The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 775: Plan B

Aurora Town was underdeveloped, and the residents retired to bed early. Usually, there would only be a few lights on outside of the street lamps late at night.

Today, there wasn’t any light at all. The place was eerily silent.

The awakeners had sensed something strange when they crossed the town, but they didn’t stop and investigate since their focus was the Sacred Mountain Church.

With the purple light enveloping the lifeless buildings in the Town, the place looked even more eerie.

Bam! Bam! Bam—

A few seconds later, all the windows and doors of the houses broke down, and countless elite monsters rushed out. They were the devourers, slaughterers, and overtakers waiting to launch an ambush.

In the past, the elite monsters couldn’t awaken their monsterhood until they were triggered due to the limit of the Heavenly Way. Ever since the descent of the Malediction, though, the Heavenly Way’s power had seen a great decline. While the elite monsters still couldn’t wake up at will, their corresponding prime could wake them and demand their loyalty.

Clear Mirror’s Plan B was simple: using their greater numbers.

There were close to three thousand elite monsters hiding in Aurora Town. No matter how strong the eight awakeners were, they would be exhausted from fighting so many elite monsters without preparation.

When Tokoos shot the purple flare, Azure Dragon had sensed a dangerous looming threat.

Without hesitation, he charged at his enemies.

Clang! Tia’s arm muscles bulged dramatically, and veins popped on her head. She had to give it her all to take a punch from Azure Dragon, and only barely.

A powerful shockwave rippled out, instantly removing the snow around them and revealing a circle of gray soil.

Tia was shocked. And you call us monsters? You humans fit the name better!

“Weightless!”

Dust used level 6 Gravity to make everything in the effective area weightless. Azure Dragon and Tia stumbled, floating into the air.

Azure Dragon quickly kicked at Tia. Tia blocked it with her leg, and the collision sent them flying in opposite directions.

That got Azure Dragon out of the range of weightlessness. He steadied his footing.

Dust immediately adjusted the gravity and grabbed Tia, using Weightless again to take both Clear Mirror and Tia up into the sky.

Tokoos was already coming their way without missing a beat. He grabbed his companions and flew toward the Aurora Town.

The four of them were going to temporarily stay away from the battlefield and wait until the eight awakeners were exhausted by the monster swarm before making a move. It had been their trump card to wipe out the Nine Scions, but they had no choice but to use it on Azure Dragon’s group now.

It would be worth it as long as they won this.

Then Dust could take over Azure Dragon’s body and become as strong as he was, which would be their new ace for killing the Divine Scion.

“They are running away!” Zhong He shouted.

“Chase them!”

Azure Dragon responded. He quickly bent his knees and made a strong leap with the full power of his lower body. Thud. The ground burst into a spiderweb of cracks. Azure Dragon flew off like a cannonball, flying diagonally toward the direction the four monster primes were running in.

No matter how great his jumping ability was, it was no match for Fly.

He halved their distance before his body started falling in a parabolic trajectory. There was no foothold for him to make another jump, and making a punch to propel himself with the energy wave wouldn’t be viable due to the low efficiency; it would also be difficult for him to control the direction of his movement.

He was going to lose his enemies when a growl—or what sounded like one—came from below him. He looked down to see a great white dragon of ice and snow rising from the ground. The others were standing on top of the dragon’s head.

Between the dragon’s brows was Six Rime, arms extended and eyes glowing a bright blue.

She had created an ice dragon running several hundred meters long, lifting everyone into the sky and carrying them to Aurora Town.

While they were surrounded by snow, the move still pushed Six Rime to her limit.

The ice dragon flew half an arch before it showed signs of crumbling and breaking down, the distance it had made no greater than the distance Azure Dragon had jumped.

Azure Dragon understood Six Rime’s intention. He descended toward the dragon’s head, about to use it to make another leap.

“Be careful yourselves!” That was all he said before jumping with both feet.

Clang! The ice dragon's head instantly shattered into countless ice shards and swathes of snow. Losing support, the seven awakeners plunged, while Azure Dragon shot toward Clear Mirror and his fellow monsters with renewed momentum.

You bastard! Don’t you care about our safety at all?!

Zhong He cursed as he fell toward Aurora Town.

“Shadow rope!”

Two black ropes of shadow shot out of Zhong He’s hands, wrapping around the arms of Colorless and Six Rime, who were closest to him. Then the ropes climbed along their arms and quickly wrapped around their waists before shooting out again to grab Surnamed Li and Liu Qingying.

After two seconds, the same process repeated, and the shadow caught Liao Liao and Dead Pig.

With a yank, Zhong He pulled the free-falling awakeners in with him at the center.

“Dead Pig!” Zhong He shouted. “Cushion us!”

Dead Pig had already come to the same conclusion. He widened his arms with his back to the ground, prepared to make a landing in a stable posture.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Zhong He manipulated the shadow to pull everyone to Dead Pig.

Instantly, the shadow morphed into countless strands and covered everyone like a fishing net, making sure that they were all pressed against Dead Pig’s large, dependable belly and chest. It felt like they were riding a trusty boat.

Then the shadow continued to spread until it covered Dead Pig’s body whole, growing many soft black tendrils behind his back to cushion his fall.

Bam!

Three seconds later, the boat that was Dead Pig fell into a bar, crashing through the two-story building. Tiles, wood, snow, broken glass bottles, and alcohol splattered everywhere.

The seven awakeners were unscathed, including Dead Pig, who had acted as the cushion.

Bam, bam, bam!

Without giving them much time to react, five strong, vicious slaughterers arrived first and barged through the doors and windows. Two even jumped straight down through the hole in the ceiling.

They thrust their bladed arms at the humans, so quickly that Six Rime, Colorless, and Zhong He, who were used to fighting long-range, couldn’t react in time.

“Look at me!” Liu Qingying shouted, unleashing an enthralling and compelling energy from her body, which seemed to come with a sweet fragrance.

Instantly, the five slaughterers stared at Liu Qingying, dazed. Although they were still moving, they had slowed down noticeably.

Luckily, the five slaughterers were all male, and the Talent worked on all of them.

Liu Qingying’s level 7 Seduction worked on females, too, but she had to go with one or the other, not both at the same time.

Meanwhile, Zhong He and Dead Pig couldn’t help but turn to Liu Qingying, too, suddenly captivated with burning desires coursing through their bodies, their mouth dry. However, they had good enough mental resistance to tamp down the artificial desires.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Several ice cones shot out of the ground and stabbed three of the slaughterers, hurting them and locking them in place. The slaughterers jumping down from the rooftop fell with dull thuds, twitching while their bodies showed signs of petrification. Colorless had used Petrify in time.

Liu Qingying deactivated Seduction. Quickly calming down, Zhong He turned his shadow into three black spears, piercing the hearts of the restrained slaughterers.

“Run!”

Liao Liao was the first to rush to the door, but she suddenly stopped, the panic on her face replaced by despair.

The others halted in shock when they reached the door, too.

All they could see were monsters, filling the roads and the rooftops in their sight. Most were devourers and slaughterers. There were also a good number of the more cunning and dangerous overtakers. The dense packs of monsters stared at the seven awakeners like predators.

Liao Liao estimated that there were at least a thousand elite monsters.

Her estimation was actually far off. There had been two thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven elite monsters hiding in Aurora Town. With five slaughterers killed, there were still two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two monsters.

Liao Liao made a quick calculation with her quick mind. Six Rime was the most powerful among them. In theory, she should be able to deal with 20 devourers or 10 slaughterers, and for overtakers, she would be able to deal with at most 5.

Colorless and Zhong He were strong in a duel, but not when dealing with multiple enemies. They might be able to take on 10 devourers, 5 slaughterers, or 2 overtakers at the same time.

Liu Qingying’s Seduction could slow down the enemies, but it worked on her teammates, too. And with so many monsters, they weren’t going to come at them one by one, but in large swarms. It would be a chaotic free-for-all.

What about Dead Pig?

He could do nothing but take hits. He would be the last to die until the thousands of monsters turned him into minced meat. His powerful generation would be a curse that amplified and prolonged his torment.

And Surnamed Li’s ability to see the next ten seconds was a joke under the circumstances.

Liao Liao didn’t need to be a prophet to know that they would be circled and attacked for the next half an hour with no time to even pant—if they could live that long.

What to do?

What to do, what to do, what to do...

A second later, Liao Liao came to the conclusion: it’s game over.