Eaten Ch.62

Chapter 62: “Do you really have to fight us?”

The woman didn’t bother to turn around to check. The moment she heard the scream, she scooped the little girl into her arms and ran toward the house.

Bang—

A massive black shadow crashed heavily onto the open space in front of them.

Harsh, burning breaths came from above her head. The creature was so close that the woman pressed Mengya’s face tightly against her chest. Her own face had gone deathly pale—she could already smell the beast’s raw, bloody stench in the air.

She trembled all over. Above her, the wolf’s enormous head loomed, jaws yawning wide in a gaping maw.

Then, suddenly, her body tilted—something seized her ankle. Still clutching Mengya, she was yanked down hard onto the ground. Pain exploded in her skull.

When she regained consciousness, she was lying inside the earthen house, warm from the firelight. She scrambled up, tears still streaking her face.

“There are wolves—wolves outside, everywhere!”

Clatter—

Ji Zhelan jerked her head up in terror.

Outside, tiles crashed to the ground and shattered. From the roof came more scraping, shuffling noises. A sharp claw pierced between two wooden beams—an enormous mutant wolf crouched on top of the roof, tearing away the tiles, drooling as its hungry eyes stared down.

One after another, more mutant wolves leapt onto the roof. The old village houses could not withstand such strain. The beams groaned under their weight, cracking loudly.

A few tiny children burst into tears first. They had once seen the wolves tear a villager apart. The adults knew exactly what awaited them—some wore expressions of hopeless resignation, while others were frozen into terrified silence.

“Brother…” Wu Zhi clutched her little monkey. She wasn’t afraid—but she wanted to be with Wu Heng.

Bits of broken tile kept falling from above. The wolves’ excitedly whipping tails flickered like ghostly shadows in the night, and now and then, warm, foul-smelling saliva dripped down in thick strands.

Wu Heng’s gaze lowered to the fire pit a few steps away. After a few seconds, he looked toward Ji Zhelan and Ruan Silian, his voice quiet.

“Wu Zhi, you all help me watch them first.”

Wu Zhi immediately grew agitated when she heard that. “I want to go with you!”

“But you’ll only slow me down.”

After saying that, Wu Heng didn’t spare her an extra glance—didn’t look at her crestfallen face. He rose to his feet and, under the worried gazes of everyone inside, pulled open the door and stepped out.

Outside, wind and snow raged wildly. The wolves’ howls rose and fell, echoing through the storm. A whole pack of them sat in neat formation behind a woman in a red dress.

The woman had voluminous curls and a curvy, sultry figure. Red lips, pale arms—she looked like some dazzling showgirl who had just stepped offstage. Her eyes gleamed with a chilling, predatory green light.

“Hi.” She sounded faintly surprised, as though she hadn’t expected anyone to come out voluntarily.

Wu Heng already knew that the wolves’ leader was a woman—Zhao Mingxiang had told him so—but he hadn’t thought she would personally lead an attack on the village. That meant Xie Chongyi and the others… had been sent on a wild goose chase.

Though his mind raced, his expression didn’t waver in the slightest. He stared coldly at the woman before him, ready to strike at any moment.

“Where are your friends? None of them are here?” She took two leisurely steps forward. “That’s a shame. I was hoping to catch you all in one go.”

From the ground at Wu Heng’s feet, a small green sprout pushed up through the frozen earth. It shivered in the cold, trembling as it stretched its fragile body upward—so weak, so pitiful.

The woman narrowed her eyes. It wasn’t the season for spring blossoms, and even mutant plants wouldn’t normally appear now. She chuckled softly, a little amused, a little pitying. “Is that your ability?”

“Mm.” Wu Heng nodded.

The moment the word left his mouth, the frail little sprout suddenly snapped taut and shot upward, growing madly. By the time it reached midair, it split into countless branches, which lashed backward at the wolves on the rooftops at terrifying speed.

There was the wet sound of tearing flesh—puchi, puchi—followed by panicked scrabbling and a few sharp screams.

The poppy drooped lazily afterward, its tendrils groping and curling as it took two satisfied bites before retreating. The vine tips, stained red with blood, nestled affectionately against Wu Heng.

Shang Moli’s smile had vanished the instant that plant unfurled like a spreading web.

“No wonder you were the one who stayed behind,” Shang Moli said lightly. “That really was the right decision.”

Wu Heng tilted his head back, watching the snow swirl and spin as it fell. The killing intent in the air grew heavier, sharper, until even the cold seemed to hum with it.

When he lowered his gaze again, his eyes were blood-red. He fixed them unblinkingly on the woman in the distance, his palm shaping into a blade of vine. Behind him, countless vines gathered and aligned in tight formation. His voice was calm and low.

“Let’s finish this quickly.”

As the boy charged toward her, Shang Moli’s body shot backward in a blur. Her toes brushed the ground, and she spun once—then, among the pack, a gray wolf larger and more powerful than all the others emerged, its eyes gleaming. At its signal, two wolves in front crossed paths and lunged at Wu Heng.

Wu Heng moved with practiced ease. Several green arrow-feathers shot out toward the oncoming wolves—but just as they were about to strike—

Clang, clang, clang! The wolves’ coats bristled, and the dense, armor-like fur deflected the arrows with ease, snapping them midair.

They rushed faster, pounding the frozen ground so hard that the earth itself trembled.

Wu Heng flicked his wrist, and vines burst from beneath the snow under their paws. With two sharp swish sounds, one vine coiled around a wolf’s hind leg and yanked hard. The mutant wolf was thrown sideways into the air. Another vine immediately hardened into a blade, angling to drive straight into its throat.

But several gray shadows darted past—multiple wolves lunged in, biting and tearing at the vine with wild ferocity. The trapped wolf broke free and scrambled to its feet, panting heavily. The wolves that had rescued it took two steps back, then pushed off the ground with powerful legs, snarling as they charged the human again.

In the depths of his mind, instinct and consciousness surged and clashed, but Wu Heng remained untouched by the chaos. His gaze gleamed sharp as ice.

As one of the wolves snapped down at him, jaws gaping wide, he leaned back just enough for its teeth to graze past his face.

At the same instant, he drove his vine-blade toward its neck—but the wolf, clearly intelligent, twisted its head aside. Just as it turned to counterattack, the vine-blade suddenly unraveled, transforming into a clawed hand that seized the wolf’s throat and slammed it down against the ground.

It howled twice before Wu Heng’s peripheral vision caught sight of the other wolves closing in. Without hesitation, he directed the vines to strike again—this time driving themselves straight into the softest parts of the wolves’ bodies, racing to devour them from within.

The few wolves that had reached him suddenly halted, for reasons unknown. They panted heavily, eyes glowing red, glaring furiously at the lone human now surrounded in their midst.

Wu Heng licked his dry, cold lips, gaze shifting toward the alpha that had silently moved to the edge of the pack.

The woman’s voice came unhurriedly, smooth and taunting.

“Do you really have to fight us? Can your ability hold out forever? Plants don’t do well in the cold, you know—and you’re looking rather pale right now.”

After speaking, she flicked her thick, bushy tail.

“Why don’t you just let me eat you instead? At least you’d suffer less.”

Wu Heng stared at the alpha wolf without a word.

He knew that in wolf packs, the leader’s word was law. He also knew that hierarchy among wolves was strict—and under human control, such structure only grew more pronounced, status and treatment sharply divided.

The two wolves who had first attacked him were likely second only to the alpha in rank. He could tell just by where they’d sat earlier—on her left and right. Their strength was nothing to underestimate. The wolves on the rooftops had been easily struck down, but those two… their fur had evolved into armor, and they even understood positioning and defense.

Wu Heng said nothing. With a faint twitch of his fingers, the vines around him surged up. In an instant, the wolves encircling him were bound tight, like a cluster of giant dumplings. The vines moved of their own accord, skewering through flesh and bone. Amid a chorus of dying howls, the poppy greedily devoured another few mouthfuls.

The alpha stood. She began to retreat—and at the moment she turned, a thunderous boom split the air.

The house behind Wu Heng was suddenly engulfed in flames.

Scorching heat rushed across his back before he could even think. The feeding vines, still restless and greedy, plunged into the fire like a surge of green water, wrapping around the screaming people inside and yanking them all out at once.

“Waaah—!” A group of people crashed heavily into the snow. Before they could even open their eyes, the ground beneath them split open—green vines burst forth.

Just as several red-eyed mutant wolves lunged at them, the vines spread and wove together, forming a green cage that blocked the snapping jaws.

“Brother—!” Wu Zhi screamed, voice breaking with terror—because Wu Heng had leapt straight into the heart of the wolf pack.

A few strands of black hair swayed before Wu Heng’s eyes. Moving like lightning, he plunged into the bloodthirsty wolf pack, twin dark-green blades gleaming in his hands.

He kicked two smaller wolves aside, stabbing both through the gut in one swift motion. Spinning around, he slashed again—cleanly severing another wolf’s front leg.

Blood sprayed through the air; the wolves’ howls filled it.

A biting gust cut between the gaps of the attacking beasts. Out of the corner of his eye, Wu Heng caught a flash of red—suddenly, the woman appeared, brandishing a golden spear that shot straight toward him.

Wu Heng reacted instantly, crossing both blades. Metal clashed with metal—the spear and blades grated together, shrieking with a high-pitched screech.

Shang Moli’s golden eyes blazed with killing intent. She sneered, and the force behind her strike drove Wu Heng steadily backward.

Her strength was the kind that only an alpha could possess. And unlike his blades—extensions of his own body—her spear was an external weapon. The agony seared from the blades into Wu Heng’s entire being, the pain so intense that sweat streamed down his face.

Vines erupted from the ground beneath her. Shang Moli yanked her spear free and leapt high, easily dodging their grasp. The poppy lunged after her like a shooting star—but the woman vanished and reappeared behind Wu Heng.

Caught off guard, he took a brutal kick to the back that sent him flying over ten meters. He hit the ground hard, pain rippling through his chest and abdomen—his organs felt as though they had been wrenched out of place.

Before the pain could register, Wu Heng braced a hand against the ground and lashed out with both legs, kicking two wolves away. He coughed twice, then swung his blades down, slicing off several vine tendrils.

The severed vines shot forward eagerly, burrowing into the bodies of the surrounding mutant wolves. Agonized howls echoed across the snow.

The main vine trunk quivered once, then those tendrils, drawn back by instinct, began thrashing wildly inside the wolves’ flesh. When they finally tore their way out and reconnected with the main body, the wolves had already collapsed into lifeless corpses.

As Wu Heng silently estimated how long these wolves would keep the vines fed, his gaze, calm and steady, rested once more on the woman in red standing in the distance.

Shang Moli was caught completely off guard by Wu Heng’s move—she hadn’t seen it coming. Her spear vanished, dissolving into a cluster of golden needles that hovered in midair. She let out a cold laugh.

“You’ve only killed beasts,” she said. “Their deaths mean nothing. But those people…”

She didn’t bother to finish the sentence before the golden needles shot outward.

Wu Heng’s eyes turned icy. The vines flared outward, forming a thick shield.

The needles pierced straight through it. Wu Heng’s brow furrowed.

“Brother!”

Wu Zhi saw the needles break through the shield and instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

The pain she expected never came. Trembling, she opened her eyes—only to see one of the village aunties standing in front of her and Ruan Silian, shielding them.

The long needles had pierced through the woman’s body. Blood gathered on the tips, dripping down one by one onto Wu Zhi and Ruan Silian.

Wu Zhi’s pupils quivered. Stiffly, she turned her head and saw that the old village chief and Uncle Zhao Er had done the same—using their own bodies to protect the younger villagers from harm.

“Don’t move—don’t move!” Wu Zhi gasped, her voice shaking. She looked toward the distance, where her brother was locked in another fierce clash with the woman, and panic flooded her. “Don’t move! Don’t move—we have Doctor Chen, he can save you!”

Clang!

Wu Heng’s attacks grew faster and faster. He rolled across the ground, narrowly evading Shang Moli’s thrusts. As he sprang up, he swept his leg across—she stumbled, just for half a second, but it was enough. His blade sliced across her arm, drawing a sharp line of blood.

Shang Moli instinctively glanced down at the wound, frowning slightly.

Wu Heng was too fast. In the instant she lowered her eyes, his hand shot out and clamped around her slender, boneless neck.

—————————————————————

Author’s Note:

Wu Heng: It’s cold if I go out, but if I stay, I have to guard the house. Annoying.

Xie Chongyi: My wife fights better than me—and the more he fights, the braver (and more excited) he gets.

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