85: Chapter 85: The Blood and Flesh Path

"Stay close!"

Fang Che let out a low shout and lunged forward; before his voice had even faded, he had already charged to the very front.

A faceless student blocking his path had just squeezed a distorted hole into its face, seemingly wanting to scream, but the next second, it was engulfed by a dark shadow.

The heavy blade of the fire axe, carrying immense downward force, cleaved into the top of the monster's head. With almost no resistance, it tore the upper half of its body directly open, sending foul-smelling black blood and shredded flesh exploding outward, splattering the writhing walls of flesh all around.

At the very moment the blade entered the flesh, that familiar and pleasant notification sound rang in Fang Che's mind.

[Ding! SSS-Rank Talent: Absolute Critical Hit has been triggered!]

[You killed a mutant student, triggering a 4x Critical Hit on experience points! Gained 40 experience points!]

[Passive effect 'Rising Step by Step' activated: The current Critical Hit multiplier is below 10, so the minimum multiplier for the next Critical Hit increases by +1. The current Critical Hit multiplier range is: 4~103x!]

He didn't bother with any unnecessary defensive maneuvers, pouring all his stamina and focus into attacking. The fire axe in his hands whipped up gusts of wind; every swing accurately sliced through the monsters' limbs, and every sweep brought forth sprays of blood.

[Ding! You killed a mutant student, gained 10 experience points!]

[Ding! You killed a mutant student, gained 10 experience points!]

He simply hacked and slashed forward tirelessly. The system's notification sounds barely stopped, and his experience points were rising crazily at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Single-handedly, he held the very front of the team. In this constantly writhing, foul-smelling flesh corridor, he trampled over the remains of monsters to carve out a bloody path leading to the stairwell.

The pressure on the team instantly lessened, and Su Qingxue, positioned in the center of the formation, also completely unleashed her capabilities.

She stood in the most stable position of the team. In those ice-blue eyes, the previous fear and unease were long gone, replaced by an absolute calmness.

"Ice Wall!"

As she shouted, thick frost instantly condensed on the ground to the left of the team. Immediately after, a three-meter-high, thick and solid ice wall rose from the ground. The monsters that had just struggled out of the flesh walls slammed head-first into the cold surface, emitting dull thuds, but they couldn't take another step forward.

She didn't stop her movements and immediately turned to look at the other side.

"Ice Spike Storm!"

Su Qingxue raised her hand and waved it forward. The air temperature in front of her plummeted, and dozens of sharp ice spikes, over a meter long and gleaming with a cold light, condensed out of thin air.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

The dense swarm of ice spikes flew forward in unison, accompanied by a piercing sound as they broke through the air, completely skewering the monsters on the right that were trying to flank them.

One after another, the monsters were pinned to the ground by the immense impact. Before they could even cry out, a layer of white frost rapidly covered their bodies, and finally, accompanied by cracking sounds, they shattered into a pile of ice shards.

[Ding! Your teammate Su Qingxue killed 18 mutants, experience point sharing in progress... Triggered 11x Critical Hit! Congratulations on gaining 1980 experience points!]

Another huge amount of experience points gained.

At the back of the team, Jiang Ning was swinging her weapon to take care of a few monsters that had slipped through, while watching Fang Che, who was hacking wildly ahead, and then Su Qingxue, who could conjure ice and snow with a wave of her hand; her mouth hung wide open.

"Damn, Su Qingxue, this skill is fucking fierce! The area is big enough; it's too awesome! I've gotta get something this fierce later on!"

Mu Waner's expression, however, wasn't as relaxed as hers. She stared intently at the battlefield ahead, her eyes flickering with a faint light, and her voice suddenly became very sharp.

"Fang Che, watch out! To the front left! The one wearing the red tracksuit! Something's wrong with it; its contamination level is at least five times higher!"

Everyone immediately looked over upon hearing her voice. They saw a boy in a red tracksuit in the pile of monsters who stood out conspicuously. Unlike the other monsters, it wasn't wailing blindly; it just stood there, and suddenly, a slit opened on its featureless face.

The next second, an invisible, sharp shockwave spread out directly.

"Hum~"

This wasn't a real sound, but a mental shockwave drilling directly into their brains, making their eardrums and temples ache as if they were being pricked by needles.

Fang Che, who was charging at the very front, only paused slightly, but Su Qingxue, Teacher Qin Bing, and the others behind him let out muffled groans simultaneously. Their vision went dark, their movements instantly slowed down, and the skill Su Qingxue had intended to cast was abruptly interrupted.

Fang Che's eyes turned cold. He spun the fire axe in his hand halfway around his wrist and violently threw it.

The heavy axe left a blurred trail in the gore-filled corridor, accurately slamming toward the boy in the tracksuit.

But the elite monster's reaction speed was significantly faster than ordinary mutants; it actually dodged sideways just as the axe was about to strike.

"Pfft!"

The fire axe only cleaved through half of its shoulder, spraying black blood, but it didn't hit a vital spot.

"Roar!"

The intense pain in its shoulder completely enraged the elite monster. It let out a massive roar, ignoring its wound entirely, and charged forward on all fours, rushing directly toward the slowed-down Su Qingxue with a foul, fishy stench.

Its target had been the spellcaster in the team from the very beginning.

"Su Qingxue!"

Jiang Ning and Teacher Qin Bing both screamed in terror.

Fang Che gritted his molars and reached into his backpack to pull out another spare fire axe.

He kicked off the ground with force to gain momentum, charged forward in a few steps, and forcefully blocked the path in front of Su Qingxue.

Just as the monster's claws were about to touch him, Fang Che let out a low roar and directly activated the A-Rank skill: Size Manipulation.

The muscles in his right arm instantly bulged, tearing through his sleeve, and a cold, metallic sheen appeared on the surface of his skin.

"Clang!!!"

The monster's sharp claws raked viciously across Fang Che's arm, erupting in a piercing friction sound and even sparking.

An immense force traveled up his arm. Fang Che let out a muffled groan, feeling his entire arm go numb from the impact. Even with the skill enhancement, several wounds deep enough to see bone were clawed into his arm, and fresh blood instantly stained his forearm red.

But he didn't take a single step back.

Taking advantage of the moment the elite monster paused after missing its strike, Fang Che gripped the newly drawn fire axe tightly with his left hand, a fierce light shining in his eyes.

"Die!"

With all his strength, he swung the axe in an upward semicircle, slashing it viciously and diagonally.

"Pfft!"

This time, being too close, the elite monster couldn't dodge.

The sharp blade of the axe sliced upward along its chest, cutting diagonally across its neck, nearly splitting its entire upper body in two. The monster's roar stopped abruptly, and large chunks of flesh hit the ground, twitching a few times before going still.

Just as it died, a series of notifications refreshed crazily in Fang Che's mind.

[Ding! SSS-Rank Talent: Absolute Critical Hit has been triggered!]

[This kill triggered an 88x Critical Hit!]

[Congratulations on gaining 8800 experience points!]

[Congratulations on leveling up! Current level: LV9!]

[Congratulations on obtaining special drop item: Resentment-soaked Tracksuit (Blue) x88!]

[Congratulations on obtaining special drop item: endless running shoes (Purple) x1! Effect: After equipping, Agility +20, Stamina consumption reduced by 50%!]

Hearing this string of notifications, Fang Che finally felt a bit more at ease. His nerves, which had been tightly wound until now, relaxed. A sense of exhaustion and the intense pain in his arm surged up in waves, making him sway slightly.

"Fang Che!"

Su Qingxue had just recovered from the mental shockwave when she saw that Fang Che had taken a hit for her, leaving his arm covered in blood. Her heart constricted violently, and her face turned pale.

Teacher Qin Bing was the fastest; she stepped forward immediately to support Fang Che's injured arm, and a soft white light emerged from her palm.

"Hold on and don't move, I'll heal you."

That warm energy quickly enveloped the wound. The previous piercing pain began to be replaced by a warm current, and the torn flesh slowly grew back together. Only then did Fang Che's complexion look a bit better.

"Keep going, don't stop!"

He turned his head to glance at the monsters that were still increasing in number behind them and urged everyone in a low voice.

Everyone didn't dare to delay and immediately continued pushing forward. With the experience from killing the elite monster earlier, plus the enhanced physical constitution Fang Che gained after leveling up, the team fought their way through this flesh corridor on the second floor without any major mishaps.

"The stairs are ahead!"

Teacher Qin Bing, with sharp eyes, pointed ahead and shouted.

Everyone felt a surge of joy and quickened their pace to rush up the stairs.

The situation on the third floor was even worse than the second. The stair railings had long since turned into bizarre shapes pieced together from human bones, and eyeballs that rolled around randomly had even grown on the walls.

"Hurry over, it's that door!"

Mu Waner pointed to a closed iron door at the end of the corridor; that was the passage to the stairwell leading up.

Fang Che charged at the very front. He couldn't be bothered to turn the doorknob and simply raised his leg to kick the iron door.

"Bang!"

The iron door was kicked open with great force, but the scene behind the door instantly extinguished the hope that had just ignited in everyone.

There was no staircase leading to the Fourth Floor behind the door at all.

Blocking them was a massive wall made of disgusting flesh, broken bricks, and unidentified corpses all fused together. This wall was still pulsating slightly, completely sealing off the path upward.

"How do we deal with this? Didn't the mission say the Fourth Floor?"

Mu Waner's voice carried a hint of sobbing.

The wailing of those monsters outside the stairwell was getting closer and closer; they were effectively completely trapped in this narrow space.

At this critical juncture, the expression on Fang Che's face was remarkably calm. He reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out the brass key that had just been assembled.

The moment the key was taken out, the black blood flowing on the flesh wall seemed to be sucked in by something. It stopped flowing aimlessly and instead quickly gathered together.

The dark red blood slowly traced out a blurry silhouette over two meters tall in the middle of the wall. Judging by the outline, it seemed to be a man wearing a suit.

An indescribable, heavy pressure suddenly pressed out from the shadow on the wall, making it difficult for those present to even catch their breath. Jiang Ning and Mu Waner's legs went weak, and they nearly collapsed to the ground.

At the same time, a sharp system warning sound exploded in Fang Che's mind, making cold sweat break out on his back.

"This damn thing... is the Principal?!"