The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 730: Surrender

Lithe Snake sliced off his left hand without hesitation, allowing it to fall to the ground.

The swarm of frenzied monsters caught up.

Boom!

The severed hand exploded in the middle of the road. A fire broke out, and blood and broken body parts splattered.

“Ahhhh!”

Gray Bear sped up and rushed toward a bus parked by the road. He stretched his arms to hold onto the head of the bus to turn it around, dropping it as a blockade across the road. Then he lifted a few cars to fill the gaps to create a rough barrier, stopping the countless monsters running wild.

It would only delay the monsters for half a minute, though. Without turning around, they bolted toward the Starcatching Pavilion.

Lithe Snake held onto the stump of his left wrist with his right hand, face pale.

“What’s wrong?” Gray Bear noticed something wrong. Lithe Snake’s level 6 Gecko allowed for rapid regeneration, yet his wrist was bleeding profusely, showing no sign of stopping or regeneration.

“Mist!” Lithe Snake gave the briefest response possible to minimize the breaths he took.

Gray Bear came to a realization then. The poison of the mist was invading Lithe Snake’s system more quickly through the open wound, sabotaging Lithe Snake’s regeneration power.

As he ran, Lithe Snake tore off a sleeve and tied it around his severed wrist.

When they were about to reach a crossroad, a deep yet resounding sound of engine revving came from the left. Lithe Snake and Gray Bear turned around simultaneously to see Black Fish riding a black motorcycle with Veggine behind him, hurtling toward the two of them.

Grrr—

Almost at the same time, the angry growl of a lion came from above.

Riding a giant lion, Old Lion leaped off the rooftop of a building on the side of the road and caught up to them.

There was no running away. Lithe Snake and Gray Bear quickly exchanged glances, each taking a side.

“Come here, you sons of bitches!” Gray Bear cursed while charging at Black Fish.

Bam! Gray Bear slapped the motorcycle away with a swipe. Having been prepared for it, Black Fish and Veggie jumped off the motorcycle before the swipe hit.

Black Fish rolled as he landed and splayed his fingers, shooting ten study spider threads at Gray Bear to restrain him. Having dodged the attack, too, Veggie activated Magic Hair. Her dense hair turned into sharp wires and flew toward Gray Bear, quickly wrapping around him.

Black Fish imbued his fingertips with spider venom, which spread to Gray Bear through the spider threads.

Gray Bear scoffed suddenly. “You’ve got a long face!”

A sudden fury rose in Black Fish’s chest. He quickly gave up on using his spider venom and opted to charge at Gray Bear for a fistfight instead.

“Look at all your tendrils!” Gary Bear continued with another taunt.

Veggie got angry, too. She controlled her hair to tighten the restraint around Gray Bear while drawing her dagger to stab him—facing the bear over three meters tall, though, she could at most stab Gray Bear in the thigh.

As soon as they rushed toward Gray Bear, they realized, I got taunted with Jeer!

They woke up with a start and quickly retreated.

Gray Bear suddenly exerted his strength and grabbed the spider threads and the hair with each hand, making a strong pull.

Unable to resist at all, Black Fish and Veggie flew toward Gray Bear.

Gray Bear opened his mouth, about to bite Black Fish’s head off then crush Veggie’s shoulders. But Forest Crane arrived in time, turning his hands into a dozen and more sturdy vines to strangle Gray Bear’s neck and shut his mouth.

“Hmph.”

Gray Bear bit but failed to break the vines. They were sour and bitter, the taste terrible.

Black Fish and Veggie escaped narrowly. They broke off their own spider threads and hair to make a quick retreat.

“Ah!”

Gray Bear grabbed the vines with both hands and tore them with full strength, breaking them into several strands. They fell to the ground and slithered back to Forest Crane like dozens of green snakes.

Veggie, Forest Crane, and Black Fish didn’t rush to launch an attack, but each took a side to circle Gray Bear, making sure that he had no way to escape.

Before the operation started, they had each taken a resurrection pill and got buffed by Nagging Mister’s Specialized Guard. They didn’t have to risk their lives, only to delay Gray Bear and buy time. Gray Bear would die to the freezing poisonous mist before them in as short as one minute and at most three minutes.

Gray Bear was experienced. Sensing their lack of urgency, he could tell that they must have come prepared, and that time wasn’t on his side.

In fact, he was already feeling cold as the energy inside him slowly dwindled. He had a strange feeling that there was a cauldron in his body, boiling and evaporating his energy.

It’s a purgatory of ice and fire!

He was wondering how he should turn the tide when a cooling wind entered his head. It was Nine Frost’s Telepathy!

Upon receiving the instruction, Gray Bear immediately rushed toward Veggie.

Veggie’s long hair stabbed at Gray Bear.

The bullet from a sniper rifle hit her in the right shoulder. Blood splattered from the resulting bleeding hole.

Veggie flew two meters back and fell to the ground.

Gray Bear jumped over her and rushed toward Lithe Snake. The Starcatching Pavilion was in that direction, too.

The sudden counterattack caught Black Fish and Forest Crane off guard.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Two other bullets came. One brushed past Black Fish’s left face, while the other hit Forest Crane’s chest. However, Forest Crane had reacted in time to turn his hands into sturdy wooden planks, blocking the bullet.

“Ambush!”

Black Fish rolled and jumped to Veggie, who had gotten shot. He dragged her to an alleyway to take cover.

Forest Crane didn’t have to dodge the bullets, but while in his defensive mode, he was too slow and could only watch as Gray Bear escaped.

...

Meanwhile, Lithe Snake and Old Lion were fighting while one chased the other.

Lithe Snake jumped between rooftops and walls, throwing knives at Old Lion every once in a while. Riding his lion, Old Lion leaped up and down as he dodged the attacks and chased Lithe Snake, never lagging far behind.

Old Lion could summon the mammals in the area to help him fight, but he didn’t. Actually, he told them to run away.

The animals were his friends. He didn’t want them to die in the poisonous mist.

He and Little White were only taking the risk because they had both taken a resurrection pill beforehand and received a buff from Specialized Guard.

Lithe Snake didn’t intend to fight Old Lion. The man had fought Gray Bear and showed power that rivaled his. That informed Lithe Snake’s evaluation of Old Lion’s power. If they clashed head-on, their chances of winning were 50-50. And that was if Lithe Snake didn’t have a severed hand. Not only was he missing a hand now, there was also the poisonous mist. He didn’t stand a chance.

While running toward the Starcatching Pavilion, Lithe Snake strategized. During the moment of distraction, he caught a flash of light from the corner of an eye.

Clang!

Sparks sputtered. Lithe Snake landed and steadied himself.

The attacker landed, too. It was Chaos Reflection, holding a Black Gold trench knife.

Lithe Snake had just stood up when Old Lion jumped to his back, blocking his way.

Flanked by Chaos Reflection and Old Lion, Lithe Snake immediately shouted, “I surrender!”