David was right—third-tier hunters weren't so easily killed.
The muscle freak who'd been twisted and deformed by some kind of power, swelling to three meters tall, had just charged out when two burning holes appeared on his body.
The steel rod in his hand missed the nimbly dodging Lucio. Instead, the other guy slashed his leg with a silver sword, immediately slowing his movements considerably.
Then, the burning spots on the freak exploded with a boom!
The massive impact blasted the freak's body backwards, slamming him hard against the factory wall.
In David's eyes, the freak with 3000 life energy had over 2000 health directly wiped out by Lucio's two explosive bullets.
If he were more familiar with the Order's ritual powers, he would've recognized that as "Explosive Blessing" from the Blazing Sun Ritual path.
A huge crater had been blown in the freak's chest. He collapsed, critically injured.
Lucio strode over and stomped on the guy's arm, staring at that head that barely still looked human.
"You came into contact with the mirror, didn't you? Someone saw..."
The hunter coldly questioned the dying freak, but the freak showed an expression of terror, unwillingness, and despair, interrupting Lucio with incoherent shouting.
"No! I'm the real one! I'm... I'm the real one, save me... Teacher, save me!!!"
Lucio raised his gun, pointing it at the freak's head. He was now certain this trip hadn't been wasted. The Order's diviner had given multiple locations that might have clues, telling them to split up, and Lucio had found this place through some strange rumors.
Someone had said two identical monsters appeared in this abandoned factory.
"Where's the other one?"
Before he could get the question out, the wall in front of the hunter suddenly exploded.
A huge, twisted hand swept from the other side of the wall. Tremendous force broke through the brick wall and slapped right into the hunter.
The mustachioed hunter was sent flying by this sudden attack. His health dropped straight to rock bottom, and even his hat flew off.
Only then did David, who'd been watching the show from a distance, finally step forward and walk toward the factory.
A massive figure stepped through the collapsed brick wall—a muscle monster as robust as a mountain of flesh.
Its height had reached five meters, even more absurd than the previous freak. Its completely twisted human face looked like an insignificant bean compared to its huge body—totally deformed.
But this massive body moved with terrifying speed!
The fallen Lucio tried to pull out a recovery potion. With a boom, the giant was already right in front of him, its battering-ram fist smashing down hard.
The terrified hunter barely managed to roll to the side. The ground shook hard under that fist's impact. The mustache guy was lucky he didn't turn into a meat patty, but the potion in his hand was knocked away.
The giant swung its fist down again...
"Bang!"
A gunshot. A flash of blood. Powerful impact force exploded on the giant's back, pushing its form forward with a stagger.
The critically injured Lucio saw a hunter approaching from the distance—that country noble he'd mocked earlier...
Wait, what was he holding?
Wasn't that the hand cannon Cage made!?
To be precise, it wasn't a hand cannon—it was Cage's pride and joy: Heavy Hammer.
David strode forward, raised his gun at the giant, and just kept firing—"bang, bang, bang, bang..."
Blood bullets bombarded the giant like they were free. The massive body kept getting pushed back. That tiny head could only roar in fury, completely unable to break free from the suppression.
David's marksmanship actually wasn't great, but his target was just too big. He didn't even need to aim.
What surprised Lucio was that he could use that "Heavy Hammer" so recklessly.
Just how much psychic energy did he have?
No one answered Lucio's confusion. Under Heavy Hammer's bombardment, the giant retreated and crashed through a wall, tumbling into the factory.
David ignored the mustache guy on the ground. With a kick of his feet, he charged in.
On the other side, Veronica had already rushed to the freak lying on the ground, trying to get more information out of him before he kicked the bucket...
...
The monster that fell into the factory finally found a moment to catch its breath. It spun and swung its giant arm, punching at David who'd followed right behind.
The tremendous force swept the lightweight David away, but a blood bullet exploded on its fist's surface, once again blocking its movement.
Blue-green claws extended from David's back. The giant's second downward strike was caught by the Hand of Monster, which also possessed considerable strength.
But the enemy's power was just too great. The level 5 Hand of Monster made cracking sounds under the strain, like hand bones being crushed.
David didn't care. He kept shooting the giant at close range.
Each of his blood bullets could take away nearly 900 of the enemy's health. The giant with a total of 30,000 life energy saw its health plummet under his wild bombardment, its body already riddled with over a dozen bloody craters.
And the damage the giant caused him was like an itch. Even if he just let it pound away, a measly few thousand points of damage posed no threat to him...
David didn't even bother loading bullets. He just let Heavy Hammer drain his life energy directly, pouring in consumption of 200 psychic energy plus 200 health per shot.
The gun barrel kept making "sizzle" sounds. The powerful bullets condensed from blood were comparable to cannonballs.
The giant struggled and swung its huge hand down. It was caught and blocked by the Hand of Monster. The massive body was brutalized by "Heavy Hammer" like an oversized doll.
David seized the opportunity to extend his pale Heretic's Arm, grabbed and yanked the giant. As it fell into a daze, he used the momentum to leap onto the giant's body and fired one final bullet right at its forehead.
Boom...
The massive body fell, crashing into the factory's ruined walls.
This giant looked like it was transformed from a human, but it had completely lost all reason and couldn't communicate at all.
David smoothly used the Hand of Monster to tear off one of its arms and absorbed and fused it on the spot.
Ding~
The Heretic's Arm leveled up again.
[Devoured monster arm, absorbed life energy, limit +30000.]
[Heretic's Arm IV: Can expend 70 psychic energy or life energy to activate ability "Touch of Folly." Cooldown: 2 minutes.]
"Hmm, cooldown decreased again. Not bad..."
Compared to the Heretic's Arm upgrade, David was actually more satisfied with "Heavy Hammer" in his hand. This gun was really quite suitable for him.
His life energy had grown more and more absurd, but he didn't have any means to reasonably use all that extra health.
Although the Hand of Divine Corpse could convert health and psychic energy into destructive power in one go, its cooldown was too long—it could only serve as a final trump card.
Heavy Hammer's high consumption for high power was right up his alley—it'd be even better if it could trade even higher consumption for even greater power...
David shook his head, stopping his fantasy. Turning his head, he saw Veronica running in carrying a box.
"Mr. David, I found the master alchemist's stolen stuff..."
Looked like while he was fighting the giant, Veronica had gotten more clues.
Turns out, the freak Lucio had knocked down was Dick, the apprentice who'd stolen Julius's potions.
No idea how he'd turned into that mess, and before he died he kept repeating stuff like "I'm the real one... teacher save me..." until he breathed his last.
But Veronica still managed to get the location of those potions out of him. She placed the box she'd found in front of David. The two opened it and saw several bottles of potions still inside.
But the bottle of "Liquid Thunder" that Master Julius had demanded wasn't among them.
At that moment, Veronica's eyes flashed when she happened to see the giant's corpse. She was amazed that David could so easily take down such a terrifying monster "without a scratch." At the same time, a patch of markings on the giant's shoulder also caught her attention.
It looked like a birthmark—an identical birthmark that had appeared in the exact same position on Dick's body.
Even though the giant's body muscles had been completely twisted from swelling, sharp-eyed Veronica still recognized it.
She unconsciously walked over and reached out to touch the corpse, but suddenly saw some strange cracks appear on the body.
Crack... crack...
Suddenly, those cracks extended outward, quickly covering the entire corpse. Then it shattered like glass!
The two watched as the shattered corpse rapidly disappeared, both eyes wide.
David couldn't quite understand what he was seeing, but Veronica suddenly shouted:
"I think I know where the Twin Demon Mirror is... No, I should say, where it will appear..."