56: Chapter 56 Temporary Retreat

The floor of the entire atrium area was completely shattered, and several thick vine trees, as thick as two people embracing, rose from the ground, climbing up along the floors all the way to the top floor of the Hospital main building.

Countless vines extended from the branches, spreading to every corner of each floor, resembling a green spider web shrouding the Hospital.

The Vine Skull was wandering around this atrium area. It did not have umbilical vines restricting its movement, yet it seemed instinctively summoned by these vine trees and would not easily stray far from them.

"This is troublesome. If we want to go to the elevator, we can only walk through the atrium area."

Feng Bo's brows were tightly locked. The atrium area was the center of the entire Hospital main building, and they had no way to avoid this location if they wanted to head to the stairs.

However, Wang Ting's gaze revealed a hint of excitement, and he thought to himself, "To think there are even new monsters. My luck is really good."

Every time a monster was cataloged, he would not only receive a one-time monster points reward, but an increase in the cataloged quantity would also increase his daily settled monster points.

Was it due to the Vine Skull having sharp hearing, or based on other reasons?

It suddenly turned its head. That basketball-sized head, intricately woven from vines, was hideous and terrifying, with two scarlet eyeballs exuding an eerie glow.

A low roar seemed to emanate from within the Vine Skull's body, and its gaze directly locked onto the position of the Wang Ting Team.

Thump, thump, thump.

Like an angry giant elephant, it charged towards Wang Ting and the others.

"Open fire!"

Wang Ting took the lead in firing, steadily raising the rifle in his hand to shoot bullets at the Vine Skull. Gunfire flickered endlessly, and the gunshots merged into one. The bullets streaked across the wide atrium area and landed directly on the Vine Skull.

Poof.

Muffled sounds kept coming as the bullets sank into the Vine Skull's body.

Feng Bo and the others also attacked alongside Wang Ting at this moment, pouring out a massive amount of firepower. The bullets instantly sank into the Vine Skull's flesh layer, yet they only stayed in the superficial layer and could not penetrate deeply at all.

A portion of the bullets could not even pierce the surface layer, being blocked back by the vine muscles before falling to the ground with crisp clinking sounds.

In a short span of time, dozens of bullets were poured out, yet they failed to stop the Vine Skull's charge. They saw the Vine Skull raise its millstone-sized palm to block its head position, preventing bullets from hitting its head.

While blocking, it strode forward, covering two to three meters with a single step. Its physique was as rugged as a truck, without the slightest stagnation. Every step it trod on the hard ground could step out a small pit.

Everyone's expressions changed, realizing that something was amiss—this was an elite individual.

"Retreat!"

Wang Ting called out for everyone to retreat. Feng Bo and the others did not hesitate at all, immediately turning around to flee.

The Vine Skull rushed to the corridor, and with a crash of its massive body, the concrete wall at the corridor corner was directly smashed to pieces, rolling out a large amount of concrete blocks.

The Hospital's corridor was not very wide. As the Vine Skull's massive body squeezed in, it was like a thick mass of flesh stuffed into a ventilation duct, and the sense of oppression brought by its huge body seemed to weigh heavily on everyone.

'An elite individual stronger than the Thorn Vine Beast.'

Just from a single berserk impact, Wang Ting immediately made a judgment.

The strength of this Vine Skull was even fiercer than the Thorn Vine Beast, and it was definitely an elite individual among low-level anomalous entities.

With such a powerful physique and such close-range charging, it was absolutely impossible for the team members to suppress it with rifle firepower alone.

"You guys back off, watch out for a possible encirclement by the Vine Parasite Corpse. I'll handle this monster."

As Wang Ting's voice fell, he had already burst forward. Wearing sand scorpion armor, his figure resembled a dashing fierce tiger as he rushed straight in front of the Vine Skull.

"Roar!"

The Vine Skull let out a deafening roar. Wang Ting punched heavily right against the Vine Skull's chest.

The terrifying force smashed into the Vine Skull's body, producing a muffled sound like a beating drum.

Feeling the pain, the Vine Skull roared, but its figure staggered backward and crashed heavily onto the ground.

Although the Vine Skull suffered this blow, it was not severely injured. It struggled to get up, its huge palm grabbing towards Wang Ting.

Wang Ting dashed out of the passage, charging directly toward the atrium area. The huge palm brushed past him, and claw-like vines danced like a long snake, trying to grab him back.

But the moment they got close, Wang Ting already sensed the movement. Without looking back, he drew his carry-on machete and slashed backward with a reverse grip. Blade light flashed, the vines snapped, and Wang Ting had already distanced himself.

The Vine Skull flipped over and stood up, its massive body rising from the ground like a mountain. It ran over with thumping steps, charging straight at Wang Ting.

At this time, Wang Ting was already standing in the open area. Seeing the Vine Skull charging at him, this time he did not dodge, instead meeting it head-on and then throwing a heavy punch.

The Vine Skull reached out to grab, colliding with Wang Ting's fist.

A muffled sound came, and Wang Ting's figure was actually knocked back half a step. Although the Vine Skull's figure swayed, it did not retreat a single bit.

In terms of strength, it actually suppressed Wang Ting by a head.

'This fellow's strength is probably close to 2000kg.'

Wang Ting frowned slightly, but he felt no fear whatsoever.

Although the Vine Skull's strength was terrifying, Wang Ting was wearing sand scorpion armor, and the characteristics of Scorpion Skin were also fully activated. Although this punch was heavy, it did not cause any damage. He had sufficient defense to cope with it.

The Vine Skull frantically grabbed over once more. This time, it wasn't a single-handed flying strike, but both hands attacking from left and right, as if trying to clasp together into a gigantic hammer, heading straight from top to bottom toward Wang Ting's head to smash him deep into the ground like driving a nail.

This time Wang Ting did not take it head-on, rapidly shifting his position.

With a loud boom, the fists smashed into the concrete ground, directly shattering the concrete into cracks.

At this moment, Wang Ting slashed his blade onto the Vine Skull's left arm. With this single slash, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and even the vine tissue beneath the skin was cut open with a deep wound.

Stung by the sharp pain, the Vine Skull frantically waved its arms to pursue and kill Wang Ting.

Just as it turned around, vines suddenly kept wrapping around the soles of its feet, instantly locking down its pair of huge and thick thighs.

Caught off guard, the Vine Skull instantly lost its balance, its figure crashing to the ground with a thud.

It pulled at the vines on its feet, and with just a gentle grab, those vines snapped apart one after another.

It was too late!

At this moment, Wang Ting activated the vines within fifty meters. Those vines spread frantically, creeping along the Vine Skull's body and entangling its limbs, torso, and the head composed of vines.

The more the vines entangled, the more the Vine Skull wanted to struggle to its feet, but its body was continuously dragged down by the vines on the ground, making it unable to get up for a moment.

At this point, Wang Ting took a big leap straight to the Vine Skull's chest, fiercely raising the machete in his hand and stabbing it down with both hands with all his might.

Pfft~

The forearm-length blade directly sank into its chest.

Wang Ting's strength was only a notch weaker than the Vine Skull, and stabbing down fiercely with both hands joined together—was that anything less than a thousand kilograms of force?

Let alone muscles made of vines, even a piece of aged wood would probably be stabbed all the way through.

The Vine Skull roared crazily, struggling endlessly as it tried to shake Wang Ting off. It strenuously raised its arm, snapping the vines apart.

Seeing its huge hand about to grab him, Wang Ting directly and fiercely stomped his foot onto the Vine Skull's shoulder.

The force of this kick was no less than a thousand-jin heavy hammer, directly transmitting a crunching sound as the bones of the Vine Skull's shoulder were instantly crushed by the stomp.

Wang Ting steadied his stance, frantically swiping the machete in his hand downward.

This single slash directly disemboweled the Vine Skull, revealing the unusually huge green heart within its chest.

The Vine Skull's screech became even more shrill, yet Wang Ting was exceptionally calm, his eyes as calm as a blade as he struck a direct punch onto the heart.

Under the heavy fist, the heart burst apart.

The Vine Skull struggled for a while before finally losing all breath.

[Vine Skull cataloging progress 100%, obtained 300 monster points]

"Roar!"

Wang Ting's expression changed. A monster's roar actually came from upstairs, and when he raised his head to look, he was startled.

At the locations of the third and seventh floors, the Vine Skull's huge arms had already stretched out of the corridor, their terrifying gazes locked onto him.

"Let's go!"

Without the slightest hesitation, he roared directly at Feng Bo and the others, then his figure violently rushed toward the corridor, not daring to stay for even a second.

Seeing Wang Ting's appearance, Feng Bo and the others were even more startled, turning around to sprint wildly as if being even a step slower meant losing their lives right here.

Boom.

Two Vine Skulls jumped down from upstairs like two meteors, smashing the ground into a depression.

They pursued the Wang Ting Team, but they were a step too late.

The corridor was narrow, and the two Vine Skulls could not squeeze in at the same time, falling further behind for a moment.

The exploration team retreated urgently; fortunately, the path they came by had already been cleared.

They rushed out of the Hospital main building without looking back, charging directly onto the ambulance.

"Drive, drive! Don't let them catch up."

Xiang Nan hurriedly inserted the key, started the engine, slammed on the gas pedal, and bolted straight out.

A massive sway of the ambulance almost flipped the vehicle, throwing the crowd crammed inside the cabin dizzy.

"Damn it, Xiang Nan, you're hauling teammates, not cabbages!"

"Shut up! Any slower and we'll all be done for!"

The vehicle bolted far away, turning around a block. Aside from sporadic Parasitic Fungus Vine sneak attacks, they finally entered a relatively safe area, and the distant outpost gradually became clear.