Chapter 873 - 717: No More Chances?!! (Part 2)

Chapter 873: Chapter 717: No More Chances?!! (Part 2)

The crack the blade left on the mask didn’t split it cleanly down the middle, lacking that satisfying sense of symmetry.

The gash slanted slightly to the left, starting from Shadow Scorpion’s lower right jaw, then slicing upward across his lips, ripping them open and exposing a row of bone-white teeth;

Continuing upward, it chopped through the bridge of his nose, the tip nearly cut off;

Finally, it scraped across his left eye—his eyeball burst instantly, the bloody scar tearing all the way up into his hairline.

The agony wrenched a shrill, inhuman scream out of Shadow Scorpion, but in the end... it still didn’t kill him on the spot!

"Uaaahhh—! My face! My eye!"

Shadow Scorpion screamed himself hoarse, slipping into a half-mad state.

The exoskeleton joints detonated with sharp "crack crack" pops, the scorpion tail whipping wildly.

The teammate who was already gravely injured and coughing blood couldn’t hold on anymore, was violently shaken loose, flung off like a kite with a snapped string and crashed into the grass a dozen meters away.

Freed from restraint, the scorpion tail once again darted like lightning, stabbing for the wide-open gap in He’s exposed back.

"Die for meee—!"

Shadow Scorpion bellowed hysterically.

He, however, acted as if he didn’t see the incoming tail at all—or rather, he simply didn’t care anymore.

He didn’t dodge, didn’t flinch; he even used the residual momentum from that upward slash, letting his body half-spin with it, left hand closing over the hilt as well. Gripping the already slightly rolled-edge Particle Short Blade in both hands, he aimed straight at Shadow Scorpion’s only remaining, hate-filled right eye and drove it down hard.

Life for a life! Die together!

Beside them, the teammate crashed to the ground, foamy blood bubbling continuously out of his mouth as his consciousness began to fade.

Yet in his final moment, he still managed to raise a gun he’d somehow grabbed hold of.

He didn’t aim, and he didn’t have the strength for precise aim—he fired purely on the last scraps of will and instinct.

"Bang bang bang—"

The bullets accurately—or rather, luckily—hit the connecting joint of the scorpion tail.

They didn’t break the tail, but they made it convulse violently, its attack trajectory shifting ever so slightly.

The tail that should’ve punched through the vital point in He’s back, thanks to that burst of interference, ended up with a wet "shhk" driving brutally into He’s right shoulder blade instead.

The massive impact, loaded with tearing kinetic force, instantly yanked his whole body up and flung him sideways.

An arm that still gripped the dim-blue Particle Short Blade was severed cleanly at the shoulder, the stump jagged and uneven. It spun through the air, then fell with a "plap" into the grass, the fingers twitching a few times in reflex.

"Urgh!"

He let out a muffled groan of pain, his body thrown like a torn sack seven or eight meters away, tumbling several times across the ground before stopping.

A bowl-sized wound at his right shoulder gushed blood like a fountain, instantly soaking a wide patch of grass red.

His face was deathly pale, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. He tried to push himself up with his left hand, but the combined shock of pain and blood loss left him powerless. He could only kneel half-upright on the ground, gasping for breath.

On the other side, Shadow Scorpion was in just as wretched a state.

He shakily climbed up from the ground, one hand clamped over his face, yet blood and tears still flowed endlessly between his fingers.

He’s final two-handed thrust, though robbed of full power when his shoulder was pierced, still carried enough inertia for the blade tip to stab brutally into the flesh just below Shadow Scorpion’s right eye, carving open a deeper, longer cut.

This new gash ran horizontally from beneath the right eye across the bridge of his nose, eventually meeting the vertical wound beside it.

Together, they formed a skewed yet oddly symmetrical cross-shaped scar on his face—"completing" the earlier asymmetric "flaw" in another, twisted way.

"You ruined my face. You really deserve to die!"

Shadow Scorpion’s voice, warped by the split in his lips, leaked air and blurred his words, but the hatred and insanity packed in them made one’s blood run cold.

His remaining right eye locked hard onto He lying on the ground, and the ring of Shadow Scorpion Illusions around him seemed to sense their real body’s extreme rage. They turned their heads as one, fixing He with the same murderous stare.

They stepped forward collectively, closing in on He, who’d lost all ability to resist.

Scorpion tails behind them, their stingers glinting with a cold, ghostly light, rose one after another, high into the air.

The teammate beside them tried to struggle and lift his gun, but Fortress, driven into a similar rage by his own gut wound, spun around and drove a vicious kick into him.

"Thump!"

Already severely injured, the teammate couldn’t possibly endure a rage-fueled blow from Fortress.

The gun in his hands exploded into scattered parts instantly, and he himself was blasted away as if hit head-on by a speeding truck, blood spraying wildly from his mouth as he flew more than ten meters back, slammed into a jutting rock, and went limp, life or death unknown.

On the other side, under the saturation bombardment of the cluster bombs, Mountain Cat dodged left and right, buffeted by shockwaves till his vision spun and his brain buzzed. His ears rang nonstop—only sheer willpower kept him moving.

Thankfully, Hawkeye’s second shot had hit Fortress in the abdomen, causing him to wobble when he launched the second wave of cluster bombs, throwing his lock-on aim off by just a hair.

Otherwise, the two of them would probably have been blown into paste by that second wave.

Right now, Mountain Cat was scrambling and rolling through the grass in utter disarray, frantically cycling through tactical goggle views while locking his gaze on He’s situation.

He watched He lose an arm and collapse, watched teammates fall one after another, watched a swarm of Shadow Scorpions closing in step by step... and panic chewed at his chest.

But behind him, the white Human-Spider was still on his tail like a ghost that refused to leave.

Seven intact mechanical auxiliary limbs thrashed like crazy, attack waves crashing one after another, forcing him to sprint for his life, unable to find even a split second to raise his gun, much less fire another shot to save dying He.

Xu Yingyan’s eyes were bloodshot, corners almost splitting.

The scene of the teammate being cut clean in half kept looping in his mind, massive guilt gnawing at his heart like a poisonous snake.

If he hadn’t confidently reported "Target eliminated," the teammate might not have lowered his guard, might not have been ambushed and killed by Shadow Scorpion.

And now, was he going to just watch He die right in front of him?

He hopped and darted between craters and scorched earth left by the blasts, dodging the sticky webs and weird strands the white Human-Spider was spraying from afar, while desperately forcing his sniper rifle’s muzzle toward He’s position, finger already tightening on the trigger.

But before he could fire, his field of view was abruptly swallowed by a gigantic shadow falling from the sky.

At this distance, it was two wings with a span of over four meters, seemingly woven from rippling waves of light.

They dropped straight down like solid curtains, sealing off his entire firing view with absolute precision.

"Bang!"

The bullet blasted out of the barrel, only to slam hard into that shimmering wing surface.

The impact point flared with a violent ring of energy ripples, and through the expanding waves he glimpsed the pale metal framework within.

The black round tip of the bullet ended up lodged helplessly in the wing surface, pinned there, unable to penetrate any further.

Fire Raven’s cold voice came from within:

"You can’t even save yourself and you’re about to die, yet you still worry about others... you people really are something."

Xu Yingyan’s forehead was drenched, sweat mixing with dirt and smoke, running down into his eyes and stinging them.

But he didn’t have a hand free to wipe it away—one eye glared at the enemy hovering above the ground, the other, through the tactical goggles, stayed locked on the despair unfolding around He.

In his mind, he’d killed that teammate, and now it was He’s turn.

If he had the chance, he’d trade his life for He’s without hesitation!

But... there was no chance.

Fire Raven’s spread wings, like a cage of death, shut all his hope out.

So if there were a chance, Hawkeye would gladly use his own life to buy He’s—but the problem was, Fire Raven’s four-meter wingspan had completely blocked his firing angle.

What now?

Who’s going to save He?

....