By the road
A large number of police cars surrounded the area near the pipe. Every officer had drawn their sidearm, loaded it, and stood ready.
A beam of light shone down from the sky.
An armed helicopter descended slowly. The officer manning its machine gun adjusted his aim toward the pipe.
The sheer scale of the scene left passersby stunned.
Some even stopped their cars and pulled out their phones to record, while others tried to get closer and see what was happening inside.
By then, the police had begun calling out.
They also tried to contact the officers who had entered the pipe earlier, but received no response.
The deputy chief was considering whether to send in a squad to investigate when a roar from inside the pipe put an end to that idea.
Several officers at the front line had already approached the pipe's entrance.
Their colleagues behind them and the armed helicopter gave them a great sense of security.
The first American cop cautiously leaned out to look down.
In that instant,
a shadow shot out. The officer had only just poked his head out when he fell to the ground, a severed head in the shadow's hand.
The shadow's true appearance was revealed to everyone.
The officers stared wide-eyed at the monster before them, wondering what on earth it was.
The Bat Person was furious. A thin layer of green skin beneath his neck spread as his anger rose, like a lizard preparing to feed, making him look even more hideous.
The deputy chief looked at the Bat Person, hesitated for a second, then gave the order to fire.
"Open fire!"
Pistols, submachine guns—countless rounds poured out in a hail of fire.
The Bat Person dodged left and right, fleeing into the haystacks. Even when hit, he paid no heed. He was fast enough to break through the encircling fire in no time.
The armed helicopter's spotlight kept his position illuminated.
Once the gunner had him in his sights, he opened fire, sweeping the area with the machine gun. The dense stream of bullets swallowed the Bat Person like a fiery serpent.
The Bat Person raised an arm to shield himself. Bullets passed through his body, but rather than turning him into a bloody mess, they only caused minor injuries.
A closer look would have revealed that each bullet gave off a wisp of black smoke as it passed through the Bat Person's body. That smoke was what made him immune to the bullets.
"Hiss!"
The Bat Person realized that the strange object in the sky wasn't as powerful as he'd thought. He'd originally planned to flee because he was outnumbered, but now...
With a roar, a pair of enormous Bat Wings sprouted from his back. He charged through the gunfire toward the armed helicopter.
By the time the pilot tried to climb, it was already too late.
Beneath the full moon,
Daley had just arrived by car when Li Dan opened the door and saw the helicopter spiraling out of control and crashing from the sky in the distance.
The deafening explosion and blaze were clear even from several hundred meters away.
The Bat Person had to be more than an ordinary carbon-based life-form.
If the helicopter had kept its distance, Evil Spirit Wendigo would probably have been taken down if surrounded.
But the Bat Person could fly.
Li Dan spotted the Bat Person beneath the moonlight. With a beat of his Bat Wings, he dove toward the officers. Each dive took several lives.
He couldn't let him keep killing like this.
If everyone died, it would be his and Daley's turn.
Li Dan fused with Evil Spirit Wendigo and left before Daley. Only after reaching the darkness did he unleash his full speed.
Back on the road,
the crowd that had gathered to watch had already fled in terror.
Only the officers remained, with nowhere to run. The Bat Person held a grudge, and the scene had become a slaughterhouse, with him killing them one-sidedly.
After getting closer, Li Dan hid behind a police car and didn't act rashly. The Bat Person's ability to fly put him at a severe disadvantage.
Fortunately, the Ghost Card could be summoned instantly. Wherever the card appeared, the monster appeared too. He could make use of that.
Just then, he noticed something and looked beneath the car.
Soul Severing Clown was hiding under it. Li Dan had ordered him to investigate. There was no point in picking a fight with a monster he couldn't beat and getting tortured. Being contained wasn't the same as being dead; he still had his mind.
"Art, come out. Get up there and distract the Bat Person."
Art, the clown, put on a smile more miserable than a sob, obediently crawled out from under the car, pulled a hammer from a plastic bag, and charged forward without hesitation.
The Bat Person was hunting. He was just about to attack the officer in front of him when something suddenly smacked him on the head.
He slowly turned around. At some point, a black-and-white clown had appeared before him, smiling amiably as if putting on a show.
The surviving officers got a moment to catch their breath. They didn't forget to warn their savior.
"Hey, clown! You'd better run!"
The Bat Person wore a vicious grin. He walked up to the clown and slapped him.
The clown's head spun 360 degrees, but strangely, he didn't die.
Li Dan had already made his way to the rear. He stopped there, and a Diamond Four appeared in his hand.
It wasn't a good position. One of the officers had spotted him.
The deputy chief gestured for Li Dan to leave immediately. Li Dan didn't understand and motioned for the officer to be quiet.
The Bat Person had now lifted Soul Severing Clown, ready to tear him apart. Even as Art was raised into the air, he still wore a smile.
The Ghost Card in Li Dan's hand flew away without a sound.
At a thought from Li Dan,
a terrifying monster covered in bone spikes appeared out of thin air above the Bat Person and slammed down on him, pinning him in place. It clung tightly to him as the spikes all over its body suddenly extended.
Like a mutant hedgehog, it could extend and retract its spikes at will.
Evil Spirit Wendigo's bone spikes pierced right through the Bat Person's body, including his newly spread Bat Wings.
Art scrambled away, but he couldn't crawl very fast. The spikes had pierced his lower body too, leaving him able to do little more than drag himself along.
Li Dan breathed a sigh of relief.
The deputy chief had witnessed everything. He looked at Li Dan with suspicion and uncertainty, poised to draw his gun at any moment.
"I'm an exorcist, and this monster is one of my contained entities. You might not believe me, but it's the truth. Besides, I saved you. Surely you're not going to point a gun at my head?"
The deputy chief hesitated, then lowered his gun and chose to believe Li Dan.
Judging by Evil Spirit Wendigo's appearance, if Li Dan had wanted to kill him, there'd have been no need for all this. And Li Dan really had saved him.
"Thank you."
"It was nothing."
Li Dan went over to check. He found that the Bat Person wasn't dead, but he couldn't break free from Evil Spirit Wendigo's grip or get through its defenses.
Thank goodness.
If the Bat Person had taken to the sky, even Li Dan would have been helpless against him.
The Bat Person could fly higher than an armed helicopter.
The surviving officers were panicking.
At the critical moment, the deputy chief stepped in to restore order and told everyone that Li Dan was an exorcist. Only then did things settle down.
Only then did Li Dan learn that the chubby-looking, middle-aged man was actually the deputy chief of the police department.
"Deputy Chief, I'm going to take this monster away to contain it. You don't mind, do you?"
The deputy chief glanced at Evil Spirit Wendigo, a hulking, vicious creature covered in bone spikes like a small mountain, and the struggling Bat Person in its arms. He gave an exceptionally friendly smile.
"Sir, you can do whatever you like with it. I have no objections. By the way, could I get your contact information?"
Li Dan looked at the fawning deputy chief and smiled.
"Of course."
By the time Daley drove over, it was all over. When he heard from the officers that Li Dan was an exorcist, he looked at him differently.
He'd originally disliked his sister being with this man. But now he had an idea...
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