The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 1061: I’ll Carry

Northern entrance of Green Lotus Lake.

War Tiger and Heavenly Dog rushed toward Nine Frost, who spread his arms wide to catch their hands. As he pulled them in, he activated Three Heads Six Arms.

Golden light exploded on the rooftop, illuminating the houses in the vicinity. Then two seconds later, a figure rushed out and soared into the night sky—the combination of Nine Frost, War Tiger, and Heavenly Dog, sharing one body but with three heads and six arms.

“Heavenly Dog, take the wheel! Nine Frost, support! I’ll carry!”

“Understood!”

“Right.”

“Target,” War Tiger said, “The bottom right leg. Aim at it!”

Heavenly Dog steered the body with Fly, diving quickly toward the monstrous spider’s bottom right leg. The face on the leg corresponded to anger.

When they were in range, Heavenly Dog twirled around so that War Tiger was facing the leg. He brought his greatsword heavily down on the face, bisecting it.

The spider's screech pierced the night. Through its dominating threads, a wave of fury crashed into every higher lifeform within range.

In an instant, everyone's energy drained toward Lord of Puppets to mend the spider's wound. One-tenth should have gone to Qilin as payment.

This time, however, half the energy surged into War Tiger's body—he had used Grumpy's targeted skill, Scale of Ire.

The more enraged the spider grew, the more energy flowed to War Tiger, approaching fifty percent!

Nine Frost and Heavenly Dog could sense it: they first felt an anger that came out of nowhere. Then some of their energy was stolen, immediately followed by a great amount of energy rushing back in from War Tiger.

“Hahaha! What a bargain!” War Tiger laughed maniacly. “Keep going!”

Though Heavenly Dog didn't fully grasp the situation, he didn't question it. He wheeled back toward the same leg.

Bam! Another powerful blow struck the half-healed face. This time, Nine Frost injected Weak Point into War Tiger's blade aura, triggering a sevenfold damage bonus.

The spider screeched as its leg nearly severed. Its massive body convulsed violently.

The cycle repeated: some energy out, tremendous energy in.

“Holy! Pull back a bit!” War Tiger hurried out. “Don’t cut off the leg just yet. I need to keep charging!”

“Okay!” Nine Frost deactivated Weak Point.

Like a fly, Heavenly Dog maneuvered them around the spider's injured leg. War Tiger held back from severing it completely, instead weaving a wild crisscross of gray-blue cuts with fluid precision.

The spider continued radiating anger with each strike, offering no resistance.

In just over ten seconds, every higher lifeform in the Shanqing District burned with increasing fury as their energy flowed to Lord of Puppets—and War Tiger.

“Grumpy! You acquired Grumpy!” Nine Frost finally realized.

War Tiger guffawed. Even he hadn’t anticipated the acquisition at the last moment, and the corresponding Talent to Killing Expert at that.

His complicated thoughts boiled down to a few words: Heaven helps me!

Each of the spider’s legs corresponded to one emotion; and through specific emotions, it had been absorbing the energy of all the puppet candidates within its area of dominance. The caveat was that it had to take on the emotions itself.

That left a loophole for Grumpy’s Scale of Ire to exploit.

Finally, War Tiger felt the energy gathering inside him reaching the limit—Heavenly Dog and Nine Frost were at their tipping point, too. If they went on, the body would burst.

“Now!” War Tiger commanded. “Break its fucking head!”

“Understood!”

“Right!”

Heavenly Dog soared a thousand meters into the night sky at impossible speed, climbing twice as high as the spider. Then he plunged straight down, accelerating with each second.

War Tiger raised the Dragonslaying Giantsword, straightening their shared body into a living projectile. Like a blue shooting star, they streaked toward the spider's head. Veins bulged across War Tiger's forehead as his eyes blazed.

“Lend me a hand, brothers!”

Nine Frost and Heavenly Dog had been waiting. They poured the energy of Weak Point and Spatial Dissection into War Tiger, who channeled it all into the blade.

With a hum, the aura radiating from the blade tripled in size in the blink of an eye, with hints of gray and amber energy in the mix.

Three seconds later, the bright, multi-colored shooting star carved across the night sky, aimed perfectly at the spider's head.

Sensing doom, the spider raised all eight legs, crossing them above its head like an inverted umbrella.

Bam! The shooting star struck. The greatsword, crackling with catastrophic energy, pierced through all eight legs instantly. Energy waves rippled outward, distorting space as they spread across the spider's massive form.

Two seconds later, the eight legs scattered into numerous slices. War Tiger's greatsword plunged onward through dense rows of crimson teeth.

The teeth exploded into red shards. The greatsword drove deep into the spider's maw.

Weak Point, second stack!

Seven times damage!

War Tiger became one with his blade, penetrating the monstrosity’s midsection.

Third stack!

Forty-nine times damage!

Time seemed to still for a second.

Then the spider’s head burst into two parts like a smashed watermelon, its body cleaved in two as if struck by a giant axe.

Slowly, the monstrosity’s body slowly sank toward the Time-Space Gap behind it like a crumbling island. The gap sealed within seconds. The giant vertical eye hanging in the night sky vanished, and with it, the God of Puppets.

Silence descended. Only the drizzling green blood remained as proof of the epic battle.

A streak of golden light traced a parabolic arc across the black canvas, ending at the park's northern entrance.

Bam! The impact left a massive crater in the asphalt. War Tiger, Nine Frost, and Heavenly Dog lay separated amid the rubble, bloodied and broken.

“Finally...over...” Nine Frost gasped for breath.

“Not, yet...” War Tiger tried to roll over, but couldn’t even muster the strength. “Gotta...help Little Yang Yang...”

“Give me twenty seconds...no, just ten seconds...” Nine Frost took out a fortunately intact syringe of energy medicine, injecting his thigh with one-third of the dose. Then he tossed the syringe to War Tiger.

War Tiger caught it, but his hands were shaking so much that he couldn’t even give himself the shot. He swallowed a wry laugh.

Fuck, I’m useless.