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Chapter 54 - Ch.54

Javier had thrown the flashbang so quickly that Rebecca and Billy didn't even have time to react the first time. Having learned their lesson, they weren't about to be fooled again. From now on, if this guy dared to pull out any kind of throwable from his tactical backpack, they had to get away immediately! This was a new rule they had now adopted.

Javier was both helpless and a little sad about this situation. These two had so little trust in him. Was he really the kind of cunning scoundrel who would intentionally harm his teammates? Well... maybe he was.

"Flashbang! Take cover...!"

Even so, he still had to shout the warning, as if it were part of a ritual. It was like playing a game—if he didn't shout, "Fire in the hole!" when throwing a grenade, it just wouldn't feel right. After all, it was a matter of principle.

"Hiss..."

On the other side, seeing the green tube-like throwable in Javier's hand and hearing his shout, the Leech Queen's expression froze for a moment. Its hideous tentacles and suction-cup mouthparts stopped moving. It quickly used its long arms to shield itself and retreated rapidly!

Yes, even though Marcus was a monster now, his body still contained Marcus's DNA and memories. He had an inexplicable fear of flashbangs. His instincts and intuition told him that he had to run from this thing.

During his research on the Leech Queen T-virus, Marcus had discovered that its power was not as perfect as he had imagined. While the leeches had significantly neutralized the T-virus's lethality, they had also passed on their own flaws. As the Leech Queen, it still needed to suck blood regularly to survive, just like a regular leech.

Second, it was still sensitive to light. Under sufficient sunlight, leeches become anorexic and lose their aggressiveness. Prolonged exposure can even lead to death. Therefore, leeches prefer dark, humid places and are especially active on rainy days.

The third flaw was their fear of any high-concentration solutions. Leeches don't have external skin. If salt is sprinkled on them, the high concentration of the external solution directly penetrates their bodies, accelerating mucus secretion, and causing them to shrivel up and die from dehydration.

Mutated leeches had grown muscles and external skin, but if they were injected with a high-concentration saline solution, the leeches would still secrete excessive mucus and die from dehydration within a minute. After all, up to this point, besides their muscle-based leaps, most of their movement relied on the lubrication from their mucus secretion. Therefore, a high-concentration saline solution was still effective against them!

But unfortunately, Javier had told Rebecca to keep an eye out for medical equipment and drug cabinets, but they had not found any suitable high-concentration saline solution. There weren't any suitable anesthetic guns or syringes either.

This brilliant idea had to be abandoned.

But that didn't mean Javier had no way to counter them. A flashbang was still a powerful weapon. This thing could still have a huge impact on the leeches.

"Clang!"

"Boom—!!!"

The flashbang made a crisp sound as it hit the ground. Then, with a "pop," a blinding flash of light suddenly erupted. What started as a small, football-sized white light bloomed like beautiful fireworks, with tiny white sparks scattering in all directions at incredible speed!

"Hiss...?"

The moment the Leech Queen saw the flashbang, the memories of Marcus ingrained in its mind, along with its instincts and intuition, told it to run. But the densely packed mutated leeches, its servants, weren't so lucky. They had no intelligence, and their brains were probably no bigger than rat droppings. Without the Leech Queen's command, they weren't afraid of the flashbang in front of them. After a moment of confusion, they all charged toward the blinding white light!

"Buzz...!"

"BOOM—!!!"

Of course, the outcome was predictable.

The blinding white light caused a stinging sensation on their outer skin and muscles. They didn't have real eyes; their heads did have five eyes, but they were severely degenerated, and their vision was extremely poor. So their eyes were more for decoration. They mostly relied on their body's sense of touch and the temperature of the water to hunt and suck blood.

Therefore, the white light's most direct effect was on their outer skin. The dazzling light made the mutated leeches' skin instinctively wrinkle and bunch up. But that wasn't the end. The flashbang's most powerful aspect was its sonic attack. If you were too close, the powerful, penetrating sound waves could burst your eardrums and cause temporary deafness. In such close proximity, the leeches were instantly assaulted by the flashbang's sonic weapon. Their bodies convulsed and trembled uncontrollably. Some even died immediately, curling up into a ball on the ground, their muscles tense and motionless, as if they had entered some kind of hibernation, but in reality, they had lost all signs of life!

Of course, the Leech Queen on the other side wasn't having an easy time either. Although it had retreated in time, the flashbang's blinding light and sonic waves still affected it. The attack on its weakness caused its body to reject it. Its outer skin and muscles, just like those of the mutated leeches on the ground, wrinkled up subconsciously, as if the skin were trying to protect itself.

But these were not the most life-threatening effects. The most terrifying thing was that the Leech Queen felt its body cells and muscle vitality begin to decline. The leeches' instinctive light-avoidance made it feel lethargic. At this moment, the Leech Queen just wanted to lie on the ground and not move.

"ROAR—!!!"

This deadly thought shocked the Leech Queen. It came to its senses with a roar, its ferocious mouthparts squirming frantically. Its yellow, sharp teeth exuded a foul stench. It felt an unprecedented anger and murderous intent toward Javier and his companions!

But before the Leech Queen could launch its attack, a playful Javier quickly threw three Molotov cocktails into the air. Their oily rags were on fire, and they flew in a beautiful arc. Javier raised his Desert Eagle. He was about to perform his best flame magic.

This battle! Javier had saved a lot of supplies for this very moment, specifically to deal with the final boss. And now... with the Leech Queen right in front of him, how could a hoarding player like Javier be stingy? He threw all the throwables he had been saving at the Leech Queen without hesitation!

He declared... this was going to be a complete slaughter!

The three Molotov cocktails were thrown at once. For a leech, it was not only afraid of light, but it also couldn't resist fire. The flames from the Molotov cocktails might not be able to kill the Leech Queen, whose life force was incredibly strong, but they would severely damage its outer skin tissue and affect its regeneration speed. It was like giving it a "severe burn" debuff in advance, which would make it easy to defeat!

"Shoot! Blow up the Molotov cocktails...!"

Javier and his companions did not hesitate. As Javier shouted, the three of them raised their weapons at the same time: Rebecca's 9mm police pistol bullet, Billy's M1911 Colt bullet, and Javier's Desert Eagle Magnum bullet. Three shots were fired!

"Bang—Bang—Bang—!!!"

Three gunshots rang out, and orange-yellow bullets flew out at an incredible speed. They all accurately hit the Molotov cocktails in mid-air.

In the next second,

"Smash... smash...!!!"

"Whoosh... boom—!!!"

Just as expected, a chain reaction occurred. The hollow-point effect of the bullets, the flames of the Molotov cocktails, and the gasoline all reacted at the same time. The exploding gasoline came into contact with the flames and began to burn. With the help of the strong wind, the Molotov cocktails instantly turned into incendiary bombs, and a huge fireball exploded in mid-air, all of it falling onto the Leech Queen!

"Roar...!"

The scorching heat rushed in. The Leech Queen looked at everything in front of it in horror. It quickly inflated its long, tumor-filled arms countless times and quickly gathered the bodies of the countless leeches that had already died on the ground. It was recycling waste, fusing the flesh and blood of its dead servant leeches onto its own body.

Soon, a mass of shriveled, dead skin covered the Leech Queen's outer shell, like a layer of armor. The Leech Queen curled up into a ball on the ground.

"Sizzle...!!!"

When the fire came into contact with the armor, a foul smell of black smoke immediately filled the bio-factory. The Leech Queen's outer layer of dead skin turned into charred ash under the high temperature. However, when the charred ash fell off, the crimson muscle underneath was still intact.

This showed that the Leech Queen's dead-skin armor had actually withstood the Molotov cocktail attack from Javier and his companions. This was a bit unbelievable, considering that during World War II, a Molotov cocktail could disable a tank.

One could only say that this might be the power of the virus!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!!!"

However, the Leech Queen, which had escaped the life-threatening danger, didn't give Javier and his companions any time to react. Now it was its turn. It had to make the strongest counterattack!

With a series of whooshing sounds, the Leech Queen, which was curled up in its dead-skin armor, suddenly erupted. Its long arms, which had been compressed for a long time, shot out!

As the Leech Queen, it still inherited the rubber-man form of its leechman minions. It transformed into a character like Luffy, and the Leech Queen's arms suddenly used a rapid-fire rubber-gun attack! A pair of arms, disregarding the laws of physics, shot toward Javier.

Among the three of them, Javier was without a doubt the one who had drawn the most aggro. Many of the vicious tactics were thought up by this bastard. Whether it was the flashbang or the Molotov cocktails, they had all caused considerable damage to the Leech Queen. Therefore, as the culprit, the person the Leech Queen wanted to kill the most was Javier!

Of course, the most terrifying thing about the elongated, rapid-fire rubber-gun attack was not just its speed and range, but the sharp mouthparts at the end. It wasn't just its mouth; the Leech Queen could also grow sharp mouthparts on the palms of its hands. If it bit someone, it would definitely tear off a chunk of flesh!

"Oh crap..."

"I'm done for!"

Javier's expression instantly changed when he saw this. The Leech Queen's surprise attack was too fast. Javier had no chance to defend himself. He had no way of blocking this rubber-gun heart-punch. He was just about to turn and run when the sharp mouthparts immediately bit down!

"Whoosh—!"

"Bang... slash—!!!"

With a loud crash, the Leech Queen's rubber-gun arm slammed into Javier's chest. With a huge force, Javier was sent flying backward. His throat tasted sweet, and a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. Javier felt an intense pain in his chest. It wasn't an illusion this time; it seemed a rib in his chest was actually broken.

What made Javier even more terrified was... he looked down and saw that there was a large hole in his Level 3 bulletproof vest. This was unbelievable. This was a Level 3 bulletproof vest that could withstand a 7.62mm rifle bullet, but it was torn apart without any resistance. This showed how sharp the Leech Queen's mouthparts were.

But thanks to this, Javier had fully armed himself from head to toe before he left. If it weren't for this bulletproof vest, a single bite from the Leech Queen would probably have been a minor issue compared to his organs being torn out, or worse, the vengeful Leech Queen completely tearing out his intestines and swallowing them.

Compared to a broken rib, he was much luckier.

"Thud..."

Like a broken rag doll, Javier slammed into an iron pillar. He was taking in very little air and breathing out a lot, looking like he was on the verge of death. This made Rebecca and Billy's eyes widen with anger. Was Javier really going to die this time? Although they had complained about him, it didn't mean they really hated him.

Therefore, they were naturally very angry at the Leech Queen's actions!

So, filled with anger, the two of them unloaded their weapons. Even Billy, who had just picked up the large-caliber Taurus Raging Bull revolver, didn't hesitate to fire it at full force. With a series of deafening gunshots, one by one, the thick .50 caliber bullets pushed the air aside, creating visible wakes as they flew out!

These were large-caliber, powerful bullets that could create sonic waves!

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