The body of the blade mantis general shrunk at an alarming rate, drying up like a parched tree as the death of its cells accelerated. Its abdomen, which was once jade-green had now turned into a sickly shade of yellow.
"Hiss!" The blade mantis struggled to keep on its feet swaying side-to-side like a bobo doll.
"Fire beam!"
Qin Feng once again let loose a ray of fire.
The beast general widened its beady eyes, turning around in an attempt to escape its fiery death.
However, its body had been weakened significantly after enduring Qin Feng's previous attacks, no longer possessing the agility it once had.
Pop!
The fire beam exploded right around the enemy's abdomen, blasting deep-green bodily fluids into every corner of the room, including the ceiling.
Within the ma.s.s of fluids, there appeared to be tiny orbs of light which were likely the cells of the general which had all experienced a rapid aging process.
After successfully dealing with the beast general, the other creatures, being intimidated by the grand show of force had no choice but to fall back, else they would face the same fate as their leader. However, as the number of bugs was overwhelming while the floors.p.a.ce remained limited, the crowd inched forward slowly in terror!
"h.e.l.lfire!"
Qin Feng unleashed his consciousness with explosive power. The flames literally spread like wildfire, burning with unrivalled intensity, turning the entire floor of the hotel into a sea of fire.
With nowhere to go, these bugs became trapped in an oven, awaiting their fate of being engulfed by Qin Feng's fire.
It was only after a full three minute, when none of the bugs outside the building dared to enter did Qin Feng start to gradually turn down the flames.
He had killed over a hundred of these creepy crawlies in one go.
Apart from piles of gray-ash littering the charred floorboards, there were also tiny beads the size of a human thumbnail. It seemed that these were the energy cores of the freshly-slain insectoids.
Of course, there were only a handful of these beads laying around as most insectoids were pretty weak; only a fraction of them possessed energy cores, unlike the undead corpses that possessed individual cores.
"Retrieve!"
Making use of his consciousness, Qin Feng collected all the energy cores which came flying into his palm.
From killing more than a hundred of these guys, Qin Feng merely harvested a grand total of thirteen energy cores, including one from that beast general he took down.
Alongside the cores, Qin Feng tucked away the blade mantis general's slicers into the spatial rune equipment.
As he was doing so, a menacing figure appeared in the shattered door frame linked to the safe pa.s.sage outside.
"Cough cough!"
The man clenched tightly onto his belly, looking at Qin Feng with an expression that was a mixture of relief and fear.
"Mr. Qin, thanks for saving our lives!"
This man was one of the guys Qin Feng lobbed a round or two back at in retaliation.
Qin Feng raised his brow and replied, "You guys are making too much noise! You'll only serve as the dinner bell for these bugs!"
The man smiled bitterly and apologised, "I'm sorry but my energy equipment's run out of juice!"
The energy blaster he was holding was indeed silent, as opposed to the usual humming it produced. While its effect was deadly, it guzzled too much energy and was extremely costly to operate, hence the majority of gunners stuck to using traditional lead bullets and explosive rounds on the battlefield.
While there was a saying that gunners were typically money bags, failing to budget properly could burn a ma.s.sive hole in their pockets, meaning a comeback was near impossible after being drained of money and resources.
"Hmm!"
Qin Feng nodded in understanding.
The great hall on the first floor was too wide of a place to defend, with gla.s.s doors surrounding the entire vicinity. While one could reasonably hold off G-tier ultra beasts, the same could not be said for F-tier ones. From what Qin Feng observed, these people had at most poured insect-repelling powder around the place. Facing a large number of insectoids as was the case moments ago, their defensive measure was obviously insufficient.
After dealing with this threat, Qin Feng turned and left, paying little attention to these people whom he had just saved.
"Mr Qin!"
Seeing that Qin Feng was about to leave, the man called out urgently with a hint of desperation in his voice.
And yet, Qin Feng's feet did not stop!
The man started explaining in a hurry, "Mr Qin, we stumbled onto something interesting on the second floor and I just thought that you may want to check it out! After all, this is also a safe haven for you to fall back to. Uh, right! Strength in numbers! Perhaps it would be best for us to cooperate!"
This man obviously did not want Qin Feng to leave.
After all, men of such power were few and far between.
Qin Feng was a fire ability user and the energy he could unleash was something which no ordinary F-tier user could match.
Hearing what the man had to say, Qin Feng stopped in his tracks.
"What are you referring to?"
"Sir, you'll understand when you come and see for yourself!"
A suspicion arose in Qin Feng's mind that these guys could be up to no good. But even if he was persuaded to go upstairs, was there anything these guys could do to stop him from leaving?
With that in mind, Qin Feng followed the man to the entrance of a safe pa.s.sage!
On the other end of the pa.s.sageway up the stairs however, was a heavy bed frame barricading against outsiders, leaving a small gap that was no more than half a meter-wide for humans to be able to barely squeeze through. Littering the stairway up to the makeshift barricade were carca.s.ses of a variety of insectoids.
So this was how they stopped the bugs from entering the second floor!
It was such a simple defensive structure that if not for Qin Feng's unexpected arrival, it would have collapsed in no time against these unrelenting bugs.
Squeezing past the shoddy barricade, two men entered into Qin Feng's view on the other side. According to Bai Li's report, there were seven people around here and one of them was fed to the bugs.
If his math were correct, that meant three casualties from the bug a.s.sault just now.
"Mr Qin, my name's w.a.n.g Chen. We've had a bit of a misunderstanding back then but since everybody's on the same boat, I hope that we can let bygones be bygones!"
w.a.n.g Chen said as his hand remained pressed onto his belly.
Qin Feng, who could achieve such magnificent feats using his consciousness alone naturally had a pretty good memory. A single glance was just what it took for him to recognise the companion of that apt.i.tude user who had toyed with Bai Li.
Could it be that the person who Bai Li said was "fed to the bugs" was none other than this guy's friend?
Considering Bai Li's looks, it did not take a genius to be able to imagine what would have happened if such a girl were walking across such a disordered place, where laws and morality were as good as dead.
Still, Bai Li had her own ways to defend herself.
Qin Feng's expression darkened as he stared at w.a.n.g Chen coldly in the eyes.
The man felt a wave of fear creeping up his spine as his smile became more and more forced.
Unbeknownst to both of them was the fact that the entire incident was entirely a result of Bai Li's doing.
After Bai Li sent the man flying out the window, the fresh meal attracted a large group of hungry insectoids over for the feast. This happened when the men were only halfway through building their defensive perimeter. Naturally, they would open fire to kill off those bugs to prevent a potential breach but unfortunately, that only attracted an even larger group of creepy-crawlies to their position.
It was only after witnessing firsthand just what Qin Feng was capable of, that ideas for revenge were quickly abandoned.
What was more, the remaining two of the group had no grievances with Qin Feng and were in fact, elated to meet Qin Feng in person.
"Nice to meet you, Mr Qin! My name's He Ling, this man over here's Zhao Xiang!"
"Oh, just call me Qin Feng!"
"No no no no, we'll stick to Mr Qin! We are now nothing but a small team of defeated soldiers with no leader to guide us! I sincerely hope that Mr Qin can help us out. As long as we can survive through this, I swear I will repay the debt to you no matter what!"
These insectoids were too overwhelming. It did not matter that they were F-tier apt.i.tude users. They could not hold their ground even when teamed up against an F-tier blade mantis general. The unexpected arrival of Qin Feng however, greatly boosted their morale again after a brief moment of staring death right in the eyes.
A nerve popped on Qin Feng's forehead.
He was no hero who had come to save the day.
Still, his mind returned to the supposed heroine that was Liu Xue. On second thought, the addition of a few more apt.i.tude users might not completely be bad news, considering the fact that there were now more than twenty people to protect in the underground shelter.
"Hmm, alright!"
"You are okay with that, Mr Qin?" He Ling found it difficult to believe Qin Feng's answer.
"We really appreciate it, Mr Qin!" Zhao Xiang hurriedly thanked their saviour.
"Thank you!" the superficial smile w.a.n.g Chen wore on his face was now exchanged with one that reflected his genuine emotion.
"Oh right, before I forget, what's the reason that you led me up here?" Qin Feng reminded w.a.n.g Chen.
w.a.n.g Chen hurriedly replied, "Mr Qin, I have not fooled you! Come over here and take a look!"
w.a.n.g Chen led Qin Feng to a nearby window.
