Disaster Strikes - Chapter 21:

Chapter 21: Black-clothed Thugs

“They’re here!”

As these black-clothed individuals approached, their pace quickened. It was unclear who suddenly shouted, the voice sounding somewhat nervous. Then, a loud thunderclap rang out, illuminating the dark night sky with a brief burst of intense light. One of the black-clothed men walking towards them was struck by the lightning, his body emitting sparks, and he fell stiffly to the beach.

There was no need to guess; it was definitely Lei Wu using his combat skill.

As if this was a signal, the nervous starving ghosts, as if facing imminent death, seemed to be aroused with ferocity in their blood, which had been continuously selected and left behind by generations of natural disaster survivors, and they all launched attacks on these approaching black-clothed people.

Chen Mo also chose one of the black-clothed people closest to him and rushed forward with a bronze short sword in hand.

The night was hazy.

The tide of the sea lapped at the beach, and twenty-some people were engaged in a chaotic battle on the beach.

The black-clothed man facing Chen Mo was about 1.65 meters tall, looking quite shrewd and capable, with a fierce look in his eyes. He held a dagger and upon seeing Chen Mo approaching with a short sword, immediately engaged in a confrontation with him.

The dagger and the short sword clashed, and neither side had the upper hand.

However, Chen Mo was the one who took the initiative to lunge forward. With the help of inertia, the black-clothed man couldn’t help but take a few steps back on the beach. Immediately, the two were less than two meters apart, holding their weapons horizontally in front of their chests. They both made defensive postures at the same time, ready to strike at any moment, resulting in a brief stalemate.

They kept adjusting their steps and moving their weapons. Under the moonlight, the man glanced at the dagger in his hand. The blade of the dagger emitted a chilling cold light.

However, the brief contact between the two sides just now caused a crack to appear in his dagger. This made him involuntarily look at the weapon in Chen Mo’s hand. The plain bronze short sword looked inconspicuous but seemed more lethal than his dagger, which was still intact.

Chen Mo also noticed this. In other words, the opponent’s weapon was just ordinary material and did not have any magic properties.

After understanding the specific strength of this black-clothed man, Chen Mo’s originally nervous heart couldn’t help but relax slightly. He was a psychic power user and now he was engaged in a melee with the opponent. It seemed that the strength of these black-clothed men was not that great. They were just ordinary people compared to the standards on Earth.

In the end, the opponent couldn’t hold back and launched an attack on Chen Mo. Chen Mo tried to dodge using the basic body technique he learned from the academy’s combat tutorial while counterattacking. Unfortunately, he couldn’t dodge the opponent’s attack.

As he felt a slight pain in his right side, Chen Mo’s bronze short sword also grazed the opponent’s left shoulder, tearing the black suit on the spot. While maintaining a defensive posture, Chen Mo looked at his wound.

The coarse cloth of his clothes was torn open, revealing the wound underneath. The wound was not large, just a superficial injury that bled slightly. However, under the effect of the Stone Skin talent, the torn wound actively closed, preventing further blood loss.

But out of caution, he still checked the prompt on the Light Brain data chip.

Prompt: Your Health -5.

Just 5 points of damage, compared to Chen Mo’s 186 health points, was not yet a threat.

At the same time. Chen Mo’s counterattack against the black-clothed man undoubtedly caused more serious injuries!

Compared to the opponent’s dagger, the bronze short sword seemed like a divine weapon. Not only did it easily cut open the opponent’s clothes, but it also formed a wound over twenty centimeters long on the opponent’s chest. The wound was so deep that the bone could be seen, truly shocking, with blood continuously flowing from the wound.

“Hmph…”

The black-clothed man tried hard to suppress his pain, gritting his teeth, making his expression look somewhat fierce. The opponent’s defense was obviously not high.

Otherwise, Chen Mo’s mere 10 points of strength plus the 12 points of damage from the sword, with a basic chpping skill only at level 1, would never have caused such considerable damage.

The black-clothed man suddenly let out a strange cry, looking ferocious, and launched another attack at Chen Mo.

Since he had already understood the opponent’s capabilities, Chen Mo faced the opponent’s attack with a much more calm mindset. Perhaps it was a matter of mindset, but this time he actually managed to dodge the opponent’s attack using basic body technique. However, Chen Mo’s counterattack left the black-clothed man’s left arm dripping with blood, hanging limply.

“At this level, it seems to be on par with Mu Tan and Du Fangyan. If it weren’t for having a weapon in hand, perhaps it would be slightly inferior.”

Based on his own understanding, Chen Mo made a judgment about the strength of this black-clothed man and came to this conclusion.

Just then, the black-clothed man, who had been severely hit by Chen Mo’s consecutive counterattacks and realized he was no match for Chen Mo, suddenly retreated. Chen Mo was astonished, he saw the man’s body suddenly surge with energy, which gathered on the dagger after a slight flash and then was thrown out.

“Combat skill!”

Chen Mo was greatly surprised but was unable to evade. He could only rely on basic body techniques to barely dodge sideways, protecting his vital parts. The dagger, imbued with energy, pierced into his body.

Fortunately, due to the defense of his armour and Stone Skin talent, the dagger did not penetrate deeply.

Prompt: Your Health -23.

Chen Mo was both shocked and angry, regretting not taking the opponent seriously.

After throwing the dagger, the black-clothed man pulled out a new one from his waist. Chen Mo endured the pain of a foreign object piercing his body, mobilized the energy within him, and a sparkling orb of light hit the man’s face. Caught off guard, he screamed and fell to the ground, covering his face.

It was Chen Mo’s Psychic bullet skill. There will always be a gap between theory and reality. Although Chen Mo knew in his heart that combat skills should be interspersed with normal attacks to maximize their effectiveness, the reality was that he did not have such conditions, or rather, he was unable to create such conditions yet.

But fortunately, the outcome was good. Chen Mo leaped up again, pouncing over and taking the opportunity to strike at the black-clothed man’s head weakness. The black-clothed man then went limp and lay motionless on the beach.

Prompt: You have killed a black-clothed thug.

Prompt: You have gained 1 point of disaster Contribution point.

Chen Mo, who received the prompt from the Light Brain chip, stood in place, breathing slightly heavily.

“Just a thug.”

Although the fight between the two was short, lasting less than twenty seconds, it was a real struggle, which caused his adrenaline to soar. Now that he had calmed down slightly, he felt the pain of the dagger in his body. He pulled out the dagger, causing some blood to flow from the wound, and he grunted.

Feeling the Stone Skin talent once again reducing the bleeding speed, which was almost visibly decreasing, he couldn’t help but feel greatly confident in successfully completing this trial.

Having dealt with the black-clothed thug in front of him, Chen Mo looked towards the battlefield on the beach.

The fighting on the beach was still quite intense. Several people had already fallen, but in the dim night, it was difficult to see whether they were black-clothed thugs or starving ghosts.

The number of black-clothed thugs on the beach was clearly greater than that of the starving ghosts. However, the few adult starving ghost trainees were almost all fighting one against two, or even one against three, and had entered a perfect combat state, trying to earn more points.

“Qingqing!”

Looking towards the voice, Du Fangyan and Du Qingqing seemed to be working together to deal with a black-clothed thug.

Although it was said that they were working together, it was mainly Du Fangyan handling the situation. Du Qingqing not only couldn’t contribute but also became a burden, needing Du Fangyan’s constant protection.

After surveying the surroundings, Chen Mo finally distinguished the situation on the field with the help of moonlight and found where Han Xue, Ku Wu, and Tao Zi were.

“Here are weapons for you!”

Chen Mo shouted and threw the two daggers in his hand towards Han Xue and Ku Wu.

Upon hearing Chen Mo’s voice, the two immediately understood. After receiving the weapons, their strength noticeably increased, and they launched a fierce attack on the black-clothed thugs in front of them.

It was evident that the starving ghost trainees participating in the trial generally had stronger abilities than these black-clothed thugs.

The brief and fleeting flash of lightning was a unique sign of Lei Wu. Chen Mo noticed that three black-clothed thugs had already fallen beside him, and he was trying to kill the fourth.

At that moment. The sound of vibration on the beach began to get closer, appearing in everyone’s sight.

It was the huge man that everyone had seen earlier by the moonlight!

Compared to the black-clothed thugs, he had a larger physique, and his strength was not something the thugs could compare to. Although he was slower, he seemed like a human armoured vehicle, exuding an indescribable sense of oppression as he charged towards them.

Gao Shu shouted, “Xiao Jiang, you go first! I’ll deal with this thug and support you immediately. Tian Tian, you’re in charge of catching them and finding the mission clues!”

“Got it!”

As the only one in the five-person team with a physique specialization, Fei Xiaojiang took the lead and actively confronted the black-clothed man who was taller than him.

“Understood, Captain,” Tian Tian blinked flirtatiously.

It was evident that these five adult starving ghosts, whether in personal combat strength or in their sense of cooperation, were indeed far superior to Chen Mo’s group of four. The reason why they did not immediately make a move was probably only because they were considering the ongoing trial task.

Fei Xiaojiang was about 1.75 meters tall.

With a weight of 180 pounds, he appeared particularly imposing. His physique attributes seemed to be higher than Chen Mo’s, but in front of this even larger black-clothed man, he appeared much smaller.

Immediately after, the two men, one big and one small, collided head-on.

Bang!

The black-clothed man was dazed slightly, standing still. Fei Xiaojiang, on the other hand, grunted and flew out about four to five meters before sitting down heavily on the beach.

Fei Xiaojiang, who realized what had happened, immediately shouted, “He’s an elite creature! His strength is at least 20 points or more!”

Before the others could react, this elite black-clothed thug, upon seeing that so many of his underlings had been killed by the starving ghost trainees, let out a roar of anger.

Seeing the little man, who was smaller than himself, climb up from the beach and still try to block his way, he pulled out two one-meter-long machetes from behind.

“Damn it!”

Although Fei Xiaojiang knew the danger, he still had to grit his teeth and face the danger head-on. Fortunately, he wielded an E-level skill called Stagnant energy field, and his proficiency had reached level 4.

Stagnant energy field: Deals 10 points of damage to enemies within a two-meter range and reduces their attack by 5 points.

Level 4 additional effect: After using the skill, reduces speed by 2 points for 20 seconds, stackable.

The combination of Stagnant energy field and his high physique undoubtedly greatly increased his survival attributes.

Fei Xiaojiang’s weapon was a pair of gloves. When he assumed a crouching posture, his whole demeanor changed. He seemed like a judo wrestler, with his legs standing firmly on the ground like mountains and his hands swinging like the waves of the sea. He opened his arms towards the giant running towards him.

“This guy!”

Chen Mo, who was helping Ku Wu deal with a black-clothed thug, couldn’t help but be amazed by the scene.

The collision between these two giants, one big and one small, was truly shocking.

After being intercepted by Fei Xiaojiang, the elite black-clothed thug continued to chop down with his machetes, interspersed with the damage from his powerful skills, which was extremely fierce.

Fei Xiaojiang tried to resist and parry while attempting to execute a body slam on this elite creature. However, the opponent’s attacks were too fierce, and his strength and physique were superior. Several attempts to body slam ended in failure. As a result, after only resisting head-on for a while, he was already covered in wounds.

“I’m here!”

The good news was that Gao Shu finally dealt with the black-clothed thug in front of him and rushed over to support.

He was quite fast, and quickly teamed up with Fei Xiaojiang. Fei Xiaojiang blocked the damage in front while he dealt damage, constantly launching sneak attacks. Soon, he had inflicted several wounds of varying sizes on the elite black-clothed thug.

But what made him feel uneasy was that the opponent’s physique and defense were indeed quite high, and his attacks could not cause much damage.

“Lu Ye, check his attributes!”

Although Lu Ye was still in the middle of the fight, he immediately used his perception skill upon hearing Gao Shu’s command.

“The opponent has undergone preliminary modification through some kind of biochemical technology and gained the Resistance Skin skill, making him immune to my investigation!”

Lu Ye’s response made Gao Shu’s expression darken.

However, this indirectly confirmed his speculation!

The good news was that as the number of black-clothed thugs decreased, as long as Lu Yi and Lu Ye could solve the thugs in front of them and come to support, even if this elite creature was formidable, it should not pose too much of a threat to them.

With this in mind, he calmed down and changed his previous battle strategy.

Now, as long as he ensured his own safety, he would focus on dealing continuous damage to this guy.

“Brother!”

A desperate cry came from the beach, startling Gao Shu.

When he saw that Du Fangyan had died protecting Du Qingqing from a black-clothed thug’s throwing knife skill that pierced his heart, he couldn’t help but sneer and didn’t look at him again.

(End of chapter 21)