When they arrived, Mina was already in a 1 v 30 battle with everyone inside the room. She managed to get past the bodyguard with her extreme speed, and hide unnoticed. Upon seeing Tao and Clement, her eyes burned with rage and she went to attack them.
Tao had quickly turned into that black dog creature, a tiangou, while Clement just remained watching in the sidelines. He looked at the pile of bodies on the floor that had been slashed by this mermaid's sharp claws.
"I was expecting to see you here, sister. You took longer than I expected, though." Clement said.
Mina growled. "I'm here to break all of your pet's bones and tear those pesky wings off."
And she didn't even allow them to answer back. She went on slashing, and she seemed to be stronger and faster than before. Roland had never seen Mina in action like this. He had heard stories from Harker and the bodyguards, and once he had taken Mina to the dojo with Alejandro to train karate with him.
But this was something else. This was the true power of the jiaoren , their unrivaled speed and ruthlessness.
Tao went to pounce on her, the impact breaking the floor and producing a gaping hole. But Mina managed to duck, and twist herself to deliver a punch on the dog's face.
He slammed into a wall, his jaw bleeding. But he easily got back up, and tried to pounce on her again. Claws against claws, speed against speed, savage beast against savage beast. They were equals this time, and it seemed that it was only the element of surprise that got Mina last time….
When Tao's leash suddenly glowed and he grew in size!
He almost filled the whole room, his giant maw reaching out to bite Mina's head off. The injured An Xin members also felt a surge of strength, and their wounds started to heal a bit faster.
Roland turned to the side, and saw that Clement's wings bursted out of his back.
"As much as I am impressed by your perseverance, sister, I must come and protect my brethren. It really is a pity that mankind had us monsters pitted against each other like this." He sighed, and then…..
He breathed in, and large amounts of air came into his mouth. But this only seemed to affect Mina. None of the other monsters were affected by the lack of oxygen, while Mina had to clutch her chest and gasp for air that was being stolen from her by this angel-like creature.
Clement continued to steal more air from her, and Mina's face was growing increasingly pale. Meanwhile, Tao was also recovering and slowly approaching to bite her and churn her flesh with his large, sharp teeth.
Roland panicked and elbowed Harker 2.0. "Do something! Weren't you sent here to protect us!?"
"She's not in real danger yet. She could easily move outside of that angel's range and get out of here before they could follow." The clone answered lacklusterly. "You're the one who's in real danger here."
He was right. The other monsters had noticed the presence of unfamiliar guests and were now going after them.
Roland saw back worms suddenly grow from his chest. No, he realized it was dissolving from his chest. Harker 2.0 reached out for his ax, and flashed his pearly whites at the An Xin members.
"What's up, party people!!!! Who wants to be sliced in half tonight!?" He yelled like a nutjob—
And quickly began slashing. Mina was ruthless, but that wasn't the right term to describe the clone. The clone was manic, his movements had no thought placed into it or any strategy. While Mina has an aim, his aim was simply everywhere.
He swung around the ax while spinning fast like a murderous ballerina. It sliced a couple of An Xin members in half at one point, but also easily got stuck on the wall.
But that didn't stop Harker 2.0, who just laughed it off as if it was a funny joke, and yanked the ax out again.
During the split-second that he wasn't attacking and completely vulnerable, an An Xin goon had turned its hand like a crab's pincers and tried to slice his neck.
And he did slice it. But the decapitated head was just grinning as it fell to the ground. There was no blood, only a bunch of black worms swarming where the cut had been.
"Over here, Mr. Crabs." He called out from below the crab demon….
And bite hard on his leg!
The crab demon howled and went to reach out for the head, ignoring the body which had already pulled out the ax. That was the last mistake he would ever make in his life, as the ax had sliced him from head to the crotch.
Harker 2.0's body picked up his body, and he turned to Roland to give him a thumbs up.
"Feel protected enough, Roly-poly?" He continued to battle against the whole lot of them while mocking his progenitor's friend.
But Roland was focused on Mina's demise. She wasn't moving to avoid Clement at all. She was crawling towards him, even though her face was turning purple now from asphyxiation.
Mina then reached onto Clement's feet, opening her mouth but unable to use her voice.
Clement gave Tao a look, who seemed to be telling him with his eyes that he's at the ready in case Mina tries anything. So he stopped stealing air from her, and let her breathe for a while to speak.
"What is it, sister?" He asked in a polite tone that came out as patronizing.
Mina coughed about, wheezing and gasping loudly. The last time she felt something like this was because of the man who tormented her kingdom for pearls. She was a mermaid with gills back then, unable to breathe on land because of weak lungs.
Now she was a human with lungs, yet unable to breathe all the same. Her enemies sure loved using this technique against her.
Roland wanted to approach her. But knew it would be a bad decision with the giant dog standing guard and the angel who could also make him choke without even laying a finger on him. Mina still hasn't noticed that he was here, especially not along with Harker's clone.
Because of the things this clone had said earlier, he also felt reluctant to make Harker 2.0's presence known to Mina as it would only make things complicated.
"I just want to say something….. I've been meaning to tell…. My parents' murderer for a long time…." She rasped, and took a deep breath.
Clement kneeled beside her. "I am not the one who killed your parents, sister. But I shall indulge you in these final moments. Consider it your confession."
"I….. want you all….. to die without even succeeding your purpose. Because my parents' purpose was to protect the kingdom, and even when they perished, they had achieved that purpose."
Mina smiled. "I hope you never achieve yours and die with regret."
She then opened her mouth and screamed so loud that it broke the eardrums of every single person in this room. And she didn't stop for a long time.
Eventually the sound waves were enough to shake the ground and produce an earthquake.
Debris fell on top of the large dog Tao, crushing him.
"No!" Clement yelled, and flew to tear it away from him.
Tao had turned back into human form, and he lifted him out as not just the whole room, but the entirety of London itself experienced a magnitude 8.0 earthquake.
Harker 2.0 had moved fast and abandoned his ax, covering Roland's ears and dragging him away from danger. Mina had collapsed from exhaustion and he also picked her up and got out of there.
This earthquake only lasted for a minute or so. But it had already toppled a lot of buildings in the great city, and sent damage unto everyone. None of the An Xin members besides Tao and Clement could have survived that, and even with Tao, it's doubtful he survived that much damage.
Roland couldn't hear anything. He was bleeding on all orifices, and suddenly felt worms entering them.
"No…. No…. Don't..." He tried to argue, but it was too late.
The worms had reached in to patch up the damage, and give him a little bit of qi to cure him. In exchange….
It now successfully entered his body without permission.
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