’s horizontal slash and lunged at Officer Huang.

“Ah!” Officer Huang swung the machete at the monster’s head, but it ended up hitting its shoulder. With the great momentum it had built up, the monster kept going forward and slammed Officer Huang to the floor.

Howling furiously, it opened its maw wide, brandishing all its sharp fangs. It was seconds away from tearing into Officer Huang’s neck.

Gao Yang rushed up to it and held onto his dagger with both hands. Using the inertia of his fall, he buried the blade into the back of the monster’s head. The sharp tip penetrated through its skull and protruded from its mouth, almost hitting Officer Huang’s eye. A mix of viscous blood and repulsive cerebral fluid dripped down the blade to Officer Huang’s face.

The man pushed the monster off with some difficulty and picked up the machete before helping Gao Yang up. Panting, the two of them pressed their backs together. Another battle would soon come.

“You good?” Officer Huang wiped the bodily fluids off his face and asked again.

“I’m good!” Gao Yang’s eyes were bloodshot.

“Alright!” Officer Huang shouted with renewed spirit. “My wife hasn’t given birth yet. I can’t die now!”

“I can’t die now either!” Gao Yang agreed, but without an epic declaration to make, his mouth seemed to have a mind of its own and shouted, “I’m still a virgin!”