Chapter Eighty-Six: A Battle to the Death with the Monster

"Roar—"

The stone shell covering the giant statue crumbled away piece by piece, revealing the black scales beneath it, and the hideous face hidden under the stone finally emerged.

It was a monstrous beast over ten meters tall, its body all knotted muscle, its entire frame wrapped in black scales. Horns rose from its head, and blood-red light burned in its eyes.

"My God! What is that thing?" Qian Youyou's legs went weak with fear.

It had plainly been a dead object just moments ago. How had it come to life so suddenly?

Master Guo let out a furious shout, pulling Qian Youyou behind him and ordering the remaining mercenaries to attack at once.

"Move! Open fire. If we don't kill it, none of us gets out!" Master Guo yelled toward Max, his voice echoing against the already sealed gate of the underground tomb.

"Don't worry, Master Guo! I refuse to believe we can't bring it down!"

Even faced with such a horrifying creature, Max, who had long lived by the blade, showed no fear.

"Damn it, big guy! Today I'm sending you straight to heaven!"

With a wild roar, Max hauled out several thick, loglike tubes from behind him, slung one over his shoulder, and the crosshairs on the sight quickly locked onto the giant monster as it shook itself awake.

A moment later, a shoulder-fired missile screamed through the air!

The giant monster had only just awakened from its seal and had not yet fully recovered its senses.

A Javelin anti-tank missile struck its chest with perfect precision.

"Boom—"

A massive shockwave mixed with the roar of the blast exploded across the giant's chest. The strange creature, over ten meters tall, horned, and covered in black scales, was hit so hard that it merely staggered and dropped to one knee.

Then, after a moment, it slowly rose again.

"Damn it, lay down suppressing fire! Absolutely do not let the lady get hurt!"

Max remained fiercely loyal to the Qian family. Even in such a crisis, he stayed determined to protect his employer.

The giant monster soon recovered from the blast and fixed its blood-red demon eyes on Max. He was the one who had just attacked it.

The desire to kill flared to life in an instant.

The mercenaries behind Max, grimacing as if prepared to die, yanked more Javelin launchers from the cases.

They aimed at the giant monster's face and, without the slightest hesitation, unleashed a storm of fire.

"Boom—"

"Boom—"

"Boom—"

"..."

The repeated detonations kicked up a vast cloud of dust. Just as Max pulled out binoculars to look through the haze, a long, slender demonic claw thrust out from the gray cloud and came crashing down with overwhelming force.

"Take cover!"

At Max's command, the mercenaries all dropped their launch tubes and rolled down the steps of the tomb in a rush, narrowly escaping the sweeping claw.

When the giant monster lifted the claw from the ground, one side of the tomb staircase had already been smashed to pieces, leaving behind only a huge handprint that made the heart tremble.

In that instant of distraction, one mercenary was seized by another claw that suddenly shot out.

"Splurt—"

Before he could even scream, the man was crushed into a mass of pulp!

"Robert!"

Max shouted his subordinate's name at the top of his lungs. That man had fought at his side for more than a decade!

Watching a teammate die before his eyes, reduced to a heap of bloody ruin, nearly drove Max insane.

He grabbed the HK416 assault rifle in his hands and charged in alone, shooting with uncanny precision, nearly every round striking the giant monster's eyes.

Yet ordinary bullets could not harm it in the slightest. The creature remained wholly absorbed in slaughtering the mercenaries fleeing in every direction.

"Matt! Run!"

"No! John!"

"..."

Nine elite men were butchered one by one, and he could do nothing but watch.

Max had gone completely mad.

He raised the hand grenade in his grip and charged the giant monster, determined to drag the beast down with him.

But the giant monster did not even bother with him. With a casual swing, it slapped him away as though batting a fly.

"Ugh—"

Max was smashed hard against the wall of the tomb. Blood splattered the stone behind him, and he looked like a mosquito flattened on a wall.

Barely conscious, he stared toward Qian Youyou in the distance. He tried to speak, but blood filled his throat.

"Max!"

Qian Youyou cried his name hoarsely, desperate to rush to his side, but Master Guo stopped her.

"Miss, it's too late. Max can't be saved. You can't act recklessly!"

After calming Qian Youyou, Master Guo stepped forward and pointed at the towering monster.

"I, Guo Jinan, will show you true fear. Die, monster!"

Master Guo raised a short crimson sword, sliced open his palm, then took from his pocket more than a dozen tufts of hair. He soaked the hair in his own blood, then scattered it into the air.

"Heh-heh-heh—"

The hair vanished abruptly in midair, replaced by shrill, wailing cries, like wronged souls coming to claim a life.

In an instant, the giant monster seemed bound in place by some unseen force, unable to move.

A confident light rose in Master Guo's eyes. He strode forward and drove the blood-red short sword viciously toward the monster's heel.

Clang—

The sound of metal striking metal rang out. The blood sword, said to cut through iron like mud and imbued with a certain curse, had left nothing on the giant monster's scales but a burst of sparks and a faint mark.

"Roar!"

The giant monster's eyes snapped open. Its body shook violently, and in the air above them came more than a dozen ripping sounds, along with piercing screams.

Then tufts of hair drifted down from the sky.

"How is this possible? So fast?"

Master Guo had clearly underestimated his foe. He had thought that summoning more than a dozen spirit guardians would be enough to bind the giant monster firmly.

Who would have imagined that the creature would break free at once, and even kill every one of his summoned spirits?

"Damn it, I'll fight you to the death!"

Gritting his teeth, Master Guo pulled out a bottle of corpse oil and swallowed it in one gulp.

"Ah—"

As the corpse oil went down, Master Guo's face flushed a deep red, the nails on all ten fingers lengthening sharply. His entire body began to stiffen, and his features changed dramatically, becoming green-faced, fanged, gaunt, and savage.

"Roar!"

A moment later, Master Guo had transformed into a Kui Ba and rushed straight at the giant monster.

This was already the limit of his power, a final strike with his life on the line.

The Kui Ba formed from Master Guo's body reached the monster's back, leaped three meters into the air, and brought its razor-sharp claws down like flashing steel blades toward the giant creature's face.

Crack—

Yet the despairing truth was that the giant monster remained unharmed, while Master Guo's two claws broke cleanly at the sound.

"What on earth are you?"

Master Guo was shaken to the core. The giant monster turned around and threw a punch, blasting the transformed Master Guo away like a sandbag.

Boom—

With a thunderous crash, Master Guo's entire body was driven straight into the tomb wall like a nail, impossible to pry loose.

Green blood gushed from his mouth, and shattered organs spilled out with it. He was gravely wounded and on the brink of death.

This monster was terrifying beyond belief.

It had hardly lifted a finger, crushing every enemy before it with raw physical might alone, and it did not fear Max and the others' modern weapons at all. Had it tempered its body to sainthood?

After tens of thousands of years of sealing, it still possessed such power. If this were its peak, could it not split mountains and part the sea with a single punch?

Master Guo did not dare to think further, because at that moment he had fallen utterly into despair.

"Master Guo!"

With her subordinates falling one after another and even the most reliable Master Guo struck down in a single blow, Qian Youyou's legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down her face.