“That guy can really hold himself back and not show up, huh.”

Meteor stood atop a high-rise, wearing a camo suit coated in special paint, looking down over the battlefield. One of his eyes had turned a strange color, several golden triangular marks drifting and flashing in his pupil as he scanned the chaos below.

Ever since unleashing the Beasts last night, he’d been here observing. In between, he’d helped the Doctor’s experimental Beasts drive off a few blind A-Rank Awakened, but most of his attention was on Feng Ye, who could appear at any moment. So once Lin Chuan and Lin Tang arrived, he’d been watching the siblings closely.

But the whole night passed. Aside from seeing Lin Chuan use his Divine Artifact, he never saw Feng Ye. That left a faint irritation simmering in his chest.

“Looks like I’ll have to take some special measures to force him out.” Meteor muttered, his gaze dropping to the edge of the battlefield, where an emergency Awakened camp had been set up. Any injured Awakened would retreat there.

Meteor directly used the mental control device the Doctor gave him, seizing a few tall humanoid experiment Beasts clinging to the tower, and sent them leaping toward the camp.

Then he himself took advantage of the camo suit’s cover, jumped off the high platform, and flew that way from midair. “Skyflight” was a natural attribute granted by his War Spirit after he advanced to A-Rank Awakened.

Inside the camp, Lin Tang was playing on her phone, idly timing in her head how long it would take Feng Ye to show up.

As for Lin Chuan, he was lying to the side like a corpse, face looking like his kidneys were overdrawn. His Divine Artifact was being carried and kept safe on Lin Tang’s back for now.

Right then, a rumbling boom suddenly came from outside, followed by furious roars and the sounds of fierce fighting.

Lin Tang immediately sprang up from the stretcher. As she put away her phone, a War Spirit was already summoned into her hand. Then she gripped her Crescent Moon Saber with both hands, nervously aiming it at the door of this makeshift ward. The shaking outside was growing louder and louder.

A moment later, a body shot in from afar like a cannonball and slammed into the iron door with a bang, punching out a human-shaped dent. From that impact, the iron door gave a creaking groan, then slowly toppled inward and crashed heavily to the floor.

“That’s the Berserker.” Lin Tang recognized at a glance the burly man embedded in the door, unconscious and covered in blood. He was a B-Rank Awakened who’d fought side by side with her and her brother last night, his War Spirit a massive spiked club.

“He got beaten up this bad?!”

In last night’s battle, thanks to Lin Chuan unleashing his Divine Artifact and, with a roar of “There’s a gay guy tugging my zipper,” one-shotting the hybrid Beast, everyone in their temporary squad besides Lin Chuan had only minor injuries. In the end, they’d even volunteered to act as guards for this makeshift stronghold.

Seeing the Berserker half-dead like this, a trace of anger flashed across Lin Tang’s small face. At the same time, she felt nervous, because she’d already spotted a towering figure stepping in from the huge hole in the building’s wall.

The towering figure was a grotesquely deformed man. His body far exceeded the size of any normal human, nearly three to four meters tall. In the center of his bare chest was an eerie blood-red crystal. The blood vessels under his skin glowed faintly red, all converging toward the crystal.

“Who the hell is this guy?!”

Lin Tang’s face went pale as she stared at the man who’d suddenly appeared. This guy was completely different from the rampaging monsters outside. He wasn’t as huge or hideous as those Beasts, but the moment this little giant showed up, the pressure he gave off was in no way weaker than theirs.

When he saw Lin Tang, a bloodthirsty light flashed in the man’s pupils. He immediately charged straight at her. With that one rush, the air erupted in layered sonic booms, a heavy rolling roar like distant thunder.

With a deafening crash, the monster man smashed the wall behind Lin Tang to pieces. As for where she’d been standing, her body had already vanished.

But just as the monster skidded to a stop on the far side, Lin Tang’s figure flickered into existence behind him. With a sharp shout, she hefted the Crescent Moon Saber, cold light flaring along the blade, and chopped toward his back.

Right at that critical instant, Spirit Energy surged from the monster man’s body like a tangible wave, mixed with the aura of multiple Beasts. That formless pressure made Lin Tang hesitate for a split second as she brought the saber down.

And in that split second, he found his chance to counterattack. He whipped a fist back in a sweeping punch. In midair, Lin Tang forcibly pulled the Crescent Moon Saber back in front of her to block.

The next second, his punch smashed into the blade and sent her flying. She crashed heavily to the floor. When she pushed herself up, a thin line of blood was already trickling from the corner of her rosy lips, clearly showing how much damage that terrifying punch had done to her body.

As Lin Tang coughed and got to her feet, she suddenly felt a freezing chill lock down her whole body. A shadow had already fallen over her small frame. With a speed totally at odds with his massive size, the monster man appeared right behind her. His palms came together and then hammered down toward her head.

But at that moment, Lin Tang’s left hand clenched around a Spirit talisman in her palm. As Spirit Energy poured into it, a strange force wrapped around her body, and she vanished from right in front of the monster. His attack slammed into the ground, triggering a quake-like shockwave as dirt and rubble blasted out like bullets. When the dust settled, there was a brand-new deep crater in the floor.

Just as the man started to stand up to track Lin Tang again, she chose to teleport to a spot not far from him. Since Lin Chuan was still lying nearby like a corpse, there was no way she could abandon her brother and flee alone. She chose to keep fighting.

Of course, by now she’d realized how huge the gap between her and this monster really was. So she didn’t try to rush up and ambush him again. Instead, she hurled another item clutched in her small hand.

It was a white stone, smaller than her palm. A strange rune was carved into its center. After Lin Tang poured Spirit Energy into it, that rune gained a mind-hooking, mysterious power, then burst into dazzling light midair.

From that light, several crystalline divine chains lashed out. Every chain shone with flickering arcane sigils, way too brilliant to look at straight. As soon as they emerged, the chains whipped toward the monster and coiled around his body, the sigils blazing with holy radiance.

“Roar!”

The monster man, bound tight by the divine chains, quickly let out a furious roar. The glow from the chains scorched his skin, sending up curls of smoke. No matter how violently he struggled, he couldn’t break free even a fraction. In fact, the more he thrashed, the tighter the chains cinched around him.

“Good thing I brought a rune stone this time.” Lin Tang watched the monster man being condemned by the divine chains, leaning on her Crescent Moon Saber with both hands as she let out a slow breath. Her small face was full of post-crisis relief. But as she looked at the monster, she still felt a chill of lingering fear. Their fight had lasted barely a minute, yet the pressure on her had been crushing.

Her relief didn’t last long, because heavy footsteps started to approach, one after another.

Drawn by their companion’s roar, several more monsters who’d been slaughtering other Awakened outside stomped over through pools of scarlet blood. With a thunderous crash, they punched a gaping hole through the outer wall, and in Lin Tang’s line of sight, several more identical monsters appeared.

This time, a wave of despair rose in Lin Tang’s heart before she could stop it.

Her legs went weak, and she slowly sank to the ground. Both her small hands clutched the Crescent Moon Saber planted in front of her, biting lightly on her lower lip as she stared, having no idea how to deal with what came next.

The monsters didn’t give her much time to think. They simply spread their huge hands and reached down to grab her head.

But just as one massive palm was about to close around Lin Tang, a figure suddenly appeared at the monster’s side. The monster reacted incredibly fast and threw his other fist out in a punch. But clearly, the newcomer was faster. At the exact instant the monster swung, the stone warhammer in the newcomer’s hand had already smashed into the monster’s face. With a sharp pop as it tore through the air, that overwhelming force detonated the moment hammer met skull, blasting the creature away. By the time it was airborne, its head had already exploded under that terrifying impact.

“Big Brother Feng Ye!”

Lin Tang stared at the figure who’d appeared, shouting his name in pure delight.

Feng Ye didn’t have time to answer her. After he knocked one monster flying, the rest had already lunged at him all at once.

He stomped forward, and the stone tiles under his feet trembled, shattered, and blasted upward. He swept his warhammer in a wide arc, batting all those chunks of stone into the air. The massive pieces shot out like cannonballs, slamming into the pouncing monsters.

With a series of heavy thuds, several monsters were struck mid-leap. It felt like taking a direct hit from a siege ram. They were smashed out of the air and sent flying.

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