The nearly invisible threads had wound tightly around the HeLa Cell before it even noticed them, and still more kept wrapping around it.
The HeLa Cell struggled with all its might, but the more it struggled, the tighter the threads became. Pulled taut, the sharp threads dug deep into its flesh.
Unwilling to give up, it bit down on several threads and tore at them. Its teeth were sliced through one by one, but several threads also began to snap under the force of its tearing.
"Yan Ling!" the captain called softly. The red-haired woman beside him immediately charged at the HeLa Cell with her straight sword.
Clearly, she was nowhere near as fast as the captain. The HeLa Cell paid her no attention at all, simply continuing to gnaw at the threads in a hurry to break free.
The red-haired girl gripped the hilt with both hands, her hair drifting in the air. Her dark eyes seemed ready to burst into flame.
The next moment, the blade caught fire, fierce flames engulfing its entire length in an instant.
The red-haired girl swung the straight sword, slashing at the HeLa Cell held fast by the threads, flames trailing the blade.
The HeLa Cell, still biting at the threads in an attempt to break free, jolted violently as soon as it felt the heat.
An exceedingly unpleasant memory surfaced in its mind.
It was a memory from when it had turned into an earthworm.
It had just eaten an earthworm and had wanted to burrow underground to find more to prey on.
Then it had turned into an earthworm itself. Because an earthworm's skin was so fragile and tender, the HeLa Cell had nearly been baked alive by the sun.
That had been the closest the HeLa Cell had ever come to death, and now that burning sensation had returned.
It began struggling for its life, trying to evade the flaming slash.
Even with the threads embedded in its bones and its internal organs on the verge of spilling out, the HeLa Cell continued to struggle.
The flaming straight sword swept through the air, forming a crescent-shaped arc of sword light made of fire.
The HeLa Cell's head was chopped off for the third time.
It wasn't over. The red-haired girl swung her sword upward again, and another arc of flaming sword light swept across its body.
After cutting the HeLa Cell into three pieces, the red-haired girl panted heavily. A drop of sweat slid down her face, and the flames on the blade had grown much smaller.
"That should kill it, right?" The red-haired girl wiped the sweat from her face and looked with some discomfort at the three fireballs still struggling.
"It's like that, and it's still struggling. It looks just like a monster from a movie."
The man beside her aimed his pistol at the HeLa Cell's limbs and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Four bullets struck the HeLa Cell's struggling limbs with precision, severing them.
The limbs separated from its torso, then slowly turned to ash in the flames.
Without its limbs, the HeLa Cell, which had been cut in half at the waist, could no longer move. Only the mouth on its head kept opening and closing until it turned to ash.
Looking at the HeLa Cell, now burned to ashes, the four still refused to let down their guard.
The red-haired girl carefully stirred the HeLa Cell's ashes with her straight sword, then stepped forward and kicked them twice before letting out a breath of relief.
"Don't worry! It's completely dead!" The red-haired girl waved to the other three, and all three breathed a sigh of relief.
"Speaking of which, what kind of mutant was that?
"I've heard of ones with regenerative abilities, but this is the first time I've seen one with such freakish regeneration and vitality." The captain crouched down, picked up a pinch of ash, and examined it.
"Oh, none of that matters now. What matters is that you get that wound bandaged right away!" The red-haired girl anxiously reminded him, looking at the shocking wound on his face. Then she glanced with disgust at the HeLa Cell, now burned to ashes, and spat directly on it.
"All right, I know." The captain smiled helplessly and got to his feet.
"Captain, let me bandage it for you. We won't have to trouble Xiaoxiao." The red-haired girl's cheeks flushed slightly as she volunteered.
"Uh... all right. It's just a small problem, nothing serious. I'll let Yan Ling take care of it, then." The captain opened his mouth to refuse, but when he saw the eager look on the red-haired girl's face, he swallowed the words.
"Yay! Captain, I left the disinfectant and stuff in the tent. I'll get them for you!"
Watching the red-haired girl's excitement, the captain could only smile helplessly.
"Let's all rest for a while first, then head straight back to City C." When he saw the red-haired girl emerge from the tent carrying the supplies, the captain spoke slowly.
"Huh? But it's already very late." The girl named Xiaoxiao spoke timidly, then turned to look at the sun, which had already set behind the mountain.
"It can't be helped. When something unexpected like this happens, we have to go straight back to the city and report it to the higher-ups-ow! What kind of disinfectant did you bring? It hurts so much."
The red-haired girl, who was swabbing his wound with a cotton swab, paused. She looked at the bottle in her other hand and slowly spoke.
"Hydrogen peroxide."
"..."
The captain rubbed his forehead.
"Anyway, we still have to leave. We'll go after we've eaten."
Xiaoxiao glanced at the dinner she had made on the table, a helpless look appearing on her little face.
"All right, I'll go heat it up for you." With that, she trotted over.
The man who had been standing beside her watched Xiaoxiao's cute figure from behind, a smile appearing on his face. Then he turned, intending to help the clumsy red-haired girl apply medicine to the captain's wound.
But suddenly, his pupils contracted. He immediately drew the pistol from his waist and aimed it straight at Xiaoxiao.
"Huh? Han Xuan, what are you doing..."
Bang!
Before the red-haired girl could finish, the man pulled the trigger.
A bullet struck the HeLa Cell directly behind Xiaoxiao, piercing straight through the hand it was reaching toward her.
But it immediately reached out with its other hand and grabbed Xiaoxiao's shoulder, its nails plunging into her flesh.
"Ah!" Xiaoxiao screamed, but the next thing she saw was the HeLa Cell opening its enormous, bloody maw.
The HeLa Cell bit down on Xiaoxiao's fair neck, then tore violently, ripping off a bloody chunk of flesh.
Blood immediately spurted from Xiaoxiao's neck like a spring.
All that remained of the HeLa Cell now was a dog's head, but two eerily humanlike hands had grown from either side of it, their nails exceptionally sharp.
Fortunately, when the four of them had burned its body, they hadn't burned the two heads previously chopped off the HeLa Cell along with it.
Otherwise, it really would have died, with no chance to fight back.