Chapter 363: The First Step of Cooperation
She couldn"t step away now even if she wanted to because Puppeteer was holding her by her collar. However, if he released her, she doubted that she had any chance of escaping.
In the distance not far away from them, in a pool of slimy green swamp, stood a should-be living organism. It seemed to not in a hurry as it dragged its feet and moved slowly towards them. Somehow, while it was moving, Lin Sanjiu heard a weird and hair-raising voice, probably sounded through the crease in its body, "Well, well, I"d expect no less from you. However, it seems like today isn"t your day. I would have opted to finish this with my costume intact, but…"
"What, what is this?!" yelled Lin Sanjiu to Puppeteer as horror filled her eyes.
Meanwhile, Puppeteer"s face turned grim. Like Lin Sanjiu, he was not prepared for this sudden change of course either. Glaring at Santa Claus, his muscles had involuntarily grown tense as if he was facing a mortal enemy. He ignored Lin Sanjiu"s question, forced a snort through his lips, and blinked away from her.
Judging from his movement, Lin Sanjiu guessed that Puppeteer wanted her to be the guinea pig to probe the strength of Santa Claus. Her gut feeling was right. Without trying to conceal his intentions, Puppeteer jerked his chin at Santa Claus, hinting Lin Sanjiu to fulfill her given role quickly.
While cursing Puppeteer inwardly, Lin Sanjiu entered her battle mode.
The creature walked on the road with a steady, mechanical creep seemingly unfazed by Lin Sanjiu"s deadly glare. However, every pore within Lin Sanjiu was urging her that she shouldn"t take the creature in front of her lightly. It was as if she was shrouded in a powerful force field. Every step the monster took, the invisible force was getting stronger and pressing harder on her shoulders.
What was the blasphemy in front of her?
If Lin Sanjiu weren"t imaginative enough, she would not be able to distinguish the slight human characteristics left in Santa Claus. The skin and flesh on its chest were ripped outward, stretching along its chest and forming overlapping creases until it tapered off on either side of its body. There were four long and slender sticks that should be its limbs hanging loosely on either side of its thin body like a spider. However, it was particularly hard to tell which was his front and back. Even if one crushed a human corpse and rea.s.sembled it, it would never look like this.
There was a tiny bulge protruding from the front of its body. It looked like a miniature football that had been dissected by people and air-dried, leaving a jagged crease on its surface. Lin Sanjiu took a considerable amount of time to realize that the sound was coming from the ridge.
While the most d.a.m.ned of all wasn"t his jagged-creased, thin limbs, or spider-like appearance, it was the layer upon layer of blotches that covered almost every single s.p.a.ce on its body. The blotches dried out the moment they touched air, and then a layer of new blotches filled with juicy, gory puss appeared almost immediately from the withered blotches. As the creature moved, the piling blotches exploded into long black holes. Like eyes, they blinked at Lin Sanjiu.
"Looks what we have here," Puppeteer laughed a cold laugh, "Who would"ve thought that the notorious Santa Claus, who has struck fear into the heart of almost every occupant in the Twelve Worlds, is a duoluozhong."
Yes, Santa Claus was a duoluozhong that had gone through umpteen stages of evolution. It had to be since only a duoluozhong could look like this.
Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, a hissing came out from the deep, ragged crease. Santa Claus laughed and stepped into a pool of darkness between two lamp posts. Lin Sanjiu"s heart tightened. At the same time, she forced open her skeletal wings and brought herself into the sky.
While Lin Sanjiu was in the air, she gazed down on the ground and found an empyesis that had appeared without her knowledge in the spot where she stood not long ago.
The empyesis bubbled on the ground, and a black and red gooey liquid flowed inside the translucent blotches. Looking from afar, it looked like lava flowing out of a volcano.
Quickly—quicker than Lin Sanjiu and Puppeteer thought it was possible—the empyesis infested the rest of the Pumpkin Route, flooding the road with many translucent blotches of various sizes and dying the street black and red with the gooey liquid in them. Even the ground beneath Puppeteer couldn"t be saved. Before Lin Sanjiu could see where Puppeteer had gone, her body was being pulled down by gravity.
"Quick, grab the lamp post!"
Heeding to Mrs. Manas"s instruction, Lin Sanjiu extended her arms towards one of the lamp posts to no avail. The nearest lamp post was quite far away from her. The tips of her fingers brushed past the surface of the lamp post leaving five white scratches on it as she fell helplessly toward the empyesis.
Suddenly, [Tornado Whip] appeared in her hand, and a gale burst forth, forming a counterforce and propelled Lin Sanjiu toward a lamp post. Seizing her chance, Lin Sanjiu hugged tightly on the lamp post and stopped her body from sliding down before the tip of her shoe touched the ground.
The duoluozhong who had disguised itself as Santa Claus seemed to enjoy this scene very much. His body trembled with joy.
"I have to wear the [Santa Costume] so that I won"t reveal my real ident.i.ty. For that, I have not used this ability for ages," the black holes in its body opened and closed as it spoke, revealing the layers of empyesis deep within the black holes, "I almost forgot how you humans react to my ability. This is so exciting!"
After securing herself, Lin Sanjiu lifted her head. She saw Puppeteer had claimed a lamp pole at the other side of the road as well and was now crouching on top of a carved pumpkin. Lin Sanjiu wondered if he was weightless because the pumpkin he crouched on did not budge or sway an inch.
However, Lin Sanjiu couldn"t. Thanks to her large, heavy skeletal wings, Lin Sanjiu had to squeeze every ounce of strength from her body to hang on the lamp pole that had no grooves for her to hold. Right now, holding on to the lamp pole without falling was all she could hope. Trying to move up on the pole was nothing more than a fairy tale to her.
Lin Sanjiu dug her nails deep into the lamp pole and wheezed, "What the h.e.l.l is going on? What is that thing on the ground?"
She fully stretched her skeletal wings open to keep her balance, but she did not dare to use her wings to support her body as the lamp pole was very slim. She was afraid that she might crush it if she used her wings.
As if Puppeteer had heard her mumbling, he turned his head and looked into the crumbled Luscious Lounge. Following his gaze, Lin Sanjiu wriggled on the lamp pole and peered into the lounge as well.
On the ground, a few bricks rolled from the mountain made from rubbles and broken bamboo as if something under it was coming out. Wisps of pungent white fumes rose into the air as soon as the bricks touched the ground covered with empyesis. Then, a figure floundered out from the rubble and wobbled his way into the light leaving the white smoke behind.
Upon seeing this, Lin Sanjiu gasped as she realized that figure belonged to the male posthuman that summoned Santa Claus.
Of course, looking at his appearance now, he wasn"t the same male posthuman anymore.
With every step he took, the empyesis approached him. The empyesis would climb up to his s.h.i.+n, travel through his thigh and then covered his whole body within a fraction of a second. When the man"s body was fully covered with the empyesis, he seemed to have lost the control over his body. His head bent lower and lower and became longer and longer until his face filled with empyesis touched his chest. The black and red gooey liquid fused with his body through his pores. Then, a crimson empyesis popped on top of his thick black hair.
"Come here, come over here. If you listen to me, you will become as strong as I am," Santa Claus called to it with his sickly sweet voice, "Attack that woman!"
Puppeteer kicked off the top of the carved pumpkin, turned into a shadow, and vanished into the darkness as soon as Santa Claus finished speaking. Lin Sanjiu had no time to see what Puppeteer used to attack Santa Claus as she noticed the posthuman that had just turned into duoluozhong was already charging at her. Despite its feeble appearance, his moved so fast that it had closed the gap between them in a split second.
Lin Sanjiu was trapped on the pole. She couldn"t move up or down. Nervousness instantly took over her brain.
If she was just brushed with it, the empyesis would diffuse through her body through her pores and turn her into a duoluozhong. Seeing that the duoluozhong was closing in, her chest seized, and her heart almost jumped out from her throat. Then, she activated and shrouded her entire body in [Defensive Forcefield] as she lashed her skeletal wings forward.
At this moment, something out of her expectation happened: her attack was surprisingly effective. The posthuman covered in empyesis was bifurcated at his waist by Lin Sanjiu"s skeletal wings.
From within the half body, poured out a torrent of blood red empyesis, and just as the nearest empyesis almost landed on Lin Sanjiu"s skin, her body shot backward. In the split moment, Lin Sanjiu suddenly remembered that she still had the [Female Salve Bondage Rope]. She quickly drew it out and lashed it toward a lamp post behind her, maneuvering herself away from being drenched by the empyesis that instantly flooded the place she had been before.
A burst of white fumes came off the lamp pole. As if it was resisting, the lamp pole swung a little before finally gave into its destiny and fell to the ground. The carved pumpkin lamp was crushed into countless pieces, the light went off, and another piece of land was thrust into the cold clutches of darkness.
She gripped the rope tightly as she swung in a circle. Then, an explosion came from nowhere before Puppeteer emerged from the explosion and returned to a lamp pole. With the help of the dimmed light, Lin Sanjiu could see that Puppeteer was in a state that no greater then she was; In truth, he looked a little bit more awful. Numerous deep lacerations covered his body, but luckily, there was no empyesis on his body.
"Hey, you," Puppeteer yelled at Lin Sanjiu, pulling her back from her thought, "Come over here!
"Go there? Is he kidding?"
Lin Sanjiu had been struggling to keep her balance. At the same time she was watching the man wobbling toward her, she gauged the distance between her and Puppeteer.
The "Pumpkin Route" which could be crossed in a few steps was now like a huge chasm to her. What"s more, there was the duoluozhong Santa Claus standing in the middle of the road. The blotches on its body opened and closed now and then seemingly waiting for her to lunge at him.
"Are you mad? Or do you think I"m mad?" Lin Sanjiu screamed at the top of her lungs. Then, she wriggled her way up the rope and said, "There is no way I"m going over there!"
Even if she couldn"t see Puppeteer"s face, she could feel his anger from this distance.
"Come over here! Don"t make me repeat myself!" His effeminate voice was filled with fury, "Can"t you see that dealing with these things isn"t an easy task! We can"t get close to them nor can we attack them with a ranged attack. They would explode, and that would make the work even harder!"
Puppeteer was telling the truth.
"Why do you want me to go over to you, then?" As Lin Sanjiu spoke, she finally pulled herself to the top of the pumpkin lamp. However, her skeletal wings were too heavy, and she had crushed half of the lamp.
"You—" Before Puppeteer could finish his sentence, the duoluozhong vanished. Just as Lin Sanjiu was frantically looking for the duoluozhong, Puppeteer disappeared as well. When he reappeared again, he was standing at a lamp pole two poles behind the one he had previously been occupying. His face turned gloomy, "You"re totally unarmed! How am I supposed to lend you my Special Items if you"re so far away from me?!"
The duoluozhong laughed. His tiny "head" had s.h.i.+fted onto its chest. Then, he faced countless empyesis to the sky as he was ready for his next a.s.sault. If Puppeteer were not in bad shape, Lin Sanjiu would"ve thought this was a trick set up by both of them.
Unbelievingly, she moved as Puppeteer directed. With the help of [Tornado Whip], she created a gale as her propulsion force and thrust her body toward Puppeteer. At the same time, the empyesis below her erupted and sent a torrent of empyesis into the sky. Before the empyesis could touch Lin Sanjiu, bright orange sand poured from the sky. With the interruption of the shower of sand, the black and red gooey liquid was sent back to the ground. Even though it still emitted a heap of white fumes with it touched the ground, Lin Sanjiu made her way safely to Puppeteer"s side.
However, she had used all of her [Cat Litter].
Puppeteer gazed at Lin Sanjiu who hugged the lamp pole below him. His expression still asked, "How can I work with an idiot like you?" Then, in the next second, five shadows fell into Lin Sanjiu"s arms.