January 23
Last night's battle had already reached its final stage.
A thin veil of cloud covered the sky, enough to swallow what little moonlight remained. Visibility had fallen to almost nothing. It was the last stretch before dawn.
And yet, the moments before daybreak were always the darkest, heaviest, most suffocating of all. Though the sun behind the mountains was already gathering strength to pour light into the world, it had not broken through yet.
A little longer.
That was all.
But that little stretch of time was the hardest to endure.
Like the final boss fight in a game, the last phase was always the most brutal.
Before the explosion knocked her unconscious, Xiangzi swept her gaze across the battlefield. There were not many creatures left standing. The grotesque fused infected that had looked so terrifying before now lay sprawled on the ground like a dead dog. Having lost several heads, it was like a plant torn apart by a vicious child. Without brains left to command it, only the blind, meaningless beating of its heart remained.
Death had already signed its name across its body.
But Xiangzi's teammates were in no better shape.
Ye Ling, who had faltered and exposed an opening, had been sent flying into a mound of beast corpses. Her ornamental plate armor had shattered; her pink fur was a complete mess; she looked half-dead already.
The teammates still on the upper floor were running on fumes as well. The giant bear's vital points were armored over with some sort of hardened, keratin-like growth. Small-caliber rounds could not penetrate it, and even the large-caliber ones struggled to break through in a single shot.
The sounds of her teammates firing behind her grew fainter and fainter in Xiangzi's ears, and the shots themselves had become less frequent. After being used at such intensity for so long, even industrial weapons were beginning to fail.
At this point, Xiangzi could rely on nothing but herself to finish it.
The melted snow beneath her feet had turned the ground into sucking mud, making it much harder to maneuver. And her body—her greatest point of pride—had been pushed to its absolute limit.
The blurred zone on the map had already vanished, and most of the infected around them had been reduced to unrecognizable lumps of meat.
"So this is the final boss…"
She hissed through clenched teeth and raised the spear in her battered hands for one last strike.
The single-soldier armor she wore had already absorbed multiple hits and was close to breaking apart. Cracks across the visor had become impossible to ignore, and blood had splattered across the inside of the faceplate.
The infected bear was not faring any better.
Bullets had torn its body to shreds. There was not a patch of intact hide left on it. Torn strips of meat hung from it by threads, and green blood dripped steadily to the ground. Deprived of all reason, it no longer did anything but lash out wildly at Xiangzi.
Each blow carried terrifying force. Even when Xiangzi dodged, she could still feel the gale raised by its massive paws when they slammed down.
The nearly five-meter monster was frighteningly quick. One swipe shattered the spear already on the verge of collapse in Xiangzi's hands.
As she stumbled backward, Xiangzi pulled out the adhesive explosives she had secretly prepared through the system.
Channeling all the strength she had left into the broken shaft of the spear, she hurled it with everything she had. It plunged into the bear's eye.
Then she moved, leading the beast farther and farther away from the safehouse.
"Xiangzi, you—!"
Blurred-eyed Brent lowered the overheating KSVK sniper rifle and shouted after her from above.
But Xiangzi did not answer.
With no time to think, Brent, Huaxiu, and Miranda all made the same decision, clutching whatever rifles they could still use as they rushed downstairs.
Meanwhile, far from the house, Xiangzi could feel the trembling of the ground beneath her, the iron-cold bite in the air, and the blood-soaked storm rushing toward her.
Facing the charging bear, she shouted:
"Go to hell, you bastard!"
Clutching the explosives, Xiangzi threw herself onto the writhing, blood-slick mass of flesh.
The bear sensed her landing on its back and swatted at her like a fly.
It was a devastating blow.
Xiangzi's shoe flew off. The weakened joints of her armor snapped apart. The impact ravaged her insides, and blood spilled from her seven orifices. She was sent flying into a deep bank of snow at the side, leaving blotches of red across the white ground.
"Good… let this… end…"
Her words came in broken fragments. Even as darkness swallowed her vision, pain twisting across her face, there was also a smile there—grim and triumphant.
This child still refuses to ask me for help? Really now… sigh.
The voice flashed past in an instant. Xiangzi, already unconscious, never knew that the system had been watching over her.
The bear tried to continue mauling her.
But then it was blown apart.
The explosives Xiangzi had set earlier, ticking away by the second, reached zero.
A thunderous chain of detonations erupted around the bear.
The massive blasts sent Huaxiu and the others into a frenzy. Already drained to the point of collapse, they forced their bodies to move faster, running with everything they had left.
"Xiangzi, you have to be okay!"
Huaxiu could not even find the strength to cry anymore. All she could do was pray to some unknown force in her heart.
After that, she barely remembered how she got through the rest of it.
She and Miranda worked together to carry Xiangzi back into the house. Then came the frantic scramble for medicine—stanching the bleeding, cleaning wounds, bandaging what they could…
Ye Ling was brought back by Tao Ruisi, Saitō, and the others who had stayed behind. There was no time to worry about anything else. As the newest addition to the group, she had to wait; by both logic and emotion, Xiangzi had to be saved first.
The two wounded were treated with everything the group had. In the end, that was all they could manage. Without a real doctor, whether the two would recover now depended on luck.
At last, everyone but the two assigned to keep watch was sent to rest.
Huaxiu refused.
No matter what anyone said, she would not leave Xiangzi's side. Miranda stayed as well.
Outside, over a thousand corpses littered the ground. Shell casings lay everywhere. Weapons were broken. Iron fences had collapsed. Light posts leaned crookedly. Shattered glass bottles glittered among embers that still smoldered.
Then the sunlight returned.
When the first rays of morning touched Xiangzi's pale face, Huaxiu smiled.
They had survived the night.
And for now, that was enough.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 147)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter215)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 185
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/1
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 206
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 190
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
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The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 106
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 125
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 90
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 80
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 86
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 65
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 59
Checking In in Demon Slayer 59
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 73
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 45
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 36
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 40
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 60
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 43
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 30
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 31
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