The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 81: Detonation

“I know!”

Even without her reminding him, Gao Yang had figured out much of the way the red-haired man’s power worked.

His Talent was most likely Detonation, serial number 22, and his red right hand was the key.

As for how the Talent worked exactly, it was likely that he could detonate any organism his right hand had touched, and the power of the explosion depended on the duration of the touch.

That would explain why the explosions Wu Dahai and Heavenly Dog suffered were so serious, while White Rabbit only had a hole in her right leg.

It had only come into brief contact with the red-haired man’s right hand when she kicked him, while Wu Dahai and Heavenly Dog had supported the man for quite a while before they realized the danger, allowing the man’s right hand to stay in contact with their bodies for much longer.

And the red-haired man had been patient. He only ever moved his right hand within a reasonable limit. If he had recklessly touched Heavenly Dog’s and Wu Dahai’s hearts or heads, he would attract suspicion even though he would have killed them with one detonation. Originally, the man had planned to take out all four of them in one fell swoop.

Gao Yang felt chilled to the bones. If he hadn’t exposed the red-haired man with Lie Detection, the man would have found opportunities to touch all four of them with his right hand. Then all of them would have been blown up, rendering them sitting ducks awaiting easy hunting.

Gao Yang was reminded of what War Tiger had said:

—Don’t be misled by those shonen mangas. There is no absolute ranking for power. Real-life battles aren’t one-on-one matches in an arena, but a mix of schemes, exploitations, ambushes, lies, poisons, psychological warfare, traps, and the age-long tactic of going after someone with greater numbers. There are more tricks than one can feasibly predict and prepare for.

“Watch out!” White Rabbit shouted. Gao Yang had just turned around when the red-haired man reached out to touch Gao Yang’s face with his right hand.

His opponent was quick. He had rushed up to Gao Yang in only a few seconds. However, Gao Yang was prepared—he had left himself wide open to lure the man into attacking him, in fact.

With a hand supporting White Rabbit, Gao Yang put up a show of losing his composure due to his companions’ conditions. All the while, he had a hand hidden under his armpit with the palm facing his back, holding a ball of condensed energy that was ready to be unleashed.

The red-haired man was two inches away from touching Gao Yang’s face, and at that moment, he thought he had won. Before his joy could register in his brain, however, he was blinded by a flicker of light, and a fierce wave of blazing flames surged up out of nowhere, hitting him squarely.

“Ahhhh—” The man’s head and upper body were devoured by fire at once.

A regular man would’ve lost their mind in the blazing fire, but the red-haired man was an awakener, and one with Detonation as a Talent at that. With his impressive heat resistance, he kept his calm despite the scorching pain, and he jumped backward to get out of the fire’s range.

Although he had shut his eyes immediately, the heat damaged his corneas and left his vision blurry for a moment. All he saw was red. Then a shadowy figure flashed through the red.

It was Gao Yang. He had replicated White Rabbit’s Jump while helping her up. Pushing both feet against the ground with his legs bending and releasing like springs, he quickly closed the distance between him and the red-haired man.

The man didn’t have the time to dodge out of the way. He raised his broken right arm to shield his head with some difficulty, planning to pull the same trick he had used on White Rabbit, but Gao Yang wasn’t going to fall for that.

To make a fatal blow, the head would be the prime target, which was what White Rabbit had aimed at with her kick. The second best target would be the chest, and that was Gao Yang’s choice this time.

With Jump empowering his legs, Gao Yang kicked the red-haired man in the chest with tremendous explosive power and raw strength. He could almost hear the sound of the man’s ribs shattering at the same time.

Swoosh! The red-haired man flew toward the curb and slammed into a vending machine with a loud clang. The reinforced glass shattered all over the ground, and a few crushed cans rolled out onto the road.

Gao Yang panted. He had made the strongest kick he could. The red-haired man would be incapacitated even if he didn’t die.

Decisively, he rushed back to White Rabbit.

She hadn’t been sitting around doing nothing. Instead, she had torn her shirt up to bandage her right leg. Pale and covered in cold sweat, she said through clenched teeth, “Get Wu Dahai and Heavenly Dog on my back!”

Gao Yang understood immediately. “You...think you can make it?”

“Now!” White Rabbit growled, her face so twisted that she barely looked like herself.

Gao Yang did as she said immediately and put the two seriously injured men on her back. Carrying them with her hands behind her back, White Rabbit said, “I leave the man to you, Gao Yang. I’ll take them to Lovely Lamb!”

“Got it!”

White Rabbit crouched down slightly and, with a powerful leap, vanished from Gao Yang’s sight, leaving behind only two deep indents on the road and a pool of blood.

Gao Yang silently prayed that White Rabbit’s injured legs would give out only after she got to Lovely Lamb.

Now it was time to deal with the bastard!

When Gao Yang turned around, he was shocked to see that the red-haired man had disappeared. All there was was the broken vending machine. Then he heard the sound of a car starting from a short distance. He whirled around and saw that the red-haired man had gotten into their car. With blood streaking down the corner of his mouth, he covered his chest with one hand and moved the wheel with the other, giving Gao Yang a cold smirk through the window.

Gao Yang was caught off guard. How could the man move after getting such a heavy kick in the chest?!

The car hurtled toward Gao Yang. He quickly dodged out of the way.

When their eyes met through the car window, the red-haired man gave Gao Yang a vicious, hateful, and frustrated look, as if he was silently declaring that he would have his revenge sooner or later.

Gao Yang rolled to a stop. The car had already gotten quite far from him.

His replication of Jump had run out. There was no way he could catch up to the car. Rooted to the spot, he watched the car disappear at the end of the road. Only then did he collapse to the ground with sprawling limbs like a balloon man losing all the air.

He breathed in heavy puffs, drained.

Although he had made only two moves. Each took all the energy he could muster. He hadn’t pulled back at all.

He smelled a strange smell then. It was completely foreign to him. But then a gust of night wind swept it away, and the smell was gone.

After a few minutes of resting, Gao Yang took out his phone to call White Rabbit. She didn’t pick up.

He got to his feet and walked toward the Millennium Tower. About ten minutes later, his phone rang. White Rabbit called back.

“Hello?” Gao Yang said through a constricted throat.

“I got back in time. We’re with Lovely Lamb.” She sounded positively frosty. “Did you get him?”

“He ran.” Gao Yang paused. “How are they?”

“Not good.”