Vol 6: Chapter 3-3.
“Yinkong, your dagger!”
Seeing that Lan was too slow to take the cat out in time, Zheng threw his gun away then signaled Yinkong as he jumped at the sandstorm. He channeled Qi to the Na ring forming a translucent force field around his fist then struck the sandstorm with his left hand.
With a boom, the sandstorm was knocked back as if it went into a wall. Zheng also got knocked back and crashed into Jie and Zero. The sandstorm turned back to human form behind the bus. Imhotep kneeled with one knee. His shoulder was burning and corroding away. The Na ring was indeed very effective against spiritual beings, being able to damage Imhotep when the magical bullets couldn’t.
Yinkong pulled out the dagger at once, a dagger enclosed in a flame. The mummies summoned by Zheng immediately backed off as if they were scared of the dagger. Even Imhotep frowned as he saw it.
“Secure yourself!” O’Connell yelled as he stepped at the gas pedal all the way. The bus ran forward in full speed, knocking over a bunch of barrels and some zombies. And left Imhotep behind as he slowly recovered his body.
Imhotep shouted then opened his mouth. An endless stream of flies came out of his mouth then formed a seemingly dark cloud and flew toward the bus. Evelyn and Zhuiyu screamed in fear immediately. Lan didn’t scream but her face still turned pale white. Yinkong was the only girl who remained indifferent.
As the flies close in on them, Heng took off his shirt and swung at the flies. Zheng and the others quickly followed suit, even the man in black also took off his robe to help.
Although these flies couldn’t deal much damage but they looked disgusting and blocked their vision. O’Connell had to slow down the bus and even so, he was still driving into poles and street lights.
Suddenly they heard a chanting in ancient Egyptian. Evelyn immediately said. “He’s summoning mummies, the Egyptian meant…” Before she could finish, a mummy dropped on the front of the bus with a bang and slashed at O’Connell with its sword.
O’Connell quickly turned the driving wheel and flung the mummy off. Everyone in the bus lost their stability at the same time. However, the flies were still sticking to the bus.
“F*ck, if I can live, I will stock up in bug sprays and bug repellent incenses.”
Jie got back up from the floor and cursed.
“Bug sprays… repellent incenses? Right, repellent incense!” Lan yelled with excitement as she took out two smoke grenades from her bag. She pulled the rings without hesitation. A thick smoke came out from the grenades but since the bus was still driving, the smoke floated to the back. The flies were falling in clusters and soon enough, O’Connell gained back some vision.
They didn’t have a chance to celebrate. They could see the port but the path was filled with countless zombies and mummies on the walls and roofs, at least over a thousand mummies. Maybe it was due to Imhotep recovered more of his power or he assembled all the mummies in Cairo. Anyway, the mummies in front of them could form a mini army.
Everyone looked at Zheng but he could only force a smile. “I can’t summon anymore tornados. I’ve only recovered a quarter of my blood energy. Even if I summon it, it would have limited power, at least not enough to send so many mummies flying…”
“Then what should we do?” Everyone said. Then they realized they had made Zheng their core.
Zheng took a deep breath and took out the remaining magical bullets from his ring. “O’Connell, go! Don’t worry about anything. We will die if we stay here anyway so just go and bet our lives on this… Shit, go for the port, it’s our only hope!”
O’Connell also took a deep breath and drove right into the sea of zombies.
Everyone fell into a silence as they got nearer and nearer to the zombies. Zheng picked up his gun and sprayed at the street then everyone else also opened fire.
The mummies also began to jump at the bus. Despite the firepower from Zheng, Jie, and Zero, there were too many mummies. When the first one got on the top of the bus, many others followed. Then a sword stabbed into the bus from the top.
Zheng clenched his teeth. He held onto the gun with his mouth, opened the window then jumped up to the top of the bus. His eyes went out of focus, signaling that he entered the unlocked mode.
Over a dozen mummies stood on top of the bus. It was as though Zheng’s appearance surprised them for a moment before the two mummies nearest to him attacked. But his reaction speed was incredible. He took the gun from his mouth and fired while he was still in the air and crushed those two mummies and several near them.
Zheng’s power increased by several folds even with just the first stage of the unlocked mode. Ever since he reached the second stage, it was easy for him to enter the first stage. He just had to believe he was in danger. Furthermore the after effect had lessened by a lot. In other words, he could enter the first stage without any worry now.
Zheng easily eliminated the mummies on top of the bus but many more were jumping toward the bus every minute. He could only focus all his attention on these mummies. Tatata. Bullet shells were falling from his submachine gun onto the bus like rain. Before a minute had passed, he had emptied the magazine. Then he started to attack with his left hand and the Na ring.
“O’Connell! Hurry! Hope is right there!”
Zheng yelled as he moved within the mummies. Every strike would hit one or two mummies. A complete hit could kill a mummy and even a scratch could damage it due to the effect of the Na ring. However it also consumed his Qi very fast at this state. Even if a strike only takes a little bit of Qi, his Qi was almost empty after killing over a hundred mummies.
The sandstorm was coming at the bus from behind again. This time seemingly more powerful than before. They could make out a face in the center of it. The huge face opened its mouth trying to swallow the bus but with a faint meow, the face flew to the top of a building on the side as if it saw something horrifying. Then it transformed into Imhotep’s human form.
Zheng let out a sigh of relief. A mummy slashed at his shoulder with a curved sword with just one moment of letting his guard down. He dodged as soon as he felt the pain so the sword only took away a part of his flesh and didn’t get the bones. Zheng couldn’t dare to think about other things anymore. He crushed that mummy then focused his attention back to the fight on hand.
The bus was getting closer and closer to the port. Just one more turn and it could drive straight to the port.
“We came at the right moment.”
Team India stood on top of a building and looked at the bus below. Shiva then looked at Imhotep who stopped moving forward. He laughed coldly and said. “Cat? Lamu, kill the cat! Shainaia, connect to Lamu’s mind and show him the cat’s location!”
Shainaia nodded. The young man also closed his eyes and a needle floated on his palm. Then the needle disappeared and when it reappeared several seconds later, it was stained with blood.
Shainaia frowned and said. “The psyche mask appeared again once the cat died. I can’t sense the minds of the people in the car anymore.”
Shiva looked as Imhotep transformed into a sandstorm again and smiled. “Doesn’t matter. If Lamu had shown any intention of killing their members, the psyche mask would had appeared instantly. It was better to just kill the cat… and let Imhotep kill team China for us.”
Suddenly they heard a howl from the side. Arot who as quietly standing there the whole time began howling. His hair started and body started to grow. Shiva immediately said. “Shainaia! Control his mind. If we join the fight now, Imhotep may see us as enemies. With so many mummies here… we will get in a rough battle.”
Shainaia frowned and her face was becoming pale white. She spit out blood when Arot became a complete werewolf and ran away. “Leader, I can’t. His mind has fallen into madness… I can’t control it.”
Shiva sighed. The mummies were coming at them from all sides just as he had expected. It was too late now.
Zheng had his attention on the mummies when suddenly he felt an emotion of killing coming at him. A large figure jumped at him before he had the time to complete turn around. The figure took him off the bus and into the sea of zombies. When the two of them stopped rolling, they were already ten meters away from the bus.
It wasn’t until now that Zheng recognized the figure as the blonde doctor Arot, or rather the werewolf Arot. He was howling and slicing at all the zombies near him with his scalpels. His fingers and hands were moving at such a speed barely visible to human eyes. The zombies were sliced into pieces only several centimeters big.
Then the werewolf jumped at Zheng and slashed at him with the scalpels at an extreme speed.
Zheng’s premonition of danger immediately reached a limit. The emotion of killing felt like blades. He had no doubt he would become pieces of flesh the next second just like the zombies. Zheng entered the second stage before the scalpels reached him. He raised his left hand to block at the werewolf’s wrist while he punched the werewolf on the stomach with his right hand. His muscles expanded suddenly when he attacked. Boom. It was as though he had hit a tire. His left hand felt numb after blocking like it was struck with metal.
After missing his attack, the werewolf jumped up and reached for Zheng’s head with his legs. Zheng took our his knife and slashed at the werewolf’s head. Neither of them backed off.
Both sides were in the unlocked mode and had put their lives on the line. They couldn’t spare their attention to anything other than killing each other. Like Imhotep got in the bus and seized the last American out of the bus. At the same time Yinkong also followed him outside as she entered the unlocked mode.
She kicked at the window of the bus and used the force to jump at Imhotep. Then stabbed her dagger into Imhotep’s heart before he could drain the American. A flame burned from his chest. Imhotep dropped the American off as he screamed. Yinkong immediately kicked the American back into the bus then ran toward Zheng and the werewolf.
The werewolf’s scalpels had gotten a few hits on Zheng’s chest and stomach. Blood was bleeding from him like water. The werewolf’s arm also got cut off.
Yinkong appeared all of a sudden. The werewolf was focused on Zheng that when he finally felt the attack coming from behind, Yinkong’s dagger had already stabbed into his chest. Then he punched her away and ran before Zheng could attack again. Zheng had no choice but to go after Yinkong and save her from the sea of zombies.
Zheng carried Yinkong while slashing at the mummies with his knife. The bus was getting further and further away from them. Zheng chased after the bus as fast as he could. At the same time the bus had made its last turn. There was only one last straight road to the port.
It was a roller coaster of emotions for them during the whole ride. Like now that there was no ships by the port. Several ships were over a hundred meters deep into the river. Even the nearest ship was still ten meters away from the port. Zheng stood there in shock. A sense of despair overtook him and everyone on the bus as the sea of zombies and several hundred mummies closed in from behind. They had no where to go.
“O’Connell! Believe in me, go! Don’t think about anything and just step on the gas pedal all the way!”
Zheng clenched his teeth then shouted. He ran at full speed toward the bus.
O’Connell began shouting and drove the bus toward the river. Everyone felt lost as they looked at the ship that was sailing away.
Zheng took out the Book of the Dead as he ran. He chanted a spell Tengyi taught him, a spell that could control rocks and soil. It could be used to bury corpses or — change the terrain!
The road in front of the bus gradually elevated. Everyone noticed the abnormality but no one said anything. They all stared at that ship on the river. O’Connell’s voice became hoarse from the shouting. He kept his foot tight on the gas pedal and his hands on the wheel. Then the bus drove onward on the elevated road.
The Book of the Dead drained Zheng’s stamina with the spell. He stumbled and was about to fall when Yinkong jumped off him and carried him on her shoulder. The little girl exerted amazing strength at this moment. She carried Zheng with one arm and took out a hooked rope with her other hand and threw it at the bus. The hook caught the window and pulled the two of them off the ground has the bus flew toward the ship on the river… toward hope.