However, Zhou Kai overlooked a thick, dead tree.
It provided ample cover for something.
Boom!
A gust of air-rending force tore through the downpour and hurtled straight at him!
A deafening crack exploded beside his ear.
A rusted meteor hammer, wrapped in chains and studded with metal spikes, grazed Zhou Kai's shoulder, carving two vicious bloody gashes across his face before smashing through the gate of No. 777 Shelter!
Zhou Kai's blood seemed to run backward in an instant, leaving his whole body ice-cold.
More than his own life, he was heartbroken over the gate...
Lightning flashed, illuminating the towering figure standing in the middle of the muddy ground.
Everything but its hands and feet was encased in heavy metal armor.
The firelight from the shelter's hearth spilled through the shattered doorway and fell upon it, but it remained perfectly still.
Either it wasn't afraid of the firelight, or its armor had some special protective properties.
A Chain-Hammer Armored Soldier.
Zhou Kai took a deep breath. He knew he had nowhere left to retreat.
To keep the shelter from suffering further damage, he had to fight. At the very least... he had to lure the thing away!
Screee!
Screee!
Before the armored soldier could pull back its meteor hammer, Zhou Kai had already braced his Two-Handed Sword against his shoulder and charged forward. The steel blade cleaved down along the taut chain, straight at the soldier!
Metal ground violently against metal, spraying dazzling sparks through the curtain of rain.
The veins bulged on Zhou Kai's face as he poured all his strength into a vicious strike at the soldier's head.
The Two-Handed Sword was a heavy weapon with decent armor-piercing ability... With his strength as it was now, it should work!
Clang!
Thud!
The blade slid down the helmet and finally struck the soldier's shoulder.
A shallow dent appeared in the heavy pauldron, as if someone had pressed it with a thumb.
The strike had done nothing.
Breathing.
Zhou Kai held his position after the swing, his ragged breathing clear in the rain.
The endless cold rain drenched him, chilling him to the bone just like the reality before his eyes.
There were differences even among monsters.
Being able to easily kill The Wanderer and Parasitic Corpses didn't mean he could go toe-to-toe with this walking tin can.
This thing was far tougher than he'd imagined.
What do I do?
Cold sweat mingled with the icy rain and ran down Zhou Kai's cheeks.
Should he spend all three of his remaining Universal Experience Points on the Two-Handed Sword's armor-piercing ability?
He'd seen how fast the armored soldier could move. His Level Three Light Footwork wasn't nearly enough.
At best, he could use his reflexes and short bursts of speed to maneuver around it. If it opened up the distance and chased him down, he'd definitely lose!
With his mind twice as clear, Zhou Kai's thoughts raced like lightning, utterly decisive.
His first strike had failed. In the split second of stalemate, he immediately changed his move.
The tip of his sword slid up along the soldier's pauldron before snapping upward, trailing sparks as it wedged beneath the helmet like a crowbar.
He put all his strength into it!
Screee!
The sound of flesh being torn apart rang out.
Zhou Kai had actually ripped the helmet off!
In the darkness, Zhou Kai couldn't see a thing and had to rely on his other senses.
The instant the helmet came free, he heard the chains dragging. The armored soldier moved.
"All right, I'm in!"
"Three points into Two-Handed Sword: Armor-Piercing! Die, damn you!"
The amulet wrapped around his wrist flashed blue. Zhou Kai's will was answered in an instant.
And in that same instant, he saw the soldier's face.
Two long nails pierced its eyes and went straight through the back of its head. The nails also seemed to hold the helmet in place.
Prying off the helmet had torn away half its scalp, revealing a pale brain inside, writhing like a mass of maggots.
Zhou Kai realized at once that its head probably wasn't its weak point.
But he had already committed to the strike. He couldn't stop now!
All he could do was keep swinging down with all his strength...
As he did, a faint glow appeared along one edge of the Two-Handed Sword, as if an invisible force had been added to it.
But at that moment,
the armored soldier raised the hand that wasn't holding a weapon and spread its fingers, apparently trying to catch the blade barehanded.
The next instant,
Splurt!
The heavy sword hacked into its palm. The bones of its hand and arm shattered on impact.
Zhou Kai's diagonal slash cut off the soldier's thick forearm!
If its armor hadn't been so incredibly tough, Zhou Kai was sure the force of the strike would have carried on to wound its torso after severing the arm.
But cutting off its arm was still a pretty good result.
It was better than failing to get through its defenses at all!
"Keep it up!"
Zhou Kai stuck close to the armored soldier, so that no matter how wildly it charged, it couldn't shake him off and had no choice but to endure one attack after another.
But losing just part of its forearm didn't seem to weaken its combat ability in the slightest.
Once it pulled back its chain hammer and began swinging it wildly, Zhou Kai could no longer find an opening to get close.
His expression stiffened, and a sense of foreboding stirred within him.
The longer the fight dragged on, the worse it was for him.
He could sense other things drawing near in the surrounding darkness.
"There's only one way!"
After several failed attempts, Zhou Kai's eyes turned cold as he chose the only plan he had left.
He let out a roar, snatched up the severed forearm from the ground, and ran. He raced back into No. 777 Shelter, then hurled the arm and the Moonlight Orchid Amulet together into the living room.
Zhou Kai skidded to a halt, spun around, and sprinted in the direction opposite the shelter.
Even with Morning Star's warning that he couldn't afford to die easily...
Today, he might really have no choice but to die once.
But even if he died, it had to be worth the cost.
Sword in hand, Zhou Kai reached for the window ledge of the building beside him and hauled himself up. Kicking off the wall, he scrambled to the second floor in a few quick steps.
The armored soldier charging from afar crashed straight into the first floor and followed close behind.
Zhou Kai ignored it and lit the oil lamp.
Under the light, he searched and hacked his way recklessly through the house.
By the time he reached the stairwell,
Boom!
The chain hammer came flying up from below, blowing apart the floorboards.
Zhou Kai dodged to the side and emerged unscathed.
But a Parasitic Corpse beside him, just about to pounce, was smashed until only half its body remained.
Before the armored soldier could attack again, Zhou Kai lunged at the corpse and finished it off.
A few quick slashes.
[You killed "Diablo Parasitic Corpse (Complete Form)," Universal Experience Points +7]
"Put the points into Falcon Strike Technique!"
The Falcon Strike Technique progress bar shot upward.
Zhou Kai's strength and speed instantly increased by a notch. Of course, it still wasn't nearly enough to deal with the armored soldier.
Keep running!
The farther from the shelter, the better!
Zhou Kai held the long sword in front of him and slammed into the window.
Crash!
The entire window shattered.
Trailing glass shards, Zhou Kai dove from the second floor, rolled to absorb the impact, and charged toward another building.
By now, he had fully roused the once-silent town.
A few minutes flew by.
After killing another "The Wanderer,"
Zhou Kai was cornered by four kinds of monsters at the town's clock tower, just one street away from No. 1 Manor.
His Nightmare parkour was forced to a halt.
A Hairy Monster covered in fur, with countless insect legs jutting from its sides.
A tall, dark figure resembling The Wanderer, carrying a rusted streetlamp.
The Chain-Hammer Armored Soldier... and a swordsman about as tall as Zhou Kai, dragging a long sword behind him.
They all came lumbering closer on stiff legs, shoulder to shoulder.
And these were only the ones Zhou Kai could make out in the oil lamp's glow...
In the darkness beyond the light, even more horrifying beings were stirring.
Before you continue