Chapter 181: The Aberrant Nicola
"That’s the Female Master crying for help."
Nemo’s shark-like eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
"She’s just around the corner!"
Yan Tian pointed deeper into the mine.
The two Beast Husbands flickered and were about to charge forward.
"Wait!"
Lu Chengfeng anxiously raised a wolf claw.
Yan Tian’s scales scraped past his fingertips as he rushed out.
"BANG!"
Ying Jiuyao’s tiger tail whipped out like a steel lash.
Yan Tian slammed heavily against the rock wall, sending shattered stones flying.
Lan Cangming’s Ice Crystals formed in an instant.
Nemo was instantly turned into an ice sculpture, with only his eyeballs still spinning frantically.
Lu Chengfeng’s furious roar shook loose stones from the cavern ceiling.
"If you act on your own again, get the hell back to the airship!"
"Ni-co-la... is... in... dan-ger!"
Trapped in the Ice Crystal, Nemo’s lips were blue and purple, but he stubbornly kept trying to speak.
Yan Tian climbed out of the rubble, a small tip of his dragon horn broken off.
"If you’re too scared to go, we’ll go by ourselves."
"Tsk!"
Seville lightly brushed the dust from his tattered wings.
His amber, cat-like pupils were full of scorn. "Idiots, rushing to your deaths."
"All of you, snap out of it!"
Lu Chengfeng grabbed Yan Tian by the collar and slammed him hard against the rock wall.
"This mine is full of traps! Are you trying to get Nicola killed by charging in recklessly like this?!"
A crack split across the surface of Nemo’s ice sculpture with a CRACK.
Su An’an pressed her star bracelet against his forehead and said coldly, "If you disobey orders again..."
A dangerous, emerald-green light gathered at her fingertips.
"I won’t hesitate to cripple you and throw you out."
"I’ll do it!"
Ying Jiuyao stared intently at Yan Tian, his knuckles cracking with an intimidating sound.
Lan Cangming formed a series of Ice Spikes at his fingertips, aiming them at Nemo’s heart.
The temperature in the entire mine plummeted, and even the floor began to freeze over.
’I seem to have underestimated her!’
Seville gave Su An’an another look.
Compared to her previous, crazed Evil Female persona...
’...this calm version of her is actually a little interesting.’
Yan Tian rubbed his bruised back but didn’t dare make another sound.
Nemo’s shark gills flared violently before he finally hung his head in defeat.
"Everyone, on your guard."
Night Abyss looked at Lu Chengfeng. "You, clear the traps!"
Lu Chengfeng nodded, leading the guards forward in a fan formation, his sonar detector sweeping over every inch of the ground.
"I’ll scout ahead."
Fei Zhao’s figure melted into the darkness like ink, his nine tails casting an alluring shadow on the rock wall.
Ying Jiuyao and Lan Cangming stuck close to Su An’an, never leaving her side.
Tie Xinxian and Hosen’s heavy-armored troops brought up the rear.
Seville’s wings hung low as he lingered alone on the periphery of the group, the golden bundle on his back twitching occasionally.
"No anomalies!"
Lu Chengfeng’s wolf ears twitched uneasily as his gaze swept over the empty mine.
"Seville, are you sure Nicola is here?"
Seville didn’t even turn his head, his voice colder than the ice in the cavern.
"If your ears are useless, you can cut them off."
"We just heard her cry for help!"
Nemo’s shark gills flared as he said anxiously,
"Nicola must be locked up somewhere."
"There’s something wrong with this wall."
Fei Zhao’s voice suddenly came from up ahead.
The beastmen quickened their pace and saw an azure Fox Fire illuminating a blackened rock face.
Ying Jiuyao bent a finger and tapped lightly. Amid the THUMP-THUMP of the echo, Nicola’s intermittent cries for help could be heard.
"Help... help me!"
"It really is Nicola!"
Yan Tian’s Dragon Scales flared out with a SWISH, but he froze in his tracks under Su An’an’s icy gaze.
"I’ll break this wall."
Lu Chengfeng pressed his Silver Wolf Claw heavily against the rock wall.
"BOOM!"
The entire wall crumbled to dust in a flash of silver light.
It revealed a dark, moss-covered corner.
The Fox Fire flared, illuminating a figure curled up in a pool of blood.
Nicola’s long golden hair was soaked in blood, stuck to her deathly pale cheeks like broken butterfly wings.
Fragments of her peacock-blue dress were scattered everywhere, revealing strange black patterns on her skin.
"Nicola!"
Nemo’s shark-like tail fin slammed the ground as he shot forward like an arrow.
Yan Tian and Lu Chengfeng followed close behind.
Just as the three beastmen’s fingertips were about to touch Nicola...
"SNAP."
Nicola’s neck suddenly twisted 180 degrees, revealing eerie, blood-red cat eyes.
"SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!"
Three cold glints of light flashed past.
Nemo’s shark gills had just opened when blood spurted from his throat.
Yan Tian’s Dragon Scale defense hadn’t even fully formed before his carotid artery was severed.
Lu Chengfeng’s right arm was severed at the shoulder. While the limb was still spinning in the air...
"BANG!"
Nicola’s cat tail whipped the three Beast Husbands away simultaneously, sending them crashing into a stalactite pillar ten meters away and shattering it.
"This is impossible."
Fei Zhao’s eyes widened, his Fox Fire nearly extinguishing.
"How could a female instantly take down three Level 3S Beastmen?"
The CLICK-CLACK of twisting joints echoed from the shadows.
Nicola walked out with her head tilted, her neck swiveling 180 degrees.
Something seemed to be squirming beneath her skin.
"Nicola, how did you become like this?"
Lu Chengfeng was overcome with grief, his remaining wolf claw trembling as he reached out.
"Who did this to you?"
Before he could finish, Nicola’s head suddenly snapped around 180 degrees, her cat claws glinting coldly as they stabbed toward his eyes.
"Watch out!"
A silvery-white arc of electricity crackled from Su An’an’s fingertips, but Nicola dodged it like a phantom.
She vanished into the darkness, then suddenly leaped from the rock wall.
Her claws were only three inches from Su An’an’s eyes.
"CRACK!"
Ying Jiuyao grabbed Nicola’s wrist with lightning speed.
He slammed her into the rock wall with a shoulder throw.
Amidst the flying debris, the small figure bounced back up instantly.
In the dust cloud, Nicola weaved through the group at an inhuman speed, every flash of movement accompanied by a spray of blood.
The most terrifying part was that her body was rapidly deforming, with only her head retaining any semblance of a human form.
Fei Zhao, Night Abyss, and Lan Cangming were locked in battle with Nicola.
For a moment, the three powerhouses were actually unable to pin down Nicola’s bizarre movements.
"Release!"
Seville, realizing something was wrong, sent the faintly golden feathers of his wings stabbing violently into Nicola’s body.
The Holy Power tore away the disguise, revealing the true state of Nicola’s body.
It was filled with squirming, dark red eggs that were multiplying at a visible rate.
"Are those... Evil Eggs?"
Su An’an’s eyes widened, but she immediately refuted the idea.
"No, that’s not right. Evil Eggs only erode and devour the genetic chain. They couldn’t have made her this strong."
"Your Highness," Little Pink said urgently, "Nicola has been infected and mutated by a Mutant Beast!"
"It must be the Rebel Army’s doing! They love to conduct these kinds of experiments on beast bodies."
"Big Cat, find a way to restrain her. I need to examine her immediately."
Su An’an looked at Nicola’s completely deformed body.
’I have to treat her immediately, before the infection reaches her brain.’
’Otherwise, it’ll be too late.’
"King’s Domain, activate!"
A massive, spectral White Tiger appeared behind Ying Jiuyao.
Powerful Energy formed four platinum chains, pinning Nicola to the rock wall.
The corners of Nicola’s mouth tore open to her ears.
The black, scale-like patterns on her body crawled up the chains like living things. The spectral White Tiger let out a pained roar as the King’s Domain was devoured, inch by inch!
"Something’s wrong!"
Ying Jiuyao’s tiger claws trembled violently.
"She’s absorbing my power!"
"Let me!"
Seville suddenly dropped to one knee, a drop of golden blood from between his brows falling into his palm.
"In the name of the Priest of the Golden Feather Clan, purify!"
The golden blood transformed into a sharp arrow, streaking through the air to pierce Nicola’s forehead.
Her deformed body began to recede with a series of CRUNCHING sounds.
As her crimson pupils returned to their azure color, two lines of bloody tears suddenly streamed down her face. "Kill me... I’m begging you!"
"Cellular Reorganization, activate!"
Su An’an’s hands bloomed with an emerald-green light.
Three beams of healing light precisely pierced Nicola’s body.
Nicola’s body convulsed violently, something struggling frantically beneath her skin.
"It’s... still inside me!"