Chapter 487

Chapter 487: A Second Bloom

“Big guy? How big?”

Hearing El’s question, [Skydome] unusually fell into a moment of silence. After a while, the somewhat peculiar electronic voice said:

“Do you wonder why burning extraordinary beasts fall from the sky?”

—

Fire ignited.

In just a few seconds, flames leapt from beneath the giant made of woven plants, shooting up to the sky and bathing the entire night sky in a red glow.

This was not the first time the burning Willow Man had appeared, but last time, it never got the chance to reach Hope City; it had been killed directly by Lin Qingliu from several dozen kilometers away.

But now, under Clotho’s manipulation and command, a special extraordinary beast had become the brain of this giant, charging toward the walls of the inner city.

Following it were countless extraordinary beasts, their fur ignited by the flames, burning brighter as if doused in gasoline.

The pain heightened their ferocity, leading them to launch a more savage attack on humans.

The Willow Man, while charging, also used its arm made of vines and branches to scoop up groups of extraordinary beasts and toss them into the city.

This was the source of the extraordinary beast that El had diverted during the first attack launched by the Willow Man.

These flightless creatures had no way to adjust their posture in the air, so when the anti-aircraft guns were activated, their attacks lost their effect.

However, the threat from the Willow Man was far from over.

If the giant crashed into the city wall, whether its plant-based body could break concrete was uncertain, but from the perspective of the extraordinary beasts, its wrinkled and vine-covered body would serve as the best siege ladder.

Many soldiers felt a surge of despair at this scene, and even the members of the Extinction Legion could do nothing but prepare for a desperate fight, sending requests for reinforcements to the rear in advance.

The giant drew closer to the city wall, with the rolling waves of intense heat nearly melting the intelligent visor covering their exoskeletons.

At that moment, Liu Xiaoheng caught a glint from the corner of his eye.

He quickly turned to see a somewhat familiar young man had appeared beside him.

The newcomer was none other than the one who had pulled him from the underground before the big battle erupted, named… El.

“Are the reinforcements here yet?”

He hurriedly asked the young man.

“They’re already here.”

“Why don’t I see them…?”

Liu Xiaoheng began to speak but suddenly sensed something was off, staring blankly at the young man beside him:

“Is it just you?”

“Reinforcements are tight. Compared to the burning Willow Man, creatures like fire-breathing dragons, Horned Demons, and two-headed giant turtles are clearly more terrifying.”

El shrugged, then looked down at his clothes, twisting them firmly with his hands.

Liu Xiaoheng then noticed the oddity about the young man—he was clearly just pulled out of the water, and his clothes were still dripping.

Perhaps it was a side effect of some ability? He thought to himself as he asked:

“Can you handle this? How can I help you?”

El nodded:

“I do need your help.”

“Just tell me what to do.”

Liu Xiaoheng thumped his chest confidently.

Their conversation wasn’t out of place; the city wall had just fended off a wave of extraordinary beasts, and many of the remaining ones had briefly retreated, joining the Willow Man’s “Burning Legion.”

Though the looming crash and explosion were terrifying, the frontline was oddly calm for the moment.

The soldiers exchanged light banter, some even sharing their treasured cigarettes, savoring the fleeting calm before the storm.

Their composure stemmed from two undeniable truths:

First, the Willow Man’s assault was inevitable, and a new wave of the burning beast tide would soon surge in.

Second, retreat was not an option.

With death looming either way, everyone had steeled themselves during this brief respite, ready to face the fiery onslaught.

El tapped on Liu Xiaoheng’s exoskeleton and asked:

“Do you trust me?”

“Kid, stop with the nonsense. Didn’t you save me last time?”

“Good.”

El nodded, his tone steady:

“I need you to get me inside that Willow Man.”

Liu Xiaoheng looked at the young man, seizing the moment to ask:

“Is your ability to extinguish fires?”

El shook his head:

“I can’t put out fires, but I can do something in certain places.”

“Where?”

“The Sea.”

At that moment, Liu Xiaoheng caught a faint whiff of saltiness from El’s soaked clothes, cutting through the battlefield’s stench of blood and smoke—

It was the unmistakable scent of the Sea.

The flames engulfing the Willow Man paled in comparison to the extraordinary beast El had just diverted. With his ability freshly advanced, he hadn’t yet mastered it fully and needed the help of an Extinction Legion fighter to achieve his goal.

If he could barely manage to activate his ability for a second or two against a “fire meteor,” facing a behemoth like this would make even a single second a struggle.

But El had recently learned a crucial detail: objects typically burn from the outside in, meaning the internal temperature is often lower than the external flames.

“When do we move?”

“Now.”

El placed his hand on the exoskeleton, and Liu Xiaoheng’s vision blurred as a sudden weightlessness overtook him.

They were now suspended in the middle of the sky, directly above the Willow Man’s path.

The two of them felt like meat roasting over an open flame—El the standard roast, and Liu Xiaoheng more like a steamed chicken.

El had already shifted to the back of Liu Xiaoheng’s exoskeleton, his voice crackling through the comms:

“Hold your breath, dive!”

With the propulsion system’s aid, they hurtled downward at breakneck speed toward the Willow Man, which raised its fiery hand to strike.

The massive hand, several meters wide, swiped at them but grasped only air.

The extraordinary beast controlling the body thought it had imagined the attack, but in the next moment, its vision blurred entirely.

“Splash!”

The colossal body plunged into the Sea, extinguishing the flames below while those above roared even fiercer.

Liu Xiaoheng’s visor snapped open as he stood on the city wall section now submerged in the Sea, gasping for air. El, marked with fresh burns, lay sprawled on the ground, staring blankly at the sky.

“Are you okay?”

Liu Xiaoheng asked, concern etched in his voice.

“I’m fine. Just drained from teleporting something that big for the first time.”

El pushed himself up and glanced at the sea’s surface, about to report the mission’s success to [Skydome], when he noticed the Willow Man beginning to disintegrate. From its hollow body, a swarm of extraordinary beasts started to emerge.