274: Can they be saved?

At the very moment the Hermit Crab focused all its attention on retreating and its grip loosened slightly, a layer of exceptionally crystal-clear, lustrous, and smooth mucus suddenly surfaced on Little Pink's body, who was being tightly protected in Zhao Jinhua's arms!

This layer of mucus increased rapidly, acting like the finest lubricant. Not only did it make its pink skin slippery and hard to hold, but it also emitted a faint, cool scent similar to that of aquatic plants.

Axolotls naturally have moist and smooth skin. After evolving, Little Pink retained this characteristic and could actively regulate the amount of mucus secreted.

Normally, it only secreted a trace amount to assist with breathing and maintain moisture. Now, driven by extreme fear and the desire to survive, it secreted an unprecedented amount!

"Swoosh—!"

The Hermit Crab, which was fully on guard against attacks from a distance, felt the struggling force within its pincer suddenly change, becoming exceptionally slippery. Before it could react and tighten its grip, that flash of pink had already slipped out from the gaps of its pincer like a fish!

Little Pink did not hesitate for a second after escaping. Its survival instinct caused it to burst forth with all its strength. Its hind limbs kicked hard against the crab's rough carapace, and its small body actually leaped into the air, accurately pouncing toward the terrifying puncture wound on the Hermit Crab's chest that was still dripping with viscous fluid!

In the next second, it performed an action that left everyone and the crab dumbfounded—it opened its mouth, revealing small but sharp teeth, and bit down hard on the relatively soft, damaged tissue exposed at the edge of the wound, and then... began to suck forcefully!

The Axolotl's feeding instinct, based on vacuum suction, was activated at this moment in a primitive and ferocious way!

"Argh?! You—!!" The Hermit Crab let out a scream of shock and anger mixed with intense pain. It felt a sharp sting and a strange sucking sensation from the wound; its life force seemed to be forcibly drained by that small pink figure! Any thought of live capture or research value was thrown out the window, leaving only the purest killing intent!

"Die!!" Its intact left pincer no longer cared about any shield strategy. With a violent Aura intended to crush Little Pink along with its own wound, it slammed down toward its own chest! As for whether it would accidentally injure the other two hostages? It no longer cared!

"Now!" Shen Mingyuan, who had been staring fixedly at the battle, roared inwardly. The energy in his sniper rifle had long since accumulated to the critical point, but shooting the crab's body directly might still trigger a frantic counterattack before its death, endangering the remaining hostages in its pincers.

In a flash, Shen Mingyuan made an extremely risky decision. He adjusted his muzzle slightly, the data stream in his red eyepiece flashing wildly as he calculated the trajectory.

"Bang—!"

The black-red energy beam did not fire at the crab's vital points. Instead, by a hair's breadth, it grazed the outer side of the Hermit Crab's raised left pincer joint, whistling past with a searing airwave and the breath of death!

"Hiss!" The Hermit Crab's left pincer instinctively stiffened and jerked, causing the trajectory of its strike to deviate slightly. This moment of shock and interference, though brief, was crucial!

At the same time, Cynthia, who had been looking for an opportunity, moved! Like a cheetah that had been gathering strength for a long time, the moment Shen Mingyuan fired, a circle of airwaves exploded beneath her feet, and her figure shot forward like a cannonball!

The muscles in her arms, encased in Mechanical Gauntlets, bulged as deep blue energy glowed brightly. She let out a low growl and her hands firmly gripped the inner side of the Hermit Crab's right pincer joint, which was holding the two Researchers and about to instinctively tighten!

"Let—go—!!"

"Creeeak—!" The tooth-aching sound of twisting metal and biomass rang out. Cynthia erupted with terrifying strength, actually prying open a gap in that giant pincer by sheer force!

"Get out, quick!" she hissed.

The two Researchers had already had their Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering from fear, but their survival instinct made them scramble out of the gap in the pincer, stumbling as they rushed into the distance.

"Bastard!!" The Hermit Crab went completely mad. Although its left pincer had missed Little Pink, it was raised high and was about to smash down toward Cynthia, who was struggling to pry the pincer, and the Researchers who had just escaped! Meanwhile, its injured right pincer also began to tighten recklessly, intending to crush the human in its grasp first!

"Little Pink!" Shen Mingyuan saw it clearly and shouted sharply.

Hanging from the wound, Little Pink seemed to understand the resolve in that shout. It let go, stopped sucking, and used all its strength to thrust its small claws deep into the wound, and then—violently tore!

"Awooo—!!!" Unspeakable pain instantly flooded the Hermit Crab. Its entire body convulsed violently due to this secondary internal injury. Both the raised left pincer about to strike and the right pincer attempting to tighten froze simultaneously!

"Shen Mingyuan!" Taking this chance, Cynthia used her back to endure a blow from the crab's wildly flailing left pincer. She let out a muffled groan, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, but she held the right pincer open with all her might and shouted to Shen Mingyuan.

No words were needed! In the moment the crab was paralyzed by pain, Shen Mingyuan had already lowered his muzzle. This time he didn't charge up, but fired a relatively concentrated energy beam at maximum speed. The target—the knee joint connection of one of the crab's supporting legs!

"Shoo—Puff!"

The beam hit accurately, the carapace shattered, and fluid sprayed out. That thick crab leg instantly lost its supporting force and buckled to one side.

"Rumble!!"

Balance was broken. Already unstable from the intense pain, the Hermit Crab let out an unwilling roar as its massive body completely lost balance. Carrying Little Pink and Zhao Jinhua, who was still gripped by its right pincer, it crashed onto its side on the ground! Dust filled the air.

Cynthia seized this fleeting opportunity, erupting with power once more to finally pry a larger opening in the injured right pincer!

"Jinhua! Get out!" Zhao Jinhua didn't care about the pain all over his body and scrambled out of the pincer.

Almost at the same moment Zhao Jinhua escaped, the Hermit Crab also barely recovered a sliver of consciousness from the intense pain and the dizziness of the fall.

A fierce light exploded in its compound eyes as it completely gave up on the others. Its recently freed right pincer, carrying boundless hatred and its final strength, moved with lightning speed to once again firmly seize Little Pink, who was still hanging on its wound and hadn't had time to jump away! This time, the force of the pincer closing was enough to flatten steel!

"Little Pink—!" Zhao Jinhua's eyes nearly split with rage.

Little Pink let out a short cry of pain, its small pink face instantly scrunched up. However, it still used its last bit of strength to blink its large, watery eyes toward Zhao Jinhua and Shen Mingyuan.

The scene fell into a stalemate again. The Hermit Crab was on its side, heavily injured and dying, yet it used its final strength to restrain the most critical target. Shen Mingyuan and Cynthia stood not far away, their breathing heavy, covered in wounds, hesitant to act for fear of harming the hostage.

And that large starfish had, at some point, crawled back to the edge of the battlefield, spread out in a heap as if none of this had anything to do with it. Shen Mingyuan's peripheral vision caught it, and he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood-stained saliva:

"You're quite good at slacking off."

The starfish lazily moved one of its arms and responded slowly:

"Oh... I'm just naturally lazy... I wanted to play dead and get it over with earlier... who knew I'd be dragged back in. I just want to lie quietly in the sea, soak up the sun, catch some small fish... being called up to fight all the time is so annoying, and I can't win anyway... so this is how it is..."

Its tone was full of the self-righteousness of "I'm a salted fish, don't look for me."

"Let go of Little Pink!" Seeing Little Pink being held tightly by the giant pincer and crying out in pain, Zhao Jinhua's eyes turned red. He rushed forward a few steps regardless of everything and shouted hoarsely at the Hermit Crab, which was trembling slightly from pain and anger,

"Me! I'll be your hostage! Let it go!"

The Hermit Crab's compound eyes slowly turned toward Zhao Jinhua. In the cold, inorganic luster, a very human-like sense of "amusement" mixed with absurdity and cruelty actually surfaced.

A fragile human actually wanted to exchange himself for that special evolved being? Foolish, but... it seemed not bad. One more meat shield, one more layer of insurance.

Its injured left pincer struggled to lift, carrying viscous fluid and killing intent as it slowly but firmly reached toward Zhao Jinhua. To reach the target, its massive body had to lean forward slightly, causing the hideous wound that had been bitten by Little Pink and pierced by Shen Mingyuan to be exposed even more clearly.

Now was the time!

A look of resolute ferocity flashed in Zhao Jinhua's eyes.

His right hand had been behind his back all along, and now he swung it forward—in his hand, he was clutching a High-Explosive Grenade with the pin already pulled!

It was unclear if it was left behind when a combatant was flung away earlier, or if he had desperately scavenged it during the chaos!

He used all his strength to hurl that soon-to-explode creation of death into the unshielded, bloody, and mangled puncture wound on the Hermit Crab's chest!

"No—!!!" For the first time, the Hermit Crab's compound eyes reflected pure, biological instinctual fear. It wanted to dodge, to close the wound, to block with its pincers, but it was all too late.

The grenade accurately rolled deep into that warm wound filled with life fluids.

Immediately following—

"Rumble!!!!!"

A roar several times more violent than any previous explosion, mixed with fragments of carapace, flesh, organs, and metal shrapnel, erupted violently from within the Hermit Crab's body! Dazzling light and a searing shockwave exploded with it at the center!

"Screeech—!!!"

The Hermit Crab only had time to let out an extremely short wail, as if its very Soul was being torn apart, before its entire upper body completely shattered in this internal explosion! The giant crab pincers loosened powerlessly.

Little Pink, being extremely close to the explosion point, bore the brunt of it. It was thrown violently away by the wild airwave, crashing heavily onto the beach over ten meters away. Its pink body was covered in sand and filth as it curled up in pain. However, the Axolotl's powerful regenerative ability was rapidly taking effect within its body; under the shattered scales, new pink flesh buds had already begun to squirm.

However, the fate of Zhao Jinhua, who had thrown the grenade and was standing almost at the edge of the explosion, was even more tragic.

He had no time to make any evasive maneuvers. The flames of the explosion, the high-speed flying shards of hard crab shell, and the searing airwave were like a wall of death that instantly engulfed him!

"Jinhua!" Cynthia's pupils shrank, and she lunged forward regardless of everything, using her body to block the subsequent impact and some fragments at the last moment. But Zhao Jinhua was still blown away like a broken kite, rolling onto the sand.

"Cough... cough cough..." Zhao Jinhua lay paralyzed on the sand, covered in blood. Several sharp, dark carapace fragments were embedded in his chest and abdomen, with the most serious one even piercing in through his ribs.

Blood was gushing out, quickly staining the sand beneath him red. His face was as pale as paper, and every cough brought out large amounts of blood foam. His gaze had already begun to wander.

"Bro... Brother!" Little Pink struggled to get up and, ignoring its own pain, scrambled to Zhao Jinhua's side.

Looking at Zhao Jinhua's miserable state, those large eyes that were always full of curiosity and innocence were instantly filled with tears, which rolled down in large droplets, mixing with the blood on Zhao Jinhua's face.

"Brother! What happened to you? Don't scare me! Brother!"

Shen Mingyuan looked at the completely shattered, motionless remains of the Hermit Crab, then at the dying Zhao Jinhua and the weeping Little Pink. His tightly wound nerves finally relaxed slightly.

Intense fatigue and the weight of his injuries instantly surged up. The shadow armor flickered unsteadily and then deactivated, revealing his pale, sweat-drenched face.

He swayed, his vision going black, and finally unable to hold on, he collapsed onto the beach, falling into a semi-conscious state.

On the other side, that large starfish had quietly crawled to the edge of the reef at some point, with half its body submerged in the seawater.

It seemed to have no interest in the tragedy here and only wanted to slip away quickly.

Cynthia glanced at it, grit her teeth, but ultimately didn't chase after it—Zhao Jinhua's injuries were too urgent.

"Bro... don't die! You won't die! You're a human! Humans are so powerful, so smart, you'll definitely survive! Definitely!"

Little Pink used its small webbed hands to try futilely to cover Zhao Jinhua's non-stop bleeding wounds, yet it was afraid of hurting him. It was so anxious its words were incoherent, only crying and shouting continuously.

Zhao Jinhua's unfocused gaze struggled to focus on Little Pink's tear-stained face. He twitched the corners of his mouth, seemingly wanting to smile, but only more blood foam emerged. His voice was so weak it was almost scattered by the sea breeze, but every word carried a heavy weight:

"Little Pink... you... want to become human... I... never... denied you..."

He panted, every breath pulling at his wounds and bringing intense pain, but he still insisted on speaking:

"What I... was worried about... was... you thinking humans... are too good... thinking the matter of 'becoming human'... is too simple... too good... I only... only hope... you'll be yourself... 'Being human'... is too hard... too... painful..."

"So... I always... in my own way... tried to persuade you... stop you... but... if... this really is... what you love..."

His gaze suddenly became unusually clear and sharp, staring intently at Little Pink:

"Then... you must... remember my words... never... accept the labels... others give you... the identity... assigned to you... because... what others give... is always... according to... their own needs..."

"Don't... do... things you don't like... even if... that thing... is very good... very right... very great... as long as... it's not... what you truly love... then don't... do it... you must be... yourself... do what you... truly... love..."

He coughed violently, more blood gushing out, and his face became even more ashen.

"'Being human'... is very bitter... do you know that...?"

His gaze passed over the top of Little Pink's head, looking at the distant, blue, shimmering horizon of the sea. A sliver of childlike pure longing and deep attachment appeared in his eyes, his voice as light as a sigh:

"I really... really want to... see again... the sea... I saw... as a child..."

Before he finished his sentence, the last light in his eyes completely dissipated, his head slumped to one side, and he lost consciousness entirely.

"Bro—!!!" Little Pink let out a heart-wrenching cry.

"Quick! Out of the way! Quick!" Chen Xing and the two Researchers, who were shaken but had pulled themselves together, finally rushed over. A Researcher saw the danger of Zhao Jinhua's injuries at a glance, his expression becoming extremely solemn.

"Internal organs might be damaged, blood loss is too fast, and there are foreign objects embedded! We must perform emergency on-site treatment immediately to stabilize his vital signs before he can be moved!"

One Researcher spoke rapidly to Chen Xing while already opening the emergency medical kit he carried, taking out Hemostatic Forceps, gauze, saline, and simple surgical tools.

The other Researcher quickly checked Zhao Jinhua's pupils and pulse, saying urgently to Chen Xing, "Help me hold him steady! Be careful not to touch the fragments! Prepare for debridement, we'll handle this deepest one first!"

Chen Xing did not hesitate for a second, immediately following the instructions, using his strong arms to firmly hold Zhao Jinhua's body, providing lighting and assistance.

The Researcher took a deep breath, steadied his slightly trembling hands, and began to carefully treat the edges of the wound with sterilized instruments, attempting to extract the larger carapace fragments while applying pressure to stop the bleeding and performing simple debridement.

Their movements were professional and swift. Although the conditions were rudimentary, it was the only chance for survival at the moment.