The underground passage where Su Xiao was located wasn’t very wide, only about three meters across. This meant that at most, four ghouls could attack him at the same time, which eased his pressure a lot.

Four ghouls lunged at Su Xiao, their claws outstretched. Strangely, they didn’t use their powers.

Su Xiao didn’t have time to think too much. Even without their powers, these ghouls were still tough to deal with. He gripped his sword, the Dragon Slayer, tightly and slashed out a few white lines.

“Puff, puff.”

Several arms were severed, and the ghouls in front of him let out horrible screams.

With a horizontal slash, he cut through the throats of the ghouls in front of him, blood spraying everywhere. His timing was perfect.

With the four ghouls down, more rushed in from behind, not giving him a moment to breathe.

Su Xiao focused all his energy, swinging his sword toward the newly arrived ghouls.

Blood and flesh flew, and within two minutes, he had created a pile of bodies in front of him.

Realizing the situation, Su Xiao quickly jumped onto the pile of corpses.

Though the pile was soft and unstable, standing on it gave him the height advantage.

The sounds of battle and the roars of ghouls echoed through the passage.

Five minutes had passed since the fight began, and Su Xiao hadn’t seen a single ghoul use their powers.

It seemed these ghouls either didn’t know how to use their powers or didn’t have any.

On the other hand, these ghouls were strong and had high physical defenses. The durability of his Dragon Slayer had already dropped by three points in a very short time.

Now, the durability was 28/40. If this battle continued for more than two hours, the sword might break completely.

With no other choice, Su Xiao activated his Blue Steel Shadow. He had 253 points of magic power, and Blue Steel Shadow could last for two hours.

A faint blue arc spread across the surface of the Dragon Slayer, but the boost to his attacks against the ghouls was noticeably weaker.

Just as he cut one ghoul in half, another one leaped toward him from a distance.

Su Xiao kicked a ghoul away and swung his sword upward.

The leaping ghoul had its head nearly severed, but he didn’t bother with it anymore.

As he prepared to strike another ghoul in front of him, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his calf.

Looking down, he saw that the ghoul he had nearly decapitated had bitten his leg.

These ghouls had seemed powerful and tough before, but now he added another observation: they were also incredibly resilient.

Su Xiao kicked hard, pulling his leg away and tearing out a few of the ghoul’s rotten teeth.

He mercilessly stomped on the ghoul’s head, white liquid splattering everywhere as he crushed the already severed skull.

In that brief moment, another ghoul charged at him.

Su Xiao’s expression changed; the distance was too close.

But he wasn’t worried. In battle, he had to adapt. He turned the Dragon Slayer in his hand, the hilt facing forward.

He slammed the hilt into the ghoul’s face, knocking it back a few steps with a scream.

With a swift motion, he cut down the ghoul.

“Bang.”

A gunshot rang out behind him, and a ghoul that was about to get too close had its head blown off.

Su Xiao glanced back to see Yuna holding a long firearm, her Quinque, ‘M. Red Moon’.

Seeing that Yuna had ranged capabilities relaxed Su Xiao a bit.

With him and Arima standing guard, Yuna could unleash her full power.

Both Arima and Su Xiao were standing on piles of corpses.

Yuna was positioned between two piles, one side facing Su Xiao and the other facing Arima.

The mechanical slaughter continued, and fighting multiple ghouls at once meant Su Xiao couldn’t avoid injuries. Some primitive ghouls were armed with black stone spears, hiding among the others.

Those ghouls with black spears were very dangerous, but luckily, they were not many.

The blood hole in Su Xiao’s thigh was from one of those black spears.

“Chirp~ Chirp~.”

Two short, strange calls came from a ghoul leader hiding in the distance.

After the calls, all the ghouls went wild, frantically charging at Su Xiao. This seemed to be a signal for a full-on attack.

The pressure suddenly increased, and Su Xiao nearly couldn’t hold them back.

With red light flashing in his eyes, he roared and swung his sword forward three times with all his strength.

“Puff, puff, puff.”

After those three slashes, a small area in front of him was cleared of ghouls.

The chaotic battle had been going on for almost twenty minutes, and his stamina was quickly depleting. Su Xiao knew he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.

Even with his boosted attributes, he could only last half an hour at this intensity.

He glanced at Arima, who looked worse for wear. His cool demeanor was gone, his glasses shattered, and he looked like he had been soaked in blood.

“Chirp~~, Chirp~.”

A long and short call echoed, and the ghouls fighting Su Xiao suddenly stopped and began to retreat.

Breathing heavily, Su Xiao looked at the ghouls in confusion.

Looking around, he saw that the ground was covered in corpses, piled at least two meters high and stretching far down the passage.

He and Arima had separated by five or six meters; they only needed to ensure the ghouls didn’t break through, so they didn’t need to be too close.

The ghoul leader glared at Su Xiao and Arima with hatred, its face covered in fish-like markings twitching occasionally.

Perhaps it was because Su Xiao and Arima had killed too many primitive ghouls that the leader chose to retreat.

The mass of ghouls began to pull back to the sides of the passage, and Su Xiao chose not to pursue.

These unknown creatures were not to be trifled with. If the battle continued for another ten minutes, he would be overwhelmed.

Once the ghouls disappeared from sight, Su Xiao leaned against the wall, feeling weak.

Arima wasn’t much better off, using his ‘Ming Shen’ to support himself.

“What do we do now?”

Yuna still had plenty of energy, just supporting the two of them.

“Let’s leave right away.”

Both Su Xiao and Arima spoke at the same time, surprising Yuna.

“The smell of blood is too strong here; it might attract other ghouls.”

Su Xiao lit a cigarette, forcing himself to stand straight.

“Let’s head back to the temporary base. This exploration is over.”

It seemed that encountering primitive ghouls was unexpected for Arima, prompting him to end the exploration early.

Yuna shrugged, showing no objections.

The three of them headed back the way they came. After about ten minutes, they stopped to rest.

Su Xiao and Arima needed a break while Yuna stood guard with her Quinque.

Leaning against the wall of corpses, Su Xiao realized he had gained 2670 CCG contribution points from this battle, not counting the ghouls’ power packs.

He didn’t want to think about the power packs anymore; if other ghouls appeared, he would be dead.

...

After Su Xiao and Arima left the battle site, a few ghouls slowly approached.

“Who is that new guy? He’s incredibly strong, almost like the White Reaper.”

“I don’t know, but we need to be careful. When we go back, we should tell the kids not to leave ‘Central City’ for a while.”

These ghouls were different from the primitive ones. They wore normal clothes, albeit a bit worn, and they spoke human language.

One ghoul looked at the pile of bodies with a grim expression and said, “These unevolved beasts must have found another way out; otherwise, they wouldn’t have come out.”

“What do we do? The ‘leader’ isn’t in Central City; she’s fighting against the CCG on the surface.”

The ghouls fell silent, and in the end, they chose to leave, heading deeper into District 24.

(End of Chapter)