Devil Dog and the Tall Man

"Gulp~ thump thump thump"

On the silent street, at the mouth of an alley dimly lit and flowing with dark red blood, an object like a bowling ball slowly rolled out of the shadows and into the alley before coming to a stop at Tang Qi's feet.

Tang Qi did not move, nor did he kick it away.

He merely glanced at it, then followed the winding trail of blood back toward the darkness.

There stood a tall figure, with a headless corpse lying at his feet.

Without question, its head was right at Tang Qi's feet.

It was a rough-looking head, with a lion's-mane mess of hair and a thick beard, exuding a wild air. Yet its fleshy face bore an expression of mingled terror and unwillingness. Perhaps it had seen the killer, or perhaps it had watched its beloved pet being killed.

At a time like this, Tang Qi naturally had no time to pick up the head and return it to its owner.

Several Special Interfaces appeared in his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the seven enormous wolf dogs.

Supernatural Creature: Hybrid Devil Dog.

Status: Dead.

Information Fragment One: Mr. Skana was utterly obsessed with the novel "Devil Dog." He believed the terrifying, devil-like wolf dogs from the novel could be created in reality through crossbreeding and mixed bloodlines. To that end, he gave everything he had. His efforts had originally been doomed to fail, but the return of the Spirit Tide changed the outcome.

Information Fragment Two: These crossbred wolf dogs possessed supernatural strength, speed, and bloodthirsty natures. To feed them, Mr. Skana eventually became a devilish man himself. Every midnight, he brought his darlings out to hunt, sacrificing innocent passersby or homeless people.

Just as Tang Qi had first judged, these enormous wolf dogs truly were Supernatural Creatures.

Unfortunately, their extraordinary strength and speed could not spare them from the slaughter of firearms.

Their owner, the burly man called Mr. Skana, had likewise been separated from his head. His torso was on the other side, while his head was here. As for a Special Interface, there was none. Perhaps Skana had merely become a devilish villain without receiving supernatural recognition.

But none of that was important, because what made Tang Qi tense and caused every hair on his body to stand on end was the tall figure slowly emerging from the shadows opposite him.

He was a Tall Man, extremely thin, with a body and limbs grotesquely out of proportion. He wore some sort of janitor's uniform, filthy and reeking. Most eye-catching were the two gleaming silver cleavers held in his hands, which hung past his knees.

Malice—malice so intense that Tang Qi nearly erupted—washed over him.

Of all the malicious presences he had sensed before deactivating the Misfortune Mark, this one was the strongest.

So the answer was obvious.

"On the grasslands, many predators have set their sights on the same plump prey, but only the strongest gets to make the first kill?"

"You're the strongest among these monsters?"

As Tang Qi spoke, both hands moved at once. One slipped into his pocket and swiftly withdrew, while the other flicked open Bloodline One. Like an afterimage, he replaced the magazine in less than half a breath.

Meanwhile, the tall figure still did not move. He merely tilted his filthy, indistinct face and stared at Tang Qi with an amused expression.

It was like standing in a cramped bathroom with a cockroach slowly crawling at your feet. You had no intention of letting it go; you were simply considering which foot to use, at what angle, and with how much force to crush it.

The watchful gazes in the surrounding darkness likewise could not affect him.

In this area, he was not the king who ruled all, but he could sense that with each passing day, his strength continued to grow, his speed far surpassing all his "kind" lurking in the darkness.

Perhaps one day!

I can come out in the daytime, chop off all those humans' heads, and pile them up into a mountain? Or a castle?

Hmm, both sound pretty good.

Bang

While he was still thinking, the air ahead exploded.

As sulfur-scented sparks bloomed in the darkness, a brass bullet wrapped in faint Golden Flame shot toward his head. Then came five more muffled reports in rapid succession, and another five golden streaks burst forth.

The bullets that had effortlessly killed the Hybrid Devil Dogs, their automatically calibrated speed and angle, completely sealed off every route of escape for the strange Tall Man.

Since he was a strange creature, once touched by Furnace Power, he would surely suffer grave injury.

Tang Qi had already confirmed that with the Misfortune Witch. Since Furnace Power was a supernatural force capable of matching Misfortune Magic, then this "strange creature" born within the city should not have been able to contend with it.

After firing every bullet, Tang Qi's hands did not pause at all. He used the techniques of the Chaga Combat Technique even while reloading.

This time, what he loaded into Blood Python No. 1 were Sea Demon Bullets.

Sweat burst from his forehead, the back of his neck, and beneath his arms.

Because of the Meditation Method, Tang Qi was not only highly sensitive to human emotions, but also keenly aware of danger.

When he had killed the painter and the Devil Dogs, he had not been this nervous.

But now it was different. He could feel waves of terrifying malice surrounding him, as though needles were pricking his back.

"Though the lamplight has gone out, the moths are unwilling to leave."

"Kill the biggest one, and perhaps it will frighten the rest."

Thoughts surged through Tang Qi's mind. Blood Python No. 1, freshly reloaded, rose again just as its muzzle was about to spit fire.

Clang~ clang clang

Buzz~ bang

Six flashes of snowy blade light shattered every bullet. Then an afterimage instantly closed the distance between them, appearing before Tang Qi with near-Teleportation speed. It was so fast that Tang Qi only had time to raise his arm before he felt as though he had been struck by a speeding car.

His body slammed into the wall at excessive speed. Brick and stone fragments flew, while the rebounding force sent pain tearing through Tang Qi's back and churned his chest and abdomen.

Pfft!

Without question, he had coughed up blood.

At the same time, he realized that this opponent was far stronger than he had imagined.

Tang Qi struggled to raise his head and watched the tall figure approach step by step. At that moment, this Tall Man had become different from before.

"Puff, puff" sounds came from his back and beneath his ribs. Two pairs of equally overlong arms burst through flesh and extended outward. Strangely and bizarrely, each hand gripped a cleaver of the same design.

Drops of blood fell as his head turned counterclockwise with crackling sounds. A savage smile spread across his ordinary face, while his mouth slowly split open, stretching all the way to his ears and revealing saw-like teeth and a dark throat...

As he walked toward Tang Qi step by step, the Devil Dog corpses he passed—each already shot through the head—suddenly seemed like cloth sliced apart by sharp blades.

Hiss hiss hiss

Riiip~

They were torn into pieces, blood spraying wildly and turning the dark alley into a hellish scene.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Or simply a hobby of abusing corpses?

Tang Qi narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the tall humanoid monster approach. At last, the familiar Special Interface appeared in his eyes.