Mutated Kasha Version

"She must have been a nurse when she was alive. Although her entire body has transformed into keratin, you can still make out traces of her once graceful figure."

Lu Ren stroked his chin as he objectively assessed the Contaminated Creature before him. Tattered white clothing hung from her body, which was covered in keratinous armor. Her head was encased in a smooth, rounded keratin helmet. A pair of enormous wings protruded from her shoulder blades—or rather than wings, Lu Ren thought they resembled turbine engines. Her hands were incredibly sharp, even gleaming with a metallic luster beneath the lights.

What the hell was this, a Mutated Kasha Version?

Her streamlined physique convinced Lu Ren that she was an agile type.

"So she looks good?" Xiang Yang asked, inexplicably irritated.

Lu Ren said, "If we're talking about when she was alive, she was probably good at having babies."

Xiang Yang twisted her body. "Look, look."

Lu Ren looked over. Xiang Yang, whose front and back had both become washboards from prolonged malnutrition, met his utterly indifferent expression. "Have some self-awareness. Don't humiliate yourself, okay?"

Xiang Yang's little face immediately fell as she muttered, "What? Don't you all like lolis?!"

Lu Ren looked surprised. "You know what lolis are?"

"My dad always said that men outside were drooling over girls like me."

Lu Ren considered those men creepy old uncles. He was a proper man...

Feeling somewhat excited at the thought, he bent slightly and pressed his hand down. "Enough. Is there any way we can get through?"

Qingxu's voice came through the headset taken from the monitoring center and hooked over Lu Ren's ear.

"Regretfully, the other three routes each have at least three Contaminated Creatures wandering around. This is the least dangerous route."

The least dangerous?

Lu Ren could not help surveying their surroundings. Everywhere bore horrifying claw marks, and the floor was littered with unknown dark brownish-black stains. He could not tell whether they were dried blood or something else.

They were unmistakable signs of tremendous strength, speed, and sharpness.

He picked up a broken fragment of some unknown component from the ground and tossed it toward an area farther inside.

The instant it left his hand, the Contaminated Creature noticed the disturbance. After glancing sideways at the black fragment arcing through the air, she directly turned to look at Lu Ren and Xiang Yang, who had poked their heads out from around the corridor corner.

Lu Ren narrowed his eyes. "This thing's pretty intelligent."

Qingxu said, "...Contaminated Creatures capable of claiming their own territory may not be as intelligent as humans, but they are not beasts that act purely on instinct."

"So its intelligence is evolving too?"

As he spoke, Lu Ren stopped hiding altogether. Drawing both swords, he stepped openly into view.

The Contaminated Creature merely glanced at Lu Ren's brazen stance. Her body crouched, and the turbine-like wings behind her abruptly burst with brilliant azure light. She became an afterimage as she charged toward him.

So fast!

But still manageable!

That initial display made Lu Ren feel this was suitable combat training. His gaze sharpened, his pupils contracted, and instead of retreating, he advanced. As he stepped forward, the longsword in his hand slashed cleanly downward, swift and urgent as a pouncing leopard.

In an instant, the Contaminated Creature was upon him. As she faced the blade descending from Lu Ren's hand, one of the wings behind her suddenly stirred.

Bzzz!!

Like a fan suddenly revving violently, her entire body tilted to one side. She nimbly evaded Lu Ren's overhead strike, then swept her sharp claws viciously at him.

What the hell!

Lu Ren remained calm and composed. With a Spirit of eight, he maintained his composure, though the sharpness radiating from those claws made his eyelids twitch.

His expression then hardened as his left-hand sword swept out.

Clang!

As metal clashed sharply, Lu Ren's body leaned slightly backward, and the sword in his left hand sprang high from the impact. Then his right leg flicked out in a sweeping kick, striking the opponent's other elbow joint midair. The heavy, solid blow threw her upper body off balance, and she fluttered her wings as she staggered back several steps.

Having caught his breath, Lu Ren thrust again, his sword striking her throat like lightning.

Ding!

With a soft sound, Lu Ren's expression changed slightly. Other than a few cracks in the armored shell, there was no reaction at all.

His sword was not sharp enough, and his strength was insufficient to break through her armor.

Xiang Yang, who had been watching from the side, seized the opening. A faint blue glow emerged from the blade of her dagger as she aimed at the base of the monster's left wing and slashed down.

With a ripping sound, as though paper were being torn apart, the monster's left wing fell away. The immense pain made the Contaminated Creature unleash a high-pitched shriek, its high-frequency sound waves stabbing at Lu Ren's eardrums as he bore the brunt of them.

At the same time, she lashed out with a claw and sent Xiang Yang flying. Xiang Yang slammed into a distant wall and landed atop a pile of unknown equipment, struggling in pain.

"Ding. You struck the Armored Eagle Woman's throat with one sword strike but failed to effectively pierce her armor. Basic Swordsmanship proficiency +1."

With no time to check on Xiang Yang, Lu Ren endured the pain in his ears and attacked with both swords. In a Double Peaks Piercing the Ears maneuver, he slammed both blades sideways into the Armored Eagle Woman's head, abruptly cutting off her shriek.

He had to focus on one point.

Lu Ren's thoughts raced. He hesitated no longer. The enraged Armored Eagle Woman swiped wildly, and vast amounts of air passed through the gaps between her sharp claws, producing clearly audible howling gusts.

The Armored Eagle Woman's five claws reached for the back of Lu Ren's neck, her enormous talons nearly engulfing his entire head.

The claws were ferocious enough to make Lu Ren's breathing seize.

Yet he did not dodge. From their first exchange, Lu Ren had already gauged her strength. It might be greater than an ordinary person's, perhaps even greater than his own, but it was not unbearable. With the Diverting Strength technique from Basic Swordsmanship, he could withstand it.

Lu Ren raised his longswords, his expression grim. In that split second, his twin swords whirled as though dancing!

The shrill sound of blades tearing through the air rang out again and again.

Sword Dance!

Lu Ren's arms swung the longswords so fast they became afterimages. Under the lights, the sword gleams bloomed into clusters of white radiance, enveloping the Armored Eagle Woman.

This was not a random, all-encompassing assault. Most of Lu Ren's strikes landed on the keratinous armor around the Armored Eagle Woman's throat.

Finally, accompanied by a shrill shattering sound like breaking glass, Lu Ren—who had unleashed more than a dozen slashes in a single second—quickly shattered the keratin around the throat of the Armored Eagle Woman, who only knew how to flail wildly. The sword gripped tightly in his right hand stabbed heavily into it, piercing all the way to the keratin on the other side.

"Aah!!!"

Ignoring the System Prompt Sound in his mind, Lu Ren abruptly released his sword and retreated. The Armored Eagle Woman's two claws passed within millimeters of his face.

"Give me the dagger!"

Lu Ren turned his head and shouted at Xiang Yang, who was sitting collapsed on the ground. Xiang Yang struggled to brace herself up, gritted her teeth, and threw the dagger in her hand, sending it flying to land more than ten meters away from Lu Ren.