Alley Fight

The being wearing human skin rose from the ground once more. Dark blood continued to flow from the hideous hole in its brow, but the bleeding soon stopped. Flesh began to squirm within the wound, forcibly squeezing out a deformed bullet.

The bronze slug hit the concrete with a crisp, sharp clink that sounded grating in the silence.

Jiang Xun, standing at the alley entrance, didn’t look surprised at all. He raised his handgun and fired a three-shot burst. Through the rapid succession of cracks, the man dodged the first two shots as if he had predicted them; he only failed to evade the third due to its angle, taking it squarely in the chest.

However, the effect of this shot was much worse than the first. It didn’t even knock him down, instead producing a dull, eerie thud, as if the bullet had struck solid steel.

Then, with a sudden roar, the man’s body began to swell, transforming into a monster over two meters tall in the blink of an eye!

Rippppp!

As its clothes shredded to reveal its true form, the monster lunged off its back foot. A massive, black hand reached out, its target still the girl in the middle of the alley.

But by then, Jiang Xun had already bolted past Su Mian.

THUD!

Officer Jiang threw a punch, met by the monster’s own swinging fist. The two collided and froze for a heartbeat before both were forced back three steps simultaneously!

“A bit different from the intel,” the young man muttered, frowning slightly as he shook his numbing hand.

The reports he received stated that the Eye Hunter possessed powerful physical stats and excelled in close combat, but clearly, the creature before him wasn’t just “powerful.” This was beyond human!

What’s the situation? Faulty intel? Or…

His thoughts didn’t slow his movements. Jiang Xun stabilized himself faster than his opponent and, instead of retreating, charged straight back in.

Even though he was now significantly shorter and less bulky than the monster, the momentum from his sudden burst allowed him to bury a rising elbow into the creature’s chest, sending it staggering back!

Seizing the moment the monster lost its balance, Jiang Xun stuck to it like glue. He unleashed a flurry of punches, his fists hitting with a sequence of explosive cracks.

The monster, which hadn’t reacted to bullets earlier, couldn’t help but let out groans of pain. Upon closer inspection, the areas where Jiang Xun’s fists landed were visibly dented, accompanied by the sound of snapping bones!

The monster was hammered back like a punching bag. For a moment, it was hard to tell which one was the true beast.

But the [Eye Hunter] was no ordinary existence. Though momentarily dazed by the assault, it reacted quickly with an angry roar as blood-red veins suddenly surfaced across its bluish-black skin.

BOOM!

The monster’s frame swelled again. It slammed a foot into the ground to halt its retreat and caught Jiang Xun’s incoming fist with an exaggeratedly large hand. The veins on its arm twisted like small snakes. With another roar, it prepared to hurl Jiang Xun through the air!

But the young man remained expressionless. Feeling that terrifying, inhuman strength, a flash of crimson light flickered in his eyes.

“Blaze.”

The moment he whispered the words, Jiang Xun’s eyes turned the color of fire. An orange-red aura enveloped his body, allowing him to easily withstand the pressure from the monster’s arm. With a sudden twist, he forcibly snapped the creature’s arm out of alignment!

“AAAAAAAGH!!”

The monster howled in agony, but Captain Jiang was unmoved. Grabbing the mangled limb, he leaped and delivered a kick directly into its chest.

The fiery glow of the kick left a massive dent in the monster’s iron-like torso. The creature’s body flew backward uncontrollably, but because its arm was still held in Jiang Xun’s grip, the sheer force of the separation caused the limb to be ripped clean off!

Losing its arms, the creature shrieked and stumbled. Just as it managed to steady itself and look up, the young man was already back in its face.

BANG!!

A vicious roundhouse kick landed. The force was so immense that even the monster couldn’t resist it; its bloated body was sent flying until it slammed heavily into the side wall.

Crash!

The thick brick wall spider-webbed with cracks. The entire building seemed to shudder, and fragments of plaster fell like rain.

A cloud of dust filled the alley. The monster tried to struggle as it hit the ground, but Jiang Xun closed in faster and brought his foot down.

CRACK!

The powered stomp hit the chest like a sledgehammer. The already dented torso finally gave way, collapsing completely inward!

“BLEGH!”

The creature’s eyes bulged. Black blood erupted from its mouth, spraying the ground like a fountain, filled with the crushed remnants of internal organs.

An injury of this magnitude was clearly a serious problem, even for a monster.

However, as he looked down at its pathetic state, Jiang Xun’s brow furrowed. Despite having achieved a decisive advantage, his expression grew more serious rather than relaxed.

“Something’s not right.”

He ground his foot down to keep the struggling monster pinned, the force causing the chest to collapse further. During the pause, the young man glanced toward the alley entrance. He found that the strange lad… or was it a lass?… was nowhere to be found.

Jiang Xun had actually arrived just as Su Mian first made contact with the monster, but because he wasn’t sure of Su Mian’s identity or alignment, he hadn’t jumped in immediately.

He had wondered who the monster’s target was, but the result seemed to be… just an ordinary person? At least, in Jiang Xun’s eyes, Su Mian’s “moves” weren’t just amateur—they were non-existent. She looked like a civilian who just happened to have slightly higher physical stats than average.

So, did the Eye Hunter really just take a fancy to someone’s eyeballs?

Vaguely, Jiang Xun felt it wasn’t that simple, but he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong.

“Forget it.”

There was no point in overthinking it. Now that he had captured the Eye Hunter, he could just take him back for interrogation.

While keeping the man pinned with his foot, he pulled out a handgun. But it wasn’t the same one from before.

Jiang Xun drew a revolver that looked somewhat antique. He opened the cylinder to check the remaining rounds, adjusted the chamber, and aimed it expressionlessly at the struggling monster below.

“BANG!!”

The Eye Hunter’s shattered chest couldn’t stop this bullet, yet it only left a tiny wound; hardly any blood flowed out.

However, as the bullet entered, the monster’s body began to convulse violently, emitting sounds of unbearable agony.

Jiang Xun’s expression didn’t change as the monster’s body rapidly shriveled during the tremors. It soon reverted to the face of a completely unfamiliar middle-aged man. Then, in the next second, something black suddenly tore itself out of the body!

The thing tried to flee the moment it emerged, but the young man was faster, snatching it out of the air.

Looking at it closely, he saw a small, black, eight-legged monster that looked like a spider. It struggled in Jiang Xun’s palm, letting out sharp, pitiful wails from time to time.

Jiang Xun stared at it for several seconds.

“A Familiar?”