The aberrant soldier suddenly froze, its bloated body trembling violently as though electrocuted.
Its skin began to blacken, the discoloration spreading outward from the edges of its cracks. Wherever the blackness spread, the flesh withered, hardened, and shattered.
Like a tree drained of all moisture, it withered from its leaves to its branches, from its branches to its trunk, until the entire tree became nothing but dry kindling.
A few seconds later, the aberrant soldier's body completely shattered, turning into a puddle of blackened, desiccated flesh powder. The powder fell onto the living flesh layer, was absorbed by the flesh buds, and vanished without a trace.
The second aberrant soldier reacted. It wildly swung its fleshy whip, striking the thorns and snapping them apart; striking the living flesh layer and tearing open a gash.
But it could not hit Vicks. Vicks had no physical form, and the whip passed through his body as if through air.
Vicks's black mist split in two. One mass wrapped around the aberrant soldier's head from the front, while the other slipped into the festering crack on its arm from the side.
The aberrant soldier's movements instantly froze, as though someone had pressed pause.
Its tiny scarlet eyes rapidly dimmed, changing from blood-red to dark red, then from dark red to gray-black, before finally going completely dark.
Its bloated body rapidly shriveled, as if an invisible hand were scooping out its flesh and blood from the inside.
A few seconds later, it collapsed to the ground and became a puddle of foul-smelling desiccated flesh.
Vicks's black mist drifted up from the two puddles of desiccated flesh and gathered once more into a half-human silhouette.
Over a thousand tiny scarlet evil eyes turned as they swept the surroundings, confirming that there were no other aberrant soldiers.