Brute force

Lu Heng squatted by the window and counted the lights in the stronghold again.

The small square was blindingly bright, with a few camping lights hanging on iron racks beside the flower beds. Cases of liquor were scattered all over the ground, and the sounds of drinking games and laughter drifted over from dozens of meters away, clearly audible. The main building stood darkly at the end of the square, with only a dark figure crouching motionless at the entrance.

He touched the tattoo on his wrist; it was cold.

The assessment was already done: a dozen or so people, undisciplined, drunk until the wee hours of the morning, their only redeeming quality being the Bronze Tier Bully Dog at the door. Given this level of quality, he actually deliberately waited until dark to make his move—he twitched his lips, a hint of annoyance in his voice. The kind of assassins he'd learned from TV dramas, who were always picky about their targets, were utterly unnecessary.

There's no need to wait any longer.

Deep within his consciousness, that shadowy figure slid out.

As the King Snake slithered along the wall into the residential area, the drinking party in the small square was in full swing. The camping lights were blinding, and several people were leaning on the sofa with bottles in their arms, playing drinking games. The winner poured the liquor on the loser's head, while the loser laughed and cursed as he wiped his face.

The King Snake slipped under the first sofa, its fangs lightly tapping against the ankle.

The man's laughter stopped abruptly, as if he had suddenly become sleepy. His eyelids drooped, his body went limp, and he slid down the sofa to the floor, curling up and not moving. The person next to him thought he had blacked out, and kicked him, yelling, "Get up and drink!" But he couldn't be kicked, so he muttered "Useless" and turned back to continue playing the drinking game.

The King Snake swam towards the second sofa.

The third one. The fourth one.

The neurotoxin takes effect quietly; there are no screams, no convulsions. The bitten people simply slump down silently, as if their bones have been removed, disappearing one by one into the shadows where the light doesn't reach. The King Snake controls the amount of venom it injects each time, as there's a limit to the number of people it can take down at once. So it bites very patiently, starting with the people on the outermost edge, taking one bite, retreating, waiting a few breaths, and then taking another.

When the seventh person fell, he knocked over a half-empty bottle of wine beside him.

The glass bottle shattered on the concrete floor with a crisp sound.

The Bully Dog lying at the gate suddenly raised its head, its short fur on its neck bristling, and let out a low growl from its chest—the next second, its barking tore through the entire neighborhood.

The sound wasn't like a dog's bark, but like thunder, making the windows vibrate. Its four legs were stuck inside the doorway, barking desperately in the direction of the stairwell where the Bone Demon had disappeared, spitting out a stream of saliva. The main door was blocked by abandoned vehicles and sandbags, leaving only a narrow opening for someone to squeeze through. Its size prevented it from breaking through, so it could only hurl its roars into the night.

The outpost was thrown into chaos instantly.

"What is that?!"

"The dog is barking! The dog is barking!"

One after another, beams of flashlight shone, illuminating the small square. Lu Heng squinted from the rooftop opposite—flashlights, and more than just one or two. His gaze swept across the area and landed on the boxy machine under the shed on the side of the main building; it was a diesel engine, and the fuel tank was still full. He made a note of it but didn't look at it any further.

People inside the main building were yelling, "Close the door! Lock the door!"

The wooden door slammed shut, the latch fell off, and the window was covered with a black cloth from the inside. The King Snake slithered to the bottom of the window crack, but the gap was too narrow for it to fit through.

Lu Heng retrieved the King Snake and straightened up from the shadows.

"Bone Demon."

A massive, dark gray body silently emerged from the stairwell, its two-meter-tall frame resembling a moving wall in the night. The moment it stepped onto the ground of the small square, the Bully Dog inside the doorway spotted it.

There was no probing, no confrontation.

The moment the dog saw the Bone Demon, it pounced, its half-ton body squeezing out of the doorway, its fangs aimed straight for the Bone Demon's throat. The Bone Demon raised its forearm to block, and the dog was jolted back two steps, its claws scraping four white marks on the concrete floor before it pounced again. The dog and the demon collided, the dog's barks and the dull thud of the Bone Demon's bones colliding mingling together. The dog pounced, bit, and struggled, while the Bone Demon pushed it away with each blow, only for it to pounce again, blood and foam at the corners of its mouth, its roars growing louder and louder.

The Bone Demon remained completely silent throughout. Its lifeless face was blank, except for its claws striking one after another—slapping, pushing, tearing, and clawing—its movements clumsy like those of an ordinary Zombie —only larger and stronger.

People inside the building peeked out through the cracks in the door.

Zhou Cheng pressed one eye against the crack in the door, watched for half a minute, and then the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

What he saw was a terrifying skeleton being beaten down by his dog. The dog was barking, struggling, and biting. The Bone Demon would slap at him, the dog would take a half step back, then turn and pounce again—back and forth, neither could gain the upper hand.

That's it?

Zhou Cheng straightened up and patted the knife at his waist. The thugs behind him were pale and their legs were cramping. He glanced at them and knew in his heart: if they didn't step forward now, this group would be scattered tonight.

"What's there to be afraid of!" He kicked open the wooden door, strode to the front of the crowd, pointed his knife at the sky, and shouted, "A dog, a skeleton—chop it down! If you do, I'll reward you handsomely!"

He swept the crowd out, surrounding the square and cheering for the dog at the top of their lungs.

No one looked down at the ground.

The King Snake swam into the outermost part of the group, clinging to the shadows along the base of the wall.

The first to fall was the skinny guy standing on the far side. He was shining his flashlight at the Bone Demon when his body went limp, and the flashlight rolled far away, unnoticed by anyone. The second one was the one holding the steel pipe. He thought his companion was pushing him and cursed, "Don't push!" Before he could finish speaking, his eyelids drooped, and he fell face down.

The third one. The fourth one.

Lu Heng, controlling the Bone Demon from the shadows, struck the dog's shoulder with a subtle, controlled palm strike. The dog staggered, the force of his palm brushing against the brick edge of the flowerbed, silently chipping away a section of the cement. The broken bricks crumbled into powder in his palm, trickling down. The dog braced itself against a sandbag with its hind paws, the sandbag thudding as a tear appeared in the surface, sand silently flowing out.

No one saw the flower bed, and no one saw the sandbags.

All eyes were fixed on the battle between the two monsters.

Zhou Cheng stood at the front of the crowd, knife raised high, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Bite it to death!" The veins on his neck bulged as he yelled. Caught up in the moment, he turned to check if his men were following suit.

The smile froze on her face.

Behind him lay seven or eight people sprawled out, some curled up, some lying face down. Flashlights were scattered all over the ground, their beams illuminating the night sky crookedly, but no one moved.

Zhou Cheng's blood rushed to his head with a "whoosh".

"Are you guys blind?!" He grabbed the nearest thug who was still cheering and slammed the back of his knife down on his back. "The brothers behind him all fell down! Fell down! And they were still yelling!"

That shout woke everyone up.

The cheers abruptly stopped.

People looked down and saw their companions' pale faces and unfocused pupils at their feet. Then they looked up and saw a large black and yellow snake swimming out of the crowd, drool dripping from its fangs and its tongue sticking out long.

"Snake! There's a snake! Run!"

The crowd erupted.

Zhou Cheng didn't run. He stood there, knife pointing at the darkness around the square, his face flushed purple, the gold chain around his neck bouncing. "Which bastard is it! Show yourself if you dare! Hiding in the shadows and releasing snakes and skeletons, what kind of skill is that!"

No one answered him.

Only the Bully Dog continued barking, each bark more urgent than the last.

Zhou Cheng, panting heavily, turned his head and saw the bully dog still tearing at the Bone Demon —his dog, the Bronze Tier Bully Dog he had raised himself, its mouth full of blood, yet it refused to back down an inch. But Zhou Cheng was only three steps away from it, the dog's hindquarters pressed against his leg, and from beginning to end, it never once turned its head toward him.

He reached out and patted the dog's back. The dog's muscles stiffened abruptly, its ears instinctively flattening slightly before immediately relaxing and continuing to struggle.

In the darkness, Lu Heng watched this scene and made a mental note of it.

He didn't wait for Zhou Cheng to shout a second sentence.

Footsteps came from the shadows, unhurried, crunching on the broken glass. The Bone Demon stopped, retreating behind him like a guard sheathing his sword.

Zhou Cheng's knife tip twitched, then he aimed it at him.

"It's you."

Lu Heng remained silent.

The night wind, carrying the smells of alcohol and blood, passed between the two men, while the barking of dogs howled in the middle, like an unbreakable thread.