Before Leike could warn him, the Hooded Night Watcher had also sensed the dangerous aura. Fresh Flesh was closing over his right arm, which had been shaved down to the bone, but it stopped before covering even half of it.
He turned his head and looked into the depths of the collapse.
"It's here."
Before his words had faded, a blood-colored afterimage shot out from the Collapse Pit. It was countless times faster than the Great Ghoul, almost leaving behind nothing more than a dark red dotted line.
It did not charge at Leike, who was closer. Instead, the afterimage rushed straight at the Hooded Night Watcher's side.
Leike reacted swiftly. The Insect Tide covering the collapse exploded, and countless Swarm Insects formed a wall of bugs, forcibly blocking the blood-colored afterimage from the Hooded Night Watcher.
The instant the insect wall touched the afterimage, entire layers of gray flesh worms curled up, became contaminated, and cracked apart piece by piece from the inside out. The wall lasted less than two breaths before being completely pierced through.
But those two breaths were enough.
The Hooded Night Watcher had already flashed three steps away. Flesh peeled from his arms and condensed anew, forming blade after blade that hovered around him with their edges facing outward as he stared fixedly at the blood-colored afterimage.
The afterimage burst through the remnants of the insect wall, finally revealing its form.
It was a strangely shaped Ghoul, its entire body exposed Flesh without a trace of skin. A single slit-like eye ran across the upper part of its head. It hunched over with both hands hanging at its sides, its fingertips unnaturally long.
Leike and the Hooded Night Watcher recognized it instantly. It was a Special Individual.
It stared at the Hooded Night Watcher, cold