From the end of the world

Chapter 85: Ma Zao Reappears 2
I have imagined countless times the scene of myself meeting Ma Zao again.

Maybe she finally figured it out, thinking that my strength is enough to fight the disaster she brought, and at the same time she feels that it is difficult for her to survive in modern society with her own conditions, so she comes to me hungry for help; maybe I will follow the clues I have at hand and find her wandering in the night outside; or even more dramatically, I will find her when she is in danger, and then save her from the water and fire like a god descending from the sky.

And just like now, while I was investigating a monster, I suddenly ran into her who was also investigating a monster. This was naturally within the possibilities I had imagined.

It's just imagination. When her figure actually came into my sight, I still felt like my heart was hit by a bullet unexpectedly, and my brain fell into a brief blank under the impact of surprise.

Ma appeared early!
The first thing she did after appearing was to chop off the monster's head, but the battle did not end there.

The moment the head fell, the monster's entire body structure suddenly disintegrated, turning into a pool of liquid substance like black ink, spilling onto the ground.

That was not the monster's real body, but a clone he created using the power of shadow.

The black ink substance turned into a shadow after it landed on the ground. As Touma's feet landed on the ground, a huge figure jumped out from the shadow, and it was the monster from before.

While Ma Zao was still using the landing action to absorb the impact and was temporarily unable to connect to the next action, the monster transformed his arms into mantis-like long swords and launched a high-speed staggered slash like a pair of scissors closing, aiming at Ma Zao's throat.

Although it may not seem that fast to describe it in words, these changes actually occurred within a split second. Even with my dynamic vision, I cannot say that I saw everything clearly. It is very likely that more battles took place in that extremely short period of time, and the only things I can see clearly and express are the above.

Compared to me, Zhu Shi must be able to understand the changes in front of him more correctly and react to them. Before I could get over the shock of "Ma had already appeared", Zhu Shi had already disappeared beside me like an arrow from a bow, as if he was going to draw his sword to help.

However, Ma Zao doesn't seem to need help from others.

The stiffness after landing did not seem to hinder her from avoiding the monster's staggered slashes. It was unknown whether her movements were too fast or she used space transfer. Her figure instantly disappeared from the front of the monster and returned to the air position where she launched the decapitation slash at the beginning, which was directly behind the monster. At the same time, she swung the kukri again and launched a fatal slash at the back of the monster's neck.

It's really unbelievable that Ma Zao, who was so weak in the past, could actually burst out with movements that were faster and more powerful than the monster.

The weirdo may or may not have realized that Ma had appeared behind him. At this crucial moment, he at least did not choose to stand there motionless, but quickly protected his vitals and rolled forward, dodging in time.

The timely mentioned here only refers to the fact that he saved his life from the blade in time, but the injury was unavoidable.

With a flash of the knife, Ma Zao cut off the monster's left wrist.

The latter couldn't help but let out a painful howl, and his body rolled forward several times.

She did not immediately chase him, but immediately took a defensive stance towards Zhu Shi who suddenly appeared, and shouted very vigilantly: "Who is it!?"

"I..." Zhu Shi seemed to want to explain something.

The wounded monster obviously didn't have the patience to listen to their conversation. Seeing that Ma Zao had temporarily stopped chasing, the monster stood up from the ground with an awkward but efficient movement, intending to run away.

The escape action when he first appeared was probably just a disguise, in order to strike back and strike back at Ma Zao. But now he really wanted to escape.

It’s a pity that he might have noticed Ma Zao and Zhu Shi in the open, but didn’t notice me hiding in the dark.

Although I really wanted to talk to Mazao first, I was not so generous as to ignore the monster's escape. My eyes were focused on the monster's body, and it was instantly ignited.

According to the normal procedure, I should have evaporated the monster's body below the head, and Zhu Shi should have cut off the connection between the monster and the source of its power, the Seed of Heart, before the monster died. Only in this way can we take the monster's head to Lu Youxun to extract information. But now it happened suddenly, and Zhu Shi and I didn't have time to form a coordination, so I could only destroy the enemy slowly so that Zhu Shi could keep up.

The monster that was set on fire howled in agony.

If nothing unexpected happens, he is the last weirdo in Xianshui City and the main culprit of a series of recent murders. I know very well that he who is now burned by the flames is actually a human being, but I can't feel any sympathy for his injured fellow man. He should be the one who sent the shadow clone to attack Chang'an. I don't care why he killed those local dignitaries, but I need to dig out the reason for his attack on Chang'an from his mind.

The weirdo seemed to want to escape under the flames, so I made a palm-closing gesture towards him. The blazing flames on his body suddenly blossomed and formed the shape of a huge palm. Just like I used the elemental arm to grab the enemy last night, this huge flaming palm that grew out of his body also locked his whole body in the palm and knocked him to the ground. Zhu Shi had already cooperated and rushed over.

Her eyes turned into a cold lake blue, and her expression was as cold as snow. It seemed that she had already seen through the connection between the monster and the source of power, and was ready to cut it off at any time.

Seeing this, I no longer held back. In order to prevent this weirdo from using some inexplicable supernatural power, or locking us in some inexplicable alien space like the last weirdo, I directly evaporated his body below the head.

And at this moment, I had an inexplicable feeling.

It seemed like something was about to slip out of my palm—or more precisely, from the huge palm I formed with fire. This feeling was so unexpected that I didn't have time to prepare for it. It was like when I raised my arms and stretched, my palm happened to touch a passing fly. Although I wanted to close my five fingers and catch it immediately, I was caught off guard after all.

In the end, this "fly" managed to get ahead, slipped through the gap between the five fingers, and escaped without a trace.

Zhu Shi seemed to have observed some invisible changes with her special ability "Buzhou Mountain", and immediately showed a look of surprise: "——What?"

From a visual point of view, it seemed that nothing could escape from my huge flaming palm. The body below the monster's head was directly evaporated by my flames, and the head rolled out from the palm of my hand.

But my hand felt something strange. This feeling was definitely not the feeling of burning a flesh and blood body, but more like destroying an ordinary shadow clone.

Sure enough, after the head stopped rolling, it immediately turned into an ink-like substance, spreading on the ground, and finally turned into a shadow, fading and disappearing.

"Is that a clone?" Ma Zao was stunned for a moment, then immediately looked at the severed hand not far away.

That was the left hand she had just cut off from the monster, still maintaining the shape of the mantis sword. If the monster just now was a shadow clone, then the left hand should also be a product of the shadow.

But the fact is, the left wrist is still alive and well. More than alive? Perhaps because it has been separated from the monster's body, the power contained in it has gone out of control, gradually causing the flesh and blood to swell, as if it will explode in the next second.

But it still failed to explode successfully. Ma Zao stepped forward in time and stepped hard on the left wrist. God knows why, the left wrist immediately became sluggish after being stepped on by her, and even degenerated directly from the form of a mantis long sword to an ordinary rough male palm.

Ma Zao picked up the bleeding severed hand from the ground, took a quick look at it, and then looked towards where I was vigilantly.

Zhu Shi had exited the state of "Buzhou Mountain". Her eyes returned to normal color, and her expression was no longer so cold. Seeing Ma Zao so alert, she seemed to be thinking about how to introduce herself so that the other party would let down his guard for the time being.

I walked out from the shadows and appeared in front of Ma Zao, carefully observing her current condition.

She is still wearing the black printed hoodie, short culottes, cotton leggings, and black short-top Martin boots that I gave her. Although it must have been worn for many days, I don't know if she has washed it, but this outfit still looks brand new.

She was also wearing a black cat whisker mask, but probably for the sake of breathing comfortably, she hung the mask around her neck.

The red GPS bracelet was still on her left wrist, and she held a large kukri in her right hand. Her movements were too fast just now, so I didn't see it clearly. Now that I looked carefully, I realized that the kukri was in a strange and uncertain form. Anyone who saw it would understand that it was definitely not an ordinary weapon.

When she saw that it was me who came out, she was so surprised that she even forgot to hold on to the bleeding severed hand and let it fall to the ground.

"Zhuang Cheng——?" She read out my name in astonishment.

Zhu Shi seemed to be about to introduce himself, but when he heard my name suddenly appear in the other person's mouth, he couldn't help but open his mouth wide: "Huh?"

Her eyes moved back and forth between me and Ma Zao. After a few seconds, she finally seemed to understand what Ma Zao's reaction just now meant, and asked hesitantly, "You... know each other?"

(End of this chapter)