The roar was one thing, but accompanying it was a loud crash as the steel door was struck with tremendous force. In just one impact, the door was completely dented inward, and Zheng Zha could even see most of the alien's body wedged outside the door. Two of the three spiral spikes he had thrown had hit their target—one pierced the alien's left chest, and the other struck just beneath its neck. Both were critical hits, but neither was a fatal blow.
This was Zheng Zha's second direct encounter with an alien, and while the situation was slightly better than last time, it was still far from ideal. This alien was a fully mature specimen, and it was about 30% larger than the one he had faced previously. Its body was pitch-black, almost as solid as iron. In fact, the spiral spikes only penetrated about a third of their length into the alien, leaving a large portion still exposed on the outside.
Zheng Zha trembled as he looked at the alien's terrifying form, especially when he saw its tail lash out, leaving a massive hole in the steel door. If that tail had hit a human, it would have torn open their abdomen. No matter how strong Zheng Zha was, he didn't think his body could withstand an attack like that.
(It was this kind of pressure that made him feel like his consciousness was fading, leaving only deep fear and an overwhelming sense of survival instinct...)
Zheng Zha suddenly felt something inside him snap free, as countless combat instincts surged through his mind. Among these instincts was the ability to use his internal energy more effectively.
He directed the flow of internal energy, starting at his tailbone and spiraling up along his spine, then across his scalp, before flowing down his arms to his right hand. This entire process took only a split second, and Zheng Zha let his combat instincts take over, with his internal energy flowing under their guidance. It became remarkably flexible, more so than before.
But as his internal energy passed over his scalp, something seemed to merge within his mind. The two forces combined, and the surge of power concentrated in his right hand. Just as the alien crashed through the door and charged in, Zheng Zha shouted and threw the spiral spikes. Almost simultaneously, the alien's tail slammed into his stomach!
Both Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan shouted in shock as they saw Zheng Zha being violently knocked into the air. He crashed into the bathroom wall with a dull thud, but the spiral spike he had thrown pierced through the alien's head with tremendous force, and it lodged into the wall behind it. The alien's head was nearly severed, and it staggered for a moment before collapsing to the ground with a loud thud. The wall behind it bore a dent the size of a fist where the spike had embedded itself.
Zhan Lan, unable to care about anything else at the moment, grabbed her clothes and quickly tied them around her chest. She ran over to Zheng Zha, her body looking unusually curvy due to her much larger-than-average bust. As she rushed past Zhang Jie, her upper body was half-exposed, but the two men were too distracted—one was lying motionless on the ground, and the other was rushing ahead—to notice.
"How are you, Zheng Zha? Are you alright?" Zhan Lan cried, noticing that Zhang Jie was frozen in place. She rushed over and knelt beside him, her voice trembling.
Zheng Zha, still dazed, lay there rubbing his head with a foolish look on his face. Zhan Lan, seeing this, became furious and slapped him hard on the stomach."You scared us half to death! You went to attack that alien without saying a word. What if you failed? You could have... and you would have gotten us killed too!"
Zheng Zha groaned in pain from the slap and clutched his stomach. Zhan Lan quickly realized her hands were covered in blood. She panicked and began to apologize, tears streaming down her face."I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were already hurt..."
Zheng Zha trembled as he let go of his hands, revealing the wound. His stomach had a hole about the width of three fingers. Fortunately, it had only torn through the skin, and his intestines and internal organs seemed unharmed.
Zhang Jie quickly knelt to examine the spot where Zheng Zha had been standing earlier, and sure enough, he found a deep imprint in the steel floor. The indentation was clear, and Zhang Jie marveled at it."That's incredible! When the alien's tail hit you, you managed to jump back in time, which is why your stomach wasn't pierced. If I had been in that spot, I might have had my intestines torn out..."
Zhang Jie grew more excited, running over to slap Zheng Zha on the shoulder."You were amazing just now! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have thought a martial arts master did that. Tell me how you did it!"
Zheng Zha winced from the slap, and with a bitter smile, he said,"Guys, let's focus on stopping the bleeding before we do anything else. If this keeps up, I'm going to bleed out... And someone should probably go fix their clothes..."
Zhan Lan froze, realizing her half-exposed chest. Her face flushed with embarrassment, and she shot a glare at Zheng Zha before rushing to the bathroom to change. Zheng Zha, meanwhile, retrieved some bandages and a hemostatic spray from his ring. With Zhang Jie's help, he managed to secure the wound on his abdomen.
By the time Zhan Lan emerged from the bathroom, Zheng Zha immediately urged,"There's no time to explain everything. Zhang Jie, carry me toward Chu Xuan's group. Don't stop for anything, no matter what happens. Zhan Lan, my right hand is completely broken. Take the remaining spiral spikes and keep up with us. Zhang Jie, hurry up!"
Zheng Zha was certain that the key to unlocking his genetic lock lay in crisis and fear, but ordinary human bodies could not withstand the overwhelming power unleashed when the genetic lock was activated. His enhanced body had suffered a fracture in his right hand after the attack, and the pain he was about to face would be unimaginable. He shuddered at the thought.
It was a double-edged sword—damage to both the enemy and oneself. Only in the most extreme situations could the genetic lock be triggered, and the terrifying pain would be the price of that power.
"…At least, the one lucky thing is, I might have found a way to use vampire energy…" Zheng Zha thought bitterly, but before he could finish, the sharp pain exploded in his body, and he began convulsing violently on Zhang Jie's back, unable to even speak. The immense agony felt as though his muscles were tearing apart, and blood poured from his abdomen, dripping onto the floor.