Chapter 362: True Form

Lin Sanjiu opened her wings fully before she went to see the owner of the green shadow. At the same time, she darted toward the exit. Her wings slashed the wall and door frame in half. The wall and the door frame rumbled and collapsed with a bang. Clouds of dust spread were everywhere.

Just as Lin Sanjiu landed, a shadow appeared behind the street lamp near her. Seeing that shadow, Santa Claus and the male posthuman that were moving toward Lin Sanjiu were stunned. Perplexion took over their faces.

"So it"s you," said Lin Sanjiu as she locked gaze with the male posthuman. A smile found its way to her lips, "You"ve spent your Stamina Points liberally given your strength. I suppose you did not practice the habit of abstinence, did you? Anyway, thanks for biting the hook."

The male posthuman set his jaw as color fled from his face. He glanced at the shadow behind Lin Sanjiu and recoiled in horror. He wanted to escape to the half-crumbled Luscious Lounge, but his feet were cemented to the ground.

When Lin Sanjiu spoke to the paper crane the second times, not only had she toned down her voice, she had also created a void by manipulating the air currents. By doing so, she prevented her sounds from transmitting. While Lin Sanjiu was telling Puppeteer the whole story, she did not forget to mention the male posthuman as she was very suspicious of his sudden appearance. While this male posthuman, who seemed pretty inept in Lin Sanjiu"s eyes could only hear the reply from Puppeteer, he took the bait and summoned Santa Claus.

He had never imagined that Puppeteer was already lurking outside waiting patiently for him and Santa Claus to show themselves.

Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu sensed a thing that could not be seen nor touched coming from behind her with the help of her hypersensory state. It whipped past her and before the male posthuman realized, [Pestilence] had already hit him.

Even with the presence of his sworn enemy, Puppeteer would never let go of the chance to punish any feeble people who dared to oppose him.

Santa Claus rolled his eyes from the corner of his eyes to the center. He didn"t care about the posthuman who was screaming in agony. He just found the circ.u.mstance interesting.

While stroking his curly beard, his beard seemed to move as he spoke, "Ho, ho, ho. Long time no see, my friend. You"re still the same: so narrow-minded."

Puppeteer emerged, and like a wraith from the darkness, he strode out of the dark end of the route. Every step he took, the metal straps on his black leather pants jangled loudly. Compared to the evening, he seemed a little bit different, but Lin Sanjiu could not tell how he had changed. As she squinted her eyes and observed Puppeteer for a few seconds, she found that the gold glitter around his eyes had disappeared. Two haloes of dark glitter powder now replaced it. This not only made him looks even more gloomy but also made him even more s.a.d.i.s.tic.

"I, however, am different from you," Unlike the male posthuman, Santa Claus wasn"t scared by Puppeteer"s appearance. He stroked his beard and emitted a careless laugh, "I can take my time eradicating this helper of yours."

Lin Sanjiu raised her eyebrows, forcing down the fear and anger that suddenly erupted in her heart. However, she did not move away. Instead, she faced Santa Claus head on.

Of course, it was never in Lin Sanjiu"s mind that her presence could change the balance of this fight. It was just that the two of them had not started to fight yet, and if she made her move now, she was certain that Santa Claus would catch her with his special move. Hence, to escape from here effectively, she had to wait until they had gotten into a heated battle.

Puppeteer sneered, seemingly amused by Santa Claus"s remarks, "I guess I"m good. I have promised not to kill her, and I don"t really favor going back on my word, so thank you for your kind consideration."

"Hey! I"m still here!" Lin Sanjiu cursed inwardly, but she did not allow the emotion to emerge on her face.

"Cut the c.r.a.p!" Santa Claus face was distorting even further with every word that came out from his lips as if he was snarling with venom. However, due to an unknown reason, he still did not make his move, "Give me back my thing!"

Puppeteer lowered his chin and rolled his eyes, "Why don"t you come and get it yourself?"

Santa Claus pursed his lips in anger. Fury had overtaken him, and the words that escaped his lips were filled with savagery, "Arrghh! You niminy-piminy freak! Do you think you"re great for coming so far? Bulls.h.i.+t! I don"t need your alms! I"ll use my strength to get what I want!"

Lin Sanjiu sighed when she saw veins bulging on Puppeteer"s forehead.

She was almost lost in the storm of words. She never thought that these two men, who seemed to have a deadly feud, would engage in a verbal exchange first rather than going all out and fighting to their deaths. She had been waiting on the sidelines for the perfect moment to slope off, but she was disappointed. This two clowns just wouldn"t stop bickering and fight!

Just as she was getting anxious, Santa Claus finally made his move.

Truth to be told, she did not see Santa Claus" movement. The reason she knew he had taken his move was that she had sensed a "blank s.p.a.ce" where the Santa Clause used to be in her hypersensory state. He moved without causing any turbulence when he attacked.

"Seems like a certain degree of mastery could allow us to—"

Lin Sanjiu abruptly snapped herself out of her thought as she saw her chance to escape had come. Her body decided to move forward before her brain could give the command. She finally had the chance to sneak away seeing that the confrontation of the duo finally had advanced into a brutal fight. Like a drowning man struggling for air, she hastened her steps toward the attraction that she had seen earlier on the "Pumpkin Route."

"Why don"t you use my item? Huh? Huh?"

She couldn"t tell if Santa Claus was laughing or shrieking. She only knew that they had clashed with a bang after hearing the voice of Santa Claus as she felt the surge of energy swept across the Pumpkin Route like a spider web.

The energy pushed her a few paces back. Just as she hobbled to a stop, she turned around and saw Puppeteer, who was as thin as a piece of paper, being smacked away by the fat and stout Santa Claus and flying into the air defenselessly. From the look of it, he seemed to be so weak that he had no defense.

"Is Puppeteer so weak?"

Just as the thought surfaced in Lin Sanjiu"s mind, another idea bounced into her brain and kicked away the previous thought.

"Holy, no way," She cursed under her breath. She had to force every ounce of self-control from within to stop herself from fleeing and cement her feet on the ground.

Apparently, she was not the only one who was shocked by the attack. Even Puppeteer and Santa Claus were dumbfounded.

After breaking a few lamp posts in his path and slamming into a house, Puppeteer"s face was filled with utter bewilderment as he climbed out of the rubble. He asked, "Hey? You… What…"

Staring at Puppeteer, Santa Claus was in the same bewilderment state as Puppeteer. He did not know how Puppeteer became so vulnerable. He thought Puppeteer simply lowered his guard; hence, he narrowed his eyes and stepped a few steps back while took on his guarding stance. 

Lin Sanjiu"s hand found its way to her head. She wished to slap herself in her face. After a fierce tussling with herself for some time, she reluctantly turned face Puppeteer.

Her gaze met with Puppeteer"s. She saw him eyeing her, and when Puppeteer saw her dodging his gaze, his face instantly turned vile. He set his jaw so tight that his veins bulged as he snarled at her, "It was you?"

Lin Sanjiu found no excuse to defend herself, so she just nodded repeatedly.

"When we"re fighting just now," Lin Sanjiu paused for a moment and moved further away from Puppeteer as she was afraid that Puppeteer might eat his own words and obliterate her after listening to her reasoning, "I, err, how should I put this? I sealed all your Special Items."

Before she could finish her sentence with "for an hour," Puppeteer had turned into a streak of shadow and lunged at her. At the same time, Santa Claus let out a boisterous laugh before charging at her as well.

Moving in a strange motion, Puppeteer"s hand drew a peculiar figure in the air and successfully thwarted Santa Claus"s advance. Concomitantly, he threw himself to a side as he suddenly remembered that he had promised Lin Sanjiu not to kill her.

Puppeteer"s eyes were filled with blood, he tore his gaze away from Lin Sanjiu and turned to face Santa Claus once more. The, three puppets which Lin Sanjiu had seen before, along with more and more puppets appeared from a shop not far from them. 

A great war that could topple a mountain and overturn a sea was happening right in front of Lin Sanjiu"s eyes. Limbs were in the air and on the floor like a pile of junk. The puppets who charged into the fight to a.s.sist their master were all pulverized by Santa Claus with a simple flick of his hands.

There was a saying that due to too many variables involved in a battle between two posthumans, any element could be the winning factor. The loss of access to battle equipment was an irreversible shortcoming that was enough to seal the fate of the unfortunate party. A small disparity in strength and mistakes could cost one life. How did it work between powerful beings of Puppeteer"s and Santa Claus"s caliber?

Losing the defensive type Special Items meant that Puppeteer had to concentrate most or all of his strength on defense. In this ruined world, there was a motley variety of Special Items. No one knew what kind of Special Items their opponent had, and they might strike at you when you least expect it. Hence, Puppeteer had to watch out for Santa Claus"s Special Items while deflecting his seamless attack.

Suddenly, a few white bones popped out from the half-crumbled Luscious Lounge. Carrying a black object in her arm, Lin Sanjiu shoved away the bamboos that blocked her way, kicked away the half-dead posthuman that lie listlessly on the ground, and dragged the thing out of the darkness.

"h.e.l.lo, testing 1, 2, 3."

A female voice amplified by a microphone and speaker was loud enough to be heard by the duo who was fighting far away from her.

Before either of them could do anything, the female voice reverberated through the route again with a hint of nervousness.

"Erm, Santa Claus, have you heard of Route 300?"

Lin Sanjiu had never imagined that she could use the KTV pos system to apply her Special Item on Santa Claus and tilt the balance of the fight towards Puppeteer"s favor.

The effect of her words far exceeded her expectations.

She didn"t have a clear view of what happened. She just saw the air current, and a shadow suddenly ceased all of his actions. Then, a green shade floated into the sky in a way that defied the principles of physics.

Rather than saying Santa Claus was sent flying, it was more appropriate to say that Santa Claus was more like a giant balloon floating in the sky, held by Puppeteer. Every time his limbs moved, he created a gale as destructive as the [Tornado Whip]. Nevertheless, Puppeteer was unaffected. He rooted his feet firmly on the ground even though he was in the very center of the turbulence.

"Although you don"t match my taste, and you"re fat," Puppeteer grinned, and there was a glimpse of zeal in his eyes, "But I can still keep you as my puppet."

"Wait, something"s not right."

Set against Santa Claus, who struggled like a beast in the air, Lin Sanjiu involuntarily retreated a few steps with the microphone in her hand.

Then, her eyes bulged.

Like a frosting on a cake, the eerie green costume melted. Santa Claus" plumpy figure suddenly stopped struggling, and he was fading. His hat, beard, belly, and even his two stumpy legs were beginning to melt. It looked like a candle dripping its wax and quickly formed a pool of green substance on the ground beneath him.

Obviously, not even Puppeteer was aware of this strange phenomena. He blinked and appeared at Lin Sanjiu"s side. Grabbing her collar, Puppeteer asked with his brows frowned together, "What have you done? Why isn"t my [Astronaut] working on him?"

Lin Sanjiu had no answer.

In fact, unlike Puppeteer who saw the whole melting scene with his eyes, Lin Sanjiu only saw the full scene seconds ago.

When the green costume and plumpy figure had stopped melting, something rose up from the pool of green wax.

Lin Sanjiu felt that no words in this world could describe its appearance.

She had seen the Souls, which were the ugliest creatures she had seen so far, but the Santa Claus that came out from the guise was something even more offensive to one"s eyes.

"I should praise you two from nullifying my disguise," a sticky, sickly sweet voice sounded out from a jagged crease in front of that creature. He locked his gaze on Lin Sanjiu and wheezed, "I really should have killed you first."