The Fogmen above them lunged down simultaneously. In such close combat, Xu Xiaoyou decisively abandoned using her sniper rifle. She drew out a standard alloy knife from her tool card, her fingers brushing over the blade. The blazing light reflected on the girl's face.

"Dawn Blade," she murmured softly, stepping forward briskly, taking the initiative to meet the incoming monsters.

The sharp blade clashed with the claws, sparking fiery sparks, and in the next moment, it pierced into the neck.

These monsters moved in groups of three or five, scattering everyone's formation. The two girls and the Shadow Brothers fought individually, unable to look after each other, let alone maintain attention. In such chaotic battle, they found it hard to be mindful of what was behind them.

Just as Xu Xiaoyou finished off a stalled Fogman, a whistling sound came from behind her. As her internal alarm intensified, a barrier of flowing water covered her body surface, and no matter how sharp the claws were, they were confined within the prison of the Water Element, unable to approach her any further.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two bullets pierced the skulls of the Fogmen behind her. Turning to look back, Tang Xin was holding a Blue Sparrow Pistol, while behind her, the small hands of Xiaoxin were channeling the turbulent Water Element, accelerating the flow into several sharp Ice Spears, with cold air emanating from the tips.

The Ice Spears shot out, penetrating the necks of three Fogmen, easing part of the pressure on Xu Xiaoyou.

Tang Xin breathed a sigh of relief, but a whistling wind sound arose beside her. She was slightly taken aback, only to see two Fogmen, one left and one right, dashing towards her from two directions, their crouched bodies like leopards pouncing on prey, almost tearing her apart the next moment!

A blonde girl arrived promptly, with a fiery floral dance, instantly repelling the two monsters. The bright flames illuminated Xu Xiaoyou's calm expression.

She adjusted her breath, swiftly and neatly wielding the blade in her hand, killing one monster, then moved gracefully, the hastily burning flames akin to a venomous snake baring its fangs. She raised the long knife high, stepping forward, changing from chop to slash, the chaotic blade light sliced through the thick fog, bypassing the monster's claws, and directly slashing at its neck.

After completing all this, Xu Xiaoyou carried the long knife, taking advantage of the chaos to bring Tang Xin close to Chen San, who was still bent over the open hood of a car, repairing the engine.

"Who do you think it is?" she asked bluntly.

"Don't you suspect it's me?"

"From the moment we entered the Ring Mountain Road, if you showed any sign of being off, I would take you out immediately."

"But I don't think I could stop a runaway car from crashing off the cliff."

The implication was clear.

Chen San pondered for a moment, then said, "I think it's Lin Xing."

"From the beginning, I felt something was off with him, an inexplicable oddity, we must be wary of him."

"Remember what I said earlier? Some puppets, even when controlled by puppet strings, might not be aware, unconsciously following the Puppeteer's orders."

Xu Xiaoyou fell silent, as if lost in some memory.

At this moment, a young man wielding double daggers dashed past them, retreating rapidly. Several Fogmen pressed upon him, waving claws and opening bloody mouths for a Bite. Though a Three Tier Assassin, Lin Xing, not adept at frontal combat, seemed somewhat struggling with this scene.

He crossed the double daggers before him, eyes narrowed slightly. Dark blade light sliced out, and blood marks exploded on the necks of the several Fogmen before him.

Seeing this, Xu Xiaoyou and Chen San's eyes both shifted, the former spoke coldly, "It's one thing that the commander can't spit ivory out of a dog's mouth, but to bring us here to get attacked by monsters and can't even fix a car, what use are you?"

Chen San also retorted in a low voice, "If you hadn't slowed the team down this morning, we wouldn't be dealing with a monster attack right now!?"

Just after dealing with the monster in front of him, Lin Xing found himself assaulted from both front and rear, with Fogmen pressing from both sides, dragging him into a new round of difficult battle. He looked at the arguing pair in the corner and yelled, "Enough is enough, you two! Help me!"

The monsters had a bizarre coordination among them, maintaining positions, with often a single Fogman attracting attention, while others found tricky angles to attack simultaneously. Finding an appropriate angle to pin them all down was impossible, and the shifting gaze would invariably meet their scarlet eyes, turning those monsters berserk.

The fog thickened, shrill cries echoed above the valley, and more and more monsters appeared from afar. Looking down the road of the highway, the surging shadows of heads couldn't be seen ending at a single glance.

They attacked from angles hard for ordinary people to conceive. As the protracted fight dragged on, the surrounding monsters not only didn't decrease in number but more and more berserk Fogmen rampaged through the white mist. The battle was at a stalemate, everyone's situation completely passive, subtly heading towards a worse direction.

Before long, nearly everyone bore some wounds more or less.

A layer of water barrier clung to the blonde girl. With the dual blessings of the Sound of Wings Blue and Heroic Ode, she wielded the Dawn Blade across the battlefield like a dawn light.

After successively dispatching several Fogmen, she came to Lin Sheng's side, who was swinging a Beheading Great Saber with great vigor, hacking all incoming monsters to pieces, covered in both his own and monster blood.

Lin Sheng's body glowed red, a battle roar emanating from his mouth, a lion-like aura bolstering his being, muscles surging, and eyes flashing with red light. One singular slash vertically cleaved a Fogman!

Lin Sheng flicked off the sticky blood from the saber, reining in a bit of his heavy aura, noticing the approaching blonde girl, his brow furrowed:

"What is it?"

Xu Xiaoyou's tone was calm, "When did you first feel your brother was acting strange?"

The girl's preconceived questioning stunned him for a moment. After pondering, he replied, "Are you suspecting Lin Xing is controlled by puppet strings, becoming a puppet?"

Xu Xiaoyou didn't answer, merely wielding her scorching blade to dispatch an advancing berserk Fogman. Then with her sniper rifle, she consecutively sniped several distant figures, the powerful recoil numbing her hands and shoulders.

"Have you encountered any strange people these past few days?" she asked.

Lin Sheng fell silent, and only after a long while did he sigh and say, "If I have to say, on our way to the operation at the beginning, we encountered someone wearing a cloak who looked quite strange."

"So that's it..." Xu Xiaoyou nodded in thought.

"If my brother is indeed controlled by a Puppeteer, what are you planning to do? If you're going to kill him, I won't just stand by." Lin Sheng emphasized. "We can restrain him, wait until the Puppeteer is dealt with…"

Xu Xiaoyou also did not answer this question. Watching the girl's receding figure, Lin Sheng's brow furrowed tightly, left pondering something unknown.

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