The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 250: Buying Time

Gao Yang stared at Black Tortoise as he slowly approached, not in a hurry to attack.

An unwanted realization dawned on Gao Yang, unbidden. It suddenly occurred to him why Black Tortoise would insist on killing them even though Azure Dragon was on his way here.

Black Tortoise needed puppets, especially ones with powerful Talents.

Judging from the current situation, Black Tortoise could at least control nine puppets at once. And even after his puppets were destroyed, he could use their Talents at the same time as their master. Whether it was temporary or without a time limit, though, Gao Yang didn’t know.

Black Tortoise’s current nine Talents differed in strength.

He wanted to kill Gao Yang, Ghost Horse, and all of the fifth operations team because many of their Talents were useful, and Black Tortoise could update his collection of Talents with theirs.

Gao Yang couldn’t even imagine how overpowering Black Tortoise would be if he managed to gain Teleportation, Invisibility, Fire, Replicate, Weak Point, Beastly, and Gecko.

Moreover, their bodies would join Black Tortoise’s army of puppets. Then it was possible that not even Azure Dragon and the first team would be able to defeat Black Tortoise.

“We can’t win.”

Even now, Ghost Horse was rational to the point of being cold-blooded.

Eyes never straying from Black Tortoise because he couldn’t afford to, he said, “Still, we can run when he’s now on his own.”

“You go.”

Gao Yang knew that he couldn’t win, but he couldn’t just leave his companions to be killed and turned into Black Tortoise’s puppets, only to meet them again in the future as enemies.

He made up his mind to buy time until Azure Dragon arrived with the first team.

Although he knew the chance of success was slim, he had to make the gamble.

Ghost Horse understood him immediately, and he decided to stay too. Two people would stand a better chance of surviving.

Ghost Horse said in a lowered voice, “He shouldn’t be able to make the same move just yet, but we can’t hurt him when he has Gale and Phantom. Let’s split up and avoid him...”

Ghost Horse’s expression darkened before he finished talking.

The shadow under Black Tortoise’s feet split into two black snakes, shooting toward the two of them.

Ghost Horse didn’t have that many uses of Teleportation left, so he had to be selective. He jumped to the side and climbed onto a pipe.

Meanwhile, Gao Yang dodged the other way and landed on a reactor, climbing up a wall with a second jump.

Black Tortoise’s lips twisted into a smirk.

They wanted to buy time? How naive.

Gao Yang quickened his steps, doing his best to outrun the pursuing shadow. He didn’t dare look back. Air blades were conjured around him continuously, circling him for an opening to cut him to pieces.

Gao Yang jumped between the pipes, the reactors, and the hoods of the shop floors. After circling the area twice, he was forced back to the clearing.

A second later, Ghost Horse also teleported back to Gao Yang’s side involuntarily.

Black Tortoise remained where he had been, but his right hand was raised slightly, while his left hand was holding a phone.

What is he doing? Gao Yang wondered. Calling for help? No, that can’t be it.

Black Tortoise turned on the flashlight of his phone.

Gao Yang’s heart sank.

Black Tortoise had driven Gao Yang and Ghost Horse back together on purpose so that he could get them in one fell swoop.

He was taking advantage of a hidden aspect of Phantom!

The flashlight shone on Black Tortoise’s right hand, and the shadow cast by his five fingers elongated into the literal 'Five Finger Mountain’, covering Gao Yang and Ghost Horse.

Although they had realized the danger at once, it was already too late for them to jump away.

Within the shadow cast by the Talent-user, Phantom was impossibly quick and reached impossibly far.

It had already caught Gao Yang and Ghost Horse, and the mountain range of shadow morphed into countless black tentacles, entangling the two of them.

Gao Yang and Ghose Horse struggled as hard as they could, but the shadow cruelly strangled them.

“Ahhh!”

Gao Yang and Ghost Horse cried out in pain.

Level 4 Puppeteer would grant at least 1000 points to Willpower, and added to that the other bonuses from the other Talents stored in Black Tortoise, his Phantom, manipulated with incredibly high Willpower, wasn’t something Gao Yang and Ghost Horse could just break free of.

Black Tortoise sauntered up to them with his right hand splayed, controlling Phantom to squeeze into their bodies inch by inch. Still, it took too long for the shadow tentacles to kill them.

To save time, Black Tortoise opened his left hand and conjured two air blades.

“I admit you’re more troublesome than I expected.” For the first time, the derisive smile on Black Tortoise’s face fell. “Still, I get my trouble’s worth.”

“I’ll take your bodies and Talents.”

He curled his two fingers, and the two invisible air blades flew toward Gao Yang’s and Ghost Horse’s throats.

Swish!

Clink, clink!

A Tang Dao made of Black Gold came out of nowhere and destroyed the two air blades with tremendous ferocity. The Tang Dao was thrown off by the counterforce as well, and it spinned through air, but it didn’t travel long before making a sharp U-turn, aiming at Black Tortoise’s head.

Eyes twitching, Black Tortoise quickly conjured a gale shield to stop the tip of the blade.

Bang, bang, bang!

Then three bullets shot at Black Tortoise’s forehead, between his brows. They ended up hitting the hastily-formed shield, leaving visible cracks.

Black Tortoise was caught by surprise. Regular bullets couldn’t have penetrated his shield!

And he was right. Those bullets had been fired with level 4 God of Firearms.

Black Tortoise wasn’t yet sure what threats were coming for him, but with Dark Li’s Mind’s Eye, he noticed the two formidable opponents.

It was a shame since he was this close to killing Gao Yang and Ghost Horse, but he had no choice but to retract his Phantom.

His decision turned out to be correct. The next second, the Tang Dao thrusting toward him suddenly flew back up while a young girl descended from above.

Dressed in a tight black leather outfit with her long hair flying in the air, she caught the Tang Dao and brought it down on Black Tortoise, her expression cold and her gaze sharp.

Qing Ling! Gao Yang delighted at the sight.

Under the moonlight, Qing Ling’s Tang Dao radiated a cool blue aura.

Clink!

The gale shield shattered in an instant, and the blade hit Black Tortoise in the shoulder, sinking an inch into his flesh as blood splattered.

But it didn’t go more than an inch deep.

The shadow surrounding Black Tortoise gradually took form, grabbing onto the sharp blade of the Tang Dao and pushing it out of Black Tortoise’s shadow. Then a small part of the shadow stitched the cut together temporarily like superglue.

Black Tortoise’s eyes glinted. What formidable aura. It almost tore through the double defenses of the gale shield and the shadow.

Still, Black Tortoise didn’t stick to only defense. He had already activated Frost discreetly.

Qing Ling started. Without her noticing, a layer of ice had climbed up her feet.

Bang, bang!

Two shots shattered the ice at a precise angle without hurting her.

Now freed, Qing Ling immediately swung her blade at Black Tortoise.

Black Tortoise was wary of her threatening blade aura, so even though he had Phantom to defend himself with, he opted to retreat and dodge her slashes rather than taking the hits head-on.

Qing Ling’s dao technique had reached an incredible height. Amid the flurry of attacks, Black Tortoise was starting to lose his ground. He was hit in many parts of his body. While they were merely surface wounds, they were nothing to sneeze at.

He quickly conjured an ice sword in his left hand and started parrying Qing Ling’s attacks.

Facing her Tang Dao, however, the ice sword was laughably brittle, and it broke into pieces after a few clashes.

Bang!

Bang, bang!

Not far away, Officer Huang continued to threaten Black Tortoise with gunshots, forcing him to put a part of his energy into maintaining the gale shield against the bullets.

Black Tortoise moved back as he fought. While he couldn’t find an opening to make an effective counterattack, Qing Ling couldn’t land a decisive hit on him, either.

They got into a stalemate.

While dual wielding guns and making shots, Officer Huang walked up to Gao Yang and Ghost Horse.

“It’s been a while, Dark Horse.”

Officer Huang greeted in a casual tone, but all the while, his sharp gaze was glued to Black Tortoise, and his hands never stopped making cover shots for Qing Ling.

“Why are you here?”

Gao Yang had just broken free of Phantom’s grasp, but the injury was serious.

He tapped into his energy again as he talked to Officer Huang.

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