"What do you want to drink? Heh heh…" Xieergei pressed his advantage, extending a large, hairy hand directly over the bar, attempting to touch Zoya's hand as she wiped a glass. "How about you, little wildcat?"
Just as that hand was about to touch Zoya's skin—
Zoya's hand moved!
It wasn't an evasion, but a precise counter-grasp!
This made Xieergei freeze.
"Crack!"
Her five fingers were like cold iron tongs, instantly locking Xieergei's wrist.
The force was so great that Xieergei felt his bones groan!
The lewd smile on Xieergei's face instantly froze, replaced by a trace of bewilderment and the sharp pain from his wrist.
He instinctively tried to pull his hand back, but was horrified to find that the slender, fair hand was like a welded steel clamp, unmoving!
"Hiss… You bitch! Let go!" Xieergei was both shocked and enraged.
Her amber eyes, at this moment, stared blankly ahead, the alcohol blurring her focus.
The ingested vodka burned in her veins.
Mixed with the deeply buried, never truly healed war trauma, it violently impacted her nerves.
The scene before her began to twist, deform, and overlap…
The dim bar lights suddenly transformed into shattered walls and ruins illuminated by gunfire.
The smell of cheap tobacco mixed with strong gunpowder and blood.
Xieergei's fat face, distorted by anger, slowly overlapped with the grinning face of an enemy Soldier in her memory, lunging with a bayonet; his two shouting accomplices behind him also transformed into more blurry and hostile figures.
What shocked Zoya even more was that she looked down and saw a brown-haired girl in a military uniform, trembling and hiding behind her.
The girl's face was covered in dirt, her clear blue eyes filled with extreme fear, staring intently at her, her lips trembling as she let out a faint but clear cry: "Captain Zoya! Captain Zoya… They… they're rushing up! We can't hold them! Save me!"
Zoya remembered seeing this girl in her hallucinations after Elena rescued her.
Zoya didn't know who she was, but a strong sadness welled up inside her.
"Don't be afraid…" Zoya's lips moved silently, her voice low and hoarse like a dream.
Her overly long silver-white bangs fell, and the shadow obscured her violently trembling amber eyes.
Serie thought to herself, "This is bad."
She could clearly see from the perspective of her other avatars that this was merely an illusion spurred by alcohol and trauma, but Zoya's terrifyingly low F-grade mental strength was like an impenetrable iron wall, blocking all her attempts to awaken her.
Serie could only watch helplessly as Zoya succumbed to her past nightmare, powerless.
Zoya, without warning, lost control…
Xieergei also didn't know what kind of fit the woman in front of him was having.
He only felt as if his wrist was caught in hydraulic pliers; he was sweating profusely from the pain, his features twisted, and he futilely used his other hand to pry at Zoya's fingers, even kicking the bar, but those five slender fingers were like welded steel nails, unmoving!
"What are you standing there for! Help me! Damn it!" Xieergei roared at his two stunned accomplices.
Only then did the two awaken from their daze, rushing forward and using all their might to pry at Zoya's fingers, their fists raining down on Zoya's arm and shoulder, making dull thudding sounds.
But Zoya's body was as steady as a rock, not even swaying, as if those blows were just mosquito bites.
The thugs and customers watched in stunned silence.
"Damn it! Call someone! Quick, call someone!" Xieergei completely panicked, yelling at one of his accomplices.
The man trembled as he pulled out his phone.
Before long, the bar's dilapidated wooden door was violently kicked open!
Five or six burly men in cheap leather jackets and shaved heads flooded in; they were clearly Xieergei's brothers.
Seeing the usually arrogant Xieergei single-handedly subdued by a mere woman behind the bar, looking utterly disheveled.
Several of them immediately let out harsh guffaws.
"Tsk tsk, this chick is quite pretty, but it shouldn't make you that excited, should it?" A bald man with a bloated face and a gold chain around his neck leered, directly extending his rough, greasy hand towards Zoya's unusually pale cheek.
"Come on, let uncle see…"
But just then, her five fingers, gripping Xieergei's wrist, suddenly tightened, her knuckles turning white from the effort!
"Ow—! Let go! Are you f***ing crazy?!" Xieergei felt his wrist bone had already been crushed into powder.
The intense pain and Zoya's amber eyes, suddenly lifted from the shadow of her bangs, staring like she was looking at a dead object—there was not a shred of human emotion in them, only a desire to destroy everything, making him feel a bone-chilling fear!
Immediately after, an indescribable heat suddenly erupted from Zoya's palm tightly gripping his wrist!
It wasn't an illusion!
"Sizzle—!"
Like a red-hot branding iron pressed against flesh!
A scalp-numbing burning sound, accompanied by the foul smell of charred flesh, instantly permeated the air!
"Ah ah ah ah ah—!!!" Xieergei let out a heart-wrenchwrenching, inhuman scream!
The skin on his wrist turned charred black at a visible speed, the intense pain made his whole body convulse, and tears and snot instantly covered his face!
"Burning Rage": Slightly increases Endurance, slightly decreases Spirit, allows rage to replace all your emotions and thoughts, greatly increases all attributes except Spirit and Fire Damage for a short time, greatly decreases Spirit, then burn everything in sight!!!
"Fire! She has fire in her hand!" The bald man with the big gold chain retreated repeatedly in fright!
It wasn't fire in her hand; the flames erupted from Zoya's palm!
Violent, orange-red flames roared out from between Zoya's fingers gripping Xieergei's wrist!
Instantly devouring Xieergei's entire forearm!
But this was just the beginning!
Zoya, stimulated by the "enemy siege" in her hallucination, had completely entered combat mode!
Her gaze swept over the other thugs, stunned by the sight before them, her eyes filled only with cold killing intent!
A low roar, imbued with furious power!
Zoya's free left hand suddenly swung forward!
"Whoosh—!!"
A visible, scorching, distorted fan-shaped wave of fire, like a raging tide, appeared out of nowhere.
Carrying a burning wind, it swept violently forward in a fan-shaped area!
"Ah—!"
"It's burning me to death!"
"Run!"
The two thugs bore the brunt, their cheap synthetic clothes instantly igniting, their hair and eyebrows sizzling!
They screamed, like rats scalded by boiling water, tumbling and scrambling backward, rolling to try and extinguish the flames on themselves.
Several tables and chairs that were closer had their paint and wood rapidly carbonize under the high temperature, even directly catching fire!
The bar was instantly filled with an even stronger smell of charring, screams, and terrified shouts!
The crowd completely exploded!
The customers who had been watching the show were now scared out of their wits, screaming, pushing, and desperately rushing towards the only exit.
The scene was utter chaos!
In the center of the raging fire, Zoya still stood behind the bar.
Invisible heat waves seemed to surround her, the air distorted by the high temperature.
The flames illuminated her face, which appeared unusually stern, even ferocious, due to alcohol, hallucinations, and fury.
In the depths of her amber eyes, wild flames danced, along with bottomless pain and madness.
Seeing several "enemies" scatter and flee.
Her body leaned slightly forward, her center of gravity lowered, like a cheetah about to pounce.
The air near her shoulder blades began to emit an unsettling high-pitched hum!
The temperature there was skyrocketing at an alarming rate, and the swirling flames were no longer orange-red, but compressed and condensed into a dazzling white-hot glow!
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I've posted 70+ 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]/SolyuraMT
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"