In the dark, abandoned residential building, Hao Ren and Rollie held their breaths watching every movement around them. It was pitch-dark inside the abandoned house, the dark walls and the stuff that blocked the windows had made things worse. Sunlight shone into the house through the hole on the roof did not help. It was as if having an illusion. Hao Ren had even felt that the ray of sunlight was weakening and it only illuminated a small area, outside the illuminated area, the shadow was filling the darkness, devouring the details in the house.
The chill was lurking around in the background re-agglomerated after a few minutes. Hao Ren kept his eyes wide open, scanning for its whereabouts but found no shadow of the attacker. It was as if the enemy was invisible, silent; Hao Ren could only feel the presence of it with his instinct. He had no idea why the thing targeted him, but he had countless battle experience under this belt, and he knew his Steel Membrane s.h.i.+eld was effective against the attacker. He was able to breathe a sigh of relief somewhat and took out his silver spear from his dimensional pocket.
The plasma flame at the tip of the long spear was burning with sparks, illuminating a small area around it. Hao Ren felt that there was something wrong with the plasma flare, its brightness was suppressed. It was not an illusion. There was something in the house swallowing the light.
Rollie pulled out her tail from her clothes carefully as she felt that a battle was imminent and she must be prepared for it. With her pupils wide opened, she scanned the darkness in her surroundings while making a menacing growl in her throat. The cat maiden"s combat ability might not as good as Hao Ren"s, but as a cat demon, she had an excellent perceptive ability. She could not see the threat in the house, but she could determine its position better than Hao Ren did.
"Boss Cat, that thing seems to be at your feet," the cat girl said, her voice sounded quivery. "It"s stuck on the floor."
Hao Ren immediately wielded his spear and drew a circle around his feet. The plasma flare cut a deep red mark out of the floor with a hissing sound, but he saw nothing in the flare, nor did he hit anything unusual. The chill did not go away but gathered again.
He suddenly sensed a danger. He twisted his body to the side and discovered a series of sparks suddenly appearing on his chest and abdomen. The invisible enemy had hit him but blocked by his Steel Membrane s.h.i.+eld. This time it was different than before, there were strange ripples underneath the sparks.
Hao Ren felt an itch on his skin. He was shocked. The attacker seemed to have learned the characteristics of the Steel Membrane s.h.i.+eld from experience. This time, the attack had almost penetrated the s.h.i.+eld.
Realizing that the enemy was a very strange thing, Hao Ren quickly reached for his pocket, but there was nothing inside. He had forgotten to bring the MDT out in a hurry. He retreated slowly to the door while calling in his mind. "MDT, come over, I need help here."
Then he motioned Rollie. "Let"s get the h.e.l.l out of here. Something"s wrong in the house!"
He quickly drew a circle around himself and lunged out of the house while Rollie was right at his heels.
After leaving the abandoned house, the bright sunlight on the outside almost blinded them as their eyes had not adapted to it. Under the sunlight, he realized how weird the shadow in the house was. It was daylight, but on the inside of the house, it was so dark that he could not even see his fingers before his eyes. Despite the broken hole on the roof, the corners inside the house were still pitch dark, which showed how strange the optical phenomenon was.
Hao Ren felt it safer under the sun as he sensed that the chill had retreated somewhat. He and Rollie stood together fully on guard, staring intensely at the abandoned house in front of him, he nudged the cat demon. "Is that thing still in the house?" he asked.
Hao Ren had noticed that Rollie might be able to perceive something strange. He began to trust less of his eyes but more in the cat. The peculiar experience just made him feel that the enemy was probably hiding in the house.
Rollie squinted into the house, but the situation in the house seemed to have returned to normal. The abnormal darkness had faded, and she could see the interior of the house under the sunlight shone through the hole on the roof.
"Looks like it"s no more there." The cat maiden shook her head in confusion. When she glanced at Hao Ren, her tail puffed up straight. "Boss Cat, it"s behind you!"
Hao Ren was shocked by what Rollie said. He immediately sensed a sinister breath coming from his side. He reflexively lunged to a side and at the same time, raised his spear and thrust at where he stood just now, but it shocked him that he did not manage to shake off the "thing", the sinister was sticking to his body like a glue, moving at the same speed and direction as him. He turned around and saw sparks bursting out on his arm and felt a sense of electric shock on the skin!
Hao Ren flipped around in the air and regained his balance. As he landed, he quickly retreated a few steps, and the sinister breath followed. Finally, when the "thing" made a move again, he saw it.
He saw that his own shadow flickered on the ground with a rippling pattern at the center of the shadow. Almost immediately, he sensed something dangerous but invisible shooting out from the shadow at his face.
That thing stayed in the shadow!
Hao Ren finally understood why he could not shake off the "thing," and he could now respond in time when the "thing" launched its attack. Considering that he could get rid of his own shadow, he didn"t dodge this time but twisted his body suddenly right before the chill touched his skin and evaded an attack again.
The enemy in the shadow seemed to realize that it had blown its cover and decided not to hide its breath anymore. Hao Ren saw his shadow wobbling. A sinister hostility came out from the shadow and spread out in all directions. Though he could not see it, he could feel many blades piercing at him, mostly at his upper body.
Hao Ren could only rely on his sixth sense to fight back. He kept retreating and barely dodging the invisible attacks. His Steel Membrane s.h.i.+eld would sparkle from time to time, and the sensation of electric shock was getting stronger and stronger. He felt the current was running on his skin.
No matter how good a person"s instinct was, it was impossible to dodge the attacks coming from his own shadow completely.
Rollie held her breath looking at Hao Ren fighting this own shadow. After a moment, she plucked up the courage and lunged forward to help.
Seeing the silly cat bravely rushed to his rescue, though surprised, Hao Ren stopped her. "Don"t come over!"
The power of Shadow a.s.sa.s.sin was weird and inexplicable, even Hao Ren himself had difficulty contain it, less so the immature cat demon. He could not possibly count on the Rollie. Rollie turned a deaf ear to Hao Ren"s command, pounced on the shadow and hit it with her claws desperately. "Boss Cat, I got it! I got it!"
Of course, it was a common sense that she could not possibly catch a shadow, but Hao Ren could not expect the cat demon to reason. While he was very touched by the fact that the cat was risking her life for him at the crucial moment, he kept fighting his own shadow. He retreated several steps trying to pull the shadow away from Rollie; he was worried that the shadow a.s.sa.s.sin would jump into Rollie"s shadow instead. In a split second, he thrust his spear at the shadow on the ground.
Physical attack was not going to hurt non-physical shadows. The plasma flare created a series of a molten hole in the ground, but the ripples in the shadows were unaffected.
When Hao Ren was running out of ideas, he heard the MDT"s voice in his mind. "Buddy! I"m coming!"
The MDT pierced through the air arriving in midair. It then shot a blue light beam on the shadow of Hao Ren. With a burst of crackles as if something was burning, something seemed to begin to come off his shadow. He took a couple of steps back and saw a ma.s.s of gray and black mist on the ground.
The energy interference capability of the MDT could suppress the "thing," which was a body of energy.
"What takes you so long?" Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief and complained.
"Mind you, I have to find a way to escape from your devilish daughter," the MDT said and whispered like a human, "and then I have to figure out who you are fighting with on the ground."