"A Deadman!?"
Horns, a halo, pale skin, and bizarre demonic veins.
The figure opposite, who had removed their cloak, looked anything but a proper human—although the fact that it hadn't attacked immediately defied common sense, Hansen still instantly issued the command to fire:
"Open fire!"
Hansen, at the head of the squad, hastily took a step back. In the instant he created distance, he drew the M500 revolver from his hip—this weapon wasn't standard military issue, but an antique Hansen had acquired at great expense.
Bang! xN
In that instant, bullets of various calibers shot out from muzzles, ruthlessly flying towards the enemy.
However—
Clang! xN
Aside from erupting in a dense layer of sparks against a thin barrier, such an attack posed no threat whatsoever to Lu Xing.
Without a caliber of 30mm or more, bullets couldn't even penetrate his [Crystal Wall].
The sci-fi-esque hexagonal barrier, following Lu Xing's motion of extending his palm forward, coalesced into a spherical shield with no blind spots. Of course, tanking the hits with his physical body wouldn't have been an issue either, but that would mess up his hairstyle.
Although the long twintails felt a bit odd to Lu Xing, whose hair had never previously extended past his ears, he had to admit he quite liked the style... If he tied a weight to the ends, he could even use them as a meteor hammer.
"Jack!"
Seeing that the attack was useless against the "Deadman," Hansen quickly shouted the name of an auxiliary member—all squads undertaking external missions would include a member with some expertise in Honkai Beasts, and they usually carried specialized anti-Honkai Beast weaponry.
It wasn't guaranteed to be effective, but it was better than nothing.
The squad member named Jack had a special grenade, researched by the army, loaded into the grenade launcher attached to his Steyr AUG F-88 assault rifle.
The impact caused by this weapon's detonation was minimal; beyond a 1.5-meter radius, it was almost harmless to humans, but it was purported to have a strong corrosive effect on Honkai Beast carapaces.
This information from the R&D department wasn't necessarily reliable.
After all, many of those researchers had never even seen a live Honkai Beast—but now that they had truly encountered one, it was a case of treating a dead horse as a live one.
Thud.
"Jack!!"
But it was too late.
At this moment, the squad member named Jack was sprawled on the ground, his face a mask of terror. The grenade launcher, the team's reliance, lay in the sand.
"De... Demon!"
"Ah!!"
Unexpectedly.
Upon seeing Lu Xing's appearance.
Jack, who had collapsed to the ground, amidst a near-hysterical scream born of a mental breakdown, actually found the strength to stand up again and ran away madly in the direction opposite Lu Xing.
"Demon?"
Before the Honkai appeared.
Many things, many situations, and even many humans, would be branded with the name "demon."
But after the Honkai began to ravage Western Australia, people rarely used the word "demon" anymore.
Hansen reacted extremely quickly.
From the word Jack shouted, he quickly understood what they had encountered.
"The Demon of Mount Isa..."
News obtained from the "strategically redeployed soldiers" of the "Cyclops" Special Operations Regiment.
In Mount Isa City, a Knight-class Honkai Beast that had lost its mount transformed into a demon and slaughtered every living being in the entire city, friend or foe alike (in truth, the Honkai Beasts were eliminated by the Cyclops regiment).
Jack, who had just joined the squad, was one of those who had "redeployed" from that city. Lu Xing's cleanup operation hadn't been meticulous enough to eliminate every single human. Even if its area didn't match that of a large city, Mount Isa was still a considerably sized mining town; there would always be some who saw things going south and slipped away.
The moniker "Demon of Mount Isa" had spread from their mouths.
There was inevitably some exaggeration involved.
Otherwise, these soldiers belonging to the "Cyclops" regiment would likely have been branded deserters and sent to a military tribunal.
But no matter how much they exaggerated.
The Honkai Beast's own strength must have been exceptionally formidable, otherwise, the annihilation of an entire special operations regiment couldn't be explained. For such a creature to appear before them now was clearly not something their mere combat squad could handle.
Undoubtedly.
Fleeing was the wisest choice at this stage!
But the premise was that Lu Xing had to have the intention of letting them go.
Did Lu Xing?
Probably not.
Click.
The last shell casing was ejected and fell.
The scalding brass tumbled and scraped against the somewhat cold, fine sand beneath his feet.
Normally, a barrage of gunfire wouldn't have such a gap—crossfire was fundamental to maintaining fire coverage.
But faced with a monster they had never seen before.
Fear would dredge up humanity's deepest emotions: for example, emptying all their bullets into the monster, hoping to tear it to shreds.
And that was clearly impossible.
Taking advantage of the opponent's reloading interval—a mere 0.6 to 0.8-second window—was more than enough for Lu Xing.
He dismissed the [Crystal Wall] and brandished his long blade.
Shing—
Splurt!!
Along with the firearms severed in their hands, crimson liquid and flying parts bloomed slowly in the air together.
Lu Xing's movements were elegant and fluid.
The enhancement from [Dash] made his figure far exceed the capture speed of human vision.
A few simple swings of the blade.
Only one human remained on the scene—Hansen, who had emptied his ammunition and carelessly tossed his most cherished M500 into the sand, now unleashed a bright yellow firework at Lu Xing with his backup UMP45 submachine gun.
Ting! xN
Crisp sounds rang out at a distance of less than sixty centimeters.
Lu Xing held his long blade vertically, and intricate flowers bloomed in the air—his perception wasn't yet sufficient to keep up with the speed of bullets, but aiming for the muzzle of the submachine gun wasn't difficult for Lu Xing.
The faintly gleaming, cold edge of the blade.
It split the bullets fired from the muzzle one by one, the almost perfectly identical halves scattering across the ground like stir-fried peanuts.
The instant all 25 rounds were expended.
Thwack!
Thump—roll, roll, roll.
He'd used a bit too much force; it rolled a bit too far.
Although it was the leeward side of the dune, there was still some height for it to roll down. The cold wilderness would slow the evaporation of liquids somewhat; the "moisture" remaining on the surface, not yet covered by wind and sand, should help some small animals supplement their needs.
Swish!
The blade flicked lightly through the air.
Dark red crystal dust scattered—blood, frozen by the ultra-low temperature, quickly flew off with the inertia.
The pristine blade glinted with a chill more desolate than moonlight.
"A pity there's no scabbard."
Drawing the blade using [Space-Time Rend] was indeed cool, but when sheathing it, something always felt missing.
Shink.
The long blade returned to its [Space-Time Rend] sheath.
Lu Xing turned, his dark eyes slowly looking towards the instigator of this unexpected incident.