[HeLa Cell]'s dog leg was smashed to pieces in an instant, and it fell to the ground with a thud.
The man hurriedly backed away, putting some distance between them.
[HeLa Cell] braced its hands against the ground. Just as it was about to rise, it felt another wave of heat rushing at it from behind.
It turned around and saw a straight blade wreathed in flames growing larger and larger before its eyes.
Trailing surging flames, the straight blade swept across [HeLa Cell]'s neck, sending a burning head flying once more.
The red-haired girl raised the straight blade in her tight grip and aimed it at [HeLa Cell]'s body.
Just as she was about to strike, a powerful force slammed into her, sending her flying onto the grass nearby.
The red-haired girl scrambled up from the grass and stared in confusion at where she had been. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth fell open, trembling.
The captain who had just knocked her out of the way now had [HeLa Cell]'s bone blade buried in his abdomen.
He spat out a mouthful of blood, its metallic sweetness instantly filling his mouth.
Seeing this, the man beside them immediately turned to look at Xiaoxiao.
Xiaoxiao was lying there, and blood still wasn't flowing from her wounds. That meant the captain had used [Void Chrysalis Silk] to stabilize her injuries while knocking the red-haired girl out of the way.
The man could scarcely believe it. A delicate task like stitching blood vessels together already demanded an enormous degree of control over one's mental power.
Yet the captain had been able to act at the same time. An ordinary person's mental power might have given out long ago, leaving them unconscious.
Just as the man thought, the captain was already growing dazed from the strain on his mental power and the wound through his abdomen.
[HeLa Cell]'s head grew back again, and it looked at the captain, whose abdomen it had impaled.
Without the slightest hesitation, it opened its mouth full of fangs and bit down on his right shoulder.
Then it gave a forceful yank, tearing his entire arm off.
The excruciating pain snapped the captain awake.
Clutching his blade in his left hand, he slashed forward and severed the bone blade, then kicked [HeLa Cell] away to put some distance between them.
Then he dropped to one knee, gripping his straight blade tightly in his left hand to support himself.
"Captain!" The red-haired girl scrambled over, tore off her own jacket, and bandaged the wound on his right side.
"I... I'm sorry, Captain! It's all my fault!" Looking at the captain's deathly pale face, his abdomen, and his bitten-off right arm, the red-haired girl couldn't stop her tears from falling.
The man beside them anxiously changed magazines, then fired several shots at [HeLa Cell].
Several bullets struck [HeLa Cell] dead-on, but it didn't react at all.
Then [HeLa Cell] raised its head and slowly swallowed the arm in its mouth.
Thump! Thump!
A powerful surge of energy burst from its abdomen, making [HeLa Cell]'s muscles pulse like a heart.
[HeLa Cell]'s right hand regenerated in an instant, and its wounds immediately healed.
Its back began to writhe wildly, as though something were about to emerge.
The next moment, two bone whips resembling spines burst out of its back and swayed in the air like bloodthirsty tentacles.
[HeLa Cell] fixed its crimson eyes on the man who had just shot it several times and lashed the two bone whips on its back at him.
The man's face stiffened at the sight, and he immediately rolled to the side, barely dodging them.
The large tree behind him was instantly split into three by the bone whips.
The man turned to look at the devastating damage and couldn't help swallowing.
If he took so much as one hit, not even his bones would remain.
Still lying on the ground, the man drew his gun before he could even get up and fired several shots at [HeLa Cell]'s eyes.
The shots hit [HeLa Cell] in both eyes, and everything before it immediately went black.
It began flailing indiscriminately with the two bone whips on its back, creating an attack zone with a two-meter radius.
"Run," the captain said softly to the red-haired girl, parting his cracked lips.
"What?" The red-haired girl stared at the captain in disbelief, scarcely able to believe what she had just heard.
"Please. Call it my selfish wish. Your strength has only just reached 'High Rank,' but this variant has already reached the peak of 'Homicide.' You're no match for it.
"If you escape alone now, at least you can report this to our superiors and have them send someone stronger to deal with it. If it gets into City C, the consequences will be unthinkable." The captain looked at the red-haired girl as blood slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"No, Captain! You and Xiaoxiao are both badly injured, and Han Xuan is almost out of bullets. I'm the only one who can still fight it!
"If I leave you here, you'll die!" Tears slid down the red-haired girl's cheeks, leaving streaks behind.
"Yan Ling! That's an order! Retreat, now! Hurry!" the captain roared, using almost all his strength.
The red-haired girl froze. She looked at the one-armed captain, gasping for breath before her, then at Xiaoxiao and Han Xuan lying on the ground. Finally, her gaze fell on the culprit, [HeLa Cell].
The red-haired girl raised a hand to wipe away her tears, then rose to her feet, gripping her straight blade tightly with both hands, her gaze utterly resolute.
"I'm sorry, Captain. I can't carry out that order. Just let me have my way one more time." With that, she charged at [HeLa Cell] at breakneck speed.
"Yan Ling!" The captain reached out to stop her, but the searing pain in his body forced him back to his knee.
His left hand clenched tightly around his blade's hilt, his knuckles turning white from the force.
He hated it. He hated himself for not dealing with this monster from the start, hated himself for being so weak that he couldn't even protect the people he wanted to protect.
Meanwhile, the man raised his gun and fired two more shots at [HeLa Cell], blasting apart its newly grown eyes again.
He glanced at his remaining ammunition. "There's not much left." A drop of cold sweat ran down his forehead.
The next moment, his eyes suddenly widened. The red-haired girl was charging into [HeLa Cell]'s attack range without hesitation, a flaming straight blade in her hand.
Countless attacks spread outward from [HeLa Cell], but the red-haired girl dodged one after another. Though she struggled, not a single attack landed on her.
The man watched in astonishment. He could feel that the red-haired girl's strength had undergone a qualitative leap.
He suddenly had a premonition that they might actually be able to slay this monster.
[HeLa Cell]'s face writhed, and a pair of eyes grew out.
Bang-!
Bang-!
Two shots rang out, and [HeLa Cell]'s eyes were blasted apart again.
Then the man raised his gun again and struck a bone whip in front of the red-haired girl. Its trajectory shifted, opening a gap between her and [HeLa Cell] for an instant.