It had been a long, long time since Li Jiayu engaged in close-quarters combat!
Ever since mastering summoning arts, Li Jiayu usually controlled his summoned beasts, letting them charge into the fray for him. Sometimes, when the enemy was particularly tricky, Li Jiayu would at most harass them with spells. At his level, physical combat was basically useless in battles.
Now, the reborn Li Jiayu was no longer that summoner who could command wind and rain; he was merely an ordinary student. Facing the ferocious and terrifying insects, all he could rely on was the fire axe in his hand!
For this battle, Li Jiayu only had a seventy percent certainty of winning!
If he won, Li Jiayu would obtain his first protective talisman...
But if he lost... then the entire class would be buried alongside him!
"Hah!"
The pupils in Li Jiayu's eyes instantly shrank to the size of pinpoints. That heart, usually capable of remaining calm in almost any situation, was completely shattered in an instant. Eye and hand, perfectly coordinated, executed in one fluid motion, swung out a perfect axe blow!
"Clang!"
A piercing sound of metal colliding. Li Jiayu felt immense pain shoot through the hands gripping the fire axe. The webbing between his thumbs and index fingers went numb, and his wrists were nearly dislocated by the shock!
But fortunately, in his first clash with the Scythe Beetle, Li Jiayu only suffered minor injuries. The Scythe Beetle's blade-like "scythes" whistled past his face in mid-air, leaving a faint bloody scratch on his fair skin!
And Li Jiayu's axe strike, swung backhanded in the instant he dodged sideways, actually easily cleaved through the black carapace under the immense impact force—
Chopped through the thick insect flesh—
Severed the hard exoskeleton, decisively slicing off a small half of the Scythe Beetle's body!
Three black insect legs, along with some green insect blood and a small piece of wing, were thus separated from the insect's body!
A small half of its body! What a horrific wound that must be! Even for an insect like the Scythe Beetle with dull pain receptors, it was agonizing!
"Screech!"
In just an instant, the Scythe Beetle let out an extremely shrill, mournful cry. Then, as it passed Li Jiayu, its mangled body lost balance and went crashing away!
However, the Scythe Beetle's off-balance body crashed towards a desk, and under that desk, a student was hiding!
"Ah!"
A miserable scream!
The Scythe Beetle's body ultimately slammed into the desk. Its sharp scythe-like mandibles easily pierced the desk's wooden surface, then got stuck in the thin layer of steel underneath!
Luckily, the Scythe Beetle couldn't break through the steel, otherwise, that student would have undoubtedly died. But the insect's tremendous impact still sent the student flying, landing dazed and confused—while the Scythe Beetle also fell to the ground, twitching its broken wings and remaining three legs in a death struggle, its mandibles snapping "Clack! Clack! Clack!", trying to clamp down on the several students nearby!
At this moment, everyone reacted. The closest person to the Scythe Beetle was Sun Weiwei!
It was unknown if Sun Weiwei had eaten dynamite, but her face flushed red, and she reflexively lunged at the insect from behind, smashing her hammer onto its hind leg joint. The insect paused, then furiously swung its remaining three legs around, turning incredibly fast. In less than a second, it aimed its scythes at Sun Weiwei, but Lin Zhibin and another male student had already hoisted two desks and slammed them hard onto the Scythe Beetle's left side—right onto the massive wound Li Jiayu had inflicted!
"Screee!"
The Scythe Beetle was smashed two meters away. Green blood spurted from the wound on its left side, hit by the desks. The intense pain made it feel fear. It desperately flapped its wings, wanting to fly up and escape this place!
But it was too late!
It was no longer the hunter. The tables had turned. In this situation, it had become Li Jiayu's prey!
"Trying to escape?" At this moment, Li Jiayu had already recovered from the discomfort of the earlier impact. He raised his axe and charged like a fierce tiger, aiming a fatal blow at the pale white belly of the Scythe Beetle, which had already flown halfway into the air!
Close combat, fighting in the most barbaric, most violent way, truly made one's blood boil with passion. Li Jiayu felt a battle intent burning ever stronger in his chest. That mountain-splitting axe blow concentrated all his strength, seeming to erupt with incredible power!
"Shllick!"
With a sound like tearing cloth, the Scythe Beetle's relatively fragile belly was actually split open by the axe, creating a gash nearly a meter long and twenty centimeters deep!
This wound was even more terrifying than the one that had lopped off half its body earlier. The Scythe Beetle's entire chest and abdomen were completely destroyed; countless internal organs inside suffered fatal damage!
The Scythe Beetle, which had already flown into mid-air, immediately plummeted like a truck falling off a cliff. Li Jiayu pressed his advantage, rushing forward in large strides, and struck again with the axe!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
In one fluid motion, he continuously chopped at the Scythe Beetle's head and eyes over a dozen times, putting his full strength into each blow. He hacked until the Scythe Beetle's head was twisted and deformed, its scarlet compound eyes completely burst, oozing thick green fluid!
"Li Jiayu... Jiayu... is, is it dead?"
A girl, watching the cold, ruthless, and decisive Li Jiayu, felt he resembled those assassins from movies who killed without batting an eye – striking when needed, killing when necessary. The way he swung the axe was truly imposing.
If it were normal times... she would definitely think Li Jiayu was a madman. But at this moment, with the apocalypse descending, facing the ferocious and terrifying insects, she felt Li Jiayu had the air of a master.
So handsome...
Why didn't I notice before how handsome he was...
Oh god, I'm actually swooning... What time is it for this? Why am I still focused on looking at a handsome guy? I'm hopeless. Oh no, Li Jiayu saw me wet my pants earlier, he'll definitely think I'm a pervert...
Li Jiayu naturally didn't know that some infatuated girl in the class was already looking at him in a "new light." It didn't really matter anyway; even if he knew, it wouldn't change anything. Li Jiayu wasn't some gallant protector of damsels. He couldn't possibly make a gesture just because some lovestruck girl liked him for a moment, right?
"Mm... huff huff, finally killed it. That was really touch-and-go. If you guys hadn't helped stall it, although I could have defeated it, it would have at least killed two more classmates before dying..."
Li Jiayu wiped away some sweat and smiled at the surrounding students.
"Really? Did we really kill such a terrifying insect..."
"It feels like a dream..."
"Li Jiayu... you're amazing. How on earth did you do that?"
"Terrifyingly calm, more efficient than gangsters or soldiers. If it were me, forget about heavily injuring the insect from the start; I would have been dismembered by its scythes in the first round!"
The classmates were stunned for a moment, but soon broke into tears of joy. Although they knew greater dangers still awaited, defeating the Scythe Beetle gave them hope and showed them Li Jiayu's combat prowess. A sliver of hope rose in their desperate hearts.
Hope, often, only needs a tiny sliver to move people to tears.
"Yeah... Li Jiayu, you really... surprised me greatly. How did you become so strong? I really don't know how to express my excitement. Such a scary thing, killed so easily by you... Are you really the reincarnation of some great god?"
Everyone looked at Li Jiayu with fervent gazes, filled with varying degrees of surprise, conviction, and a hint of admiration. If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they truly wouldn't believe that the former sissy was actually so capable!
"No, I'm just an ordinary person. If you guys were a bit calmer, you wouldn't be much worse than me."
Li Jiayu replied faintly, then looked down at the still faintly trembling Scythe Beetle at his feet. He abruptly stomped on its already cracked head, grinding its ruined eye, and said:
"Alright, my protective talisman... finally obtained. Next is a big gamble... my offering. If I can summon a good summoned beast, then I will thank the Goddess of Luck, although she's never been on the same boat as me..."