Han Ning took a deep breath, glanced back at Yin Yi still struggling to hold them off, and resolutely started climbing the vine.
His body had been enhanced, so he climbed to the windowsill with relative ease and managed to squeeze through.
Once outside the window, he used his powerful core strength to turn around and face Yin Yi. He first grabbed Lin Tianhe's Silver Lotus Wood, which was still inside the lab, pulled it up, and tossed it onto the grass below. Then, he yelled to Yin Yi behind the door, "Yin Yi, stop holding them back! Get over here!"
"BOBO!"
Upon hearing him, Yin Yi immediately released the vines holding the lab bench in place. It scrambled to the windowsill in a few quick strides, leaped up, and squeezed through the opening just as Han Ning had done.
Han Ning relaxed slightly at the sight. He grabbed the vine of Chen Linyu's Silver Lotus Wood, slid down part of the way, and landed lightly on the ground.
Following him down, Yin Yi grabbed hold of Chen Linyu's Silver Lotus Wood, and both plants landed safely.
"Go, let's move!"
Leaving their supplies behind, the three of them and their three Silver Lotus Woods had successfully escaped the lab. Han Ning quickly scanned their surroundings to get his bearings, then urged his two roommates on as they sprinted toward the dormitories.
「Back in the lab.」
"SQUEAK! SQUEAK SQUEAK!!"
Once Yin Yi stopped bracing the door, it took the horde of Monster Rats only three seconds to batter down the heavy stainless steel barrier. The dark swarm instantly flooded into the room. They scanned their surroundings with crimson eyes, and upon finding no trace of the three humans, they erupted in furious, frustrated squeals.
The white rat leader at the front of the horde slowly approached the backpacks the trio had abandoned. It lowered its head, sniffed them gently, and then, as if it had found something, looked up at the open window.
"SQUEAK!!"
The White Rat King let out a sharp cry, transformed into a white blur, and leaped onto the windowsill, disappearing from the view of the other Monster Rats.
"SQUEAK, SQUEAK!"
The other white rats and Monster Rats followed suit, leaping up one after another and swarming through the open window.
「On the network of asphalt roads in the School of Engineering.」
Han Ning and his two roommates were running for their lives, sprinting at full speed past the biology building and desperately making for the dormitories.
In just over twenty seconds, they could already see the student apartment buildings looming in the distance.
"HUFF... HUFF... HUFF... I can't... keep this up."
Even with their enhanced bodies, maintaining an all-out sprint was rapidly draining Lin Tianhe and Chen Linyu's Physical Strength.
"We're almost there! Hang on!"
Han Ning grabbed the arm of Chen Linyu, who was starting to slow down beside him, and yelled.
"Huff... huff... I'm... try... ing..." Chen Linyu gasped, his breathing ragged.
Han Ning gulped in the purified air. His powerful heart and lungs supplied him with a constant stream of abundant Physical Strength, and he didn't feel particularly fatigued yet. He encouraged his friend, "Come on, save your breath. Just run..."
But before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly felt a bone-chilling, suffocating presence from behind. An icy sensation shot up from the base of his spine and exploded across his back, causing goosebumps to erupt all over his skin.
"Look out!"
Acting on pure instinct, Han Ning suddenly grabbed Chen Linyu's shoulder and threw them both forward and to the right.
In the next instant, a streak of frosty white Flowing Light shot past where their heads had just been. It struck the asphalt road in front of them, instantly turning a patch of it into pure Ice Crystals.
"Are you okay?"
Lin Tianhe ran over from nearby and helped Han Ning and Chen Linyu to their feet.
"Forget about us, just keep running!"
Han Ning didn't answer Lin Tianhe, instead whipping his head around for a quick look.
Over a hundred meters away, at the foot of the academic building, a snow-white figure was rapidly closing in on them.
And behind it, a dense black horde of rats.
'Damn it, they've caught up again.'
Han Ning cursed inwardly. He scrambled to his feet, motioned for the other two to keep running, and yelled, "Shout for help! Those Monster Rats are right behind us! Yell as loud as you can so the students at the dorms hear our cries for help! We'll be safe as soon as we get near the dorm buildings!"
"Right!"
Chen Linyu struggled to his feet with Lin Tianhe's support.
The fabric over his knee had been torn to shreds by the fall, revealing a raw, bloody wound beneath.
Now, they were just over two hundred meters from the dorms. The trio summoned every last bit of their strength, sprinting wildly and screaming for help in the direction of the student housing.
WHOOSH~ WHOOSH~ WHOOSH~
Five more streaks of frosty Flowing Light sliced through the air, slamming into the ground in front, behind, and to their sides.
Unable to dodge in time, Lin Tianhe fell hard, scraping his chin raw on the pavement.
"This isn't working... Yin Yi! Fire your Silver Thorns at them!"
After a quick thought, Han Ning scooped up Yin Yi and had it wrap around his torso. Then, he and Chen Linyu hauled Lin Tianhe to his feet and kept running.
"BO!!"
Yin Yi wrapped the roots of its lower half around Han Ning's waist, faced the direction of the rat horde, and the thorns on its body began to pulse with an intense light.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Five emerald-green thorns whistled through the air and shot into the charging horde. The Wood Type Energy contained within them detonated on impact, instantly blasting more than a dozen black Monster Rats into the air.
...
「At that moment, on the observation deck atop Dorm Building A.」
A student in charge of keeping watch, who had been sitting in a chair, suddenly perked up and shot to his feet.
"What is it? Is something happening?" Another student not far away noticed his odd behavior and turned his head.
"Come over here. I think I heard someone shouting for help," the student said, sounding uncertain.
"Shouting for help?" his companion asked, walking over dubiously.
"Yes, I'm sure of it. It sounds like it's coming from the west."
The two of them widened their eyes and peered to the west.
Amid the sprawling buildings and the network of asphalt roads, they could faintly make out three small, slowly moving dots.
And trailing the three dots was a dense swarm of even smaller black dots.
The color drained from both of their faces. One of them said to his companion, "That's our people! Quick, go inform Dean Wu! Soul Beasts are approaching!"
...
The white, shadowy rat possessed a speed that far surpassed that of Han Ning and his friends.
Despite them running for all they were worth, the distance between them continued to shrink.
Han Ning kept glancing back, and he could now clearly see the snow-white fur of the giant rat behind them streaming in the wind.
"SQUEE!"
The giant white rat shrieked as it leaped high into the air, a white light churning in its mouth.
A bolt of frigid energy, shaped like lightning, shot viciously toward the three of them.
The bolt of energy was intercepted mid-flight, shattered by a thick wooden spike. The two streams of Energy collided in the air, creating a deafening explosion.
"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!"
The white rat stared at Yin Yi on Han Ning's back, who was relentlessly firing Silver Thorns, and suddenly let out a few sharp squeaks at the four other white rats at its side.
The other white rats understood immediately. They all opened their mouths, spitting out one stream of frost after another.
Their target wasn't Han Ning and his friends, but the ground all around them.
In no time, as he ran, Han Ning discovered that the ground in a ten-meter radius around them had already transformed into a field of Ice Crystals that radiated a bone-chilling cold.