Chapter 236: Well-trained

The female host clutched her startled son and had already rushed to the entryway, her hand trembling so much she could barely grip the doorknob; after several turns it finally clicked open with a "clack".

"Hurry! Get out first! Hide in the stairwell!"

She roughly shoved her son out the door; the child was completely terrified, just crying nonstop.

The female host heard the noise and turned back, just in time to see the monster slowly walking toward her husband, who lay amid the wreckage of the TV cabinet.

Viscous bodily fluid seeped from the gaps in the monster's carapace, corroding small pits in the floor.

She instinctively glanced around the entryway, saw a broom in the corner, gritted her teeth, shoved the child who was crying and pulling at her hard outside, shut the door, and prepared to grab that broom.

"Waa—waa—waa—!"

The wail of police sirens cutting through the night drew nearer, red and blue flashing lights from outside the monster-shattered window.

Police! Police are here!!

The female host's motion froze, tears instantly blurring her vision.

The aberrant species in the living room was also drawn by this sudden noise, turned around, its compound eyes attracted by the flashing lights outside the window.

It temporarily halted its advance toward the male host, letting the female host breathe a sigh of relief.

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Yang Yixie kept his eyes on the second-floor window of the neighboring building; he had just been able to see the aberrant species loitering by the bed inside, and the people inside must have put up some resistance to hold out until the police arrived.

And after the police appeared, the aberrant species' attention was completely drawn to them; it seems the likelihood of that attacked household coming to harm is low.

The police placed greater importance on these "abnormal incidents" than he had anticipated.

Through the gap in the curtains he could clearly see several police cars and two unmarked black vans screech to a halt downstairs, their doors flinging open.

The first to disembark were not police, but a team where everyone wore deep-gray protective suits.

What they held were not standard firearms but mostly melee weapons.

Spears, battle axes, steel forks, and even someone wielding a huge blast shield; if not for their protective suits, Yang Yixie would suspect he had stumbled into a technologically backward ancient society.

Their movements were uniform and precise, obviously well-trained, and they showed no fear whatsoever facing the eerie monster.

Meanwhile, the few who followed them out of the vehicles seemed somewhat "out of place".

They wore the same protective suits, but their posture was more relaxed, some even adjusting cuffs or yawning, appearing especially lax.

The aberrant species was clearly enraged by the glaring lights on the police cars.

It abandoned the male host within arm's reach and leapt directly down from the second floor.

"Roar——!!!" A foul stench accompanied the monster's howl as it burst forth.

"Shield formation front! Draw attention! Others, seek opportunities to strike the joints and carapace seams!" a squad commander calmly issued the order.

The soldiers holding blast shields immediately stepped forward, their shields linking to form a solid barrier, while those wielding polearms quickly spread out to the flanks.

The aberrant species swung a massive forelimb and charged straight at the shield wall.

"Bang!!"

The dull impact made teeth ache; the shield-bearers merely grunted, and the flankers seized the moment, long blades and battle axes whistling as they struck at the monster's joints and the weak points where its carapace joined.

"Clang! Sizzle——!" The metallic clash and the sound of slicing flesh rang out together.

The aberrant species' carapace was unusually hard, but the long blade left a deep gash in a joint, the battle axe lodged in a carapace seam and pried open a small plate, exposing the writhing flesh beneath.

The aberrant species winced in pain and let out an even angrier roar as its other forelimb swept sideways,

"Scatter!" the commander promptly ordered.

Several well-trained individuals leapt back, while one person in the rather loose formation found an opportunity.

Three pale cyan wind blades formed silently and shot at a tricky angle toward the aberrant species' compound eyes.

Her attack was simple and direct, unlike the troops' units forged through relentless drilling, yet it proved especially effective against the aberrant species.

The wind blade sliced the compound eyes, and the wind blade that had entered the crack also churned wildly.

The aberrant species emitted a series of wails, its massive body losing balance as one forelimb was nearly ruined, and it staggered.

"Now! All-out attack!"

All the soldiers surged forward, their shields slamming into the aberrant species' off-balance body, and their polearms rained down like a storm, stabbing wherever the carapace offered no protection.

She did not stop there; another wind blade struck the same compound eye she had hit before, this thrust with greater penetration, and in just a moment the monster gradually ceased to live under this barrage.

But Yang Yixie could roughly guess that the aberrant species core in the monster's brain had been pulverized by that person's wind blade.

The soldiers quickly withdrew, confirmed the aberrant species' death, then someone stepped forward to treat the corroded floor and put up a cordon line.

A soldier approached the person who had just unleashed the wind blade, bowed to the few, and they all embarrassedly scratched their heads.

Although they had all awakened aberrant arts, not everyone could actually employ those arts in combat.

Let alone that situation—they didn't know whether to intervene or how, only one person flung out a wind blade, which still proved useful in the fight.

Even so, this commander still thanked them for their willingness to come; compared to whether they truly proved useful, the mere courage to step forward deserved his respect.

The person who had emitted the wind blade seemed to have said something to him; the commander nodded occasionally and also did not forget to issue new orders via the walkie-talkie.

Soon, several workers similarly clad head-to-toe in sealed protective suits hurried out of a black van and rushed straight to the residential building the aberrant species had just invaded.

Shortly afterward, they escorted three people out.

Precisely the male host, female host, and their young son from that household.

All three were hastily fitted with what looked like a disposable raincoat—an "isolation shroud"—wrapped from head to toe, leaving only their faces exposed, though a simple filter device covered their mouths and noses.

Several medical personnel immediately stepped forward, taking the two to a corner away from the battlefield—right beneath Yang Yixie's building—and only then began examining the three for injuries.

Fortunately, only the father had sustained some injuries, but the medical staff's faces were unusually grave, making the female host feel uneasy.

Even though the authorities have undertaken considerable preventive work against mutation, research on it remains limited, and in many areas they are willing but unable.

The commotion from that battle was no small affair; the sirens also woke many light sleepers, who gathered to watch the scene that could be called a sci-fi showdown, and quite a few recorded it.