Destroyer Squad: Rainy Night Hunt

In the vast night, there was nothing but the pouring rain.

Even the distant high-rises showed not a single light. The world was so silent, as if nothing remained but the endless rain.

"Bzzz..."

A sharp sound pierced the silence.

Then,

A pair of scarlet eyes...

Suddenly appeared beside a pile of garbage in the corner!

The blood-red eyes rippled like a pair of burning candles!

File No. 7, Candle Night

Preferences: darkness, dampness, eating people

From the outside, it looked like a large rat with a gaunt, twisted body. Its entire form was covered in a layer of dark hide, giving off a dim glow as though it had swallowed all light.

Its head was hairless, covered in a frog-skin-like membrane that looked rather disgusting.

Combined with its overly long limbs and sharp, elongated tail, its entire body exuded the stench of decay and death.

On the roof of the high-rise above it,

Several figures slowly gazed downward.

A silver-white earpiece glimmered faintly as the person leading them lightly pressed it.

"Thanks to you, we were able to pinpoint this thing's movements."

Standing at his side was Su Qingying, a temporary member transferred from headquarters.

Su Qingying shrugged. "Candle Night likes dark, damp places. I've checked everywhere nearby, and this was the most likely place it would appear. Sure enough."

After finding Candle Night, Su Qingying contacted the Destroyer Squad and had them come over.

"Not bad, but why are you wearing a security guard uniform?"

"...Personal preference."

They had arrived quickly, and Candle Night had not yet had the chance to kill anyone.

The Destroyer Squad captain turned around and gave a solemn warning.

"During the operation, avoid casualties as much as possible."

"Your own safety comes first. If anything happens, report to me immediately. Don't try to be a hero. Is that clear?"

"Understood, Captain."

The eyes beneath the three members' masks shone brightly, their voices perfectly in unison.

The Destroyer Squad captain gave a slight nod.

He looked at Candle Night below, let out a soft breath, and spoke four words.

"Operation... begin."

In an instant,

The trench coats on every one of them fluttered without wind. Spirit qi surged from within their bodies, lifting the corners of their clothes, and each of them seemed shrouded in a faint layer of moonlight.

The captain went first. He bent forward and fell toward the ground in a posture like he was embracing the earth.

Then came the second, and the third.

They spread their arms and descended from the high-rise together, as light as a breeze.

The next moment, their feet touched the dark stone pavement.

There was only a faint sound upon landing, swallowed by the roar of the rain.

Yet Candle Night, lurking in the darkness, suddenly raised its head in the midst of running.

Its blood-red eyes were like daggers, pinning the Destroyer Squad's position with precision.

They had been discovered!

Seeing this,

There was no need for the captain to issue an order.

Without exchanging a single word, the Destroyer Squad relied on the tacit understanding forged through years of life-and-death battles to spread out and seal off the four directions in which Candle Night could escape.

East, south, west, north.

In an instant, they had blocked every escape route in all four directions.

Candle Night was trapped within the narrow dark alley.

Its scarlet eyes lit up in the night like a trapped beast.

"Bzzz—"

In the silent night, a sharp, piercing cry suddenly rang out.

It echoed through the empty streets, sending chills down the spine.

Candle Night bared its teeth and growled toward the captain. Its decayed wings flapped, and its scarlet eyes flickered with strange light, filled with indescribable savagery and wildness.

The moment the cry rang out, the surrounding temperature dropped sharply.

Whoosh!

The captain pressed two fingers together in a sword gesture.

A blade formed from spirit qi sliced through the rain and plunged into Candle Night's bristling fur with a wet stab.

The invisible spirit qi easily severed Candle Night's tough fur.

Candle Night let out a hiss. Its crimson eyes blazed like fire, utterly berserk.

Suddenly, it released an earth-shaking roar like rolling thunder, blasting away the rain in every direction.

The four members of the Destroyer Squad retreated at the same time.

The rain contained invisible force. An iron trash bin nearby was instantly sliced into several pieces, its garbage scattering across the ground.

Several deep gouges appeared in the pavement, as though a giant had violently scraped it with an iron shovel. Dust flew everywhere, and the terrifying destructive force made their scalps tingle.

If the squad members had not retreated just now, their bones would likely have been shattered by now.

"An Anomaly's strength truly is formidable. With this kind of destructive power, plus that terrifying Dark Attribute, letting it remain in the city any longer would definitely cause a disaster."

The captain's expression was grave.

He watched Candle Night suddenly open its gaping maw, exposing its sharp teeth.

A cold gleam flashed.

A strange Black Mist spewed from its mouth.

The Black Mist writhed viciously, filled with an aura of destruction. The nearby asphalt road was instantly corroded over a large area.

The deeply sunken road surface was reflected in everyone's eyes.

The once-flat pavement had vanished, leaving only a pitch-black hole in the middle of the road, a horrifying sight.

Black Qi was still seeping out from the hole.

"It's a Dark Attribute with corrosive properties!"

"This Dark Attribute can corrode and break down an object the instant it touches it. It is practically the nemesis of all living things, an ultimate force of destruction."

"Without an equally ultimate High-level Attribute to counter it, this attribute will be extremely troublesome."

The Destroyer Squad swiftly assessed the situation, their brows tightly furrowed.

Just then,

The old streetlamp overhead crackled, flickering on and off. The next second, its bulb suddenly exploded.

Their vision was instantly swallowed by darkness.

"Watch out!"

The captain's low roar rang out in the darkness.

All the members looked over at once.

The scarlet eyes, conspicuous as little light bulbs, suddenly changed direction and charged straight through the lightly guarded southeast corner.

The member on the east instinctively tried to stop it, only to be sent flying and cough up blood.

In the span of a second, Candle Night shot out, swift as the wind.

"We can't let Candle Night escape. Chase it!"

The captain gave the order.

Without the slightest hesitation, the Destroyer Squad members turned into shadows and pursued it.

Black Mist fled through the pitch-black night.

Candle Night's escape seemed directionless, guided purely by instinct as it raced through the city's web-like alleys.

The Destroyer Squad followed close behind.

They clung to it relentlessly, like a shadow it could not shake off, pressed tightly to its heels.

During the pursuit,

The member in charge of reconnaissance trailed at the back of the team. She was the same member whose position had been breached earlier. Strictly speaking, she was not a frontline combatant, but half a commander responsible for consolidating information and planning routes. She was like the beacon of the entire squad; gathering information and adjusting tactics during missions was her specialty.

She raised her wrist, revealing a silver-white watch. It was a support device newly developed by the Spirit Qi Cultivation Association, capable of detecting the concentration of nearby Anomalies.

Under normal circumstances, the Anomaly concentration threshold a squad could handle was 50. That was the value for an Anomaly with High-level Attributes, while Candle Night's Anomaly concentration was 48. The watch's functions were not yet complete, and its positioning was not particularly accurate, so it was generally used only to survey Anomaly concentration.

When she saw the number on the watch, her pupils widened.

"Wait, the threshold has broken 80, and it's still rising crazily! There may be... more than one Anomaly here!"