NOVPUBThe heads rolled downward, following the slope of the ground.
But that was just the beginning.
Soon after, an even denser torrent of heads cascaded from above, tumbling down one after the other.
Even more terrifying was the eerie sense of life they emitted, letting out chilling, hair-raising giggles.
"Hee hee... hee hee hee..."
The group recoiled in shock.
Fortunately, they quickly composed themselves.
"We can’t outrun them. They won’t explode too, will they?"
With the momentum of their fall and the acceleration of gravity, the heads descended at a terrifying speed.
Escape was undoubtedly futile.
Before anyone could finish that thought, with a masterful display of skill and courage, Daniel leapt and delivered a powerful kick, sending the first descending head flying away.
If escape was impossible, might as well face it head-on.
Luckily, the head that was kicked away didn’t explode.
A tremendous force struck squarely on its face, causing it to distort grotesquely.
The head thudded against the wall, rebounding to another, then ricocheting again and again.
Until, unable to bear the successive blows, it cracked with a crisp sound, splitting apart and turning into a muddy pulp on the ground.
Daniel shrugged, "Seems they’re not like the skeletal heads; they don’t explode."
Joey and the others just stared, utterly speechless.
For Susanna, it was slightly less shocking, aware as she was of Daniel’s foresight.
But Joey and Aesop were profoundly shaken by Daniel’s daring move.
With Akid’s incident fresh in their minds, they wouldn’t dare touch these heads for anything.
An explosion could be deadly.
Yet there was Daniel, recklessly launching that kick with unparalleled bravado.
Did he somehow intuit that these fleshed heads differed from the skeletal ones, that they wouldn’t explode?
Venturing into the unknown, did he really just send it flying with a single kick?
Upon realizing these heads wouldn’t explode, fear among the group diminished.
No longer retreating, they charged forward.
Joey pulled out two large machetes, shimmering with a golden gleam — they seemed to be forged from gold.
Amongst Aesop and Susanna, his prowess was unmatched.
Taking the lead, he surged past even Daniel to the very front, his arms swinging in tandem.
Swish!
A blade’s gleam cut through the air.
The foremost rolling heads were instantly cleaved in two by Joey’s sweeping machetes.
A disdainful smirk graced Joey’s lips as he sneered, "Is that all?"
These eerily anomalous heads were surprisingly fragile.
Their numbers might be many, but beneath his machetes, they fell as easily as slicing through cabbage.
However, an even more unsettling spectacle soon unfolded.
The bisected heads began to quiver intensely.
Then, to the collective astonishment of the group, each severed half morphed into a whole head.
"Hee hee hee... hee hee!"
How could this be?!
Joey’s frustration grew.
With another swift motion, he brought down his blade.
In the blink of an eye, the regenerated heads were once again split in half.
To prevent them from reforming, Joey brandished his blades in rapid succession, making seventy or eighty slashes in a mere second.
Within less than ten seconds, the heads were diced into small fragments.
Surely, once reduced to this state, they couldn’t possibly regenerate?
Joey, clutching his machete, wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.
Then... he froze in place.
On the ground, those tiny fragments wriggled like worms, spreading outward.
In a blink, each fragment grew into a complete head.
From the original twenty or thirty, there were now hundreds, if not thousands!
How could this be?
At this, Joey was utterly dumbfounded.
The others gaped, their faces drained of color.
Thousands of heads stirred.
They swarmed crazily towards Joey, who stood petrified.
Daniel yanked him back in one swift motion, then coolly assessed, "They can regenerate endlessly. Don’t use blades on them anymore."
Aesop lamented, "We have a flamethrower in the car. Had I known, I would’ve brought it in to turn these monstrosities to ashes!"
Faced with such bizarre creatures, the group felt powerless.
They couldn’t escape, nor could they overcome them.
Filled with regret, Joey exclaimed, "What do we do now? Just wait here to die?"
His weapon of choice, the machete, had ironically become the very instrument amplifying their number.
Just then, Aesop stepped forward.
A scornful smirk graced his face as he glanced at the sea of heads. "Step back," he commanded, "and behold my performance!"
So what if one is a Level 3 Evolver? At times like this, it comes down to me.
He swiftly positioned himself at the forefront, directly confronting the surging mass of heads.
Each one bore a sinister grin, mouths agape as if intent on swallowing Aesop whole.
Yet, just as the foremost heads were about to make contact, Aesop’s expression turned icy.
Without hesitation, he extended his left hand, fiercely clenching it in the air.
A resonating hum filled the air.
To everyone’s astonishment, a gigantic palm materialized directly above the writhing heads.
So vast was this hand that its fingers pierced through nearby stone walls as if they were soft clay.
Summoning a giant hand? Such a peculiar ability.
Even Daniel was taken aback, having never witnessed such a power before.
With a fierce shout, Aesop roared, "Die!"
The phantom hand hovering in the air mirrored his own, clenching with formidable force.
The heads caught within its grasp emitted a muffled explosion.
With a soft "pop", they were instantly crushed to smithereens by the colossal grip.
But Aesop was far from done.
Swinging his left fist downward with vigor, the spectral hand transformed into a massive fist, slamming down in tandem.
Boom!
The heads within the radius of its impact were pulverized, much like deflated balls, turning into a bloody mush that blended seamlessly into the river of blood.
One strike!
A thousand heads obliterated!
This method of attack even surpassed Joey, a Level 3 Evolver!
Daniel’s pupils involuntarily contracted.
To be honest, he had truly underestimated Aesop.
Withdrawing his fist, the ethereal hand faded into nothingness.
"We move on," he declared, brushing off his hands, his prowess as understated as ever.
Just as they were about to proceed, an unexpected twist occurred.
Thud!
Thud-thud!
A bizarre noise echoed throughout the corridor.
Shining his flashlight, Daniel discovered that the river of blood beneath them was bubbling, as if boiling, giving rise to countless blood bubbles.
The bubbles grew, expanding to the size of soccer balls.
Then, with a burst, head after head emerged from the shattered bubbles.
"They just won’t die?!"
"What the fuck?!"
Aesop and the others looked on in horror as more and more heads sprouted from the river, quickly filling the entire corridor.
Chilling laughter resonated again.
"Hee hee... hee hee hee!"
The confidence once gleaming in Aesop’s eyes had dimmed.
Despite his efforts, the number of heads had multiplied again, blocking the path behind them.
Facing the mountainous pile of heads, all hope seemed lost.
It appeared that this time, their fate was sealed.
"Damn it! I’m going all out with you bastards!"
Unable to bear the torment of impending doom, Joey drew his twin blades and swung fiercely at the approaching heads.
Daniel shouted, "Stop!"
"Fighting these creatures isn’t just about brute force; use your head!"
Joey’s face reddened with anger. "Are you saying I’m brainless?!"
"We’re already in this situation, and it seems we’re on a dead-end path. If I kill one, it’s a win; two, it’s a bonus!"
"If we can wipe out these damned things, we might have a chance to escape during their regeneration gap!"
"So, who’s the one without a brain now?"
Daniel merely smirked, choosing not to reply.
Had it been earlier, Joey’s strategy might have worked.
But now, with the count of heads exceeding tens of thousands, their killing rate couldn’t possibly match the heads’ regeneration speed.
Chances were, they’d be drained of energy and succumb before even making a dent in the enemy’s numbers.
Joey was about to retort, but before he could open his mouth, he was struck dumb.
There stood Daniel, centered in the corridor, arms outstretched on either side.
Countless silk threads burst forth from his palms, cascading like waterfalls, shooting in both directions.
Each thread, as sharp as a silver needle, targeted the center of the heads’ brows, piercing fiercely through.
Once breached, the threads delved deeper, shredding the insides into a pulpy mess.
Once each head had been dealt with in this manner, the myriad of threads cast the countless heads aside, then retracted back into Daniel.
The heads that had fallen to the ground didn’t regenerate; they lay still, seemingly dead for good.
All of this transpired in the blink of an eye.
Tens of thousands of heads, utterly obliterated by Daniel.
The others stared in disbelief, "Is it... over?"
Aesop, eyes wide with incredulity, blurted out, "How is this possible?! Why didn’t they come back to life?"
"And, isn’t your ability Information Detection? What were those threads just now?"
Without offering an explanation, Daniel simply stated, "Let’s move."
He then proceeded onward, and Susanna followed without a second’s hesitation.
Joey and Aesop looked at the corridor sides, piled high with heads.
They exchanged a glance, both seeing in the other’s eyes a mixture of astonishment and resignation.
Some people just outshine the rest, don’t they?
