Inside The Black Mist

Before Tianyang could move the light, a heavy, dull thud came from above. He swiftly jumped backward, leaping out of the door and onto the corridor outside.

Only then did he shine the light.

Instantly, an indescribable figure appeared in the light. It was as bizarre, twisted, evil, and terrifying as the black entity encountered in the metropolis that interfered with electronic signals. This entity had a horn-like head.

Unlike the previous black entity, this creature had multiple arms and legs, and Tianyang could even see several human faces on its body.

The faces' mouths moved incessantly, producing a continuous, fragmented murmur, “Where is this? Please help me…”

“...I’m here; someone help me…”

“Help! Help!”

If there were a mirror, Tianyang would bet his face looked awful. Despite having participated in several missions and witnessed the so-called [Black Prince] in Valley Town, this creature still made him extremely uncomfortable.

Its body seemed like a patchwork of damaged human bodies. One section even had a silver-white uniform from the Yun clan’s guards!

At this moment, the entity opened its body, stretching out the stitched-together human forms with its massive, powerful muscles.

The monster then transformed into a form resembling an octopus, with a “tentacle” formed by entwined arms and thighs, striking out from the door like a thick boot, aiming at Tianyang!

The young man sidestepped and fired the assault rifle. As he avoided the attack, he activated the continuous fire mode, sending bursts of azure light into the monster's body.

The beams of starlight energy easily pierced through the monster, leaving beautiful blue specks at the edges of the wounds, resembling a starry sky.

Despite its bizarre appearance, this black entity that interfered with electronic signals was not particularly strong. It was weaker than even the purplish-skinned dark sentinels and certainly less formidable than the mad dogs.

It seemed their abilities were focused on signal interference, so their physical strength couldn’t match that of other black entities. As a result, this monster was forced to retreat under the assault rifle's fire.

Suddenly, the horned head of the creature turned toward Tianyang.

A strong sense of danger surged through him. He dashed toward a window on the left side of the corridor while directing the rifle to fire a beam at the creature’s strange head.

An inaudible high-frequency sound wave emanated from the horned head, creating ripples that filled every inch of the corridor.

Glass from doors and windows shattered, spraying like bullets. Large cracks extended across the walls of the corridor, quickly covering them!

The sound waves abruptly stopped as the starlight beam struck the horned head. It seemed the creature's will cage was located within that horned head.

After the beam pierced through it, the muscle bundles beneath the monster began to rot and decay, causing the tangled human bodies to fall apart.

Moments later, the office inside the door was filled with a thick, black sludge, with damaged human bodies floating on top.

Tianyang got up from the floor, his vision heavily blurred. He shook his head to focus.

He then felt something warm and sticky flowing from his nose and ears. After checking and shining the light on his hand, he found it covered in blood.

Sitting down against the wall, Tianyang felt slightly weak.

If he hadn’t dodged in time and crashed through the window into the room, he might have been turned into mush by those high-frequency sound waves.

Currently, bleeding from the nose and ears was a minor injury.

After resting for a while, Tianyang took out his communicator, hoping to contact the camp, but there was no response. It seemed the battle at the camp was intense, with no extra manpower available for communication.

The young man put away the communicator, braced himself against the window sill, and stood up. He glanced at the remains in the room, finding nothing worth recovering, and headed back the way he came.

He needed to return to the battle. Although the battlefield likely had no shortage of Sublimators at his level, he still needed to rejoin the fight.

Back in the small building's hall, as he was about to exit, a puff of dust fell before Tianyang’s eyes.

His pupils constricted slightly. Without wasting time looking up, he jumped backward like a projectile. Just as he moved, a large shadow swept across his previous position.

Several silver hairs floated in the air.

Tianyang crouched on the ground, his bangs now shorter by a section. If he had been even half a second slower, it wouldn’t have been just a few hairs missing, but perhaps his whole face.

His heart pounded heavily, like a drumbeat echoing through the hall. Indescribable fear gripped him tightly.

Though he saw nothing, Tianyang knew this unexpected visitor was no ordinary threat.

Suddenly, the ground shook, making Tianyang feel as though he were drunk. He quickly pressed his hand against the floor to steady himself.

The next moment, something fell from above the building, landing with a dull thud in the open space outside the door.

The glass door shattered instantly, and several cracks extended from outside into the hall, one even reaching Tianyang’s feet!

Looking outside through the swirling dust, Tianyang saw several points of yellow light.

Then came a whistling sound of heavy objects sweeping, followed by a gust of wind that blew away the dust and made Tianyang's silver hair flutter backward.

The swirling, mist-like purple-red glow allowed Tianyang to see without the light that this was a combination of a human and a mount.

The armor, forged from an unknown metal, was thick and disheartening. The metal spikes on the armor were all straight and disorderly.

Supporting this armor was a body with purplish-red skin. It had the same skin color as the dark sentinels but was significantly stronger.

The upper body was human-like, but from the waist down, it merged with the body of a beast, resembling a lion or tiger. The lower half, like a mount, had seven legs.

Indeed, the number of limbs was asymmetrical, but the human-like feet were hardly pleasing to the eye.

Especially the beastly head, with petals-like flaps around the nose and mouth area and a split tongue that looked like flower stamens, was particularly revolting.

Even though Tianyang had never seen such a thing before, he knew very clearly what he was dealing with.

A Shadow Knight!

The boy was unsure if there was now an additional Shadow Knight or if one had been lost attacking the camp.

In any case, when two crimson lights appeared beneath the knight’s thick helmet, Tianyang knew he had to flee!

Without any intention of fighting, he turned and ran, unleashing his star energy at its maximum speed.

Tianyang had no intention of confronting the Shadow Knight; it was beyond his capability, at least, at this moment.

As he moved, the Shadow Knight outside also acted. Its nearly three-meter-high body charged toward the small building like a war chariot. The structure couldn't withstand the knight's pressure, causing the hall's main entrance and the second-floor walls to collapse entirely.

The knight paid no heed to whether this would topple the building. Amidst the swirling dust and falling debris, it locked onto Tianyang. With its seven-legged mount, the knight forcefully crashed into the building, advancing deeply.

Boom!

As Tianyang ran through the corridor, a tremendous noise came from behind. The ground shook violently, and the right wall began to collapse in pieces.

Without turning back, Tianyang could imagine the scene of the knight smashing through the building.

This small building was doomed!

In the blink of an eye, Tianyang had dashed into the office where the horned head had been. He raised his gun and fired continuous shots with the assault rifle, blasting the wall ahead into a mess of holes.

Tianyang didn’t stop. He slammed into the wall, creating a breach.

Amidst the flying debris, he emerged onto a street. After rolling a few times to dissipate the impact, he sprang up just as a loud crash came from behind.

The Shadow Knight had emerged from the narrow alley, wielding a thick shield, and plowed through all obstacles. It also smashed the low buildings on either side of the alley.

Tianyang turned, raised his gun, and fired several beams, hoping to delay the knight.

However, the knight raised its shield, and purple mist swirled around it, covering the surface of the shield.

The starlight beams hit the shield like pebbles thrown into the sea, causing no noticeable effect!

The Shadow Knight’s other hand lifted a long-handled battle blade, broad and thick. Simply raising it caused a chilling sound.

When the blade was swung, a fierce gust of wind hit Tianyang. The assault rifle in his hand was suddenly shattered and splintered by the knight’s weapon.

Tianyang’s hand holding the gun was raised high, and the immense force transmitted through the rifle to his arm. Had it not been for his enhanced physical field, he would have doubted whether the pulling force alone could easily tear his arm apart!

Now, his arm wasn’t severed, but the muscles were severely strained, leaving his arm sore, numb, and weakly hanging.

Without hesitation, Tianyang turned and ran, sprinting down the straight street.

The world around him became a blur of somber light and shadow. Since awakening, Tianyang has been confident in his speed.

But now he was facing a Shadow Knight renowned for its mobility. Whether he could shake off the relentless figure behind him was uncertain.

The heavy footsteps of the Shadow Knight reverberated in Tianyang’s ears, showing no sign of diminishing, indicating it was pursuing him closely.

Tianyang’s assessment was correct; the Shadow Knight was relentlessly pursuing him. Though its speed was fast, it wasn’t much faster than Tianyang. It could keep up but couldn’t overtake him in the short term.

The crimson light beneath the knight's visor grew brighter. On the street shrouded in dark mist, it was as if a red streetlight had illuminated.

The thick and broad battle blade was raised, and the surrounding purple-red mist swirled and entwined with the blade, intensifying its killing intent.

At the peak of its killing intent, the Shadow Knight swung the blade horizontally.

A sharp scream suddenly echoed near Tianyang’s ear, like thousands of vengeful spirits wailing in agony…