Chapter 56: Desperate Measures for Desperate Times

“Liuli, finish him off now,” Wu Qingsong yelled.

Though this necromancer was far from masterful–lacking many of the dark spells Wu Qingsong knew he should have–the sheer power unleashed from the earlier scroll was proof enough. Anyone channeling arcane forces, no matter how mediocre, was still dangerous.

Who knew what other hidden tricks the necromancer had?

In this critical situation, the wisest move would be to capitalize on their advantage and utterly eliminate the enemy, putting an end to the threat once and for all.

Once he was gone, even if the undead didn’t vanish immediately, they would become a manageable problem as long as their numbers stopped increasing. Plus, Liuli’s transformation was nearing its limit. Who knew if she’d revert to her original form anytime soon?

However, Liuli seemed to disregard Wu Qingsong’s urgent call. Slowly tightening her clawed grip, she elicited a choked cry of agony from the necromancer. Then, she relaxed her hold slightly, saying, “You’ve got five seconds. Choose wisely.”

Suspended in mid-air, the necromancer frantically waved his hands in a futile struggle.

Frustrated and concerned, Wu Qingsong was tempted to scold Liuli. However, her transformed persona was the polar opposite of her usual self. She responded to gentle coaxing, not stern admonishment. Just as Wu Qingsong thought of intervening personally, the undead reclaimed the cleared pathway.

Meanwhile, beside the newly-formed wolfmen formation, another round of battle commenced between the skeletons and the wolfmen.

“Nina, throw me over there,” Wu Qingsong urgently instructed Nina.

It was a demeaning action, but he wouldn’t suffer any physical harm, and given the current predicament, there were no better alternatives.

Nina nodded, gripping Wu Qingsong’s body, ready to muster her strength and throw him. However, just at that moment, the necromancer succeeded in grabbing Liuli’s claw. Almost immediately, Liuli’s body convulsed. A searing, agonizing pain shot through her heart as if someone had viciously plunged a knife into it and twisted it.

Intent on snapping the necromancer’s neck, Liuli found her strength vanished with the stabbing pain.

The necromancer fell from her grasp and hit the ground, while she clutched her chest and staggered backward, ultimately collapsing.

This sudden turn left Nina and Wu Qingsong utterly dumbstruck. A second later, Nina changed her course, apparently intending to hurl Wu Qingsong away from the danger.

“Nina, what are you planning?” Wu Qingsong sensed her intentions and tightened his grip on her hand.

“To get out of here. We can come back later and take revenge,” Nina said.

“No!” As she tried to lift and toss Wu Qingsong to safety, he held fast onto her hand.

Liuli had once been critically injured and on the brink of death during a battle against Kleine’s mercenaries, but Wu Qingsong had saved her. If it was possible then, it should be possible now. However, if he ran, her life might truly be forfeit.

“There’s still a chance,” he asserted to Nina.

“What chance?” Nina snapped back. “Stop wasting time. If you hesitate any longer, neither of us will make it out.”

“I can unlock your latent potential,” Wu Qingsong said passionately. “Trust me, without a shred of doubt, the way Liuli and Ling do. Put your fate in my hands, and we’ll surely succeed.”

“Ling succeeded too?” Nina paused for a moment, then nodded her head.

She was not afraid of death, but if there was a glimmer of hope, she wouldn’t give up so easily.

“Come with me.” She let go of Wu Qingsong and grabbed his hand, while her other hand seized a skeleton, just as Liuli had done earlier. Wielding it like a weapon, she swung it with all her might and charged toward the wolfmen’s defensive shield formation.

“Destroy them! Destroy them all!” The necromancer stood up once again, his frustration palpable as he wildly waved his staff. But the skeletons did not heed his commands. Instead, they continued to instinctively attack the living beings around them, utterly ignoring his presence.

“Give us a few minutes,” Wu Qingsong yelled, virtually flying through the air as Nina pulled him along. He felt like he’d just stepped off a roller coaster, but now was not the time to indulge in such sensations. “Buy us some time.”

The wolfmen unleashed another defiant roar.

“Lie down,” Wu Qingsong directed Nina.

Nina hesitated briefly but then, complying with his instruction, lay flat on the ground.

“Empty your mind, you need to relax completely. Put your full trust in me, let go of everything else. That’s the only way I can synchronize our heartbeats to achieve resonance,” Wu Qingsong explained. Over recent months, he had conducted many experiments on Ling, through which he had found a successful method. However, he hadn’t had the opportunity to test it on any other beastwomen yet.

Success or failure hinged on this moment.

“Completely relaxed?”

The wolfmen continued to roar fiercely, employing their shields to hold back the advancing undead. The smaller skeletons tried to slip through the gaps beneath the shields but were promptly shattered into pieces by the wolfmen’s robust defense.

How strong must one’s resolve be to truly relax in such dire circumstances?

Yet Wu Qingsong simply nodded.

A wolfman let out a harrowing scream, its blood splattering onto Nina’s face. She took a deep breath and murmured to herself, “Alright, let go. Relax.”

But an immediate issue presented itself. Nina was donned in half-armor, and there was no time to remove it now.

“I’m sorry,” Wu Qingsong uttered, as he awkwardly maneuvered his hand through an opening in her chestplate.

From any angle, his actions could be perceived as inappropriate toward Nina. However, given the urgency of the situation, concerns about propriety seemed irrelevant.

Nina’s physique was in no way inferior to that of Ram, but Wu Qingsong quickly dismissed such thoughts from his mind. He focused instead on syncing with Nina’s heartbeat, searching for that special connection.

Every life was in peril, Liuli’s most of all. He might survive, but the fate of the others hinged entirely on his success now.

“Relax,” he softly told Nina. “You have to be completely relaxed. You must trust me entirely.”

Even someone as composed as Nina was on the verge of losing her patience, but she channeled immense willpower to eliminate all distractions. Closing her eyes, she mentally commanded herself, ‘Trust him, believe in him, relax, relax.’

Years of discipline and training allowed her to quickly enter a meditative state, which was exactly what Wu Qingsong needed. Ignoring the cacophony of the wolfmen’s roars and screams, the flying splatter of blood, and bone shards, he concentrated wholeheartedly on finding that elusive sensation, like a flowing electric current.

Nina’s heartbeat was strong and unwavering. Despite Wu Qingsong’s efforts, her heart rate stubbornly maintained its own rhythm, conflicting with his own pulse.

‘This isn’t good,’ he thought as sweat soaked through his shirt.

If he couldn’t sync their heartbeats to awaken her latent powers like this, then only one other option remained.

“I’m sorry,” he said once again before leaning in and planting a fervent kiss on Nina’s lips.

“What the–” Nina’s eyes flew open in shock. Her hands grabbed Wu Qingsong, ready to throw him off her.

However, just as her heart plunged into disarray from the sudden kiss, that elusive electrical current finally appeared.

“Nina, did you feel that? That’s it!” Wu Qingsong declared, elated. “That’s the sensation we need.”

Nina’s clenched fists, which had been gripping his clothes, finally loosened. Wu Qingsong kissed her again, and the electric-like sensation intensified. Nina’s once-stable heartbeat began to waver, eventually aligning with his own. Driven by this newfound connection, their pulses finally began to sync. Moments later, an immense and formidable energy erupted from within her. Like a storm, it emanated from them both, sweeping outwards and encompassing a radius of more than ten meters. It even sent the nearby, frail skeletons flying through the air.

“Are you planning on letting go anytime soon?” Nina’s voice carried a mixture of irritation and embarrassment.

Wu Qingsong hurriedly released his grip. Still fuming, Nina seized him and with a powerful heave, flung him toward the skeletons that were barely managing to stay upright.