The energy shield guarding Wu Xiaoming's entire body broke, and a long gash was left on his forehead. Blood gushed from the wound while he pulled back. The creature screeched as it lunged at Wu Xiaoming again, both claws ready to tear into him.
"Slash!" Wu Xiaoming roared as he stabilized his footing.
The energy slash cut open the creature's shoulder, but it did not stop its incoming attack. He straightened his body and tried to block this attack with his baton, but the creature's swing was simply too fast and it ripped the baton from his grasp. Along with it, he got three new gashes on his right shoulder.
"Attack!" Wu Xiaoming unleashed an energy blast right at this creature's chest. The explosion pushed both him and the creature backwards, just giving him enough room to swing the soapberry wood staff into the creature's right chest.
The creature let out an ear-piercing scream and hunched forward from the strike, spit and blood spilled all over Wu Xiaoming's face. This did not stop him from unleashing the next attack, though it did mess with his aim. His palm strike was intended for the creature's head, but ended up striking it on its left shoulder.
"Crack!" Electric energy exploded from contact. Along with the full force palm strike itself, the creature was instantly thrown back and almost banged into the wall behind it. Its left shoulder was now covered in a large smoking charred mark, and its left arm was out of its socket.
Wu Xiaoming charged forward and tried to unleash another attack. But the creature just shot up from the ground, both its long legs curled and launched a heavy kick into Wu Xiaoming's chest and stomach.
A sledgehammer would probably have less impact and force. Wu Xiaoming could sense his organs being squeezed and bounced around in his body. Blood rushed from his throat and shot from his mouth. His Qi activated automatically to protect his organs, his muscles and his bones, providing everything with additional support and shock absorption.
He rolled on the ground and stopped himself from backing further by clutching the doorframe to his right. The creature charged again, this time with its right arm raised.
"Lighten!" Wu Xiaoming raised his voice at himself and pulled on the doorframe. The creature's claw dug into the wall behind him as his body flung into the room, almost slamming himself into another wall.
Wu Xiaoming swung the soapberry wood staff in his left hand at the creature's right arm. The creature tried to pull away, but its left claw still took a solid strike. The cracks from shattered bones just gave him a huge boost in morale, as he rotated his upper body and let loose another palm strike.
"Bang!" He poured all he could into this Palm Lightning attack. Even though it landed on the creature's chest, it still sent the creature into the wall and left a burning, smoking red dent on its chest.
As it dropped to the floor, the creature stopped moving. Wu Xiaoming took the chance to catch his breath, while still keeping an eye on his pale humanoid enemy.
When his lungs and insides stopped hurting as much, probably thanks to his Qi, he gradually backed away from the creature towards the position where his baton was. He was not convinced that the creature was dead, and he did not feel safe pulling up his character panel to confirm.
With the baton in hand, he approached the creature again. It was still not moving. So he raised his right hand and began drawing in the air with his index finger. Glowing trails of red energy were left in the air - symbols and words that would create a fire talisman.
He launched the bodiless talisman at the creature the moment it was completed. The talisman exploded upon impact and released a small pillar of fire, igniting a small patch of the wall behind the creature as well as some parts of the ground. It was less powerful than what he had expected, with quite a bit of cost to his spirit. Perhaps he really should find paper or some other kind of medium to write on for it to reach its true potential.
The fire kept scorching the creature's skin and wounds, but it remained where it was and how it was, displaying no signs of life at all.
"Okay." Wu Xiaoming took a deep breath, then focused on the creature's neck: "Slash!"
Before the energy blade could land on its target, the creature burst from the ground and lunged at Wu Xiaoming with its jaws open at the widest angle possible. The energy slash left another gash on its chest, but did not halt the creature's attempt at taking a bite out of Wu Xiaoming's neck.
Wu Xiaoming was no fool or weakling, the baton landed on the left cheekbone of the creature just in time. Dark red energy exploded at point blank, obliterating half the creature's head and throwing it down the hallway.
"I knew it, BITCH!" Wu Xiaoming charged forward and swung again, this time with the soapberry wood staff in his left hand. This time it landed on the creature's stomach before it would hit the ground. A solid strike, almost caving its entire abdomen in.
The third bash was from the baton and landed right on the creature's back. The explosion from the dark red energy almost completely disintegrated its skin and back muscles, but left the bones smoking.
He swung with the weapon in his left hand, then the one in his right hand, then left hand. After at least ten strikes alternating between the weapons in both hands, the creature finally became a pile of foul shredded flesh and bones.
Exhausted, he sat down by a wall. Unless the creature had some kind of super healing power, it should well be dead now.
Current currencies: 23201 Spirit Fragments, 120 Vision Slivers. The big bump in Vision Slivers was his bigger reward, and a clear indication that the creature was now dead. Disappointingly, it only gave him a few hundred Spirit Fragments - but it bore one implication: that this creature was a "summon", just like the zombies in the zombie mask and squirt gun owner's limbo, and it was not "native".
But that brought about the question: who actually summoned it? There were no memory flashbacks after he defeated it, so from experience, it might just be one of those less important or impressive summons.
He checked his experience bar and was very delighted that he made the choice to come here: he gained almost 20% of the entire experience bar. A few more fights like this he would reach level 11 in no time.
Moaning sounds coming from some of the rooms startled him into closing the panels. It was two human shadows who came out from their hotel rooms and began running his way.
It was barely any effort compared to the fight against the pale humanoid creature. He proceeded to clear out some more rooms and earned a bit more Spirit Fragments.
He reached the elevator shafts. The environment still gave him the creeps, so he had to look around a few more times before taking a peek down. All of them were empty, and he could not see too far below.
His heart beat a few times, alarms began ringing in his mind - somewhat similar to that time where a sudden explosion of chilling energy had brought about countless shadows in an empty building. He did not know what it was yet, but just to be safe he moved away from the elevator shafts.
Snarls, from more than one source. They came from the cross hallway in front of him, from both ends. It seemed more creatures somehow spawned in this floor and were coming his way.
"Motherfucker - " Wu Xiaoming cursed and wasted no time to turn around and run.
The sound of claws scratching the wall and the floor flooded the entire hallway. Wu Xiaoming shot through the door through which he came and rushed upstairs.
The creatures stopped following after a while, but Wu Xiaoming simply did not have the heart to look back. He got to the roof of the familiar office building, and set to begin his usual farming - there were simply no more life-and-death fights in him right now.