Chapter 95: Snake Meat
"Tell Kevin Keane he doesn’t need to come out. They’re just some First Rank grunts. We can handle them."
After speaking, she excitedly charged toward the swarm of snakes. She had to snatch those incoming Crystal Cores before the military reinforcements arrived!
Evan Olson watched her act like a maniac, ignoring the foul stench covering her as she laughed crazily and ran against the fleeing crowd toward the snakes. Facepalming, he walked up to the car.
While keeping an eye on Luna Dawson’s movements, he relayed her message to Kevin. "Luna said you should rest for now. They’re just small snakes, so it’s not a big deal. Miles, get out of the car."
He glanced at Kevin right after speaking and paused slightly upon seeing his condition. Kevin signaled him with his eyes to hurry up and go. Swallowing the words he was about to say, Evan charged toward the swarm of snakes with Miles Dawson. At the same time, dozens of soldiers holding guns were also moving against the crowd, using their firearms and superpowers to build a solid defense line for the injured and terrified survivors behind them. Some Superpower Users who hadn’t exhausted their superpowers noticed that the small snakes looked relatively fragile, so they also joined the hunt.
Luna handed two assault rifles to Miles and Evan, keeping one for herself.
BANG BANG BANG!
Intense gunfire erupted instantly, weaving into a net of crossfire that ruthlessly slaughtered the mutated snakes swarming toward the crowd. Luna fired continuously with her right hand, her muzzle flashing non-stop, while her left hand fiercely channeled her superpower. In an instant, the people around her felt the water molecules in the surrounding air suddenly drain away, leaving an almost suffocating dryness.
SWISH SWISH SWISH!
Hundreds of Water Bombs materialized, whistling toward the swarm like bullets shot from a gun! Under the precise bombardment of the Water Bombs, the once-frenzied mutated snakes stiffened in droves before crashing heavily to the ground, dead silent.
Evan was utterly shocked to see Luna controlling her superpower with such proficiency. After all, whenever they practiced their superpowers, she was always the laziest, leisurely leaning to the side and eating sunflower seeds or fruit while watching quietly.
Evan teased Miles, "Little Miles, you’d better step it up. Otherwise, you won’t even be able to match the lethality of your sister’s Water Ability!"
Miles, who was busy channeling flames to burn the beasts to death, turned to look at Luna upon hearing Evan’s words. "Holy shit! Since when is my sister this badass?"
Evan smiled without a word. He focused energy at his fingertips, conjuring tiny but incredibly sharp Wind Blades that fluttered like bee wings before shooting accurately toward the heads of the mutated snakes. As he efficiently harvested the snake swarm with his Wind Blades, he controlled the air currents to sweep up the snake corpses the three of them had slain, steadily piling them behind their area. He saw clearly that as Luna got caught up in the thrill of the kill, she didn’t forget to use the tip of her foot to gather the scattered snake corpses closer to her. They gradually formed a small mound, giving her an endearing look of a territorial animal claiming its turf.
Inside the car, Kevin took in all of Luna’s little antics and couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
It wasn’t until this moment that the surrounding people realized just how insanely strong everyone in this group was. While the rest of them could only manifest egg-sized Fireballs and water spheres one by one, these people were firing hundreds simultaneously with terrifying precision! Many even thought the Water Ability was only useful for producing purified water. They never imagined someone could use it like bullets!
As Luna and the other two slaughtered, they kept an eye on the military’s advancing progress, acting as if they were competing with the soldiers to see who could kill more mutated snakes. Of course they had to compete! Luna wouldn’t pass up any opportunity to harvest Crystal Cores! She even felt it was a huge loss. These snakes should have given advance notice before coming out to stir up trouble so her whole family could have deployed!
The Superpower Users following behind the army to kill stragglers were close enough to see the three of them turn into snake-killing machines. They were absolutely dumbfounded.
Suddenly, a dark green little snake darted out and spat over a dozen globs of saliva in their direction. The three raised their hands to block, simultaneously unleashing water, fire, and Wind Blades that instantly obliterated the small fry’s head. Facing a simultaneous attack from three Superpower Users of the same rank, it had no chance to dodge.
Luna, sharp-eyed, noticed a transparent Crystal Core containing strands of cyan-blue hair-like crystals fall to the ground. She quickly picked it up and stored it in her spatial dimension. At that moment, a sharp pain shot through her arm. She finally realized that the liquid spat by the snake had corroded her stab-resistant suit, burning two coin-sized wounds into her forearm.
"Ouch!"
"Hiss!"
The voices of Miles and Evan followed right after. Evan was the closest to the snake and suffered the largest injury. Two egg-sized holes were burned into his skin, leaving a mangled mess of flesh and blood. Luna furrowed her brows deeply at the sight and immediately took out some spirit spring water.
"Wash the wounds first! We’ll have my sister treat them when we get back!" she ordered.
Miles awkwardly rinsed his wound and looked at Evan. "Brother Evan, what kind of snake is this? It actually spat acid?! It hurts like hell!"
Evan had only been a soldier; he wasn’t an encyclopedia. Feeling a bit awkward, he replied, "The snakes are all mutated, how am I supposed to know? Why don’t you ask it yourself?"
Shivering from the pain, Miles retorted, "I’m going to curse its ancestors to the eighth generation!"
After bandaging their wounds, Miles started sweeping his gun with even more vigor. After less than half an hour of one-sided crushing, the thousands of mutated snakes surrounding the water plant were quickly cleared out thanks to everyone’s joint efforts. Although the Third Rank mutated giant snake had caused immense casualties, the snake swarm following it didn’t manage to stir up much trouble. However, due to their sheer numbers, along with some Second Order snakes mixed in that occasionally launched sneak attacks with their superpowers, everyone suffered varying degrees of injuries.
Just as Kevin pretended to have recovered somewhat and came over to help the trio harvest the Crystal Cores from the snake corpses, the military reinforcements finally arrived belatedly. There were over a hundred soldiers, three military trucks, and one armored vehicle.
Among the people the army brought were a few Superpower Users, including a man and a woman with Healing Abilities. However, their superpowers were only at the First Rank. They could only stop the bleeding for one severely injured person at a time before their superpowers were exhausted, forcing them to slowly absorb non-attribute Crystal Cores to recover.
Luna turned her face away, ignoring them as she silently continued to harvest the snake corpses.
More than ten medical personnel jumped down from one of the military trucks and rushed toward the riverbank to treat the injured. As long as the wounds weren’t caused by zombies or certain uniquely venomous mutated creatures, they were essentially just ordinary wounds and wouldn’t lead to a zombie virus infection. Therefore, the medical staff prioritized treating the severely injured, pushing the lightly injured to the back of the queue.
While the four of them were busy working in full swing, a gentle female voice suddenly rang out above Evan’s head.
"Hello. Your wound looks quite serious. Let me help you treat it."
Hearing the voice, the group looked up simultaneously. Standing beside Evan was a girl with flowing long hair, her pitch-black tresses draping smoothly over her shoulders. Luna twitched her nose slightly, faintly catching a subtle scent from her hair that smelled like some kind of botanical essential oil.
Luna thought, "Hmm, it’s rare to see someone so clean in this negative twenty-degree weather, especially with the water and power cut off. Her hair isn’t greasy or tangled, and it even carries the fresh scent of shampoo. She’s definitely a girl who values cleanliness."
Looking at her outfit, she was wearing a thick, off-white turtleneck cashmere sweater that tightly wrapped around her neck, layered under a long, camel-colored down jacket. The fluffy down made her figure look even more slender. On her lower half, she wore fleece-lined dark gray leggings paired with black over-the-knee boots. The boots hugged her legs tightly, protecting her from the biting wind without looking bulky. She wore a pair of light brown leather gloves with the fingertips cut off for easy movement. Her outfit was clearly carefully coordinated, and she held a small medical kit in her hands.