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These gang members following the Bloodhand Brothers surely wouldn’t know that the reinforcements they hoped for were destined never to arrive.
Without warning, Jiu Er leaped into the air. Without uttering a single threat, she crashed into the crowd like a meteor, landing with a tremendous thud—
A tall man standing in the front was a little caught off guard.
In his haste, he had no choice but to raise the table beside him and face Jiu Er.
The battle axe, wrapped in dark red energy, effortlessly smashed through the round table raised like a shield and shattered the skull hidden behind it.
“You bastard—!”
The man, who looked like a drunkard and was flushed all over, instantly became furious.
They didn’t wait for backup any longer and instead attacked without a second thought.
Two Lurkers retreated into the darkness while the leader breathed out a white mist, filling the air with the smell of sulfur.
He must be the only Fallen in this group who had obtained the demonic power.
For the rest, their highest level was merely at Bronze Rank.
Jiu Er quickly analyzed the situation.
The next moment, the burly man with reddish skin punched Jiu Er through the air!
Like sharp flying needles, his blood pierced through the skin on the back of his left hand, transforming into bright sparks that flew toward Jiu Er.
Jiu Er ignored the damage from the throwing axe embedded in her shoulder.
She yanked the throwing axe from her shoulder with her right hand while quickly retreating. At the same time, she raised the dark red battle axe in front of her with her left hand, effortlessly blocking the fiery needles that burst forth from the burning blood.
These attacks, which looked like tiny sparks, didn’t go out even after striking Jiu Er’s battle axe.
The fiery needles had a structure similar to the tail needle of a bee—with barbed, black, thin needles. Each needle steadily burned with a dark red flame, scorching Jiu Er’s battle axe and giving off an unpleasant smell resembling burning rubber.
As Jiu Er retreated, she backhandedly threw the flying axe back. The axe didn’t hit the person who had thrown it but instead struck down a man who was loading bullets next to him, knocking him straight to the ground.
After Jiu Er quickly withdrew from the crowd, she created a distance for another [Charge].
She stepped forward on the spot, using her momentum to fling her battle axe forward—like pulling off the “guard point” [1]. She sent the axe crashing toward the “elite monster” who had activated the Fallen power.
[TN: Guard point is the block of the charge blade in Monster Hunter.]
The man snorted coldly, with purple blood veins surfacing on his right arm. As sweat as red as blood seeped out, his clothes burst into a fierce flame, turning into a poisonous fire.
The Fallen had noticed that his enemy was just a child.
His right arm burned violently and tripled in size.
His thick and red right arm became more prominent. The knuckles enlarged with a layer of red, hard, horn-like material growing on the skin.
His right arm, which had transformed, was already invulnerable. It became a sturdy shield as the man held that arm before him.
Not to mention human heads — he could even hold the blade of a greatsword in his hand and crush it.
This was a demon-like clenching attack!
It was a signal that he planned to intercept Jiu Er’s attack and disarm her!
However, his body suddenly froze.
“[Do not move]!”
With a sharp and authoritative rebuke, an invisible force spread like numbing lightning throughout his body, slowing his movements momentarily.
The control spell effect only happened for one second.
However, that interruption prevented him from catching Jiu Er’s “guard point” with his palm.
Jiu Er put her strength into her waist and whole body, spinning like a top with the massive battle axe, which was even larger than herself.
Rather than she slashed with the axe, it was more accurate to say she swung it out.
The gigantic axe came crashing down in great momentum while Jiu Er was flung into the air!
With Jiu Er readjusting her trajectory, she precisely hit the demon’s massive hand precisely where the index and middle fingers connected to the back of the hand.
She chopped off the two demon fingers thicker than Jiu Er’s waist.
“Help me, Sister Hyphen!” Jiu Er let out a piercing scream.
“[Dodge]!” Following Lin Yiyi’s shout, Jiu Er’s body moved by itself. She was bounced to the side by the invisible power.
Lin Yiyi sprinted at full speed from behind her, holding a long silver steel rod wrapped with curse patterns. Then, she leaped out like a dragon.
Her movement was silent and fast — the storm whipped up by her motion blew her short black hair back, revealing her eyes filled with killing intent.
Her steel rod was nestled in the crook of her arm, extending forward with her swift movement.
Lin Yiyi charged over at high speed like a train, stopping in front of the Fallen swiftly.
All the kinetic energy was transferred to the weapon in her hand.
[Falcon Strike]!
This was a technique that could maintain the accuracy of the attack under high-speed sprinting. It was also the next skill after the [All-out Blow] reached the maximum level.
The moment she stopped, the extending rod acted like a blunt sword or the shaft of a spear without its head. With a faint rotational vibration, it channeled all her charging power to strike at the most formidable enemy in front of her on the first floor!
It was aimed at the giant hand with two fingers chopped off by Jiu Er, sparking as it went. With a humming, high-speed vibration, it targeted the forehead of the elite fallen one with pinpoint accuracy.
If it were a long spear, the power of this blow alone would be enough to penetrate and explode Fallen’s head.
However, it was a solid steel rod.
There was a muffled thud like a heavy object slammed to the ground.
The Fallen’s head was unnaturally bent backward, with blood spilling from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The recoil coming from the steel rod created intense heat as it rubbed against Lin Yiyi’s palm.
“Did you just smash his brains out?” Jiu Er muttered quietly, rushing before Lin Yiyi to shield her from shotgun pellets.
The lead bullets didn’t even penetrate Jiu Er’s body.
Under the force of her writhing muscles, which moved like living creatures, the shotgun pellets were quickly pushed out, falling to the ground.
She didn’t have the leisure to chat, “He looks like an elite monster. Shouldn’t we leave one alive for questioning?”
As Jiu Er spoke, she easily swung her battle axe, cleaving a Lurker who lunged from Lin Yiyi’s side in half at the waist.
“Shush!” Lin Yiyi was annoyed, “I used Mercy Strike! The skill feedback tells me that I have succeeded!”
“So, you’re Batman now? As long as you say you don’t kill people, even if a car hits his face at full speed, he won’t die?” Jiu Er said in disbelief.
You have smashed his brains out. How can he still be alive?
“Maybe his Constitution is better. I wasn’t counting on sparing his life anyway. But my skill tells me that the [Mercy Strike] was successful.”
Lin Yiyi was also a little uncertain, “I should invest more skill points into this skill. Having it at Level 3 isn’t safe. Stop nagging. Keep blocking the bullet for me!”
“—You are the tank! I am the DPS, sister!” Jiu Er complained loudly but still stood before Lin Yiyi and absorbed the damage for her.
Lin Yiyi was troubled, “What can I do? I can’t get this bullet out of the way.”
“Just spin your steel rod!”
“Forget it. Let’s leave it at that. These people can’t kill you.” Lin Yiyi still hesitated.
As the agility-type tank, she was great at parrying melee attacks and blocking flying arrows.
But the bullet is just

However, several small black balls suddenly rolled over from the ground the next moment.
With a loud explosion, the massive blast shook the walls, forcing all the Fallen resting on the upper floors to come down.
Lin Yiyi didn’t seem anxious at all.
Instead, she looked relieved and said, “You finally came back, little brother!”
“
Sisters, you all are embarrassing.” Suuankou, who arrived late, put on black fingerless leather gloves and walked in disdainfully, “Do you even know how to assassinate someone?”
“Here, let me show you what a real assassination is!”
As he spoke, he pressed his gloved left hand to the floor.
Lin Yiyi and Jiu Er turned around and ran away when they saw something was wrong.
He closed his eyes, activating the curse vessel at the center of his palm.
A dark red curse pattern flowed out from his fingers, crawling along the ground at high speed. It disappeared in a corner of the building, turning into rows of runes.
As the noise gradually drew closer, the footsteps upstairs became more and more distinct.
Suuankou’s pupils suddenly turned dark red like lava.
The next moment, a loud bang sounded from upstairs!
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The explosion burst into flames, and the shockwave sent the walls and windows flying out. The impact of the blast flattened the entire second floor!