Chapter 192: Sudden Change
“Why are you two here?” Xu Sheng and Han Xing were surprised and delighted.
The four specially recruited students from the alliance of the five universities were always ranked at the top of the various ranking boards for freshmen. They had also become the Daily Star a few times, so they had a deep understanding of each other. They were compet.i.tors in a small circle, and they also admired each other.
“Wu Wu and I wanted to go to the dangerous areas at the edge of Graveyard Forest to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s strengths,” Shao Jianqing said with a smile. “But Wu Wu discovered a Fire Feather Dragon’s footprints. We chased after it until we came here, and we coincidentally ran into you two. What’s wrong? You’re fighting against one Fire Feather Dragon, and you’re in such a pathetic state? It doesn’t seem like your style!”
Superhumans and superbeasts might be divided into three major realms and divided further into nine small grades, but humans possessed intelligence, and they could use a lot of items as well. They also wore nano fighting suits and strengthened exoskeletons and had major killing weapons that could allow them to rain down bullets. Usually, they could kill monsters who were a level stronger than they were. Hence, one-star superhumans could kill Grade Two monsters.
Shao Jianqing and the other three specially recruited students were outstanding members in Spirit Tattoo Realm. Their inborn talents or divine arts caused their fighting strength to be much stronger than normal one-star superhumans.
Even if the Fire Feather Dragon was a Grade Three superhuman, if Xu Sheng and Han Xing fought against it together, they should not have been at a disadvantage.
“Be careful.” They competed against each other usually, but when they faced the king of Nightmarish Beasts, Xu Sheng and Han Xing would not have their peers readily step into a trap. “This creature is very strange. It’s definitely not a normal Fire Feather Dragon. It might be a Fire Feather Dragon King, and it might break the limits of Nightmarish Beasts at any moment!”
“If it’s a real Fire Feather Dragon King, you would have died a long time ago.” As Shao Jianqing said this, she saw that the Fire Feather Dragon’s wounds were healing rapidly, and her expression changed. “Yeah, it’s a little strange.”
“What should we do?”
Xu Sheng looked at his broken mechanical arms and gasped for breath. “We have to fight as we retreat. How about we try to lure it to a place with more powerful people? I remember that there are some university lecturers fighting at the center of Shattered Starlake.”
“It’s very smart. It won’t fall for the bait.” Shao Jianqing narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “Besides, if the lecturers fight it, it won’t be considered our kill.
“Didn’t you hear? The perimeter of Graveyard Forest will be opened for low-grade superhumans soon, but if us one-star superhumans don’t have excellent achievements, we won’t be allowed to hunt freely in Graveyard Forest. We’ll have to trail behind those powerful fighters and won’t be able to enter a lot of areas.
“We finally ran into a powerful creature, so we can’t let it run away before our eyes. If we kill this Fire Feather Dragon, we can explore the depths of Graveyard Forest!”
Newbies were ignorant, and because of it, the other three immediately agreed to Shao Jianqing’s suggestion.
The four people gathered together and gave off an imposing presence, thereby gaining an advantage in this area.
Even the strange Fire Dragon sensed danger. It narrowed its eyes and wanted to run.
“Glory Cross!”
Shao Jianqing would not let it run away so easily. With a shout, the spirit flames around her burned fiercely. A dark golden figure gathered behind her. The two broadswords with crossguards that looked like helicopter propellers flew out of their sheaths. She took one of the broadswords with both hands and lifted it high above her head. The other broadsword was held by the heroic spirit behind her, and she positioned it horizontally before her.
The two broadswords shone with a light so brilliant that Xu Sheng, Han Xing, and Wu Wu were unable to open their eyes.
The light had been directed straight at the Fire Feather Dragon, and it shone like powerful lasers into the creature’s eyeb.a.l.l.s. It instinctively lowered its head and shut its eyes.
Shao Jianqing took a step forward and swung her broadsword together with her heroic spirit. The two sword glares turned into two bolts of lightning. One of them traveled vertically, and the other traveled horizontally. They struck the Fire Feather Dragon’s body.
This time, the Fire Feather Dragon’s Hot Torrent was unable to interfere or block the attack. The lightning tore off hundreds of feathers from the left side of its body. It even cut into its flesh, which was as st.u.r.dy as leather. Its organs were also electrocuted. Two large and black, cross-shaped marks were left behind on its body.
“This is the ultimate technique that propelled the Female Battle G.o.d Su Jianqing to fame. Glory Cross will cause the spirit energy in the air to surge and create a light that cannot be seen by the naked eye, because if you try, your retina and even optical nerves will be damaged. I didn’t expect that Shao Jianqing would already be able to execute this move while at Spirit Tattoo Realm!”
Xu Sheng and Han Xing looked at each other and gasped in amazement.
The structure of the spirit energy magnetic field for this move was ingenious, and a lot of spirit energy was required. Even a three-star superhuman might not be able to execute it successfully.
With the additional power granted by the heroic spirit, Shao Jianqing could pull off a decent Glory Cross, even though she was just at Spirit Tattoo Realm.
Heroic spirit users did live up to their name as one of the four major fighting occupations!
Before the two of them could finish sighing in amazement, Wu Wu shot with her Ghost Leopard like two black bolts of lightning.
“Rotting Claw!”
The human and leopard executed their talents at the same time. They attacked the wound Shao Jianqing had just created from a troublesome angle.
Rotting Claw had the ability to interfere with vitality magnetic fields and instantly cause cells to decay.
They could perfectly suppress the Fire Feather Dragon’s strange but incredibly powerful self-healing properties.
Before, the Fire Feather Dragon’s wound would have stopped bleeding very quickly, and new granulation tissue would squirm inside.
Now, wisps of black smoke danced and flowed around the wound. It invaded the wound nonstop, and the Fire Feather Dragon’s self-healing speed fell by at least 30%.
The Fire Feather Dragon flew into a rage. It opened its mouth wide and tried to catch the Ghost Leopard.
But Wu Wu and the Ghost Leopard acted like telepathic twins. They tapped against the ground lightly and drew two strange arcs in the air as they jumped, which allowed them to escape from the Fire Feather Dragon’s claws by a hair’s breadth.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Han Xing fired his guns again, stirring up sparks between the Fire Feather Dragon’s fangs.
A super alloy saber that vibrated at high speed popped out of Xu Sheng’ left arm. With the aid from the four extendable mechanical arms, he moved like a huge mechanical spider and went to attack the Fire Feather Dragon.
The four specially recruited students surrounded the king of Nightmarish Beasts!
The Fire Feather Dragon was shocked and enraged. It continued spitting out fierce flames and released a torrent shield. Sometimes, it curled up and released thousands of feathers.
But when the four people worked together, they could cover up for each other’s weaknesses. Once they figured out the Fire Feather Dragon’s attacking style, even if they were injured, they insisted on sealing up its path out of their encirclement. They did not give him any chance to fight back.
Even if the Fire Feather Dragon went berserk before death and turned into a fireball that jumped up and down, thereby burning the four of them to the point that they were badly battered, they gritted their teeth and refused to back down before their compet.i.tors.
In the end, Shao Jianqing used her broadswords to stab the Fire Feather Dragon’s spine and cut it into three.
Han Xing seized the chance to stuff his gun barrels into the Fire Feather Dragon’s throat. The storm of bullets raged around in the Fire Feather Dragon’s organs. They went on a rampage so fierce that its abdominal cavity swelled up.
Xu Sheng controlled a self-detonating drone onto the Fire Feather Dragon’s head, and with a bang, its skull exploded.
Wu Wu seized the chance to use Rotting Claw and strike the Fire Feather Dragon’s brain, and even its eyeb.a.l.l.s were invaded by her attack.
Even if the king of Nightmarish Beasts contained great vitality, when it was struck repeatedly by fatal strikes, it lost its last bit of life.
As it roared in refusal to give up, it fell down in a dejected lump. Its flames froze up, and it was reduced to a cold carca.s.s.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp!”
The four specially recruited students felt exhausted. They gasped for breath and sat down. As they looked at the dense and terrifying wounds on their bodies, they found that they did not even have the strength to treat themselves. They felt lucky.
The fight had been too dangerous.
The Fire Feather Dragon was definitely strange. If any one of them—the machine master, gunslinger, heroic spirit user, or monster controller— were missing, the other three might have been the ones dead on the ground.
No, if any one of them were missing, they would not have even had the chance to fall dead on the ground. They would have been reduced to a pile of rotting flesh in the Fire Feather Dragon’s stomach.
But the rewards were great.
This sort of mutated superbeast was much more valuable than normal superbeasts who were of the same type. If they brought its entire carca.s.s back to the base, their points would skyrocket, and they could get even better gene medicine and supernatural weapons. Perhaps they would be allowed to go and explore Graveyard Forest tomorrow.
“Let me take a look at just what makes this creature so odd!”
Since Xu Sheng used mechanical prosthetics, before their metal fatigue reached their limit, he would always spend less stamina compared to Shao Jianqing and the rest. He swung his tentacle-like extendable mechanical arms and arrived in front of the Fire Feather Dragon’s corpse to open its empty head.
Suddenly, Wu Wu shuddered and screamed, “Careful!”
Slittheeerr...
A red thing that looked like a vine shot out of the Fire Feather Dragon’s battered carca.s.s and wrapped around Xu Sheng’s mechanical arm.
Xu Sheng immediately made his decision. With a shout, he cut off the connection between himself and the mechanical arm, and with the remaining three mechanical arms, he fled back to the other three people.
His choice was correct.
The instant he took the initiative to remove the mechanical arm, more crimson vines crawled out of the Fire Feather Dragon’s body. With a loud crunch, they shattered his mechanical arm and dragged it into the wound in the Fire Feather Dragon’s abdominal cavity!
If Xu Sheng had not been an oddity who had 40% of his body made of mechanical parts or Shao Jianqing, Wu Wu, or Han Xing had been in his place, unless they had the courage to instantly cut off their arm, they would have been devoured by the Fire Feather Dragon’s carca.s.s!
“What’s going on?”
Their skins crawled, and they were dumbfounded.
Before them, the Fire Feather Dragon’s carca.s.s started changing in a shocking manner.
Its originally dark red feathers turned white, and red vines crawled out of its wounds, surrounding its body. It was as if they wanted to bring its tattered carca.s.s together again.
The dragon stood up while staggering.
Its eye sockets were empty because its eyeb.a.l.l.s had rotted away. But now, two green b.a.l.l.s of flames burned inside. It was as if a ghost was staring at them, and the four people shuddered.
The broken bones were exposed outside, but the Fire Feather Dragon did not care. It looked as if it had multiple sharp blades shining with a chilling light stuck in its body. They could bring great pain to its enemies, but also to itself.
Flames surrounded the creature once more, but this time, they were dark green and produced no heat. They released a pungent smell, which suggested that it had powerful poisonous and acidic properties.
Based on the image and presence, the creature was completely different from before. If the Fire Feather Dragon from before was the tyrant of Nightmarish Beasts, now, it was a pure nightmare.
“Corpse transformation!”
Shao Jianqing’s expression turned cold, and she hissed coldly.