Regarding death, Yaleriga has already considered it.
She had seen all kinds of death, from well-prepared and methodical slow death to sudden suicide in passion and despair. But more deaths are accidental and occur without warning. Like contracting an unknown disease during a long journey, or the aircraft exploding due to an accident. For a race like hers that has been in a wandering state for a long time, the ways of death that can be witnessed and understood are far beyond the imagination of people who live a settled life.
Unexpected death is certainly tragic and painful, but from the perspective of some bystanders, it is also funny, even cruelly fun. That on the one hand downplayed her conceptual horror at this inevitable outcome; but on the other hand, after seeing some tragic remains that the inexperienced would never imagine, the threat in detail became vivid and terrifying, and she had no choice but to Not thinking about how to avoid ending up in that situation. However, no matter what, death is inevitable. She was always prepared. When she was in jail, she also thought that Deborah might kill her if their stalemate lasted long enough. It would be amusing to the spectators if an evangelist was killed by her ardent admirer. She's well aware of the fetish, and some people are even willing to pay big bucks to have the whole thing videotaped.
Now she thought about it. Because after Deborah became history, she didn't think she could have a funnier way to die for a long time. And at this moment, when she truly realized that her journey was coming to an end, even herself - a part of her colder self - felt very ridiculous and amused. She was killed by a cat-man, probably no more than ten years old, on commission from some sugar smugglers.
How could she have foreseen this in the past? Just because of a misjudgment by her and Qiaoqiao Tianyi, they were unable to leave the battlefield in time. One misjudgment could kill someone, and she'd seen plenty of it in the past. She was not angry with Qiaoqiao Tianyi or Jing Huang for not killing the Huanwo people because the world was always full of unpredictable things. She herself was also at fault - she failed to stop Qiaoqiao Tianyi at the last chance, and she also did not bring enough weapons. Perhaps Jing Huang's incident disturbed her thoughts and made her forget to be as well prepared as she was when she was walking alone. But what exactly are the cat-man's eyes...
She was still conscious when she thought of this, because she had controlled herself not to look into the killer's eyes from the beginning. She only stared at the catman's claw sleeves, but she knew in her heart that she had lost. She even began to speculate whether the opponent's threat was real - it would go to Jing Huang with her head in order to disrupt the target's mind. Always start close to the target. That is a common tactic of professional killers.
Just as she expected, the catman's claws began to move upward little by little, towards the killer's face. To look or not to look, it deliberately left her with a dilemma: if she didn't keep an eye on the claw sheath, she would never be able to dodge after the bullet was fired; but if she also saw its eyes, she might have been shot when she woke up. Cut off limbs.
Yaleriga didn't take much time to make her decision. She had no choice but to try her luck to dodge the killer's bullet and then hit it with her own machete. And if any bullets hit her in the process - which is almost inevitable - she can only bet that her protective clothing and modifications are reliable enough. After the spider bomb is triggered, there won't be so much deformed metal wire stuck in her body. Maybe she will lose most of her body, or she may be as immobile as a bag hung on a barbed wire fence, but she may not die immediately, and there is still hope for her to fight back. And when she was covered in wounds and dying, her opponent must have been careless, giving her an opportunity to throw the scimitar. She only needs to let her opponent get a little bit of it... She doesn't need to think about the rest, she can leave it to Qiaoqiao Tianyi...
"Hey, cow. I know what you're thinking!" said the killer, "but you can't escape. You have to die today. If your fat legs want to compete with mine, it's still far away! As long as If you move, I will turn you into a plate of pork belly. Then I will cut you off bit by bit and eat it. This is your honor, because I, the killer, never fail!"
This was the second time Yaleriga heard this name, and her voice was still so innocent. But now, from her standpoint, this matter didn't seem so funny. She knew that cat people were born hunters, agile and cruel, but not very good at concentration and management. The Durands have put this trait to good use, making them a popular sight in Sugar Land - but that doesn't mean all Cats work for the Durands. She had heard of other wanderers outside the pack who believed in the ways of the lions. Most are of mixed race and are more difficult to deal with than those who live in groups. She has experience in fighting, but she may not be able to match Cat Man in terms of dexterity and acumen, and besides, she is still a carefully modified opponent.
She decided to give it a try. There is nothing to prepare for, everything will be decided in an instant, based on the experience, instinct and luck of both parties. Just when she had a premonition that the opponent was going to shoot at her, her shoulders and knees shifted slightly to the right, as if she was preparing to fall in that direction. But it was just a feint. She actually jumped to the left.
That doesn't mean she has reached her full potential. The injured leg hindered her movements. At the same time, she had to control her sight not to touch her opponent's eyes. The height difference between them meant that she could almost only lock her eyes on her opponent's calves and feet, relying on the dim Shadow to judge its upper body movements.
She felt the bullet pass just above her right side. The fake move worked. Then there was another one, passing over her scalp. It's just a hair away from triggering the bomb. She rolled to the ground, just seven and a half steps away from her opponent. When she was in good condition, it only took her a second to rush through.
The third bullet was fired. Yaleriga felt it land on the mud beside her legs. It wasn't very close, but it undoubtedly triggered the bomb. She seemed to catch the swishing sound of the wire as it deformed and expanded—but that was just the effect of her mind. The moment was too brief, and it was impossible for her to distinguish the sound of the wire deforming from the explosion of the bullet.
She also felt no pain. Before the sensation came to her, she caught a glimpse of her right foot from the corner of her eye. It seemed to have completely disappeared from the knee down, and what was connected to the fracture was a ferocious and strange bush of silver-white metal wires. The dense and sickly deformed metal wires bulged high from the ground, seeming to form an irregular semicircle with a diameter close to her height. When the sharp memory material hit her calves as they expanded, they didn't just go through, they shredded them entirely.
This was not the kind of spider bomb she had heard about. Yaleriga immediately realized that it would obviously have to go through a material revolution to achieve such an ideal effect. But knowing this doesn't help her now. She couldn't dodge the next bullet.
She prepares to throw the machete. She won't miss this distance. The catman will quickly dodge, missing an opportunity to shoot at her. And after that she will lose the scimitar. Her death is delayed by two to three seconds.
There is no choice. She planned to think of another countermeasure in those two or three seconds while aiming her sight at the opponent's feet - the possibility was not very high, but if she could predict the opponent's direction of action, there was a chance that the scimitar would hit the target.
She saw countless pairs of eyes as smooth as topaz.
In that brief moment like stone fire, despite all the wisdom in Yaleriga's life, she could not realize how the situation happened: the killer's ankles were also tied with scaly armor. When the killer first appeared, those dark and simple scales were like tiles that had been smoked for a long time, but at that moment they were all as bright as a mirror. In the countless broken magic mirrors, each piece reflected the face of the killer, and countless pairs of deadly magic eyes. That was the last scene that Yareliga witnessed before falling into the nebula.
