"Roar!!!"
The violent, ferocious roar made Vi, who was in the middle of the rat swarm, stiffen. It was as if Terrify had seized her heart, as if she was being stared at by a beast.
Rolling flames flowed past her like a flood; anything that touched even a bit was instantly incinerated into a blazing torch.
Vi stopped her forward punch, standing in place, somewhat at a loss. The Plague Rats, which had been so fierce just moments ago, were now all burned to charcoal.
As for Caitlyn on the factory roof, she covered her mouth, her eyes shining with disbelief as she watched Arrogance, who seemed like a divine dragon descending, breathing out fiery flames.
Arrogance controlled its breath, bypassing Vi, and incinerated all the endlessly surging Plague Rats, leaving them completely clean.
Caitlyn, noticing Duke's motorcycle was gone, then looked at Arrogance and said in surprise, "He is Duke's motorcycle, but how is that possible?"
"My father can't even achieve this level of transformation between motorcycle and robot modes. How did he do it?"
bang bang bang bang.....
A continuous series of gunshots interrupted Caitlyn's thoughts. Duke held white ivory in his right hand and pulled out ebony wood with his left. These two legendary weapons, one black and one white, had barely entered Caitlyn's eyes before a look of infatuation flashed within them.
"Such beautiful weapons, I've never seen anything like them!"
Seeing the ebony and ivory in Duke's hand, Caitlyn then looked at the rifle Duke had temporarily modified for her and directly pouted.
"What the heck, there are such good things, why didn't you take them out earlier?"
If Duke had heard that, he would definitely scoff.
Heh, women!
Duke, with white ivory firing continuously, only had eyes for that Rat King. The Rat King, whose figure flickered in and out of sight in the night, shuddered, and its hard, slender fur scattered like buckshot, densely covering Duke.
Duke stood still, an afterimage flashing in front of him. Arrogance appeared before him, shielding him. The dense fur fell on Arrogance's armor, making soft clinking sounds.
It was like dense raindrops striking a pipa.
"Harm Father, die!!"
Arrogance's eyes shifted from blue to red, and amidst the dangerous red glow, Arrogance's mouth opened, and a faint light appeared.
Sizzle!!
A laser shot out from his mouth, sweeping across the ground, leaving a red, scorching line that exploded a second or two later.
Rumble.....
Continuous flashes of fire erupted, and the factory building beneath Caitlyn's feet was also destroyed by the flames. Caitlyn, falling straight down, shrieked, and the next second she was caught by Vi, who had suddenly reached out.
"Little Cake, you're not doing so well!"
"Hmph, you're not much better yourself!"
Clang!
Duke, who had struck Arrogance's head with his gun stock, glanced at the unharmed Caitlyn and Vi, letting out a sigh of relief, then reprimanded Arrogance: "Don't use weapons with such strong destructive power!"
"But, Father....."
"You are forbidden from using destructive lasers when allies are present!"
"Yes!"
"Go continue clearing out those rats. As for this one, I'll play with it!"
"Mmm!"
Arrogance responded with a grunt, his figure flickering as he rushed into the factory building, where roars and howls echoed endlessly.
Hearing the commotion in the factory, Duke covered his forehead helplessly and said, "Raising a child is really not easy!"
Swish, swish, swish.....
The moment fine rat hairs shot towards Duke, he stepped to the left, dodging the volley, and raised his right hand, aiming at the Rat King's thermal energy outline in his sight.
Bang!!
Amidst an extremely heavy roar, an ebony wood bullet pierced through the air. The Rat King sensed the threat and leaped to that side, but the lower half of its body was grazed, directly exploding into smithereens.
Thud!!
A deep pit the size of a washbasin appeared on the ground.
Plop!!
The Rat King, with its lower half of its body shattered, fell to the ground, blood trickling from its pointed mouth, and a painful glint flashed in its blue eyes.
"Let me see what exactly you are!"
Duke approached the Rat King. The Rat King gathered its last strength and let out a sharp howl. This howl had already gone beyond the scope of a rat's cry. As the howl reverberated, a rat hidden deep within the factory stirred and raised its head.
"It chose not to attack me at the end, but instead let out a howl!"
Duke stared at the Rat King a step away from him. Edith emitted a bright light, helping Duke see the Rat King in front of the wall. Caitlyn and Vi moved closer, and upon seeing the Rat King with the lower half of its body shattered, they all gasped.
This Rat King had the build of a hound. The lower half of its body had completely vanished, leaving only two front legs and a head. However, compared to ordinary Plague Rats, this Rat King had faint blue light flickering from its ghostly blue blood vessels beneath its fur.
The Rat King's eyes had also turned blue, and its neck was covered in blue blood vessels.
"This rat looks a bit like..."
Vi, who had seen mutated creatures after drinking Shimmer, looked at Duke uncertainly. Duke stared at the Rat King on the ground and said, "It's highly probable that this was an experimental subject Silco and his group used for their experiments."
"After the experiment succeeded, it was left behind, and when we dismantled Silco's lair, this rat also escaped!"
"That scoundrel Silco really caused a lot of harm; even the problems he left behind can cause such chaos!"
Vi cursed in a low voice, clearly hating Silco to the core.
Caitlyn was very curious about Silco and Shimmer, which the two were discussing, but now was clearly not the time to ask about them.
"Something like this, just kill it directly!"
Vi raised her gauntlets, intending to smash the Rat King flat with one punch, but Duke stopped her, a thoughtful expression on his face. Remembering that Caitlyn had the most hunting experience here, Duke straightforwardly asked, "Caitlyn, what should one pay attention to when encountering a Beast cornered during a hunt?"
"You need to be wary of that Beast's final counterattack!"
"What if it's cornered but doesn't counterattack?"
"That should be its final warning to protect its young or other family members!" Caitlyn meticulously explained everything she knew: "We generally don't target such creatures, after all, Beasts have feelings too!"
"Hey, I didn't expect you, Little Cake, to have such a sentimental side!"
Vi put her arm around Caitlyn's shoulder. Caitlyn was about to retort with something sarcastic, but remembering that Vi had saved her when the factory collapsed, she said nothing.
"So that's how it is!" Duke's eyes showed understanding. "No wonder it didn't choose to counterattack at the end; it probably has offspring!"
"You mean this monstrous thing has descendants?"
"That's probably the case; after all, even mutated creatures must follow the instincts in their bloodline!"
Duke delivered the final shot to the Rat King, whose eyes were growing dimmer, then led Caitlyn and Vi into the factory. The Rat King, killed instantly, never looked at Duke, but instead strained to look in the direction of the factory building.
It seemed to be reminiscing about something.
Entering the factory, the trio of Duke, Caitlyn, and Vi were astonished to find that Arrogance had dismantled the entire factory building. Broken bricks and tiles were everywhere, and the Plague Rats' corpses had all been Incinerated by him.
"Tsk, there are too many heat sources, it's a bit hard to distinguish!"
Adjusting Edith's glasses, Duke searched for any stragglers, but the heat generated by Arrogance's Fire breath made it difficult for him to use Edith's thermal imaging to search for the potentially existing young.
"What a pity!"
Duke waved to Arrogance, telling him to burn everything here and be done with it.
Arrogance nodded, opened his mouth, and unleashed an even more violent breath, reducing everything in front of him to ashes.
"Let's go, there's nothing left to see!"
Duke called out to Caitlyn and Vi, "I have to go on a long trip tomorrow, so I can't stay up too late!"
"You're going on a long trip?"
Vi raised an eyebrow, "What about Powder?"
Orianna and Mr. Colin will take care of her, and with her personality, she won't be bullied!
Duke gestured, letting Arrogance follow behind him, accompanying Caitlyn and Vi as they left the incinerated factory. The three of them chattered endlessly, and the distance between Caitlyn and Vi was noticeably closer than before.
As the three, and one mechanical companion, slowly moved away, a bloated Plague Rat crawled out of the ditch, a blue test tube clutched in its mouth. The liquid inside the test tube emitted a deep blue glow.
After glancing at the Rat King's corpse, it looked at the retreating figures of Duke, Caitlyn, Vi, and the mechanical companion. A peculiar emotion was revealed in its eyes. After watching their backs for a long time, the Plague Rat, dragging its rather fat belly, waddled into the Water ditch with the test tube still in its mouth.
If Duke had noticed the Plague Rat's gaze, he would have surely understood the emotion contained within its eyes.
This emotion was called — Hatred!
------------------------
I've posted 40+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/DaoistRoeoNQ
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"