A flock of crows flew through the night sky, perhaps feeling a bit tired, they landed on a mostly broken power pole. Just as they settled down, a loud crash came from below, causing the pole to snap and a cloud of dust to rise. The crows squawked in panic and flew away.
A figure, dressed in rags and covered in blood, stood up from the ground.
“I told you, this kind of attack and pain doesn’t affect me.”
Nicole licked the blood from her palm, her body covered in cuts, and her face even split in half. If it were any other ghoul, they would have died from such injuries, but Nicole didn’t seem to care, her face lit up with a twisted smile.
If one looked closely at her wounds, they would see only a small amount of blood. Nicole’s body was devoid of muscle, filled instead with something resembling modified flesh. At some point, the kagune behind her had vanished, absorbed into her body.
“What a strange body structure,” Su Xiao said as he stepped out from the back door. The moonlight illuminated him, revealing some blood on his clothes, but it wasn’t his.
With his weapon, Dragon Slayer, in hand, it stood out under the night sky, glowing with a faint blue light, like a long knife made of lightning.
The effects of his weapon on Nicole were minimal; while real damage worked, pain had no effect on her. The person in front of him seemed to be a super masochist, not caring about pain at all. In fact, it seemed like the more pain she felt, the more excited she became.
The cuts on Nicole were indeed the result of real damage, while regular attacks had no effect. Su Xiao suspected that Nicole’s strength far exceeded SS rank, possibly reaching SS+ or even SSS level as a ghoul.
In terms of survival ability, Nicole might even be stronger than Takatsuki Izumi. As for her attack power, with those weak punches of hers, it was a miracle if she could even hit Su Xiao.
The current situation was that Su Xiao couldn’t really do anything to Nicole, and she couldn’t hurt him either. Plus, with Su Xiao’s speed, Nicole had no chance of escaping.
“So, what’s it gonna be, handsome? Do you want to keep fighting? I’m fine with it,” Nicole said with a sickly grin, even seeming to crave Su Xiao’s attacks.
Su Xiao pressed his lips together, a cold glint appearing in his eyes.
He bent his body and charged towards Nicole. In just a few steps, he was right in front of her. Nicole threw a wild punch at him. While her recovery was terrifying, her strength and speed were quite average.
“Roar~!” A sound like a wolf’s howl echoed across the area.
Nicole instinctively bent forward, and Su Xiao quickly moved to her left, kicking her lower leg. Her leg twisted unnaturally to the side. Su Xiao reversed his grip on Dragon Slayer and stabbed it into Nicole’s spine, pinning her down.
Taking this opportunity, he grabbed her chin with his left hand and placed his right hand on her head, pushing in opposite directions.
“Crack.”
Nicole’s head twisted a full 180 degrees, her jaw pointing skyward.
Su Xiao held onto the hilt of Dragon Slayer and pulled it back, stepping back to assess Nicole.
Her lower body was destroyed, her lower leg severely fractured, her spine pierced, and her head twisted around completely. If Nicole didn’t die from all this, then Su Xiao would be at a loss.
As for chopping off her head, he had tried that before but felt no resistance, as if his blade had passed through water.
Nicole’s body began to convulse, her eyes turning white.
“This is~ so good it’s explosive! Hahaha~.”
Clearly, Nicole was still alive. Su Xiao glanced at her health bar and was speechless.
This girl still had 86% health left, despite taking all real damage; regular attacks simply didn’t work on her.
Su Xiao sheathed Dragon Slayer at his waist and turned to head back inside.
Fighting Nicole was just a waste of time and energy. He could kill her, but it would take a long time. By the time he finished, the battle between CCG and the Bronze Tree would likely be over.
If CCG lost, his 10,000 contribution points would go to waste, and he didn’t know how long it would take to gather enough points for that blue-quality potion.
With another battle coming up, it wasn’t wise to exhaust himself now.
After Su Xiao left, Nicole’s body gradually returned to normal.
“To be able to injure me to this extent, what a terrifying guy,” she said, her smile fading. After a moment of hesitation, she walked away. This survival ability didn’t come without a cost.
Gaining such a strong survival ability required sacrificing many things.
This was a fusion of her kagune and body tissue, and after the fusion, she would lose most of her lifespan, her ability to reproduce, and even her sanity while eating.
During her feeding time, no one dared to approach her, much like how people feared the Bronze Tree’s Noro.
If anyone got close, they would face her frenzied attacks, no matter who they were, even if they were close friends.
...
As Su Xiao entered the back door, a group of ghouls in red robes rushed towards him. These were members of the Bronze Tree.
There were about twenty of them, and it seemed they had successfully attracted CCG’s attention, prompting the ghouls to start retreating.
Unfortunately, someone had already cut off their escape route.
“Who is this guy?”
Su Xiao stood in the shadows, and the ghouls could only vaguely see his white coat.
“Anyway, he’s human and doesn’t have a Quinque. Kill him!”
The ghouls from the Bronze Tree rushed towards Su Xiao silently, but they had no idea they were heading towards their doom.
His earlier fight with Nicole had left Su Xiao feeling annoyed; no one liked dealing with an enemy that was as stubborn as chewing gum.
Dragon Slayer was drawn, and the blade became a silver line of light.
“Whoosh, whoosh...”
As the ghouls passed by Su Xiao, in just one exchange, five of them fell, blood spraying everywhere.
The remaining ghouls looked terrified, their hearts racing as they stared at Su Xiao.
A beam of moonlight shone through a hole in the wall, illuminating Su Xiao’s upper body, revealing a few drops of blood on his cheek, which caught the ghouls’ attention.
“This guy is~.”
An A-rank ghoul trembled, feeling as if he were in the Arctic, chilled to the bone.
“Run! Or we’re dead!”
The ghouls lost their will to fight and began to flee for their lives.
However, with Su Xiao’s agility at 13, they had no chance of escaping.
Three minutes later, a bloodied arm trembled as it reached out from the door, the moonlight shining on it.
“Help...”
With a stab, a long knife pierced through the head, blood dripping from the blade.
Su Xiao pulled out the knife and flicked the blood off Dragon Slayer, continuing to guard the back door.
During the war between CCG and the Bronze Tree, killing ghouls provided extra contribution points.
For each ghoul killed, he could earn about 20 points of CCG contribution.
Su Xiao stood like an iron wall, cutting off the ghouls’ crucial escape route.
What was even more deadly was that the ghouls from the Bronze Tree were retreating in small groups; if they fled all at once, it would alert CCG.
There were at least ten to thirty of them, the ghouls from the Bronze Tree came in batches, like the gourd kids saving their grandpa, one group after another heading to the back door to die.
Half an hour later, a large number of corpses appeared near the back door.
(End of Chapter)