48: Chapter 48 Chaotic Monsters and Teammates

Four legs sprouted from beneath her original legs, supporting her constantly expanding torso at unnatural angles.

Her abdomen split open from the middle, revealing a giant maw that ran the length of her entire midsection, densely embedded with several rows of teeth of varying sizes, each inherited from a different stitched monstrosity.

The mismatched teeth writhed slowly within the giant maw, as if chewing on some invisible food.

Her face was still that of The Noblewoman, that exquisitely maintained face that used to smile warmly and kindly.

But now, her face was crowded with dozens of eyes.

From forehead to chin, from cheekbones to the sides of her nose bridge, eyeballs of all sizes were packed together; some had round human pupils, others had the slit pupils of reptiles.

Dozens of eyes opened simultaneously, turning toward Richard and Cecilia.

The Noblewoman—no, she could no longer be called human now.

This disgusting chaotic monster simultaneously raised six arms from her sides, each palm manifesting a sphere of magical energy of a different color, all containing an evil essence.

Richard gripped his axe tight, taking a deep breath of the blood-scented air.

He suddenly heard footsteps coming from the corridor behind him—light, but fast. They weren't the enemy's reinforcements; he recognized this rhythm.

Black Cat! Then came the heavy, clomping footsteps of someone short, accompanied by the clinking of metal bottles and cans.

Jinbao! They weren't dead.

"Hold on!" Black Cat's voice came from around the corridor corner, her breathing noticeably rapid from intense exertion.

"We were locked in the room next door and butchered an eight-legged monstrosity."

Black Cat darted out from the shadows of the corner, hand crossbow in hand, her leather armor marked with several tears.

A blood-stained bandage was wrapped around her left arm, and her mouth was bruised, but her movements remained agile.

Jinbao followed behind her, a shallow cut running from his temple to his chin on his round face, his tool bag still hanging on his back.

But one of the straps on the bag had snapped and was temporarily tied with hemp rope.

He held a short sword in one hand and gripped a flashbang with the safety pin already pulled in the other.

"Whoa!" Jinbao looked up and saw the chaotic monster with six arms, four legs, a giant maw on her stomach, and a cluster of eyes on her face.

He let out a cry of shock: "By the Machine God, what the hell is this?!"

"Quick, let's take this thing down together and save Morpheus!" Richard didn't turn back, his eyes fixed on the chaotic monster ahead.

The chaotic monster saved them the time for further conversation.

Her six arms swung down simultaneously, and six spheres of magical energy of different colors flew toward them.

A dark purple corrosion sphere, sickly green toxic fog, orange-red scorching fireball, grayish-white petrification ray, ink-black shadow blast, and a translucent distortion field.

Six different attack trajectories crisscrossed through the stone chamber.

Everyone scattered almost simultaneously.

Richard rolled to the right, Cecilia dodged to the left, Black Cat slid across the floor behind a stone pillar, and Jinbao's small body curled up behind an overturned marble operating table.

The fireball slammed into the spot where Richard had just been standing, exploding into an orange-red ball of fire on the ground. Debris and heat waves hit his back, making him grunt in pain.

The corrosion sphere hit the stone wall, melting a hissing, smoking pit into the stone bricks within seconds.

The shadow blast struck the ceiling, causing the entire stone chamber to shake, and the magic stones overhead flickered on and off several times.

Richard forcibly halted his momentum from the roll, pushed off with his right foot, and charged toward the monster again.

Charge activated for the third time!

This time, he slashed toward the area directly beneath the writhing giant maw on the monster's abdomen, swinging his hand axe upward and hacking into the soft flesh between the giant maw's lower jaw and sternum.

The Bloodthirsty Brand frantically drained life force the moment the axe blade struck, and he could feel a surging current of heat pour from the axe handle into his palm, rushing up his arm and into his chest!

His broken ribs were bathed in this heat, the pain rapidly receding, and the grating sensation between the bone fragments diminishing.

The monster's reaction was faster than he had anticipated; four hands simultaneously grabbed toward her lower abdomen, while two hands continued to release magic outward to suppress Cecilia and Black Cat's ranged attacks.

Richard's axe was still stuck in the giant maw's lower jaw, and before he could pull it out, four hands had already grabbed him from four directions simultaneously.

Two hands grabbed his left arm, and two hands grabbed his right leg, lifting him off the ground and holding him in mid-air.

More than twenty eyes stared at him from different directions, each reflecting his blood-covered figure.

The giant mouth on her abdomen opened, and a stench mixed with rotting flesh erupted from the depths of her throat, so foul that he couldn't even keep his eyes open.

At this moment, Cecilia came to his rescue in the nick of time.

She stepped on one of the monster's legs, leaped onto its torso, and used the momentum to jump above the four arms that were holding Richard.

Her enchanted sword traced a semi-circle in the air, slicing off the two hands that were gripping Richard's left arm.

Dark purple, viscous liquid sprayed from the severed wrists, splattering all over her.

Richard's left arm was free. He immediately used his left hand to draw the short knife from his belt and stabbed it into the wrist of the hand holding his right leg; the hand convulsed violently and let go.

He fell from mid-air, but Cecilia caught him, and the two of them tumbled onto the stone floor, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

New tissue began to regrow from the monster's two severed wrists.

Granulation tissue burst frantically from the stumps, intertwining and weaving together, taking on the shape of two new hands.

"Keep attacking!!!" Richard roared.

Jinbao had already thrown the flashbang and an expensive black powder bomb.

Several flashbangs exploded right in front of the monster's dozens of eyes, and blinding white light instantly filled the entire stone chamber, causing almost all the eyes on the monster's face to slam shut simultaneously.

But some of the eyes lacked eyelids and were scorched directly by the intense light, emitting a shrill screech.

A black powder bomb slammed into her abdominal giant maw; before she could close it, the bomb rolled right through the gaps in her teeth and into her throat.

The bomb exploded in her digestive tract, and the monster's abdomen swelled violently, ignited from within, as thick white smoke spewed from all the gaps between her teeth.

Her six arms flailed wildly in the air, and her four legs stomped erratically on the stone floor, the entire stone chamber trembling from her struggle.

"Now's our chance!" Richard sprang up from the ground, picked up his hand axe, and Cecilia followed at his side.

Black Cat darted out from behind the stone pillar, firing her hand crossbow in rapid succession, the bolts nailing into the soft, unscaled tissue on the monster's back.

Jinbao pulled another glass bottle filled with green liquid from his tool bag—it was strong acid—and he smashed it hard against one of the monster's front legs.

The strong acid began to violently corrode the skin the moment it made contact; one of the monster's front legs began to melt from the knee, exposing bone, while charred chunks of flesh fell off piece by piece.

The monster let out a shriek more agonizing than all her previous screeches combined.

Her face twisted and deformed in agony; some of her dozens of eyes were squeezed shut, some burst, and others rolled wildly.

Three of her six arms were already severed, two were still flailing about with magic, and the last one condensed a dark purple corrosion sphere larger than the previous ones in its palm, smashing it toward Richard's face.

Richard slammed forward, hugging the ground beneath the corrosion sphere, and slashed his hand axe violently forward, the blade striking straight at the heart position on the monster's chest.

"Squelch!" Although Mortal Strike did not take effect, the powerful attack still hacked through the scales and sternum, stabbing into something that was still beating.

All of the monster's arms froze in mid-air simultaneously, all her eyes widened at once, and her body began to slowly disintegrate.

Grayish-white chunks of flesh peeled off the skeleton, and with a final puff of black smoke carrying embers from the giant maw on her abdomen, the entire torso collapsed with a crash.