Chapter 59: Rout

A single bead of cold sweat trickled down He Ting's forehead. At this moment, she was concentrating all her focus in an attempt to pierce through that fog-like sensory interference, when suddenly a chill struck the center of her back. A piercing, agonizing pain instantly spread throughout her entire body, leaving her mind completely blank.

She lowered her head in disbelief, watching in horror as a familiar ashen-gray color spread outward from the torn fabric of her tactical vest at the chest.

"This is..."

"Cap... Captain..."

Incredible terror and profound despair surfaced on He Ting's face. She opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say something to Liu Ye, but only a faint, rattling gasp escaped her throat before her body went limp and toppled forward.

The light in her eyes faded rapidly like a candle in the wind, and her life force slowly dissipated.

"He Ting!" he cried out in a shrill voice.

Watching He Ting fall right before his eyes, and seeing that her wound was identical to the one on Wang Quan's calf, Liu Ye felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of his feet to his scalp. He was completely plunged into overwhelming panic and boundless despair.

Two teammates had fallen bizarrely, one after another, in such a short span of time, and he hadn't even managed to clearly see what the enemy looked like or what it was!

At the very instant He Ting fell, Wang Quan—who had been enduring the excruciating pain in his calf while channeling his supernatural ability to rapidly repair the injury—suddenly lifted his head. His bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the direction of the tree trunk where Xia Tong had been moments before, and he let out a roar mixed with pain and furious rage:

"Found you!"

At the exact moment He Ting was struck, the corner of his eye had caught a fleeting, extremely faint trajectory of energy! Although blurry, he was certain that the attack had come from that direction!

This discovery was like a drowning person clutching at a straw, instantly replacing his terror-driven, near-collapse with wild fury.

He roared, the muscles in his arms bulging and knotting violently. A potent self-healing force erupted within his body, and the piercing wound on his calf healed and knitted together at a speed visible to the naked eye. Though it did not heal completely on the spot, the bleeding had stopped, and the greater part of his mobility was restored!

His arm-mutation ability, while reinforcing his arm's striking power, also endowed him with a physical recovery rate far surpassing ordinary people.

Because of this, the moment He Ting was struck and collapsed, he chose to rapidly heal his wounds and make his move.

Rather than sitting passively in place and waiting to die, it was better to fight back desperately; perhaps there would still be a path to survival.

The next instant, Wang Quan's legs exerted explosive force. Like an enraged bull, carrying an indomitable and fierce momentum, he leaped straight toward the tree trunk where Xia Tong was hiding, lunging right at her!

Xia Tong's glass-like cat pupils contracted slightly.

Wang Quan's arm, thickened by mutation, now displayed protruding veins, and his fingernails had turned sharp and pitch-black like a beast's talons. Accompanied by a fierce gale that tore through the air, he clawed viciously at the tree trunk sheltering Xia Tong!

"Ah, ah..."

"Little beast! Let's see where you can run this time! Die!"

Wang Quan's voice was hoarse and feral, filled with explosive rage born of sheer terror.

How swift was Xia Tong's reaction? Almost at the moment Wang Quan surged upward, the tip of her toe tapped lightly against the tree trunk, and her petite figure drifted backward like a weightless fallen leaf, narrowly evading that ferocious strike.

"Crack!"

The hard tree trunk was gouged by Wang Quan's sharp claws, leaving five deep grooves that exposed the wood beneath, as wood chips flew in all directions!

"This stubborn ox certainly packs quite a punch," Xia Tong muttered coldly to herself, acknowledging Wang Quan's strength.

Meanwhile, having missed his strike, Wang Quan did not pause for even a second. Relying on his rough judgment of Xia Tong's general location, he readjusted his course like a mad beast, pursuing her relentlessly.

He knew that once this bizarre entity concealed herself again, they would truly have no way out.

Rather than sitting here and watching helplessly as he and his captain were tortured to death one by one by that ghost of a thing, it was better to fight to the death and proactively seize that sliver of survival.

On her side, Xia Tong landed without a sound, arching her back as a low, threatening hiss escaped her throat. Moisture once again filled the air around her, carrying a gray, desolate aura that was even denser than before.

Even in a head-on battle, she had not the slightest shred of fear!

"Captain! Cover me!"

Wang Quan roared, his legs kicking off the ground hard as he charged at top speed toward Xia Tong, his fierce arms flailing.

He was going to drag that beast lurking in the shadows out and tear it to pieces!

"Little beast! Let's see where you can run this time! Die!"

Wang Quan's voice was hoarse and rabid, brimming with the viciousness and madness of someone driven to a dead end. At this moment, he had only a single thought: to catch this cat and torture it to death in the most brutal manner to avenge his fallen teammate.

Suddenly, a water bullet came hurtling through the air. Wang Quan felt no fear at all, immediately throwing a punch to meet it. With a loud "bang," the water bullet shattered and splashed everywhere, yet the powerful shockwave still left him momentarily dazed.

"Captain! It's over there!" Wang Quan shouted to Liu Ye while continuing his pursuit, attempting to coordinate their attack.

Liu Ye's gaze remained locked onto the battlefield. Seizing the opening created by Xia Tong's evasion, he suddenly conjured several sharp rock spikes out of thin air, attempting to disrupt her footing.

Seizing the opportunity, Wang Quan closed in on Xia Tong rapidly, his swollen, mutated arm bulging once more as deep, concentrated power gathered within it...

"Meow!" A sharp feline cry pierced the night sky, carrying intense murderous intent.

Xia Tong no longer dodged; instead, she chose to meet the attack head-on!

Her hind legs exerted sudden, explosive force, leaving a blurred afterimage of her black figure in place as she lunged at the charging Wang Quan with lightning speed!

Witnessing this, Liu Ye's expression grew grim to the extreme. He knew very well that if even Wang Quan could not block this bizarre black cat, he himself would undoubtedly share the same doomed fate.

He pressed both hands hard against the ground, earthy-yellow light gathering in his palms.

"Wang Quan, watch out for its attacks! That thing can corrode flesh!"

Liu Ye shouted urgently in warning, while simultaneously several sharp stone spikes suddenly burst upward from the ground, sealing off Xia Tong's potential evasion routes.

A cold glint flashed in Xia Tong's glass-like cat pupils. Faced with Wang Quan's violent lunge and Liu Ye's long-range interference, she advanced instead of retreating! Her black silhouette left a blurred afterimage, moving with unbelievable swiftness.

She nimbly sidestepped the protruding stone spikes on the ground. Her entire body seemed boneless as her waist and abdomen instantly liquefied to twist her posture, crystalline droplets glittering brilliantly under the moonlight as she scraped past Wang Quan's sandbag-like fist by a hair's breadth.

Wang Quan's punch missed entirely, the sheer momentum throwing him off balance.

"Damn it! Too fast!" Wang Quan felt a mix of shock and fury; he was completely incapable of capturing the opponent's evasive movements.

"My turn." Just as Wang Quan's previous momentum was spent and his new strength had yet to rise, Xia Tong moved.

The scattered water elements surged frantically, condensing into a small, chillingly sharp scythe upon her tail, which she then swept horizontally toward Wang Quan's vulnerable neck.

Wang Quan's pupils contracted violently. He wanted to dodge, but Xia Tong's attack was simply too fast, and the distance was so close that he had no time whatsoever to execute any effective evasion!

"Splitch!"

A dull sound echoed. Wang Quan's severed head reflected his own robust body, the edges of the wound rapidly withering and turning ashen... Darkness washed over his vision before his head finally rolled unwillingly onto the ground.

"Wang Quan!" Liu Ye's eyes split open with rage as he watched his teammate die right before his eyes.

Caring about nothing else, he frantically drove his supernatural energy, causing thick earth spikes to erupt from the ground one after another in an attempt to disembowel Xia Tong.

But it was too late.

Having succeeded in her first strike, Xia Tong afforded him no breathing room whatsoever. Moving like electricity, she skirted around the hastily raised earth spikes and closed the distance to him at blinding speed.

An earth projectile soared overhead as dust billowed from the ground. Liu Ye vented frantically for a moment, stopping only when the energy within his body was more than half depleted, leaving him panting heavily.

He scanned the dust-filled surroundings vigilantly, his eyes bloodshot and filled with terror.

"Come out! Get out here!" he roared, though his voice carried an unmistakable quiver.

The only response he received was absolute darkness and silence.

Moments later, the dust gradually settled, and Liu Ye's figure became clear once more. Leaning his back against a crumbling stone wall, his hands trembled slightly, and his psyche was on the verge of total collapse.

Right at that moment, an imperceptible sound of something piercing the air rang out. A sense of impending danger flared sharply in Liu Ye's mind, and he instinctively sought to condense a rock shield before himself.

Yet, this was precisely what Xia Tong had been waiting for!

A single, thumb-sized droplet of deep blue water, condensed to the absolute limit, silently bypassed his hastily formed, fragile rock defense and struck the very center of his forehead with pinpoint accuracy.

"Thud."

A faint sound, like a bursting bubble.

Liu Ye's movements abruptly stiffened. The terror and madness on his face instantly froze, and the light in his eyes rapidly faded away.

Before he could even let out a single scream, his body slid limply to the ground. Between his eyebrows, a speck of ashen gray rapidly spread outward.