The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 248: One by One

Black Sparrow made a swing at Ghost Horse’s face. Ghost Horse tilted his head to avoid her punch, but his caution against her right fist made him neglect her other hand.

Her left fist ended up hitting him in the side.

Ghost Horse endured the pain and didn’t back away.

Meanwhile, a shadow slithered toward Ghost Horse’s heel like an agile venomous snake.

Having predicted the move, Ghost Horse suddenly crouched down and grabbed onto Black Sparrow’s waist, immediately activating Teleportation.

Swish!

Ghost Horse teleported Black Sparrow to the top of a reactor, so quickly that she didn’t have the time to react.

Swoosh.

An arrow shot down from above, piercing into Black Sparrow’s skull and through the web pattern on her forehead at a diagonal angle.

Standing on top of the tower, Nine Frost was holding a recurve bow.

Ten seconds ago, Ghost Horse had seen Nine Frost signaling at him from on top of the tower, which was why he took the chance to approach Black Sparrow and brought her into Nine Frost’s shooting range.

He didn’t have the time to thank Nine Frost for his support. The shadow that had been chasing doggedly after him was already climbing up the reactor.

Ghost Horse let go of Black Sparrow’s body and jumped off. As soon as he landed, he activated Teleportation and got close to body number 4.

The shadow under number 4’s manipulation rushed back to defend its master, quickly wrapping around his body to armor him.

Ghost Horse didn’t stop. He thrust the karambit in his left hand toward number 4’s heart.

Unsurprisingly, the blade glanced off the shadow armor. Then the shadow started morphing and climbing along the karambit, planning to capture Ghost Horse.

Ghost Horse didn’t pull back this time. He kept thrusting forward with all the strength he could muster.

He managed to sink the blade an inch further, but the dark shadow had also climbed onto Ghost Horse’s arm from the karambit.

Ghost Horse immediately felt a chilling, strange touch on his arm, like a cold venomous snake slithering along his skin.

Soon, the shadow morphed into countless tentacles, wrapping around Ghost Horse’s torso and tightening around him.

“Ahhhh!”

Enduring the overwhelming pain, Ghost Horse clenched his jaw and exhausted his power to push the karambit further toward number 4’s chest.

But it was futile. His strength was nothing compared to the power of the shadow.

“Yiyayiyayiya—”

Ronnie’s ‘wonderful’ singing voice came at that moment, which was exactly what Ghost Horse had been waiting for.

Everyone was disoriented.

Number 4 was no exception. Unable to maintain his focus on Phantom, the shadow’s power weakened.

Meanwhile, Ghost Horse hadn’t been that affected. He had been using his raw strength rather than his Talent to begin with.

Disorientation riled up Ghost Horse and deprived him of the ability to think. But he didn’t have to. All he had to do was keep pushing the blade toward number 4’s chest.

In fact, Disorientation had left him with a primitive compulsion to destroy.

Swish.

An arrow hit number 4 in the eye.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The shadow grappling Ghost Horse retracted instantly, unable to put up a fight.

Finally, Ghost Horse’s karambit buried into number 4’s chest and destroyed the web-shaped brand.

Ronnie stopped singing.

Ghost Horse panted heavily, pulling out the karambit.

No blood came out of the body. Number 4 collapsed silently after a bout of seizure.

...

On the other side of the battlefield, Gao Yang had refrained from approaching Three Air again after getting thrown away by the gusts of wind the man conjured.

Gao Yang threw about a dozen fireballs at Three Air.

Opening his arms, Three Air controlled air to create swirling wind around him. A small vortex of flames appeared inside the chemical plant. The sky was dyed red, and embers flew. It was like a fire storm.

Going against elemental power with elemental power would only exhaust energy in vain. Gao Yang quickly stopped attacking with fireballs, and without the threat, the storm around Three Air gradually disappeared as well.

Then a few hidden air blades quietly came into form around Gao Yang.

Keen translucent blades appeared in all directions, aiming to cut Gao Yang into pieces.

Relying on his Agility, Gao Yang ran at great speed, moving between the pipes in the chemical plant.

Clink, clink. Clink clink clink.

The air blades chasing after him left sharp cuts on the steel pipes.

Gao Yang had observed that there was a limit to the amount of wind element Three Air could control. After all, his Gale was still at level 3. He wasn’t able to use wind in both offense and defense at the same time.

That was why Gao Yang made himself bait. His role was to buy time and draw Three Air’s attention.

As expected, the number of air blades around Gao Yang halved in less than a minute.

It became even easier for Gao Yang to dodge the blades. Sneaking a glance, he saw an arrow pierce through Three Air’s right arm.

Unable to feel pain, Three Air pulled out the arrow and raised his hand again, attacking Gao Yang with Gale.

At the same time, a figure appeared behind Three Air with him none the wiser, piercing through his heart with a karambit and destroying the brand on his chest.

Three Air’s body, which had been charred beyond recognition, twitched. Then he fell from a great height and lay prone.

Finally, the former captain of the fifth team was allowed to rest in peace.

Panting, Gao Yang looked over at Lithe Snake, who wasn’t far from him. Old Joe and Yellow Butterfly were unmoving at his feet, their branded body parts pierced by a couple throwing knives.

The dozens of crows hovered over Lithe Snake’s head before scattering.

The sounds of battles died down. For a moment, the chemical plant fell silent.

Did they win?

Gao Yang wasn’t so sure.

His companions came up to him, and they gathered on the clearing before the front gates.

Can and Ronnie also showed themselves.

“We won!” Can said happily.

“Hm, it wasn’t much of a fight.” Gray Bear transformed back into human form, topless. He said in a rueful tone, “But I didn’t expect to fight the bodies of my former colleagues.”

“What was the Talent that controlled the bodies?” asked Nine Frost.

“Black Tortoise’s Puppeteer,” Gao Yang said in a low voice.

“Elder Black Tortoise?!” Can gaped in disbelief.

The rest of the fifth team were shocked as well, and their faces paled. They knew that Gao Yang was in danger, but never had they imagined that his enemy would be Black Tortoise, ranked 7th in terms of fighting power.

“Black Tortoise is a spy the Godbearer Cult planted in the Guild. I know you may find it hard to believe...”

Ghost Horse cut in, “No, it doesn’t add up.”

“What doesn’t add up?” Gray Bear asked, turning to Ghost Horse.

Although he didn’t know the man, the fact that the man had fought alongside them made him a fellow comrade—at least a temporary one.

“The number of bodies.”

Gao Yang startled and quickly went through the corpses they had fought in his head.

Number 4, Number 7, Three Air, Xiran, Black Sparrow, Yellow Butterfly, Old Joe, Xiuyi, and Dark Li. That was nine in total.

When Ghost Horse and Gao Yang were surrounded, they counted ten. One was still missing.

Moreover, Black Tortoise hadn’t shown himself. Although all his puppets had been eliminated, it didn’t mean the man himself couldn’t put up a fight.

After all, no one knew the full extent of level 4 Puppeteer’s power.

“Be careful, people,” said Gao Yang. “This isn’t the end.”

Clap, clap, clap.

A slow applause came from not far away.

Through the front gates of the chemical plant, a man walked over.