48: Chapter 48 Additional Variables
"A flat tire?" Qin Ming glanced out the window.
It was unusually quiet.
The air inside the bus was thick enough to be suffocating.
A few seconds ago, the accompanying teacher, Mr. William, was still dutifully trying to climb up from behind the driver's seat. His forehead was gashed, blood obscuring half his eye, but this did not stop him from fulfilling his duties.
"Don't panic! Everyone, stay in your seats!" Mr. William waved his arms, his voice strained with tension. "I've already called the police, help will be here soon... cough, cough!"
He began to cough violently.
A sickeningly sweet odor had begun to permeate the bus.
"This smell..." Wednesday sat in her seat, twitching her nose calmly. She completely ignored the surrounding classmates screaming in fear, as if she were merely sampling a cheap perfume. "Datura pollen extract, mixed with the smoke from burning corpse oil, and a bit of... excessive ether."
She turned her head to look at Mr. William across the aisle, who was trying to calm the students.
"I don't think he'll last three seconds."
As soon as she finished speaking.
"Everyone... stay... calm..." Mr. William's eyelids seemed to be weighed down by lead; his voice grew fainter and fainter, eventually turning into an unintelligible murmur.
Thud.
The dutiful teacher collapsed onto the floor like a sack of potatoes, making a dull sound.
A chain reaction followed immediately.
The screaming stopped abruptly. Those students who had been crying and shouting, one by one, like dolls with their power cut, let their heads loll and slumped over in their seats.
In less than ten seconds.
The entire school bus fell into a deathly silence.
Except for the two anomalies sitting in the back row.
Qin Ming leaned back against his seat, watching the two black-robed figures outside the window drawing closer.
Outside the window.
The tall black-robed figure walked up to the school bus door.
He did not force the door open directly; instead, he extended a gloved hand and traced a cross in the air.
A soft yet forceful white ripple penetrated the bus body.
"In nomine Patris..."
A low, hoarse, yet soul-soothing chant sounded.
"Sleep, lost lambs. In the realm of dreams, fear cannot harm you."
As the incantation fell, the students who had been frowning and twitching in their unconscious state calmed down completely. Their breathing became long and steady, as if they were merely experiencing a peaceful afternoon nap.
Having done all this, the tall black-robed figure pulled off his hood.
Revealing a weathered, deeply lined face.
It was the face of a classic tough-guy cleric: gray crew cut, aquiline nose, and eyes as sharp as a freshly honed scalpel. A silver cross hung around his neck, but in his hand, he carried a modified, large-caliber nail gun that didn't fit the identity of a clergyman.
Father Andoni.
He didn't even glance at the situation inside the bus; instead, he turned around and faced the endless, pitch-black cornfield.
"Come out, monster."
Antoni's voice echoed across the empty road, full of vigor and carrying twenty-three years of suppressed rage.
"I know you're here."
"Twenty-three years of slumber, just to hunt for twenty-three days."
[Image]
The priest raised the nail gun in his hand, the muzzle pointing straight into the depths of the darkness.
"Today is the last day of your cycle, and it is also the day you die."
Inside the bus.
Qin Ming raised an eyebrow, his fingers tapping lightly against the window frame.
"Interesting."
He had originally thought this was just a standard reenactment of the plot of "Jeepers Creepers". According to the original script, this school bus was the monster's buffet, the students were fresh ingredients, and the only resistance should have been those few slightly courageous jocks.
But now, there was an extra, strange priest.
"I don't remember a character like this in this B-movie." Qin Ming thought thoughtfully. "A fully armed priest who specializes in hunting Ogre? This style feels a bit like "The Exorcist" or "Van Helsing" from the studio next door."
Wednesday pulled a small monocular telescope from her pocket and observed the priest outside with great interest. "His muscle density is very high, and the craftsmanship of that nail gun is excellent. But what I'm more interested in is, how does he know the monster's feeding cycle?"
"Hunters always understand the habits of their prey better than the prey does," Qin Ming commented indifferently.
His gaze passed through the shattered window, looking at the cornfield the priest was facing.
Although there was no sound.
But there was something.
Something very evil, ancient, and hungry.
Was moving rapidly through that cornfield.
Father Andoni stood steadily in the middle of the road, his finger on the trigger of the nail gun, his breathing not even slightly disrupted. The young assistant beside him was gripping a silver-plated dagger, but his legs were already shaking uncontrollably.
"Steady, Jack," Father Andoni hissed without looking back. "It likes the taste of fear. If you are afraid, you become the appetizer."
The young assistant swallowed hard and forced himself to straighten his back.
Just then.
The sound suddenly disappeared.
The whole world fell into a hair-raising, deathly silence.
"Above," Qin Ming said softly.
Almost at the same time.
The black shadow descended from the sky.
It made no sound, like a blob of black ink defying gravity, smashing directly towards Father Andoni's head.
Huge leathery wings unfurled in the moonlight, with a wingspan exceeding four meters, their edges tattered and hanging with rotting flesh and the slime of unknown creatures.
"This is unscientific," Wednesday immediately evaluated. "Given its weight-to-wing-area ratio, it cannot possibly generate enough lift."
Father Andoni was clearly prepared.
The moment the black shadow fell, he rolled on the ground.
Bang!
The monster smashed heavily onto the asphalt road.
The massive impact cracked the road surface, creating a shallow crater.
It was the Ogre.
It wore a tattered brown trench coat and a wide-brimmed hat, looking like a drifter from the West. But when it raised its head, that face was enough to give any normal person nightmares for a lifetime.
Its pale skin seemed to be covered in a layer of grease, its nostrils were two bottomless black holes, and its mouth was filled with dense, sharp fangs.
And the most terrifying part was the back of its head.
A cobra-like membrane had spread out there, covered in pulsating veins.
"ROAR—!!!"
The Ogre let out a piercing shriek.
It seemed surprised that this old prey had actually dodged its fatal strike.
"Eat this! You piece of scum crawled out of hell!"
The moment Father Andoni rolled to his feet, the nail gun in his hand fired violently.
Thwip!
A steel nail, as thick as a forearm and carved with exorcism runes at the tip, whistled through the air.
The distance was too close.
The Ogre had no time to dodge.
The steel nail slammed into its left shoulder, and the massive kinetic energy carried its body flying backward.