Feast

The hand showed no fear of the glass's sharp edges. The next moment, Lu Ban felt his vision suddenly narrow.

This was because another hand had climbed up from the left side, through the gap next to the driver's seat.

For the first time, the creature appeared complete and in detail before Lu Ban's eyes.

Its skin was hard, covered in irregular ravines. Below the rat-like head was an open mouth, but it didn't resemble a rat's at all. The three-lobed maw revealed densely packed, sharp teeth, like those of some reptile.

From the widely opened mouth, several dark red tongues swayed like tentacles, trying to snatch food from the outside.

The Rat People immediately noticed Lu Ban, who was driving.

Two Rat People, one on each side, crawled into the car in a bizarre, hunched posture. Their wriggling tongues and mouths swept towards Lu Ban's arms.

Lu Ban didn't hesitate. He kept his left hand on the steering wheel and grabbed the crowbar with his right, swinging it down at the Rat Person on the right.

The end of the crowbar accurately and firmly struck the Rat Person's head, embedding itself deeply. A dark yellow fluid splattered from the wound. The wriggling tongues and rows of tiny teeth instantly lost their vitality, and the Rat Person's small, vertical pupils dilated, its movements ceasing.

But in that brief interval, the one on the left had already grabbed Lu Ban's left arm.

The dark red, slick, elongated tongue wrapped tightly around Lu Ban's arm, and tiny teeth bit into his upper arm.

Pfft—

Before he could even feel pain, Lu Ban saw a green spread from the wound on his left hand.

Several new sprouts emerged from between the Rat Person's teeth and his own wound, wriggling rapidly like stimulated earthworms. Lu Ban felt something rising in his throat; he retracted the crowbar and coughed, splashing bright green fluid onto the steering wheel.

"No..."

A mournful cry came from behind. Through the cracked rearview mirror, Lu Ban could see that behind the bus, several more Rat People had simultaneously climbed into the vehicle and were attacking Stone and Mary.

Bang—

Mary shot the leading Rat Person in the head. Dark yellow fluid and flesh exploded outwards, but another Rat Person immediately seized the opportunity, pouncing and knocking Mary down. Its three-lobed mouth opened, and dark tongues wrapped around the neck of the middle-aged biologist. Then, sharp teeth followed.

"Ugh!"

Mary let out a muffled whimper. Her throat was torn open by the sharp teeth, blood gushing out as green vegetation sprouted from the hideous flesh.

The Rat Person raised its head slightly, preparing to bite again and completely tear Mary's throat apart, when a gunshot rang out.

Bang—

Stone had picked up Mary's gun at some point. His hands trembled, and with just one shot, he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

The Rat Person attacking Mary had half its head blown apart, its murky brain matter splattering onto Mary, mixing with the foul blood from her wound, creating a strangely beautiful and eerie hue.

Mary struggled to breathe, but her torn throat and severed artery's blood blocked her windpipe. She was like someone drowning, gasping desperately but unable to get any oxygen, about to suffocate to death.

Beside them, a pale yellow liquid flowed from beneath Stone. His whole body trembled, unable to make any further move. He could only watch as two Rat People moved towards him and Mary, their horrifying mouths emitting a foul stench, signaling their death sentence and end.

Lu Ban thrust his crowbar, piercing the Rat Person gnawing at his left hand. The pain seemed to momentarily slow the creature's movements, and the same pain sharpened Lu Ban's own senses.

In his skull, a wriggling life was waiting to break through the soil and welcome its new birth. The itching sensation turned into excruciating pain, tormenting Lu Ban's sanity.

In this desperate situation, Lu Ban opened his mouth.

"■■■■■—"

A voice, ancient, vast, and indifferent, erupted from Lu Ban's mouth.

In that instant, a more absolute existence occupied Lu Ban's brain. Above the itching and the pain was a primal human fear and reverence.

Lu Ban could feel a scorching flame burning everything within the folds of his cerebral cortex. If his temperature were taken at that moment, he might have seen it exceed forty degrees Celsius.

This was the Speech Bullet.

This was the [Last Words].

The ramblings Lu Ban had recorded earlier at the Jiangcheng Grand Theater, originating from the Old Ones, from the Great Being, were now echoing within the bus carriage in the desolate wilderness of the Ruined Capital.

In just a moment, the Rat Person attacking Lu Ban's left hand had its small eyes widen to the point of bulging. Its dark yellow vertical pupils wavered, and it let out a roar.

It was the same roar Lu Ban had heard before, like a pack of wolves, or perhaps human wailing.

The other Rat People in the car also let out roars. Those clinging to the bus body and roof, accompanied by unpleasant, sharp howls, lost their strength and were flung off by the speeding bus.

Lu Ban had no time to pay attention to this. He continued to drive forward while uttering his ramblings.

He knew very well that this patch of grass possessed a power that made plants grow uncontrollably. Only by leaving the radiation range of the grass could he alleviate his own vegetal transformation.

As Lu Ban repeated his ramblings, the new green shoots seemed to stop growing. At this moment, within Lu Ban's ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, the wildly growing vegetation trembled slightly as if struck by an electric current, appearing to be afraid, daring not to emerge, and forcibly curling back.

The Rat Person beside him had its murky eyes turned completely black. Its body's surface bulged as if invaded by some organism, like bubbles trying to find an exit between its skin and muscles, about to swell and burst.

"■■■■■—"

Amidst the maddening ramblings, the Rat Person released Lu Ban's hand and fell out of the car.

Lu Ban glanced at the Rat Person, but the next moment, a dark shadow fell over the grayish-white creature.

It was a fish.

In his feverish state caused by his own ramblings, Lu Ban had difficulty identifying the species of fish, or even if it was a fish from Earth. At least, seeing its scaled body, large eyes, gills, fins, and mouth full of hard teeth, his mind's first reaction was the word "fish."

The enormous, dark figure, almost as long as the bus, moved through the dark green grass. It bit the falling Rat Person in half in one gulp and then began to "surface."

Lu Ban followed the fish's silhouette upwards. He saw the fish toss the Rat Person's broken body into the air. The corpse, as if freed from gravity's constraint, floated weightlessly. Then, more fish gathered.

The fish swam nimbly out of the deadly grass, unaffected by the plants. They shared the Rat People's corpse in mid-air, and Lu Ban noticed that even the dark yellow blood didn't fall to the ground but dispersed like smoke.

He saw that after the fish had rapidly devoured the Rat People, they seemed to have caught the scent of fresh blood.

They wriggled their bodies and swarmed towards the bus.

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