Terror!

The reinforcement team continued their advance into the 24th district. After the incident with Murayama, everyone was aware of the dangers of the trip.

Su Xiao checked the time, and noticed they had already been traveling for three hours.

On the way, they encountered another two groups of primitive ghouls, and inevitably clashed against them. The members of the reinforcement team were decimated, there were only ten people left by that point.

The cannon fodder were all dead by now, only the Investigators with some skills remained. Although he could not really depend on them, they would ease his load a bit.

As a result of the weakest links dying, the reinforcement team was able to progress significantly faster.

"Beep."

Su Xiao's microcomputer made a sound, indicating that Arima Kisho's location had changed. This did not happen for the first time.

"Byakuya-san, we have been here before."

Mado Akira quickly ran to Su Xiao's side, holding a compass and a hand-drawn map.

"I see."

Getting lost this the deep into the 24th district was normal. The good news was that they were closing in on Arima Kisho, and were about two hours away.

"Roar!"

A loud roar of a beast echoed from behind them.

"What is it this time?"

Kuroiwa Iwao, who took the rearguard, immediately got ready for a fight and stared at the dim tunnels behind them.

"Boom, boom."

It sounded like a huge monster was hitting the wall of the tunnels, the entire passage was shaking.

Su Xiao, too, stared the way they had just come from, his expression gradually worsened. He had heard a roar like this the last time he had been in the 24th district.

"Boom."

The meat wall not far from the group burst open, and a huge head popped out.

The skull was at least three meters wide, looking similar to the head of a python, but with a crimson eye at the center of the skull.

Su Xiao knew eyes like these. It was a ghoul's eye, a black sclera with a red pupil.

"Animal ghouls? How is this possible!"

Kuroiwa Iwao looked at the ghoul python with horror. According to CCG's common knowledge, it was impossible for animals to turn into ghouls.

[E/N: Ghoulified python? Ghoulish python? Let me know in the comments what you guys prefer.]

"Is this the 'Blood Eye'?"

Su Xiao looked at the ghoul python, which should be the Blood Eye that Yuna and Arima Kisho had mentioned before.

Blood Eye climbed out of the debris of the meat wall, its body about three meters in diameter, but he was unable to estimate its length, as it spread too far in the tunnels. He estimated it to be at least several dozen meters long though.

Black scales covered its body, and deep red lines could be seen through the gaps in the scales.

After Blood Eye broke out of the meat wall, its tongue twisted out of its mouth, tasting the air, as it stared at the reinforcement team.

"Is this a nightmare?"

Mado Akira's calves were trembling, she could not help but take a step back in fright.

"Mado Akira is right, this must be a dream, ha, haha, how could there be such a creature, my wife is still waiting for me, how could there be such a thing down here."

A middle-aged Investigator's mind seemed to have snapped, he dropped the Quinque box, smiled stupidly and drooled.

"Captain Byakuya, what should we do?"

Kuroiwa Iwao was calmer than others and looked at Su Xiao.

"Retreat, slowly. If we fight this thing, we will all die."

It's not that they didn't want to escape, but they had already been targeted by it.

Su Xiao was sure that if he were to fight with this monster, he would die within five minutes.

The monster's size was simply too large, its strength and Vitality should be extremely high.

Blood Eye's head moved from side to side, it seemed to be thinking about whom of the humans it should eat first. The human fragrance only aggravated its hunger.

Su Xiao tried to use basic detection (temporary) on Blood Eye.

[You use 'basic detection' on an elite creature (Blood Eye) and get the following information.]

Blood Eye (elite creature)

Health points: 100%

Mana value: 110

Strength: 30 (this world's maximum value)

Agility: 12

Vitality: ??

Intelligence: 11

Charm: 2

Skill 1:

Elite creature (passive): Strength +10, Agility +5, Vitality +10

Skill 2: Thermal vision (passive): Increases the success chances of tracking by 60%.

Skill 3: Paleospecies (passive): Defensive power +6, abnormal state resistance increased by 30%.

Skill 4: Crazy bite (active): The Blood Eye is a mutated creature with shark-like tooth. Its bite strength is far beyond the normal biological range. When being bitten by crazy bite (active), if the target's health is below 80%, the target's physical condition will be judged. If the judgment fails, the target dies.

Skill 5:???

Skill 6:???

...

After reading the information about Blood Eye, Su Xiao took a deep breath. He had never before seen a strength attribute of 30 points. After you were bitten by it, your condition would additionally be judged and you might die. What crazy skill was this?

As for the 'health is below 80%' part, Su Xiao thought that was total nonsense. It would take someone exceedingly lucky or outstandingly strong to survive the bite at all, how could anyone have more than 80% hp left after being bitten by this monster?

"Byakuya-san, what can we do?"

Mado Akira had grasped on to Su Xiao's arm, the usually strong woman showed pure fear in front of this monstrosity.

"Everyone, pay attention. Use everything you have to escape!"

Su Xiao shouted, then he turned and led the reinforcement along the tunnel deeper into the 24th district.

Blood Eye, this horrible creature, Su Xiao did not even consider going against it. The strength of Blood Eye was twice his own, while the gap in vitality was even bigger, it completely outclassed him.

'Vitality: ??' meant that Blood Eye's vitality was very high, with its huge body it might even be at 30 points too.

After Blood Eye saw that its prey tried to run, it was overjoyed. It had deliberately slowed, to let the prey try to flee so it could enjoy the fun of hunting.

Blood Eye retracted its tongue back into its maw. The snake twisted its body in the tunnel, rubbing its scales against the ground to accelerate, showing extremely fast speed.

Su Xiao and the others ran with all their strength, but the loud rumbling was not far behind.

"Captain Byakuya, the monster almost caught up."

A chubby Investigator, who was obviously not good at running, had no stamina left, he slowed down and fell back, behind the remainder of the team.

Blood Eye's body twisted, its speed suddenly increasing. Its mouth was opened to 120 degrees, revealing its sharp teeth, which were glinting like swords.

[E/N: Snakes can usually open their mouths to 150 degrees or even wider, but at that point, their mouths are up to 4 times larger than its diameter, so I don't think it would fit in the tunnels…]

Snap!

The gaping maw suddenly closed, and the fatty Investigator was swallowed, only a stretched hand remained and fell to the ground.

"Crunch, crunch."

The terrible sounds of chewing pressured them, apparently, Blood Eye was different from ordinary pythons, it did not directly swallow its food, but chewed first.

Blood dripped down the snake's mouth. Blood Eye opened its one eye wide, enjoying the taste of human flesh.

After tasting the flavor of human flesh, Blood Eye accelerated again, swallowing the next Investigator in a flash.

The Investigators could not fight back at all.

If they were in a wide space, Su Xiao might be able to fight against Blood Eye by using his speed, but here, in the tunnels of the 24th, he could only run.

After fleeing for a while longer, the tunnel suddenly split into three ways.

"Split up!"

Su Xiao shouted and ran towards the middle of the three paths.

After noticing the three roads, the joy in Blood Eye's eye vanished, it twisted its body and caught up with the reinforcement team.

Kuroiwa Iwao, who was a bit behind Su Xiao, suddenly stopped.

"Captain Byakuya, I will buy some time."

This experienced Investigator had noticed that it would take time to escape into the crossroad.

Su Xiao looked awkward. Kuroiwa Iwao's offer was very brave, but facing this kind of monster, even Kuroiwa Iwao could not stall for longer than a moment.

"Boom."

The Blood Eye rushed through the passage, and Kuroiwa Iwao, the Special Class Investigator, disappeared into the snake's belly in less than a second.

Kuroiwa Iwao was not silly, but he didn't understand Blood Eye's strengths, he didn't know how terrifying this giant python was.

After Blood Eye caught up with the reinforcement team, it swallowed a few more Investigators, chewing them noisily. In this short time, Su Xiao had entered the middle of the three paths, Mado Akira and Juzo Suzuya were behind him.

Although Mado Akira wasn't too strong, she ran very fast.

Blood Eye had stopped at the crossroad and began to enjoy the remaining Investigators.

Only the three of them were remaining.