The Mutation

Bang!

The bright crimson Blood Bullet—the last one Ye Chen had forged tonight—flew less than ten meters and struck Xiaowaluwen's left leg with unerring precision before he could make it disappear.

Boom!

Blood-red light exploded. Xiaowaluwen's left thigh was blown apart in an instant, and everything below the knee was blasted away.

In a flash, flesh scattered through the night sky, and bones shattered across the ground.

"Aaaahhh—!"

Xiaowaluwen collapsed to the ground, his features twisted into a knot as he let out a scream that seemed to split the heavens.

His upper body, which had been rapidly disappearing, began slowly to return to human form as the agony kept him from focusing.

"Whew."

Panting, the youth lowered his revolver and slowly climbed to his feet.

He took off his Elite Guard coat, revealing a shirt almost entirely scorched by the heat. Then, clutching his bleeding waist and abdomen, he staggered over to Xiaowaluwen. Exhaustion showed in his eyes as he looked down at his fallen opponent—his final prey of the night.

Xiaowaluwen could no longer use Invisibility. He could no longer escape Ye Chen.

Clearly, he was now trapped like a turtle in a jar.

Xiaowaluwen had been cautious all night, only to make a mistake at the very last moment.

That blind lapse in vigilance had turned the tables once more, leaving him unable to rise, sprawled at Ye Chen's feet.

Clutching his left leg, Xiaowaluwen grimaced and cried out in pain. Then he raised his bloodshot eyes and cursed Ye Chen hoarsely:

"You despicable bastard! All you do is resort to these shameless tricks! Aaaah—!"

But Ye Chen remained expressionless and unmoved by the insults. He didn't even bat an eyelid.

After all, Ye Chen knew perfectly well that he was a Hunter, not a knight.

A Hunter was supposed to be cunning and underhanded. As long as it helped bring down the target, no method was off-limits. That was what Lyle called a true Hunter.

So Xiaowaluwen's slander didn't bother Ye Chen in the least. From another perspective, it might even count as praise.

"Abyss... Abyss, seeing how devout my brother and I have been to you, please help me escape this predicament! Please help me... get rid of this wretch—!"

Sweat beaded across Xiaowaluwen's face from the pain as he bowed his head and began to beg.

The mass of black sludge clinging to his skin heard his plea and surged toward his severed left leg, winding and coiling around it as it tried to restore it.

But Ye Chen's bloodied short sword flashed like a shadow and plunged into the center of the sludge.

The next moment, the blood on the blade seared the viscous sludge. It shrieked as though in agony, then crumbled into countless ashes that scattered in the evening breeze.

"Gaaahhh—!"

Ye Chen's strike not only destroyed a large portion of the Abyss Matter covering Xiaowaluwen's body, but also tore open the wound on his thigh again. His awful, hoarse cries once more echoed through the quiet grounds of Xiaowalu Manor.

"Hah..."

Ye Chen took a few more breaths, forcing himself to endure the pain coursing through his body. He circled around to Xiaowaluwen's upper body and raised his bloodied short sword, ready to pierce his prey's skull.

But even as he writhed in excruciating pain, Xiaowaluwen's instinct for survival drove him to raise both hands with all his strength. He grabbed Ye Chen's wrist and desperately stopped the blade from coming down.

"Ugh—!"

The two grappled and strained against each other for a long while. One had been weakened by his injuries, the other was exhausted, and neither could gain the upper hand.

After several attempts, Ye Chen realized just how poor his condition was. He had the will but not the strength, so he simply raised his revolver and fired at Xiaowaluwen's eye.

The bronze-colored bullet struck the fragile eyeball, drawing another scream of unbearable agony from Xiaowaluwen.

Seizing the opening while Xiaowaluwen was helpless with pain, Ye Chen mercilessly drove his sword through his forehead.

Whoosh.

The blade pierced his skull, and Xiaowaluwen's hands finally fell limp to the ground.

Even so, Ye Chen's expression remained grave.

He knew that creatures connected to the Abyss never died easily.

There were at least two things he still had to do: make sure the brothers Xiaowaluwen and Xiaowalus—and the Abyss Matter within them—were completely dead, utterly destroyed.

With that thought, Ye Chen pulled out his short sword and swung again, severing Xiaowaluwen's head from his body. Then, inside the man's windpipe, he found a black round stone just like the one inside the Alpha Ape.

It was an Abyss Core wrapped in sludge-like matter.

Crack!

The youth brought his sword down, smashing the Abyss Core to pieces.

After he struck, the black sludge on Xiaowaluwen's body cried out as it crumbled into dry ash, then finally vanished.

"Whew! Whew! Whew!"

Once he saw that Xiaowaluwen had stopped breathing for good, Ye Chen staggered back a few steps and couldn't help throwing his head back to gulp in air.

The youth was utterly exhausted. He was covered in wounds and barely conscious. He could no longer even maintain the Spirit Art Self-Healing, and the wounds that had been sealed up began bleeding again.

Even so, Ye Chen's task wasn't over yet.

He still had to confirm that Xiaowalus was dead beyond any doubt before tonight's hunt could come to a perfect end.

Where would Xiaowalus's body be? Never mind. He'd look slowly...

That was what Ye Chen thought as he slowly raised his head toward the way ahead.

Then, at the far end of the fountain courtyard, he saw a shadow crawling on all fours across the ground, staring at him from the other side of the fountain.

At first, the youth couldn't make out what the shadow really was.

But as the thick clouds passed from the night sky and the full moon's light once again spread across the earth, he finally saw that it was a humanoid creature crawling like a lizard, its belly turned upward and its limbs bent inward.

It was dressed in the bloodstained clothes of a nobleman, but above the chin, its head was a cone-shaped mass of black flesh.

A long gash split the middle of the fleshy mass. Dozens of tentacles extended from within it, whipping and stretching through the air as it let out eerie, low moans from time to time.

At that very moment, Xiaowalus's corpse had come looking for him of its own accord—and appeared in the most hair-raising way imaginable, right back in Ye Chen's field of vision.

"Hiss."

Ye Chen couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. A sense of danger immediately coursed through him, making every muscle tense and contract.

After staring silently at Ye Chen for several seconds, the mutated Xiaowalus suddenly stretched open its split mouth, twitched its long, slender tentacles, and swung its thick limbs. It rang the starting bell for the final round of Ye Chen's night hunt.

"Eee-hee-hee—!"

The monster cheered. The monster reveled. The monster twisted its grotesque body. The monster charged forward with swift, pounding steps.

Xiaowalus, risen from the dead, came crawling madly toward Ye Chen.