Sword Broken

However, Zhou Kai overlooked a thick, withered tree.

It provided sufficient cover for something.

BOOM!

A gust of wind that tore through the air broke through the torrential rain and lunged toward him!

A deafening explosion rang in his ears.

A rusted meteor hammer, tethered by a chain and covered in metal spikes, grazed past Zhou Kai's shoulder, carving two hideous bloody gashes across his face before smashing violently into the gate of No. 777 Shelter!

Zhou Kai's blood seemed to flow backward in an instant, his entire body turning ice-cold.

More than his own life, he felt heartache for that door...

Lightning flashed, illuminating the tall figure standing in the center of the mud.

Except for its hands and feet, its entire body was encased in heavy metal armor.

The firelight from the fireplace inside the shelter shone through the shattered doorway onto it, yet it remained motionless.

Either it did not fear the firelight at all, or this armor had special protective effects.

Chain-Hammer Armored Soldier.

Zhou Kai took a deep breath; he knew he had no way out.

To protect the shelter from further damage, he had to fight, or at least... lure this guy away!

Skree!

Skree!

Before the Armored Soldier could retract the meteor hammer, Zhou Kai had already braced his Two-Handed Sword against his shoulder and charged forward, the steel blade slicing along the taut iron chain straight toward the Armored Soldier!

Metal ground against metal, erupting in blinding sparks amidst the curtain of rain.

Veins bulged on Zhou Kai's face as he used all his strength to hack fiercely at the Armored Soldier's head.

The Two-Handed Sword was a heavy weapon with decent armor-piercing capabilities... with his current strength, it should work!

CLANG!

THUD!

The blade slid along the helmet and eventually landed on the Armored Soldier's shoulder.

A shallow dent appeared on the heavy pauldrons, looking as if someone had pressed their thumb into it.

This strike had achieved nothing.

Breathe.

Zhou Kai maintained his hacking posture, his heavy, ragged breathing clearly audible in the rain.

The boundless, freezing rain poured over him, just like the reality before him, chilling him to the bone.

There are gaps even between monsters.

Being able to easily kill The Wanderer and Parasitic Corpse did not mean he could contend with this tin can.

This thing was far tougher than he had imagined.

What now?

Zhou Kai's cold sweat mixed with the freezing rain, sliding down his cheeks.

Should he dump his last three points of General Experience into the Two-Handed Sword's armor penetration?

He had seen this Armored Soldier's movement speed; his Level 3 Light Footwork was simply not enough.

At most, he could rely on his reflexes and short-range bursts to circle it, but once it created distance and gave chase, he would definitely be the one to lose!

In his double-clarity state, Zhou Kai's thinking was as fast as lightning and incredibly decisive.

With one strike failing, he immediately changed his move during the moment of stalemate.

The tip of his sword flicked upward along the Armored Soldier's pauldron, throwing off a trail of sparks, and wedged itself like a crowbar beneath the helmet.

He exerted force suddenly!

Rip!

A sound of tearing flesh rang out.

The helmet was actually ripped off by Zhou Kai!

In the darkness, Zhou Kai could see nothing and had to rely on his other senses.

The moment the helmet fell off, the sound of the chain dragging came, and the Armored Soldier moved.

"Fine, you're on!"

"Three points, Two-Handed Sword, Armor Penetration! Die, you bastard!"

The amulet wrapped around his wrist flashed with blue light, and Zhou Kai's intent was instantly answered.

And at this very instant, he saw the face of the Armored Soldier.

Its eyes were pierced by two long spikes that drove straight into the back of its skull, which seemed to serve the dual purpose of pinning its helmet in place.

The helmet was pried open, tearing away half of its scalp in the process and revealing a pale, writhing brain that looked like a cluster of maggots.

Zhou Kai immediately understood that the head was likely not its weak point.

But the momentum of his sword was already set; there was no turning back!

Zhou Kai had no choice but to continue exerting force into the downward slash...

During this motion, a faint glow lit up one side of the Two-Handed Sword, as if an invisible power had been imbued upon it.

However, at that very moment.

The armored soldier raised its weaponless hand, fingers splayed, attempting to catch the blade with its bare palm.

The next instant.

Squelch!

The heavy sword bit into the palm, shattering the metacarpals and forearm bones upon impact.

The armored soldier's thick forearm was actually severed diagonally by Zhou Kai's strike!

Had the armor not been so incredibly sturdy, Zhou Kai was confident the remaining momentum would have wounded its torso after shearing off the arm.

But being able to lop off an arm was already quite good.

It was far better than failing to penetrate its defenses entirely!

"Keep going!"

Zhou Kai stuck to the armored soldier like glue, ensuring that even if it charged wildly, it couldn't shake him off and was forced to passively endure attack after attack.

Yet, losing only a forearm seemed to have no impact on the armored soldier's combat effectiveness.

Once it retracted its flail and began swinging it frantically, Zhou Kai could no longer find an opportunity to get close.

His expression stiffened, and a sense of foreboding sprouted in his heart.

The longer the battle dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for him.

He could feel other things approaching from the surrounding darkness.

"This is the only way!"

After several failed attempts, Zhou Kai's eyes turned cold as he chose the only plan available.

He let out a roar, snatched up the severed arm from the ground, turned, and ran, quickly rushing back to No. 777 Shelter to hurl both the arm and the Moonlight Orchid Amulet into the living room.

Zhou Kai slammed on the brakes, spun around, and sprinted in the opposite direction of the shelter.

Even with the warnings from Morning Star and the knowledge that he could not die easily...

Today, he feared he truly had no choice but to die once.

But even in death, he had to trade it for enough gains.

Clutching his sword, Zhou Kai reached up to grab the window ledge of a nearby building, exerted force, and scaled the wall in a few steps to reach the second floor.

The armored soldier, charging from afar, smashed directly into the first floor in hot pursuit.

Ignoring the armored soldier, Zhou Kai lit his Oil Lamp.

Under the shroud of light, he searched and slashed through the house recklessly.

As he reached the stairwell.

BOOM!

The flail flew up from beneath his feet, shattering the floorboards.

Zhou Kai dodged to the side, unscathed.

A Parasitic Corpse that had been about to pounce on him, however, was smashed until only half its body remained.

Before the armored soldier could launch another attack, Zhou Kai lunged at the corpse to finish it off.

Slash, slash.

[You have killed "Diablo Parasitic Corpse (Complete Form)", General EXP +7]

"Add points to Falcon Strike Technique!"

The progress bar for the Falcon Strike Technique surged rapidly.

Zhou Kai's strength and speed increased by a notch instantly; of course, to deal with the armored soldier, this was still far from enough.

Keep running!

The further from the shelter, the better!

Zhou Kai held his longsword horizontally before him and slammed into the window.

Crash!

The entire window shattered upon impact.

Zhou Kai flew out from the second floor covered in glass shards, rolled to dissipate the impact, and sprinted toward another building.

By this moment, the silent town had been thoroughly awakened by him.

A few minutes passed in an instant.

After killing another Wanderer, Zhou Kai found himself cornered at the Town Clock Tower, just one street away from No. 1 Manor, by four types of monsters.

His Nightmare parkour run was forced to a halt.

A Hairy Monster, covered in fur with countless insect legs protruding from its sides.

A tall, dark shadow resembling a Wanderer, wielding a rusted streetlamp.

A Chain-Hammer Armored Soldier... and a swordsman dragging a long blade, standing at a height similar to his own.

They all stepped forward with stiff, rhythmic gaits, crowding in shoulder to shoulder.

And this was only what Zhou Kai could discern within the glow of his Oil Lamp...

In the darkness beyond the reach of the firelight, even more hair-raising existences were stirring, ready to strike.