The Creatures That We Are

With Gao Yang’s reminder, Heavenly Dog could more or less figure out the mechanism of Firework, and he chose to fight from a long range.

Flying into the sky, Heavenly Dog maintained a safe distance while attacking Smoker with Spatial Dissection. Smoker, however, was sensitive to the flow of elements around him, and through his mastery over the air elements, he could predict the use of Spatial Dissection and thus dodge the attacks easily.

The two ended up in a stalemate. Neither could hurt the other, and both were feeling urgent.

Heavenly Dog wanted to make it quick. They weren’t here to fight, but to rescue someone.

Smoker wanted to make it quick too. He was mad, but not stupid. He knew that soon, the reinforcements from the three organizations would arrive.

Heavenly Dog sighed dejectedly, his expression troubled.

It seems that I’ll have to use that. I’ll let the others do the rest.

Don’t lose, or I’ll be waiting for my death afterward. Well, I’m not really averse to that. After all, living is so troublesome. Studying, tests, socializing, working, eating, sleeping... Oh, sleeping isn’t troublesome. Sleeping while listening to music is the best.

His thought strayed for a moment as white light flashed through his eyes. Night wind swept up the black hair on his forehead. He splayed his hands at Smoker, who was below him.

A second later, Smoker sensed the air elements around him becoming unusually turbulent. He backed off but then came to a sudden halt—he realized that he had been trapped from all directions.

“Run!”

Suddenly, Officer Huang shouted at Heavenly Dog, who was closest to him.

...

Not far away, Gao Yang had heard Officer Huang too. He was crushing Madam Wu at the time.

Although Madam Wu wasn’t weak, Gao Yang’s Talents happened to be her natural banes. Her Black Gold body had high defense, but War Tiger had proved with his raw attack that Madam Wu had a weakness: the still organic brain inside her Black Gold skull.

The limit of level 3 Strong prevented her from achieving true synthetic ascension. Thus, she could be killed by destroying her organic brain.

It was difficult for Qing Ling, but easy for Gao Yang.

Madam Wu attacked Gao Yang relentlessly like a beast, crushing the train car with a punch and breaking the ground with a stomp. Having sparred with Qing Ling one-on-one, though, Gao Yang was able to dodge the attacks easily.

After about a dozen exchanges, Gao Yang had figured out her attack patterns.

With the right timing, he teleported and swept his leg to bring Madam Wu to the ground. Then he followed that up with a Fire Punch to her chest, which didn’t hurt her, but the impact rendered her unable to resist for a short moment.

Then pinning her down with both legs, Gao Yang grabbed her head. “Fire!”

A pillar of flame rose to burn Madam Wu ruthlessly. Despite Black Gold’s stable nature and good resistance to heat, it couldn’t insulate heat completely, and Gao Yang’s level 6 Fire could generate heat at 2600 degree Celsius, enough to melt most regular things.

While Madam Wu’s Black Gold skull wouldn’t melt, the brain tissues inside would soon boil.

“Aghhhh—”

Her brain heated up quickly, depriving her of her ability to think and will to live. All she could do was scream.

“Run!”

But then Gao Yang heard Officer Huang shout.

Gao Yang paused, stopping Fire and looking over at Officer Huang. Officer Huang was rushing at him while pointing at the sky.

At that moment, Qing Ling, Heavenly Dog, and all members of Tails—outside of the almost bisected Cockroach—saw it.

Above the old train station, a giant cluster of energy radiating a blinding white light hurtled toward them like a white shooting star. No one knew what it was, but their first reaction was the same: danger!

“Run!”

Gao Yang couldn’t afford to stay and kill Madam Wu. He jumped off of her and teleported to Qing Ling, grabbing her and teleporting again.

Heavenly Dog stopped his attack at Smoker too and flew toward Officer Huang, diving toward him and carrying him further.

A moment later, members of the Tails started fleeing the falling shooting star as well.

When Gao Yang and the others had reached the wire fences surrounding the old station but hadn’t vaulted over, it happened.

Boom!

The white shooting star landed on an abandoned train car.

Ripple.

It exploded into a blinding mushroom cloud, which quickly morphed into a sacred and beautiful white phoenix with its wings extended. At the same time, white energy rippled outward and spread across the train station, reaching Gao Yang and the others in less than a second.

Gao Yang sensed a flash behind his back. Then the white shockwave shot through his body, spreading a numbness. His legs buckled, and his arms went slack. Both him and Qing Ling fell to the ground.

Heavenly Dog and Officer Huang also fell from five to six meters in the air.

Gao Yang almost thought he had died, but he didn’t. He realized that he had simply lost all his energy and strength the moment the white shockwave shot through him. A few seconds later, his body went back to normal.

“You...okay?” Gao Yang slowly stood up, extending a hand.

“I’m okay.” Qing Ling had recovered too. She grabbed his hand and stood up, splaying her hands to call her two blades back from nearby.

Heavenly Dog and Officer Huang got to their feet too. They turned around in disbelief and shock.

The white shooting star had been so majestic that they thought they would surely die, but outside of silencing them for a couple seconds, it didn’t inflict any damage.

The old train station remained how it had been, and the giant white phoenix that had lit up the night sky and obscured the moon gradually disappeared.

The world was plunged back into darkness.

Meanwhile, Smoker, Xing Kong, Madam Wu, and Cockroach hadn’t been able to run that far before the white shockwaves knocked them off their feet. They picked themselves up one after another, flabbergasted.

Smoker stared at the train car the shooting star had fallen onto, looking terrified. “Edmond...is dead!”

“What?” Xing Kong blurted out in disbelief while holding onto his bleeding abdomen. “That can’t be. Edmond is unreachable!”

“Hurts. My head hurts...” Cockroach’s body had recovered from almost getting bisected, but losing the buff of holy water, he had turned into his ugly and chubby self, a pink fleshy scar added to his bisected head.

Tails lost their de facto leader, Edmond, which sent them into panic.

“He’s dead!” Blood Amber, who had been hiding in the dark, showed up as well. She took off her helmet, bleeding from a corner of her mouth.

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