Chapter 155: Bloodsucking Monster: The Beautiful Monster

Chapter 155: The Bloodsucking Monster: The Beautiful Monster

"Ow!" With its tongue snapped off, the monster let out a deep, hoarse cry from its throat, like a wolf's howl.

That cry was very familiar to Everly—it was the same howl that had startled her from sleep last night. Similar to a wolf's howl, but rougher and more muffled, it felt inexplicably unsettling.

This made Everly realize that the one who had cried out last night was likely not the lanky monster, but the Chupacabra.

Though she had only caught a fleeting glimpse, the lanky monster and the Chupacabra were vastly different in form—they could not possibly be the same creature. Did this mean there were actually two kinds of monsters roaming around Craven, and that last night, the two had been close enough to have come into contact?

What kind of relationship did they have, then? If they were working together, that would be bad news...

Everly pushed down the unease she felt and continued observing the scene.

After that pained howl, the Chupacabra quickly retracted its severed tongue. Its blood-red eyes swiveled, it flexed its claws and turned, its cold stare fixed on Quila, who stood nearby.

"It's all because of you that the Sacred Tree's wounds won't heal! Go to hell, you monster!"

Quila showed no fear under the monster's gaze. She worked the rifle with practiced ease, ejecting the spent round with a click, and fired another round right at the monster's head.

"Ow!" The monster roared and dropped low. It lunged, its powerful legs shoving off the ground—not only dodging Quila's bullet but closing the distance in an instant. Its front claws spread wide, its razor-sharp claws aimed straight for the girl's face.

Not good!

Seeing the Chupacabra about to hit Quila, Everly couldn't just stand there. She raised her pistol and fired at the monster's claws.

"Bang!"

The pistol packed less punch than the rifle, and the monster's skin was, for some reason, as tough as body armor. The bullet only grazed off a layer of skin.

Fortunately, the brief stagger from the bullet hitting its claws gave Quila just enough time to scramble back, escaping the monster's clutches.

"Bang!"

Once she regained her footing, Quila took the chance and fired again.

This one hit the monster square in the chest, but its hide was too tough. Even a rifle round could barely punch through its hardened hide, leaving just a small bloody crater in its chest.

"Ow!"

Though the wound was small, the monster was clearly pissed off.

It didn't stick around on the ground. Its bat-like wings snapped open with a whoosh, and its towering body lifted off like a ghost in the night, climbing high into the night sky.

The only light in the woods came from the fire basins, and they only cast light so far. Once the monster got some distance off the ground, everyone could barely make out a blurry shape in the moonlight.

Just then, a cold wind picked up, and a bank of clouds swallowed the moon. The sky went dark in an instant.

Meanwhile, where no one could see, the monster overhead reached its peak, flipped over in midair—head down, legs up—tucked its wings and wrapped its tail around its ankles, spun like a drill as it dove straight at Quila below—

"Whoosh, whoosh!"

By the time Quila heard the wind above her and looked up, the monster was already right on top of her.

The force of that high-speed dive was enormous. Even as Everly raised her pistol and fired shot after shot, she couldn't knock it off course by even an inch. Just as the monster's outstretched claws were about to pierce Quila's forehead, Everly held her breath, feeling time stretch out forever in that moment...

In that slowed moment, from a corner no one was watching, a dark shape burst out of nowhere. A split second before the monster could hit Quila, the shadow slammed into it, sending it crashing into a nearby tree trunk.

"Bang!"

The resounding impact echoed, and time instantly resumed its normal flow. Everly watched the two shadows tumbling and grappling on the ground, joy rising in her heart—the second monster had appeared, and it was not an ally of the Chupacabra, but its adversary!

"Sacred Tree!"

"Thank goodness, it's the Sacred Tree—we're saved!"

The surrounding Native Americans, upon seeing the lanky monster, broke into relieved smiles. Some even fell to their knees, prostrating themselves in worship.

At this point, everything became clear: the monster that had been attacking the farms around Craven was always the Chupacabra—the long-tongued beast. And the one secretly opposing it, protecting the Native American farm from its clutches, was this lanky monster that had just burst forth—the Sacred Tree of the Native Americans.

Last night, the Chupacabra must have threatened the Dakota farm. To protect his people's land, the Sacred Tree had appeared on its own to fight the Chupacabra. When Everly had walked to the window, the Chupacabra had already been driven off, and she had only caught sight of the Sacred Tree, mistaking it for the bloodsucking monster.

This also explained the strange behavior of Karl's family during the day: without a doubt, the Winton people did not want outsiders to know about their Sacred Tree. Even Everly and her companions, who were guests, were ultimately not of their tribe, and there would always be a divide...

Having pieced it all together, Everly looked at the two monsters again and finally understood why the lanky monster was so "beautiful" compared to the Chupacabra.

Yes, beautiful—under the firelight, the lanky monster had a slender, almost human silhouette. Its skin was pale gray, covered in mottled, cracked textures like wood. When it clung to the banyan tree, it blended seamlessly with the trunk.

Like a human, the lanky monster had a nose, a mouth, and a cascade of hair-like tendrils falling softly like branches. The only difference was at its eyes. There, encircling its head, grew a ring of fan-shaped growths resembling ganoderma mushroom caps—layered, golden in hue, varying in intensity, shaped like petals or an irregular crown. This made the monster's elongated, flattened head not ugly, but rather possessed of an otherworldly beauty.

Such a design was rare. After all, most horror movie monsters were grotesque—bizarre, disgusting, and ugly, designed to be as sensational as possible, ensuring audiences felt fear and revulsion at first sight.

Designing a monster with "beauty" in mind generally meant one of two possibilities:

The first possibility: the director used the monster's "beauty" to lure humans into letting down their guard, only to betray them later, highlighting the monster's cold-blooded, cunning, and evil nature. Classic examples include Sil and Eve from *Species*, and the experimental subject Dren from *Splice*.

The second possibility: similar to how characters in xianxia dramas get smoky-eye makeup when they turn evil, the director made the monster attractive to hint that it was friendly to humans, belonging to the "good camp"—or at least benevolent toward humans, not prone to attacking them. Examples include Mothra from the *Godzilla* series—and if *Kong: Skull Island* counts as a horror film, then the beautiful moss-covered water buffalo and Kong himself would qualify too.

The lanky monster was the Native Americans' Sacred Tree, a guardian of the Winton people—clearly falling into the second category.

However, it was the Native Americans' guardian deity, not the white people's. Unsure how the lanky monster would treat white people who had discovered it, Everly remained cautious and did not move.

She crouched in the underbrush, watching unblinkingly as the two monsters continued their fight.

In terms of raw strength, the lanky monster clearly had the upper hand.

Its forelimbs looked slender, but with a slight exertion of force, it could pin the Chupacabra firmly against the banyan roots. Its other forelimb formed a blade with its fingers and stabbed viciously at the monster's chest.

The hardened hide that even bullets couldn't penetrate was as fragile as paper before the lanky monster's branch-like, uneven "fingers," which pierced through with ease.

Due to her angle, Everly could see more clearly than those by the altar.

She saw fine, root-like fibers growing from the lanky monster's fingertips, burrowing deep into the Chupacabra's chest like worms, drilling one tiny hole after another through its tough skin. It was through these holes that the lanky monster's forelimbs effortlessly invaded the Chupacabra's body, drawing energy from it like absorbing nutrients.

"Ow! Ow ow!"

The Chupacabra naturally wouldn't take this lying down. It thrashed like a large moth stuck to a flytrap, desperately flapping its membranous wings and whipping its lizard-like tail across the ground, trying to break free and counterattack.

At first, the resistance was like a child fighting an adult—seemingly fierce, but ultimately futile.

However, when the Chupacabra's flailing claws accidentally raked across the lanky monster's right flank, a sharp "crack" sounded. The bark-like plates on the lanky monster's body suddenly split, shedding large amounts of metallic-lustered yellow fragments.

A greenish liquid, presumably blood, seeped out. The lanky monster threw its head back, opened its mouth, and let out a long, shrill whistle like a bird's call.

The lanky monster had a wound!

Perhaps due to the pain, its overwhelming pressure momentarily relaxed the instant the old injury was struck. The Chupacabra clearly had some intelligence. Seeing this, it let out an excited hiss, curved its claws like blades, and struck again at the lanky monster's flank.

The lanky monster immediately folded its slender limbs, like a giant gray spider, clinging to the trunk of the banyan tree and nimbly dodging to the side.

—No, don't take the bait!

Everly opened her mouth to warn him, but the cunning Chupacabra moved swiftly. Seizing the moment while the lanky monster dodged, it flapped its leathery wings, stomped its thick hind legs hard on the ground, and in an instant fled from the banyan roots, rising into the air.

Everly watched, growing more anxious by the second.

Regardless of how the lanky monster felt about white people, the Chupacabra was a vicious beast—that was beyond doubt. It had attacked a white man the moment it appeared before everyone, and now it harbored a grudge against Quila. Letting such a creature roam free would only make it a bigger threat over time.

Rebecca's monster encyclopedia didn't say how to deal with a Chupacabra, supposedly because the creature was so elusive that no one had ever managed to capture one alive.

So Everly could only grip her pistol and provide cover fire from a distance, hoping that physical means might eliminate the beast.

"Bang! Bang bang!"

Worried the monster might track the gunfire back to her, Everly kept shifting her position as she fired.

Though the Native Americans down in the valley couldn't see where the shooter was, with Everly setting the example, they all snapped into action, grabbing the guns the masked man had dropped and opening fire on the Chupacabra with shouts and yells.

"Attack it, protect the Sacred Tree!"

"It hurt the Sacred Tree—it must pay!"

As the saying goes, many ants can bring down an elephant. Even with the Chupacabra's thick hide, eating a dozen bullets in a row still hurt.

Just as it grew furious, flapped its wings, and turned to dive at the gun-toting ants on the ground, a sharp whistle rang out again. The lanky monster had recovered, using its camouflage, which matched the giant banyan, to creep silently to the top of the canopy, then leaped, striking the long-tongued beast once more.

The charging Chupacabra, caught off guard by the pounce, slammed to the ground like a lead weight.

The two monsters then tumbled across the clearing, trading blows. The lanky monster was powerful but carried old wounds; the Chupacabra was slightly weaker but knew to hit where it hurt, aiming every blow at the lanky monster's injuries. Their fight fell into a stalemate, with neither able to gain the upper hand.

"Crash!"

The two massive creatures rolled to the edge of the clearing. In the struggle, the Chupacabra's long tail lashed out, knocking over the wooden stand holding the brazier.

The burning logs in the brazier flew in an arc, scattering sparks, and landed about a meter from the banyan's roots.

And there, not long ago, someone had just poured gasoline.

"Whoosh!"

The highly concentrated gasoline fumes hit the open flame and instantly erupted in a blaze. Flames shot up, coiling around the banyan's roots, and in the blink of an eye, the whole root system was engulfed in fire.

At the same time, in a corner of the clearing far from the tree, the lanky monster, locked in battle with the long-tongued beast, lit up—its lower body suddenly wreathed in vivid flames.

Since its main body was burning, the lanky monster had caught fire too!