Autophagy

Song Lei caught the monocle that Aston had thrown towards him on the air and held it to his eye without adjusting it. He glanced towards Hector's corpse.

"Well... Fuck," He muttered. With the ethereal sight granted to him by the soul monocle, Song Lei kept watching the black smoke rising out of Hector's corpse, slowly forming into a body shape. Guessing what would transpire in this place, Song Lei rushed to Aston's side.

"Quickly escape and make sure those three bodyguards don't come here," Song Lei said. Aston nodded and left the warehouse without asking any questions. Song Lei sighed seeing Aston walk away.

An ethereal being was coming out of Hector's corpse. Song Lei had his ways to deal with it. After all, his soul stat was probably high enough to not get hurt against whatever this monster was. Aston, on the other hand, didn't have this advantage.

Moreso, they only had a single soul monocle. Even if Aston were to stay by his side, he would only be a burden. Obviously, the smart decision was to send Aston to fight against the three bodyguards that would come back soon. If Song Lei were disturbed by those three, he wouldn't be able to properly fight against the monster.

After Aston left the warehouse, Song Lei sighed once more in relief and turned back towards the monster. Seeing that it hadn't finished leaving Hector's body, he rushed in and attacked the black smoke with his soul dagger. He cut the connection between Hector's corpse and the body formed by the smoke.

When he did so, the black mist shook in its place before freezing completely. Song Lei swung the dagger a few more times but to no avail. Seeing that he wasn't able to harm the mist, for now, he took the commoner that had fainted long ago with him and ran towards the other side of the warehouse. After managing to create a good amount of distance between him and the mist, Song Lei threw the man aside and approached the mist again.

Normally, he would've run away from this place as fast as he could. However, this wasn't a choice he currently had. If he were to escape now, the black mist could chase him. If that were to happen, he would've to be alert every single second. After all, the black mist was invisible to the naked eye. Without the soul monocle that Aston had invented, even Song Lei wouldn't be able to see it.

He had to deal with it right here and now.

Shortly after Song Lei took his stance, the black mist suddenly contracted and formed into a humanoid figure. The humanoid figure clenched his fist while looking at its hand. It seemed to be appreciating the fact that it was finally free.

After it finished its appreciation, he turned his head towards Song Lei. What seemed to be a mouth opened and closed on its face a few times. It seemed to be speaking. Unfortunately, Song Lei couldn't hear what it was saying. And because of its hazy figure, he wasn't able to read its lips.

"Come," Song Lei said as he signaled the shadow to come to him. The shadow must've been infuriated by Song Lei's action as it suddenly charged towards him. Aston's soul monocle was still in a prototype stage. It could only focus on a limited range that could be adjusted by a circle that was integrated into it. Further than that, everything would become blurry.

Song Lei adjusted the soul monocle to focus in a two meters range around him. Although it wasn't much, it was definitely enough for Song Lei who had incredible fighting senses.

The shadow rushed at Song Lei angrily. Song Lei stepped aside slightly. That was enough for him to dodge the attack. As the shadow passed by, Song Lei swung his dagger quickly and severed the shadow's arm in a single motion.

The shadow stopped five meters away from Song Lei. Although blurry, Song Lei managed to see that its arm regenerated in less than two seconds.

'Just like I guessed...' Song Lei thought. These kinds of monsters that were made from gaseous matters usually had incredible regeneration abilities. 'Obviously, the solution is...'

"Show me where your core is you, bastard..." Song Lei muttered. These kinds of monsters always had a core somewhere in their body that would be the monster's heart. Unless it was destroyed, the monster wouldn't die no matter what happened.

After regenerating its arm, the monster charged at Song Lei once more. It wasn't easy to dodge its attacks. After all, unlike a normal human, the shadow's figure was hazy. Making it much harder for Song Lei to read its moving patterns.

As the monster charged at him again, Song Lei redirected its attack with his dagger all the while dodging to the side. This time, however, the monster managed to quickly recover its balance before Song Lei was able to cut him.

Gathering its strength, it charged at Song Lei once more. Song Lei had to keep using the monocle to see the monster. Having one of his hands occupied in such a way limited his moving abilities a lot.

The shadow started throwing out slash after slash with its hands. Although they didn't look particularly sharp, Song Lei knew that it wouldn't be good if he were hit. Considering this, he raised his awareness to its highest and started defending himself.

His incredible battle senses and trained body made him able to dodge almost all the attacks. He could easily block those that reached him with his dagger, so it wasn't much of a problem for him to hold his ground all the while waiting for the shadow to make a mistake.

This didn't take too long as the shadow soon swung its hand in a wide arc and lost its balance. Song Lei didn't let this chance go and cut the shadow in more than five places in just two seconds. Those five places were all vital spots such as the head, the heart, or the groin.

After that, Song Lei kicked the ground and put distance between him and the shadow.

'I didn't feel a core... Was I not able to hit it? Or is it that there wasn't a core from the beginning?' Song Lei doubted. He had thought that such a monster would have a core that would be its vital spot. However, this assumption was made on web novels Song Lei had read before. It could pretty much be a stupid fiction element that didn't have any reality to it. 'But I don't know what else I could do...'

Unfortunately, Song Lei had no idea about how he would kill such a monster other than that. The shadow rejuvenated all of its body quickly right in front of Song Lei's eyes. Most of its insides had been exposed to Song Lei, however, he wasn't able to find any weak spots.

Song Lei adjusted the backpack that he was wearing and straightened his body posture before darting out towards the shadow. The shadow wasn't able to react to Song Lei's attack as it was cut in half instantly.

Song Lei didn't stop at that and started slashing at the monster time after time, giving it no time to rejuvenate. As he didn't know what to do, he had just decided to hit it until it died.

Of course, the shadow didn't just stand around. It didn't fail any pain or neither did its body parts had any functions. They were just there. It would be able to function properly even without them. Utilizing this chance, it kept attacking Song Lei while ignoring his attacks.

Song Lei had to both dodge and attack at the same time. Fighting against enemies that weren't worried about death was incredibly hard. So much so that even an untrained person could hurt a trained person as long as they weren't afraid. If they didn't even feel pain, things would get even harder for the trained person.

Now in such a situation, Song Lei kept attacking and dodging for almost five minutes. Five minutes were incredibly long for such a fight. He had already cut his enemy hundreds of times, however, he still wasn't able to hurt it properly.

Seeing that his tactic wasn't working, Song Lei jumped back to distance himself from the shadow. Unfortunately, the shadow didn't seem like it wanted to let Song Lei go. As Song Lei kept trying to retreat, the shadow kept following him.

While trying to escape, Song Lei's back hit a rack.

'Fuck!' Song Lei shouted in his mind. He lost his balance as a few boxes fall on his head because of the collision.

After losing his balance, Song Lei tumbled and fell to the side. Just before he was about to hit the ground, he pushed himself and somersaulted. Landing on the ground, Song Lei raised the monocle and searched for the shadow.

'Where is..? Oh Fuck....'

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