Chapter 73

Bai Yi walked towards Bentham slowly step by step, because every step that he took now caused his body immense pain. However, with every step he took he gradually accumulated strength, and the blood in his body almost felt like it was burning, making him feel unbearably hot.

As Bai Yi walked, his blood gradually dripped onto the floor and created a ‘chi chi’ sound, forming a faint red mist.

Bentham saw’s Bai Yi movements and couldn’t help but focus his mind, truly treating Bai Yi as his most powerful enemy now.

Bai Yi abruptly rushed towards Bentham, his speed increasing by multiple times compared to before. Bai Yi himself understood that in this state, he would explode with power by exhausting all his reserves. He would gain greater speed and strength compared to normal times, but it could not last for long. Bentham, who was opposite to him, also banged his two remaining fist together, making his preparations for this life and death battle. Even if I’m trapped here, I will never lose to you! Bentham screamed in his heart.

A sword and a fist collided together violently, and Bai Yi’s broadsword drifted backwards as if it did not resist the punch at all. In this instant, Bai Yi already grabbed hold of Bentham’s arm and swung himself upwards, and started running towards his head along the arm. Bentham was taken aback for a moment, but immediately closed his wings together, intending to pound Bai Yi with him in the center again.

Fight! Continue to fight… I cannot fall here!

Bai Yi screamed crazily in his heart, and every bit of his concentration gathered onto his broadsword. In that instant, the knife skills that Bai Yi had practiced for such a long time seemingly evolved. Bai Yi felt a completely different feeling from the broadsword compared to when he was holding a kitchen knife in the past. A kitchen knife in the end was used to prepare food, that was determined to be its purpose ever since the time of its forging, but a sword was the blade that was truly used for battle.

The broadsword in Bai Yi’s hands started vibrating at a high frequency, and he fiercely swung the blade.

One strike! Cut through it!

Bai Yi roared with mad fury in his heart, and the broadsword hacked down viciously. A tearing sound instantly transmitted to their ears the moment Bai Yi’s broadsword touched Bentham’s tough pair of wings. At this moment, Bai Yi’s appearance became even more malevolent, his eyes seemingly wanting to devour his opponent. The sharp blade tore apart the initially incomparably tough wings, his bones, blood and feathers… All of these flashed across Bai Yi’s eyes and he passed through the gap he formed, bringing with him the resolution of no return and rushing towards Bentham.

What is this feeling… this feeling!

Bentham stared at Bai Yi’s maniacal eyes as if his mind was being sucked inside, his entire head filled with Bai Yi’s mad and malevolent appearance.

‘Puchi!’, Bai Yi’s blade brutally stabbed into the arm that Bentham used to block with. Two immense powers collided, and the sword stabbed more than halfway through into the arm. The immense strength similarly impacted Bai Yi’s abdomen, and his entire body flew into the air. Fresh blood sprayed out from Bai Yi’s mouth again, but he went along with the force and spun his body, the broadsword following his motions and hacking down again.

Fight!

Continue to fight!

I want to live on, bringing all my remaining friends with me and continuing to live on! No matter how powerful the enemy in front of me is, I will never step back! No matter how cruel or terrifying this world becomes, I will never fear! We will live on tenaciously in this world, even if it means putting my life on the line, I will never regret!

“AHHHHHHHH!!” Bai Yi roared crazily, his eyes glaring at Bentham with pure fury, and the broadsword descended heavily.

As Bentham looked at Bai Yi’s eyes, suddenly fear filled his entire being, and a moment of confusion and blurriness appeared in his consciousness. Bai Yi’s malevolent appearance was reflected in Bentham’s mind, and the colored patterns seemed in Bai Yi’s eyes seemed to suck in all of his attention, causing even his thoughts to slow down.

The broadsword landed heavily on Bentham’s head, and instantly hacked open a giant and deep gash. Bright red blood splattered outwards, and Bentham immediately held his head and screamed a high-pitched scream. If not for his skull being hard enough, that strike could’ve ended him there.

After Bai Yi hacked down with his blade, he too landed heavily on the floor, half-kneeling.

Bai Yi’s left hand covered both his eyes as blood spurted out from his mouth continuously, unable to be stemmed. At this moment, Bai Yi only felt that his eyes were in incredible pain, seemingly going through some transformation. Looking at his body full of soft fur, and Bentham’s loss of focus, Bai Yi raised his head in that instant and finally understood. The ability he obtained from fusing with butterfly genes was – Lifeform Mimicry: Bewitchment!

……

Mimicry: A phenomenon in which a lifeform mimics another lifeform or its surrounding environment to its benefit.

Warning Coloration: Many incredibly smelly or poisonous lifeforms are brightly-colored or have brightly-colored patterns.

Protective Coloration(Camouflage): The colour of the lifeform imitates the color of its surroundings, using that to confuse and avoid its enemies.

Bai Yi only fused with the genes of a butterfly. This wasn’t a powerful lifeform, but even such a small and weak lifeform had its way to survive. Bai Yi’s colored fur now magnified the power of this ‘warning’ and ‘confusion’ to the utmost, but this was still not enough to cause any strong influence on his enemies.

However, when Bai Yi filled all his fusion slots with butterfly genes, and in addition to the unique influence of the activated cells, this ability became slightly more powerful. Just this bit of improvement caused a qualitative change in his body… Bai Yi’s lifeform mimicry caused this kind of ‘warning’ and ‘confusion’ to spread to his eyes.

The eyes were the windows to the soul, and were also the extension of the soul. The colored patterns on Bai Yi’s body were reflected in his eyes, and when his opponent locked gazes with him, this created an effect similar to confusion and loss of focus.

This was the ability a weak and small butterfly used to avoid powerful enemies.

However… Bai Yi wasn’t a butterfly that could only avoid its enemies!

……

Bai Yi slowly closed his eyes, and suddenly raised his head and stared into Bentham’s eyes. When Bentham saw Bai Yi’s eyes, he suddenly felt like the bleeding pupils of his eyes seemed to give off a bewitching light. In an instant, in this kind of tense battle, Bentham actually got distracted… He became confused and lost focus!

Bai Yi fiercely rushed forward, which Bentham could not sense at all. Only after Bai Yi twisted his body and spun a few rounds, the broadsword striking his knee 4 times did Bentham finally wake up from the pain in his left leg. Bai Yi’s body slid a distance on the floor and stopped, while Bentham’s left leg abruptly broke and he suddenly kneeled on the floor.

Bentham turned his head painfully, and discovered Bai Yi panting heavily not far away with his eyes closed.

Damn it, I actually lost focus in a battle!

Bentham was beyond frustrated, and he still couldn’t understand what had happened in that moment just now. A life form’s warning and protection coloration did indeed have the ability to confuse people, but Bentham couldn’t have possibly thought of that so quickly. In reality, nobody knew what a person would turn into after assimilating with the activated cells.

“Are you regretting now?!” Bentham heard Bai Yi’s coarse voice coming from beside his ears.

Bentham instantly jumped in shock and suddenly realized that Bai Yi was right beside him, but when? Bentham instinctively swung his fist in the direction of the voice, but Bai Yi had already jumped up nimbly, and this time he jumped up really high. Bentham immediately followed Bai Yi’s motions and looked towards the sky, realizing that Bai Yi had just started to descend from the sky. The simulated sky on the ceiling shined with the light of a bright Sun.

In the shadow of the Sun was Bai Yi’s brightly colored and strange eyes.

Bentham mind went into a daze again, but instinctively felt that something was wrong and immediately shut his eyes, sending his right fist viciously swinging into the sky. The bastard, I’m at the LV2 Metamorphose Stage, I’m one of the very few that managed to undergo metamorphosis successfully out of more than a thousand experimental subjects!!! Bentham screamed crazily in his heart, encouraging himself and swung his right fist with immense force towards the position where he’d seen where Bai Yi was at in that instant.

However, that fist of his only hit empty air, and Bai Yi’s left hand grabbed hold of his wrist. With a nimble flip of his body, Bai Yi landed on the back of Bentham’s neck. Bai Yi’s eyes were abnormally icy now, carrying the coldness of death. Bai Yi did not feel any happiness from awakening an ability suitable for battle, because this was an ability that only awakened through the death of his friends.

The tip of the broken broadsword stabbed into Bentham’s huge ear instantly, but it stopped just before reaching his brain. Fresh blood flowed down slowly from Bentham’s ear, continuing down his neck.

Bentham was completely immobile now. At this moment he could only feel the fear of death.

“Any last words?” Bai Yi said composedly.

“How…?” Bentham questioned in puzzlement, but Bai Yi apparently did not have any intention of explaining things to him.

“Help me kill Yu Han!” Bentham relaxed his body and spoke his final wish after realizing that Bai Yi did not wish to answer his question. He admitted defeat, as Bentham could feel the sharpness of that broadsword. Even if he tried to counterattack with his dying breath, it would just be a sad last-ditch struggle. He really never expected that he would escape from the Northern Hamilton Research Facility only to meet his end in another research facility.

“My pleasure!” Bai Yi said plainly, and pushed the broadsword in. ‘Puchi!’, the broadsword stabbed deeply into Bentham’s earhole.

Bentham’s body shivered in that instant, and started bleeding from all the orifices on his face, his head dipping heavily. Bai Yi twisted the broadsword a full round and pulled it out from Bentham’s brain. Bright red and milky white fluids slowly dripped from the giant earhole onto the floor.

Bai Yi breathed out deeply and stood up again, looking towards his teammates who were risking their lives and doing all they could to fight right now.

Fight, fight until the end! We must survive in this cruel world!