Chapter 153: Julius
Baitang Jing and the other had just finished slaughtering the seventeen monsters.
Immediately afterward, they noticed the loud noise caused by Quan Zhixin, who had been knocked flying all the way through a building.
After all, it was hard not to notice the dust and explosive fire rising into the sky.
And when Quan Zhixin, bruised and battered without a single uninjured patch of skin, revealed information about his opponent,
accompanied by footsteps amidst the dust, a sense of oppression so heavy it reached the absolute extreme bore down upon them like a mountain instantly suspended above their heads!
Unlike ordinary monsters that walked on all fours with reverse-articulated joints, this thing moved like a human with twisted limbs.
It strolled leisurely, arching its back as it stepped into the field of vision of the three.
Its ferocious, fang-filled mouth, split wide to the base of its ears, wore a cruel smile.
The shadow of its massive body practically engulfed and concealed all three of them.
"You are... Julius?!"
Standing atop the pile of corpses, Baitang Jing furrowed his brows the moment those vaguely human facial features entered his sight.
That muscle size and body proportion on the monster, far exceeding ordinary levels, could only belong to that ultimate crystallization of German biotechnology—the "Monster," Julius Reinhold!
Today, that former moniker had truly become reality.
Julius's amber-yellow beastly pupils dilated involuntarily the instant the name reached his ears, before returning to normal.
"An old acquaintance, little brother Baitang?"
Doppo Orochi's posture stiffened slightly, but there was an unmistakable excitement in the tone of his voice.
The moment Julius appeared, the suddenly rising immense pressure had stimulated him into tensing every muscle in his body.
Yet following right behind it was the thrilling sensation of a knife tip piercing the chest and pressing right against the heart!
It left him utterly intoxicated.
Baitang Jing did not answer him.
Because there were no words left.
The battle had already been declared open the moment the enemy appeared.
"Boom!"
With just Julius's grinning charge, the dust kicked up from beneath its feet reached a height sufficient to obscure a residential building!
Its massive size made it impossible for the trio to tell who its target was.
Baitang Jing had no choice but to first scoop up the immobile Quan Zhixin and leap aside to place him in a safe spot.
Doppo Orochi greeted it with pleasant surprise.
He had been agonizing just moments ago over how to make Baitang Jing back off first so he could fight this anomaly one-on-one!
"Come!"
Doppo Orochi's muscular frame bulged and tensed as he let out an excited, gasping roar.
Facing the cyan-black fist that was half the size of an ordinary person's torso, Doppo Orochi's eyes gleamed with a sharp light.
The moment the fist was about to smash into him, he dropped low and lunged forward!
Diving straight into the inner perimeter of the opponent's gigantic body, he prepared to unleash a karate straight punch!
However... the enhancement of the Titan gene was all-encompassing.
Just as Quan Zhixin had said, this anomaly possessed physical capabilities overwhelmingly superior to "Beyond Zoanthropy."
The cruelty in those amber-yellow beast pupils was mixed with a hint of mockery.
The fist Doppo Orochi had thrown out transformed with unimaginable agility into a claw strike, pulling inward!
Doppo Orochi was not surprised by the fierce sound of breaking air behind him.
Instead, his gambling spirit soared high!
Come on!
Let's see whether your claws touch me first, or my fist makes you lose your balance and deflects your attack!
The thrill of dancing on the edge of a blade is something every martial artist dreams of.
Yet just as the outcome was about to be revealed in a split second, Baitang Jing charged in and kicked the claw off target.
He was joining the fray as well.
"Julius is abnormally strong; we have to finish it quickly!"
"I'll draw the attacks, and you wear it down from the flanks!"
Having assigned the roles, the young man attacked.
If this monster were allowed to rampage any further, there was no telling how many people would die and how much economic damage would be caused.
Yet the fighting young man failed to see the gloomy expression settling onto Doppo Orochi's face beside him.
The battle instantly descended into chaos.
Julius's fist swung in a terrifying arc.
In the distance, tens of tons of weight from the pile of monster corpses were blown directly into the air by the shockwave!
Yet just as Baitang Jing mustered his strength and crossed his elbow in the path of the swinging fist,
he discovered that Doppo Orochi was not following the plan to bide his time and attack.
Instead, with a grave expression, he charged straight up to meet the fist head-on.
The sound of the collision and the blast wave resounded through the sky.
"So heavy!"
Even with two of them taking the attack, Baitang Jing felt the "weight" of the strike with a long-lost intensity.
Yet he still believed he could take it alone.
Claw strikes, tail whips, sweeping blows...
Once or twice could be blamed on uncoordinated teamwork, but three times or more meant it was deliberate.
The young man was growing impatient.
"Doppo Orochi! What are you doing! If we don't take this monster down, do you know—"
"What are *you* doing, brat!"
The two of them withstood a heavy punch from Julius.
Before Baitang Jing could finish, Doppo Orochi's expression twisted entirely with grand fury!
He was not only fighting Julius's strength now, but had even lashed out at Baitang Jing.
"Is this the way you act? Can you even call yourself a martial artist?!"
"What...?"
Baitang Jing blocked a palm strike from Doppo Orochi, stunned into bewilderment.
"Team up to fight the enemy? Main attacker and support? Are you trying to make me laugh to death!"
"A martial artist is supposed to crush opponents head-on with sheer force! A martial artist is supposed to defeat every single opponent one-on-one!
If you're going to resort to any means necessary for some 'greater good' or 'overall situation,' why not just become a damn soldier instead!"
Doppo Orochi's earnest fury left even Baitang Jing, who was prepared to fight according to plan, somewhat at a loss.
"Didn't you notice? Look at your pathetic appearance right now—even this thing called Julius... its main attacks aren't even aimed at you!"
Indeed.
This monster transformed from Julius seemed to have no intention of focusing its attacks on Baitang Jing, despite him performing better than Doppo Orochi.
Instead, it treated the two of them as a single entity to be slaughtered.
To it, Baitang Jing did not seem particularly special.
Taking advantage of Baitang Jing's momentary lapse in concentration, Doppo Orochi directly flung him out of the combat circle.
Julius showed no intention of pursuing him.
Doppo Orochi dodged successive attacks and lunged forward, stepping on Julius's knee as an upward palm strike aimed straight for the opponent's chin.
The immense force caused his own head to snap back involuntarily, and a shockwave burst directly from the top of Julius's head!
Yet even with Doppo Orochi holding nothing back, it merely made the monster's pupils roll slightly.
Doppo Orochi erupted with a murderous aura worthy of the name "Tiger's Bane."
He did not let his morale sink simply because the disparity in power was too great or his attack had been thwarted.
Instead, with an even more elevated and frantic posture, he thrust a spear-hand straight toward Julius's eyes!
A cyan-black, half-person-sized palm blocked the spear-hand.
*Thwip—*
Sharp blades piercing flesh.
This was the first substantial injury Julius had received since the battle began.
Yet Doppo Orochi felt no joy of success; instead, his pupils dilated wide.
"Unbelievable... it couldn't even pierce the palm?!"
Decades of karate mastery, paired with a "Beyond Zoanthropy" physique tough enough to withstand artillery shells.
It couldn't even pierce the soft flesh of the palm.
The spear-hand was pinched directly within the grip of the taut, cyan-black muscles!
*Swish—*
A cyan-black tail whip flashed past.
The razor-sharp tail cut through Doppo Orochi's spear-hand at the wrist in the blink of an eye, like a hot knife through butter.
This was the first time Doppo Orochi witnessed firsthand what the "abnormally sharp" bone spurs Quan Zhixin had spoken of actually meant.
However.
The panic of having his flesh breached, the agony of having his wrist severed...
In the eyes of the "Tiger's Bane," none of these existed.
First, shock flashed through his gaze.
He was shocked by bone spurs of an unprecedented, razor-sharp edge.
Then came joy.
A joy born of the realization that "the spear-hand is finally unbound from fragile fingers"!
"Haaaah!"
Caring nothing about the hand of his own still embedded in the opponent's palm,
Doppo Orochi simply couldn't wait to thrust forward with the bare forearmbone of his severed wrist to deliver a [Spear-Hand]!
The force slammed into the half-person-sized palm once more.
The compressed mass of flesh directly twisted out of shape!
Using the breach from the previous spear-hand as a breakthrough point, the fleshy mass sank deep into the flesh and blood of Julius's palm.
Just as Doppo Orochi wanted to exert more force to pierce straight through Julius's hand,
the monster's other palm closed directly around Doppo Orochi's sturdy body.
He had lingered too long for that strike.
"What?"
"Roar, roar, roar!!"
Amidst savage screams that were half-laughter and half-howl,
accompanied by a series of cracking sounds, the "Beyond Zoanthropy" physique capable of withstanding artillery fire went limp like a rag doll.
Every bone in his body had been crushed.
Doppo Orochi's body slid from the relaxing palm and collapsed onto the ground.
Amidst the monster's screeches, it raised its foot, preparing to stomp down with all its might!
Given a grip strength capable of easily shattering bones in the "Beyond Zoanthropy" stage, if this stomp landed solidly,
Doppo Orochi would likely be reduced entirely to minced meat!