32: Chapter 32 One-Punch Kill - Blood Rage Ignites Blood

The moment Lin Yan and his group stepped into the Sewage Treatment Plant, the stench of decay almost solidified into something tangible.

The plant area was larger than it looked from the outside. Several massive circular sedimentation tanks were lined up side by side, their bottoms long since dried up, leaving only a layer of pitch-black sludge. Pipes protruded from the walls like rigid metal arms, dark red liquid dripping from their ends, the ticking sounds echoing through the vast, empty space.

He softened his footsteps and walked inward along the edge of the sedimentation tank.

Deep in the plant area, drag marks of blood began to appear on the ground, extending from the end of the sedimentation tank to behind a half-open iron door.

Lin Yan pushed the door open, and a more intense smell of blood rushed to his face. Behind the door was a narrow passageway, and at the end of the passage was a pump room. Scattered on the control console were a few empty tin cans, a blood-stained dagger, and human blood.

The bloodstains extended out from a small door at the back of the pump room. Just as Lin Yan was about to follow the bloodstains forward, he caught a faint rustling sound in his ear. It wasn't footsteps; it was the sound of claws digging into concrete, coming from overhead, as fast as sand scattered by the wind.

He looked up sharply.

There was nothing on the ceiling, but the sound was already at the corner of the pipe ten meters away.

"Spread out!" Lin Yan shouted in a low voice.

Sister Chen dodged to the flank almost instinctively, Zhao Ming raised his shield to protect his front, frost instantly condensed on Shen Bing's hands, and Su Hao stood behind Shen Bing with a machete.

A grayish-white figure catapulted from the corner of the pipe, moving so fast it left three afterimages.

Lin Yan's pupils didn't even have time to focus before the Licker had already darted from one end of the pump room to the other, its limbs gripping the wall at reverse angles, moving as easily on the vertical surface as if it were on flat ground.

Its body was a size larger than a human's, muscles bulging, with no skin on its back; dark red muscle fibers twitched violently with every breath. Its vertical pupils shone with a ghostly green light in the dim environment, and its tongue flicked in and out of the air rapidly, as if tasting the scent in the air.

[Monster: Licker · Elite] [Level: 8] [HP: 8000] [Physical Attack: 600] [Physical Defense: 300] [Magic Defense: 300] [Speed: 210] [Type: Elite Mob, extremely fast. Possesses skill "Rend" — quickly rushes forward and deals two instances of 500 physical damage.]

The moment Lin Yan saw it clearly, the Licker had already changed its position. It jumped from the wall to the ceiling, then sprang from the ceiling to the top of a water pump on the other side of the room, leaving only a blurry afterimage with each movement.

"I can't lock onto it." Lin Yan's voice was very low, but his tone held no panic; he was merely stating a fact.

Shen Bing understood what he meant.

She thrust her hands forward violently. The frost wasn't released toward the Licker, but instead covered the entire floor of the pump room. Although it was only a thin layer, the moment the Licker landed next, its claws stepped onto the icy surface.

Slipping.

The Licker was too fast, so fast that it couldn't adjust its body at all after losing traction on the ice. Its limbs clawed frantically at the ice, its body sliding uncontrollably until it slammed into the base of a water pump with a dull thud.

Now.

Lin Yan exerted force with his right foot and charged toward the Licker. But the monster's reaction speed far exceeded his expectations. The moment it was hit, it had already adjusted its center of gravity, its limbs digging fiercely into the concrete cracks beneath the ice. It launched itself into the air, dodging Lin Yan's first punch, and swiped back with a claw toward Lin Yan's face.

Rend.

With a dual-strike attack of 600 damage, Lin Yan dodged the first claw by turning sideways, but the second claw landed solidly on the side of his bone tumor breastplate. Three bone spurs embedded into the armor plating, tearing out a harsh metallic screech. His HP dropped by a chunk, but it was still within a controllable range.

Having succeeded with one strike, the Licker didn't linger. It catapulted back to the ceiling. This time, it had learned to be smart; it didn't land, but instead moved rapidly while hanging upside down on the pipes, diving down to harass them from different angles. Lin Yan threw two punches in succession, both hitting nothing but air.

"It's too fast." Zhao Ming shouted from the side, his voice filled with obvious tension. "I can't even keep up with its trajectory."

Beads of sweat beaded on Shen Bing's forehead. Her frost could only cover the ground; if the Licker didn't land, her crowd control lost its meaning.

She raised her hands, shifting the direction of the frost from the floor to the ceiling. An ice wall condensed on the pipe in front of the Licker, attempting to block its movement path.

The Licker's speed was truly too fast. The moment the ice wall formed, it had already changed direction, catapulting from the east side of the pump room to the west, its claws digging into the wall and leaving a deep scratch.

Lin Yan's punch missed again, and he stopped.

"Zhao Ming." Lin Yan spoke, his tone as calm as if he were setting up an exercise drill. "Take it head-on with your shield. You don't need to hit it; you just need to let it hit you."

Zhao Ming was stunned for a moment, then nodded forcefully. He raised his shield to his chest, crouched slightly, and lowered his center of gravity. This riot shield welded with iron spikes was his most reliable partner in this apocalypse, having blocked countless fatal attacks over the past two years.

"Shen Bing." Lin Yan continued. "The next time it lands, freeze its landing spot. You don't need to freeze its whole body; you just need to make its claws stick for a fraction of a second."

Shen Bing looked at him and nodded. A fraction of a second—that could be done.

"Sister Chen, Su Hao, fall back. Don't let it use you as a breakthrough point."

Sister Chen didn't say a word and dragged Su Hao back to the entrance of the pump room. Su Hao wanted to say something, but was glared back by Sister Chen.

Lin Yan stood in the center of the pump room.

He put away his combat stance, stood straight, and made himself the bait.

The Licker moved rapidly on the ceiling, its vertical pupils locked onto Lin Yan. It didn't understand why this person had suddenly stopped moving, but in its hunting instinct, a stationary prey meant an opportunity.

It dove down.

It was no longer a probing pounce, but a full-force strike. Rend was fully activated, with ten bone spurs aimed at Lin Yan's throat and chest, moving so fast that the air was torn apart with a sharp whistling sound.

Lin Yan didn't dodge.

He was waiting.

The moment the claws pierced into the bone tumor breastplate, he felt a dull pain in his chest, and his health bar dropped by a chunk. But his gaze didn't fall on the Licker; instead, it looked past its shoulder toward the ground behind it.

"Shen Bing, now!"

Frost exploded at the spot where the Licker landed, freezing its hind claws firmly in place. Because of the inertia of its forward rush, the Licker's body tilted forward, but with its hind claws frozen and unable to follow through, its entire body lost its balance.

A fraction of a second.

"Zhao Ming!"

Zhao Ming's shield slammed in from the side. It wasn't a normal shield bash, but a full-force impact honed through countless life-and-death battles over the past two years. The iron spikes on the edge of the shield stabbed into the Licker's shoulder muscles, and the force of the impact knocked the Licker's unbalanced body another half-body length off course.

The Licker's claws slid off Lin Yan's chest, and its entire body was pushed to the right by the shield's impact. Its right claw tried to dig into the ground to stabilize its center of gravity, but the ice was too slippery, and the claw only left a white mark.

Its body was completely out of control.

The window of a fraction of a second was precisely seized by the two of them.

Lin Yan's right fist was already primed, the dark red glow of Blood Burning Strike shining blindingly on his fist.

The fine, blood-red vein texture on the surface of the blood rage ring stored all the damage accumulated from the old commercial street to the residential area, and then to those few claw strikes just now, along with the HP consumed by Blood Burning Strike—over 6,000 points.

All of it poured into this one punch.

The Licker's vertical pupils finally focused on Lin Yan's fist at this moment.

It saw it, but it was too late.

The fist smashed into the center of the Licker's chest. The sounds of bones shattering, muscles tearing, and organs bursting were all compressed into a single, extremely dull "bang."

The Licker's body paused violently in mid-air, and then a hole exploded in its back. The punch force penetrated its body and vented out from its back, dark red minced meat and bone fragments splashing onto the pipes behind it, making a dense pattering sound.

8,000 HP, reduced to zero in one punch.

The Licker's body slid off Lin Yan's fist like a pile of mush, hit the ground, twitched twice, and stopped moving.

[Ding! Successfully killed Level 8 Elite Licker, gained 400 EXP!]

The pump room was quiet for a full two seconds.

Zhao Ming maintained his post-shield-bash posture, his shield still held in front of him, as if he had been frozen in place. He looked at the Licker's corpse on the ground, which was missing everything above the chest cavity, and then looked at Lin Yan.

Zhao Ming opened his mouth, his voice a bit dry, "This power..."

Shen Bing withdrew her hands, the frost slowly dissipating from her fingertips. Her fingers were trembling slightly, a normal reaction to excessive ability depletion. She looked at Lin Yan, her eyes chaotic. Although she had known since they started fighting side-by-side yesterday that this person's strength couldn't be measured by common sense, a one-punch kill of a Licker once again exceeded her imagination.

Sister Chen walked over from the pump room entrance and took a deep look at the deep claw marks on Lin Yan's chest; beneath the claw marks, only a little skin was broken.

"With this thing's attack power, there aren't more than three people in Winter City who could withstand it."

Lin Yan didn't reply, crouching down to rummage through the Licker's corpse. There were dozens of low-rank dimensional crystals and one crystal core.

...

"Found them."

The passageway at the back of the pump room was even narrower, and at the end of the passage was a pipe mezzanine. Two people were lying on the floor of the mezzanine, a man and a woman, their clothes mostly soaked through with blood.

"Where are the other two people?" Lin Yan asked.

The man's eyes darkened. "Captain Li and... and Brother Yong..." He couldn't go on.

Sister Chen squeezed in from behind, and upon seeing the injuries, her expression darkened. She crouched down to help them re-bandage.

"Can you walk?"

"I can walk." The woman gritted her teeth and stood up.

Zhao Ming slung his shield onto his back and crouched down, placing the man's arm over his shoulder.

Lin Yan walked at the very front to clear the way, handing them two bottles of intermediate healing potion.

"Drink them, they might be useful."

Just as he walked out of the pump room, his footsteps stopped.

On the roof opposite the sedimentation tank, two Lickers were crouching on the eaves, their vertical pupils locking onto their group. Their bodies were slightly larger than the first one, the muscle fibers on their backs were thicker, and the bone spurs on their claws were longer too.

Sister Chen gripped her axe tightly and said to Lin Yan, "Two more have come. Can you still land that punch from before?"

"I can't," Lin Yan said calmly.

"Then what do we do? One was so hard to handle, and now two have come at once." Zhao Ming held up his shield, feeling a bit panicked.

The two Lickers had clearly seen their companion's corpse. They didn't blindly dive down like the first one, but instead moved rapidly sideways along the roof, flanking to the side of the team. Their speed was still ridiculously fast, leaving a blurry trail of afterimages in the grayish-yellow daylight.

Lin Yan twisted his head: "What to do? Simple, I'll just be faster than them."