[The scene continues.]
[After dealing with all the nearby Devourers, the ground team finally regrouped in front of Mark-Beast.]
[But before they could even catch their breath, Shan Da happened to glance over and notice a new change on Mark-Beast's side. He hurriedly warned the others:]
["Look over there!"]
[Suixing and the others were startled and immediately followed the direction Shan Da was pointing.]
[In the scene, at some point, the black sludge formed from the melted corpses of the Devourers had seemingly developed a will of its own. Flickering with tiny red specks, it all converged together and poured into Mark-Beast's body.]
[As the black sludge entered him, Mark-Beast rose to his feet once more. His body swelled another size larger, and the patterns on his body lit up with a dangerous crimson glow.]
["We were careless. His blood activated the Life Source!"]
[Xutong cried out in shock.]
[As the aura around Mark-Beast grew more and more violent, the members of the ground team had no choice but to raise their weapons again and take up defensive stances once more.]
["ROOOOAR!!!"]
[After letting out a pained howl, Mark-Beast's eyes— which had just regained clarity—turned back into those mindless gray-white orbs.]
[Once all the black sludge had been absorbed, Mark-Beast suddenly lifted his head and bared a grin at the ground team.]
[Faced with that sudden evil smile, everyone on the ground team felt their hearts tighten. Suixing, in particular, instinctively released her bowstring. A flash of blue light streaked out as an arrow fitted with an explosive tip screamed toward Mark-Beast.]
[Yet this arrow—one that had always struck true—was caught tightly in a single black hand just before it hit its target.]
["Huh?"]
[Suixing, who had maintained a cool expression from beginning to end, finally showed a look of surprise when she saw her arrow casually caught barehanded.]
[The camera returned to Mark-Beast. After seeing the change in Suixing's expression, he revealed that evil grin once again. Then, with a squeeze of his hand, the broken shaft of the arrow dropped to the ground.]
[The instant the shaft hit the ground, Mark-Beast kicked off violently with both legs. Accompanied by a shrill tearing wind, he charged at the ground team at a speed even faster than the arrow that had just been fired at him.]
[When he got close to them, however, Mark-Beast abruptly stopped. Clenching his fist, he put on a wicked grin and made a throwing motion at the group.]
[As his clenched fist slowly opened, a crimson-glowing arrowhead came into view.]
[It was the very same explosive arrowhead Suixing had fired at him earlier—the one he had caught with his bare hand and snapped the shaft off of.]
"Holy shit!!! The Devourer actually knows how to fight with its brain now!!!"
Seeing Mark-Beast throw the explosive arrowhead in the video, Erica of the Hunter Squad couldn't help blurting out a curse.
"It's over, it's over, it's over…"
"If we ever run into a Devourer like that up on the surface, we're dead for sure!"
"And judging by its limbs and face, it really does look like it used to be human!"
"What do you mean 'it's over'?" Mark cut in, interrupting their panic.
"If this video's being shown, then obviously someone defeats it in the end.
And once the video's over, won't we be able to enter that whatever-it-is Instance and fight it head-on once?
If we fight it a few times in the Instance and figure out its weak points, then if we ever run into one in the real world, won't we know how to beat it?
Why are you all panicking already?"
After hearing Mark out, the members of the Hunter Squad thought it over and realized that actually did make sense. One after another, they nodded.
"…That does sound right."
"The captain's got a point…"
"Yeah… we worried for nothing…"
"Forget it, watching my goddess is more important…"
Before long, the Hunter Squad had already tossed the matter to the back of their minds.
Only Ran Bing, for some reason, felt that the more she looked at the monster in the video…
The more its face seemed to resemble Mark's.
[The scene continues.]
[After recognizing what Mark-Beast had thrown at them, the members of the ground team's eyes flew wide open. Frozen in terror, they forgot even the most basic instinct to dodge.]
[In the end, it was Xia Dou's E3 Devourer that leapt out at her shout—using its body to shield everyone from the explosive arrowhead.]
["BOOOOM!!!!"]
[The flames from the explosion instantly swallowed the entire screen.]
[When the image became clear again, Suixing, Shan Da, and Xutong had all been blown far away by the blast wave.]
[As for the E3 Devourer under Xia Dou's control, Mark-Beast had seized it by the throat with one hand and lifted it into the air.]
[No matter how it struggled or clawed at him, Mark-Beast's arm did not budge in the slightest. If anything, his grip only kept tightening.]
["Urgh…"]
[Because her consciousness was still linked to the E3 Devourer, Xia Dou—hiding atop the watchtower—also seemed to be having her throat squeezed shut. Her breathing grew more and more strained, and her face slowly flushed red.]
[Just then, that evil smile appeared on Mark-Beast's face again.]
"Oh no! That monster's smiling again!"
"Damn it! Every time that guy smiles, nothing good happens!"
Seeing Mark-Beast grin once more, the audience outside the screen couldn't help but worry for the ground team.
The first wicked smile had come when his human consciousness was swallowed by the beast's instinct.
The second had been when he threw the explosive arrowhead at the ground team.
Even with Naruto's brain, you could guess what that smile meant now—
This bastard was about to do something nasty again.
[The scene continues.]
[Sure enough, Mark-Beast struck with a black tiger's heart-ripping claw. Amid the E3 Devourer's agonized howl, his left hand effortlessly tore through its flesh and seized the Spirit Core inside its body.]
["Puh!!"]
[The moment the Spirit Core was ripped out, Mark-Beast casually tossed the E3 Devourer's corpse aside.]
[Then, with the slightest squeeze of his hand, the Spirit Core was crushed into powder.]
["Cough, cough…"]
[Up on the watchtower, Xia Dou—whose connection had been forcibly severed—couldn't help coughing up a mouthful of dark blood.]
["Xia Dou!"]
[Guayan, startled by Xia Dou suddenly coughing blood, quickly threw aside the computer in his hands and rushed over to check her condition.]