Chapter2

Zhou Lingxin's pupils dilated in shock as she and the creature looked each other eye-to-eye for what seemed like an eternity. After a moment of shock, she regained her senses and backpedaled as fast as she could, putting some much-needed distance between the two of them. Her eyes locked onto the creature as she stumbled on her feet and nearly fell over in panic.

This encounter had completely taken her off guard! She had been too naive in thinking that things would be over once she distracted the first creature and exited the house.

Feeling the weight of the pan in her arm, a preposterous idea formed in her mind. As the creature opened it's mouth to let out a shrill shriek to summon it's allies, she took out another trinket from her pocket and chucked it right into the thing's kisser, choking it momentarily and sending it off balance.

Using this opportunity, she leaped forward and brought her frying pan down. This was the most force she had ever exerted in her life and she put it all on the line with this one strike. As the pan descended down in an almighty arc, the fish thing seemed to have woken from its stupor and managed to counter with a somewhat weak rebuttal.

The creature did the only thing that something of its lowly intellect could, and charged at Zhou Lingxin like a wild beast. This action had saved its life, as the pan narrowly avoided it's head, only scraping its left flipper in the process. A loud snap resounded, as the creature's arm twisted and bent in a weird angle. The monster lurched forward in pain, landing at her feet. Though it avoided a fatal wound, it was still hurt and was writhing in agony.

Though this was the case, the distance was simply too much for the poor the Zhou Lingxin. It would be hard for her to finish off the creature without getting closer to it. Although she had a chance to rush it, she backed up instead, too frightful that she had been too loud in her recent endeavours. This was a mistake on her part, as the creature made use of her rookie move and quickly regained its bearings. Its eyes now livid with rage.

It once again charged her at maximum speed. Its left flipper was flying behind it like a broken kite. It looked like the incarnation of a kamikaze, like someone that would put an arm or a leg at stake, if only to get the detestable human girl's head.

In its mind, savage thoughts of ways to disembowel its foe were omnipresent. The primal instinct to devour was as fresh as ever, as it soared through the air, aiming a bloody it's bloody teeth at her upper body.

Zhou Lingxin, seeing the creature's opened maw approaching her, knew that she had just made a grave mistake, and now, she would only have one chance at rectifying it.

Gripping the pan in her hand, she thrust it into the creature's mouth, preventing it from tearing a bloody hole in her neck. She used the leverage from this action to send the creature crashing down onto the floor.

Though it was hurt by this, it refused to let go of its hold on the pan. This was only better for Zhou Lingxin, since the longer it had its mouth occupied for, the safer she would be. While the creature struggled on the floor to regain its balance, Zhou Lingxin was frantically kicking at it. Though her kicks weren't strong individually, once she delivered a few dozen of them, the creature's jaw finally got a little slack.

Knowing that it was on it's last vestiges of life, she placed one hand on its head, and forcefully pulled out the pan from its mouth. Then, without even waiting another second, the pan reacquainted itself with the creature's face. In Zhou Lingxin swing was enough power to shatter the creature's skull, offering a nice cracking sound.

As the creature's neural matter oozed out of it's head, it fell to the ground for the final time, never to awaken again.

In the darkness of the night, other than Zhou Lingxin's heaving figure and the fish creature's broken body, a small spherical object glittered faintly. This object did not exist a moment ago, and was in fact lodged deep into the fish creature's head. With the creature's death, however, it was let out into the open and onto the mat on the floor.

There were some runes carved into it that were very hard to distinguish, and the light red sphere had a certain hardness to it. Something that even modern metals couldn't hope to match.

Intrigued by it, Zhou Lingxin picked it up. Before she could inspect it any further though, the fish creature that had disappeared down into the cellar earlier had finally returned back up. Zhou Lingxin had no choice but to store the tiny marble-like object into her bulging pockets and flee the house.

What greeted her outside was not the usually calm and peaceful village. It was a place dyed in a sea of endless blood and wailing. In the corner of her eye she could see another creature off into the distance. She froze, unsure of what her next action should be, when a soft call greeted over from the side.

"Hey, over here," someone whispered.

She turned to see a hand beckoning out to her, asking her to come over. She was led to the house of the mayor, whom she had coincidentally lived by. She scurried over as quietly as possible and slid in, tightly clutching the pan in her hand out of nervousness.

Once in, she was greeted by a sharp-looking, middle-aged man who she recognized as the

Mayor's personal assistant, Fang Li. This man was perhaps the most capable in Duan Village, and also a person who was from the city. He was very educated and cultured, but had a habit of looking down on people, especially those who he considered under him. It was a big question why such a man would come to the village to settle down to spend the rest of his days.

Nevertheless, Fang Li's skill in management was indeed faultless. This man, even during mass panic, had what it took to organize a group of around 40 or so villagers in the Mayor's mansion, and still have the countenance of one who had no problem in gathering some more.

After he brought Zhou Lingxin in, he gave her rattled appearance a quick glance, and shook his head, seeming to have seen through her in just a glance, knowing exactly what she had just experienced. Sighing, he didn't say much, but asked her a simple question.

"Any others on the way?"

Though Fang Li's tone was very neutral, the question seemed to have struck a cord in Zhou Lingxin. That's right. She was now all alone in this world. There was no one who would stay home and cook meals for her. Or anyone who would nag her when she did wrong. There was no longer a person whom she could go cry to if she had issues. In this world, her mother was that only person. And now, that person was also gone.

Seeing Zhou Lingxin's lack of a verbal response, Fang Li, discontinued asking anymore questions. Zhou Lingxin wasn't the first such person he had seen so far who had lost an important person in a matter of seconds. Just by the look in her eyes, he understood the situation as clear as clear could get.

"Let me run you down real quick on the situation then. Sometime in the middle of the night, the village lost all power. Some people went out to check, but they never returned. By the time the rest of us had any heads or tails of the situation, those men came back as corpses. And along with them were some monsters that had crawled out from beneath the lake. Estimated body count at this moment is more than 200, and this is considering visibility is low at night. Judging by how things are going right now, and how panicked the villagers are, this number could more than double by the morning. So, you understand what I'm saying right? The situation isn't looking great and there's a good chance that most of the people you once knew are now dead. This group right here is perhaps the only one with the highest chance to survive, since it's the only one with the most cohesion since the attack. And, with that being said, it's best you stay here and cooperate, alright?"

Hearing Fang Li tell her the situation from a much more objective point of view, Zhou Lingxin realized how serious things actually were. She thought that she could ask the villagers for help, even when the village's survival itself was a question. What a joke! There would be no easy way out of this.

Gulping, Zhou Lingxin signalled her understanding to the Mayor's Assistant with a small nod. This man was probably the only one that could lead the village out of this disaster with the least amount of casualties. Under his leadership, she surely wouldn't suffer to much. This was what she forced herself to believe in an attempt to stay positive and not fall victim to despair.

Satisfied with Zhou Lingxin's response, Fang Li let out a half smile.

"We're monitoring the situation right now, but we need more hands to help in gathering up the scattered villagers. Go to the backyard and find Ning Tai. Him and his team is responsible for searching the east end of the village."

After saying these words, Fang Li left somewhere else, leaving Zhou Lingxin to her own devices. Knowing that obeying for now was perhaps the best thing she could do for herself, she headed towards the backyard to find Ning Tai. On her way there, her eyes spotted some of the other villagers huddled together on the floor, urgently praying. They looked at her with fearful eyes, but didn't say a word as they silently watched her go to the backyard.

Needless to say, Lingxin didn't try to make any small talk. As she pushed open the door, she was immediately greeted by a tall, robust man holding a big axe used for woodcutting. He also had two butcher knives hanging at his waist.

"Hey, you sent by Mr. Li?"

This was what he asked her the minute he distinguished her presence. Even when he wasn't facing her, he had easily sensed her presence. This man was indeed frightening.

Lingxin answered a quiet yes in response, her fingers fidgeting with her clothes.

"Alright, what can you do? You killed one of those things before?" Ning Tai asked, turning around to face her.

"Just one." she replied timidly, very unsure of herself.

"Well, one is more than half the people here." he said sighing,"You'll do just fine. We need all the capable people we can get. We are going to split up soon to try and look for other survivors. I'll put you in with some capable guys."

Ning Tai beckoned over a group of three others. There were two men and a woman. The males consisted of a muscular old man that had a very peculiar step and a youth with a full beard that seemed to be the living embodiment of hot-blooded emotions. The woman had long black hair and was around average height. They were all covered with small cuts and blue blood, very indicative of their recent battles with the fish people.

They gave her a look of approval as they saw her similarly blood-coated appearance.

"Alright you guys, go that way." Ning Tai said, as he handed them a lamp, pointing his finger to the south before turning around giving orders to the others.

The old man gave her a pat on the back, reassuring her that things would be just fine. The woman also offered a similar gesture, while the bearded youth just looked indifferent, not removing his eyes once from the fish people off in the distance.

Soon, the group was out of the mansion's backyard, and headed towards the marketplace. This area, which was once the most busiest places in town, was now covered in half-eaten bodies. The sight was gruesome, but not the slightest bit comparable to the fish creatures that were benefiting from it. There were many of them all over the place, in teams as small as 2-3 to groups as big as a dozen.

"We may have four of us, but they have many times our number. If we rush in like fools, we'll die deaths worse than dogs," the old man exclaimed, glancing specifically at the bearded youth who looked like he was using all his willpower to stop himself from rushing at the nearest fish figure and claiming its head.

"Most of the villagers in the open are probably all dead. There's no point in walking that way, since the fish have it surrounded real tight. Our best bet is to search the houses along the border. The further away from that cursed lake, the better," the woman added.

And so, the group of four avoided the fish figures as best as they could, and tried not to look at the fallen villagers. Zhou Lingxin had an especially hard time controlling herself, as today was actually the first time she had seen a corpse, which was her mother's. And now, they were suddenly everywhere. It was simply too much for the poor girl to cope with.

As they continued their walk in the outer areas of the market, the old man held up his hand, signalling for everyone to slow down and stay quiet.

Zhou Lingxin's heart beat fiercely in her chest, because she knew even without the old man telling her just what it was they were stopping for.

"Gliiiiiik!"

A blue figure had spotted them, and in a matter of seconds, around a dozen or so fish monsters were charging straight towards their party. Judging by their appearances, these were creatures that hadn't yet tasted any blood on this night, so they were wild and hungry for meat.

The old man flicked his sleeves and brandished his long staff, assuming a half-crouched fighting pose. The woman had a sharp knife in her hands, and she held it close to her shoulders. The bearded youth also had an axe, not much different from Ning Tai's, except much smaller in comparison; he let off a vicious aura. As for Zhou Lingxin, she had a bloodstained pan, perhaps the most useless of all the weapons assembled here. She was nervous in her stance, and was actually barely standing up in the face of the incoming horde.

In the first second, nearly 8 of the charging fish monster's feet had left the ground. In the second, they were all an arm's reach away from the group of four. In the third, two of them were smacked away by the old man, while one was impaled by the woman, and a grand total of four had their heads chopped off by the youth. As for the remaining one that had jumped, it had leapt in Zhou Lingxin's way. Zhou Lingxin wasn't as fast or as skilled as the others, but with her weapon in hand, she forcefully ignored this, and let the air whistle around her as her pan smashed into the skull of the approaching fish creature. She wasn't quite strong enough to end the battle in a single blow, but after two more, the fish monster lost all signs of life. Despite this, however, she still had no time for rest, since there were still 5 more fish left.

The woman was injured, and her torso had a dangerous looking bite mark on it. The old man was bandaging her up, trying his best to prevent her from dying. The bearded youth was busy protecting them and fending off 3 fish creatures by himself. As for the other two fish, they were charging right at her!

Zhou Lingxin knew that, while she could match up with one monster's strength, she would be in deep trouble if she tried taking on two of them with brute strength alone. She made use of her height advantage, and the weapon in her hand, to make swats in the air, to try and get the creatures to back off.

Had these creatures not been starving, they would've perhaps proceeded slower, with more caution. Now that they were bloodthirsty though, such thoughts were pushed to some random corner of their mind, and the only thing that appealed to them was this human's flesh.

They both jumped at the same time, one heading for her torso, while the other going for her arm. Judging by the way things were going right now, she could perhaps only block one of them with her meager strength. But what good would that do for her? Block one and get attacked by the other? Then she'd only end up injured. And she'd have to face another double attack again. This would then persist until she died. And this could absolutely not happen! Whatever the consequence, she could not afford to die.

With this in mind, she decided to make a gamble.

Instead of adopting a defencive stance, she swung her arms as far back as she could, eyeing the fish man coming for her torso. If they wanted to kill her, they could taste death first! Her pan flew in a strong thrust, smashing straight into one fish creature head.

Crack!

"Graaaakh!"

"Gliiiiiik!"

As the assaulted fish monster let out a miserable cry, the other let out one of immense joy. The human in front of it had given up on defending, allowing it to take a nice bite out of her flesh, knocking her down onto the ground.

Reeling on the floor in pain, Zhou Lingxun could only let out a wry smile as she saw the result of her previous effort. She had actually managed to kill one fish monster in one shot, while it usually took her many more. Perhaps she had gotten better at knowing where to hit them. Either that or she had just gotten lucky.

But this didn't change the fact that she was at the mercy of the other fish though. It had stunned her and firmly bashed her into the ground. Giving her no chance to recover, it opened it's maw and angled it towards her neck. With her pan tossed somewhere aside, Zhou Lingxin could only close her eyes and wait for her impending doom.