Chapter 46: Center × More Central

The underground passage Su Xiao was in wasn't very wide, only about three meters across, allowing at most four ghouls to rush him at once, which greatly reduced the pressure on him.

Four ghouls lunged at Su Xiao with claws bared, but strangely, they didn't use their kagune.

There was no time for Su Xiao to think about it now; even without kagune, these ghouls were still troublesome.

Su Xiao gripped the Dragon-Slaying Flash tightly with both hands and slashed out several white lines.

"Puchi, puchi."

Several arms were severed, and the ghouls in front of Su Xiao let out screams one after another.

Gripping the blade, he swung horizontally!

With one slash, all the ghouls before him had their throats cut, blood gushing out. The timing of this strike was extremely precise.

The four ghouls in front fell, but those behind immediately filled the gap, giving him no time to catch his breath.

Su Xiao's concentration was razor-sharp as his long blade immediately swung toward the newly arrived ghoul.

Flesh splattered, limbs flew, and in less than two minutes, a pile of corpses had formed before Su Xiao.

Noticing this, Su Xiao quickly leaped onto the corpse pile.

Although the pile was somewhat soft, making his footing unstable, if he didn't stand on it, the ghouls would attack from above.

Standing on the corpse pile gave him the high ground, putting him at an advantage.

The sounds of battle and the roars of ghouls merged into one continuous noise within the passage.

Five minutes had passed since the fighting began, and Su Xiao hadn't seen a single ghoul use their kagune.

It was as if these ghouls couldn't use kagune, or perhaps they simply didn't have any.

In contrast, these ghouls were all very strong, with high physical defense. The durability of the Dragon-Slashing Flash had dropped by 3 points in a very short time.

Now the Dragon-Slashing Flash's durability was 28/40. If this battle continued for more than two hours, its durability might be completely depleted.

With no other choice, Su Xiao activated Azure Steel Shadow. He now had 253 mana points, and Azure Steel Shadow could last for two hours.

Pale blue arcs of electricity spread across the surface of the Dragon-Slashing Flash, significantly reducing the resistance when cutting into the enemies' flesh.

Just as Su Xiao cleaved a ghoul in half at the waist, a ghoul in the distance leaped into the air and pounced on him like a tiger.

Su Xiao kicked away the ghoul in front of him and swung his long blade upward from below.

The ghoul that had pounced mid-air had nearly half its head sliced off, and Su Xiao paid it no further attention.

Just as he was about to kill another ghoul in front of him, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his calf.

Looking down, it was the ghoul with half its head cut off, biting down on his calf.

Earlier, Su Xiao had felt that these ghouls were strong and tough.

Now he had to add another trait: tenacious vitality.

Su Xiao jerked his leg up, and the ghoul biting his calf had several rotten teeth torn out.

He mercilessly stomped on the ghoul's head, and a splash of white fluid sprayed out as the already cracked skull was crushed.

In that split second, another ghoul had already charged right in front of him.

Su Xiao's expression changed; the distance was too close.

This didn't stump him; he had to adapt during battle. He spun the Dragon-Slashing Flash in his hand, turning the hilt forward.

He slammed the hilt hard into the ghoul's face, making it screech and stumble back a few steps.

With a proper slash of the Dragon-Slashing Flash, the ghoul was killed.

"Bang."

A gunshot rang out from behind him, and a ghoul that was about to close in on Su Xiao was shot in the head.

Su Xiao glanced sideways to see Una holding a long firearm—her koukine, "M. Crimson Moon."

Seeing that Una had ranged capabilities, Su Xiao felt a bit more at ease.

With him and Kuki Kiyotaka providing cover, Una could unleash strong combat power.

Kuki Kiyotaka was in a similar situation to Su Xiao, both standing on corpse piles.

Now Una was positioned between the two corpse piles, with Su Xiao on one side and Kuki Kiyotaka on the other.

The mechanical slaughter began. Fighting multiple ghouls at once, Su Xiao inevitably got injured. Some primitive ghouls even carried black stone spears, hiding among the crowd.

Ghouls wielding black stone spears were extremely dangerous, though fortunately not many.

A bloody hole in Su Xiao's thigh had been caused by one of those black stone spears.

"Chirp~ chirp~."

Two short, strange calls came from the ghoul leader, who had been hiding in the distance.

After the short calls, all the ghouls went berserk, hysterically lunging at Su Xiao. This was likely the signal for a full assault.

The pressure suddenly intensified, and Su Xiao barely managed to hold his ground.

With red light flickering in his eyes, Su Xiao let out a roar and slashed three times with all his might.

"Puchi, puchi, puchi."

After three slashes, the ghouls before Su Xiao were cleared out in a small area.

The chaotic battle had lasted nearly twenty minutes. Fighting at full strength rapidly drained his stamina, and Su Xiao was soon about to reach his limit.

Even though his attributes had increased significantly, he could only sustain this all-out battle for about half an hour at most.

Su Xiao glanced at Kuki Kiyotaka. The latter's cool demeanor was gone; one lens of his glasses was shattered, and his whole body looked as if it had been soaked in a pool of blood.

"Chirp~~, chirp~."

A long and a short strange call came, and the ghouls fighting Su Xiao suddenly stopped, gradually retreating.

Su Xiao breathed heavily, somewhat puzzled as he looked at the ghouls.

Looking around, his feet were covered in corpses, the pile at least two meters high and stretching far down the passage.

Su Xiao and Kuki Kiyotaka were now about five or six meters apart. They only needed to ensure the ghouls didn't break through; they didn't need to stay too close.

The leader-like ghoul stared at Su Xiao and Kuki Kiyotaka with eyes full of hatred, its face painted with a fish pattern twitching occasionally.

Probably because Su Xiao and the others had killed too many primitive ghouls, the leader-like ghoul chose to retreat.

A large group of ghouls withdrew to both sides of the passage, and Su Xiao didn't pursue them.

These mysterious creatures were no pushovers. If the battle had continued for another ten minutes, he would have been overwhelmed by the tide.

When the ghouls had completely disappeared from sight, Su Xiao leaned against the wall, his body feeling waves of weakness.

Kuki Kiyotaka wasn't much better off, using "Narukami" to support himself on the ground.

"What do we do now?"

Una was still full of energy, having only provided support from the center of the two.

"Get out of here now."

Su Xiao and Kuki Kiyotaka spoke at the same time, startling Una.

"The smell of blood here is too strong; it might attract other ghouls."

Su Xiao lit a cigarette and barely managed to stand straight.

"Back to the temporary branch. This exploration ends here."

It seemed that encountering primitive ghouls had caught Kuki Kiyotaka off guard, and he wanted to end this exploration early.

Una shrugged, indicating no objection.

The three of them headed back the way they came. After about ten minutes of travel, they stopped temporarily.

Both Su Xiao and Kuki Kiyotaka needed rest, while Una stood guard with her koukine.

Su Xiao sat leaning against the fleshy wall. In this battle, he had earned a total of 2670 CCG contribution points, not counting the ghouls' kakuhou.

He no longer thought about those kakuhou; if more ghouls appeared, he would die here.

...

At the previous battle site, after Su Xiao and Kuki Kiyotaka left, a few ghouls slowly approached.

"Who's that newcomer? He's incredibly strong, almost on par with the White Reaper."

"Not sure, but we need to be careful from now on. When we get back, tell the kids not to leave 'Central City' recently."

These ghouls were different from the primitive ones. They wore normal clothes, though somewhat worn, and they could speak human language.

One ghoul looked grimly at the large pile of corpses and said, "These beasts that haven't fully evolved... there's a breach somewhere again, otherwise these things wouldn't have gotten out."

"What do we do? The 'Leader' isn't in Central City right now; she's on the surface fighting the CCG."

The few ghouls fell silent. Eventually, they chose to leave, heading deeper into District 24.

PS: (Please vote for recommendation tickets.)