The Creatures That We Are

Their hope was Nainai.

After getting treated with Medicine C and recovered most of her injury, she rushed over immediately. While the hill had been entirely circled by skeletal wings large enough to obscure the sky, it posed no difficulty to Nainai, who could increase and decrease her size at will.

She quickly went up the hill and reached Gao Yang and the others.

“This Empress has come!” There were pink scars on Nainai’s legs, a result of accelerated recovery of the wounds. It would take at least half a month for the scars to fade.

Her bang had gotten stuck to her forehead in strands by congealed blood, under which was a black bandaid with insidious looking patterns.

“Nainai! Follow my lead!” Gao Yang shouted, jumping and teleporting to reach a wing bone. Then he jumped again, his right hand balled into fist and swinging toward the chest of the giant skeletal bird.

“Fire Punch!” Gao Yang shouted, his fist bursting into blinding red flames.

Swish.

A thin bone shot out from the side, piercing through Gao Yang’s waist.

“Gao Yang!” Qing Ling screamed and was about to rush over with her blades, but Lithe Snake grabbed her.

She paused, calming down quickly.

They all saw then that the Gao Yang getting pierced by the bone hadn’t bled or cried out in pain. It was only a double.

The real Gao Yang was already standing on the thin bone piercing at him.

Using it as a springboard, he leapt with both feet while teleporting, getting close to the skeletal bird’s chest.

He had just about exhausted his uses of Teleportation.

When he was only two meters from the bird’s chest, he lamented, And I’m gonna lose 3% to 5% of my stats again.

But there was no other way.

Willful Power!

[Constitution: 1 Endurance: 1]

[Strength: 3000 Agility: 1]

[Willpower: 2231 Charisma: 1]

[Luck: 813]

“Fire—Punch—”

Gao Yang’s right fist flickered with golden light. Then his right arm and his entire body erupted into a cape of golden flames.

The flames quickly morphed into a giant pair of burning wings, attached to Gao Yang’s back. They expanded with the night sky as backdrop, scattering embers.

Rumble.

In a split second, the air compressed dramatically, making a deep, rough rumble.

The wings of flames that were no lesser than those of the skeletal bird converged to Gao Yang’s right fist instantly.

His Fire reached level 6 at that moment!

Qing Ling, Officer Huang, Lithe Snake, and Nainai saw a roaring fire dragon shoot out of Gao Yang’s right fist, colliding with the mountainous skeletal bird.

Crackle, boom!

The giant dragon tore into the bird’s chest, lighting up the night sky like it was day.

However, the Fire Punch still failed to melt and destroy the terrifying white bones. Instead, the flames scattered into ripples of scorching golden energy, spreading across the hill like waves of flowing magma from a volcano eruption.

Carrying Officer Huang on his back, Lithe Snake dodged the burning energy ripples, while Qing Ling flew away on her blade with Nainai in her arms.

“Ahhhhhh—” Nainai’s hair and dress fluttered from the ripples of energy. The last time she witnessed such a dramatic scene in a battle was when Elder Azure Dragon used a furious punch.

Growl—

The giant bird growled in pain like a meteorite had knocked it on the chest. Losing its balance, it toppled down.

Gao Yang started plunging after throwing the punch. With his stats still shifted, he was almost blind and deaf to the world, and he couldn’t sense anything.

Still, he shouted, “Nainai, tear its chest open!”

Nainai caught on immediately, and so did Qing Ling.

Without hesitation, she threw Nainai down at the prone skeletal bird. Nainai screamed as she fell. “Aghhhhh...”

At the same time, Qing Ling rode on her blade to chase after Gao Yang, catching him before he hit the ground—in a bridal carry.

Gao Yang’s six senses slowly returned to him. He sensed a pair of arms catching him, the embrace soft and the fluttering long black hair smelling of a familiar fragrance.

A few seconds later, he got a clear look at Qing Ling’s face.

She looked down at him with cool eyes, her lips slightly curved upward with a hint of mockery. Gao Yang could almost read her mind: loser, you can’t be cool for more than three seconds.

Meanwhile, Nainai, who had been dropped by Qing Ling, was falling toward the giant bird.

Pushing aside all her reservations, she extended her arms and legs, braving the currents with a determined gaze. “This Empress has arrived! Shake in fear, world!!!”

Whoosh!

There was a sudden violent ripple.

Nainai had transformed into a fifteen-meter tall giant in a second. While she was still smaller than the skeletal bird, she was almost half its size.

Her Scale reached level 6 at that moment, decreasing the time it took for her to turn into a giant from 3 seconds to 1 second.

Boom, boom!

Her two feet stomped on the bird’s two wings.

For a moment, the entire hill seemed to shake, the resulting gusts sending stones and dust flying everywhere, the impact disastrous and tremendous.

Nainai didn’t hesitate. Given she had turned into a giant before, her transformation would last even shorter this time.

She reached out toward the giant skeletal bird’s chest with both hands. The rib bones had been cracked and displaced visibly by Gao Yang’s Fire Punch, and the flames had melted all the thin bone stings between the rib bones.

Nainai thrust her ten fingers through the gaps created by the Fire Punch, but that was as far as she could go. She couldn’t reach into the center of the chest.

“Huh...hahhh...”

Pushing herself to the limit, Nainai pried the giant skeletal bird’s rib cage open.

The giant bird pinned down by her struggled with all its might, its shriek reaching heaven.

“Ahhhh!”

Nainai struggled to keep it down. Although she had exhausted all her power, she still wasn’t able to pry the rib cage open wholly. It was the most indestructible thing she had ever encountered in her life.

“No, this Empress...this Empress is reaching her limit...” Nainai felt her strength drain from her, and her giant body started shrinking.

“It’s good enough.”

She heard someone speak. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Lithe Snake standing on her shoulder.

He was holding a Black Gold shortsword with his right hand while grasping a yellowed photo in his left hand. Half of the photo was a large head going out of frame, while the other half occupied by about a dozen mercenaries.

The photo was taken twenty years ago in the Rogue Cape, in the tropical forest on one of the islands. The group stirred up a hornet’s nest and had to lay low.

They put up tents in the forest and endured the assaults of mosquitoes and other insects and the smothering humid heat, eating canned food and sour fruit. Only on the rare occasions when they hunted a game did they open up a bottle of spirit.

One afternoon, when the boys were getting bored out of his mind, Benson suggested they sing to pass the time. Butchering an edible snake with a dagger, Lithe Snake started singing a song from his home country.

The other mercenaries slept on the hammocks or in the tents, some drinking, some smoking, and some maintaining their firearms. They all stopped to play beats for Lithe Snake, stealing a moment of fun in their time of misery.

Holding a camera, Benson, their leader, took a selfie and captured the moment.

It was their only group photo. Hyena was included too. At the time, he played the beat with the others as well. He seemed to be in a good mood.

Staring at the giant skeletal bird with piercing eyes, Lithe Snake, showing no sign of hesitation, swung his Black Gold shortsword with a reverse grip and cut off his entire left arm.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel