He keenly noticed that as the Meat Chunk squeezed and coiled tighter, the "green bar" above Li Qing's head kept shrinking.
Just like the health bar floating above a character's head in a video game.
"Could it be..."
"Does that represent his life force?"
Giorno roughly guessed the meaning of the health bar above Li Qing's head, but he immediately saw from its steadily declining value that the situation was dire:
Li Qing's health did not seem sufficient.
He had lost over half his health to that damned Meat Chunk while escaping the woods.
Fortunately, during the minute or so after he fled onto the bus, other people had drawn its aggro for him. Relying on his 0.5%/s health regeneration, he had slowly restored his health to the safe threshold of 80%.
But that still was not enough.
After all, this Meat Chunk was no longer the same Meat Chunk from a minute ago.
A little over a minute ago, this monster had probably not even been as large as a pig.
But now, after devouring the energy from the bus engine, it had swollen to nearly the size of a sedan.
Bound, crushed, and devoured by such a massive monster, Li Qing naturally did not feel very good.
82% 61% 42%
His health began plummeting at an absurd rate.
Finally, when his health had dropped to a pitiful 30%, at the critical moment when he would die if he held on two seconds longer, Li Qing made his move:
"Echoes Act!!"
His body swiftly turned into an untouchable "phantom," breaking free—or rather, ignoring—the Meat Chunk's restraints in an instant.
Li Qing's body passed directly through the Meat Chunk's tough, thick flesh and shot into the sky at an outrageously high speed.
And needless to say, the target of his charge was the fat pigeon he had marked from the very beginning.
"So that's how it is!"
Giorno understood Li Qing's plan.
Li Qing was rather busy at the moment, so Giorno took on the side job of commentator:
"The ability he's using now is the same method he used when he first got onto the bus."
"Back then, he could ignore the bus's outer shell and pass straight through it. Now, he can likewise use it to break free from the Meat Chunk's restraints!"
At that moment, the Meat Chunk reacted as well.
Li Qing's Echoes Act charge was faster than a high-speed train at full speed, but this monster, which could not be understood through common sense at all, erupted with terrifying speed that was no less than Li Qing's.
It suddenly contracted its flesh, turning itself into rubber, into a spring. Then, using the immense elastic potential energy stored in its own flesh, it abruptly launched itself into the air.
"It's useless!"
Giorno instinctively shook his head from the side.
"Even if it catches up to Mr. Baldy in midair, it cannot stop him from escaping."
"Because in this charging state, his body is absolutely 'insubstantial' and cannot be restrained."
The truth was exactly as Giorno had expected.
The Meat Chunk, whose speed seemed to have no limit at all, possessed astonishing jumping power. With a single leap, it caught up to Li Qing in midair.
However, it was useless.
Like a monkey struggling to scoop up the moon's reflection from the water, it finally slapped one of its tentacles onto Li Qing's body, only for it to pass straight through that illusory image.
Li Qing's soaring body was unaffected, though he did lose a little health.
His health was down to only 22%.
But that did not matter, because the Meat Chunk could no longer catch up to Li Qing.
Yes, even though it was unquestionably faster than Li Qing, it could no longer cling to him as closely as it had when it chased the bus from the woods.
Because—
"You can't fly, can you?!"
"Ha ha ha ha..."
Li Qing laughed in relief.
"A Meat Chunk is still just a Meat Chunk. No matter how fast you are, you can't grow wings!"
"Jumping power alone can't catch up to me as I soar into the clouds!"
This was the core of his escape plan—
His destination was not the ground, but the sky, where the Meat Chunk absolutely could not pursue him.
Li Qing had just risked himself as bait in order to buy time for that fat pigeon, allowing it to fly higher and farther away.
At this moment—
The fat pigeon carrying the Sonically Enhanced Wave mark was flying roughly 150 meters above the ground.
Li Qing, soaring upward through Echoes Act, had already charged to a height of around 60 meters.
Although that bloated Meat Chunk's jumping power was unimaginably strong, after successfully touching Li Qing once, it had exhausted all its momentum. At around 40 meters, it entered free fall under the pull of gravity.
"Using his intangible Stand ability to escape into the air, he lured the monster away for me while safely escaping pursuit himself."
"What a perfect escape plan..."
Giorno sighed sincerely from the ground.
However, just as he had breathed a sigh of relief for Li Qing, something went wrong.
The Meat Chunk, which had begun falling, suddenly twitched violently. At a terrifying speed, it began wriggling and deforming in midair.
It was like a lump of dough, round and large at first, then suddenly stretched and kneaded by an enormous force until it became long and wide.
Then, it abruptly halted its descent and shot a great distance upward.
It was not because the Meat Chunk had grown wings, but because it had "flung" itself into the sky.
That was right.
It used its flexible, ever-changing body as a slingshot, treating part of its own body as ammunition and launching it at Li Qing high above.
An ordinary creature would certainly die after discarding half its body mass, but this Meat Chunk would not.
It had no organs, no bones, no brain. It was nothing but a mass of evil, twisted flesh.
Therefore, even after abandoning half of its flesh as a tool, it could still survive perfectly well.
Just like that—
The portion of the Meat Chunk discarded as the "slingshot" fell limply downward after separating from the main body.
Once it fell beyond a certain distance from the main body, that separated portion turned to ash in midair.
Meanwhile, the other part—the Meat Chunk's main body, launched as the "projectile"—was currently pursuing Li Qing above at a speed that made one's heart tremble.
It was very fast.
Even though Li Qing was still in Echoes Act's high-speed charging state, he could not shake off the horrific Meat Chunk's pursuit.
"Damn it."
"It can actually act like a three-stage booster rocket, supplying upward thrust to the 'warhead' that is its main body stage by stage whenever its momentum runs out!"
Li Qing could not help but be astonished.
And he also realized the cruel reality—he was about to be caught.
Worse still, he had only 22% health left.
As an expert player who often turned the tables on opponents with a sliver of health remaining, Li Qing had an extremely precise grasp of his health.
That 22% health was actually the reserve he had deliberately kept after determining the fat pigeon's altitude and estimating the fall damage that would come afterward.
If he had even a few percentage points less, then even if the Meat Chunk did not devour Li Qing, he would likely be smashed to death by the fall.
That meant—
At this moment, Li Qing could not afford to lose even a single point of health.
As long as the Meat Chunk touched his body once, he had already lost.
This was simply a dead end.
Because Li Qing was still in Echoes Act's charging state, and in that state, even he could not control himself.
He could only watch helplessly as the Meat Chunk shot into the sky like a rocket at launch, rapidly closing in on his body.
The next instant, the Meat Chunk streaking upward would catch Li Qing.
He was about to die.
Unless—
Unless something even faster suddenly appeared and drew the Meat Chunk's attention away.
But in the sky, in that brief instant, to suddenly find an object faster than Echoes Act—
This...
Was that possible?
Of course it was!
"Although the way you monster chased after me was a little unexpected, the fact that you caught up to me in midair..."
Under extreme tension, Li Qing felt extreme excitement.
"Was also part of my plan!"
Giorno had not noticed it. The mindless Meat Chunk was even less likely to notice it. Only Li Qing had noticed:
A sound that enveloped heaven and earth had long since begun resounding through the sky.
That sound swept in from every direction, nearly covering half the city district.
And just as Li Qing was about to be caught by the Meat Chunk, the tsunami-like sound wave reached its peak.
"That is..."
Giorno on the ground finally shifted his gaze beyond the battlefield, beyond Li Qing and the Meat Chunk.
At last, he noticed the mysterious object streaking through the city's low-altitude airspace, producing that wild roar:
"That's the one that has been flying over Naples these past few days..."
"A supersonic fighter jet!"
Before you continue