Chapter 328: Chapter 226: White Cat
Before long, Paige Summers heard breathing and talking from a short distance away.
The sounds were faint, but she could still make them out.
One of them seemed to be shouting in a rage, "Why didn’t you keep Chubby here?! You know full well that even though he has a superpower, his mind is filled with nothing but food! If no one’s watching him, there’s no telling what might happen! And you just let him run off on his own?"
Another voice replied, trying to hold back his own anger, "He’s a grown man. How was I supposed to stop him? Besides, I’ve already sent people to look for him. Why are you taking it out on me?"
"Hmph! Me losing my temper with you is nothing. If you’ve got the guts, go tell the boss that Chubby is missing and see if he’ll spare you!"
"..."
Listening to their conversation, Paige Summers understood in an instant who this "Chubby" was.
’So that fat guy really was one of Sheldon Reid’s men!’
She was a little surprised.
’But from the looks of it, Sheldon Reid didn’t send him. And judging by their tone, Sheldon seems to value him quite a bit and didn’t want him taking any risks...’
Paige Summers sneered inwardly.
’Excellent!’
’The more you value him, the more pain you’ll feel when you learn he’s dead!’
’Just perfect!’
’Finally, you’ll know what it feels like to have someone you care about get hurt!’
As these thoughts ran through her mind, she turned to look at Marcus Monroe, planning to signal that she would take out the two men with her crossbow arrows before they all moved in.
But the moment she turned her head, Marcus Monroe... had already made his move.
In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a white cat and dashed toward the two men!
’A white cat???’
Paige Summers was utterly baffled.
She almost wanted to rub her eyes hard to prove she was seeing things.
But she wasn’t.
Peering through the bushes, she could see the swift figure, like a flash of white light, was indeed a white cat, only about two feet long including its tail.
Her breathing hitched for a moment, but she quickly brought it under control.
The people behind her were clearly just as shocked, but they lacked her composure.
She turned and shot them a fierce glare.
The members of the Orange Team snapped back to reality—they were in the middle of a raid.
Paige Summers led her team forward.
By the time they reached them, the two men were slumping to the ground, their eyes wide in utter disbelief. Their carotid arteries had been sliced open by something sharp, and blood was gushing out.
This was undoubtedly Marcus Monroe’s handiwork.
He hadn’t reverted to his human form, instead darting directly toward a heavily concealed section of the cliff face where there must be a cave entrance.
Just like the Orange Team’s earlier decoy, these men were also hiding on Mount Silvanus to protect Sheldon Reid.
In fact, if Chubby hadn’t gone missing, forcing Sheldon’s men to go out and search, the Orange Team might not have been able to track them back to their lair so quickly. But even then, they hadn’t gotten close enough to pinpoint the hideout’s exact location.
Yet Marcus Monroe had found the entrance immediately.
The terrain here wasn’t as naturally concealed as the spot the Orange Team had found beneath a cliff, so they had put more effort into hiding the entrance. It wasn’t just covered with vegetation; a massive boulder had been placed to block it from the outside.
Marcus Monroe quickly darted to the side, flicked his cat paw, and signaled for the others to open the entrance.
Even in such a tense moment, Paige Summers couldn’t help but make a strange face when she saw him.
’It’s just... so out of place!’
’Little cat equals Marcus Monroe, so waving a paw equals waving a hand.’
’Normally, when his serious, imposing self made that gesture, it was full of authority. But now, in cat form, waving a little paw... all she could think was, ’So cute!!’’
Of course, her thoughts were just thoughts, and her mind only wandered for a few seconds.
She quickly understood Marcus Monroe’s intent, took a few steps forward, and threw a punch!
BANG!
With the sound, the massive boulder cracked and then crumbled, scattering to both sides.
Simultaneously, a swarm of mutated plant branches shot out from the cave with a WHOOSH, piercing through the rubble and lashing out ferociously at Paige Summers and her team!
This was hardly a challenge for Paige Summers. She fluidly swung the long knife in her hand, while the Orange Team members behind her also launched their attacks.
The two sides were locked in a stalemate for a moment, but it didn’t take long for them to break through this line of defense.
What followed was unbelievably smooth.
Although there was no shortage of strong fighters among Sheldon Reid’s men, they were simply too few. Besides the two killed outside, there were only six people left. Paige Summers’ group, however, was double that size.
With no great disparity in individual strength, their overwhelming numbers became the deciding factor.
Marcus Monroe didn’t even need to get involved.
Of course, Marcus Monroe had no intention of fighting these subordinates. While Paige Summers and her team drew all the enemy’s fire, he had gone straight inside to find Sheldon Reid.
By the time Paige Summers and her team had dealt with the enemies and ventured deeper into the cave, they found that the fight inside was—both surprisingly and expectedly—already drawing to a close.
Marcus Monroe was back in his human form, his hand placed on Sheldon Reid’s head, slowly tightening.
On the ground lay two fresh corpses. They were clearly the last of Sheldon Reid’s protectors.
Sheldon Reid sat on a flat rock, his face a mask of extreme, suppressed agony. He wasn’t trying to struggle; or perhaps, he no longer had the strength to.
Paige Summers followed his hand with her eyes, unable to hide her astonishment.
In what felt like no time at all, Sheldon Reid had become almost unrecognizable. His cheeks were gaunt, his cheekbones jutted out, and most unbelievably, his hair had turned completely snow-white.
His former arrogance and cold indifference were gone. The Sheldon Reid before her now seemed to know deep down that he had reached the end of the road. As a result, the haggard stillness in his features gave him an oddly peaceful look.
’Judging by the scene, Marcus Monroe is torturing him.’
Paige Summers frowned slightly. ’Sheldon Reid is too dangerous. There’s no need to torture him. It would be cleaner to just kill him quickly!’
But then she thought about all the suffering Marcus Monroe had endured, and his current icy, emotionless state. Her feelings grew complicated. ’All of this is because of Sheldon Reid. Killing him now would be letting him off too easily!’
Her arrival seemed to give Sheldon Reid the strength to rally a sliver of his focus.
He looked at her and smiled faintly. "So, is the final blow being saved for you?"
Paige Summers raised an eyebrow slightly but said nothing.
’Marcus Monroe obviously doesn’t intend for that to happen. Besides, it’s not like I have to be the one to kill him personally.’
’Is he trying to drive a wedge between us?’
Sheldon Reid stared at her, continuing, "You’ve gone to such great lengths to kill me. I assume you already know what happened to the Summers Family all those years ago? Pathetic... Your mother took an enemy for her husband for so many years. Do you really think she never suspected a thing? I doubt it. Ha! And you, her own daughter, abandoned for twenty years, left to languish in The Dead City. You had to rely on a man just to make it to Central City. Then, for the sake of survival, you clawed your way into the Mercer Family... It must have been quite a struggle, hasn’t it..."
