The Creatures that We Are

“Hahhhh…”

Amon, the tall slim woman with long limbs, pushed Arm Strength to the max, holding up a Black Gold boomerang that was big enough to be a shield. After rotating it quickly in place for five seconds, she threw the boomerang in a volatile and fierce posture like a professional discus thrower.

Swoosh. The boomerang flew toward Nainai, leaving a faint golden trail in the sky. Enhanced by level 6 Arm Strength, the boomerang could automatically adjust its trajectory and track the target to some extent.

Small Luo came prepared, too. The robot toy hanging on her neck had been enchanted. It quickly transformed into a three-meter robot of translucent blue energy. Sitting in its cockpit, Small Luo controlled the robot’s two arms of antiaircraft guns.

Dense rows of oval blue energy bullets shot toward Nainai like countless footsteps left in the night sky.

Then a long-faced mustached man wearing a black hat the shape of a truncated pyramid and a yellow Daoist robe stepped forward, a large wooden case on his back. Wielding a cherry wood sword, he twirled it twice before pointing it upward, exclaiming, “Dou![1]”

Countless yellow talismans flew out of the wooden case on his back and flew toward Nainai, like living yellow birds.

He was Lin Fu, with Talent, Talisman, serial number 96, Element-type.

The Talent allowed one to manipulate talismans at will and granted them different powers according to their sigils.

“Definitely hit her!”

“Go, go, go! It’ll hit her!”

A petite girl cheered with great enthusiasm. She wore a white cropped tank top, a short red skirt, and a baseball cap with two sparkly pom poms in her hands like a cheerleader.

She was Rewind, with Talent: Mental Suggestion, serial number 171, Psyche-type.

Through speech and gestures, she could make mental suggestion to her companions or enemies repeatedly to apply buffs or debuffs. Now, she was making it so that her companions would be more likely to hit their targets and for their enemies to have a harder time dodging the bullets.

As soon as Nainai received the order from Nine Frost, she fled toward the sky.

However, the boomerang Amon threw was moving too quickly, and with the Shooter Domain increasing its range by three times, the boomerang easily caught up with Nainai.

Nainai was too big to get away easily.

“Watch out!”

Chen Ying saw a flash of golden light about to cut Nainai’s chest. The Gale Nainai had copied with Shapeshifter was a weakened version, and she couldn’t conjure a wind shield to block the attack while flying. Twisting her large body, she barely stopped the boomerang from hitting her chest, but it still hit her left arm.

“Ugh…”

The boomerang sliced through Nainai’s left arm, tearing muscles and leaving a gash deep enough to reveal the bones. Blood splattered everywhere.

“Go small!” Chen Ying yelled.

Enduring the pain, Nainai quickly shrunk to normal size. The bombs and Chen Ying lost the support and fell from the sky.

A few seconds later, the boomerang turned back and flew toward Nainai, about to bisect her.

Swoosh. It ended up cutting through air before returning to Amon—Nainai had escaped death by shrinking to fist-sized in time.

[Chen Ying: Leave me, Naiani. Go now!]

Nine Frost maintained level 7 Telepathy, and Chen Ying and Nainai were in the “group call”.

Chen Ying fell toward the heart of the crater with the remaining boxes of bombs.

She knew that the mission to destroy the Ocean River Union’s base with bombs had failed. According to plan, Nainai and she only had to do their best; they didn’t have to succeed. ℝÄꞐöΒĚ𐌔

But Chen Ying thought otherwise. She had been pushing herself to live with her hate as her crutch. There had never been a moment she didn’t live in pain and guilt. She had nightmares every time she closed her eyes. She dreamed of the companions of the third team. She dreamed of the moment Little Tian tackled her to the ground. His little face was pale and wrought with fear and shock, yet his eyes were filled with the reluctance to leave her side…

Chen Ying was tired. This would be the end.

She took out a gun. Each box of the bombs had its own detonator, and Chen Ying no longer had the remote controls.

It didn’t matter. As long as she hit one of the boxes with her gun before she and the boxes fell to the ground, she would be detonating all the bombs from an incredibly close range; Explosives Expert would increase the power of the explosion by at least 8 times.

While she couldn’t destroy the underground with precision, she would wipe out all the enemies coming out of the portal.

Thinking of her impending liberation, she felt a relief stronger than she had ever felt before.

I’ll fight to the last second and die seeking revenge. That’s not too easy a death, is it?

Little Tian, wait for me. I’ll be right with…

Swoosh. A slim figure rushed up to grab Chen Ying’s waist. It was Nainai, who had returned to normal size. She sped up her fall with Gale and caught up with Chen Ying.

She slammed into her so suddenly that the gun fell out of Chen Ying’s hand.

“Nainai…you…” Chen Ying was anxious and angry. “What are you doing? I told you to leave!”

“This is this Empress’ mission. Your life belongs to this Empress!”

She had lost mobility in her one arm, and her sailor uniform was drenched in blood. Her bodied face arranged into a dramatic determined expression. “Without this Empress’ grace and permission…you are not dying on me!”

“Nainai…” Chen Ying cried. “Leave me! Go now, or you can’t escape…”

[Nine Frost: Nainai! Fly away now! Hurry!]

Nainai continued to rise, trying to get out of the enemies’ shooting range.

“Ah!”

An air bullet hit her in the thigh. Blood gushed out.

“Nainai!”

Held by Nainai’s arm, Chen Ying pushed all other thoughts aside and took a Medicine C from her waist—it was one of the Nine Scions’ two remaining Medicine C.

She was about to inject Nainai, but…

Pew.

A blue energy bullet hit Chen Ying in the shoulder. Her arm drooped, and the syringe fell out of her hand.

“Huhahhhhh!”

Nainai changed her tactic immediately and dove down at full speed instead, which substantially increased her flying speed and allowed her to quickly fly and dodge through the barrage of bullets shot their way.

Those shooting at her from the ground didn’t expect her to change trajectory so suddenly, and they didn’t immediately catch up.

Just when Nainai and Chen Ying were about to escape their range of shooting, Nine Frost’s voice sounded in their heads again.

[Nine Frost: Watch out ahead!]

Nainai and Chen Ying started. A yellow net had suddenly emerged fifty meters ahead of them, consisting of tens of hundreds of yellow talismans. It was Lin Fu’s Talisman at play.

The talismans arranged themselves neatly and continued to increase in number, creating a threatening web with no cracks.

[Chen Ying: Shrink down and escape, Nainai! Leave me!]

Face ashen, Chen Ying tried to break out of Nainai’s hold.

[Nainai: Preposterous! This Empress will not allow my subjects to be hurt…]

Nainai didn’t let go. She continued to dive toward the net of talismans with Chen Ying in her grip.

She knew one thing well: they would surely die if they slowed and stopped, but they might yet have a chance to live if they pushed forward!

1. One of the Nine Hand Seals—lin, bing, dou, zhe, jie, zhen, lie, qian, xing, which form a sentence that means, “soldiers descend and arrange yourselves in front of me.” Very often used for moves related to daoist or ninjutsu. ☜

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