America: The Cremator

The man sat cross-legged with his back to them, motionless, his head bowed, as if deep in thought or dozing off.

"Those are... the missing dredging crew workers?" Hannah asked in a low voice, her tone tinged with uncertainty.

Elena did not answer; instead, she raised the lantern in her hand, and the flame of the wick suddenly became brighter.

At the same time, Su Long also used his spiritual vision to observe this guy. In his vision, a layer of black mist was swirling around the figure, and below the mist, there were more than a dozen flickering points of light.

These points of light are quite similar to the slime we just encountered.

The two special forces members clearly sensed something was wrong and did not rush forward. Instead, they locked their guns on the strange figure from behind.

Just then, the person's head suddenly turned 180 degrees, and his face was fully revealed to everyone.

That face... or rather, that head, no longer belongs to humankind.

The space where the facial features were located had been completely hollowed out, and a huge blob of slime was placed in the center. Seven or eight cloudy, yellowish eyeballs were embedded in its transparent gel-like interior, and they were now spinning around randomly, eventually focusing on the direction of Su Long and the others.

"Everyone stop and remain on alert."

After giving the order, Elena reached behind her back with her right hand and grasped the hilt of the cross-shaped sword, which was wrapped in a black waterproof cloth.

Sulong kept his eyes fixed on Elena's movements.

He had always had doubts about the weapon's practicality—this ridiculously long two-handed greatsword was fixed to a complicated leather strap system. In the heat of battle, would the user be able to draw it instantly and gracefully like in the movies, or would they need to clumsily remove the entire scabbard system from their body first?

The answer was quickly revealed.

Elena's fingers untied a quick-release buckle on her shoulder, and the entire scabbard, along with the carrying system, slid off her body. She caught it with her left hand and then used her right hand to draw the gleaming silver weapon from the now-unbound scabbard.

Seeing this scene, Su Long's previous impression of the "mysteriousness of a B-level exorcist" built up by that lantern was instantly pulled back to reality.

So it turns out you have to take it off first before drawing the sword.

It seems like there's not much difference between a B-rank exorcist and an ordinary person.

The next instant, in Su Long's spiritual vision, the lantern at Elena's waist shone brightly, and countless golden energy threads surged out. Instead of spreading outward as before, they tightly wrapped around Elena's limbs, waist, abdomen, and back.

Elena lowered her body slightly, bent her knees, and assumed a standard track and field starting position.

Immediately afterwards, the water beneath her feet suddenly exploded in all directions, and she, like a cannonball launched from its launch pad, carried an unparalleled kinetic energy, directly leaping dozens of meters and rushing towards the humanoid monster atop the pile of garbage.

The instantaneous burst of speed even created a ring-shaped shockwave on the spot.

Su Long's pupils dilated instantly. He had anticipated that the energy threads would enhance Elena's physical functions, but he never expected the enhancement to be so exaggerated.

This has completely exceeded the explosive limits that the human body can achieve.

In an instant, Elena's figure appeared in front of the humanoid monster, and the light from the lantern at her waist shone on the monster at close range.

The monster's skin was like a plastic product thrown into an oven, quickly charring, melting, and bubbling.

It seemed enraged by the light, and suddenly raised an arm, slamming it down on Elena's body with a whistling sound.

Elena twisted her waist, her entire body dodging to the side at an unbelievable angle, completely avoiding the attack in mid-air. The range, speed, and agility of her dodge were exaggerated to the extreme.

Su Long watched that action and immediately twitched the corner of his mouth.

If this woman sat on him, she only needed to twist her waist a few times and he would confess everything.

A flash of silver light appeared and disappeared in an instant. Elena's greatsword slashed precisely across the humanoid monster's neck at an extremely tricky angle.

The head that the slime had inhabited rolled off and fell into the sewage below, splashing up a ring of murky water.

Surong squinted and could clearly see that the head was hollow inside, and inside the cavity of the severed neck of the humanoid monster, another slime of the same size was constantly wriggling and expanding, as if trying to fill the missing head.

An absurd idea popped into Sudan's mind.

These slimes... they're piloting this human body like they're piloting a mech.

Elena's movements did not pause for a moment. The instant she severed the monster's head, she pushed off the slippery wall of the sewer with her toes, using the force to propel her body backward and land back at the front of the group.

The "mech" that lost its head went completely berserk.

The human shell covering it swelled up like an overinflated balloon, and then dozens of thick, gelatinous tentacles tore through the chest, abdomen, and limbs, sweeping towards the team's location.

"Fire!"

The two special operations team members fired their rifles simultaneously. Their marksmanship was so precise that every incoming tentacle was torn apart by bullets in mid-air, and none of them were able to break through the defense line.

Elena landed steadily in front of Hannah and placed the huge silver sword horizontally.

"Hannah, enchant!"

Hannah nodded without hesitation, quickly stepped forward, and used her still-bleeding hands to grip the broad blade.

Her hands pressed against the cold metal, starting from the guard and sliding forcefully towards the tip of the sword.

Fresh blood gushed out under pressure and was evenly smeared on the surface of the silver sword, leaving two clear bloodstains.

Taking advantage of the moment, Su Long took a few steps forward, focusing his gaze on the longsword that was being "enchanted".

He then discovered that the sword's design was extremely unique. The blade was not a smooth mirror surface, but was covered with countless tiny black dots, as fine as pinholes. He wondered if these were flaws left during the forging process or if they were specially designed for some special purpose.

The enchantment was complete in the next moment.

Elena's figure disappeared from the spot again. She didn't even give the monster a chance to catch its breath before charging towards the wildly dancing tentacles once more.

The two special operations team members provided continuous fire support, their bullets seemingly with eyes, precisely clearing a path for Elena to advance. Several bullets even grazed her side, but neither the soldiers firing nor Elena charging forward showed the slightest hesitation or fear.

This kind of tactical coordination, built on absolute trust, can only be cultivated by top-tier elite squads.

In the blink of an eye, Elena had already entered the attack range of the gelatinous mass. She leaped high into the air and slammed her feet heavily onto the shoulders of the humanoid shell, converting the enormous impact into downward pressure.

Then, she gripped the silver longsword smeared with holy blood with both hands, aimed the tip at the monster's severed neck cavity, and plunged it downwards fiercely.

"Pfft—"

The sound of the longsword piercing the gelatinous body was dull, like piercing a huge block of lard.

Elena plunged the entire sword into the monster's body until the guard was firmly wedged into the monster's shoulder, as if she were using the monster as a scabbard for her sword.

Silver's exorcising properties and the holy power of the Holy Blood erupted simultaneously within the humanoid monster's body.

"Sizzle—"

As a violent, corrosive sound rang out, the huge mass of gelatinous polymer began to boil and disintegrate from the inside.

In just three or four seconds, it completely lost its activity and turned into a foul-smelling, viscous pus.

Surong turned to look at Hannah beside him: "Now I know why you told the professor before that your other employers didn't want to let you go."

Hannah's main role in the team is enchanting.