End and aftermath of the battle

After passing the normal people, Liushi aimed for the woman.

She stayed close to Blood Wolf and they dodged further away from the warehouse. They were on the other side of the vehicle, so Qingping couldn't shoot them, but Zhuying could attack them. She launched a widespread lightning attack, hitting the 2 paranormals, before throwing the second grenade.

They screamed in pain as their muscles spasmed, but they were still paranormals. It didn't stop them, just slowed them down for a bit. Blood Wolf, with his transformation, had high physical prowesses so he was able to get away from the effective range of the grenade. The woman couldn't, and activated her ability in haste.

It all happened within a second. Underneath her clothes, her skin moved as the bones of her limbs and ribs morphed. They took the form of a thin plate armor just under the skin, in her arms and legs. For they ribs, she had less control so she could only enlarge them a bit. Liushi, Lu and Qingping could see her cheekbones and forehead shift as she altered the bones to further protect her head. She crossed her limbs in front of her body at the last moment.

BANG!!

She staggered backward and fell on her butt in mild pain, but she was still good to go. Her bone armor had been strong enough to stop the sharpnels, but some still got in her tights and shoulders. Unfortunatly for her, since the grenade was thrown, Liushi had the time to turn the vehicle around, and she was in Qingping line of fire. She didn't miss that chance and opened fire on the woman.

Even if she could hide behind her reinforced limbs again, it would have been useless. The hastly made bone plates may have been strong enough to stop sharpnels, but not 9mm bullets. More than a dozen of them pierced her legs, belly and chest. They weren't lethal wounds, except for one bullet in particular lodging itself in the center of her diaphragm. It prevented her from shouting in pain, and take another breath again. She slowly suffocated to death.

With the woman down, Blood Wolf was the only one of his group still standing. And he knew he was done for.

"Girls, I want the bastard alive" he said. "Aim for his legs."

Caugh between the protected warehouse and the agile armored car, his resistance didn't last long. His options limited by the covering fire from the warehouse, he couldn't avoid the powerful lightning strike from Zhuying that shocked him to the core, nor the following hail of bullets shot by Qingping. He could barely grunt due to the electricity disrupting his breath. Liushi quickly pulled out his shotgun and fired at his legs, shattering Blood Wolf's knee.

"GROOAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

His howl of pain made them all flintch. Liushi stopped the car near him and got out, his shotgun still in his throbing hand. Zhuying was quick to follow him, and Qingping reacted a little later. Zhang Hai, Sun Kun and Lu got out of the warehouse, and moved close to him, still wary of the surroundings. Not wanting to underestimate the current capabilities of his enemy, Liushi shot the other knee.

Blood Wolf was in a world of pain, and his enhanced throat was tested with how long and loud he screamed. When his mind could focus on his surroundings, he noticed the other. He barely glanced at Qingping and Lu, focusing on the siblings. One out of desire, the other out of hatred.

"What the f*ck do you want" Blood Wolf asked in pain, with resignation and rage.

"There is something I want to know" started Liushi. "The founder of the Bloody Wolves was Blood Wolf. Not long ago, he died and you became the new leader, the new Blood Wolf."

"So what?"

"Seeing the kind of group that you are, I doubt the previous leader named the group after an underling. No, he would have named it after himself or something he liked or valued. Then, there is your obsession with Zhuying. If it was because she was pretty or a paranormal, you wouldn't have ignored Qingping, who is at least as beautiful if not a little more, and is also a paranormal."

Blood Wolf eyes widened as he caught onto what Liushi guessed.

"Your ability is to absorb the abilities of other paranormals. You stole the previous Blood Wolf ability, killing him in the process, and wanted to do the same to my sister."

The others were speechless, but noone was more shocked than Zhuying herself. She gasped, paled and took a step back in horror. The other 3 paranormals were very disturbed by that. The gift they gained that helped them survive the outbreak could be lost. They also realised that there could be some very terrifying paranormals out there.

"It's all your fault" Blood Wolf started, his anger being reignited. "If not for you... I would have gotten her... With her ability, I would have reached a higher realm... You ruined everything..."

"If it was so important, why ignore the others? The woman who could control her bones, Qingping with her enhanced leg power. You could have further improved your physical abilities."

"... My body could only handle 2 other abilities... Any more and it would collapse under the strain... I already had the physical power... I needed something different..."

"I see... That's all I wanted to know." Then his expression got darker and more solemn. "For your cooperation, I'll end this quickly."

"Eh!... Whatever, bastard" he repiled while turning his head toward the ground.

Liushi pointed his gun at the back of his head and pulled the trigger without a pause.

BANG.

To his ears, the sound was louder than any other gunshot he heard before. It felt like the power of the recoil went straight to his heart and mind. He was frozen in place, and all his senses got numb. He couldn't see or hear properly anymore, and felt light headed. It took him a few seconds to gather himself and lower his gun, due to the Starseed talking to him.

[The body of the 2 deceased evolved humans are releasing their bio-energy. Please make contact with them to absorb the energy before it completly fades away. Combined with the use of mutant beasts energy core, it will boost the efficiency of the material manipulation.]

Earlier, he had killed. He had done so because he was forced into a life-or-death situation. They were the assulted party, it was a battle for survival. What he just did with the Blood Wolf was an execution, a murder. He looked at the corpse in front of him with a big bloody hole at the back of its head, then the rest of the battlefield full of pierced, mutilated and broken bodies. That was too much killing for him at once.

"Gather the bodies" he said in a hollow voice while picking up Blood Wolf's leg and starting to drag him toward the woman's body. "We need to stay here for a while for some upgrades. I don't want a zombie swarm or mutant beasts to be attracted to us during that time."

While walking away, he drained the corpse of its energy. When he reached the woman, he made a show of checking the corpses for anything important to drain her as well. He got some keys, which he suspected would be used in their base for important stuff.

He then went to the trailer and hastly made 2 syringes using the Starseed. He wanted blood sample of Blood Wolf and the woman, thinking they would be usefull in the creation of enhancement serums. Blood Wolf's original absorption ability would make a good base for such a serum. The woman's ability would be useful for some kind of bone strenghtening serum.

The blood samples were stored, and the bodies were piled in one of the gang cars. Liushi, accompanied by the 2 guys, towed said car and went to dispose of the bodies. They left them in 3 differents places at the edge of the Bloody Wolves territory, while the girls cleaned the front of the warehouse to get rid of the scent of blood.

Once back to the warehouse, Liushi decided to focus his attention on upgrades. The worried looks Zhuying and Lu gave him, he could handle. Nobody was unnaffected by what had occured. However, the subdued, near frightened look Xiaotian gave him stung. If before she was shy, but caring, she had become apprehensive and seemed to want to keep her distances.

He had the core Zhuying exchanged with him, the one from the mutant dog, and the 2 he got at Satellite Town. With them, he could make intensive modifications. Liushi was awere that the mutant beasts core could be used for more than just boosting the capabilities of the Starseed. They could also be used as components in a machine, or base material for an advanced one or a new chemical compound. The Starseed had confirmed it, and warned that the creation of serums would likely require the full use of a mutant beast core.

He had decided to use one of the core as a permanent catalyst in the chemical section of the micro-factory. Mutant beasts core had potential for further applications, but the current cores were too brittle. Liushi both anticipated and dreaded the appearance of level 2 cores, as that would mean more dangerous beasts.

2 cores would be used to make more alloys and compounds materials, as well as polymers and advanced chemicals. The last one would be used to upgrade the medical station and the micro-factory. The internal security mini-turrets were already on the production list of the factory, and would be made as soon as the upgrade was finished. Following them, would be a whole lot of amnutions for all calibres.

All those upgrade would be made within the Doomsday Ride, so Qingping and the 2 guys wouldn't know of his true capabilities. Zhuying, Lu and Xiaotian would move back and forth to transport the materials, with minimal aid from Zhnag Hai and Sun Kun.

And that how they spent the rest of the day. It started late in the afternoon, and continued into the evening with a break for dinner. After that, the 3 girls took turn assisting Liushi. The last core wasn't completly drained, and with advice from the Starseed, was kept for a special usage.