"Bang—"
Xu An, who hadn't been sleeping soundly, quickly got up with the gunshot and looked outside the stone cave.
Ana also suddenly woke up from her sleep, her face a picture of panic. "What happened? What's going on?"
Xu An gently patted Ana's arm, signaling her to calm down, and whispered in Ana's ear, "Don't make a sound. I'll go out and take a look. You stay inside."
If they were under attack, wouldn't Haowule and the others outside have alerted Xu An? She had to go out and see what the situation was.
Xu An took out her pistol, released the safety, and crept out of the cave, peeking her head out.
The sight almost made Xu An cry out in shock.
In both her lives, Xu An had never seen such a monster. A creature with a snake's body and a rat's head appeared in her sight, slowly crawling in the open space not far from the stone cave.
It was inching closer to the figure ahead. Awu and Old Six were already lying on the ground, unconscious, while only Haowule was still holding on, aiming his hunting rifle with difficulty at the colossal creature.
However, it was unclear if Haowule was injured during the struggle with the monster, as a faint scent of blood hung in the air.
Xu An thought to herself, "This is bad!"
The scent of blood from Haowule had already attracted the attention of the rat-headed snake monster.
Xu An realized she couldn't just wait to die. If this rat-headed snake ate all three of them, she'd likely be next.
Making up her mind, she gritted her teeth, her nails digging deeply into her palm. The immense pain jolted her out of her momentary daze.
"Ana... listen to me quietly. There's a rat-headed snake monster outside. Awu and Old Six have fallen, and I don't know if they're alive or dead..."
"What about Haowule? What about Brother Ale?" Ana asked nervously.
"Haowule is dealing with the monster. Don't interrupt me!" Seeing Ana about to speak again, Xu An suddenly hissed, "Listen to my plan, and maybe we can save Haowule's life. If you keep babbling, you'll be the one to collect his corpse!"
Ana dared not speak again.
"Haowule is injured, so he can be bait. Do you have any weapons? It's okay if you don't. Awu has one. I'll go out first and shoot behind the monster to attract its attention. You take this chance to run out, find Awu's hunting rifle, and then we'll attack from both sides..."
"You... you woman! Haowule helped you so much, and you want him to be bait?"
"What else? Or do you want to cut your own arm and go out as bait?"
Ana fell silent.
"You better not have any ulterior motives. I'll be watching you. If you dare to make any moves, I don't mind 'accidentally' sending Haowule to his death."
"Don't doubt me, Ana, you know I'm capable of it!"
Ana bit her lower lip and glared hatefully at Xu An.
Xu An had arranged this deliberately. She knew that only by tying her own life to Haowule's would Ana dare not act rashly.
Meanwhile, the space tree in her spatial dimension, which had been silent for several days, now gave a prompt. Xu An felt as if she could see through the rat-headed monster's head and directly perceive the glowing mushroom hidden within.
Xu An muttered to herself, "Am I evolving now?"
This darn tree really thought highly of her. Every direction it pointed her in made her feel like she was inviting trouble.
This was also why Xu An didn't choose to stay out of it and just run. Since a fight with this rat-headed monster was inevitable, it was better to kill it now while there were more people.
Otherwise, if she were alone, she truly wouldn't be confident.
...
The rat-headed snake was slowly approaching Haowule. He felt as if the monster was mocking him; its eyes seemed to be looking at a trapped prey.
His hunting rifle had long since run out of bullets. The last one had been used to alert Xu An and the others. He thought bitterly that he might die here today.
He hoped Xu An could escape with Ana, so at least that bullet wouldn't have been wasted.
However...
Haowule felt a pang of sadness. He hadn't managed to hold on until national rescue arrived. How would the people in the sand city survive?
Just as he was about to give up, a fierce gunshot sounded from behind him.
Xu An suddenly appeared in his line of sight, to the right rear of the rat-headed snake, firing continuously at the monster. The bullets pierced its body, leaving bloody wounds.
Haowule had calculated everything, but he never expected that the person who came to save him would be Xu An.
Xu An ran in the opposite direction. To prevent the rat-headed snake behind her from chasing her, she kept looking back and firing cold shots, steadily drawing the monster's aggro to herself.
Seeing the monster being lured away by Xu An, Ana pounded her slightly weak legs with her fists and quickly ran to Awu's side. She discovered that Awu and Old Six were not dead, but for some reason, they were both unconscious.
She dared not delay any further. She took the gun off Awu's back and was about to aim at the rat-headed snake when her peripheral vision caught sight of Haowule.
"If I abandon that woman now and go to save Brother Ale directly... but... Brother Ale will definitely be angry afterwards, right..."
Xu An stared at the monster before her, calculating the time. Ana should have already fired to divert the monster's "aggro," so why hadn't she fired yet?
A bad premonition instantly struck her, and she bit her lower lip.
At that moment, the rat-headed snake suddenly opened its mouth and lunged to bite Xu An's shoulder. At the same time, it tried to coil its tail around Xu An's legs.
Xu An quickly turned, drew her saber, and slashed. The action was seamless, and half of the rat-headed snake's tail was severed by Xu An.
The rat-headed snake, tormented by the pain of its severed tail, went mad. It bared its fangs and let out roars of anger at Xu An.
Xu An raised her gun, but she wasn't aiming at the rat-headed snake, but at Ana.
She never gave anyone a second chance to betray her.
...
With a "bang," a gunshot rang out.
Ana did not hesitate. Following the first shot, a continuous barrage of bullets struck the rat-headed snake's body. She was completely unaware that she had just narrowly escaped death.
In fact, Xu An had misjudged. More than anything else, Ana didn't want to see a look of disappointment in Haowule's eyes.
Therefore, even though she wasn't a good person, under Haowule's influence, she could always "know when to stop."
Subsequently, Xu An, without any hesitation, joined the concentrated fire towards the rat-headed snake.
After firing an unknown number of shots, the monster howled and then collapsed with a thud, kicking up a cloud of sand.
Xu An, using the sandstorm as cover, quickly moved forward. After confirming that the rat-headed snake was completely dead, she plunged her dagger forcefully into its head.
In a short while, the glowing mushroom was completely absorbed by the spatial dimension.
"What are you doing?"
Ana had noticed Xu An's actions by then and asked as she approached.
"Making sure it's completely dead, delivering a final blow."
Ana believed her and looked at Haowule in the distance, whose face was filled with the joy of surviving a disaster, and whispered.
"Xu An... for a moment there, I really... wanted to kill you..."