"Muda muda muda muda!"
Inside the bus, which had practically become a hell of blood and flesh, Gold Experience's imposing battle cry rang out.
This dazzling Stand, glowing faintly with golden light, had been "muda-ing" on and off for nearly half a minute under Giorno's command.
Whenever the Meat Chunk showed any sign of changing targets to attack ordinary people, Gold Experience would use its miraculous Stand ability to infuse lifeless objects with life energy, turning them into bait that could draw the Meat Chunk's attention.
At last, under Giorno's desperate protection and Li Qing's fierce urging, those terrified civilians managed to flee with the wounded.
They had escaped far enough to leave the Meat Chunk's attack range.
Even though Giorno did not create any more Brown Swallow decoys, that twisted Meat Chunk did not turn around to pursue his classmates again.
However.
Li Qing and Giorno remained where they were, in that living hell nearly covered by fleshy tumors and tentacles.
And, whether by luck or misfortune, not a single other pedestrian or vehicle passed along this empty road.
They had drawn the monster's aggro away from those students, but now there was no one left to draw its aggro away from them.
"Pant, pant."
"Stop moving, Gold Experience."
Giorno ordered his Stand to stop, gasping for breath as sweat poured down his forehead.
The enormous drain caused by overusing his Stand ability had exhausted him to the limit. Only his powerful will kept him from staggering and collapsing.
At that moment, the monster, swollen to the size of an entire sedan, had also lost its target.
It instinctively sprawled atop the bus, which had already been gnawed away by nearly half, slowly and aimlessly extending its writhing carpet of flesh in every direction, constantly consuming everything around it.
"Hey."
"Mr. Baldy."
Giorno struggled to remain stiff and motionless, panting heavily as he said:
"Have you figured out a way to escape?"
"If this continues, even if we stand completely still like rocks, we'll eventually be swallowed by that monster's ever-spreading body."
"A way to escape?"
Li Qing maintained the same absurd pose from the children's game of Red Light, Green Light:
"Of course I have one."
"Otherwise, did I stay here to wait for death with you?"
He gave Giorno a thoroughly confident look, then suddenly asked:
"Kid, you can control the animals you create, right?"
"Well..."
Giorno forced himself to focus, maintaining his calm before the slowly approaching Meat Chunk.
"The animals I create have minds of their own. They're genuine living creatures."
"It's impossible to control them however I please. At most, I can give them a simple command."
"That's enough."
Li Qing's expression became much more relaxed.
Even as that revolting giant Meat Chunk was about to reach his body, his voice remained perfectly calm:
"Then please create another bird."
"Not a Brown Swallow. It should be the kind of bird that takes off very slowly—slower than a human's top running speed."
"After you create it, just order it to fly straight into the sky."
"Slower than a human's top running speed?"
Giorno was somewhat puzzled, but he did not ask any further questions.
He knew that all he could do now was trust the mysterious bald man. "All right. Shall I start now?"
"Wait."
Li Qing stopped Giorno's eager movement.
"Wait until I say start before you act."
As he spoke, he frowned slightly and focused on listening to everything around him.
"This..."
Giorno did not know what Li Qing was listening for, nor what timing he was waiting for.
All he knew was that, at the Meat Chunk's slow yet unwavering pace, he could survive for ten seconds at most.
Ten seconds later, he and Li Qing would fall into that quagmire of flesh and blood, never to escape.
1098
The Meat Chunk drew closer and closer. Less than a meter remained between them.
765
Li Qing still had not called out the word "start," but the Meat Chunk's tentacle-like limbs had slowly reached Giorno's feet.
The writhing sounds so close at hand and that nauseating stench of blood were enough to turn even the bravest, most fearless warrior into a coward fleeing in panic.
432
Li Qing still did not move.
The tendrils extended by the Meat Chunk had already touched Giorno's shoe.
What exactly is he waiting for?!
Giorno could not help asking himself that question.
For one brief moment, he even wondered if Li Qing had actually run out of options and merely wanted him to wait quietly for death while clinging to false hope.
Yet, faced with that oncoming aura of death, he ultimately chose to trust Li Qing.
1
The Meat Chunk that touched Giorno's body was stimulated awake by the fragrance of living flesh.
Its bloated body writhed at high speed as it pounced viciously toward Giorno's delicious flesh like a starving wolf.
At that moment, Li Qing finally shouted:
"Start!"
"Gold Experience!"
Prepared for this, Giorno summoned his Stand. The agile Gold Experience immediately unleashed a flurry of punches:
"Muda muda muda!"
Powerful life force gathered in its brilliant golden fists, and in an instant, it "punched" a nearby seat into a fat pigeon.
That was right.
To meet Li Qing's requirement that it take off slowly, Giorno had even given this pigeon a little extra food.
"Coo!"
The fat pigeon began cooing the moment it was born.
Giorno did not even need to give it an order. Simply sensing the invisible aura emanating from the giant Meat Chunk, it desperately began flying into the sky.
Though it was slow, it was still much faster than the motionless Giorno.
Thus, the Meat Chunk, which acted entirely on rigid programming, immediately abandoned Giorno and turned to attack the fat pigeon that had only just flown a short distance up.
"Sonically Enhanced Wave!"
At that moment, Li Qing suddenly waved his hand and fired a dazzling sphere of light, branding a white tracking mark onto the fat pigeon.
"Coo coo coo!"
The fat pigeon cried out in pain after being struck by Sonically Enhanced Wave, and flew even faster and harder.
The Meat Chunk suddenly contracted its strange, resilient body, intending to spring up from the ground as it had when hunting Brown Swallows before.
But Li Qing stopped it:
"Leave that pigeon alone! If you want something, come at me!"
With a fierce shout, he instantly erupted with all his strength and fled at top speed toward the open road outside the bus.
The Meat Chunk was a mindless creature of instinct.
Like a monkey toyed with back and forth by several bananas, it immediately gave up on the fat pigeon it was about to catch and turned to chase Li Qing, who had displayed greater speed.
Because of its trait that its speed would always be absolutely faster than its target's, this bloated, sedan-sized monster suddenly burst forth at a terrifying speed even faster than Li Qing running at full tilt.
"Just as I thought."
"He wants to use himself as bait so that pigeon can fly safely into the sky."
Giorno understood Li Qing's intention.
Watching Li Qing about to be caught and devoured by that grotesque, terrifying Meat Chunk, Giorno instead became calm.
"If an ordinary person fled so recklessly, they would be caught by the Meat Chunk within seconds."
"But since he dared to use himself so boldly as bait to draw its fire, he must have something he can rely on to protect himself."
The truth was exactly as Giorno had expected.
After catching Li Qing, the Meat Chunk—which would leave ordinary people dead or grievously injured at the slightest touch—could not devour him. It could not even bite off a single piece of flesh from him.
It could only wrap itself tightly around Li Qing and continuously wear down his health.
"Huh?"
Only then did Giorno notice something was wrong:
"Above this bald man's head..."
"When did a long green bar appear?"
Before you continue