Chapter 4: Chapter4
Seeing her pan be so easily deflected by the fish creature, Zhou Lingxin had completely lost all hope. The pan was her trusty weapon and it had never failed her so far. Yet, in front of the fish creature's weapon, it was like a toy. And this was nothing to speak about the fish creature's strength. Compared to the creatures she had fought so far, this one had struck her with a fear so primal that she had no means of resisting it.
Whether it was in terms of weapons, strength or aura, Zhou Lingxin was not the creature's match. Even the bearded youth that Zhou Lingxin thought to be extremely powerful, who was capable of easily dealing with numerous smaller fish monsters at a time, was put to rest in seconds by this fish monster.
For the umptieth time on this day, Zhou Lingxin saw death charging straight at her, and she was powerless once again. So powerless that she was paralyzed in place. She had thought that she had become stronger by taking on a few fish monsters, but she only now realized how wrong she was.
She was just fodder in front of true strength. If not for the old man intervening and opportunely saving her, she would've long become victim to the fish monster's sturdy weapon.
Clunk!
The fish creature's weapon landed in front of her, but she had no eyes for it. All she saw was the old man dancing left and right with the fish monster. Even with her lacking experience in martial matters and fighting, she could see that the old man was in a losing position and was constantly being pushed backwards. Even if it seemed like both parties were being injured at a similar rate, the old man was already too injured since the start of the battle. His body couldn't take much more battering, so it wouldn't be long before he too fell.
Zhou Lingxin rambled her brain for ideas. Though the old man was strong, and though he did indeed have the power to protect the team, Zhou Lingxin was starting to feel less and less inclined to depend on others to guarantee her own survival. She didn't want to leave her life in other people's hands like she did with her family.
The situation right now was like a wake-up call to her.
The old man was currently having difficulty in protecting his own life, and there was no need to speak about the lives of everyone else. If he were to turn and flee for himself at this moment, the only thing that would be in store for Zhou Lingxin was death.
With this in mind, she grasped the fish monster's discarded stick with two hands. Compared to the pan, it was much heavier. Perhaps almost three times heavier
It was by no means something that Zhou Lingxin would be able to swing more than a few times. And even if she did swing it, it was just too heavy for her to use it as an effective weapon, since she wouldn't be able to accurately hit a moving enemy. She did not possess the base strength for such an action.
Nevertheless, she decided to give it a try. She hauled the weapon up and dragged it across the ground using all the muscles in her body. Like this, she made a slow but steady march towards the back of the fish monster. The old man, who was facing her, was quick to notice her movements.
With his crafty old mind, he was instantly able to figure out what she intended to do, and was even able to actively assist her in accomplishing her goals.
Seeing the old man divert the fish figure's attention onto him completely, Zhou Lingxin's eyes shone like a like brilliant light bulbs in the night.
Now was the time to attack!
Using all the power she could muster, she lifted the stick off the ground and started spinning around, trying to generate as much kinetic energy as possible through means of centripetal acceleration.
By this point, the old man had locked the fish monster up into a powerful headlock and had essentially paralyzed it, albeit only temporarily.
Zhou Lingxin approached the fish like a baseball bat would a ball. Just before the fish figure struggled free from the old man's clutches, down came the full force of Zhou Lingxin's attack, ruthlessly tearing into it's flesh and scattering bone.
This was only the first of five or ten more similar but weaker hits. By the time the fish figure's head was more bloody liquid than solid, three bodies simultaneously fell to the ground.
The fish was dead, and Zhou Lingxin and the old man were spent. It was a rough battle, but they somehow got out alive.
"Haha, good job!" the old man praised, laughing.
It was as if a massive load was lifted off their backs. Zhou Lingxin was suddenly overcome by a heavy wave of fatigue, and her knees buckled slightly. She found it hard to even take another step. Breathing, which was once as easy as flipping one's hands, was now as hard as swimming up a downstream river.
The same could also be said for the old man, but he was someone that was used to being injured on the martial path. What was more important for him now was the safety of the bearded youth.
The old man walked over to the bearded man's prone body and lightly smacked him in hopes of waking him up. It took a couple of minutes for it, but the bearded man eventually woke up and Zhou Lingxin also slowly regained her bearings.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all!" the bearded man cursed to himself. He hated himself for being so weak and lasting not more than a few seconds against the mutated fish creature. He had sworn to slay all of them, but he was half dead even after a single round. The result was simply too unacceptable.
Even if he had been a little too careless in his dealing with the fish monster, he had never imagined that he would miscalculate so bad and make such a huge blunder. If not for the old man, he would've died for sure.
As for the old man, he was tending to his wounds with a serious expression on his face. Rarely did he face such fierce opponents, even more so in fights to the death. If there were more of those superior fish monsters, the village was doomed for certain.
The woman's face was constantly changing colours, and in the last couple of minutes, it looked to be warped into something hideous because of the tremendous pain that she was facing. If she didn't get her wound looked to immediately, it would be fatal. Thus, the party of four made quick work towards the Mayor's Mansion. All four of them were beat and needed some immediate rest.
As they made their way back, the bearded youth took the lead, since he was the one who had the most combat strength left, and the woman and Zhou Lingxin followed behind. In the rear, the old man hobbled his way over. Even though he was old and injured, he was still able to maintain pace with the rest of the party, perhaps solely because of how tempered his body was.
Every now and then they would encounter a stray fish creature, which the bearded youth would send to hell in an instant. It was very easy for him to do such a thing, and he didn't have the slightest trouble leading the team forward.
Just when everyone was able to relax, a shirek which they didn't think they would hear again on the same ay rang through their ears, freezing them in place.
"Gluuuuuiiiiiiikk!!"
This shriek was none other than the one from the mutated fish creature that had almost claimed all their lives. In fact, they had only managed to barely escape from one such kind of beast last time and clutch a truly miraculous victory.
Hearing the sound, their hearts sank immediately. Even when they were close to peak performance, they were utterly destroyed by a group of two. Now they were extremely fatigued, and the woman, the old man and Zhou Lingxin were essentially useless
The creature wasted no time before charging straight at the group of four. The bearded man froze, two choices wavering in his head. His head swirled with a bunch of thoughts. Could he really beat this creature? Should he leave them behind and run to the safety? There was no way he could fulfill his wish of killing all the fish creatures if he died here now. He knew for sure that he wasn't a match for the evolved fish creature, so…
"Gliiiiikkkkkk"
The closer the shrieks were, the more convinced the bearded man was in his next train of thought. He immediately turned tail and ran, signaling for Zhou Lingxin and the old man to do so as well. The old man, who was kind but also wise, had already knew that this was the best possible outcome. He would be helpful where possible, but not at the cost of his life. If he could truly see no victory, he would flee. And flee he did at a moment's notice.
As for Zhou Lingxin, she stayed frozen. She was still young and naive, and didn't feel right leaving the woman behind even if it was the right decision that benefitted the greatest number of people. She simply stood there, alternating looks between rapidly approaching fish creature, the panicking woman, and the two fleeing men.
As the woman saw the others leave her behind and escape, and the fish creature begin to descend on her she was overcome with despair and fear.
"N-No!"
"Please help me!" she screamed to the backs of the old and bearded man to no avail.
She looked on in despair, desperately seeking a source of help. Her gaze landed on Zhou Lingxin who was still frozen. As she felt the fish creature bite off her left foot, she screamed out in pain and stretched her hand out in a desperate plea.
"Please, I'm begging you! Help me!" She managed to get out before crying out in pain as her leg was devoured.
Seeing the woman's frantic and extremely desperate expression, Zhou Lingxin really did have the thought of helping her, even though she knew that she was in no position to do so since she lacked the most basic thing. Power.
She didn't even have the power to protect herself, so what a joke it would be for her to claim that she could protect others. If not for the fact that the woman's current plight made Zhou Lingxin have flashbacks of what had happened earlier in the night, where she was also almost clobbered by various fish creatures on numerous occasions, she would've also turned tail and left.
Since she empathized with the woman, however, she found it hard to leave. How could someone just watch a fellow human die like that? How would she ever live through the guilt caused by such a thing if she ran now?
The answer was quick to come to her as she remembered the expressions the fish monsters had on their faces when they killed her mother. As they sucked the life out of a being that was once perfectly fine, their expressions showed no signs of discomfort. In fact, they were so pleased by the experience that she found it horrifying.
It was precisely this fear, this worry for her own life also being stolen from her like her mother's, that caused Zhou Lingxin's feet to slowly back away.
She was indeed not ready to give up her life just yet. Feelings of guilt and such were useless in matters of life and death.
Seeing Zhou Lingxin move in a direction that was by no means favourable to her, the woman started to wail even louder. In fact, she even turned slightly hostile.
"You! You can't! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS! You want me to die and serve as an obstacle to the monster while you get away? YOU WISH!"
The crazed woman who on the verge of death then flung herself onto Zhou Lingxin, doing everything she could to hold her back.
Zhou Lingxin, feeling the woman's arms on her, found it more and more difficult to flee. If she wanted to, she could easily brush aside the woman and run. But such an action was actually much more mentally taxing than it sounded. At least if she just silently ran away she wouldn't be directly involved in the woman's death. If she pushed her, however, that would be a different story.
What was most surprising though, was the fact that along with these feelings of guilt, Zhou Lingxin actually also felt a bit of anger.
You don't want to die so you choose to drag me with you?! And you think I'm to stupid to resist? You really think I'm not capable?
Smash!
The mutated fish creature's stick that Zhou Lingxin had been dragging around with her all this time, had finally been used again. This time, however, it was not used against the fish, but against a human, one that was an ally a few minutes ago nonetheless. Irregardless of this, the weapon which didn't have scruples against hitting friend or foe, did its job in a gruesome manner, denting the woman's skull and knocking her out cold.
Seeing the woman fall to the floor, there was only a trace of hesitation in Zhou Lingxin's eyes as she turned and fled in the direction of the old man and the bearded youth, leaving the heavy wooden stick behind. All the while, her heart was palpitating greatly, every time she thought about what she had just done. But more so than this, it was beating louder because of the mutated fish monsters footsteps that were getting louder and louder.
That was right! She cared more about her life than her recent action. And this was the very thing that allowed her to survive the encounter.
After moving a significant distance, she finally turned around to see that the fish creature was nowhere in sight. It had probably stopped chasing her after spotting the woman, taking a short break to dine on her body.
At this point, Zhou Lingxin and the other two had breathed out deep sighs of relief. On the short way back to the mansion, none of them chose to talk about the events that had just transpired. It was best to forget about such things after all, since talking about matter of this nature would only cause for heavy hearts and let the reality of this new, bloody world truly sink in, which no one really wanted. Everyone still wanted to believe that they were safe and had hope left to survive.
Eventually, the three had arrived at their destination, feeling as if they had just escaped from hell alive.
Entering the mansion that was the last place in the village that had any semblance of human activity, the trio breathed heavy sighs of relief. There were a little more people inside than earlier, meaning the hunt for survivors went well for the teams of people scouting in the other directions.
But, as Zhou Lingxin walked through the door, she suddenly heard an unpleasant male voice that she did not want to hear. It was the voice of the man who she truly hoped to have perished in the chaos.
"So you survived, huh? Come and greet your father."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Kitani_Suko
Kitani_Suko Author's Notes: D-D-DOUBLE UPDATE! *
Assistant's Notes: CHAPAJAJA! *massive orgasm
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone