Chapter 917: Someone Falls
"Shut up,"
Lin Sanjiu murmured.
"I don"t understand why, after turning into a duoluozhong, there are still memories from before."
Naga-as.h.i.+ seemed as if it couldn"t hear, slowly lowering its wolf fangs until they clattered to the ground. "I remember there was a kind of diced lamb leg skewered with bamboo sticks. Because the sticks were too sharp, neither of us dared to take too many for fear of piercing our pockets and getting scolded at home. But when Timo and I were halfway through eating, we found that the lamb leg was especially delicious, and we both fought over it."
Naga-as.h.i.+ paused, tilting its head and softly asking Little Hole, "I grabbed a bamboo stick and stabbed his arm several times. Timo started crying and left me behind. I quietly finished eating by myself but ended up crying for no reason. Why did I cry back then?"
"Stop talking!" Lin Sanjiu angrily shouted and kicked Naga-as.h.i.+"s s.h.i.+n.
Even though Naga-as.h.i.+ was affected by Little Hole"s power, its reaction was still swift. It leaped backward and drew the metal umbrella from its back, shouting, "Get lost!" Lin Sanjiu grabbed the wolf fang from the ground, raised it to block the umbrella, and kicked the ground, causing the card to fly into the s.p.a.ce between them.
"I will use it on the duoluozhong, only on it," she silently repeated in her mind, "I won"t use it on that monster..."
So, let me catch it.
With grat.i.tude in her heart, she watched as her fingers closed around the spinning card.
Naga-as.h.i.+"s eyes, visible outside its mask, widened but were instantly met by the hand holding the card, which collided with its chest. Without the influence of the force field, Naga-as.h.i.+ couldn"t compare in speed or strength to Lin Sanjiu.
The card materialized in an instant, firmly pressing against its chest. The inertia of the tremendous force sent the duoluozhong cras.h.i.+ng to the ground, hitting the back of its head hard against the concrete. The mask was knocked askew, sliding down from Naga-as.h.i.+"s face, revealing a large twisted crack that crossed its entire lower face. From that crack, a long, piercing scream escaped.
Lin Sanjiu quickly withdrew her hand and jumped up, sneering, "Stop f.u.c.king screaming, this thing is useless against you."
As she spoke, she swiftly untied a shoelace and tightly bound the Special Item to the back of her hand.
Naga-as.h.i.+ seemed to awaken from its terror only now. It hurriedly donned its mask, covering its face once again. When it lifted its head, its eyes had turned blood red. However, its anger didn"t last for more than a few seconds. Suddenly, it became cautious and nervous, leaping into action.
The creatures that had momentarily disappeared emerged from the darkness once again due to the command of the person behind the door. In the brief one or two seconds since their brief confrontation, they had slowly formed a semicircular encirclement, trapping the person and the duoluozhong in front of the gate.
Naga-as.h.i.+ was also affected by Little Hole"s power, but it seemed that the person behind the door was not patient enough to let Little Hole deal with it. "Kill that duoluozhong!"
"Wait!"
Lin Sanjiu quickly shouted, facing Naga-as.h.i.+ with her back to Little Hole and swung her Wolf Tooth weapon, creating a silver cold arc in the night. "Let me handle this!"
Before the person behind the door could react, she lunged towards Naga-as.h.i.+. The person behind the door wasn"t foolish and would surely have doubts after her sudden change in tactics.
She probably had only a few seconds at most.
"You get lost!" Naga-as.h.i.+ angrily shouted and thrust its long umbrella-shaped weapon towards her abdomen. It still seemed to be using it as a long sword, which was a disgrace to the Munitions Factory that produced it. But that actually helped Lin Sanjiu—she didn"t dodge or evade and firmly grasped the tip of the umbrella just as it was about to pierce through her combat jacket.
Naga-as.h.i.+ was momentarily stunned, then angrily shouted and was about to grip the umbrella handle to forcefully push it forward. However, before it could exert more force, it stumbled and nearly fell. And upon closer inspection, the long umbrella in its hand had disappeared without a trace.
"Apologies, I"m taking the weapon back," Lin Sanjiu waved a card in her hand towards it, and the card suddenly vanished.
"You—"
Naga-as.h.i.+ only managed to utter a word before she swiftly grabbed its wrist, holding it tightly. With no cloth wrapping the small bone in her forearm, it was thin and sharp like a blade. Naga-as.h.i.+ reacted quickly and immediately pushed forward with force, but the blade didn"t cut through Lin Sanjiu"s palm as it had expected. There was a brief flash of white light in her hand, as if the forearm bone had become stuck in some sticky obstruction.
"No weapon, my left hand is disabled, and I"ve grabbed your right hand."
Lin Sanjiu"s palm felt like a steel claw, with a heavy and hard grip that was unbelievable. She glanced sideways at a distant figure and provocatively whispered, "What can you do to me now?"
"You"re just a piece of soft flesh." Naga-as.h.i.+ stared intently into her eyes, lowering its voice. "Do you really think I"m helpless?"
Lin Sanjiu remained motionless, holding it without counterattacking or defending. She even slightly opened her hand and relaxed the muscles in her body—this way, when Naga-as.h.i.+ kicked her, it a.s.sisted it in launching her away.
A sound of puzzlement seemed to emanate from Little Hole behind her, but during that moment of the world spinning, Lin Sanjiu didn"t know what she had heard. In fact, she didn"t even have time to think about anything; being kicked away felt like it happened in the blink of an eye, and for a moment, all her senses froze. It was only when she crashed heavily into Little Hole that she once again firmly grasped her awareness.
Her back, arms, and most importantly, the back of her right hand, had indeed struck Little Hole"s skin. She could almost feel countless small holes, like tiny mouths, squirming and closing under her skin, as if they were trying to suck out her thoughts and soul.
"You better hold on to me tightly," Lin Sanjiu laughed softly, feeling a lingering pain in her abdomen and thighs. Naga-as.h.i.+, which had just charged towards her, suddenly froze upon hearing her words. It seemed to finally understand something as its eyes s.h.i.+fted between her hand and Little Hole"s body.
Even Lin Sanjiu herself couldn"t believe it—her risky move had actually succeeded.
She turned her head, staring eagerly at the back of her hand, and slowly took it off Little Hole"s body. The small box tied to the back of her hand with a shoelace opened like a clamsh.e.l.l, and one of the compartments faintly s.h.i.+mmered with a flowing light. She stood up straight, listening to the monster behind her fall to the ground silently but distinctly.
"What... What just happened?" Naga-as.h.i.+ asked tremblingly.
"I really have to thank you. Little Hole"s ability," Lin Sanjiu gasped, raising the [Empty-handed Kleptomaniac] artifact and gesturing towards it. "I"ve taken it away."