Luring the Monsters

Just as the two of them appeared,

a monster with a bluish-green, rotting body, exposed bones at its knees, collarbones, and feet, and sharp bone claws on its hands

slid down from a ceiling vent behind them and landed on the ground.

Elina had screamed because the monster had startled her.

The monster silently pounced on the woman and bit through her neck. Her head fell to the ground.

Then it suddenly lunged at the man.

Taking advantage of the moment, Wu Heng tensed his leg muscles and sprang forward. He closed the distance in two strides, swung the briefcase with all his might in a full arc from behind, and smashed it into the monster's head.

Bang!

The monster's head burst apart. Its teeth were clamped around the man's neck, and the briefcase struck like a hammer driving in a nail. The impact also broke the man's neck, and his head fell to the ground, nestled sweetly beside the woman's.

The man and the monster fell to the ground at the same time. Their red and black blood mixed together, forming a brown liquid.

"God, are you a demon-hunting priest? This is truly astonishing."

In these circumstances, Elina had already developed dependent personality disorder.

"God probably doesn't like me very much."

Wu Heng replied.

He walked over to the monster, and an odor as foul as a bedbug's hit him in the face.

The smell was overpowering, like stepping on a hundred bedbugs at once.

Wu Heng examined the creature carefully. It resembled the Lesser Demons described in a comic's side story, from Abaddon Hell, another level of Hell beneath Leviathan Hell.

It was said that these demons gave off the smell of ether and human metabolic waste.

They could change their voices, and their claws could easily tear apart prey, but they could be easily injured by ordinary physical attacks.

The strong smell of human metabolic waste convinced Wu Heng that this was a Lesser Demon.

So the barks, meows, and squeaks he'd heard in the subway, along with Elina's cries for help, had all been imitated by these Lesser Demons. They were rather stupid, though, copying any sound they came across.

Wu Heng thought for a moment, endured the disgusting smell, and reached out to grab the Lesser Demon's body. He tried to activate his Siphon ability.

A faint energy flowed from the Lesser Demon's body, up Wu Heng's arm, and into his own body.

Wu Heng could feel his physical attributes strengthen slightly once again, but a single Lesser Demon held very little energy, providing only about a one-percent boost.

Wu Heng looked at the frail Lesser Demon in front of him and listened to the roars and imitations of other Lesser Demons coming from inside the subway.

Suddenly, he didn't really feel like leaving. He could return at any time now, and this bunch of low-level Lesser Demons seemed more like walking experience packs.

Of course, that was only from Wu Heng's perspective. To ordinary people, they were crazed killers.

Their sharp bone claws and incredible speed made them dangerous, and the only way to kill them was to crush their heads. Ordinary firearms were useless.

"The exit is just ahead. Go on out. I'll go check on your friends."

"May God protect them!"

Wu Heng pointed to the right, then turned and headed back to where he had tactically retreated earlier.

"I'll get the police to help you."

Elina said softly from behind him.

Wu Heng followed the blood trail on the ground all the way to the last subway car.

A blonde woman was still slowly struggling to crawl in the direction Wu Heng had come from, leaving a long trail of blood behind her.

She had only her upper body left.

"Help..."

The woman had barely managed to get two words out when she fell silent forever.

Wu Heng paid no attention to her. He looked around and heard a faint noise coming from the top of the subway car.

The moment he looked up, two Lesser Demons pounced at him from the roof.

Wu Heng stepped back and swung the alloy briefcase, smacking the first one down. Then he kicked the other Lesser Demon in the stomach. As it flew away, its bone claws tore into Wu Heng's calf.

They sliced through it as easily as cutting tofu, exposing the bone.

Wu Heng ignored his injury and charged forward. He used the metal briefcase like a hammer, repeatedly smashing the two still-struggling Lesser Demons.

He kept going until foul black blood covered the ground and they stopped moving.

Wu Heng reached out. The black liquid quickly dried, leaving dark stains on the ground. The two Lesser Demons shriveled too, like skeletons sealed inside vacuum bags.

He stood up. The injury to his leg had completely healed, and his body had grown two percent stronger.

The only downside is that my pants are ruined.

Wu Heng looked down at the torn leg of his pants.

Then he glanced behind him, feeling a little puzzled.

"Wait for me!"

To his surprise, Elina had timidly made her way over again.

"Why did you come back? Have you got a thing for danger?"

Wu Heng had no idea what the woman was thinking.

"The subway doors are locked, and the security guard is dead. I can't get out, and I'm afraid to stay there alone."

Elina nervously lit another cigarette.

"Can you scream?" Wu Heng asked.

"Huh?"

Wu Heng led Elina into the last car, shut the rear door, and left the side door half open.

"Scream. Draw the monsters over."

"Oh. Ahhh!" Understanding what he meant, Elina screamed at the top of her lungs, trusting Wu Heng's looks and strength.

As her cries rang out, chaotic footsteps began to echo around them, drawing closer from a distance.

Wu Heng gripped the briefcase tightly and waited silently beside the doorway.

The Lesser Demons surged toward the entrance like a crowd of zombies.

Bone claws kept stabbing in from outside through the walls of the subway car. Terrified, Elina grabbed the central handrail and no longer dared to stand against the wall.

Bang. Bang-bang.

The repeated crashes inside the subway echoed through the deep tunnel, overlapping one after another like a whole artillery regiment bombarding the place.

Wu Heng kept smashing the monsters like he was playing whack-a-mole. After ten minutes, his clothes had been reduced to strips, and steam rose from his sweat in the cold tunnel.

No more Lesser Demons came through the battered doorway. Nearly twenty of their corpses lay on the ground.

Wu Heng drained them one by one, absorbing their evil energy. The stench was so intense that it was like fighting in a toilet.

All the Lesser Demons on the ground had shriveled into dried specimens. Wu Heng checked his body and found that his strength had increased by about twenty percent. He was very satisfied.

Clang!

A straggling Lesser Demon tore away the ventilation cover on the subway car's ceiling and hung halfway inside upside down, trying to snatch Elina.

Wu Heng turned and reached out with his left hand as fast as thunder, grabbing it by the throat. He tensed his arm and yanked it down.

With one hand, he performed Tombstone Spike, slamming the Lesser Demon's head into the ground. It didn't even have time to scream before it turned into another dried specimen.

"Not bad. That makes twenty exactly."