Chapter 126 Black Cat

If Abel's fighting ability is comparable to that of Hawthorne and others, then Stoke's strength is overwhelmingly superior to most of the group's members.

The shadows surrounding Stoke seemed to stretch endlessly, appearing as mere formless and intangible shadows. Yet, these shadows sliced ​​through steel with effortless ease.

Then, the matter shrouded in more shadows vanished as if it had suddenly transformed from a three-dimensional object into a two-dimensional plane. Whether it was Hawthorne's scarlet letter or Mark Twain's bullets, they were all swallowed up by the "shadows" surrounding Stoker and disappeared into thin air when they approached him.

Meanwhile, Abel, who was also within the Stoke defense perimeter, raised his shotgun and began firing outwards.

There's a reason why Stoke and Abel were paired together. Stoke's "Dracula" has powerful close-range combat capabilities, while Abel's "Magic Bullet Shooter" has powerful long-range firepower, and "Seventh Magic Bullet" can also deal with some special ability users who are difficult to deal with.

When the two of them act together, they are like a heavy tank with suppressive firepower.

This is the same principle as with tanks. When facing a 50-ton iron box supported by pure steel, with a tracked design, and topped with a huge turret and several machine gun barrels, there is no such thing as a "weak point" that would allow an infantryman to defeat a tank with just a machine gun.

More often than not, they can only rely on equal or even stronger firepower.

However... the current combination is just a little lacking in direct combat capability.

Hawthorne's face was already so pale that he was close to the danger zone. He had just used "Scarlet Letter" to fight against Webber's "Magic Shotgun" and had used up too much of his blood. If this continued, he would go into shock due to excessive blood loss.

Mark Twain's bullets were known for their accuracy and tricky angles, making them well-suited for long-range fire suppression and assassinations. Now, his main role is harassment.

Both of them relied on the high degree of control over their special abilities to find an opportunity to bypass Stoke's defenses and launch an attack; they were members who acted opportunistically.

Mitchell and Steinbeck, who arrived later, were... well, opportunists.

Mitchell was using weathered objects as bullets in his attacks. However, his main purpose was to obstruct the enemy's view and disrupt the battlefield.

And Steinbeck... there were no plants on the beluga whale, he was also desperate.

The "crazy grape," which grows stronger by constantly relying on other plants to absorb nutrients, is weak here, and that's really not its fault.

The group's members' special abilities are largely of the "useful" type rather than solely based on combat strength (since heavy firepower can compensate for this). Therefore, compared to the combat specialists under the Smile Company, their power is exactly one step behind.

If Montgomery could still use her powers, we could try to see if Stock and Waver could defeat Anne. However, for now, she's still in the state of a young girl affected by Vladimir's powers. So, although it's a pity, this assumption is invalid.

However, as the group's headquarters, they couldn't really let the two of them cause trouble at will.

Since we can't defeat tanks head-on with firepower, we'll have to use landmines.

Then, just as Stock and Abel were happily suppressing the combined superhumans with firepower while steadily advancing, Mark Twain shouted from behind them: "Watch me!"

Their first thought was that Mark Twain had brought some heavy weaponry.

Thinking this, Stock and Abel heard the sound and instinctively turned their heads at the same time—

Then I saw a screen that covered an entire wall, with a lot of things written in English on it.

As if afraid they wouldn't see it, the text on the screen was all in bold and large font.

Stoker had barely caught two or three paragraphs and could barely make out that it was something like a mystery novel when he felt a terrifying suction force coming from the screen.

—"The Black Cat of Morgue Street"!

Realizing what was happening, Stoker instinctively grabbed Abel, who was also looking at the novel, and his shadow split into eight or nine hooks to cling to the surrounding walls and the ground in an attempt to hold himself in place.

But it was no use. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat of Morgue" didn't drag people in by force, but rather absorbed them through a process similar to "transformation." And without a point of leverage, even if Stoker had immense strength, he couldn't keep himself in place.

And so, despite their slight struggles, which proved futile, Stoker and Webber were sucked into the fictional world created by "The Black Cat of Morgue Street".

Just moments after the two were sucked in, Steinbeck's grapevine (who has no eyes and cannot see the novel) rushed up and smashed the screen to pieces.

Still not reassured, Hawthorne pulled out a flamethrower from somewhere and, completely disregarding the dangers of fire in an enclosed room, burned the display screen into a pile of unrecognizable junk.

Edgar Allan Poe, who had been crouching at a distance waiting to use his supernatural abilities, slowly approached: "I feel that this is completely contrary to my aesthetics of reasoning."

“But you have to admit it works very well.” Hawthorne tossed the flamethrower aside, ignoring Edgar Allan Poe’s incessant muttering complaints, and looked at Steinbeck. “You came here alone?”

Steinbeck, tending to the wound on his neck from planting grapevines, replied, "Yes, Lovecraft and the leader went to intercept other enemies."

Mitchell paused in his act of adjusting his clothes: "There are other enemies?"

“Yes…” Steinbeck stopped the bleeding from his wound and subconsciously looked in the direction beyond the white whale. “However, those are opponents that we can’t intercept.”