The street was completely deserted, with only wreckage of vehicles and debris from buildings scattered on the ground, and the festering stench wafting in the air testified to the probability of human corpses among the wreckage.
Apart from the monster that just burrowed into the shop, there was activity in two houses at the end of the street. Xu Shang-Chi suspected identical monsters lurked there, but upon discovering this, his first instinct was to turn and leave.
Relying on his Night Vision Ability, Xu Shang-Chi went towards a more open area. However, to his disappointment, sounds of furious fighting emanated from the buildings at the end of the street.
A fleeting glint of red light, followed by a cry of alarm. Xu Shang-Chi turned towards the commotion, his eyes widening at the sight of a figure being hurled out of a broken window. It was Ben Reily, thrown out as though by some invisible force.
Xu Shang-Chi clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, took several deep breaths, and exerted himself to banish the panic welling within him, racing towards the scene.
With the power coursing through his legs, he sprinted swiftly across the ravaged road, reaching Rileys's side, where he attempted to assist him. As soon as he touched Riley's skin, he felt a shard of glass embedded in his back.
Ignoring his pain, Reily gasped out, "Quick... quick, save Wanda."
Supporting Reily, Xu Shang-Chi gazed inside the building. The red light in the window grew brighter, then Wanda was flung like a ragdoll into a corner, collapsing onto the floor. This was followed by Jarvis's enraged shout.
Xu Shang-Chi tiptoed on the spot and turned back to Rilely, "Stay here and don't run around, I'll be back shortly!"
With that, he sprinted towards the shattered window that Reily had carved out, disregarding the scattered glass shards. Shielding his head with his arms and raising his legs, he jumped through the narrow window frame.
Once inside, he didn't spare a backward glance at what Wanda was facing. Instead, he grabbed Miss Witch's wrist and jerked her towards the window.
Caught off guard, Wanda stumbled, squealing in surprise, only to be met by Xu Shang-Chi's roar.
"What are you standing there for? Run!"
"But I..."
Without waiting for an explanation, Xu Shang-Chi took hold of Wanda from behind, utilized his energy into his arms, and flung her slender frame out of the window. Then, he and Jarvis leaped out of the window, one after the other, and ran back to the street.
Wanda tumbled several times after being thrown onto the ground. Reily hurriedly helped her up. A bit dazed from the fall, she turned to Xu Shang-Chi, wanting to say something, but he was already ahead and turned back to roar at everyone.
"Anyone with a brain and in their right mind would only do one thing at this moment - Fucking Run!!!"
Everyone has a herd instinct, especially when they're panicking, they instinctively follow the loudest voice. Xu Shang-Chi yelled "Run," and the other people who had yet to react also started running.
And this action probably saved their lives, because the monster burst out from the window was not the same as the monster Xu Shang-Chi saw in the shop window.
Under faint light, a bipedal monster burst through the shattered window, but what kept it moving weren't its legs but the anemone-like tentacles sprouting from half of its brain.
Perhaps the human brain granted the monster higher intelligence. Its desire to attack was much stronger than the monster Xu Shang-Chi encountered, which grew from a lower half body, and it had a lot more methods to attack.
The tumors, clung to the half of the human corpse, and the tentacles worked together. Half of it clung to the wall and swiftly alternated forward. The other half lashed forward to disrupt the movements of their victims.
"Wanda, put away your magic!" Xu Shang-Chi shouted, "Don't create light!!"
Running, Wanda bit her lip, saying with some helplessness, "I...I can't control it very well!"
"Then run faster!"
Luckily, each one of them is an agile hero. Though not renowned for their speed, they were not slow either.
Xu Shang-Chi could use Step Method, Reily was Spiderman, whose full-throttle sprint speed needed no mention. Wanda could use magic, and Jarvis was a culmination of robotics. The group ran wildly and soon left the monster far behind them.
After leaving the main road and reaching a crossroad, they came to a stop, panting heavily. Catching her breath, her hand on her chest, Wanda said, "Why did we run? I think I can…."
"You can what!" Xu Shang-Chi barked back, also panting heavily, "If you could handle it, you wouldn't have ended up thrown against the wall!"
"I..," Wanda choked, then mumbled an excuse, "I was taken by surprise..."
"Damn it, what's going on?" Resting his hand on his forehead, Reily slowly dropped to one knee, "My Spider-sense is ringing off the hook, it's so loud I can barely hear you guys speak."
Riley's face was twisted in pain. He strained to keep his eyes open and survey the city's shattered landscape. Hands on his hips, Xu Shang-Chi breathed deeply, leveling his breath and said, "It's undoubtedly a fact: we've crossed dimensions to arrive in a godforsaken universe that's possibly on the edge of the apocalypse."
"Crossed over?" A pained moan escaped from Reily, but he grit his teeth and asked, "You mean we've traversed universes?"
"Yeah, more or less," replied Xu Shang-Chi.
"But why is it like this here?"
"How the hell should I know?"
Xu Shang-Chi answered absent-mindedly. He looked around at their surrounding and then at their group, and added, "Let's go."
"Where?" Wanda frowned at him, asking.
"Find a safe place to hide."
Opening her wide in disbelief, Wanda retorted, "The world's ending, and you plan to hide!"
"It's precisely because the world's ending that I want to hide! Surely, you don't believe we can save the world by ourselves, do you?"
"But... But we have to save..."
"We have to save ourselves first!"
Before Wanda could utter another word, Xu Shang-Chi cut her off, directly raising a hand and said, "I know what you're thinking. You want to rush into the city center where there are the most monsters, take them all down, and then find a bunch of masterminds in the center, eliminate them all, and thus, save the world. "
"But from my experience, during this process, members of the entire team will die one after another, and it will be miserable. It includes, but not limited to, drowning in insects, being swallowed by monsters, being trapped in the gate, being perforated by in-fighting survivors..."
Wanda's face paled with each word, she gaped at Xu Shang-Chi, the look in her eyes completely changed, "Oh, my god, what have you been through..."
"In short, follow me now, and quickly find a place to hide. We can deal with the rest tomorrow when dawn comes!"
Wanda seemed shaken now, while Reily's pained voice turned out to be the last straw.
"Wanda, I beg you, you guys came here because of me. I have to get you all back safely!"