Loud rattling sounds echoed at a distance, and yells of the soldiers joined the fray of noises. Liu Xiaodan heard them from where he stood, but he was wondering what they were fighting with. Guangru would scout ahead, but Liu Xiaodan didn't let the child stray too far from him. The big nurse then began to move. Her big upper body covered in hair wobbled as she balanced her weight clumsily.
From a corner, she moved to take a peek. A group of soldiers was shooting at another creature. It looked like a giantess, but her body was curled like she was doing yoga. Her head and torso were under her legs as her body took a tight C-curl. Her main weapon was her sharp, clawed hands and long whipping tongue. It was a King just like what Liu Xiaodan suspected. It seemed that the paddocks were opened yet again.
Soon, a smoke spread through the group of soldiers as if concealing them. The teargas was especially painful to ghosts, but the big nurse only endured the sight. Because she was blocking the light, some soldiers didn't know that they unknowingly retreated into another corridor with its set of kings.
"Ah, shit!" Six gasped as he came face to face with the big nurse. However, the nurse moved out of the way for some reason. The three elite soldiers moved to the adjacent hallway and aimed at the big nurse while one of them carried another with a severed limb. Six then recognize the gaze coming from somewhere else and moved his eyes to the far side... only to see Liu Xiaodan's group standing there. "Holy shit, it's 4-28…"
"Why the f.u.c.k are we so unlucky?" Seven growled as he struggled to reload, but his shaking hands even made him drop the full clip. "Dammit!"
"It's coming closer!" Five aimed at the curled woman who was very furious. "Shit, which one are we firing at?!"
Liu Xiaodan turned in the direction of the furious King, and Guangru used a hand to lightly pat his face. "No, Baba, let them die."
However, Liu Xiaodan took another look at the man who was almost bleeding out from the severed limb. He didn't have good moments with those soldiers, but some of them weren't as bad as they could be. He then murmured, "If they shoot me, I'll let them die. Either way, we're killing the King for you, right?"
Guangru swept his gaze at the two other entities with them and at the one upfront. "I'll beat it down, then you eat it. It's a weak King. I'm letting you have it."
"Ah, my merciful child has blessed me." Liu Xiaodan only chuckled before he walked closer. He could see the hesitation in the soldiers' hearts, but Six actually held out a hand to stop him. "This thing is far more powerful than those things you fought before! You gotta run! Even freaks like you would die from this thing—!"
"Die!" The curled woman threw her tongue out and directly towards Six.
For a second, he froze. He knew that, when this tongue hit him, it would be a miracle if he could still keep a good piece of his torso. However, the big nurse in front of them whipped out a scalpel and struck down the tongue, pinning it on the ground. Shadows cast on Six as the nurse actually stretched out its body to counterattack without bumping into the soldiers. Six screamed for his life and stumbled out of the way.
The curled woman screamed just the same and pulled her tongue out of the blade. The tongue's tip was split into two, but the curled woman didn't let the injury get to her. She then walked swiftly towards them, lashing her tongue out to challenge the big nurse. If it was the same big nurse that attacked Li Feng, it would have run away. However, it was nothing but an empty vessel Liu Xiaodan could summon.
A shell of his previous enemies.
The tongue aimed for the big nurse's face as if it could destroy the head. However, the big nurse drew her hair curtain in the middle and used her vertical mouth to catch the tongue. Bang! The curled woman cried out as her tongue was cut off, but the big nurse was still knocked back by the attack of the curled woman. Yes, she was only knocked back with minimal damage. The shell might be a King, but what about its source of power?
Guangru's red eyes glinted as he smiled like a creepy child. Vines shot out of the curled woman's body, and the pressure was exploding part by part of her body. The curled woman decided to run away by then, but the big nurse rushed to it and held the curled woman's head in place. Shrieks replaced the curled woman's cries as she failed to escape from the big nurse.
The hallways of the Treatment Hall were wide and tall, but in the encounter of two giants, it was like an air vent that couldn't even house a single human being. They might not be stuck, but there was simply no room to move and turn around. The curled woman sacrificed mobility as she started kicking the big nurse, but the shell only reacted with a low howl. The vines and explosions devoured mostly half of the curled woman, and it was only a matter of time…
Chomp! The big nurse's vertical mouth chomped down at the curled woman's head. The engineered King couldn't even escape or do anything against the big nurse. Soon, the head came off, and the curled woman was slowly being pulled inside the belly of the big nurse.
"W-What…?" Six dropped his gun and then his body. They had been fighting that thing since they separated from the rest. However, in just a few minutes, the curled woman had been devoured by another King that they had never heard of before. He could only turn to look at Liu Xiaodan who carried Guangru on his way to them.
"Is it just you guys?" Liu Xiaodan started to speak, but he was met by the nozzle of Five's shaking gun. Surprisingly, Seven grabbed the gun and pressed it down. The father then looked at the ones standing. "You're missing two…"
"Only two?" Seven murmured. There were only five of them so shouldn't Liu Xiaodan say five or six? Then again, that was if Captain and the three others hadn't met him yet. Including them, yes, they were only missing two. The once skeptic gulped down a big lump down his throat. "Nine and Four were already eaten…"
Liu Xiaodan then lowered his eyes before pointing behind him slowly. "You have two routes. It's either you get me to where Dr. Fan is… or I'll let you pass, but you need to tell me where I can find Dr. Fan."
Seven moved his gaze to that hall behind Liu Xiaodan. If his hunch was correct, Captain and the rest could be why Liu Xiaodan spoke of the route behind him. It's just that… "You won't find Dr. Fan inside the Treatment Hall now. The emergency lights were on, and that means all personnel had been evacuated. The paddocks are all opened without permission. We're only here to fetch you, but we ran into the loose monsters…"
"Liar," Guangru called out, but his voice wasn't of a child. "You are sent here to kill Baba."