The two Anomalies exchanged a glance, both seeing shock and gravity in the other's eyes.
The rules and abilities of low-level Anomalies were mostly related to human senses and interaction, perhaps due to the intentional guidance of the Alliance.
However, the enemy before them was merely a severed claw without any facial features. The simple fact that it had "no eyes" was enough to neutralize both of their otherwise unrelated abilities simultaneously.
Of course, this didn't mean they were completely helpless; at worst, they could reveal their True Forms and attempt physical salvation.
But with the Holy City soldiers present, exposing their true identities was a last resort.
Just then, the severed limb suddenly pulled itself out of Finn's shoulder and lunged at his thigh. Its bone spurs easily sliced through his armor, burrowing into his flesh.
The next second, a hair-raising scene unfolded. The limb began to frantically devour the flesh on Finn's leg.
Its originally shriveled form rapidly swelled. At the base of the claw, a twisted calf grew at high speed, forming a bizarre claw-leg hybrid.
Clearly, this was no longer a common flesh-and-blood ability. Was it... an Esper power?
This mutant beast—or more accurately, this "Ability Beast"—seemed to possess traits of both "blood-drop regeneration" and "essence absorption."
This was entirely different from the information Gawain and the others had provided. They clearly didn't understand the true nature of Extinction's abilities; otherwise, they wouldn't have been caught off guard so easily, leaving Finn gravely wounded and on the ground.
Even more puzzling was that the passage was littered with the severed limbs of mutant beasts, yet Extinction chose to attack a human.
Did it only slaughter its own kind but refuse to eat their flesh?
Before Ren Yi could think further, a sickening squelching sound rang out as the grafted limb suddenly leaped into the air.
Despite having no facial features, it could precisely lock onto the crowd's location.
"Fire!" a captain roared, pulling the trigger.
Bullets struck Extinction, only splashing bits of flesh without causing any fatal damage.
Someone tried to call for heavy weaponry, but Gawain shouted them down. "This is a confined space! You'll collapse the nest!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Extinction charged into the crowd. With a swing of its sharp claws, a soldier was sliced in half at the waist. Blood and entrails sprayed everywhere as screams instantly filled the passage.
As it crouched, it began rapidly devouring flesh, growing two new arms. Now, its body was a patchwork of various limbs, crawling across the ground like a four-legged spider without a complete torso.
"Damn it!" Gawain roared, slamming both hands onto the ground. The earth shook violently as several massive rocks rose from the floor, hurtling toward Extinction like cannonballs.
Boom—!
The narrow space of the nest eventually worked in Gawain's favor. After dodging several attacks, Extinction was finally struck head-on by a giant boulder, its body pulverized into a spray of blood and gore.
Just as Gawain breathed a sigh of relief, he saw a fist-sized chunk of flesh suddenly twitch. Like a living thing, it began hopping across the ground, scurrying toward Ren Yi!
"Watch out!" Gawain's face paled. He didn't have time to summon more rocks, so he waved his hand to manipulate the soil, instantly encasing the chunk of flesh in a thick earthen sphere.
A faint thumping sound came from inside the ball, but it soon went silent.
At that moment, a message from WhatAreYouLookingAt popped up.
【The mark has changed. Its position suddenly jumped to the north!】
Recalling Gawain's previous description of Extinction, Ren Yi wondered: Was its ability subtly similar to his own "Shatter"?
No way... Could the ability he had once imagined—storing a part of one's body elsewhere to resurrect within it after death—actually belong to a mutant beast?
Since Extinction possessed intelligence, it wasn't strange that it would hide other pieces of its flesh elsewhere as a backup for resurrection.
"Gawain, where is the mutant beast nest in the northern part of the city?" Ren Yi asked, turning around.
Gawain quickly composed himself and gave a brief description of the nest's location, adding, "Our vanguard has already arrived, but they haven't begun the assault yet."
The location matched the one WhatAreYouLookingAt had marked... Had Extinction hidden the flesh it used for resurrection inside every mutant beast nest?
Ren Yi nodded. "We're going there now. Prepare a vehicle for us immediately."
【Wait!】
Just as Ren Yi spoke, a message from WhatAreYouLookingAt popped up on the Anomaly Web, interrupting his plan.
【There's a problem,】 she said. 【My original plan was to use Possession on this special individual so I could obtain its soul intact.】
【But as you can see, my ability is useless in this situation.】
【In that case, I might have to use my True Form, which means I'd need to avoid everyone else... Or should we capture it alive first and find an opportunity later?】
No. Ren Yi rejected the suggestion almost instantly. They could not let the Holy City get their hands on Extinction.
Even though it currently lacked a mouth to speak, there was no guarantee it wouldn't grow one after devouring a human head, potentially leaking secrets. Moreover, he didn't know if the Pope possessed an ability like "Soul Search."
【Don't worry about the ability; I have a way,】 Ren Yi replied quickly on the Anomaly Web, his tone tinged with a hint of irritation. 【But in my current identity as the 'Son of God,' it's impossible to ditch the Holy City people and act alone.】
After the message was sent, there was no immediate response from the other side.
Ren Yi looked up and saw WhatAreYouLookingAt staring at him with a burning gaze that made him feel slightly uneasy.
Just as Ren Yi was wondering what she was up to, WhatAreYouLookingAt spoke.
"No need to prepare a vehicle." She flashed a meaningful smile. "Time is of the essence. I'll just take the Lord Son of God and hunt it down myself."
Without warning, she reached out and hoisted Ren Yi onto her shoulder, two and a half meters off the ground.
Before Ren Yi could react, WhatAreYouLookingAt exerted a massive burst of force, her legs pushing off the ground. She leaped like a cannonball, jumping over ten meters into the air and landing steadily in the clearing outside the nest before sprinting toward the northern district.
Gawain was left behind, staring in stunned silence. As an earth-type Esper, his speed could never match a top-tier physical-enhancement Esper like Tarol.
Lying across WhatAreYouLookingAt's shoulder with the biting cold wind whipping past his face, Ren Yi looked down at the landscape blurring beneath them and couldn't help but complain on the Anomaly Web: 【What kind of lame excuse was that... and could you at least give me a heads-up next time?】
【Didn't you say you had a way? Regardless of anything else, did I or did I not help you ditch the Holy City folk?】
...
A few dozen minutes later.
This mutant beast nest was located inside a stadium, with the Holy City's vanguard standing by outside.
The soldiers gripped their weapons, staring intently at the stadium entrance, when they suddenly heard the sound of rushing wind overhead.
They looked up just in time to see a dark shadow leap through a hole in the stadium's roof with a loud thud. The impact was so heavy that the ground trembled slightly.
Inside the stadium, Ren Yi jumped down from WhatAreYouLookingAt's shoulder. Without hesitation, he released a portion of his True Form from his back.
An invisible pressure radiated outward. The mutant beasts still capable of movement inside the stadium seemed to sense an instinctive terror and fled in all directions.
Ren Yi raised his tactical flashlight, slowly scanning the surroundings.
This was what a normal mutant beast nest should look like: damp, dark, with the air thick with a heavy, fishy stench and the smell of rot.
Only a few immobile mutant beasts remained. The most prominent was a pregnant mother beast lying in the center of the field. She was letting out pained roars as her belly writhed violently, clearly in the middle of labor.
As Ren Yi and WhatAreYouLookingAt approached, they saw a group of younglings covered in slime crawling out.
These younglings were small, looking somewhat like tiny Goblins with complete limbs, but their skin was a ghastly blue-gray, and they let out constant, shrill cries.
Even more horrific was that as soon as these "younglings" touched the air, their skin began to melt, turning into pools of flesh that merged together to form a writhing ball of meat with numerous limbs.
"Holy crap... what the hell is that?" WhatAreYouLookingAt couldn't help but take a step back, the giant of a man suddenly looking quite uncomfortable.
Ren Yi slowly turned his head, his gaze falling on her with a strange expression. "Don't you know?"
"Know what?" WhatAreYouLookingAt asked, her face full of bewilderment, clearly not understanding his meaning.
"I thought this would have been fairly obvious by now," Ren Yi said after a moment of silence.
"Mutant beasts are transformed humans."
Rate on N.U.
