The Creatures That We Are

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Bam! A hefty arm shot through the door.

It was no human arm. The thick, strong, brass color muscles combined to form a powerful arm that looked more like steel, and the back of the giant hand was covered in grotesque scales. The nails on the four fingers were several centimeters long, and they were hard and sharp like blades.

No sooner had Gao Yang tackled Fat Jun than the claws shot through the door, cutting Gao Yang’s left arm.

When the nails made contact with fresh blood, the hand shuddered in excitement and started cutting down the door with reckless abandon. In a matter of seconds, the door was torn asunder like a piece of cardboard.

The monster marched in. The shards of wood squeaked and whined eerily under her feet.

The main light had been turned off, leaving the room cast in a dim, oppressive red light.

“Three, there are three... Ah, ah ah...” Auntie Ho’s voice was laced with a strange excitement. There was an undercurrent of undefinable sorrow and great gratitude. “All mine... All...”

Gao Yang hid behind the water bed, covering a shuddering Fat Jun’s mouth while suppressing the sharp pain in his arm. He didn’t dare to even breathe.

Not long after, he felt something wet on his fingers. Fat Jun was crying tears of fear.

Under the dim light of the room, Gao Yang looked up at the ceiling mirror to take a good look at their enemy.

It was Auntie Ho, a middle-aged woman in her fifties. Dressed in the uniform of housekeeping staff, she looked sickly thin and old. Her torso and head still retained the appearance of a human, while her limbs had transformed into those of a monster. They were so thick and strong that they broke her pants and sleeves. The discrepancies were too stark to ignore.

One step at a time, she made her way through the entryway, her body trembling with anticipation.

Then a wet, slick, dark green tail emerged from her back.

The process seemed difficult. The tail emerged inch by inch while sputtering thick, opaque liquid, like the amniotic fluid coming out of a mother’s body during delivery.

The tail pushed against her hip bone and spine, forcing her body to arch forward.

Finally, the tail was fully out, thick as a human thigh and running two meters long. It dragged across the floor and made a cold rustling sound like a slithering snake.

She looked like a lizardman.

Witnessing her transformation from start to finish, Gao Yang felt a bone-chilling fear spread through his body. His head spinned with a ringing in his ears. It was a fact that there was nothing he could do but to endure the pain and hold his breath like a sitting duck, all to delay the coming death for as long as possible.

He knew he couldn’t fight the monster.

His mind wandered for a moment, recalling the time he killed a cockroach with a slipper.

The cockroach had skittered under his bed the moment it was spotted, but Gao Yang easily drove it out and, with disgust and a feeling of superiority, killed it with an audible splat.

At this moment, he felt like the insignificant and despairing cockroach.

His only hope was Qing Ling, who had hidden herself somewhere in the room.

The excruciatingly long ten seconds passed. Or maybe it was seven seconds. Gao Yang wasn’t exactly counting.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—

Three sharp daggers shot out from a dark corner, aiming for Auntie Ho’s eyes.

She quickly blocked them with her arm.

Clink, clink, clink! Following the sounds, the daggers fell to the floor. They didn’t even manage to leave a cut on Auntie Ho’s sturdy arm.

Of course, they were merely distractions.

The moment Auntie Ho raised her arm to block the incoming daggers, Qing Ling had already rushed out of the closet, holding her Tang Dao with both hands as she made a thrust at Auntie Ho’s heart from the side.

Although her reaction had been delayed by a beat, Auntie Ho quickly caught the sharp blade with both hands. Sparks sputtered out as her eight sharp claws collided with the metal.

With a low shout, Qing Ling pushed her legs, waist, and wrists into the thrust.

Bam! Auntie Ho slammed into the wall behind her, yet her hands stubbornly held onto the blade to protect her heart.

Qing Ling pushed further, burying the tip of the blade into Auntie Ho’s chest inch by inch.

“Gurahhhh—” Auntie Ho let out a growl that was both human and monster before swinging her tail, whipping Qing Ling in the waist. Qing Ling stumbled, and all the force she had applied through her blade went lax.

Seizing the opening, Auntie Ho grabbed the Tang Dao and swung it, sending Qing Ling flying into the bathroom along with her weapon. The reinforced glass shattered into tiny pieces with a bang.

The wound in Auntie Ho’s chest wasn’t shallow. She panted heavily, pained and furious. Then she stalked toward the bathroom for Qing Ling.

Flutter! Then a blanket flew toward her and covered her from the head.

Gao Yang and Fat Jun hadn’t been sitting around during the ten seconds Qing Ling grappled with Auntie Ho.

Fat Jun lifted the blanket and threw it over Auntie Ho, but it bought him no more than two seconds. He had planned to blind Auntie Ho for only long enough for him to escape. freeweb(n)ovel.com

And he did carry out his plan. As soon as the blanket covered Auntie Ho, he bolted for the door. The floor was covered in glass pieces and the viscous discharge from the monster’s body, however, and in his nerves, he tripped and fell on his butt before Auntie Ho.

“Don’t, don’t kill me... Mom...help...” He rolled on the floor like a fat mudfish, but the viscous discharge prevented him from getting up.

Slashing through the blanket, Auntie Ho zeroed in on the fat man crawling on the floor. It was more difficult than she expected to deal with three humans. She gave up on savoring her meal and decided to take them out one at a time.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! Three daggers flew out again and stabbed Auntie Ho in the eyes.

Blood gushed out of her eye sockets as her eyeballs broke.

“Gah...” She swung her claws around blindly. “My eyes! My eyes...”

Meanwhile, Gao Yang didn’t stop what he had been doing even though he was trembling all over.

—You’re useless.

—You can’t do anything. You can’t change anything. So don’t be nervous.

—Do what you can. You’re here. Just do whatever you can.

Gao Yang somehow managed to calm his fear and nerves with his unique way of counseling. While Fat Jun threw a blanket at Auntie Ho, he had found his way to the entryway and picked up Qing Ling’s Tang Dao. He cut the hair dryer’s cord with it and plugged it to a power outlet on the wall.

No, it’s too far!

Clenching his teeth, he raised the Tang Dao and stabbed it at Auntie Ho.

The tip of the blade buried into Auntie Ho’s thigh. However, Gao Yang wasn’t strong enough to push it deeper into her flesh. When she took a swing at him with her palm, Gao Yang bent backward, having seen the attack coming. He felt a sting on his nose bridge. A cut had been left.

Blinded, Auntie Ho didn’t chase after her target aimlessly. She held onto the Tang Dao in her thigh and tried to pull it out. It should’ve been easy given how shallow the blade had gone in, yet an invisible force was keeping the blade in place.

Qing Ling opened her hands wide while she lay prone on the floor. She was clenching her teeth so hard that blood trickled down from the corner of her mouth. “Hurry!”

Gao Yang picked up the cut side of the hair dryer’s cord and pressed it to the blade.

There were no sparks like those epic moments in movies. He couldn’t see the currents running along the blade. All he heard was a short, dull pzzt. Then Auntie Ho collapsed to her knees.

She hadn’t lost consciousness and was still trying to stand up.

Gao Yang electrocuted her again.

Finally, Auntie Ho sat prone on the floor after a violent bout of seizure.

It was still struggling, its tail whipping around. A regular human would’ve blacked out already, if not died then and there.

At some point, Qing Ling had picked herself up. She approached Auntie Ho and pulled out the Tang Dao to stab her right in the chest. Auntie Ho screamed in pain, flailing her arms around in struggle.

“Come and help!” Qing Ling shouted.

Gao Yang hurriedly cast the cord away and held onto Qing Ling’s hands from behind, pushing the Tang Dao forward with her.

Finally, the blade penetrated through Auntie Ho’s chest.

Auntie Ho’s whole body seized up. She didn’t even make a sound before her head drooped, dead while being pinned to the pink wall. The picture it painted was bizarre to say the least.

Qing Ling was injured all over and exhausted. She let out a long breath and leaned back into Gao Yang’s chest. He could feel her pounding heart from the contact.

After a few seconds of silence, Qing Ling turned around and toppled onto the waterbed. She had almost no strength left in her body. The white bathrobe covering her was splattered with blood stains.

Gao Yang’s mind was blank as well. He pressed a hand on his injured arm, the pain finally registering in his brain again. Standing in the messy room filled with gore and blood, he smelled a pungent odor he couldn’t describe.

To put it into words, it was like rotten eggs being burned with plastic, with essential balm and wasabi added into the mix.

Bile rose to his mouth, and Gao Yang knelt before Auntie Ho’s body, throwing up all over the floor.

After escaping from the life-and-death situation, Fat Jun didn’t sit around and do nothing, but instead quickly found something to block the door with. In a relieved voice, he said, “Thank god there isn’t anyone else on this floor.”

“Didn’t you say this is the last available room on the floor?” Gao Yang wiped at his mouth.

“Hehe, that was a lie. Business hasn’t been good lately.” Fat Jun ran up to Gao Yang and healed his arm.

“Big Brother...”

“I’m younger than you.”

“From now on, you are my older brother.” Fat Jun then turned to Qing Ling, who was still lying on the bed. “And she’s my sister-in-law!”

Qing Ling didn't say anything, but her exhausted body clearly radiated her killing intent.

“I have a question for you, Brother,” said Fat Jun. “How did you know there was something wrong with Auntie Ho?”

“The sounds,” Gao Yang said tiredly. “If she had been here for housekeeping, she should have had a cart with her. When I told her to leave, I didn’t hear the sound of wheels.”

“That’s genius!” Fat Jun slapped his own thigh. “You sure have a quick mind! Why didn’t I think of it?”

“Of course! My brother is a smart one!”

Gao Yang turned around, stunned.

The one who said that was none other than Wang Zikai.