But...
Seeing her mother disregard the hail of bullets to take her away, Manuela couldn't bear it. Her mother loved her so much; even as a monster, a faint consciousness remained, wanting to protect her.
But precisely because of this... she had to end her mother's life quickly, to free her from the painful limbo between monster and human consciousness.
"Shasha..."
Subconsciously,
Manuela slowly began to unwrap the bandage on her arm, revealing a portion of her green, shriveled arm, corroded by the T-Veronica Virus. It looked as horrifying as withered old tree bark.
Yes,
Manuela had made up her mind. She was going to use the power within her to send her mother off on her final journey. Ever since she was injected with the T-Veronica Virus, Manuela could feel the changes in her body, especially when her father performed organ transplants; her body would undergo noticeable transformations.
Although her body was incredibly weak,
She would even gasp for breath after a few steps, and her heart, unable to bear the pressure, began to fail. But in other aspects, such as nerve reflexes, vision, and hearing, there were significant evolutions.
Looking into the distance... she could see things her eyes couldn't perceive before: the leaves on the trees, the dew on the grass, and at night... the chirping of insects and the trembling of their wings. Even when an insect flew by, its slow flight path was clearly visible.
Therefore,
Manuela realized then that she also possessed special abilities, thanks to the power of the virus. But Manuela didn't like using this power, because it was the virus that had destroyed her family, turned her beloved mother into a monster, and made her kind father so enraged.
It also caused her to be responsible for the deaths of over 50 girls her age. Everything stemmed from the virus, so she hated it.
But now,
To quickly free her mother from suffering,
Manuela had no choice but to use this power she detested...
"Manuela, what are you doing?!"
"No, you can't pull off the bandage. That's where the infection is most severe. Your current condition can't handle accelerated infection."
Seeing Manuela's abnormal behavior, Rebecca's face quickly changed. She immediately grabbed Manuela's arm and quickly re-wrapped the bandage that had been torn off.
Rebecca's sudden action stunned Manuela.
"Buzz..."
"Roar, roar, roar—!!!"
However,
Just then,
A deafening roar suddenly erupted, hurting everyone's eardrums. Their gazes were immediately drawn to the sound. Hilda, who had been sprawled on the ground, slowly stood up and roared furiously at Javier and the others, like a protective tigress in her final moments.
"Buzz..."
And at this moment,
Hilda's state also changed.
The massive, blasted wound on her body was slowly recovering at a visible rate. Of course... the most striking change was Hilda's skin color, which had transformed from its initial blue to red. This was Hilda in a state of rage, much like a chameleon squid, using vibrant colors to threaten enemies and signal her danger.
At the same time,
In this state, Hilda's strength and speed both significantly increased. It was as if she had entered a second phase of her health bar, and the Plaga parasite tentacles on both sides became rigid.
Now, they truly resembled spears capable of piercing through any object, and her red exoskeleton also hardened. Currently, aside from Javier's explosive arrows, even an AKM assault rifle would have little useful effect.
"Roar, roar, roar—!!!"
Hilda, having completed her second-stage evolution, didn't hesitate. She lifted her massive head and instantly charged towards Javier and the others, like a runaway dump truck. Krauser and Leon, firing their AKM rifles beside her, sprayed bullets for a long time without any effect.
"Clang, clang, clang...!"
All the bullets ricocheted off, with sparks flying off Hilda's hardened shell. Ignoring the so-called hail of bullets, Hilda at this moment only wanted to obliterate all the enemies in front of her.
"Here she comes, retreat quickly!"
"Rebecca, take Manuela and fall back. The three of us can handle this here. Leon, time your High-explosive grenade. The moment I throw the flashbang, you throw yours in conjunction with mine to block her advance!"
"The corridor in this dam stronghold is narrow. We have no retreat, so we can only advance to retreat, and block all her attacks!"
"Krauser, use the explosive crossbow bolts to attack her weak point behind her neck. Don't give her any chance to breathe. Once we run, we'll be forced to be chased. We absolutely cannot abandon our current optimal defensive position!"
Seeing Hilda enter a berserk state, even ignoring all firearm damage and attempting to crush them all, Javier quickly gave orders,
Telling Rebecca to quickly retreat with Manuela, then taking out his last flashbang to prepare to pull the pin and throw it.
At the same time, he turned to instruct Leon to prepare his High-explosive grenade for a follow-up attack. After all, Hilda was very fast, and a High-explosive grenade might not achieve 100% damage, but the way to ensure full damage was with flashbang assistance.
To momentarily stun Hilda's mental state, buying time for Leon to time and instantly detonate the High-explosive grenade, throwing the 100% damage High-explosive grenade at Hilda's feet to break her defense.
Finally...
Krauser would finish her off.
For this, Javier had already thrown the crossbow with explosive bolts attached to Krauser. In Krauser's corrupted state in Resident Evil 4, his most iconic weapon was the explosive bow, so there was no need to doubt Krauser's talent.
Perhaps it was at this time, by a strange coincidence, that he witnessed the power of Javier's explosive crossbow bolts, leading Krauser to later develop a fondness for explosive bows.
"Clang—!"
The pin was pulled,
Javier's green-barreled flashbang was quickly thrown, and almost simultaneously, Leon's perfectly timed High-explosive grenade followed suit. Krauser, holding his explosive crossbow bolt, stared intently, then immediately turned his head away and released the trigger.
It was a blind shot!
After confirming the position,
Krauser, to prevent his eyes from being blinded by the flashbang, confidently chose to shoot blindly in an instant.
"Boom!"
"Whoosh—!!!"
All three attacks were launched simultaneously.
Seeing the green-barreled flashbang thrown at her face, and the two dark, round spherical objects, Hilda didn't immediately react to what they were. She still intended to smash them open with her hard, stony head.
But...
"Bang!"
It exploded.
First was the flashbang, white light points rapidly expanded and diffused across Hilda's face, countless tiny stars blooming like brilliant white flowers. But... the moment she came into contact with this blinding white light, Hilda's furious crimson eyes immediately lost focus, her massive pupils dilated, and her body stiffened, losing all movement.
Her eyes,
And ears, almost simultaneously lost control. She couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything. The only thing she could feel was two hard, solid spheres—no... something like stones—hitting her body. What was that? It didn't hurt at all. Was this even an attack?
"Boom...!"
"Boom boom boom—!!!"
However,
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, excruciating pain immediately assaulted her from the left side of her body. What exploded? Hilda could feel countless sharp blades destroying her exoskeleton, instantly piercing into her body. These blades carried scalding heat, lodging themselves in her flesh, constantly tormenting her nerves, causing intense stinging and numbness. They wantonly sliced open her flesh.
And the high-temperature flames instantly melted half of her body, as if her left side was missing. She wanted to shake her left tentacles and leg? No... it was impossible!
"..."
"Hiss......!"
Gradually,
Hilda's vision cleared. She saw the crimson pool of blood at her feet, a large amount of blood continuously gushing out like a spring. Her entire left side had been blown apart by the High-explosive grenade, and even one of her elephantine legs had been severed, with white bones exposed.
"Roar, roar, roar...!"
Pain,
So much pain,
Unbearable pain. Hilda wanted to scream the word 'pain', but could only let out mournful roars. She wanted to stand up and save her daughter, to bring her back to her side. She still wanted to see her daughter safe and healthy, living a beautiful life free from illness, and her happy smiling face. These were all the things she desperately longed to see!
"Drip drip drip..."
Hm?
What's that sound?
As her hearing returned, Hilda only now realized that a 'drip, drip, drip' sound had been constantly accompanying her ears. This sound was incredibly familiar to her, because every time she suffered a severe injury, she heard this sound. It was an explosion... the timed explosion of a crossbow bolt?!
Ah...
It turned out that in a place Hilda hadn't noticed,
A black arrow had been embedded in the back of her skull's spine. Because she had been affected by the flashbang and distracted by the intense pain from the High-explosive grenade, Hilda hadn't noticed that an arrow had already struck her weak point.
Am I...
Going to die?
"Boom—!!!"
With another loud bang,
The powerful explosion slammed Hilda's head violently against the wall. A bloody crater was blasted into the weak point on her neck. Hilda's consciousness completely blurred, her vision slowly darkening and swaying. Her massive body gradually felt powerless, and she collapsed to the ground, her head dragging a bloody trail on the wall as it slumped down.
"Roar..."
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!!!"
At the most critical moment,
Hilda, relying on her last vestiges of willpower and a dying struggle, violently swung her massive tail. Several spear-like venomous needles suddenly whistled and shot out, all heading towards Javier and the others. There were four in total, with the sole exception of the one aimed at Manuela—!
"Danger!"
"Get down!"
Leon, whose mind had been highly tense, was the quickest to react among them. He immediately shouted a warning to Javier and Krauser beside him. Everyone hit the ground. The venomous needles shot over their heads, missing their bodies. Only one person's reaction was a half-beat slow, and that was Krauser...
He didn't choose to immediately lie down,
But instead intended to load the last explosive bolt onto his crossbow to deliver the final blow to Hilda, the monster. Therefore, Krauser only chose to dodge sideways, but even so, he was a half-beat too slow. A spear-like venomous needle plunged fiercely into his left arm, firmly embedded within it.
The neurotoxin took effect, causing Krauser to instantly fall to his knees, howling in pain. His forehead immediately glistened with sweat, and the veins in his neck bulged. The intense pain was unbearable.
Simply because he greedily tried to get one last hit in,
Krauser reverted to the situation in the original timeline. It seemed the blue butterfly did not rewrite Krauser's fate. After all, from beginning to end, he craved power, striving to be strong. After witnessing the power of the bio-virus, even if his arm hadn't been ruined, he would still have resolutely chosen to make a deal with the devil.
His so-called arm...
Was merely the last straw that broke the camel's back—
On the other side,
After her dying counterattack, Hilda's hard, stony head slammed onto the ground, never to be lifted again.
Undoubtedly,
Hilda's life had reached its end!
Faintly...
Hilda seemed to see the pained gray-blue eyes of her daughter, Manuela. Was she feeling heartache for her useless mother?
I'm sorry... Mama can't take you home anymore—
As if regaining her human consciousness instantly, Hilda, now a monster, collapsed in a pool of blood and murmured to Manuela in the distance,
"..."
"Hmm... hmm hmm... hmm..."
"Sleep my love as the trees above"
"Protect you from the dark"