Becoming the Hunter

"Now that had to be one handsome bastard."

Li Zu broke into a run. Compared to Dick's stylish running form, his movements looked comical.

But Dick, who had watched him turn a living person into a toy, did not think so.

Turning living people into toys,

using cuteness to decorate terror.

It was like tying a pink bow to a submachine gun. No matter how fancy the decoration, it could not change the fact that it existed to kill.

Dick envied that power immensely. If he had it, he would definitely turn around and take out those bitchy women behind them.

When Li Zu turned that woman into a toy and handed her over to Dick to do with as he pleased, madness had been like gravity, pulling him down into it. Li Zu had been the one who gave him a gentle push.

They ran into the town, bringing with them the blood-eyed Amazonian warriors.

The fleeing townspeople ran into the warriors,

and another bloody massacre began.

Dick Grayson was furious at the sight.

Li Zu, beside him, was panting heavily, as though the run had drained every last bit of his strength, leaving him no energy to care about anything else.

Or perhaps he simply did not care about anything else.

Not far ahead, Dick noticed Li Zu stop and lean against a roadside wall, bracing his hands on his knees as he rested.

He was out of stamina, looking like a terminally lazy patient who had spent years shut in a sunless bedroom and probably skipped breakfast often.

Yet he knew Acrobatics and had a nimble body.

An acrobat with terrible stamina? He was a walking contradiction.

Dick stopped as well. "The train station is still far away! Keep running! If they catch up to us, we're dead!"

"There's a place up ahead. Maybe we can hide inside."

Li Zu pointed at the pork processing plant ahead.

Dick still had plenty of stamina, but looking at Li Zu gasping for breath, he decided to go with him. Boston Brand, the dead man only Li Zu could see, shouted furiously beside them, but no one paid him any attention.

They entered the pork processing plant.

The lights were still on, but there was no one inside.

Skinned pig carcasses had been split in half and hung from iron hooks.

Half a carcass, another half, and yet another half.

They filled eighty percent of their field of vision.

The place exuded an icy chill, yet compared with the hellish scene of corpses covering the streets outside, it looked far more "cozy."

Dick hugged the Helmet of Nabu and began searching through the plant.

Once Li Zu had finished resting, they would need to keep moving.

"Why not let Dick throw away the helmet? They only want that worthless-looking thing!" Deadman Boston Brand loudly berated Li Zu. "Give it to them, and you'll be safe!"

Dick Grayson could not see him, so Boston could only question Li Zu.

Li Zu kept his head lowered as he rummaged through piles of pork.

"Compromise is like what you suggested—letting a shark lick your hand first."

In his eyes, it seemed the word "compromise" had never existed.

Boston Brand froze at those words.

Li Zu gritted his teeth and pulled a large blade from the pile of meat.

A sharp meat saw.

One side had a razor-sharp edge.

The other was lined with fine serrations, probably meant for sawing through bones.

Lard made the handle gleam with grease. To improve the grip, the butcher had wrapped it with burlap, making it fit nicely in the hand.

"You think you can beat Amazonians?" Boston watched Li Zu swing the meat saw and laughed without restraint.

Those women were not only immensely strong; some were impervious to blades and bullets, and some could even fly!

What could a green-suited freak who knew a little Acrobatics and a big circus kid possibly do?

"Just holding that knife has already used up all your strength!" Boston said.

"To be honest, I'm only interested in exploring this world. Fighting falls outside my range of interests." Li Zu flicked the meat saw, his arm already a little sore.

Boston was right. Simply lifting the blade had exhausted all his strength.

"This makes things much easier~"

The meat saw rapidly shrank and changed in his hand, becoming a plastic toy meat saw.

"You're planning to chop people with a toy?" Boston mocked.

"A toy?"

Li Zu suddenly flicked his wrist. The toy rapidly grew... transforming from a toy into a meat saw gleaming with lard!

Thud—

The meat saw struck a half-carcass with a dull chop, splitting it in two.

Its sharpness and weight proved that it was a terrifying meat saw, not a plastic toy.

"Ha! I knew that was how this thing was supposed to work!" Li Zu shouted excitedly.

Dick had already returned. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he asked, "What should we do? If we just stay here, they'll catch up with us soon!"

He had simply asked Li Zu out of instinct.

If those bastards in Gotham found out, they would definitely laugh at him without mercy.

"If you want to survive the hunt... then become the hunter, not the prey."

At the center of town,

the red-haired woman in silver-white armor sounded somewhat irritated. "My patience has run out. How many people have we lost?"

"Three."

"A shark-man bit Xiya to death. Keya had the back of her head punched through. Lanna is missing. We only found a toy that looked like Lanna, and it was smashed." The voice reporting beside her was filled with anger.

"Where is the Helmet of Nabu? We must claim the queen's bounty!" The red-haired woman appeared to feel nothing over her companions' deaths.

"Those two are in this town. Someone has already gone to investigate. I'm sure the survivors will give us an answer we like!"

The Amazonian warriors, their feet planted in pools of blood, looked over the silent town before them.

Just minutes ago, the place had been bustling, with countless people screaming as they fled for their lives.

Now, they had shut their mouths forever.

A warrior returned and reported, "They're in a factory. Their footprints are there, and their steps look very panicked."

"Surround the slaughterhouse!"

The red-haired woman instructed, "Remember, we only need the helmet!"

The Amazonians who received the order moved toward the pork processing plant. Their synchronized footsteps, walls of shields, and forests of spears blocked every possible escape route.

The pork processing plant was surrounded so tightly that not even water could seep through.

"The queen has waited long enough. Once we take the Helmet of Nabu, it'll be time to leave~"

A small squad, consisting of seven people, rushed into the pork processing plant.

"This is... did we come to the wrong place?"

They froze at the sight before them. The smell of raw meat lingered in the air, but there was no meat—only toys, countless toys, hanging from the iron hooks.

Judging by their shapes, they looked very much like pig carcasses split into halves.

They spread out, searching this toy pork processing plant for living people.

"Someone's over there!"

The braided Amazonian warrior raised the black steel shortsword in her hand. The figure in the corner, dressed in a green suit and holding a toy meat saw, stiffened as though he had not expected to be discovered.

His face was still somewhat panicked.

"The Helmet of Nabu is in his hands!"

"I'm coming, Adeline!" The warrior with a mohawk heard her voice and jogged over.

"This boring chase can finally end." Adeline raised her black steel shortsword. They only needed the helmet, not some freak wearing it along with a tasteless green suit!

So this man's fate was already decided.

Splat!!

A longsword pierced through her body from behind, its bloodstained blade emerging from her chest.

The sword through her chest drained away her strength, but the Amazonian's formidable vitality allowed her to force herself to turn around.

"Christo, you!!"

The one who had ambushed her was her former companion!

(End of chapter)