The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 371: May the Odds be with, Us.

Gao Yang screamed and shot fire at Tong.

Two torrents of fierce flames enveloped her but failed to hurt her, creating a circular wall of fire around her. Still, the scorching heat was enough to disturb and significantly distract her.

Ronnie had bought time for his companions with his life, allowing Green Tea to sneak close. He jumped from high above, behind Tong, aiming for the top of her head with One-inch Punch.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Noticing the threat in time, Tong defended against the fire with telekinesis with one hand and raised her other hand to ‘grab’ Green Tea.

With a clench of her fist, Green Tea’s strongly-built body twisted and tensed.

Green Tea screamed, along with a girl.

Tong looked up and chuckled. “Are you playing hide-and-seek, Sister?”

Yes, Green Tea was carrying a girl on his back, Citrus.

Rather than hiding herself, Citrus rested her head on Green Tea’s shoulder, her right wrist sliced open at some point. The blood stained Green Tea’s arm and dripped down from his fist.

Plop.

A drop of blood landed on Tong’s forehead.

Citrus scoffed, her eyes blazing with the pain and hate of losing a loved one. “Don’t underestimate us.”

Tong paused, suddenly slowed. The whole world seemed to decrease in speed around her. To her, Citrus was speaking like a sloth.

“Don’t—under—estimate—us.”

Three seconds later, the world turned back to normal.

Tong was going to crush Green Tea and Citrus with telekinesis, but she suddenly lost all the strength in her body, and she felt a chill in her chest. Something cold and sharp had pierced into her heart.

Then she felt an overwhelming pain and a bottomless fear.

She couldn’t even turn around to check who the culprit was before she collapsed without making a sound.

Hand gripping a bloodied dagger, Can shuddered all over, her face deathly pale.

Her widened eyes brimmed with disbelief. It wasn’t a dream. She had just...killed a pride monster.

Tong’s telekinesis was incredibly terrifying. If not for her child-like mindset, if she had been cautious and level-headed enough, she could’ve wiped out Team Seven Shadow entirely.

At the same time, however, Tong was incredibly fragile. Without the protection of her telekinesis, even Can was able to kill her with a stab.

Gao Yang rushed over to take the dagger from her, making another three stabs at Tong’s heart.

He only cast away the dagger after accessing his system to make sure that the threat had been eliminated.

He rose to his feet, turning around with his face covered in blood. Can, standing by his side, had tears running down her face.

“Captain, I, I avenged Ronnie...”

“Good work,” Gao Yang said simply.

“But why, why does it hurt so much still...”

“Revenge is necessary.” Gao Yang had had the same experience before. He tried his best to tamp down the sorrow permeating in his heart. “But revenge isn’t going to change much.”

“So, so that is it...” Can covered her face with both hands. Her control cumbled, and she burst out crying.

Citrus had gone up to Chu Feng. He was missing his lower body from waist down. Another teammate of theirs had covered him with clothes.

Citrus held her dead boyfriend and bawled hoarsely. “Don’t, don’t leave me. You promise, you promise that you won’t die before me... Wake up! Wake up...”

Nine Frost came up while holding his injured shoulder. He had gotten hit by a large projectile for protecting a teammate, thus taken out of the last stretch of the fight.

Injected with Medicine C, Lithe Snake had recovered with difficulty. He limped his way to where Ronnie had died.

Supporting the injured Gray Bear, Rain River came up to them as well.

Soon, all members of the fifth team were standing before the body parts in the pool of blood. None of them said anything, but in their silence, they could hear the voice that always did their rallying cheer a little differently.

May the odds be with us.

May the odds be with, us.

...

52nd floor of White Lake Hotel, 4:25 in the morning.

Dragon, Qilin, and Surnamed Li, the leaders of the three major organizations, had been sitting before the window wall in the break room for a good while.

Holding his cane with one hand, Qilin looked out with deep, profound eyes under his glasses.

Tucking himself into a bagbean, Dragon held his legs between his arms and looked out at the city at night like a beautiful young man lazing about at home.

In her wheelchair, Surnamed Li looked ahead with a calm gaze, but between her brows were lines of worry.

It had been close to half an hour after the last light beam in the south disappeared. During the time, news of their companions being killed in action came. All four teams had encountered powerful enemies, and all four teams had won the fight with great difficulty.

“Huh, didn’t they succeed on their own?” X came over with a hand in his pocket and his other hand holding a beer, drinking as he walked. “If I had known it would be so easy, I wouldn’t have...”

He stopped abruptly, his gaze darkening.

The other three reacted as well.

“White Tiger,” Qilin spoke up.

Having been resting with his eyes closed on a nearby sofa, White Tiger opened his eyes and went up to the window, looking down. “Ha, of course it wouldn’t be this easy.”

On the ground floor outside the hotel was a plaza, bordering a busy crossroad.

And a figure had appeared on the empty plaza, looking up at the 52nd floor of the hotel quietly.

She was young, dressed in a black windbreaker. Her long red hair ran down her back, and her eyes were each ocean blue and dark red.

She had a gentle and delicate appearance, yet somehow, she exuded an air of quiet sorrow and icy bleakness, the contrast standing out.

She stared at the hotel for a full minute, a faint smile tugging her lips.

Then with a wave of her hand, a cyclone emerged under her feet, propping her up in the air until she was leveled with the 52nd floor of the hotel, her long red hair flying and her windbreaker fluttering. There was less than thirty meters between her and the window.

Behind Dragon, Qilin, Surnamed Li, X, and White Tiger were dozens of awakeners who had little to no combat power, including Sha Ye, Chen Ying, and Zhang Wei of the Hundred Rivers Union.

Alarm blared in Sha Ye’s mind. She eyed the red-haired woman outside warily and instinctively held her daughter tight in her arms, praying silently.

“Lilia.” Qilin was the first to recognize her.

Dragon didn’t say anything. He knew who she was.

Surnamed Li frowned slightly, quickly recalling the name. “It’s her!”

Hovering, Lilia was superimposed onto the giant blood moon in the night sky. Lit from the back by the crimson moonlight, she had an unreadable smile on her face. It seemed from her slightly upcurved lips that she was smiling faintly, yet it also looked like she would break down in tears the next moment.

Suddenly, the wind stopped, and her red hair and windbreaker draped down.

She lifted her right hand elegantly, splaying her fingers at the interior. Energy emerged from her palm, flickering a strange red light, a deadly mix of multiple elements.

Sensing the danger, White Tiger clapped his hands together without hesitation.

“Absolute Defense!”