In this sealed underground space, only three sounds continued to echo.
The roar of Brewer's shotgun, the hungry, rasping groans from the depths of the living corpses' throats, and the heavy footsteps of the Plague Butcher.
This tug-of-war had already lasted a full fifteen minutes.
For a high-intensity life-or-death struggle, this was a length of ti long enough to wear down even a will of steel.
Beads of sweat covered Brewer's forehead, soaking the golden hair at his temples.
The barrel of the shotgun in his hands was already frighteningly hot, each shot feeling like he was gripping a red-hot branding iron.
A thick layer of spent shells had piled up at his feet, yet the tide of living corpses pouring from the dark pipes showed no signs of diminishing.
The ranger's stamina was being rapidly depleted, but his gaze grew sharper.
He knew his duty very clearly.
He was the dam. As long as he didn't fall, the two comrades behind him, who were executing a more critical task, would never have to worry about threats from their rear.
Perched high upon the do ceiling, the White Ghost was like a patient vulture.
He constantly shifted his position, dodging the occasional chunks of corpses hurled by the Butcher and the stone fragnts sent flying by explosions.
His presence was extrely low, rging with the shadows of this space.
But his gaze never left the frenzied beast below.
He was waiting, waiting for an opportunity for a single, fatal strike.
And the one undoubtedly bearing the greatest pressure was Lin Jie.
"Huff... huff..."
Lin Jie hid behind a broken stone pillar, gasping heavily, each breath carrying a burning sting.
Prolonged exposure to the corrosive green flas had pushed his body to its limit.
His exposed skin was covered in fine green blisters, every movent triggering an excruciating pain.
His spirit was equally exhausted.
Maintaining a high level of focus without using the ntal Staircase, constantly predicting the Action Trail of a Kingdom-class UMA, was a form of cruel torture for his mind.
But he couldn't fall.
Because he could feel that the giant beast was also nearing its limit.
The Plague Butcher's movents were becoming increasingly frenzied and increasingly chaotic.
It no longer engaged in precise prediction and pursuit, instead using its massive hook for wide, destructive sweeps.
Stone fragnts and corpse chunks were haphazardly smashed in all directions, each attack triggering violent explosions and tremors.
This was the sign of a monster utterly enraged, on the verge of losing its reason.
And the more enraged a beast beca, the easier it was to expose a fatal flaw.
A glint flashed in Lin Jie's eyes. He knew the decisive mont was approaching.
He darted out from behind the stone pillar again, sprinting towards another direction.
This ti, his target was a platform at the edge of the arena, ford by a collapse and situated on higher ground.
The Butcher's eye sockets, burning with green flas, imdiately locked onto him and charged.
Lin Jie's legs felt as heavy as if filled with lead, but he gritted his teeth and pushed his speed to the limit.
He managed to leap with all his might before the Butcher arrived, scrambling up the five-ter-high platform using both hands and feet.
He turned, looking down at the giant beast that had charged to the base of the platform, raised the Serene Heart in his hand, and pulled the trigger.
This shot was a signal.
The final signal for the White Ghost on the do ceiling.
The Plague Butcher was enraged by this insignificant figure so close at hand.
All it wanted now was to smash this thing that had caused it such extraordinary irritation into pulp.
It abandoned any superfluous movent, its legs exerting force, actually propelling its massive body into a leap!
The monster launched a powerful jump attack.
The hook traced a deathly arc through the air, smashing down towards the platform Lin Jie had just occupied with crushing force.
Lin Jie had already leaped backward the mont it jumped, his body curling in mid-air, landing in another pile of rubble behind the platform.
"BOOM!"
The ground trembled accordingly.
The platform Lin Jie had just been on was pulverized into dust by this strike!
The montum of the massive hook didn't diminish, embedding itself deep into the rocky ground below.
And it was at this very mont that the counterattack horn, suppressed by Lin Jie all along, was finally sounded.
"Now!"
The mont he landed, Lin Jie completely ignored the intense pain shooting through his body.
Without the slightest hesitation, he clenched his right fist and activated the Spiritual Guidance Trigger.
An oppressive pressure emanating from an apex predator at the top of the ecological niche erupted.
"White's Airspace!"
The Plague Butcher, having just completed its earth-shattering attack, was preparing to pull its weapon from the rock.
Yet its body stiffened for a brief half-second due to this sudden, overwhelming pressure.
In the mortal world, half a second is but a blink of an eye.
But in a duel between top hunters, half a second is the distance between life and death.
Due to its weapon being deeply embedded in the rock and the intimidation of White's Airspace, the Butcher's action of pulling out the hook revealed a major opening lasting a full two seconds.
The White Ghost, lurking in the shadows, had been waiting for this instant.
His figure inverted down from the pipes on the do ceiling, unleashing his most dangerous ability.
The prosthetic limb made of brass, Emptiness, quietly entered a semi-virtual, semi-real phase state during the descent.
The surface of the arm rippled like water, as if it no longer belonged to this material world.
Thus, the White Ghost gently extended the prosthetic limb, Emptiness, into the Plague Butcher's chest, which had been exposed by the falling chunks of corpses.
The Butcher lowered its pig head to look at its own chest.
There was nothing there.
But it could distinctly feel a cold hand penetrating the thick fat and reinforced ribs, directly touching the heart that served as its life source.
The Plague Heart!
That Kingdom-class power core, born from the fusion of fragnts of an ancient ritual vessel and decades of slaughterhouse resentnt.
A flash of resolve passed through the White Ghost's eyes.
He clenched with all his might.
The Plague Butcher's body shuddered. The plague fires burning in its eyes flickered violently several tis, nearly extinguishing.
The fatal internal trauma plunged this corrupt monarch into several seconds of stiffness and agony.
The White Ghost's all-or-nothing strike had succeeded.
However, the cost was imnse.
The mont his prosthetic limb rematerialized between reality and illusion, the White Ghost also suffered the most direct spiritual energy backlash from the Plague Heart.
"ZZZRRRTTT—!!!"
Pure, concentrated green corruption energy surged back up the arm in reverse.
Green cracks, like a spiderweb, instantly spread across the White Ghost's prosthetic limb.
Under the erosion of this energy, the intricate gears and transmission chanisms groaned, emitting wisps of black smoke.
The White Ghost grunted, imdiately severing the connection between the arm and his body, then used the montum to perform a backflip, landing on a relatively safe rock in the distance.
He glanced down at his nearly destroyed prosthetic limb and shook his head slightly.
Then he lifted his head to look towards the other end of the underground space.
The team's brain had already raised his gun.
The White Ghost had traded an arm to buy the team five seconds that could decide the outco.
The rest was up to that man.
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