The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 144: Unexpected Trouble

Its head had lost its original shape with the forehead significantly widened and the chin unnaturally shrunk, forming an upside down triangle. Its eyes bulged from the skull and turned into a pair of giant, deep red lightbulbs. On the outward sides of its arms, milk white bone protruded from the skin and morphed into shape blades.

The monster looked like a mix of lizard, mantis, and fly.

It was undoubtedly a young wrath monster, and a slaughterer at that!

It took only a moment for Gao Yang to figure out what had happened. She must be a massagist here who, for some reason, hadn’t left as she should. Sister Luo had been too anxious to care, and the slaughterer ended up witnessing three awakeners ganging up on a berserking wanderer. Her monster side thus awakened.

Without hesitation, the slaughterer lunged at Gao Yang.

Gao Yang was quick. With an agile sidestep, he dodged the sharp bone blades coming down at him by a hair. Without pause, the slaughterer turned around and charged at Lithe Snake as he stayed by the door. Lithe Snake had already unsheathed the shortsword at his waist.

Clang! The sword parried the slaughterer’s bladed arm. Lithe Snake crouched slightly and generated great power from his waist, not giving an inch.

The stalemate lasted less than two seconds as veins popped out of Lithe Snake’s temple. It was no child’s play to block a slaughterer’s full-force attack. Lithe Snake couldn’t stand his ground for much longer in a battle of raw power.

Knowing that, Gray Bear growled and pounced on the slaughterer like an enraged bear.

Although slaughterers coveted blood like their lives depended on it and didn’t have a sound mind, their instincts in battles were sharp, especially for a young slaughterer like this one.

It quickly retracted its bladed arms and moved away from Gray Bear’s incoming attacks with a quick twirl, shifting its target back to Gao Yang.

“Fire!”

Gao Yang wasn’t going to give it a chance to get close. Two torrents of fire shot out of his hands and devoured the slaughterer.

“Ahhhh!”

It screamed as the flames blazed. With a swift jump, it held onto the ceiling fan above it. It swung with great power and leapt toward Gray Bear, landing on his broad shoulders. Then it raised both arms, crossing and swinging the bone blades at Gray Bear’s neck to decapitate him.

Swish, swish, swish! Lithe Snake’s three daggers came just in time, two hitting the slaughterer in its hard face without leaving a wound, while the last buried into one of the monster’s red, lightbulb-like eyes.

Splash!

Thick blood splattered. The slaughterer stopped attacking with a pained scream.

With a cry, Gray Bear seized the opening to raise his arms and grabbed the heels of the monster standing on his shoulders. He brought his arms down, slamming the monster hard onto the floor.

“Gah!”

Holding fast, Gray Bear then swung the slaughterer toward a wall with a scream.

Then he slammed it into the tea table, the sofa, and the floor.

Bam! Thud! Clang!

During those thirty seconds, the slaughterer was a ragdoll at the mercy of Gray Bear’s whims, slamming into all kinds of things and rendering the room a ruin of broken furniture and objects.

When the slaughterer had just about lost its ability to resist, Gray Bear raised it high and slammed it toward his knee.

A crack, followed by a scream. The slaughterer’s spine was broken.

It rolled to the floor. Before it could put up a struggle, Gray Bear kicked it away.

As soon as it rolled to a stop by Lithe Snake’s feet, he stabbed its heart with his shortsword without hesitation.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

All three stabs came with splattering blood.

Finally, the slaughterer stopped moving, and a pool of blood formed on the floor.

The slaughterer’s body slowly shrunk amid the crimson blood into a young woman. Her tattered clothes did nothing to cover the terrible state her body was in. It was a pitiful sight.

But Gao Yang quickly pushed aside the misplaced sympathy. If he had made a misstep, the one dying a terrible death would have been him or his teammates.

“Whose kill should the wrath monster be?” Gray Bear turned to Lithe Snake, breathing heavily.

“Half and half?” Gray Snake shook off the blood on the shortsword and put it back into the sheath at his waist.

“Then we’re still even,” said Gray Bear.

You’re making it a competition? What are you, a pair of five-year-olds?

Gao Yang didn’t bother to voice his thoughts. He simply said, “Get back to business.”

They turned to the toppled counter in the corner. To their surprise, Sister Luo had gone missing.

Although their fight with the slaughterer had lasted no longer than a minute, the three of them had been highly concentrated and couldn’t afford to spare a glance at the subdued wanderer.

It was clear that Sister Luo had rushed out of the front door.

They quickly followed. Outside the door, the left led to a dead end, while the right led to the exit. However, the alley should be under their teammates’ watch.

The trio keeping watch ran up to them.

“Are you alright?” Xiran was worried. “We heard fighting.”

“Killed a slaughterer,” Lithe Snake said concisely.

“A wanderer ran off,” said Gray Bear. “Did you see it?”

“No!” Can raised her hand seriously. “We didn’t even see a fly!”

Gao Yang had guessed as much that Sister Luo wouldn’t have run toward the exit.

He quickly turned around and made it to the dead end of the alleyway. The wall was four-meter tall. In the dim light, Gao Yang was just about to conjure fire to take a good look at the wall, but Lithe Snake beat him to it with his night vision. “There’s fresh blood on the wall. Must be the wanderer.”

Lithe Snake easily climbed onto the four-meter tall wall and crouched down. “There’s also blood on the edge. She went to the other side.”

With a double jump, Gao Yang reached the top of the wall as well.

The other side was a new neighborhood. No wonder the tall wall was here to separate it from the old buildings.

“Can you track her down?” Gao Yang asked.

“Of course,” Lithe Snake said confidently. “She’s been bleeding, which makes it easy to track her.”

“Okay. I’ll track her down with you.”

Gao Yang looked down at the others standing below. “You four, go around to the new neighborhood and keep watch on the exits. As soon as you spot the target, contact us.”

“Okay. Come with me!” Gray Bear made a gesture and led the other three teammates away.

Lithe Snake and Gao Yang jumped off the wall, landing safely. Past a covered parking lot with retractable hood, Lithe Snake found a few drops of blood on the ground.

“She went that way.”

Gao Yang and Lithe Snake kept tracking the missing wanderer by the blood trails she left. At midnight, the area was silent and empty.

Gao Yang said worriedly, “Hopefully she didn’t run into any of the houses.”

“She wouldn’t have.” Lithe Snake played with his throwing knives with a half smile. “Wanderers, once triggered, act like wounded animals. They trust no one and usually find a secluded place to hide in and lick their wounds until they turn back into their human forms, their experience all forgotten.”

“How did you know?” Gao Yang asked and quickly frowned. “Did you kill wanderers often?”

Lithe Snake’s gaze turned derisive. “I have no interest in wanderers, but I know an awakener whose idea of a fun time is torturing wanderers. He gave me a tour of his ‘wonderland’. It might as well be hell.”

Gao Yang fell silent, his chest filled with a repulsive feeling he couldn’t put into words.

“He summarized many traits of the wanderers. I learned them from him.” Lithe Snake paused and turned to walk onto a nearby lawn. Crouching down and taking a look, he waved Gao Yang over.

Gao Yang approached and saw droplets of still-wet blood on the grass.

“She’s near.”