The tremendous force sent the gaunt man and the shadows surrounding him hurtling straight toward an old building nearby that had half collapsed.
With a thunderous crash, his body smashed through the ruined half of the building, showering bricks and chunks of concrete like rain, then slammed into the old concrete ground behind it.
The ground, strewn with pebbles and weeds, shattered instantly. Dust and stones burst upward like a splash from a pond struck by a rock.
A deep crater remained.
By then, He Ao had already stepped forward, following the direction in which the gaunt man had flown.
"How could..."
As the dust raised by the stones and concrete gradually dispersed in the night breeze, the gaunt man wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. He struggled out of the crater he had made and looked up at the building ahead.
Atop the remaining half of the ruined building, beneath the black night sky, the Old Man in a white shirt stood at the top of the wall, looking down at the gaunt man embedded in the ground.
The clouds overhead had parted slightly at some point. A sliver of clear moonlight shone through the gap in the darkness and hung above the Old Man's head.
"You're too weak,"
He Ao said, gazing down at him calmly. "Show me some real strength."
"Impossible!"
The gaunt man stared up at the Old Man and roared hoarsely.
One enormous black shadow-snake head after another rose behind him. They opened their hideous maws and roared along with him.
Screee—
An eardrum-piercing shriek tore through the night.
Some of the gang members standing closest had been raising their guns to shoot He Ao. They froze. Bright red blood streamed from their eyes, nostrils, and ears, and then their bodies pitched forward