Chapter 472: Death and Opportunity
It was unclear whether the train had malfunctioned due to the frequent attacks from the Xenomorphs or if the train itself had slowed down. Xu Huo, wearing his protective suit, found the current airflow still tolerable, though this was also partly due to the constant influx of Xenomorphs blocking the wind.
With "Mobile Metal" and "Damage Discount," combined with his use of the Crimson Sword for long-range attacks, within the first five minutes of the battle, he had only sustained minor injuries.
During this time, he noticed that the escort personnel not far ahead were also injured. However, compared to being bitten or having limbs torn off by the Xenomorphs, they seemed more afraid of the bluish-black curling at their wound sites—not every Blood Xenomorph left such poisonous wounds, only the larger ones with discolored nails.
If a wound showed bluish-black discoloration, the escort's first reaction was to cut away the flesh around the wound and then take medicine under the cover of their teammates.
Even amidst the onslaught of the Xenomorph tide, the escorts still prioritized treating this kind of wound, indicating that the bluish-black toxin was extremely potent.
After that, Xu Huo specifically watched for individuals with discolored nails among the Xenomorph swarm. Whenever he found such a Blood Xenomorph approaching, he would first use the String to pull it away. With their degenerated intelligence, the Xenomorphs wouldn't fixate on a single target; once pulled away by the String, they would quickly be swept into the next wave of attacks.
The Xenomorphs grew more numerous, almost burying the entire train. Xu Huo could no longer see the battle ahead, and the metal box he was on was also crawling with Xenomorphs. For a moment, all he could see were twisted, crowded Xenomorph heads and bodies. Simply using the sword was not enough to kill them all.
So he threw out his stockpile of alcohol along with the cloth spit out by the prop loom, then set it on fire.
The instant explosion of flames expanded the attack range, and these Xenomorphs seemed particularly afraid of fire. After two more charges, a third of the Xenomorphs retreated.
But the remaining number was still considerable. After the alcohol ran out, Xu Huo began consuming the cloth, but that didn't last long either. Just then, a frosty wind blew from ahead, freezing many Xenomorphs in place. He seized the opportunity to harvest them with his sword.
At this point, the Xenomorphs had noticeably decreased. Looking ahead, the area around the escorts guarding the coffin box had been cleared into an open space. Except for the two players whose hands were fused with the coffin box, everyone else was injured, and two of them had lost arms.
"Spatial props can't be used!" one of the armless players cursed angrily as he shot a Xenomorph charging forward. "It must be Lawrence Li's doing! His trait can restrict spatial props!"
But the player carrying the coffin box said, "He didn't do it. Someone here is holding a Super Item."
Time-space props are inherently incompatible with each other. Within a certain range, if a time-space prop of no low grade appears, other lower-grade time-space props will malfunction or have their effects greatly weakened. Part of the reason the escorts were in such a sorry state was because of this.
Faced with the Xenomorph tide that was hard to kill with pure physical strength and bare hands, large-scale attack props were very practical—like the player using ice. But he could only freeze them temporarily, not kill them outright. If spatial blockade could be used, the situation would be very different.
"Isn't that still him!" the armless player said without a second thought.
However, that player glanced both forward and backward.
After Weiwei blew up the carriage, only five players remained in that car. After the bloody battle just now, two more had died, leaving only three: Weiwei, her father, and another male player. Their situation was also dire. Weiwei's father had lost a palm, and the other man had lost his left arm, while his right arm and calf were gnawed down to the bone, a miserable sight.
Among the three, only Weiwei was in slightly better shape, but she didn't seem to have much strength left either.
As for Xu Huo in the rear, thanks to the metal box, he only had to deal with the Xenomorphs directly in front of him. He had many minor injuries and was covered in blood, but his combat effectiveness hadn't suffered much, and he had no bluish-black wounds.
Then there was Dr. Deng, who had been flown into the sky like a kite, completely unaffected by the Xenomorph tide. This meant that even in that situation, Xu Huo had been looking after the Kite String, as so many Xenomorphs charging in could have damaged the prop.
A moment later, the player carrying the coffin box reached out toward Xu Huo.
This player had previously crushed a Xenomorph on the roof of the carriage from a distance. "Seeing Is Believing" certainly couldn't offset such a powerful trait, so Xu Huo immediately kicked the metal box shut and sent it to one side. Unfortunately, it was too late. The next second, he felt his heart burst...
His consciousness paused for an extremely brief moment. When reason returned, Xu Huo saw that player about to turn his head and look at him!
"Three Seconds of Life" activated, and the time in this space rewound to three seconds before his death!
So, before that person could truly look at him, Xu Huo forcibly kicked the metal box to turn it. When the opening was facing diagonally toward the outside of the tracks, he flipped out from the box to the rear...
Sure enough, the player who hadn't seen him still made his move, crushing the metal box into a ball of scrap metal from a distance and shoving it off the train. This left only some leaping Xenomorphs between them.
"Director Yuan!" the armless player suddenly shouted at the man holding the coffin box.
Director Yuan, who had attacked Xu Huo, turned around and directly grabbed a female Blood Xenomorph charging at him!
He tried to use that same move again, but at that moment, a crystal made of many small diamond shapes suddenly appeared in the air. These crystals looked like rectangular fractures bursting out of the air, growing one after another, forming a wall over ten meters high between Director Yuan's group and the female Blood Xenomorph!
From the front, this crystal wall looked like multifaceted transparent crystal, but it reflected different colors of light. As the viewing angle changed, these tiny lights also seemed to flow.
Director Yuan failed to kill the female Blood Xenomorph. Looking at the crystal object before him, he said, "Lawrence Li's trait is indeed extraordinary. If someone hadn't used a time-space prop just now, I probably wouldn't have seen the air change."
The female Blood Xenomorph had long since fled, and the unseen Lawrence Li didn't speak. The only response was the continuously growing crystal sheets, which in an instant completely surrounded Director Yuan and the others.
The sudden appearance of the female Blood Xenomorph and Lawrence Li gave Xu Huo a chance to catch his breath. From the outside, he couldn't see what was happening inside the crystal formation, but he could tell that the density of the small diamond-shaped pieces making up these air crystals had increased, as if something was being extracted from within.
The next second, the air crystals receded and shrank, but when Director Yuan and the others reappeared, their bodies had been pierced by long, slanted crystal sheets.
(Chapter End)