However, Zhou Kai had overlooked a thick, withered tree.
It provided ample cover for something.
Boom!
A gust of wind tore through the air, ripping apart the curtain of rain as it surged straight at him!
An explosive roar detonated beside his ear.
A rusty meteor hammer studded with metal spikes and fastened to a chain scraped past Zhou Kai's shoulder. It left two savage bloody gashes across his face before violently smashing the door of Shelter No. 777 to pieces!
Zhou Kai's blood seemed to flow backward in an instant, his entire body turning ice-cold.
More than his own life, his heart ached for that door...
Lightning flashed, illuminating the towering figure standing in the center of the mud.
Apart from its hands and feet, its entire body was encased in heavy metal battle armor.
The light of the hearth inside the shelter leaked through the shattered doorway, falling upon its body, yet it did not move an inch.
Either it feared the firelight not at all, or this suit of armor possessed special protective properties.
Chain-Flail Armored Warrior.
Zhou Kai took a deep breath. He knew that he no longer had any path of retreat.
To protect the shelter from further damage, he had to fight—at the very least... he had to draw this thing away!
Screech!
Screech!
Before the armored warrior could retract its meteor hammer, Zhou Kai had already braced his greatsword against his shoulder. He charged forward in great strides, the steel blade slicing straight down along the taut iron chain toward the warrior!
Metal clashed against metal violently, bursting forth blinding sparks in the rain.
Veins bulged on Zhou Kai's face as he mustered every ounce of strength to ruthlessly hack at the armored warrior's head.
A greatsword was a heavy weapon; its armor-breaking effect was considerable... with his current strength, it should be enough!
Clang!
Thud!
The blade edge slid down along the helmet and finally landed on the armored warrior's shoulder.
A shallow dent appeared on the heavy shoulder guard, as if someone had pressed it with a thumb.
This strike had achieved nothing.
Breathe.
Zhou Kai maintained his slashing posture; his ragged breathing was clearly audible amidst the rain.
The boundless cold rain poured over him, chilling him to the bone—just like the reality before his eyes.
There were gaps even between monsters.
Being able to easily kill Rovers and parasitic corpses didn't mean he could wrestle with this tin can.
This thing was far tougher than he had imagined.
"What should I do?"
Cold sweat mingled with icy rain, sliding down Zhou Kai's cheeks.
Should he dump his last three general experience points all into the greatsword's armor-breaking?
He had seen this armored warrior's movement speed. His Level 3 Light Steps were completely inadequate.
At best, he could rely on his reflexes and short-distance bursts to keep up with it; once it created distance and chased him down, he would absolutely lose!
In his state of double clarity, Zhou Kai's thoughts were lightning-fast and utterly decisive.
With one strike proving useless, he immediately changed tactics the instant they were deadlocked.
The sword tip scraped upward along the armored warrior's shoulder guard, sending out a stream of sparks, and wedged itself beneath the helmet like a crowbar.
He put all his strength into it!
Screech!
A sound of tearing flesh rang out.
That helmet was actually torn off by Zhou Kai by raw force!
In the darkness, Zhou Kai could see nothing and could only rely on his other senses.
The instant the helmet came off, the sound of dragging chains echoed forth—the armored warrior moved.
"Fine, I'm all in!"
"Three points, greatsword, armor-breaking! Die!"
The talisman wrapped around his wrist flashed with blue light, and Zhou Kai's will was answered instantly.
And in that very instant, he saw the armored warrior's face.
Its eyes were pierced through by two long nails that went straight through to the back of its skull; these nails also seemed to serve to fasten the helmet in place.
With the helmet pried open, half its scalp was torn away along with it, revealing the pale brain within that squirmed like an aggregation of maggots.
Zhou Kai immediately understood that the head was probably not its fatal weak point.
But the sword momentum had already risen and could not be held back!
Zhou Kai could only continue to bring the sword down with all his might...
During this process, one edge of the greatsword gleamed with a faint light, as if some invisible force had been imparted to it.
However, at this very moment.
The armored warrior's unarmed hand rose, its five fingers spreading open, actually trying to grab the blade with its bare hand.
The next moment.
Squelch!
The heavy sword chopped into the palm, shattering the hand and arm bones upon impact.
The armored warrior's thick forearm was actually severed diagonally by Zhou Kai's sword!
Were it not for that suit of armor being so incredibly sturdy, Zhou Kai was confident that after severing the arm, the remaining momentum would still have injured its torso.
But being able to cut off an arm was already quite good.
At least it was better than being completely unable to pierce its defense!
"Continue!"
Zhou Kai pressed himself tightly against the armored warrior, making it unable to break free even as it thrashed wildly, leaving it to passively endure one attack after another.
But losing merely a section of forearm seemed to weaken the armored warrior's combat strength not in the slightest.
When it finally retracted its chain flail and began to swing it frantically, Zhou Kai could no longer find any opportunity to close in.
His expression stiffened; a terrible feeling took root in his heart.
The longer the battle dragged on, the more it favored his enemy.
He could sense other things in the surrounding darkness drawing closer.
"This is the only way!"
After several fruitless attempts, Zhou Kai's gaze turned cold as he chose the only plan available.
He let out a great roar, suddenly scooping up the severed arm from the ground, turned and ran, rapidly rushing back into Shelter No. 777. He forcefully threw the severed arm and the Moonlight Orchid Talisman into the living room together.
Zhou Kai performed an emergency stop, then turned and sprinted madly in the direction opposite the shelter.
Even with Morning Star's warning, knowing that he could not die so easily...
Today, he probably really would have to die once.
But even if he died, he had to secure sufficient gains.
Sword in hand, Zhou Kai raised his arm to grab the window ledge of the nearby building, exerted himself violently, and kicked off the wall several times to climb onto the second floor.
And the armored warrior that came charging madly from afar crashed directly into the first floor, following closely behind.
Zhou Kai no longer paid any attention to the armored warrior, directly lighting an oil lamp.
Under the lamp's radiance, he searched and hacked wildly within the house.
When he searched his way to the stairwell entrance.
Boom!
The chain flail flew from beneath his feet, shattering the floor.
Zhou Kai dodged sideways, completely unharmed.
But a parasitic corpse beside him that had just been about to pounce was smashed until only half its body remained.
Before the armored warrior could attack again, Zhou Kai pounced on the corpse to finish it off.
Several wet slicing sounds.
[You have killed 'Diablo Parasitic Corpse (Complete Form)', General Experience Points +7]
"Invest points in Falcon Strike Technique!"
The Falcon Strike Technique experience bar shot upward.
Zhou Kai's strength and speed instantly increased by a chunk; of course, to deal with the armored warrior, this was still far from enough.
Keep running!
The farther from the shelter, the better!
Zhou Kai held his longsword horizontally in front of him and violently crashed into the window.
Crash!
The entire window shattered in response.
Zhou Kai dove down from the second floor covered in shards of glass, rolling to dissipate the impact before charging toward another building.
By now, the silent town had been completely stirred into activity by him.
A few minutes passed in an instant.
After killing another "Rover."
Zhou Kai was trapped by four types of monsters at the town clock tower, separated by merely one street from Manor No. 1.
The nightmarish parkour was forced to a stop.
A fur-covered monster whose body was covered in hair and from whose sides protruded countless insect legs.
A tall black shadow holding a rusty street lamp, its build similar to that of a Rover.
The Chain-Flail Armored Warrior... and a swordsman dragging a longsword, roughly his own height.
They all advanced with stiff steps, pressing shoulder-to-shoulder as they surrounded him.
These were still only the ones Zhou Kai could identify within the light of the oil lamp...
Beyond the firelight, in the darkness, even more horrifying existences were stirring.