<h4>Chapter 173: Bloody Battle</h4>


    A strongly-built ughterer rushed up to Nine Frost, its feet turned into horse hooves while its arms morphed into long, sharp des radiating a chill, swinging down at Nine Frost’s face.


    Nine Frost didn’t even dodge away. He trusted his teammates a hundred percent.


    <i>ng!</i>


    Blindfolded with a piece of ck cloth, Dark Li blocked the ughterer’s des with a pair of nunchucks in hand. And seizing that moment, Nine Frost crouched down slightly with both hands balled into fists, making three heavy punches at the ughterer’s chest.


    <i>Crack!</i>


    After a short dy, the ughterer’s back bulged violently, like an intangible force had exploded within its chest.


    <i>Bam!</i>


    It flew into a nearby wall and slid down, its burst chest leaving a macabre trail of blood.


    This time, Gao Yang didn’t have the presence of mind to calcte how much force the three punches had exerted. With both hands shooting fire, he burned the wanderers before him.


    <i>Growl!</i>


    As a giant, berserking bear, Gray Bear rushed into the swarm of monsters and rampaged about, flinging the monsters around with his thick, sturdy shoulders that acted like the head of a tank.


    A thin, small monster with dark-red bat wings jumped up agilely, getting away from Gray Bear with a p of its wings, descending upon Gray Bear’s head while aiming the two red ws protruding from the back of its hands at Gray Bear’s nape.


    <i>Swish!</i>


    A long arrow prated through its chest and pinned it to the wall.


    Still alive, the monster pped its wings and struggled before a fireball hit it squarely, igniting its body and the curtains around it.


    It struggled in pain and despair until the fire made quick work of it and turned it into an ugly light fixture.


    <i>Bang, bang, bang!</i>


    Dual wielding guns, Old Joe shot at the small monstersing from above. Unfortunately, he didn’t have God of Firearms like Officer Huang, and the bullets didn’t kill the monsters even when they hit; in fact, he couldn’t even stop the monsters from advancing.


    “Move!” ck Sparrow pushed Old Joe away, and a monster missed its attack.


    Seizing the opening, ck Sparrow tripped the monster when it wasnding with a sweep of her leg.


    With a roll, the monster reached out to ck Sparrow with its right hand, its arms suddenly bursting into a cluster of thick, viscous, dark-gray tentacles.


    <i>Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!</i>


    Two tentacles grabbed onto ck Sparrow’s left and right hands, while the thickest tentacle strangled her neck.


    It was a devourer!


    The tentacles tightened, preventing ck Sparrow from breathing.


    She clenched her teeth, her face flushed, yet her eyes remained confident and free of any hint of fear.


    With a twist of her right wrist, she grabbed onto the tentacle wrapped around her right hand.


    It took only two seconds.


    The tentacle in her grip twitched like it had been electrocuted before going ck.


    In addition, the other two tentacles were weakening as well. The paralyzing effect of Drunken Master wasing into effect.


    Shifting from defense to offense, she yanked at the tentacle in her right hand, pulling the crouching devourer off the ground toward her before following up with a violent jab, breaking the devourer’s hyoid bone.


    <i>Crack!</i>


    With the bone broken, the devourer’s head dropped down, its chin almost touching its chest like it had been snapped.


    Soon, the three tentacles let go of ck Sparrow and slowly retracted back into the devourer’s right arm. Then the monster copsed to the ground and turned back into its human form.


    The moment ck Sparrow took care of a devourer, she felt a gusting from behind her.


    She whirled around to see a greed monster biting at her with its big, open maw. Without the time to dodge it, she raised both hands reflexively to shield her head.


    Then came a sharp shriek, and a magnificent golden eagle descended, burying its ws into the monster’s head and hair and almost lifting it off the ground.


    The greed monster fell and rolled around while the golden eagle shed at its face, pping its wings. Blood sttered everywhere.


    Then a swarm of crows rushed in to peck at the monster’s body. The battle turned into a bloody banquet.


    Yellow Butterfly had saved herpanions with Avian King, but left herself open.


    <i>Bang, bang, bang!</i>


    She emptied her handgun at a ughterer rushing at her, but she only managed to slow it down rather than kill it.


    Face pale, she staggered back and grabbed a magazine from her waist. Before she could reload, however, the ughterer was already lunging at her.


    <i>Swoosh, swoosh!</i>


    With precision, two throwing knives hit the ughterer where it was most vulnerable: the eyes. The ughterer screamed in pain, swinging its ded arms around aimlessly now that it had lost its sight.


    Yellow Butterfly leaned back to dodge a swing and ended up falling on her bottom.


    At the same time, a ck figure flew down from above like a phantom and stepped on the ughterer’s shoulders.


    It was Lithe Snake. While the ughterer opened its mouth to scream, he stabbed at its throat with his sharp shortsword.


    It wasn’t enough. Lithe Snake gripped the hilt with both hands and pushed the shortsword further down the monster’s throat, making sure that the tip of the de pierced through the monster’s heart.


    <i>Thud.</i>


    Therge ughterer toppled to the ground heavily.


    Without hesitation, Lithe Snake reached inside the ughterer’s mouth as soon as hended and yanked, pulling his shortsword out. The sttering blood pelted his face in red.


    He shook the viscous blood off the de and offered Yellow Butterfly his bloody right hand. Staring at it, Yellow Butterfly gave him a grateful smile and quickly picked herself up rather than taking the offer.


    The bloodbath was still ongoing.


    “Come on! You sons of bitches!”


    Gray Bear was lost in a frenzy. He charged left and right amid the monsters to break their flow, buying time for his teammates to pick the monsters off one by one.


    The monsters didn’t allow him to do as he wished for long. Utilizing their greater number, they each held onto Gray Bear’s legs, arms, back, and waist until seven or eight of them were locked onto Gray Bear.


    “Bastards! Get off me! Now!”


    Gray Bear swung around and cursed out loud, but he couldn’t stop more monsters fromtching onto him. And not long after, he was pinned to the ground.


    It was thanks to the thick skin and fur he gained after turning into a beast that he could withstand the monsters’ bites and shes. Still, the fact that the attacks weren’t fatal didn’t mean that they didn’t hurt.


    “Ahhhh!” Gray Bear cried out while struggling. “Someone give me a hand! The pain is killing me...”


    “Yiyayiya, yiyaaaaa, yaaaaa—”


    A strange, sharp scream rang through the auditorium.


    For a moment, all awakeners and monsters stopped fighting, holding onto their heads.


    Gao Yang’s fire was gone from his hands as well. It felt like a wire scrub was shoved into his head and kept grating against his brain. All his rational thoughts, emotions, and logical thinking were blended into a mush, depriving him of the ability to think.


    <i>Stop it! Stop it now!</i>


    <i>I’m dying here!</i>


    Gao Yang couldn’t make a sound, but inside, he was shouting.


    The screamsted five to six seconds until it died down.


    Gao Yang woke up instantly. He caught the trio responsible for the friendly fire from the corner of his eye.


    Can was in the center, covering her ears with both hands looking like she was going to break down.


    Xiran was still holding onto Can on the left, and his face looked equally ashen.


    On her right, Ronnie was holding Can too, and he heaved with his face covered in sweat.


    It was clear that he had pushed himself to use Disorientation at the greatest intensity possible, freezing the chaotic battle for a fleeting moment.


    However, Can’s Invisibility also deactivated as a result, revealing the three of them.


    “Hah!”


    Gray Bear shouted and sprang to action before the monsters could react, propping himself up and shaking off the two monsters grabbing onto his arms. Then he picked off the monsters locking his waist and legs and hurled them away.


    “Hahaha! Keep going, you brats!”


    Now freed, Gray Bear charged amid the monsters as a happy tank once more.


    He knew what his role was: to stir up shit. Rather than killing monsters, his job was attracting attention and breaking up the enemies’ flow, leaving his teammates to eliminate the monsters.


    The others also resumed their fight after Disorientation stopped.


    The awakeners regained their senses half a second before the monsters did, which was enough for them to gain the upper hand.


    Gao Yang cast a fireball. Along with the shot Xiuyi made with hisposite bow, they took out a flying monster.


    Looking around, two thirds of the monsters had been taken out. The goddess of victory was waving at them.


    Gao Yang’s gaze shifted to the trio, Can, Xiran, and Ronnie, his lips curled into an approving smile.


    But the smile froze after a second.