The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 301

Chapter 301: A Question of Style

 

The group was resting in Hessianite Family territory to recover from the damage taken in the energy vortex. They were lucky that the storm took time gathering its momentum instead of carving a path of carnage instantly. That gave them precious time to react and avoid the worst of the damage.

At the same time, more and more information as well as reports were coming from all corners of the city to the heads of the families. Hessiana and Lucas had many eyes and ears across the city and these two frenemies were finally working together for once. Their spies scoured the sanctuary for any movement of the Shadelings and slowly but surely, a clearer picture was being pieced together. Vampires who were originally posted across the city started gathering in turf upon receiving wind of the matter. They were gearing up for war.

“The Shadelings are gone. I suppose most of them have retreated back to their lairs. We just managed to capture a few small fries..” Vivian was seated on a luxurious velvet chair as she toyed with a gleaming, silver dagger. She looked one third the part of a vampire noble, and two thirds the part of a female mafioso. “Based on what we’ve managed to glean from those poor sots, Bethanos has been planning something ever since Lady Vivian got here. F*ck… that old fox sure did it. I didn’t realise anything at all. But I can be sure that the energy vortex we ran into in the ruins has something to do with him. It’s too much of a coincidence; the keys being stolen, the dimension gate locking, an energy vortex forming within the ruins, two Blood Clan leaders and an Elder being trapped and killed in the vortex… Hehehe, he sure went all out.”

“I want payback… revenge… payback…” Lily was pacing impatiently around the room as she let out an angry growl. Hao Ren was curious. “It’s rare that I see you so serious. Finally going berserk?”

Lily popped her tail out and sheepishly showed it to Hao Ren. A third of it was still curled up and there was a faint burnt smell. “Look at my beautiful tail! It’s ruined!”

“…”

So her tail had been singed by the energy vortex.

Lily went towards Hessiana and demanded, “When do we fight? What are you all waiting for?!”

“Bethanos and his men are currently cooped up in their base.” Zeon Lucas stood by the giant window as he calmly poured himself a glass of wine from a nearby decanter. “I know that old coot. My late brother has also said that when fighting the Shadelings, you need to let them act first. They are masters in booby traps, misdirections and ambushes. All of the weakness that they show you are just setups. These are a bunch of goons with the cunning of men and the power of demons. After wreaking such havoc, they have yet to attack. Instead, they are hiding out in their fortress. An attack just screams suicide.”

“He’s dead meat regardless.” Hessiana gnashed her teeth. “He even dared to lay his hands on Lady Vivian. He really thinks that the Ancient Ones are just a scary bedtime story. I’ve sent word to all of the Ancients Ones guarding the gates. They won’t suffer such an insult. Right, Lady Vivian?”

Vivian was busy applying ointment on Wuyue’s burnt scales and looked up in confusion when she heard her name. “Huh?”

“…”

Well it seems like the Ancient One is really just a scary bedtime story…

“I’ve hidden the news of our safe return and sent word that the two Blood Clan heads were lost while investigating the ruins.” Zeon Lucas smiled confidently. “Our men outside are spreading misinformation and creating chaos as well. Bethanos will take us for being headless and he will strike once he thinks it’s safe to do so. I believe that he’ll be heading towards the gate of the ruins once the fight starts or maybe, he’s found another spot to activate the gate. However, the key itself will still require a few hours of recharging. That will probably be the time he strikes.”

Hao Ren’s opinion of the stubborn old vampire changed somewhat. He thought that Lucas was just a stubborn old coot, an arrogant one at that; a conservative who refused to change with the times and thus, his bad impression of him was formed. But it did seem like the old gentleman had a rather dependable side to him. He would be someone you wanted as an ally.

If you could stand his pompous and arrogant arse of an attitude that is.

A sudden shriek came from above as two bats darted through an open window into the room. One of it transformed into a voluptuous figure—it was Andrea. Another one could not transform into its human form after a while and just reported to Hessiana in a high pitch shriek. “Mistress! I’ll just speak to you like this…”

Hessiana leapt up from her chair. “Turcan! Are you drinking on the job again you slimy scum?!”

Well there you have it, the gulf of difference between the old vampiric aristocracy and the new age outlaws….

“Master, a group of Shadelings have departed Bethanos’ stronghold and they are heading towards our holdings.” Andrea took a glance at Turcan before she reported her findings to Zeon Lucas. “That aside, some of our men are already fighting in the streets near the Shadeling’s fortress and from what we could gather, there’s a breach on the west side of the stronghold. Doesn’t seem like a trap.”

Zeon Lucas flung the goblet in his hand out of the window as he swung around with his cape. A cold smirk appeared on his face. “Hmph, It’s time.”

Hessiana dashed towards Zeon and grabbed him by the neck. “That’s my f*cking globet from the Plantagenets! You f*cking threw it away for a f*cking pose?!”

Zeon Lucas did not even have the chance to wipe the smirk of his face before he was assailed by Hessiana. Hao Ren could only facepalm and look away. This is why the old aristocracy could not work with the new bloods; it was almost like watching someone grating a chalk over the blackboard…

The ruckus between the two leaders aside, both vampires had already made preparations to attack long before they gotten word of the breach. Hessiana quickly ran towards her office desk. After inspecting some mechanism there with a slight nod, she faced a doll and cleared her throat. A deafening siren wailed across the entire stronghold as Hessiana’s voice followed. “Attention-Attention-Attention… Prepare for battle-battle-battle.. The Daredevils gather at the plaza-plaza-plaza… The rest of you, work your magic-magic-magic..”

The rest was just echo.

Hao Ren was stunned. “Whoa, you guys are using modern, eh?”

Hessiana took a small communication device and hung it over her neck as she walked like a warlord towards her room. Her fingers signalled the rest to follow. “Nonsense. Of course we use it. It’s the modern times you know. Human technology is advancing so fast, that only a blind fool would ignore it. You think those who came in to report flew all the way from the outside? They were just manning the telephones downstairs, and came up the moment they got the message. I even installed a signal tower in the city. That old coot has a 50% share of it.”

Andrea walked past Hao Ren as she turned to smiled at him. “Don’t assume that the otherworldlings in this shelter are some rock age barbarians. I for one am at the forefront of fashion..”

“Andrea, be serious,” Zeon Lucas kept a straight face as he admonished his underling. “You spend too much time with Hessiana’s goons.”

In a daze, Hao Ren just followed Hessiana past a group of armed soldiers. As they left the house, they headed towards an even bigger armed group. At the same time, flapping sounds came from above as the vampires started forming into squads to head into combat. The shelter was still peaceful just the day before (at least on the surface), but now they were about to face a storm of steel and blood. The change of pace was so sudden that it took many by surprise, and this was all because of one megalomaniacal Shadeling.

Lily looked up at the vampires above her. She had not seen so many unusual creatures gearing up for a fight before and that left her both excited as well as scared. “Will they shoot at me when the fighting starts? I’m a werewolf after all…”

Hessiana waved her concerns off. “No worries, the old coot and I have briefed our boys. ‘The werewolf with silver fur and a totally burnt tail is an ally. This has been spread across the city.”

Lily almost cried when she heard that. “It’s not totally burnt! Only a third…”

“So, you want me to torch it just to be safe?”

“…”

The group had reached the plaza by then and Hessiana’s elite strike force, the Daredevils were gathered there. Hao Ren finally met the infamous, most inglorious vampiric fighting force.

And the difference between them and their commander was like O_o!

A group of well built and unusually tall vampires clad in full combat gear were awaiting orders in the plaza. Their combat garb had embroideries of crucifixes and runes of warding. Hanging from their waists were silver longswords. Each of them had a RPG-7 in each hand and a bandolier of small arms ammunitions across the chest with a bullpup assault rifle hanging from it. More shockingly on their backs were….

F*cking aerial bombs!

Hessiana smirked as she stepped onto a big rock and inspected her group of Daredevils. “Listen up boys, I hear that the Shadeling’s fortress is a tough nut to crack… so… Priest, anoint the RPGs with holy water!”

Hao Ren was stunned as he looked at Hessiana. “This doesn’t look right at all….”

Chapter 302: The Situation is Getting Out of Control!

 

Regardless of the absurdity of it, Hessiana’s Daredevils were indeed decked out as such, and by the look on her face, she had every confidence that her elite strike force would do their job. At her order, a group of vampires, clad in black robes came forward. In their hands were a bunch of odd-looking sacred relics. They started pouring a white, almost silvery liquid on the Daredevils’ RPGs and assault rifles. The bulk of it was of course, reserved for the bombs.

The “priests” were chanting some sort of bizzare incantation and the whole process looked almost like a Catholic ritual, but there were differences. This was clearly more akin to some ancient benedictorial ceremony, or something this bunch of lunatics just cooked up. The benediction process imbued the weapons with powers to excorcise their foes. Meanwhile, a thin mist started to form around the vampires. However, this light burn meant nothing to these warriors. They were capable of going hours on end under this power and this was just the begining.

“This is my recently assembled trump card,” Hessiana said with a gleeful smirk on her face as she hugged her teddy bear. “Bethanos should count himself lucky. I didn’t settled my negotiations with the arms merchants from the middle east last month.”

“What is with this hoard of weapons?” Zeon stared blankly at Hessiana. “You don’t mean to tear the whole city down do you? Or do you mean to…”

“Oh, don’t you worry. These toys won’t blow the city apart and I’m not planning to use it against you either.” Hessiana giggled. “Sure, I’ve thought about it once in a while… but no, it’s mainly for self-preservation. I know my family isn’t well-received in the city. All those stubborn, rotten-to-the-core idiots have never truly respected us—a family of vampires without a ‘proper lineage’. I know what they’ve been calling us behind our backs: violent mongrels, sewer rats, beggars in king’s clothes… They wouldn’t dare say it in front of us, but I can’t even count the times they’ve verbally stabbed us behind our backs. So, I need to make sure I have the capability to wipe their insufferable smirk off their faces any time of the day.”

Hessiana pointed towards her Daredevils as she laughed. “The good boys and girls here have all went through proper military training. Since World War I, I’ve allowed them to play with these toys that humans have made. The people here should count themselves lucky. No one has dared to cross us in the last hundred odd years… until today.”

Zeon’s face was a steely green. He realised the true horrifying power of these young vampires that took the same path as Vivian. It was not mere strength or rhetoric, it was their ability to think and adapt.

…Well, pretty much everyone in the shelter who was stuck in time was f*cked, himself included.

Zeon Lucas could only sigh as he crossed his arms. “Well, thankfully we are allies today… But, how effective are these against otherworldlings anyway? Have you tried it before?”

“Of course.” Hessiana pointed towards her men again. “Humans are a race that we really need to marvel at. They’re weak in flesh and because they’re weak in flesh, they’re willing to go tooth and limb to master powers beyond their mortal self. That has ensured their survival in this planet. With fire and explosions, they’ve created weapons that have far exceeded the powers of many supernatural races. Their only shortcoming is that they lack the ability to counter magic. Your usual bullets may maim and kill, but most of the time their power is drastically reduced by magically enhanced bodies or barriers. Hence, I thought to imbue these weapons with enchanments; sprinkle some holy water on the weapons, carve some spell runes on the bullets or even use blessed silver to make the projectiles. Sure, they may not be as effective against otherworldlings as they are against humans, but believe me, these toys will make those Shadelings cry ‘mommy’.”

Each and every one of the weapons on hand were technological marvels. They had been reconfigured from the inside out to counter any form of magical protection. The weapons themselves were imprinted with long lasting enchantments and sacred materials. Before they even go into combat, they would be further blessed with holy water and other temporary buffs. Hao Ren believed that all the gears present were at least very least, rare items with Holy Attributes +10, Critical Hit +15 and Hit Rate +100…

Zeon looked at Hessiana. “…This would need some massive overhaul… You can’t purchase this kind of stuff, how do you do it?”

Hessiana grinned. “I’m not stupid. How can I let you in on that? Go figure it out yourself.”

Zeon rubbed his nose as he gave out an awkward laugh. Lily too had finally realised something. “These wouldn’t be cheap, no?”

“Premium player’s rage, heh.” Hessiana shrugged. “Our family never had a penchant for the luxurious life like your normal vampires. Heck, we don’t even hold banquets all that often. So, all the money we saved went into purchasing arms. We even have a couple of old Tiger tanks that we got from the Germans in the warehouse… Oh, right! Those! Eaton! Let those beasts out for a roar! Bring out the holy water pump! Give them a good bath!”

“Mistress… We can’t use holy water like this! We’ll run out of it sooner than we can replace it!” One vampire finally managed to muster the courage to calm Hessiana down.

That snapped Hessiana out of her excitement as she rubbed her chin. “Oh… so be it then… but still, bring them out for a blast or two. Let’s light the city up…”

Vivian finally lost it and smacked Hessiana in the back of her head. “There’s a limit to everything!”

The benedictorial ritual was completed by then and Hessiana’s Daredevils shrieked towards the sky and soon disappeared from their sights. These extremely armed group was a sight to behold. Their bat wings however, could only carry so much weight (that half-a-tonne bomb was just foul play) therefore, as they flew, they augmented themselves with weight-reducing magic or wind magic to drive themselves forward. Their plan was to rain hell upon Bethanos’ stronghold before the spell ended, and to clean up any remaining survivors.

Hessiana briefly explained their strategy. First, the team was to charge forth and lob the bombs onto the barrier. The impact would almost be close to taking out the energy barrier. After that, they would fire their RPGs into the mix and that should take the barrier out of action. They were to then douse holy water all over the place, cleansing the shadow energy around the area. Then, the assault team would fly in with guns blazing, and start hacking once they run out of ammunitions. They would also be setting the place on fire and shoud in theory, take out most of the stronghold. “I even sent a group to blow up the Bethanos Family Tomb and Memorial Hall. F*ckers, how dare they harm Lady Vivian. Don’t blame me for taking the fight up to their ancestors…”

Everyone around Hessiana started to break out in cold sweat. Lily quickly pulled Vivian’s arm as she nagged at her. “Look at what you’ve done. The lack of proper education and motherly love have drove her to this…”

The battle was spreading throughout the city at this point.

There were no talks, no negotiations, no quarter, no mercy. The shadelings had dared to provoke the vampires and now, the latter were striking back with vengeance. This was how the unusual creatures operated. When they fought, it was until the end unlike humans, who would still try to talk things out. Thus, Hao Ren and his merry little band were also dragged into the heat of battle. They followed Hessiana towards the territory of Bethanos on the far side of the city. Before they could even reach the hot zone, thundering explosions roared some distance away.

Zeon Lucas had already left the group as he led his family to fend off the invading shadelings. The fighting had already escalated from a skirmish to an outright battle. The northeastern side of the city was laid in crimson as flames erupted across the battlefield. That was the Lucas’ fight.

Another explosion lit the skies with a murderous din and after the initial flash cleared, a whole portion of the stronghold was ablaze. The Daredevils’ bombing run had just ended and they were now firing their RPGs towards any surviving ground forces. Hessiana’s ears perked up as she caught the noise of combat from the other side of town and unease appeared across her face. “This doesn’t sound right… That movement doesn’t seem to be coming from Zeon’s side…”

The cacophony of combat started to come from all sides of the city. Even smaller families who kept themselves hidden to weather through the storm of battle started sending word of some unusual movement. The flames of combat were starting to come from behind them as well and now the whole city was on fire. Things were clearly not right.

Suddenly, a frantic voice rang out from Hessiana’s communicator, which was hanging down her chest. “Mistress! Demon hunters! The demon hunters are here!”

Chapter 303: When Life Gives You Hell, Give It Hell

 

“What?!” Hessiana was flying when she heard the message and nearly fell from the sky. “Come again?!”

“Demon hunters!” The voice on the other end was frantic yet clear and there were sounds of combat in the background. “They have penetrated the Shadowy Divide! I’m not sure why the Divide shut down! They are all over the place!”

“Hold your ground!” Hessiana roared as she conjured up a group of bats and sent them towards every part of town. “Quickly! Check the crypt! Inform teams with less than five men to group up with the nearest team and head towards the Shadeling’s stronghold!”

Hessiana then immediately hung up before she began to contact other teams for tactical information on the ground. After gathering more information on the main areas of combat, she quickly contacted the homebase. “What’s the situation now?”

“A breach has appeared near the rose path and about 20 hunters came through. Massive casualties.” A steady voice could be heard from the communicator. “We’ve used artillery strikes to seal the area, and deployed poison gas as well as acidic incendiary bombs. From the reports we’ve got so far, there are 10 more breaches around the city. Many streets are now lost.”

“Secure our stronghold first. Help anyone nearby if possible. Those that we can’t help… It’ll be up to their own luck!” Hessiana quickly threw out orders. “Thank god we haven’t deployed the Tigers… Use the tanks to block the roads. Man the HMG nests on the stronghold! And deploy the Poison Mist Barrier as well. I’m trying to reach all the other Ancient Ones. Hold the damn line until I get them to mend the breach!”

Streams of reports and orders came and went. Thankfully, these vampires were in with the times and they had portable communication devices to relay messages. Thus, they swiftly recovered from the initial shock and awe of the attack. Other parts of the city were not as lucky. Facing the relentless onslaught by the demon hunters, a good half of the smaller clans and families in the city could not even muster any form of resistance. Besides, the war between the two vampire families and the shadelings was initially thought to be “business as usual” so, most of the small clans had decided to turtle in their own strongholds until the storm passed. When the demon hunters came crashing in, most of them were not even prepared to draw their blades and suffered heavy casualties as a result.

Yes, a war between the bigger clans in the shelter was not an uncommin thing. Hessiana’s initial rampage against the established families was merely one of the many conflicts and the smaller clans were so used to it that they resorted to hiding until things calmed down once again. But to everyone’s dismay, the demon hunters had decided to strike in the most inopportune of times.

“F*ck! The city’s in chaos.” Hessiana clenched her fist. “How did the demon hunters get in?”

Hao Ren frowned as something came to mind. It sounded almost impossible yet, very probable. “Can’t it be Bethano—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a big explosion and war cry came from the shadeling’s stronghold. From the flames, a group of shadowy monsters charged forward, their killing intent almost palpable.

The shadelings who had been cowering inside their hideout all this while took the chance to counter attack now that chaos had ensued; their timing was almost impeccable.

“The Shadowy Divide…” Hessiana looked towards the shadeling’s stronghold as fire lit up in her eyes. “The Divide was designed by the shadelings! Bethanos, you f*cking lunatic!”

More and more demon hunters were pouring into the streets from the breach. However, by then, a good portion of the unusual creatures had gotten grips of the situation and formed a steady line of defense. The shelter that had previously knew peace for a century was now a scene of smoke and debris. In just a few minutes, a titantic event that would change the place forever unfolded. But Hessiana did not dither. She was even more motivated as she led the group towards the stronghold. She only had one goal in mind, and that was to drag the old lunatic out and flay him alive.

Just as the stronghold was about to be within their sights, the group was assailed by monstrous creatures covered in black smog.

They were big, almost two metres tall at least, and were humanoid in shape. But, their skin was pitch black with traces of runic laylines running through it. On each one of their backs was a pair of gigantic, almost ethereal bat-like wings. Perhaps, demonic wings would have been a better description.

About 10 of these half-human, half demon monsters were blocking their path and it just so happened that the street was a narrow one—almost too perfect for a blockade. Hessiana lost her temper as soon as she saw them. “Shadelings!”

Hao Ren elbowed Y’zaks who was standing beside him. “Your relatives.”

Y’zaks cracked his knuckles as a firey aura started to envelope him. “Too ugly. There are shadelings where I come from and they have beautiful hooves.”

“Finally, time for some payback…” Becky gripped her enchanted longsword as a small vortex formed around her. The mercenrary lass almost loss her life in the energy vortex and had been nursing a grudge against the shadelings. As a seasoned mercenary, she had seen all sorts of hideous monsters and the ones in front of her did not faze her. She only had one thing in her mind: sink her blade into each and everyone of them.

“Hessiana!” The shadelings facing them reacted in shock as it caught sight of the petite vampire. “You’re not dead?!”

“Of course I’m not dead.” Hessiana raised her hand as her Daredevils aimed their RPGs towards their foes. “I’ve even brought toys for you to play with! Fire!”

Ten blessed warheads flew out from the launcher as they shrieked towards the shadelings. In a blinding mix of flames and purifying light, the warhead slammed against the shadelings. Hao Ren even caught sight of one taking two warheads straight in the face and he was blown miles away for his troubles.

But many of the shadelings reacted in time and they deployed their magical shields or escaped the blast zone. Before the dust settled, they charged out like darting shadows towards Hao Ren and his group.

The Daredevils (that will be their official name from now on) quickly threw down the rocket launchers and drew their blessed silver swords with one hand. With the other, they held the assault rifle and started spraying bullets. Their unique style of fighting was a sight to behold as they countercharged the shadelings.

The unusual creature were indeed a tough bunch. After eating a barrage of RPG bullets (and those were blessed with holy water), a good half of them were still unscathed as they continued to charge. The two groups quickly clashed and the fight turned into a chaotic melee.

Hao Ren had no time to see how the others were faring. At any rate, all of the people present were competent fighters at the very least, even the—hide in a corner in a ball—siren was impervious to attacks for a good while. He now had to focus on the enemies in front of him.

A strong looking shadeling shrouded in black smog was charging towards him. Everything the smog touched had turned into dust so, Hao Ren quickly deployed his Steel Membrane Shield to weather the attack. However, something amazing happened.

The lethal smog dissipated the moment it came into contact with him. The shield did not even flicker.

Hao Ren’s shield was not activated and yet the black smog was nullified.

The charging shadeling did not have time to even digest what had happenened before he crashed head first into Hao Ren and the latter quickly grabbed the shadeling’s arm and slammed him into the ground. While the shadeling looked bigger and stronger than Hao Ren, Hao Ren’s physical capabilities had already been enhanced to the point that his outer appearance was just a ruse. He had secretly tried out his newfound strength before and he could use his thumb to bend a standard DN40 steel pipe into all kinds of shapes. This was clearly outside a usual human’s physical ability and this had something to do with the stuff that was co-existing within him. Well, the shadeling was indeed strong, at least Hao Ren felt that was the case anyway.

He was surprised too when the black smog was nullified and it took him a few seconds to recover. Hao Ren grinned wildly as he tapped the dazed shadeling in his hold. “Look up, I’ve got something nice to show you.”

The shadeling looked up naturally and saw a gleaming, bone-chilling object closing in on it…

Chapter 304: A New Weapon

 

To be honest, sometimes Hao Ren felt a bit awkward that he only had little skills. On top of that, his skills were not really powerful and this made him even more embarrassed. Even the most incompetent Lily had her Frostfire Tackle. As a captain, he did not even know the basics of Braveblade. This was a really regrettable thing. However, when he felt the solid touch and power of the blow from his hand, Hao Ren smirked and said, “Whatever!”

It was a truly good trick! As long as you could endure the MDT’s nasty words. Judging from its attack speed or lethality, it was an extremely stunning skill…

Of course, you first had to have brute force and a piece of insanely sturdy brick.

The shadeling’s huge body came crashing down and almost a third of his head was flattened. Hao Ren still felt a little uncomfortable taking away the life of a humanoid creature. It was human nature but, he was very happy that he quickly adapted to such an eventful life, and accepted the reality that he was going to get into fights from time to time. Additionally, the fact that these half-demon creatures did not really look human actually eased his guilt. He thought that he could get used to killing these creatures after a few punches.

This time, the MDT did not voice out its opinion right away. Before it could say anything, Hao Ren had already grabbed it out of his pocket and rubbed it against the shadeling’s flattened head. It remained silent for a pretty long time as if it was pondering about life. Then, it slowly said, “I found something to be very regrettable—I’m actually beginning to get used to this…”

Hao Ren nodded vigorously and said, “Well, that’s a good thing!”

A strange whistling sound suddenly came from above. Hao Ren looked up and saw a shadowy, lance-like object coming towards him. It was too late for him to dodge, and he could only cross his hands as he faced the direction of the shooting lance. However, the expected attack did not reach him, and the lance, like the smog, suddenly vanished as soon as it touched his body: This was the shadelings’ magical attack—although the lance appeared to be real, it was pure magical effect.

Hao Ren’s strange and magic-immune body began to show great power again after a period of silence. He looked at the fierce fighting sequence around him and suddenly realised that he was probably the real shadeling buster on the scene.

Shadelings were half-demon creatures, skilled in controlling shadow power; their main strategy of battle was the utilisation of shadow magic. Although they had strong bodies and a fierce appearance, their main means of destruction was still a shadow spell. This was a group of creatures obsessed with magical power.

And Hao Ren absolutely loved such an adversary!

The shadeling who launched the attack stood dozens of metres away. When he saw that his powerful Shadow Lance just vanished into thin air, the stout guy froze for a moment. Hao Ren grabbed the opening and rushed towards the shadeling. He then forcefully rotated the Data Terminal in his hand, intending to punch the shadeling’s head. However, as he ran, the shadeling managed to react in time. The shadeling flapped the giant wings on its back and it flew up several metres high. Then, it hurried off in another direction. Their wings did not support long-distance flights but, on the battlefield, they could still use their wings for a short glide or a swift dodge. Before Hao Ren had time to feel disappointed, he heard continuous whistling sounds coming from behind him. Again, a large group of Shadow Lances were shot at him. The weird man, who was immune to their shadow spell had attracted the attention of the shadelings—Hao Ren was caught in the siege of a large group of enemies instantly.

The Shadow Lances disappeared instantly when they hit Hao Ren’s back however, two of the Shadow Lances missed him. It is not certain whether that occured intentionally or accidentally. They just disappeared into the flagstones beneath Hao Ren’s feet. Shortly after, an unusually violent explosion immediately erupted beneath him, and Hao Ren’s body was involuntarily blown several metres up in the air. Before he landed, the shadelings immediately realised how they would deal with the freak, who was immune to magic.

This strange man was immune to magic itself but, he was not immune to the physical effects of magic.

So, an overwhelming number of Shadow Lances were launched towards Hao Ren as though they came freely from all directions. They were deliberately thrown to the ground beneath Hao Ren’s feet. The Shadow Lances were also mixed with a variety of other bizarre spells, which basically created explosions or high temperatures. Hao Ren found himself to be the target of the moment. Before he could react, he was completely burried under the exploding flames and his body’s shielding capacity began to drop.

The bombing raids around them were obviously being performed by veterans. They quickly discovered Hao Ren’s weakness after their first comrade was killed by him. At this point, they carried on fast as they continued bombing. As soon as there was little movement within their bombing range, they immediately flapped their wings and flew up temporarily. Yes, they had discovered something. That shining brick looked like a melee weapon and Hao Ren could not fly…

Becky was closest to Hao Ren. The mercenary was waving her Flaming Magic sword and fighting in close entanglement with a lone shadeling. She caught a glimpse of Hao Ren and noticed his situation. She exclaimed softly at once and quickly swung her enchanted sword to kill the already badly injured enemy in front of her. Then, she turned and rushed to the siege of shadelings, ready to rescue Hao Ren. However, someone was quicker than her: a white shadow rushed towards the siege, covered in a double storm of ice and fire; the sound of air bursting like lightning. It was Lily.

This was the first time the husky saw her landlord undergo such a siege with an invincible shield. She was worried that Hao Ren’s shield could not hold on any longer and therefore, she rushed to his side without a second thought. There was even a dead shadeling’s body still hanging from her claws… Well, half of it: this just shows that dogs are a human’s best friend. Look at how fast she ran…

But before Lily could reach Hao Ren, a powerful roar suddenly rang amid the smoke of battle. “You take me for a weakling if I don’t fare my bangs!”

The moment that illogical, confusing sentence was spoken, they heard a loud boom. The shadeling close to Hao Ren was hit by a bluish-white flare. It turned into a large and beautiful but strange, light blue crystal. Then, it was blasted high up in the air into a million pieces.

The blue crystalline debris drifted profusely and disorderly, falling slowly like snowflakes. This strange and terrible way of dying immediately shocked everybody on the scene, including the shadelings who were savagely bombing everything with excitement. They had seen death but, they had not seen such a bizarre death: The shadeling had less than a second to “transform” before it was blown up. Ordinary people would have missed it but, everybody on the scene was not ordinary. They clearly saw the shadeling’s body turning into a glittering and translucent, blue crystal statue in a fraction of a second. Then, it burst.

Boom! Boom!

In the short silence, two more explosions occurred in the air. Two shadelings suddenly turned into crystalline matter and the pieces flew all over the sky. The other shadelings reacted to this and threw some Shadow Lances towards Hao Ren. After that, they quickly dispersed in all directions.

Hao Ren jumped out of the smoke holding a giant, silvery-white pistol. It had a strange style to it. Blue light streams were floating on the giant pistol, pulsing like blood vessels. Not only that, there was still a faint glow on its muzzle. The blue veins on Hao Ren’s right arm and the light streams on the gun in his hand were all protruding. Each blood vessel sparkled with the same blue light, beating on the surface of his skin as if they were about to burst.

“What are you waiting for?” Hao Ren roared. “Fight!”

As he said this, he raised the strange, giant pistol in his hand and swung it in the direction of the shadelings and yelled, “Go, Mobile Data Brick!”

The MDT was still floating in the air, watching them and doing nothing. It went blank for a moment and finally reacted. However, the problem was solved. Y’zaks and Vivian eventually settled the powerful enemies who were fighting against them. Then, they made a clean sweep of all their opponents. Of the dozens of enemies, they had eradicated almost all of them except for two or three who ran away too fast. The rest were annihilated.

They may have been the chosen troops of the Bethanos Family, but no matter how strong the troops were, they were just soldiers—even if the troops were more than twice the current number, they would not have been able to beat Hao Ren’s Frenzied Special Task Force VIP Paid Players Group.

Let’s just ignore that name.

Hao Ren heaved a deep sigh. He lowered his head and looked at his gun as well as his right arm, which had begun to be infected. “I should have made some adaptive adjustments earlier. Ouch, this thing really hurts!”

Chapter 305: The Burning City

 

Accompanied by the sound of their flapping wings, a large swarm of bats quickly gathered around Hao Ren. Vivian emerged from the swarm of bats as she nervously ran towards Hao Ren and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m good.” Hao Ren grinned and raised his right hand. The light on the giant, silvery-white pistol was slowly fading away and then, it vanished into thin air like a phantom. “I just need to take a breather…”

“What was that?” Lily asked as she ran towards him on her two large paws. At the same time, she licked the blood stain that was on her sleeve.

Hao Ren shrugged and answered, “An inspector’s gun. I just unlocked it not too long ago. I felt like I needed some weapons that I could use in this environment, and I found it on the weapons list. But, it looks like I’ve used it too early.”

Hao Ren had already came to the realisation that he needed to improve his combat power two or three months ago. He was living with a bunch of unusual creatures and he had a deranged boss who could give him weird tasks any time of the day. Plus, he could get involve in fights at any moment. Therefore, he urgently needed to strengthen his combat ability in order to confront such crisis. Under the guidance of the MDT, he had been trying to enhance his control over his strengthened body, learning about precise adjustments that could be made on the shield as well as his combat skills. However, he also knew that it was not enough to have these simple and direct fighting styles in his arsenal. As a man who was weak and unsecured, he had to have a more versatile skill set to make up for his shortcomings. He then looked into the section on arming one’s self in the inspector handbook and successfully unlocked the right to carry and use the inspector’s gun last month.

After applying for the gun, the weapon was sent directly to his Dimensional Pocket through the hyperspace-time rationing system. But, this was the first time he had used it.

“…Although I don’t know much about it, it seems like a good thing,” Hessiana said with amazement. “When did humans have this kind of stuff? Why didn’t you use it earlier?”

Hao Ren smiled awkwardly as he raised his right hand and said, “Because of this…”

Even though he had already kept his gun in his Dimensional Pocket, his right hand was still shimmering with a bluish glow. The protruding blood vessels underneath his skin looked like they were filled with fluorescent agents. The skin near his wrist was covered with a slight scaley, crystalline substance as if his arm had turned into crystalline like those shadelings. Everybody around him was startled by this; Nangong Wuyue hurriedly ran to his side to treat him, but Hao Ren drew back his hand and said, “Don’t bother. This is a psionic infection, you can’t deal with it. But, I can break it down and it’ll go away after a while.”

The psionic weapon was powerful enough to ignore shields and armor of any kind made by mortals. Hence, some mortal civilisations called the energy used by such weapons as the “Will of God”. However, the psionic weapon was actually not suitable to be used by mortals. It would bring certain harm to the user and it had a side effect called the “Psionic Crystallisation Syndrome”. The time and intensity of the crystallisation syndrome varied according to the user’s degree of physical sensitivity.

Unfortunately, Hao Ren was the more sensitive one.

However, the inspector’s gun was a specially designed weapon, tailored to human users. It could make self-improvements according to the physiological characteristics of the user. At the same time, the inspector’s own distinctive body constitution would slowly adapt to the psionic energy after many times of contact. So, after a period of adaptation, the gun would become the handiest weapon for the inspector.

Hao Ren just happened to use it prematurely—it would actually take him one more month to achieve a perfect sync with the gun.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Lily asked as she stared nervously at the strange symptoms on Hao Ren’s arm, wagging her tail. “It looks scary.”

“I’m all right. Let’s go, we’re wasting a lot of time here.”

The sounds of explosions and shouting from the shadelings’ castle had slightly weakened, but it was still quite intense. It seemed that the first batch of Hessiana’s Daredevils and the defenders of the castle had entered a stalemate. On the south side of the castle, a number of shadelings forces rushed out and took the initiative to launch an attack. However, in the erratic onslaught of the insane vampires who carried RPGs and aerial bombs, these shadelings troops did not go far. They were called back to consolidate the defenses of the castle. At this point, the fight over there was a total mess. The shadelings were desperately defending while the vampires were attacking without any order. Both parties just could not keep pace with each other. In such a high-tech, magical, bizarre, and psychotic battle, there was nothing Rommel¹ could do even if you revived him and dragged him to the scene. Hessiana herself had never verified the tactics of her Daredevils (this was also not part of her condition so, who would train these soldiers in the shelter?) hence, the front line could only fight blindly.

The battles around the city had become white-hot. There were at least 11 rifts throughout the city and new demon hunters kept pouring into the battlefield from the rifts even after the unusual creatures struggled to fight back and consolidated their defenses. No one knew how many demon hunters were rushing in, but everyone knew that there was something wrong with a large number of demon hunters there. Since the end of the Mythological Age, the demon hunters had rarely formed legions to carry out an action of this scale. The number of demon hunters that would gather in a city was usually limited, but the ones that broke in today… They were all apparently ready for the battle.

The streets in the city were ablaze with flames and the city, which had been operating for thousands of years was quickly being destroyed. Although the unusual creatures were all formidable monsters to mankind, many of them were actually just regular people. They were not good in fighting at all. Even though they were more powerful than humans, they were never opponents of the demon hunters. The demon hunters in their long, black windbreakers were like the Grim Reaper, sweeping across the whole city. Every time their silhouettes flickered, a creature’s life would be taken. The more powerful demon hunters had forcibly established their position near the rift. They were the ones directing more powerful and destructive spells.

The city’s sky began to shake and crumble as the shadow of chaos fell from every crack in the sky. In these shadows, they could vaguely see the form of the real Athens—the demon hunters were casting spells to destroy the shadow structure of the city. If the real world came into contact with this dimension, the whole city might vanish.

However, the elders had begun to act. They closed their guarded passages and returned from the real world as well as the Shadowy Divide. They came to the city to deal with the leaders of the demon hunters, who were keeping the rifts open. These powerful elders managed to slightly relief the situation; the demon hunters’ magic, which was capable of destroying the city was interrupted again and again. Due to the intense energy, the dome of the city creaked as if it was about to collapse, but in the end, it did not…

Well, not yet.

The flames from explosions and the burning fires in the city rose from all directions, but there was not one demon hunter near the shadelings’ castle. That area seemed to have been deliberately overlooked. Only the shadelings and vampires from Hessiana’s family were fighting here.

“The demon hunters deliberately bypassed this area,” Hessiana said as she gritted her teeth and rubbed off the blood on her face. They had just beaten back another attack from the shadelings. The Dark Castle was already in sight and they could even see the ragged heraldry still fluttering above the city gate. “They’re trying to throw the whole city into the real world… What kind of agreement did they have with that bastard, Bethanos?”

“It’s incredible, the fact that the demon hunters colluded with unusual creatures,” Vivian said, looking back at the city with concern. “Can we hold on? It seems like the demon hunters have gained the upper hand.”

“We must,” Hessiana clenched her teeth and said. “The shadelings are trying to break out of their castle; they are undoubtedly trying to rush to the city to support the demon hunters. We must be here to destroy the castle otherwise, the defenders in the city will be attacked from all sides!”

Then, she looked back at the city and said, “I want to help them fight against the demon hunters too, but right now… it’s better that we believe in the power of the defenders. That crafty scoundrel, Bethanos is a greater threat now.”

Just as Hao Ren was about to say something, he suddenly saw a golden glow appear out of nowhere in the air. He immediately prepared to fight, but then he noticed Hesperides walking out from the glow.

This elder, who went by “Goddess of Twilight”, looked like she had just gone through a tough battle. Her clothes were stained with blood and the shimmering bloodstains had apparently come from the demon hunters. Along with all that, the weapon in her hand left them all dumbfounded.

It was a mace, which was almost as tall as her. It was fabricated from high-quality steel, covered in hundreds of nails and was an essential treasure for killing as well as robbing.

Hesperides was glaring at them with red eyes. She waved the mace in her hand and asked in a shrill voice, “Where is he? Where is he? Where’s that one-eyed man?!”

Vivian covered her eyes and said, “Here comes her secondary personality.”

Chapter 306: Ran Away?

 

Hao Ren still remembered the first time he saw Hesperides. Based on his impression, she was a slightly gloomy, mature sister with a steady temperament. But now, seeing her again gave him a fright. Hesperides looked as frightening as a hungry ghost who crawled out from hell. She had a visible, murderous aura around her body; her eyes were red and her voice was hoarse. The giant mace in her hand was covered in blood, which kept dripping to the ground. Vivian covered her eyes and whispered, “The second personality…”

“Have you seen the one-eyed man?” Hesperides looked as if she had gone mad but in fact, she had no problems indentifying the things around her. She stared at Hao Ren and Vivian, then said in a hoarse voice, “Leave him to me, leave him with me…”

“You’ve been fighting for too long. You should go back and rest.” Vivian tried to calm her down but, after getting a vicious look from Hesperides, she shook her head helplessly and said, “The demon hunters didn’t come this way. Those bastards, the shadelings are in cahoots with them. We’re going to kill Bethanos now—do you want to come?”

“No, I’m going to look for the one-eyed man, I’m going to kill him.” A reddish halo gradually rose from Hesperides’ “battle stick”. Under the shroud of the halo, its surroundings gradually became scorching hot, twisting in the heat. “I can feel it… I can feel him here in this city. It’s right this time, it’s absolutely right this time. My wound is burning like fire… Ah, the arrow in the wound must have felt the call of its master! It will take me to its bastard owner…”

Hesperides kept talking on and on like a lunatic while a silver glow seeped out the gorgeous jewelry on her forehead. At first, Vivian looked sympathetically at her delirious friend, but when she heard those last few words, her facial expression suddenly changed and she asked, “Wait a minute, you sense it this time?”

“Absolutely.” Hesperides covered her forehead and laughed hoarsely. “He’s alive, he’s here, and he’s going to die today!”

After saying this, Hesperides did not give Vivian the opportunity to continue asking her any questions. She turned into a sunset orange glow and dispersed into the air. Hao Ren found it strange and asked, “What’s going on? Who’s the one-eyed man?”

“The one-eyed man is the demon hunters’ ‘elder’,” Vivian said as she turned and went towards the castle of shadelings. “We don’t know what his real name is, we just know that he’s blind on one side and he’s the one who left the cut on Hesperides’ head. I never thought that he would still be alive… For a demon hunter to live until now, he is definitely at least an elder or maybe even a saint…”

After Hao Ren heard this, he immediately asked, “In that case, does Hesperides need our help?”

“There are other elders in this town who will help her. Besides, we have more important things to do,” Vivian said without turning her head, “and our top priority now is to catch Bethanos. I got a feeling… he’s going to run away soon, and he’s going to run far. If we don’t catch him this time, it’ll cause endless problems in the future.”

Hao Ren nodded and stopped talking. However, Vivian could not help but mutter, “I never expected an elder of such level to be leading the demon hunters in purifying this city. What the hell is in this city, that it got them to do this?”

Vivian was still rushing towards the shadelings’ castle, but inside, she was getting more and more puzzled. It was already so shocking that demon hunters and unusual creatures were ganging up. Then, to find out that the demon hunters’ commander was one of the elders involved in the events of Olympus! It would still be understandable if it was a new generation demon hunter ganging up with the shadelings. But, a veteran demon hunter cooperated with Bethanos?

What the hell was in the city, that it got them to do this?

Vivian frowned. Although she had long neglected things related to unusual creatures, she still thought of a possibility. At the same time, the walkie-talkie on Hessiana’s chest sounded again. They received a message from Hessiana’s family base. “Mistress! A large number of demon hunters are storming into our side! The enemies in the neighborhood seem to have gathered together!”

“Storming our home?” Hessiana paused for a second and asked, “Did you fire too much and become too much of a threat to them?”

“I don’t know. There’s also news that the Lucas Family have been hit. The sentinels report that the demon hunters in the city, apart from those maintaining the rifts, have gathered into two troops and they are storming towards us as well as the Lucas Family…”

“Can you guys withstand the attack?” Hessiana frowned and asked.

The voice in the walkie-talkie was very firm. “No problem! Our ammunition is well stocked. The demon hunters are clearly not comfortable with our fighting style, and they haven’t worked out an effective assault strategy yet. We have activated all the mines and the demon hunters won’t dare to use their teleportation as they like.”

Hessiana laughed and said, “Take it easy, don’t blow up our own people.”

“Are the demon hunters attacking the Hessianite and Lucas Family stations?” Vivian tilted her head, glanced at Hessiana and said, “Looks like I guessed correctly. They’re here for the relic… and Bethanos cheated them.”

Hao Ren was also pondering about this matter and figured it out at the same time as Vivian: What did the Hessianite and Lucas Family have, which was worth the attention of the shadelings and demon hunters at the same time, that they would come and rob them in such a big way? The answer was very obvious: it had to be the two key slates stolen by Bethanos. Whatever the truth about the ruins was, Bethanos had apparently told the demon hunters that the key slates were in the hands of the two vampire families!

However, the crafty scoundrel did not tell the demon hunters that he had snatched the key in advance.

The shadelings’ castle was blazing with flames. After aerial bombings and subsequent attacks from the RPGs, two-thirds of the black castle, which had stood for thousands of years collapsed. Only giant rocks cracked by high temperatures and crumbling rubble were left to struggle and maintain the grand scale of the ancient castle. After the first wave of Daredevils bombed the castle, Hessiana sent another set of troops and the second group dropped a massive amount of white phosphorus bombs as well as a variety of high-performance incendiary bombs. They did not seek to burn the shadelings into ashes, but they wanted to destroy the castle completely. This was Hessiana’s style. The seemingly lively little vampire had an exceptionally ruthless side. If she explicitly treated a person as an enemy, she would never stop until the enemy was crushed into powder. She had decided to destroy the shadelings’ foundation and not a single brick would be left of it.

Anyway, this was the kind of war that occurred between the unusual creatures. These racially diverse and contradictory creatures were never afraid to completely exterminate their opponents when necessary. Therefore, the shadelings in the castle did not panic when they were confronted by this crazy attack. They did lament about how their home had been destroyed or regretted having brought such a big problemupon themselves. They just fought in silence with a near-numb attitude. The shadelings also managed to cause a lot of casualties among Hessiana’s troops as there were disadvantages to air raids.

But that was as much as the shadelings could do. Hessiana’s Family was almost as strong as and the family of shadelings. Now, Hessiana had the advantage of her trump card, and part of the shadelings had been successfully blocked by the Lucas Family therefore, the castle’s force of resistance was almost done for.

Hao Ren and others passed through the castle’s atrium, which was filled with smoke and the garden, which was strewn with corpses of shadelings as well as vampires; they suffered the last wave of attack deep beneath the castle. After Y’zaks blew these half-demons away with his real demon power, Hao Ren kicked the heavy stone door open.

It was also probably the last door in the entire castle that still remained intact—and now, that last door was gone too.

There was no Bethanos in the basement, only a door that was slowly closing and smoke still fuming from the remnants of an altar.

They did not see the key slabs, just some white debris scattered around the altar.

Hessiana trotted towards the altar and found some pieces of metal from the altar’s wreckage. She was so angry that she laughed and said, “Haha… He blew up the door with a time bomb. That old bastard still keeps up with the times—but, is he not planning to come back out?”