Wolfpack

Chapter 8: The Gap is a Tragedy

As the applause rang out, I took out my crossbow and aimed it at the door. As the applause died down, a familiar yet suffocating voice came in first.

"Heh heh, that was really exciting, really exciting, kid. You handled the trash downstairs, and even Yang, huh? I was going to let you off the hook, but now I’ve changed my mind! Heh heh heh!!" Despite the ringing in my ears, hearing this voice still made my stomach tighten.

With the voice came two massive figures into view. Why do I say this? Because they were just so huge, their muscular bodies were like bodybuilders, their camouflage t-shirts were about to rip, and the legs inside their army pants were so thick that you could feel the muscles even through the fabric. Standing at 185 cm, they weren’t particularly tall, but to me, they felt like giants, suffocating me with their presence. The speaker was a red-headed white man, who had a friendly look, but the scar running from his brow over his eye to his chin made him look terrifying. Standing beside him was a bald black man with thick lips, looking rather innocent.

"Don’t be fooled by his innocent look. He’s also a killer without a second thought!" The red-haired man seemed to see through my thoughts and sneered at me.

"Heh heh, butcher, you bastard," the black man laughed as he called the red-haired man by his nickname.

Seeing how these two men didn’t take my crossbow seriously, I panicked and shouted, "Don’t come any closer! Who are you? If you come any closer, I will shoot! Step back, step back!"

"You can’t compare me to the waste on the ground. You’re trying to scare me with a slingshot? Kid, if you want to shoot, then shoot. Haha, go ahead," the one called "Butcher" said, pointing to his chest and walking towards me. His muscles grew bigger and bigger, and the shirt ripped into strips, hanging around his waist.

As he got closer, I didn’t hesitate. I pulled the trigger, and the bolt "whooshed" as it shot toward his chest. However, it didn’t penetrate. The arrow bounced off and fell to the ground. There was only a small dent on his chest, and from the blood, it seemed like it just scratched the surface.

"Hard Qi Gong!" I blurted out. I had seen my older brother perform a demonstration of hard Qi Gong, where he bent a stainless steel chopstick with his throat against the wall. He had told me that a small-force crossbow wouldn’t cause any harm to a master of hard Qi Gong if they were prepared. But seeing this skill in a foreigner was surprising.

"Quite insightful, but this isn’t hard Qi Gong. I just contracted my muscles. Hard Qi Gong is much stronger than this. Even a small-caliber gun can’t penetrate their muscles," the Butcher said as he patted his chest.

While he was talking, I lunged at him with a knife aimed at his stomach. He was just too terrifying! I needed to escape. Just when the blade was half an inch from his body, my wrist was caught by an iron grip, and excruciating pain made me scream. My fingers opened involuntarily, and the knife fell to the ground. With one swift motion, he grabbed my neck and lifted me off the ground. Instantly, my face felt numb as the oxygen was draining from my brain, and my vision started to go black. My limbs went numb, and looking at the Butcher’s grinning face, I used every ounce of strength to twist my shoulders, and my arm whipped across his face. My fingertips scratched his eye, and I could feel the wetness on my fingertips as I passed out. As I blacked out, my last thought was: Damn it, even if I die, I’ll take out one of your eyes!