The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 47: My Brother, My Friend

“I’m still a virgin!” Gao Yang declared amid the corpses while being entirely covered in blood, equal parts desperate and impassioned.

With her hands still gripping her weapon, Qing Ling frowned slightly, wondering if Gao Yang had lost his mind to fear like Fat Jun.

“Hahaha...” Officer Huang burst out laughing. For a moment, he forgot the danger they were in.

“What?!” And under the pile of monsters came Wang Zikai’s voice. “What...did you say...?”

Gao Yang’s heart thumped in joy. Wang Zikai’s alive!

He repeated in a loud voice, “I’m! Still! A virgin!”

“Gahhhhh...” The pile of monsters scattered like an explosion had happened.

Coated in blood, Wang Zikai raised to a staggering two meters now that he had fully transformed. With each hand grabbing a monster’s head, he dragged them like ragdolls before crushing their heads with an audible pop. Then he threw them away with a powerful swing of his arms, knocking the other monsters in the proximity down.

He strode up to the house while the surviving seven or eight monsters charged him, but none of the expendable ones were his rival, and he made quick work of all of them—he even tore one of the monsters in half with bare hands. Amid the crimson mist, he looked like a devil being reborn in blood.

Chest heaving, he stepped over the bloody corpses and entered the house, stopping only when he got to Gao Yang. He lowered his head to look at his friend, who was now a lot shorter than he was. “You...really are still a virgin?”

“Yes.” Gao Yang didn’t know if he wanted to cry or laugh.

“I knew it!” Wang Zikai flailed his arms around in excitement. ‘I knew you couldn’t have done it before me! We really are brothers...“

Bam! A monster broke the roof and landed in the house.

“Watch out...” Qing Ling couldn’t have reacted a second sooner by swinging her blade, yet her opponent was quicker. With a whip of its tail, it hit Qing Ling and flung her out of the house.

“Qing Ling!”

Gao Yang yelled and got a good look at the monster—it was a wrath monster, a slaughterer!

It was in a different league than the one they had encountered before, Auntie Ho. This monster was young, and its transformation complete. The only part that retained the features of a human was its head, while its body had transformed entirely into that of a giant lizard. It crawled on all fours, covered from neck to tail in hard, dark red scales.

If it stood on two legs, it would be taller and bigger than Wang Zikai.

After throwing Qing Ling away, it didn’t hesitate for even a moment before bending its thick, strong hind legs instantly to the limit to make a powerful jump, lunging at Gao Yang.

Instinctively, Wang Zikai pushed Gao Yang aside, saving him from the deadly attack. Then the slaughterer collided with Wang Zikai’s waist and crossed the claws of its forearms to stab Wang Zikai in the abdomen, easily penetrating his thick sturdy bronze skin.

“Ahhhh! You son of a bitch...” Wang Zikai endured the attack without any defense other than his body, and veins popped out as he braced himself.

The slaughterer didn’t stop. It continued to push the ground with its hind legs, making Wang Zikai stagger back until he slammed into the wall, which cracked and almost toppled.

Then the slaughterer tried to pull out the claws to end this battle, but Wang Zikai was no easy prey. He quickly reached under the monster’s armpits and grappled it, preventing it from escaping.

With the claws piercing through his abdomen, Wang Zikai looked pained with blood streaking from the corner of his mouth, but he was still smiling. “Cheater. Breaking codes of honor by sneaking up on us. You...get what you deserve!!”

“Ahhh!!” Wang Zikai pushed all his strength into his hands, and with a crack, he broke the slaughterer’s arms. Then he yanked them to the sides and tore the monster’s arms off its shoulders entirely.

“Grrr—” The slaughterer screamed and staggered back with blood geysering out of the stumps of its shoulders.

“Die!” Gao Yang rushed toward it and buried his dagger into the slaughterer’s abdomen, knocking it to the ground. The boy and the monster wrestled each other in a tangled mess of limbs and body parts.

Although the slaughterer had lost its arms, it ended up seizing Gao Yang’s hands with its tail and opened its toothy maw to bite at Gao Yang’s neck.

Split! Then a rusty machete chopped its head open.

It wasn’t Officer Huang, but Fat Jun.

He gripped the machete with both hands, his face covered in blood and tears and quivering with overwhelming emotions. He raised the machete again and brought it down, yelling, “Die!”

“Die!” Then the third swing.

“Die!” The fourth.

“Die, die, die, die, die...”

Gao Yang lost count of how many swings Fat Jun had made, and the slaughtere’s head became minced meat. The tail grabbing onto Gao Yang then loosened before going still.

Fat Jun was going to make another swing when Officer Huang staggered toward him with a hand pressing into the wound on his thigh. He used his other hand to grab Fat Jun’s. “It’s alright. It’s over.”

The machete fell from Fat Jun’s grip. He turned around and threw his arms around Officer Huang, bawling. “I live... I didn’t die... I didn’t die...”

“Yeah.” Officer Huang patted him on the back gently, like he was comforting a child who had just tripped and hurt himself. “Yeah, you survived.”

Meanwhile, Gao Yang used up the strength he had left to push the slaughterer’s heavy body off, and he stumbled his way to Wang Zikai.

Like two giant nails, the slaughterer’s broken arms pinned Wang Zikai to the mud brick wall. Gao Yang saw his transformed body slowly revert back to that of a human. Wang Zikai was vomiting foam of blood with his eyes bloodshot. He looked so very frail and weak at this moment as he covered his abdomen with his hands. There was only a mess of crimson blood and torn flesh.

“This doesn’t feel right, brother...” Wang Zikai’s voice grew weak. “Why do I feel like...that I’m dying?”

“No! You won’t die!” Gao Yang was at a loss. He wanted to pull the arms out, but at the same time he was worried that it would only exacerbate the blood loss and make Wang Zikai’s death come sooner.

“Shit, I fucked up...” Wang Zikai grinned, lopsided and boyish. “How lame. I was the chosen one...yet I fucked up so bad...”

“Stop it! You won’t die. You won’t...” Gao Yang’s hands were trembling. He shouted at Fat Jun, “Stop crying! Save him!”

Coming back to his senses, Fat Jun wiped his face roughly with his arm before running up to Wang Zikai and kneeling down, carefully checking his injury.

“Brother Yang! The two arms...have to be pulled out!”

“He’s already losing too much blood!” Gao Yang said.

“I know, but I can’t help mend his wound if we don’t pull out the arms! It’s our only bet!” Fat Jun clenched his teeth. “Make the call, Brother Yang!”

Wang Zikai’s head dropped to the side, his face pale as a sheet. He had lost consciousness.

“Pull them out!” Gao Yang said through clenched teeth.

Officer Huang came up to help. “Keep Wang Zikai steady, Gao Yang. Fat Jun and I will pull the arms out.”

The three of them got into positions and chanted, “Three, two, one...”

Splash! The moment the two arms were pulled out, blood splattered all over their bodies and faces.

“Cover the wounds! Cover them!” yelled Gao Yang.

Fat Jun immediately reached out to cover the two bleeding holes in Wang Zikai’s waist with both hands. “Healing!”

Green light radiated from Fat Jun’s thick hands, fluctuating in intensity. Still, blood continued to leak out from Fat Jun’s short, thick fingers.

“What’s going on?” Gao Yang’s heart burned with worry. “Focus!”

“I am... I am focused!” Fat Jun lost his calm as well. He squeezed his eyes shut and shouted, “Heal! Heal!”

Wang Zikai’s face turned from pale to an ashen gray. The blood gushing out of his abdomen had decreased noticeably, but not because the wounds were mending, but because he was running out of blood.

The heaving of Wang Zikai’s chest became almost unnoticeable, or had it stopped? Gao Yang didn’t dare check his breathing.

“I’m sorry...” Fat Jun’s face squeezed up like a fermenting dough. He burst into tears again. “I tried. I tried my best...”

“Keep going!” yelled Gao Yang. “Don’t stop! He’s not gone yet!”

Officer Huang put a hand on his shoulder gently. “Gao Yang, don’t...”

Gao Yang shook off the hand. He knew what Officer Huang was going to say, and he didn’t want to hear it.

Still, Officer Huang spoke up in a tired, solemn voice.

“He’s gone.”