Chapter 677: twenty-four (on)

   Chapter 677 Twenty-four (Part 1)
  Water, water ghoul?
   Thales glanced at the monsters in the sewers in disbelief-they were densely packed with different shapes, and they kept making inhuman roars.
   "Human, what does your meat taste like? Is it the same as the last one?" The tumor-covered worm deliberately wandered around a few feet around him with malicious intent.
   Thales swallowed his throat.
  Why, these ghost legends of the Emerald City Pier are still true?
   Are they really cannibals?
  Since Mallos' "safety rope" just now works, can they find it here?
   Even if they are found, do they have a way to deal with this group of monsters?
   No, it’s too late to count on them, now the most important thing is…
   Thales took a deep breath, and in the increasingly strong stench of the sewer, he looked at Shi Lai at the end of his line of sight—she was still lying alone on the troll's hand, her face full of blood, and she didn't know her life or death.
   The sin of the Hell River began to burn, and the sewers were bright as day before his eyes.
"thanks."
   In the roar of the monsters, Thales clenched his teeth.
   "Why thank you? To eat you?" The insect monster giggled, and several pairs of insect limbs twitched back and forth.
   "Thank you for the art design," Thales said calmly, bending his knees slightly, "It just makes you look disgusting, at least it's not as scary as the black trail."
"what?"
   In the next second, before the insect monster could react, Thales roared angrily and rushed towards it like an arrow from the string!
   As always, a chance.
   The worm screeched, but Thales saw the opportunity and rolled over, passing by it!
  Whoa!
   Amidst the roars of the monsters, large swaths of water splashed, and Thales, who was covered in sewage, got up from the ground and moved forward without stopping!
   He rushed left and right, passed through the gap between the two rows of monsters, and continued to move forward.
   Frightened, the non-human monsters were in a commotion, their roars increasing instead of decreasing.
  The sin of the Hell River is burning more and more, and the monsters show strange colors in the senses of hell. Some places are red of flesh and blood, and some places are cold and darkHuh?
   Before Thales could think clearly, a tentacle was thrown from the side like a whip!
Snapped!
   In the nick of time, Thales flipped forward to avoid the whip, and the water splashed behind him.
   But he didn't stop, he just flew out and kicked the spherical monster that threw out its tentacles, who roared and shrank back.
  Water ghouls are not as difficult as you think, right?
   Thales' confidence increased a little, he kept his footsteps and continued to dash forward!
   "How dare he, human!"
  The angry scream of the worm monster came:
   "Catch him, eat him! Catch him, eat him!"
The sewers were filled with different roars, and another monster's forelimbs smashed down like a sickle, but the sense of made Thales see the time. Instead of retreating, he advanced in the spray, and his legs retracted, from the gap between the sickle's limbs. Slide out!
  Finally, after breaking through the sickle-limbed monster, Thales was left with only the ugly-looking monster who had captured Shi Lai, who was whimpering and seemed to turn around and run away.
   Get closer to her, get closer to her!
   Thales roared and quickened his pace!
   The next second, the ugly troll suddenly turned around, and its huge arms swept fiercely!
   Sure enough, as expected.
   The crime of Hell River crackled in his body, and Thales clenched his teeth and jumped into the air!
The    troll roared and smashed into the air, its arms scraping the sewage, causing a splash of water between two people.
   But Thales didn't stop. Under the blessing of the crime of Hell River, he swung a dagger in mid-air, pinned the monster's arm, and took advantage of the momentum to swing on its shoulders!
  If, if Yara was here, she would also praise the timing and movement of the jump, right?
   In midair, Thales couldn't help but think so.
   After all, this is the big sister of the bartender in the underground street, the most profound silhouette in his heart.
   But, what a pity…
   In the next second, Thales roared angrily and swung his elbow out in the fall, hitting the monster's forehead!
  Boom!
The ugly facial features of the    monster shrank for a moment, and a second later, it staggered down.
   Thales landed in front of it, and a roll removed the momentum.
  Very good - he took a step forward, catching the girl slipping from the troll's grasp.
   "Xilae, are you okay? Wake up!" Thales anxiously shook the motionless girl, and couldn't help reaching out to probe her breath.
   is okay, still breathing, just passed out.
   At this moment, Xilai's face was covered with blood and sewage was all over his body, and behind them, the howls of the water corpse monsters were deafening:
   "Stop him!"
   Right at this moment, Thales felt a shock around him—the fallen troll started to move.
  Damn, I knew that the legendary water ghouls were not so easy to kill.
   Thales didn't care too much, he supported Xi Lai with one hand and let her lean on his shoulder, while the other hand held the JC dagger and aimed at the troll's neck.
   But just then, a gloved hand grabbed his wrist.
   "H-Wyana?"
   Thales was both surprised and delighted, but as soon as he lowered his head, Shi Lai, who was awake in his arms, couldn't help but snort and sprayed his face with sewage!
   Damn.
   Thales had to raise his sleeves to wipe his eyes, but Hillary broke free from his embrace, knelt in the water and coughed desperately, coughing up a lot of sewage.
   "Listen to me, we can't stop, there are still a lot of water ghouls that ghosts know what they are..."
   While speaking, the troll beside him sat up and shook his head.
   Thales' expression froze, and he was about to run away with Shi Lai, but Shi Lai pushed him away rudely.
   "No, wait." Shiley said weakly.
"what why?"
   Thales was stunned, but the monster slowly woke up, it raised its huge arm leisurely and shrouded them!
Hold!
   Thales subconsciously took Xilai's hand, dragged her behind him, and raised a dagger at the monster.
   But at this moment, Shi Lai suddenly raised her head.
"Do not!"
   Sheila was covered in dirt, and the blood on her face was terrifying, but she grabbed Thales' arm, looked at the ugly troll tremblingly, and tried her best to make a sound:
   "Bobo, no!"
   At that moment, the monster's arm stopped in mid-air.
What?
what happened?
   Thales stood in front of Shi Lai and looked at the monster nervously.
   I saw the monster in front of him tilted his head and approached them, his tiny eyes blinking on his ugly face.
   "Woooo?"
The    monster muttered something Thales couldn't understand.
   "Yes, Bobo," Sheila coughed again, gasping for breath, "I'm fine, I'm fine."
   "Woooo!"
   The next second, the monster put down its huge arm and stepped on its feet happily.
   "You, do you know this thing?" Thales frowned, but did not dare to put down the dagger.
   "He's not a 'thing', put down his weapon." Shi Lai exhaled and shook for a while, Thales quickly grabbed her.
   right now.
"big guy!"
  The sharp male voice of the bug monster rang out, and it brought a large group of monsters to kill from behind: "Kill him, eat him!"
   Before Thales could frown, Sheila sighed. She leaned half of her body on Thales' arm and staggered around to the troll:
   "And you, Woniak!"
   she shouted hoarsely:
   "Wrong person!"
  Xile's female voice was particularly clear in the roar of monsters in the sewer, and for a while, the noises from the monsters became less.
   "Stop, stop, everyone stop!"
   The half-human, half-worm monster shouted loudly to let its fellows get out of the way, and it appeared in front of them with the sound of water.
   The situation was unknown, and Thales nervously protected the girl behind him.
  Shoo!
   A torch was lit, which made Thales squinted quickly.
"twenty four?"
   Under the light of the fire, the insect monster's face was still full of ugly and disgusting tumors, but its voice was full of doubts:
   "You, are you okay?"
   "Isn't that true?" Shi Lai said angrily, wiping the blood from her face, "Is that how you welcome me?"
  What's going on here?
twenty four?
   Thales looked at Shi Lai and then at the bug monster, at a loss.
The worm named Woniak held up the torch and looked at Thales warily, and finally, under the stern gaze of Hille, it sighed and began to "molt" reluctantly - to be precise, It is to take off the holster full of carapace, spikes and insect limbs, revealing the body of a normal person.
   Thales opened his mouth wide.
  Behind him, the troll who had just received Thales' elbow shook his hands and pulled his arms out of a pair of fake giant arms, but his face was still twisted and crooked - it was probably natural.
More and more torches were lit to illuminate the sewers: the monsters behind Woniak also began to "molt" in the commotion. They took off different monster masks and hoods, removed their skins, and threw away their prosthetic limbs. , revealing a figure.
   Thales suddenly realized: So it is, what the senses in just saw were actually flesh and blood people wrapped in skins.
   Fuck the water ghouls.
   "Hey," Thales breathed out helplessly and put down his dagger, "After a long time, it turned out to be scary."
  Fortunately, he thought that his martial arts had improved, and he was able to move and jump in the dangerous sewers full of water ghouls, killing seven in and seven out—huh?
   Thales blinked in amazement and watched Woniak remove the monster's skin to reveal his true body:
He doesn't look very old, but the tumor on his right shoulder is as big as two or three heads, like a ball stuffed in his body, not only squeezing his figure into a crooked and bulging, He even arched his head to the left side, and raised his right shoulder and right arm by a foot. The whole person walked up and down, uncoordinated and irregular, and what was worse, the pus-filled tumor extended to Warney. Jake's face made half of his face look swollen.
   To tell the truth, it is even more impressive than the image of the half-human half-worm...
   Thales subconsciously frowned.
   The strangely shaped Woniak seemed extremely sensitive. He noticed that Thales was staring at him, and suddenly cast his eyes:
   "What? Haven't seen a monster?"
   Woniak said viciously. When he spoke, his shoulders went up and down, and the big dazzling tumor around his neck twitched up and down, making people uncomfortable.
   Thales showed an embarrassed smile, and he whispered to Hillary, "What is this..."
   "Ah, so it's your little scourge, twenty-four!"
   Before Thales could finish speaking, a short figure struggled to drag a bunch of floppy leather covers and waded to them.
   Thales had to look down to see this figure clearly - this is a man with short arms and legs, only three feet tall at most, but his head is unusually large, his face is full of forty years old, is he, um, a dwarf?
   "Why are you back! The party day hasn't come yet!"
  The surprisingly short man raised his head, revealing a face that had been through vicissitudes of life.
   "Uncle Hauser," Hillary said weakly, "Isn't you happy that I should come back early?"
   On one side, Woniak snorted, and the tumors on his face and shoulders trembled.
   The little Uncle Hauser stood on tiptoe, squinted at Shi Lai, and then at Thales, and then he snorted, turned around and walked back, waving his short hand:
   "Go back and go back, it's not an invasion, it's your own people who came back, scattered and scattered, don't eat?"
   There was a large sigh of relief from the sewer, and the people who took off their holsters turned their heads and walked away whispering.
   Uncle Hauser patted the ugly "troll" with surprisingly small eyes, and kicked him up:
   "Yes, Bobo, you also go back, go back, go back to eat, nothing to do with you, yes, you stupid big man..."
   "Woooooo!"
   "Okay okay, you cute big guy..."
   "Woooo!"
   Thales looked at the "monsters" who were dragging their holsters back in amazement: some of them were ugly, some lacked arms and legs, and some had strange shapes...
This is……
   "By the way, what about Slimani?"
   Xilai reacted and asked quickly:
   "Woniak, what about the man who came down with us?"
  Woniak leaned over, shrugged the only left shoulder that could move freely, raised the torch to let out the space:
  Behind him, Slimani lay upright under the corner of the wall, his eyes were closed, and he fainted from fright.
  
   A few minutes later, Thales and Shilay sat around the fire and sat beside a large long-abandoned cistern. The sewage flowed quietly in the low ground a few meters away from them, and the wellhead above their heads cast a few beams of light.
"what can I do?"
  Woniak sat across from them, waving his hands, the tumor on his shoulders looked like another head:
"The emergency exit suddenly opened, you were brought back by Bobo, your face was covered in blood and unconscious, and then two people came, the second one was still holding a weapon, and everyone was chased after you caused trouble outside. Kill...you say, twenty-four, what can I do?"
   "Maybe you can be friendly instead of just starting to be scary."
  Sheila changed into a slightly cleaner set of clothes, with a bandage on her head. She held up a container that was more like a tin box than a cup, and drank the strange-smelling potion inside:
   "I haven't been back for a long time. I stepped in the air when I turned, and hit my head and fainted. Hiss, it hurts!"
   Sheila touched the wound on her head with a pained expression.
   Thales sat beside her, frowning at the potion in his "cup".
   "Hey, you came up with the idea of ​​scaring people away!" Woniak protested.
   Thales looked around nervously:
   This is a long-abandoned sewer, with poor conditions, but not a small area. There are various, various, uh...
"The phantom in the teacup today showed 'return', and I knew something was going to happen, haha," on the other side, a small dwarf woman scooped a spoonful of the unpleasant potion from a tattered bucket and walked towards the shrinking In the corner, Slimani woke up even more terrified, "Continue drinking unless you want to get sick or die from infection! You know, those just now were sewage from the sewer!"
   "Thank you, Madam Gadama."
   Xilai sighed and drank the unpleasant potion without hesitation.
"Anyway, Twenty-Four is back. This is the best thing. Just in time, let's have lunch with us!" Beside the fire, a girl who was stirring the pot took over the conversation. Her voice was sweet and clear, with a long Black and shiny.
   "Thank you, Dorothy, I can't wait." Sheila smiled back, her voice extraordinarily gentle.
   Thales couldn't help but glance at Shi Lai, this was the first time he had heard the other party speak with such a good attitude.
   But don't know why, the other girl named Dorothy kept holding the back of their head at them - Huh?
   Thales was surprised, only to find out:
   This girl's face is covered with dense hairs from the forehead to the eye area, from the nose to the chin.
   So from a distance, it looks like the back of the head.
   Dorothy felt that Thales was staring at her, and she trembled suddenly, she covered her face and turned her head to avoid his sight.
   "Hey, where are you looking!" Woniak on the side said angrily, and Thales quickly lowered his head.
   "It's okay, Dorothy, he's my friend," Hillary comforted Dorothy while looking at Thales reproachfully, "He's ignorant."
"friend?"
  Woniak was angry and hostile to Thales: "We have no friends!"
   "Oh, don't be stupid, you little bulge," Madam Gadama put down a spoon that was taller than her and turned around, "Of course you have friends, they are all over the tunnel!"
   "Woooo!" Bobo, who was further out, was a giant with a strange face, a rare appearance, but a child's intelligence - nodding his head.
   The entire tunnel.
   Thales turned his head: In this abandoned sewer, there are some people living in every corner and cave, um, "peculiar" people. Now that it was time for dinner, they were busy back and forth, shadowing each other in the firelight.
"Not the same! You, me, twenty-four, Dorothy, Bobo, and Uncle Hauser, we are all the same, we belong here," Woniak pointed at Thales angrily, "but he, he Not one of us!"
  One of our...
   Thales frowned.
   "Oh, of course he's one of us! Look if you don't believe me."
  Xile raised his head, turned around and hit Thales on the back of the head.
   "Ow!"
   Thales hissed: "What are you doing?"
   But instead of stopping, Xilei hit him several times in a row.
   "Ow! Ah! Ouch!"
   Thales couldn't bear it anymore, he moved three steps away, turned his head to cover his head, and stared angrily at Hillary.
   "See?"
   Sheila looked at Woniak and Dorothy and shrugged:
   "This is Wyah, he broke his head when he was a child, he is a brain wreck."
   Everyone was taken aback for a moment, and after a few seconds, Woniak turned his head angrily, and Dorothy giggled.
   "I'm so happy for you, Xiao Liu!"
   Madam Gadama waved her spoon and laughed:
   "You finally have a boyfriend!"
   "Woooo!"
  The peculiar tunnel dwellers by the fire were booing back and forth, but Woniak was still not reconciled.
   Facing their eyes, Thales was extremely embarrassed.
   "He's not my boyfriend." Sheila said listlessly.
   "Really? But the way he just saved you is so handsome!" Aunt Gadama blinked.
   "Yes, that's what the storybooks say!" Dorothy continued.
   "What about him?"
  Uncle Hauser emerged from another hole with a pile of goods. He came to a table that was clearly a workbench, stood on the ottoman, and gestured to Slimani, who was hiding in the corner with a forced smile.
   "Okay, he's a passenger, from up there," Shiley sighed, "Fugitive."
The voice of    fell, and Thales felt that the eyes of everyone looking at Slimani immediately became vigilant, full of rejection and hostility.
   At this moment, he suddenly realized that the few blows he received on the back of the head just now, it was Cile who guaranteed him.
   "Well, Slimani is an advocate."
  Sheila said:
   "He has money."
  Slimani looked at so many strange eyes and had to smile in fear and nervousness.
   "Two coppers an hour, 20 for the night, and extra charges if you include meals," Wonjak said, "Don't look at it, you're not the first person to flee here!"
  Slimani was stunned for a moment, until Bobo next to him snorted angrily:
   "Woo!"
  Slimani then reacted and quickly said, "Okay, okay, I'll give it, I'll give it, damn..."
   But his act of taking out the money stopped.
   "Uh, I, I, all my money..." Srimani pointed to the top of his head awkwardly.
  Under the unkind gazes of the residents, Thales sighed, took out Wyya—True Wyre—the purse given to him, pulled out a handful of coins, and handed it to Woniak.
   Everyone's gazes subsided, and Dorothy and Aunt Gadama began to share bowls of food—even if it was just plain oatmeal and stew.
   "Thank you, thank you, this is a sewer? What the is this place? Also, who are you guys?"
   Srimani is no longer as nervous as he used to be, but maybe because of the circumstances, maybe because the environment is too dirty, he is still very uncomfortable.
"This place is our home," Mrs. Gadama dragged the pot, put a spoonful of porridge into his broken bowl, and then ripped it in the pot a few times, carefully putting the next spoonful into Shirai "It's really not good, you understand it as: our gang,"
   "The Overlord Gang!" Woniak held the bowl, extremely proud.
   "The Sewer Gang!" Uncle Hauser, who was picking out used goods, sarcastically said.
   "The Brutal Gang!" Woniak said in disbelief.
   "The scary gang!" Aunt Gadama laughed.
   "Super Horror Gang?" Woniak hesitated and made another suggestion.
   "Woooo!" Bobo on the other side responded.
   "Underground Monster Gang!" Woniak wanted to struggle again.
   "Helping others to help!" Dorothy, who had long hair and a face, said softly.
   "Okay," Woniak sighed and gave up arguing. He touched the tumor on his shoulder, "After arguing for more than ten years, we still haven't reached an agreement on the gang name."
   "You're the only one arguing," Uncle Hauser struggled to open an old, broken umbrella and began to remove the ribs. "In the tunnel, everyone is busy with their lives, and no one cares about this."
   "Of course we care!" Wonjaka argued, "How did the Blood Bottle Gang and the Brotherhood come to be known? Yes, starting with a majestic name!"
   Thales was silent, watching their bickering back and forth, but felt a familiar feeling.
   As if he had returned to the sixth house of beggars.
  Perhaps there are dangers everywhere outside the house, but as long as you enter the house and hide in your own nest...
   "So, the legend of the water ghouls in the Emerald City is you?" Thales said suddenly.
   "It's the other way around," Uncle Hauser shook his head. "We used the legend of water ghouls to scare away irrelevant outsiders and stay away from danger—Twenty-Four's idea."
   Thales leaned close to Hillary's ear and whispered, "Why did they call you twenty-four?"
   Xilai's eyes lit up, raised his left hand, and the six fingers on it bounced back and forth.
   "Oh." Thales suddenly realized.
   But the next moment he realized: Somehow, Hillary took off his gloves.
Miss Kevin Deere was just like that, with her twelve fingers lit, holding her broken bowl, sitting with a relaxed attitude and an air of ease, sitting in the dirty and smelly abandoned sewers, around the fire, and talking to Dorothy. West, with Woniak, with Bobo and the others, making noises and jokes.
   There is no splendor, no splendid clothes and jade food, and no attention from people.
But she, Hilla Calvindier, or, twenty-four, sat on them—big men with odd faces and intellectual disabilities, young men with tumors, dwarf couples, hairy girls, and maybe More - in the middle, but smiling so happily.
   So comfortable.
   It seems that this is her home, her fortress, her empty palace.
   At that moment, the mutilated faces and bodies of the people in front of him suddenly became much more pleasing to the eye.
   Thales suddenly understood how Shi Lai had something to do with this place.
   In contrast, does he, Thales Jinxing have such a place?
  Mindis Hall?
  Xinghu Fort?
  Thiers thought so, and gradually became fascinated.
   (end of this chapter)