Apocalypse Forecast

In fact, an erosion body of this degree wasn't too difficult to deal with... probably.

Whether these monsters, which The Purified People mass-produced like farmed goods, even counted as Border Variants was debatable. Besides their abnormal black blood, they were simply uglier, bigger, hungrier, and more unpleasant to look at.

They had no special abilities and couldn't even shoot a fireball. Their combat power relied entirely on numbers.

However, amidst the numerous creatures, there were always one or two with extraordinary talent. These were favored by the Sacred Spirit and were exceptionally ugly, huge, ravenous, and unsightly.

Like the one right here.

Clearly, it wasn't like those other flashy, worthless specimens—this one looked incredibly formidable.

To say it could be dealt with like the other erosion bodies would be a joke.

Its neck was so thick that its head was nearly the size of a car's front end. Even if it just lay there and let Huai Shi chop at it, he wouldn't be able to make a dent.

Moreover, he was out of strength.

He had chopped down so many monsters along the way. He had been hyped up, alright, but he hadn't held back—and couldn't afford to. It was a stroke of luck to have made it here alive, only to encounter the final boss.

This was really bad.

He tentatively brandished the knife and Hand Axe in his hands; they weren't even as big as the creature's eyes. The leisurely approaching Giant Wolf seemed amused by this, its great maw cracking into a grin as it dripped foul saliva.

Huai Shi swallowed hard and said with a shaky voice, "Old Shen, aren't you a healer? Give me a BUFF, quick."

"You're being so stubborn, what do you need a BUFF for?"

Shen Yue's face was pale. He looked as if he was about to shrink into the corner, on the verge of tears but with none to shed. "It's useless... my abilities are meant for ordinary people; they can't replenish much energy. If there were more people here..."

"Then apply it as if there were a large group!" Huai Shi almost spat blood in anger. "Layer it on a few more times!"

Regardless of the effect, the more BUFFs, the better.

Shen Yue looked even more helpless. "Can you withstand BUFFs meant for three thousand people?"

"Can't you give me less?"

"I... I can't gauge it..."

Shen Yue himself was filled with an unspeakable sorrow, almost bursting into tears.

This was a well-known flaw among his teammates at the Social Security Bureau—his BUFFs came in only two settings. One was enough for one person; the other... an extreme three thousand servings!

That was the main reason Shen Yue had always warmed the bench in the Social Security Bureau's special support group: he couldn't control his 'Milk Quantity'.

He easily ended up buffing his teammates into paralysis.

To be fair, his Soul Ability, 'Efficient Work Methods without Overtime,' was a very unpretentious, robust, and useful Skill. As long as there were enough ordinary people, Shen Yue could even take an army to sweep and pioneer through the Border.

But did the Border need ordinary people for sweeping and pioneering?

No...

What Shen Yue's blessing could offer was a complete set of BUFFs: clarity of thought, injury protection, minor healing, a small amount of energy replenishment, and so on.

It covered everything, yet every aspect was weak.

These BUFFs were tremendously effective for ordinary people, but for Sublimators, the improvements were marginal at best—barely better than nothing.

His trainer then suggested that if one set wasn't enough, why not apply several? Only then did they discover a bloody fact: too much overtime could indeed be lethal.

Even Red Bull could kill a person.

After the blessing, the power was undeniably immense, but as soon as the duration ended, the recipient would practically explode on the spot.

After the first two landed in the ICU, no one else dared to try.

The only one among those at the Fourth Stage who could withstand his three thousand BUFFs was Ely · Jin Mu, whose physical strength was so formidable it was inhuman, almost like an incarnation of steel.

Jin Mu's limit was five minutes. Within those five minutes, he could blow away even an opponent just entering the Fourth Stage with a single strike—and if one wasn't enough, he'd just strike again.

Within those five minutes, he would even dare to take on Nine Phoenix directly.

His emergence, one could say, had saved Shen Yue from the bench. Since partnering up, Shen Yue had, for the first time, found his power to be so important.

But this was also the most painful thing on Shen Yue's mind. If I had been there, Jin Mu would never have died. There would have been no need to worry about the swarming monsters' attacks or any hidden traps. Even a creature like this could have been blasted apart with a single strike.

And the reason for all this was that when he had been swept into this place, he had stepped back instinctively, trying to pull away from the battlefield.

If only I had chosen to stick with my partner back then, the situation wouldn't have gotten this bad.

"Don't just stand there dazed, okay!"

A sudden slap landed on the back of his head. Huai Shi stared at him wide-eyed. "If it can work, it will! If it can't, it still has to! Old Shen, this one's on you! I'm not afraid; what are you scared of!"

Shen Yue stared back blankly, then gritted his teeth and stiffly raised his hand.

"Try to keep it as minimal as you can, got it? As little as possible..."

Huai Shi was getting nervous now, murmuring a prayer. "Please don't mess this up."

The tips of Shen Yue's fingers were already shining with light, starting with a blinding white that quickly dimmed as he struggled to contain it, having already cut the magnitude of the BUFF down to half of what Ely · Jin Mu could handle.

Then another half... and another half...

In the end, his entire finger had swollen to twice its normal thickness, brimming with so much contained power that it was on the brink of bursting.

The Giant Wolf seemed to sense the threat. Its wide mouth revealed a fierce grin as it howled and charged, stirring up a hurricane, as if a truck were indeed barreling towards them.

And in that instant, as Shen Yue stretched his hand toward Huai Shi, his finger exploded abruptly and cleanly. Not just the skin and flesh, but even the very tip of his finger bone shattered into powder.

Shen Yue didn't even have time to see the result. He awkwardly rolled on the ground, luckily avoiding the ferocious impact of the strike, but he was still clipped by the edge of the blast, sent flying into the air, and smashed against the wall, feeling as though he was about to break apart.

Within that undissipated cloud of smoke, he saw a pale flame suddenly rise, the mist and raging wind torn apart by that shadow.

The Yin Soul leaped up; under the suddenly amplified power, it reached a height of nearly four meters.

Amid painful roars, he pulled out his Axe and, while descending toward the Giant Wolf below, unleashed a slash!

Huai Shi felt like he was going to explode too.

In that instant, as Shen Yue pointed at him, a vast power burst forth from within. From the void of darkness within his Stigma, it instantly crushed the last can of Coke stored there into powder, erupting through the cracks.

The familiar sensation of expansion came once again.

Even under Shen Yue's full suppression, Huai Shi still felt like he was going to be torn apart by the overly immense power. Although Shen Yue had outdone himself this time, managing to reduce the number of BUFFs to around the equivalent of two hundred people, it was still more than Huai Shi could bear.

His internal organs let out a wail, on the verge of bursting.

It was literally a touch of death!

But just when he felt his innards were about to be destroyed, that flame, which had once caused him excruciating pain, blazed up again from within his body. The Source of fire, formed from the pain and anger of millions, enveloped him, fueling a frenzy, burning through the overwhelming energy, drawing out the excessively swelled portion and merging it into the Apocalypse Fog.

The Fire of Apocalypse burned fervently.

Like a furnace stuffed full of coal.

He teetered on the edge of collapse.

With a roar of agony, he leaped, dominated by the madness of his instincts, and delivered an axe blow to the dog-like head below, a head as large as the front of a car.

SMASH!

The Axe Blade and the scales collided and were actually repelled.

Using the reactive force from the Axe Blade, Huai Shi's body tumbled in mid-air, avoiding the Giant Wolf's raised head and gaping jaws. He landed staggeringly, breathing heavily.

He left deep footprints on the ground.

The pain's still going, and so is the power. I have to end this fight quickly, or at least burn off this overwhelming energy as fast as possible—before it crushes me.

Thanks to the few hundred BUFFs, his originally depleted physical strength and energy were now bursting at the seams, nearly exploding with vigor. It was enough for him to squander some of the overly restless Source Substance.

He reached out, his hand brushing over the Axe Blade as lightning flared.

But immediately after, as he pulled, the hilt of the axe suddenly grew longer amidst the sound of grating steel, transforming from a Hand Axe into a weapon that could be swung with both hands.

The surrounding Apocalypse Fog quickly converged, solidifying on the lightning-wreathed Axe Blade, turning into a pale venom.

"To be honest..." the Evil Ghost in the flames sighed helplessly, "I never thought that one day I would beat up so many small animals."

In that instant, amid the Giant Wolf's shrieks, Huai Shi charged frenetically.

The enraged Giant Wolf opened its mouth wide, snapping at him viciously. Huai Shi slipped, falling to his knees and looking up. He slid, almost scraping against its fangs, into the unguarded space between its four legs, right under its soft belly.

Then, the Axe of Anger chopped down, from the neck to an oddly tentacled navel. Blood spurted forth like a waterfall.

But then, the black blood quickly coagulated as if alive, forcibly stitching the ghastly wound. It then dried rapidly, forming a thick armor.

So advanced? Huai Shi was astonished. He rolled away awkwardly to dodge the tail, sharp as a blade's edge, staggering backward.

Following that, he heard a cacophony from within the Giant Wolf's belly.

"Idiot! Bite his head... Let me do it..."

"He's too small, too fast..."

"Pain! Pain! So painful!"

"Use the tail! Jab him to death with the tail!"

"How about the claws?"

"Hungry... so hungry..."

"Stop playing! Use your full strength!"

It was as though dozens of people were stuffed inside its stomach, babbling away, as the black blood entities angrily surged, fighting each other for control of the body. Layers of black blood punctured through the bare trunk, then turned into a chaotic assortment of organs.

Several hands emerged, along with a large mouth, several huge crimson eyes, and even more sharply pointed tails at its rear.

Isn't this modification a bit too much?

Huai Shi was dumbfounded. Before he could react, the now utterly malformed Giant Wolf charged at him. Not only its gigantic maw but also its ferocious claws and blade-like tails lashed out with a violent whoosh.

Huai Shi retreated, then retreated further. He swept his Axe Blade, violently slashing at one of the approaching palms. Two large fingers fell to the ground, decaying rapidly, but the remaining fingers stubbornly clung to Huai Shi's Axe Blade, making it impossible to break free.

"I caught him! I caught him!" an excited voice shouted.

Huai Shi sneered.

Idiot.