196: No chance of escape

No need to turn around, Jiang Ping could already hear the sticky, saliva-filled sound as the mouth opened near his ear.

Noticing the shadow growing larger, that thing was silently approaching him.

Jiang Ping quickly took a large step, completed his turn, and simultaneously raised the mechanical hand cannon in his hand, which he hadn't disassembled or unloaded.

Aiming at the monster's blood-red, jarringly vibrant mouth.

With a boom, he fired a full-energy beam cannon shot.

The monster closed its mouth and swallowed the beam cannon.

It was pushed back, sliding seven or eight meters away, leaving dozens of white scratches on the ground.

"It... it actually blocked it?!"

Looking at the monster, which showed no reaction, with two wisps of black smoke coming from the gaps on either side of its mouth, its shape indescribable and unclear.

Everyone's originally calm mood suddenly became turbulent.

Chen Ming, meanwhile, was secretly observing all this with the help of the Gods Eye.

On this monster, to be honest, there weren't many rat characteristics left.

Its body was jet black, covered irregularly with blood-red eyes of various sizes.

They were particularly numerous on the upper part of its head, neck, thighs, and shoulders.

What's strange is that this thing didn't just have one leg. That's right, on its body, there were at least sixteen... legs?

Chen Ming felt that compared to legs, their structure was more similar to human arms. The hand parts, regardless of shape or size, could be said to have been carved from the same mold.

The arms varied in thickness; the stout ones were responsible for support, acting as feet, while the more slender arms extended randomly, their purpose unclear.

It was covered in thick, curved, barbed spines. Someone unfamiliar with it might even think it was a hedgehog.

Its tail resembled a human spine, segment by segment, fitting together seamlessly, covered in a layer of black skin.

Its color was similar to the Undead, but the texture was vastly different. The surface of its body was very smooth, unlike the Undead, which had a floating flame-like effect.

Overall, it was even less recognizable than a 'sibuxiang' (a mythical creature), with a strong sense of incongruity, as if parts were taken from various corpses and forcibly pieced together.

Its body size was at least four or five times that of an adult Siberian tiger.

"What the hell is this thing? Looking at it, it's disgusting."

"More than disgusting, I find it eerie. Why does it have so many human hands on it? Could it be that they are all... humans it devoured?"

"That's definitely possible! Why didn't I think of that!"

"These eyes... they're triggering my trypophobia. I'm getting goosebumps all over."

"So, is this thing specifically coming for us? It even broke through the wall for it? Is it that hungry?" He looked up at the large hole in the building caused by the monster's charge and muttered to himself.

Immediately, his pupils suddenly widened, noticing a black thing, thicker than a python, crawling out of the hole.

Just as he was about to speak to warn the others, he realized they had already noticed the thing, just like him.

"Why are they coming one after another? Can't they come one by one and let us catch our breath?"

"Hahaha, ganging up isn't exclusively the human race's patent. Only two? That's merciful enough. Get ready for battle, lest we actually fall into the pit."

"This thing is even more disgusting than the last one. It has way too many eyes on it!"

"It's bad enough that the hands on its head are growing like horns or whiskers, but how come it has two rows of them all over its sides, like a centipede? It's damn creepy!"

"With those sharp teeth that its lips can't even cover, if you get bitten, half a person would probably be gone."

"Why are its eyes white, not red?"

Regarding this question, Chen Ming believed he held the final right of interpretation.

This was because he knew better than anyone that this monster, which had even less connection to a rat, had already been hunted and assimilated by some Undead.

It was over ten meters long, and the small hands growing along its sides got smaller towards the back. At the tip of its tail, they were like thorny spines; you couldn't even distinguish fingers without getting close.

Those small hands would swing left and right as the monster moved, as if they had no bones.

The reason the previous monster broke through the wall wasn't because it smelled Jiang Ping and the others' presence and was eager to devour them and fill its belly.

It was simply to escape the latter's pursuit.

Through the Resource Map, Chen Ming learned that one monster was named Red-Eyed Shadow Rat, and the other, a long-bodied monster resembling a giant python, was called Red-Eyed Thousand Feet.

It definitely didn't have a thousand hands, but two or three hundred might be a challenge.

The Red-Eyed Shadow Rat still wanted to continue its attack on Jiang Ping and charged over quickly.

Seeing the unfavorable situation, Jiang Ping quickly raised his arm high, recharging his hand cannon again.

Just as he was preparing to fire.

Bang! Boom!!

A confusing scene unfolded: the Red-Eyed Thousand Feet bit fiercely into the side of the Red-Eyed Shadow Rat, its body ramming it sideways and sending it flying.

The Red-Eyed Shadow Rat extended its powerful arms, trying to tear apart and push away the Red-Eyed Thousand Feet.

The four hands growing beside the Red-Eyed Thousand Feet's mouth, as well as the dense, whisker-like arms on either side of its head, all lifted and clasped tightly with the Red-Eyed Shadow Rat's fingers, resisting each other.

Neither would yield.

"What's going on? Why are the monsters fighting each other?"

The Hunters, who had prepared for battle but now found themselves spectators, looked bewildered.

"I get it!" He slammed his right fist into his left palm.

"What do you get?" someone nearby asked.

"That monster looks different because he's been assimilated into the Undead! He belongs to the Undead Monarch!"

"So he was recruited! No wonder this happened. It looks like the big guy earlier broke through the wall to escape being hunted."

"In this S-Rank instance, the number of Undead might even be greater than the number of monsters."

"Uh, speaking of which... what are we here for?"

...

While they were discussing heatedly, the Red-Eyed Thousand Feet's attack became increasingly frenzied, biting and violently shaking its head, tearing the Red-Eyed Shadow Rat's body apart.

Flesh and blood were as light as rags, floating into the air, and then dispersing like smoke.

However, the large holes bitten into the Red-Eyed Shadow Rat's body by the Red-Eyed Thousand Feet showed no tendency to heal.

It wasn't that the Red-Eyed Shadow Rat didn't think about resisting; it truly had the will but lacked the strength.

The Red-Eyed Thousand Feet used its length advantage, employing the constricting move often used by snakes when hunting, tightening its grip!

It was immobilized.

Furthermore, the Red-Eyed Thousand Feet's teeth carried venom that caused paralysis and inhibited self-healing.

This was the main reason why the Red-Eyed Shadow Rat, despite being a high-level mutated species, couldn't heal itself.

It wasn't that it couldn't heal, just that the speed was very slow, too slow to keep up with the Red-Eyed Thousand Feet's rate of destruction.

While biting frantically! It continuously tightened its body!

And all the Red-Eyed Shadow Rat could do was swing its tail, which closely resembled a spine, lashing indentations into the ground in helpless rage.

Its life was rapidly approaching its end...