"Damn it!"
Li Mingyu sprang up!
Almost at the same time!
"Sizzle—Boom!!!"
The western side of the classroom, the window area facing the empty central hall on the first floor, which they had just reinforced with discarded desks, metal cabinet doors, and thick books, instantly exploded and melted like wax thrown into a red-hot iron!
A yellowish-green, viscous liquid, emitting a pungent, strong acidic stench, sprayed in like a high-pressure water cannon!
The moment it touched the obstacles, the pages of the books instantly turned into charred, sticky mud! Wooden desk supports rapidly dissolved and carbonized amidst terrifying sizzling corrosion sounds!
The thick curtain fabric directly turned into burning, black oily splashes!
The reinforced iron cabinet doors were not spared either; the metal at the contact points twisted, indented, and softened to a red-hot state as if melted by high temperature, disappearing at a visible speed!
"It's strong acid! Get out of the way!" Sun Qiang roared, his voice like metal clashing! "Students with quick reactions, dive towards the corner away from the window!"
But it was still a step too late!
"Ah—my leg!"
A boy who had been shallowly sleeping near the defense line screamed in agony!
His right lower leg's pant leg was instantly splattered by the strong acidic liquid! The liquid immediately penetrated the fabric!
His crimson flesh, like a wax sculpture poured with boiling oil, melted, vaporized, and dissolved at a visible speed! White bones were clearly visible, then turned black and brittle in the next second!
The intense pain even made him instantly lose his voice, his eyeballs bulging, his body convulsing violently, collapsing to the ground, and passing out directly from the shock of the pain!
Pungent white smoke, accompanied by the foul smell of charred flesh, instantly permeated the air! Screams and chaotic cries filled the classroom!
"Xiao Hui!" The closest bespectacled man's eyes were bloodshot; he instinctively moved to pull his fallen companion!
Just then!
"Roar—!!!"
A deafening roar, full of brutality and hunger, penetrated the corroded and melted hole in the wall!
A huge, incredibly agile black shadow, like a heavy crossbow bolt released from its string, charged in with a piercing shriek that tore through the air, violently crashing through the ruined hole, still emitting thick smoke, twisted metal, and dripping liquid!
Boom!!
The enormous impact directly deformed and shattered the overturned iron bookshelf blocking the entrance! Iron chunks and book fragments shot out like shrapnel!
From the dust and smoke, a giant beast, like a small armored vehicle, revealed its terrifying full form!
A cat! More precisely, a giant cat mutated to the extreme!
Its size was as large as an adult snow leopard, but its lines were more fluid and powerful! Its originally soft fur was replaced by a layer of glossy, asphalt-black, short, hard bristles that clung tightly to its bones and muscles!
Every hair was like a poisoned steel needle! A thick tail, like a black-scaled python whip, flexibly slapped the ground!
Its head was proportionally larger, its mouth splitting open like a wolf's maw, revealing two rows of curved, interlocking fangs that gleamed with metallic cold light, like daggers! Acidic mucus, still emitting wisps of white smoke from its recent spray, constantly dripped from the corners of its mouth!
Most unsettling were its eyes! Four eyes! Like four ghost lanterns lit in hell!
The two eyes on either side were crimson! And in the very center of its forehead, a strange slit had opened, embedding two more vertical pupils, eerily green like phosphorescent fire! Crimson and eerie green intertwined and flickered, filled with a cold, purely predatory brutality beyond human comprehension!
"Monster—!" A girl screamed in collapse!
The moment this Four-Eyed Giant Cat burst in, it locked onto the bespectacled man, who was closest to it and lunging towards his injured companion.
"Meow—!" A bizarre, distorted meow, filled with excited bloodlust! It slammed its hind legs into the ground! Its strong muscles instantly unleashed terrifying jumping power! Its massive body, like a low-flying black lightning bolt, charged directly at the bespectacled man with a wind-breaking sound that tore at the eardrums!
Too fast!
"Save him!" Li Mingyu's roar was a step too late! His speed, spurred by life and death, instantly exploded to its maximum, turning him into an afterimage as he rushed towards the bespectacled man! But the distance was too great!
"Duck!" Ling Chen's voice directly pierced the bespectacled man's mind! This was pure mental pressure! Though it couldn't directly control, it could instantly stimulate instinct!
The bespectacled man reacted as if electrocuted, instinctively clutching his head and diving to the ground! His movements were clumsy but life-saving!
"Screech—!"
The Four-Eyed Giant Cat's sharp front claws barely scraped past the back of the bespectacled man's head! The wind pressure generated cut off a few strands of his hair! Its sharp claws left three terrifying claw marks, an inch deep with stone chips flying, on the wall behind him!
This time, they really did reel in a big fish.
Ling Chen's mouth twitched slightly. Big it was, but perhaps a bit too big. They actually reeled in a Four-Eyed Ghost Tiger. This was already a relatively rare special variant among mutated beasts, and it seemed to have mutated even more rarely, actually being able to spit acid.
If he didn't save a few more, he estimated that all the ordinary people in the class would die in this battle.
He also wondered what those people who liked 'hachimi' in his previous life would think when they saw this thing...
Moreover, it had six blood marks at the corners of its eyes!
If it weren't for its inherent preference for solitary movement, they might not be facing just one beast, but an entire small mutated beast pack now.
The attack missed! All four of the Four-Eyed Ghost Tiger's eyes simultaneously gleamed with rage at being toyed with!
Its crimson pupils locked onto the target curled on the ground after being mentally stimulated, while its eerie green forehead vertical pupils coldly scanned Li Mingyu, who was lunging from the side!
Its enormous cat tail swept out like a steel whip, fiercely striking at Li Mingyu's waist and ribs!
Li Mingyu was in mid-air, seeing no way to dodge, and could only roar, crossing his arms to protect his vital areas!
"Bang—Crack!"
Like a battering ram hitting a wooden stake! The immense force made Li Mingyu feel his arm bones would instantly crack!
The violent impact sent him flying like a sack, slamming him into an overturned desk! The heavy metal tabletop was bent inward by the impact, emitting a grating metallic screech!
"Ugh!" Li Mingyu spat out a mouthful of blood, his chest throbbing with unbearable pain!
"Damn it!" Sun Qiang's furious roar exploded! He charged like a human tank! His metallic heavy fist tore through the air, carrying a dull metallic whooshing sound, and slammed fiercely into the Four-Eyed Ghost Tiger's lower back! If this hit landed, even steel would deform!
"Thud!"
A strange dull thud! Like a heavy punch hitting an incredibly tough rubber tire!
The Four-Eyed Ghost Tiger seemed to have eyes in the back of its head! Its thick, black-scaled giant tail coiled back eerily like a nimble snake! Its hind legs pushed off, and its body twisted into a semicircle on the spot with an incredible flexibility!
Not only did it avoid Sun Qiang's frontal punch, but it also used the bone-hard lump at the end of its tail, like a short hammer, to fiercely ram into the inner side of Sun Qiang's unstoppable forearm! That was a human joint's weak point!
It was clear it had already hunted mutated individuals, or some reinforced ability users!
"Ugh!" Sun Qiang grunted, feeling a surge of numbness in his forearm!
Though his metallic skin wasn't broken, the immense impact made his internal organs churn!
Even worse, the agile black tail coiled around his outstretched arm, like a slippery, cold giant python! A huge constricting force came! At the same time, the giant cat's front claws lifted with the momentum, and its gleaming claws fiercely tore at Sun Qiang's unguarded waist and abdomen!
"Clang!" A grating metallic scrape, sparks flying!
Sun Qiang's metallic skin defense was astonishing! But the power carried by those claws was truly terrifying! The sharp pain made him stagger backward, and two half-inch deep indentations were gouged into his ribs!
The Ghost Tiger's speed, strength, defense, and reaction! It completely overwhelmed them! It was like the most top-tier predator, exhibiting unimaginable combat instincts in the confined space!
"Light—!" Zhou Yunguang finally found an opportunity! He roared!
The old projector's lamp tube burst forth with an unprecedentedly fierce white light in his hand! He forcefully constrained and condensed the light with his will! It transformed into a blazing white light sword, only three feet long, solidified like a physical object, its edges radiating blinding light!
"Slash!"
The light sword tore through the air, carrying the meaning of judgment that purified all filth, stabbing directly at the Four-Eyed Giant Cat's eerie green forehead vertical pupils! That was the command center of its attacks!
"Roar—!!!"
The Four-Eyed Ghost Tiger sensed a real threat! Its two vertical pupils on its forehead simultaneously constricted! It violently twisted its head! Its blood-filled maw opened! A thick, incredibly viscous, dark green, almost liquefied and boiling acidic saliva, gushed out like a high-pressure water cannon, directly colliding with Zhou Yunguang's stabbing light sword!
"Hiss—!!!"
A head-on collision of light and acid! It erupted in thick white mist and an extremely pungent, charred stench! The light sword violently consumed, dissolved, and pushed through the strong acid, emitting a teeth-grinding sizzling sound! Zhou Yunguang gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead! Sweat instantly soaked his entire body! The light was rapidly dimming!
Seizing this opportunity!
Ling Chen moved!
He had been waiting for this chance! His body darted out of the shadows like a ghost, so fast it left an afterimage!
Even though they seemed to be fighting the Ghost Tiger to a standstill right now, Ling Chen knew full well that if he didn't help, a total wipeout was possible.
His left hand, at some unknown point, had reversed its grip on a sharp paper cutter "borrowed" from Chen Xue's backpack, aiming directly at the exposed, fur-covered side of the giant cat's neck, a vital point, due to its acid spitting!
His right hand simultaneously made an extremely subtle pulling motion!
The three bats on his shoulder, as if receiving a command, shot out like three streaks of purple lightning, arriving first despite starting later, fearlessly Pounce the giant cat's four terrifying, flickering eyes!
Feinting! Attacking what the enemy must protect!
The Four-Eyed Giant Cat's eerie green forehead vertical pupils instantly captured the three streaks of purple lightning rushing towards them!
Its instinctive protection of its eyes was stimulated to the extreme by the bats' dive! Its head sharply tilted back to dodge! The spitting acid instantly ceased!
Zhou Yunguang's pressure suddenly decreased, and his light sword seized the opportunity to pierce through the lingering acid mist!
At the same time, Ling Chen's reversed blade arrived!
"Pfft!"
The blade fiercely stabbed into the fur-covered side of the giant cat's neck! The tough fur and muscle were like resilient leather, but the paper cutter still struggled to pierce through!
He secretly used a portion of his Ghoul power.
"Roar—!"
The intense pain from the attack on its neck instantly ignited the Four-Eyed Giant Cat's brutal bestiality! It violently shook its head! The immense force flung away the three harassing bats, and at the same time, it raised its giant paw, carrying terrifying power capable of tearing steel plates, and fiercely slammed it towards this ant that dared to injure it! Its speed was like lightning!
Couldn't dodge!
Ling Chen's pupils constricted, as if he was stunned! He could even see the tiny sonic boom clouds caused by the claw tips tearing through the air!
In this critical moment, Ling Chen made an extremely unconventional move—instead of retreating, he suddenly crouched and lunged forward!
He threw his body into the dead zone of the giant cat's attack's inner circle! At the same time, his body tilted to the extreme! He tried to avoid the vital head and take the blow with his shoulder and back!
"Tear—Thud!"
The cat's paw, with the sound of tearing fabric and flesh, slammed into his left shoulder and upper back! The powerful kinetic energy sent him flying like a swatted fly!
"Ling Chen—!" Chen Xue let out a heart-wrenching scream!
Ling Chen's body slammed violently into the wall at the end of the classroom! Emitting a dull thud!
Lime from the wall showered down! He slid down the wall to the ground, his clothes on his left shoulder and upper back instantly soaked with blood! A mess of flesh and blood! The intense pain made his whole body tremble violently, but he gritted his teeth, not making a sound, just curling up there, as if he had passed out.
No one saw that beneath the splattered blood and torn fabric, the newly grown muscles deep within the wound were desperately trying to wriggle, but were suppressed by a powerful will.
"Ah!!! Beast!!"
Li Mingyu's eyes instantly turned crimson! Ling Chen was in such danger because he saved him! Rage completely ignited his potential! The injuries he sustained from being thrown earlier seemed temporarily forgotten!
His Buli (Brute Force) ability erupted to an unprecedented extreme! His body turned into a blurry streak of light! The iron pipe spear in his hand was infused with all his strength and fury, and taking advantage of the giant cat's moment after attacking Ling Chen, when its old strength was exhausted and new strength had not yet emerged, he fiercely thrust it into the giant cat's relatively soft abdomen, which was slightly open due to pain!
"Pfft!!!"
This time, the iron pipe spear finally tore through the defense of the hard fur and tough membrane! It deeply pierced into the giant cat's abdominal cavity!
"Meow—Ow!!!"
The excruciating pain of ruptured intestines made the Four-Eyed Giant Cat let out a distorted, agonizing shriek!
Its massive body for the first time convulsed violently from the intense pain! From the huge wound in its abdomen, torn by the spear tip, a large amount of warm, crimson blood mixed with shattered internal organ fragments gushed out like an uncontrolled faucet! Splashing all over Li Mingyu's head and face!
But Ling Chen knew the blood had stimulated this ferocious beast! It had gone completely mad!
When it comes to beasts, the more desperate they become, the more they will lash out in their death throes!
"Roar—Wooo—!"
The giant cat frantically thrashed its head and tail! The tail wrapped around Sun Qiang's left arm suddenly tightened and whipped! At the same time, the two vertical pupils on its forehead suddenly glowed with an eerie, phosphorescent light! An invisible wave, carrying a strong mental impact, suddenly spread out! Like a tangible whip, it fiercely struck deep into the souls of Li Mingyu and Sun Qiang, who were at close range!
This was why he called it a Ghost Tiger instead of just a tiger; it could also launch mental attacks.
Although much weaker than those mutated beasts with highly mutated mental abilities, for a mutated beast whose physical body was already powerful, basic control was enough.
"Ugh!" Li Mingyu's brain felt like it had been hit by a sledgehammer! His vision instantly went black! His movements stiffened! His hand, tightly gripping the iron pipe spear, unconsciously loosened by half!
Sun Qiang was even more thunderstruck! His metallic body was strong against physical attacks, but its resistance to mental impact was very low!
He grunted, his head splitting with pain, and the giant tail wrapped around his arm took the opportunity to exert force, like a giant python strangling its prey! The immense constricting force made the metallic armor on his left arm groan with an unbearable "creak"!
The giant cat endured the intense pain in its abdomen!
Its massive body, using the force of its tail whip, suddenly slammed sideways! Directly knocking away the incapacitated Sun Qiang! At the same time, its blood-filled maw opened! This time, it wasn't strong acid! Instead, it was a dark green, almost liquefied and boiling, highly corrosive poisonous mist! It violently spewed out from deep within the wound in its abdominal cavity! Instantly filling more than half of the classroom!
"Hold your breath! It's poisonous!" Zhou Yunguang's voice was filled with horror! He barely managed to open a light barrier, but the poisonous mist spread too widely!
"Ugh ah—!!!" A boy who couldn't dodge in time inhaled a wisp of the dark green poisonous mist!
His face instantly turned purplish-red, his eyeballs bulged, and he desperately clutched his throat, making gasping sounds, his skin blistering and festering at a visible speed! In just a few seconds, he convulsed and rolled violently on the ground, finally turning into a charred corpse with an unrecognizable face!