Chapter 57: Off-the-Charts Survivability
"Caw, caw~~."
A flock of crows flew through the night sky. Perhaps feeling tired, they landed on a broken telephone pole that was mostly snapped in half.
Just as the crows settled, a loud crash came from below. The telephone pole snapped, sending up a large cloud of dust, and the crows cawed in panic as they fled.
"Cough, cough~."
A figure in tattered clothes, face covered in blood, stood up from the ground.
"I told you, this kind of attack and pain have no effect on me."
Nicole licked the blood from her palm. Her body was covered in knife wounds, and her face had even been split in half.
If this were any other ghoul, such injuries would have been fatal, but Nicole didn't care at all. A look of manic pleasure filled her face.
If one looked closely at the wounds Nicole had sustained, they would see that only a small amount of blood was seeping out. Moreover, Nicole's entire body had lost its muscles, replaced by body tissues that seemed to have been modified by a kagune.
At some point, the kagune behind Nicole had disappeared, merging into her body.
"Strange body structure."
Su Xiao stepped out from the back door. Moonlight fell on him, revealing some bloodstains on his clothes—none of it his.
After activating Azure Steel Shadow, the Dragon-Slaying Flash in Su Xiao's hand was especially conspicuous. In the night, it looked like a long blade made of lightning, emitting a faint blue glow.
Azure Steel Shadow's effect on Nicole was not obvious. The true damage was effective, but the pain was completely useless.
The tranny in front of him was a super masochist who didn't care about pain at all. In fact, the more pain, the more excited this guy seemed?
The knife wounds on Nicole's body were all from true damage; normal slashes had no effect.
Su Xiao seriously suspected that Nicole's strength far exceeded SS-level, most likely an SS+ to SSS-level ghoul.
If it came to survivability, Nicole was even stronger than Takatsuki Sen.
As for attack power, with Nicole's wild, flailing punches, it would be a miracle if she could even hit Su Xiao.
The current situation was that Su Xiao couldn't do much to Nicole, and Nicole couldn't hurt Su Xiao either. Moreover, with Su Xiao's speed, Nicole couldn't escape either.
"So, little handsome, want to keep fighting? I don't mind."
Nicole let out a sick, twisted laugh, even seeming to crave Su Xiao cutting her.
Su Xiao pressed his lips together, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
He crouched his body and dashed toward Nicole. In less than five steps, he was right in front of her.
Nicole threw a wild punch at Su Xiao. Her recovery power was terrifying, but her strength and speed were mediocre.
Su Xiao stopped in his tracks, sidestepping to dodge the punch. With the miss, Nicole's guard was wide open. Su Xiao raised his knee and slammed it hard into Nicole's crotch.
"Crack." A chilling sound of something breaking came from behind.
Nicole let out a strange scream, her eyes bulging. The excruciating pain of a man being hit in the groin was not something a masochistic nature could overcome.
Nicole was now truly experiencing a crushed testicle. Though it could heal, the pain made her vision go black for a moment.
"Oww~!"
A howl like a wolf's cry echoed for half a kilometer around.
Nicole's body instinctively curled forward. Su Xiao sidestepped to Nicole's left and kicked her calf.
The calf twisted unnaturally to the side. Su Xiao reversed his grip on the Dragon-Slaying Flash, thrusting it through Nicole's spine, pinning her in place.
Seizing the opportunity, Su Xiao grabbed Nicole's chin with his left hand and placed his right hand on top of her head. He twisted in opposite directions.
"Crack."
Nicole's head spun 180 degrees, her chin pointing skyward.
Su Xiao gripped the hilt of the Dragon-Slaying Flash, pulled the blade free, and retreated, observing Nicole from a short distance.
Groin crushed, calf severely fractured, spine pierced, head twisted 180 degrees.
If Nicole didn't die from this, then Su Xiao had no other options.
As for cutting off Nicole's head, Su Xiao had tried it, but there was no sensation of hitting a solid object. The blade passed through like cutting through water.
Nicole's body began to convulse, her eyes rolling back.
"This is... so pleasurable it's explosive! Hahaha~."
Clearly, Nicole wasn't dead. Su Xiao glanced at Nicole's health bar and was speechless.
Her health was still at 86%, and all the damage she had taken was true damage; normal attacks were ineffective.
Su Xiao sheathed the Dragon-Slaying Flash, tucked it at his waist, and turned to walk back through the back door.
Fighting this tranny Nicole was a complete waste of time and stamina.
He could kill her, but it would take a long time. By the time he finished her off, the battle between the CCG and Aogiri Tree would already be over.
If the CCG lost, his 10,000 contribution points would be wasted, and it would take who knows how long to save up enough for that blue-quality potion.
There was still a fight ahead, and overexerting himself now would be unwise.
After Su Xiao left, Nicole's body gradually returned to normal.
"To be able to wound me to this extent... what a terrifying guy."
The smile on Nicole's face disappeared. After hesitating for a moment, she walked off into the distance. Having this kind of survivability came at a cost.
Gaining such tenacious survival ability required sacrificing many things.
This was the fusion of a kagune and body tissues. After the fusion, most of one's lifespan was lost, fertility was gone, and one would lose all reason while feeding.
During Nicole's feeding times, no one dared to approach her. This was the same as Aogiri Tree's Noro.
Anyone who came close would be attacked with insane ferocity—anyone, no matter how close a friend.
...
Just as Su Xiao entered the back door, a group of ghouls in red robes came running toward him. These were members of Aogiri Tree.
There were about twenty of them. It seemed they had successfully attracted the CCG's attention, and the ghouls were beginning to retreat.
Unfortunately for them, someone had already cut off their escape route.
"Who's this guy?"
Su Xiao stood in the darkness, the ghouls only able to vaguely make out a white coat.
"Anyway, he's human, and he doesn't have a koukaku. Kill him."
The Aogiri Tree ghouls charged at Su Xiao without a sound, not knowing they were running toward their deaths.
The fight with Nicole earlier had left Su Xiao feeling frustrated. No one liked enemies that were like sticky candy.
The Dragon-Slaying Flash left its sheath, the blade light turning into a silver thread.
"Thud, thud..."
The ghouls passed by Su Xiao. In just one exchange, five ghouls fell, blood spurting.
The ghouls' faces filled with fear as they watched Su Xiao with trepidation.
A sliver of moonlight streamed in through a window hole, illuminating Su Xiao's upper body. His face, stained with a few drops of blood, appeared in the ghouls' sight.
"This guy is..."
An A-rank ghoul's teeth chattered as if he were standing in the Arctic snowfield, his entire body ice-cold.
"Run, or we're dead for sure."
The ghouls lost their will to fight and began to flee for their lives.
But with Su Xiao's 13 points of Agility, escape was impossible.
Three minutes later, a blood-covered arm trembled as it reached out from the back door. Moonlight shone on the arm.
"Help..."
With a thud, a long blade pierced through the head, blood dripping from the tip.
Pulling the blade free and flicking off the blood, Su Xiao continued to guard the back door.
During the war between the CCG and Aogiri Tree, killing ghouls earned extra contribution points.
Each ghoul killed yielded about 20 CCG contribution points.
Su Xiao was like an iron wall, cutting off the ghouls' important escape route.
What made it worse was that Aogiri Tree's ghouls were retreating in small groups. If they fled in a swarm, it would alert the CCG.
Groups of ten to thirty ghouls came to the back door one after another, like the grandsons in the story of "Huluwa Saving Grandpa," each batch walking to their deaths.
Half an hour later, a large pile of corpses lay near the back door.