SEC Chapter 1339 Prisoners
Chapter 1339 Prisoners
A crisp metallic clang exploded in the air, and before the echo had even faded, both men had already taken a half step back.
Lin Yi's black sword was still trembling slightly, and a thin white scratch on the blade was slowly fading away.
The long-haired woman returned her long sword to its original position, her left hand lightly stroking the spine of the blade, as if checking whether the strike had left a nick.
After the clash, Lin Yi discovered that the two sides did indeed have some differences in their fighting styles. Lin Yi's style was more technical, while the long-haired woman's fighting style was more open and aggressive.
The two looked at each other from three meters apart. Snowflakes landed on their eyelashes and then melted into tiny water droplets from their body heat.
The long-haired woman spoke first, her voice hoarse and low, as if someone who hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time had their vocal cords forcibly awakened: "Your swordsmanship is very interesting. Do you have a teacher?"
Lin Yi held the black and white roses in front of him and said calmly, "I don't have a swordsmanship teacher, but I do have a recipe book. I can try it when I get back."
The long-haired woman was not affected by his words; she simply tilted her head slightly, as if savoring them.
Then she smiled, a very faint smile, so faint that Lin Yi would almost have missed it if he hadn't been staring at her face the whole time.
"You are the only one who can still speak after I've stabbed you."
"You are the only alien species who can utter two complete sentences in front of me."
“I am not a mutant,” the long-haired woman said. “I am human, I was just parasitized. The worm is in my brain, but I am still me.”
Lin Yi looked at her, remained silent for two seconds, and then asked, "Do you know what you're saying?"
“I know. I’m telling you, I haven’t been completely eaten by the parasites yet. I’m still conscious, it’s just that my body won’t obey me.”
Lin Yi's gaze lingered on her face for a moment, then shifted to the hand holding the knife.
That hand was so steady that the blade didn't tremble at all in the snowy light.
The fact that a person controlled by a parasite can maintain such stability in a fight indicates that the parasite's control over her has penetrated to the level of muscle memory. It's not that she doesn't want to put down the knife, it's that she can't.
However, Lin Yi could understand. This long-haired woman was indeed strong in combat. If Lin Yi were the alien commander, he certainly wouldn't want to waste her combat power like that.
Technique-based combat relies heavily on experience, which is why the long-haired woman's parasite didn't completely devour her brain. Otherwise, it would be quite good if the long-haired woman retained 30% of her combat power.
"The fact that you can still say this means that you are still conscious, but you can no longer control your body."
Lin Yi's gaze met her eyes again: "I can help you get the bug out, but you have to put down that knife first."
The long-haired woman laughed again, this time with more depth than before, like the helpless smile someone makes when they hear a really funny lame joke.
"I want to let go, but my hands won't listen to me."
Lin Yi raised the Black and White Rose sword slightly, the tip less than half a foot from her blade: "Then are you willing to give it a try?"
This long-haired woman is very strong in combat. If we can bring her over, the alien species will definitely be in big trouble.
The long-haired woman looked at him, her pupils, modified by the parasite, slightly contracting in the snowy light, as if some instinctive reaction was being forcibly suppressed.
She paused for a few seconds, then said, "I'll try."
The moment she finished speaking, she lowered her wrist, the blade pressed down, changing from a vertical to a diagonal slash.
The angle was more tricky than before, and the force was heavier than before. The blade sliced through the air in an arc, heading straight for Lin Yi's waist.
Lin Yi did not retreat. He raised the Black and White Rose sword to meet her blade from below. The moment the sword and blade touched, he twisted his wrist, causing her blade to deflect outward.
The long-haired woman staggered half a step outwards, then spun half a circle, the blade tracing an arc in the air as it slashed towards Lin Yi's shoulder from another direction.
Lin Yi sidestepped the blade, and the black sword moved forward, its tip pointing at her wrist that was holding the knife.
She sheathed her sword to parry, the back of her blade striking the sword tip with a crisper, shorter sound than before.
Sparks flew out where the blade and the back of the knife met, flashing briefly in the snowy light before disappearing.
"You really were holding back," Lin Yi said.
"I can't control the direction of the knife, but I can control its speed. If it's too slow, it will miss; if it's too fast, it will hit the target accurately."
Lin Yi looked at her, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment: "So how long can you control yourself?"
The long-haired woman was silent for a few seconds: "I don't know. Maybe I can play two more rounds, or maybe I'll lose control in the next second."
Lin Yi sheathed his sword, took a half step back, and the black and white roses drooped at his sides again: "Then cooperate with me once while you can still control yourself."
How to cooperate?
"We'll see how lucky you get. I'll knock you out later."
The long-haired woman remained silent for longer than ever before after hearing those words.
She glanced down at her hand holding the knife; it was still trembling slightly, and her knuckles were white from the excessive force.
After a long pause, she finally spoke: "You bet I won't stab you in the throat when you hit me in the back of the neck."
"I bet that fraction of a second is fast enough."
The long-haired woman raised her eyes to meet Lin Yi's: "You will die if you lose."
"If you win, you will live."
She tightened her grip on the knife, and the blade trembled slightly in the snowy light, like a string stretched to its limit emitting its final hum.
"Okay, come on."
Lin Yi strode forward at a leisurely pace, as if walking in his own courtyard.
As he walked, the sword was already extended, without any killing intent or sharpness, just a plain and almost ordinary thrust.
The long-haired woman dodged the sword to the side, her body tilting to the side, her center of gravity shifting, making it seem as if she had been forced to lose her balance by the sword.
As she tilted her body, she swung her knife upwards with such fluidity that it seemed like she had rehearsed it countless times. The tip of the knife stopped precisely half a foot in front of Lin Yi's throat, remaining motionless.
Lin Yi's sword hilt struck the back of her neck at the same time.
A muffled thud.
The long-haired woman's body trembled violently, and her hand holding the knife lost its strength in that instant. The knife slipped from her fingers and hit the snow with a dull thud.
Her body began to fall to the left, her limbs moving out of control like a rag doll with its bones removed. She used the last bit of strength to complete the movement of falling to the left, and then her whole body went limp.
Lin Yi reached out and caught her the moment she fell.
Her body was much lighter than he had imagined, as light as a container whose inside had been hollowed out.
Lin Yi held her in his arms and looked down at her face. Her eyes were closed, and a few snowflakes were melting on her eyelashes, sliding down the corners of her eyes.
The giant ape let out a deafening roar from afar, its voice filled with anger and confusion. It couldn't understand how the long-haired woman could have fallen like that.
It tried to rush towards Lin Yi, but Sheng Yuan Wei Hua had already blocked its way, shouting as she charged, "Big monkey, your opponent is me."
The giant ape, its attention drawn to Mika Seien, let out a low growl and clasped its two forearms together in front of its chest, producing a dull thud.
At the moment the giant ape clashed, Mika Seien had already rushed in front of it. She crouched down and passed under the giant ape's left arm, then raised her leg and kicked the outside of the giant ape's right knee.
The giant ape's body tilted to the right from the kick, and its knee made a cracking sound, as if something had dislocated at the joint.
Without stopping, in the instant the giant ape lost its balance, she grabbed its right arm with her other hand, rotated her body and used the giant ape's own tilt to twist its right arm outward.
The giant ape's body emitted a series of cracking sounds as its arms crossed, like the internal gears of an old machine being forcibly reversed and grinding against each other.
Her final kick landed squarely on the giant ape's chest, the force so great that the ape's massive body slid backward for over ten meters as if it had been hit head-on by a truck.
Its back slammed into a pile of ground-dwelling carcasses, smashing them to pieces, scattering frozen bits of flesh and ice shards everywhere.
The giant ape struggled a few times amidst the pile of corpses, trying to stand up again, but the joint in its right knee was no longer under its control. Each exertion caused it to let out a painful growl before falling back to the ground.
Seien Mika stood before it, her breathing slightly erratic but her posture still steady. A small patch of blood stained the edge of her white safety shorts, it was hard to tell whether it was from the giant ape or her own. She glanced down at the long-haired woman lying on the ground, then at Lin Yi, who was trying to lift the long-haired woman up, and then called out in Lin Yi's direction, "Teacher, be careful."
Before Lin Yi could answer, several thick, black shadows, as thick as water tanks, burst out of the thick fog above the fortress walls.
The strongest elite fission species defending the city made their appearance together. After landing, they did not rush to charge, but instead scrutinized Seien Mika and Lin Yi with an almost appraising attitude.
The leader of the fission species had a wider head than its kind, with denser bone spurs on its skull. Its gaze lingered on Mikasa Seien for a moment, then moved to Lin Yi, and finally landed on the long-haired woman Lin Yi was holding in his arms.
Mika Seien walked up to Lin Yi and pointed to the long-haired woman in his arms: "Teacher, what should we do about her?"
Lin Yi glanced down at the person in his arms: "Send her back to base camp first. I'll deal with the problem here first, then I'll address the issue inside her body." He turned to Wei Hua: "Take her back. Don't stop along the way. Go straight back to the medical tent."
"And what about you, teacher?"
"I'll stay and deal with the fission variants."
"Then I'll take her back first." Mika Seien said, bending down to take the long-haired woman, hoisting her onto her shoulder like a sack of flour, and then turning and running towards the base camp.
She walked quickly, and after running a few dozen meters, she turned back and shouted, "Teacher, be careful, these bugs are quite troublesome."
Lin Yi did not answer; he had already turned his gaze to the several fission species that were approaching from the front.
Five fission variants in total spread out in a fan shape and moved toward him.
Lin Yi gripped the Black and White Rose sword tightly, the tip of the sword slightly raised.
Although the fight with the long-haired woman was dangerous, it was essentially a battle of skills and techniques.
Although the elite fission species were troublesome, they were nothing special to Lin Yi.
Lin Yi's aura began to turn dangerous, and fine black lines appeared on the sword, spreading from the hilt to the tip, like blood vessels bulging under the skin.
The five fission species spread out in a fan shape. They did not rush to attack, but instead used this slow approach to block all possible evasion routes for Lin Yi.
Lin Yi stood still, black and white roses hanging at his sides, the black patterns on the blade spreading towards the tip.
Lin Yi moved when they were less than ten meters away from him.
His figure left a blurry outline in place, and his true form had already appeared to the side of the fission species on the right.
The black sword made a horizontal cut, slicing through the gaps in the scales on the side of the fissioner's neck, and then slashed upwards at an angle. The blade encountered almost no resistance as it cut through the muscle layer, like a red-hot knife slicing through a block of frozen butter.
The fission creature's head flew upwards with the force of the sword, flipping twice in mid-air. Before the blood at the severed head could even gush out, Lin Yi was no longer in the same spot.
The second fission variant turned around at the same moment he killed the first one, opened its mouth, and a dark red energy ball condensed deep in its throat.
The moment the energy ball was released, Lin Yi's body had already moved to directly in front of it.
The distance was less than one meter.
The black sword pierced through from the front, its tip penetrating the fissioner's throat and exiting from the back of its neck, detonating the condensing energy ball from within.
Energy exploded within the fission creature's body, tearing it apart from the inside out. The sound of scales shattering mixed with the muffled thud of flesh bursting open, like an overinflated ball exploding.
Lin Yi drew his sword and took a half step back, sidestepping the third fission creature that pounced from the left.
The fission creature missed its target, its claws sweeping through the air and crushing several falling snowflakes.
Before it could fully regain its balance upon landing, Lin Yi's sword had already pierced its spine, penetrated its chest cavity, and emerged from its abdomen.
He twisted his wrist, and the sword sliced horizontally through the fission creature's body, shredding its heart and lungs.
Then he drew his sword and caused the fissioner's corpse to fall to the ground.
The remaining two fission species finally realized that the human in front of them was far faster than they could handle. They stopped trying to flank him and instead stood side by side, opening their mouths at the same time, energy condensing deep in their throats.
Two dark red energy balls shot out simultaneously, flying in a crisscross pattern and blocking the entire space in front of Lin Yi.
Lin Yi did not retreat.
His body made a movement that was barely visible to the naked eye in an instant—almost passing through the gaps between the energy spheres, with the distance between his body and the energy spheres less than the width of a finger.
He passed through the blockade formed by the energy spheres and arrived in front of one of the fission species.
The longsword slashed horizontally, cutting through the joints at the base of the fission creature's two forelimbs, severing both forearms cleanly at the root.
After losing its arms, the fission creature let out a short howl and staggered to one side. Lin Yi's sword changed direction in mid-air and stabbed downwards into the back of its head, the tip of the sword emerging from its jaw and pinning its howl to its throat.
The last fission variant made a move that surprised Lin Yi—it ran away.
The chase lasted less than five seconds before the last fissioner retreated to the edge of the city wall ruins, its back slamming into a tilted stone slab with a dull thud.
Lin Yi stopped in front of it, and the black and white rose slashed downwards.
The fission variant's body was split in two, the two halves falling to either side, its internal organs and blood flowing out from the cut, forming a dark red fan-shaped pattern on the snow.
Lin Yi flicked the blood off the black and white rose, and the blade regained its dull luster.
He turned around and walked towards King Kong and the giant wolf.
The battle between King Kong and the giant wolf entered a stalemate where both sides were gathering strength. King Kong's wound on his left arm was still bleeding, but the blood flow was much less than before. The skin around the wound was slightly white, which was a sign that his body was automatically constricting blood vessels to stop the bleeding in the low temperature.
The giant wolf was in worse condition than King Kong. Its hind legs were noticeably less agile than before, and the hollows in its ribs made a slight creaking sound with each breath, as if broken ribs were rubbing against each other.
The snow between the two was covered with claw marks and footprints, some deep and some shallow, interwoven in a staggered pattern, like an abstract painting that had been repeatedly painted over.
King Kong was panting, and white breaths of air were exhaled from his mouth and nose, which quickly condensed into tiny ice crystals.
He saw Lin Yi's figure walking towards him from the direction of the city wall, and was about to say something when Lin Yi's voice came faster: "Excuse me."
Without much thought, King Kong turned his body to the left, making room for half a body length.
Lin Yi passed by him at the same pace, his long sword held horizontally in front of him, facing the giant wolf directly.
The giant wolf stared at Lin Yi, its hind legs slightly bent, and its metal claw scratched at the snow.
Its gaze darted quickly between Lin Yi and King Kong, seemingly assessing the change in threat level.
Then it made a judgment—to deal with the human with the sword first, because that human was more dangerous than the giant ape in terms of speed and precision.
The giant wolf lunged at Lin Yi with even greater ferocity than before, its front paws outstretched. As it approached, Lin Yi lowered his center of gravity by kneeling down, allowing the giant wolf's body to pass over his head. He then flipped his black sword and slashed diagonally upwards into the seam between the fur and scales on the giant wolf's belly.
The longsword plunged into the giant wolf's abdomen, piercing through its body, with the tip emerging from the seam of its spine.
The giant wolf's movements in mid-air instantly distorted, its limbs lost coordination, and it instinctively twitched and curled up.
Its body crashed onto the snow several meters away, slid a distance, and then came to a stop.
It tried to stand up, but the wound in its abdomen prevented it from putting any weight on its hind limbs, and each attempt caused more blood to gush from its abdomen.
Lin Yi walked to its side and severed its spine at the back of its neck. The giant wolf's head drooped limply onto the snow.
King Kong walked to Lin Yi's side and looked down at the giant wolf's corpse: "I fought it for so long just now."
"I know, it's all thanks to you holding things off."
King Kong paused for a moment, seemingly wanting to say something more, but in the end he just snorted, which was considered an acceptance of the explanation.
"The mutants inside the city walls are almost all out." The direction of the gap in the King Kong Dynasty raised his chin. "You've killed those fissioners, and the remaining earth-dwelling species won't amount to much. Let's retreat. Bai Ye's side should be almost done as well."
Lin Yi opened the war channel and quickly glanced at Su Xiao's location marker.
The green dot has moved deep inside the fortress and is slowly moving in the opposite direction; the mission objective should have been achieved.
"Have everyone prepare to retreat." After Lin Yi finished speaking, he switched the channel to the public channel. "All teams retreat northward, do not linger in battle, and retreat back to the base camp along the original route."
After the message was sent out, the intensity of fighting on the battlefield began to decrease significantly.
Mika Seien had already retreated to the rear with the long-haired woman, and Ronnie also jumped off King Kong's shoulder and began to move to the rear.
The attacking team's formation shifted from a scattered state to a more compact one, and the more than 20,000 students maintained a complete defensive array even as they contracted.
The retreat route was planned in advance, extending from the gap in the city wall in a north-northeast direction, bypassing the area in front of the fortress that had been cratered by missiles.
When they were halfway back, Lin Yi heard a muffled thud behind him.
He looked back and saw a golden-red pillar of light rising into the air from the deepest part of the fortress. The top of the pillar exploded below the clouds, and the light spread in all directions.
That was the scene of Su Xiao's Apollo exploding. Clearly, Su Xiao had started to run away, giving the aliens a surprise before leaving.
Continuous explosions began to echo from deep within the fortress, followed by the deafening crashes of collapsing buildings, and the ground trembled slightly.
This is the mad doctor detonating the explosives he planted beforehand to cover up the traces of Su Xiao's retreat.
The explosions were precisely calculated and all selected at key passages and crucial nodes within the fortress. (End of Chapter)