Chapter 20: The Concrete Onslaught

“This is going to be troublesome indeed…”

Lin Xi, while confident in her ability to delay a mutated beast one minor realm superior to her own, found that the current gorilla-like beast presented an entirely different challenge.

No, describing it as a gorilla was no longer quite right.

Its appearance was, in fact, almost indistinguishable from that of an adult laborer on a construction site; the only major difference was the rather excessive concrete covering its entire body.

Warily anticipating its next move, Lin Xi simultaneously manifested more firearms within her magic space.

At present, her manufacturing expertise was confined solely to shotguns, the most potent of which was a double-barreled hunting rifle utilizing specialized magic ammunition.

Unleashing a simultaneous volley should, at the very least, be sufficient to momentarily drive the opponent back.

She needed to buy time, at least until Bai Li could make her way back.

However, precisely as this thought formed in her mind, the concrete spikes that had launched Bai Li away liquefied and then solidified once more, transforming into a multitude of individual humanoid figures.

“What!?”

Each concrete humanoid bore an identical appearance to the mutated beast.

Even within her heightened perception, their individual strengths seemed almost equivalent, and they, too, wielded the power to manipulate concrete.

More accurately, every concrete humanoid present, including the primary beast, functioned as a direct extension of its core body.

This unfolding situation was still confined to a construction site; should it be allowed to advance into the city proper, the repercussions would be utterly catastrophic.

She had to resolve this here and now!

“Die!!”

The concrete humanoids, without exception, surged towards Lin Xi.

Endowed with the same raw strength as their progenitor and bodies of malleable concrete, their movements proved even more unpredictable and difficult to track.

‘They’ve truly underestimated me, haven’t they?’

Confronted by the dense formation of concrete humanoids, Lin Xi simply unsealed her magic space, extending the muzzles of the already-manifested firearms to point directly at them…

Yet, ‘pointing’ felt like an understatement; it was more akin to an omnidirectional, absolute aim, a sweeping barrage that left no blind spots.

Magic-infused bullets instantly pulverized the encroaching concrete humanoids, the thunderous reports of the gunfire overwhelming even the collective roars emanating from the enemy’s ranks.

For a fleeting moment, the concrete humanoids found themselves utterly incapable of advancing even a single inch.

This, however, came with an inevitable price.

Ordinarily, Lin Xi could conclude battles without expending many shots, and as a result, she had rarely, if ever, faced mana depletion.

Yet, the sheer amount of magical energy consumed by such an indiscriminate, all-encompassing barrage was, as anyone could plainly discern, extraordinarily vast.

Mercifully, her calculations suggested that this synchronized volley would precisely obliterate the vast majority of the concrete humanoids currently on the field.

As for the few remaining, she would simply need to employ evasive tactics.

In short order, the bullets, charged with various effects such as explosive force and incineration, precisely as Lin Xi had predicted, utterly decimated the bulk of the concrete humanoids.

For even with the augmentation of supernatural abilities, their fundamental nature remained, for now, concrete.

Until they ascended to a certain threshold, they could still be shattered by conventional attacks.

“A deep breath… and now for the next part…”

Lin Xi withdrew her firearms and then assessed the status of the mutated beast.

All the beast’s manifested doppelgangers had been pulverized, leaving behind only a handful of fragmented humanoids and its wounded primary body.

Judging by the scattered debris and the positions of the surviving fragments, it was clear that this mutated beast still harbored a primal instinct to protect its core body.

It seemed probable that even if the other manifestations possessed their own abilities, the death of the main body would still incapacitate them; it wasn’t a scenario where each clone functioned as an independent entity, demanding the complete annihilation of every single one.

Having thus discerned a method to break the stalemate, Lin Xi wasted no time, lifting the gun in her hand and training its barrel directly on the mutated beast’s core.

Yet, at that precise instant, she was suddenly assailed by a renewed sensation of peril, one far more potent than the last.

The immediate consequence of this premonition was a vast, dark shadow that enveloped her entirely.

‘It’s from behind…!’

Lin Xi’s reaction was instantaneous, but the concrete humanoid behind her had already raised its arm, now transmuted into a lethal blade, and was bringing it down in a devastating arc towards her…

“What do you think you’re doing?”

No sooner had the words escaped her lips than the humanoid was slammed with colossal force, embedding it deep into the earth.

Its blade-like arm was violently severed, then wielded as a makeshift stake, driven directly into its head, completely burying its entire form within the ground, an impact that caused a web of radial cracks to propagate across the surrounding surface.

The white-haired girl responsible for this swift succession of actions merely stood, a shovel — seemingly scavenged from any random spot on the construction site — held casually in her hand, her gaze now fixed upon the mutated beast’s primary form.

“Bai Li?”

“My apologies for the delay; I got a little disoriented just a moment ago.”

Bai Li glanced back, confirming Lin Xi’s well-being, and offered a brief explanation for her belated arrival.

She had been flung a considerable distance, landing in a section of the site that was largely finished but still cluttered with unremoved scaffolding, rendering the path back quite convoluted.

Moreover, given her need to partially conceal her true capabilities, she couldn’t simply smash through the ceiling and descend from above—a frequent predicament for physically specialized ability users.

Thankfully, her innate ability to perceive her surroundings allowed her to quickly discern the optimal route and race back, even managing to snatch a shovel to use as a makeshift weapon.

Though it felt somewhat awkward in her grip, it would more than suffice; after all, it was abundantly powerful enough to handle this particular mutated beast.

“Ugh… Aaaaargh!!”

The mutated beast, now bearing the semblance of a hulking adult male, gripped its head, evidently writhing in immense pain, before unleashing another guttural roar.

The ominous black miasma billowing from its form intensified with each passing second.

Bai Li, however, was not one to indulge in the luxury of awaiting an enemy’s full transformation or any such dramatic flourish.

With a single, explosive lunge that covered a dozen meters in an instant, Bai Li materialized directly before the mutated beast’s core.

Any fragments or clones obstructing her path were effortlessly pulverized into dust with a casual swing of her shovel.

“Hooowl, roooargh!!”

The mutated beast, without a moment’s hesitation, thrust out its arm, directly intercepting Bai Li’s shovel.

Bolstered by its formidable musculature and concrete-hardened shell, it astonishingly managed to parry Bai Li’s assault.

“Roar.”

Witnessing this unexpected outcome, the mutated beast emitted a triumphant cry that bore an uncanny resemblance to a sneering laugh.

In its assessment, Bai Li’s raw power was clearly inferior to its own.

Moreover, as a mutated beast, its regenerative abilities and other inherent attributes far outstripped those of the human standing before it.

If the engagement continued in this manner, ultimate victory would undeniably be its.

This, however, was nothing more than Bai Li deliberately holding back her true power.

In fact, to even call it ‘holding back’ would be inaccurate; she hadn’t even truly registered this as a fight.

Any being that dared to inflict harm upon Lin Xi would be utterly annihilated by her, no matter who or what they were.

Her only reason for allowing the opponent to endure thus far was to test a particular aspect.

Bai Li recollected the sword artistry Yu Menghua had demonstrated just recently.

She then distilled its core essence, manifesting it anew through the humble shovel in her hand.

In that very instant, the shovel’s trajectory altered dramatically, generating a shockwave powerful enough to scatter even the concrete fragments strewn across the surrounding ground.

In that selfsame moment, Bai Li delivered hundreds of precise cuts with the sharp edge of her shovel towards the mutated beast’s primary form.

The velocity was so breathtaking, and the intricate path of her ‘blade’—or rather, her shovel—so meticulously precise, that the concrete forming its body had no time to even begin to crumble.

“Disappear.”

Bai Li hoisted the shovel high above her head, then brought it down with a thunderous force upon the mutated beast’s core.

The resulting sound and seismic shock permeated nearly the entirety of the construction site, extending even to the surrounding high-rise buildings.