"You know me? Then I guess you're not an ordinary person either... What is that monster up ahead? A fat guy weighing around 250 kilograms (about 550 pounds)?" The Black man did not deny her guess, but he had no idea who Bella was. He could only tell that she was not a vampire.
How would I know what kind of monster that is? Bella slipped herself into the role of a pure bystander. "I don't know either! Look at that woman in an apron up ahead, the one who looks like a housewife. If she can chase him, then I can chase him too, right?"
Blade fell silent for several seconds. He had to. This bunch of "ordinary New Yorkers" was running far too fast, every one of them practically flying. He was starting to have trouble keeping up!
He worked hard to regulate his breathing and spent quite a while before squeezing out a complete sentence. "I was sleeping just now when I heard a lot of people talking about killing vampires. Do you know which direction the vampires are in?"
Bella might not know other things, but she knew the answer to this question perfectly. She pointed to the left side of the road. "Cross this street and turn left. You'll see a billboard. I think there are a lot of people killing vampires at the intersection north of that billboard."
"All right, thanks. You be careful too. Something about these people feels wrong..." Blade had little interest in chasing the bloated Sebastian. His favorite activity was killing vampires. He still had no idea what exactly was happening tonight, but if there were vampires to kill, then kill them! Why think so much?
Before leaving, he specifically warned Bella to be careful of the strange people ahead.
Whatever else might be true, Blade was certain he could not compare with those "ordinary New Yorkers" sprinting ahead like they could fly. Terrifying! Were all New Yorkers this physically gifted? Maybe he was the useless one!
Bella did not need him to say it. She already knew the people dressed like random passersby up ahead were wrong. Very wrong!
Her curiosity became overwhelming, and she wanted to use the divine power of Secrecy to take a peek.
The instant she mobilized her divine power, her heart suddenly jolted. An enormous fear flooded her mind. Don't look! Never look! If you look, you'll die!
This was an ability that had first appeared together with her mental shield: a premonition of death.
Even when she had been about to board Flight 180 back then, her premonition hadn't been this strong. Terrified, she hurriedly withdrew her divine power, and her pursuit immediately slowed by ninety percent...
She followed from far behind and watched the bloated Sebastian charge up a high-rise. A crowd of "ordinary New Yorkers" raised their assortment of bizarre weapons and, completely ignoring gravity, ran straight up the building's glass facade.
Bella stared in disbelief. To be fair, she could do that too, but who was she? A high-level mage who had mastered seventh-circle spells, a demigod who possessed the Secrecy Portfolio. For a moment, she began seriously questioning what was happening in front of her. Had she somehow wandered into a comedy movie universe?
The bloated Sebastian jumped from the far end of the rooftop toward the ground. The building was more than thirty stories and over one hundred meters (about 328 feet) tall, yet he jumped without hesitation. The many "ordinary New Yorkers" did the same. Every one of them simply hurled themselves down, hit the ground, rolled to bleed off the impact, and kept chasing!
"...Is that a Leap of Faith?" Brotherhood elder William Miles, the father who could not quite measure up to his son, happened to witness the scene and asked Bella in astonishment as she ran over.
What kind of Leap of Faith was that?! Was every New Yorker secretly Kassandra?
"Mr. Miles, have our people clean up the battlefield. Prepare to withdraw!"
"Withdraw now? There are still some enemies left."
"Now. I have a feeling we were the ones who raised the curtain on tonight's show, but we definitely won't be the ones bringing it to a close. Withdraw!"
She had barely finished speaking when an assassin came to report.
"Mentor, someone's exchanging fire at the intersection of Broadway and 121st Street."
Bella thought for a moment. "I don't think that's part of our combat zone. Who's fighting over there?"
The reporting assassin lowered his voice. "Looks like the military and the NYPD."
Before they could finish talking, a huge dark-brown creature with deformed bony spines running along its back flew backward like an artillery shell and smashed through the wall at the edge of their vision.
"What the hell is that?" It was too dark for Bella to see clearly. She teleported herself, William Miles, and the reporting assassin fifty meters (about 164 feet) away.
In the next second, an even stronger green monster smashed through the wall as well, roaring as it ran and slammed into the dark-brown creature.
Hulk and Abomination?! Bella covered her forehead with one hand, helplessness written all over her refined face.
She genuinely felt sorry for the people of New York. Living in this city truly required courage! What was this? One wave hadn't even subsided before another came crashing in!
Bella suppressed her presence and that of her subordinates. The bloated Sebastian, running nearby, immediately entered the sight of the dark-brown Abomination and Hulk. He was simply too large and conspicuous, and by now seven or eight arms had sprouted from his body. He looked extremely formidable!
Abomination made a huge leap and hammered Sebastian twice. Hulk, apparently operating on the logic of "if you're hitting him, then I'm hitting him too," joined the beating as well.
Sebastian fought back desperately. One second, he was slamming Hulk's head into a wall. The next, Abomination punched him away. Before Sebastian could even get up, Hulk had already pinned Abomination to the ground and started pounding him.
The three sides dissolved into a chaotic melee. It seemed as though each of them was fighting the other two at the same time.
"God!... God! I am God!" The bloated Sebastian's voice had become so muddy that only a few words were understandable.
Hulk looked utterly disdainful. "Puny god!"
He unleashed a combination of punches into Sebastian's belly. By this point, the bloated Sebastian could no longer absorb one hundred percent of incoming energy. His abdomen was beaten to pulp, and fat mixed with dark-brown blood poured from the holes.
Abomination joined the gang beating as well. The three monsters collided head-on, and the fight became ferocious.
Several "ordinary New Yorkers" watched from far away with weapons such as a small megaphone, a hair dryer, and a toilet plunger. None of them dared approach for fear of being caught in the crossfire.
The elderly Chinese man in Bella's eyes was particularly brave. Dodging left and right, he rushed into the battle. Just as Hulk's punch snapped the bloated Sebastian's head violently upward, the old man raised his banana and made a motion like firing a gun. Then came... a massive explosion!
The bloated Sebastian's head was pierced through, and he instantly lost the ability to control the energy inside his body. He had already approached his limit several times before. Now he lost control completely.
With a tremendous boom, his body exploded violently from the inside out.
The blood he had absorbed from the vampires' blood pool shot in every direction like a storm of arrows.
Hulk and Abomination took the brunt of it. Neither had even understood what was happening before they were blasted away.
Fortunately, the two of them served as living shields. Otherwise, Manhattan might have been reduced to a wasteland. Nearly ninety percent of the explosion's force and the blood arrows struck them. Even with bodies as tough as theirs, they were left hurting for quite a while.