BOOM!!!
With a violent crash, the hull shuddered!
Yu Yaqing gripped the doorframe tightly and called out to Shen Mo: “This ship can’t take much more! Three more hits at most and it’ll capsize into the lake!”
“Then let’s get out.” During a gap between the impacts, Shen Mo retreated toward the exit. Yu Yaqing followed close behind him.
The stuffed cat was outside, ramming the Ghost Ship in a frenzy! The thick wooden planks of the hull were smashed clean through, sending splinters flying everywhere!
It saw Shen Mo and Yu Yaqing emerge from the ship. Immediately it backed up a few steps, charged forward, and slammed into the hull with even greater force!
Another tremendous BOOM!
The entire ship lurched and tilted to one side, then crashed into the water with an enormous splash!
In that explosion of spray, Shen Mo and Yu Yaqing leaped up, barely landing on the shore.
Before they could find their footing, the rag doll — riding on the cat — was already lunging toward them!
Shen Mo and Yu Yaqing didn’t face it head-on. They fought while falling back, retreating steadily toward the Jungle Adventure zone, trying to lead the rag doll and the stuffed cat as far from the Crystal Tower as possible — buying more time for Bai Youwei.
The stuffed cat was enormous — large head, thick tail, powerful limbs — and every lunge it made sent shockwaves through the ground like an earthquake.
That was what made it terrifying. But it was also its weakness — narrow interiors or corridors were completely inaccessible to it!
As long as Shen Mo and Yu Yaqing avoided open, unobstructed areas, the amusement park’s maze of oddly shaped buildings was more than enough to stay one step ahead.
They retreated all the way from the Ghost Ship to the Food Street.
Row upon row of similarly styled restaurants — dive through any window and the cat could do nothing to them, reduced to furiously stomping across the rooftop overhead, venting its rage!
Sweat was already breaking out across Shen Mo’s face.
Yu Yaqing’s stamina was heavily depleted as well, her back soaked through.
As they fell back to the last restaurant on the food street, the stuffed cat’s attacks began to lose intensity — as if it had grown bored of this cat-and-mouse game. And the rag doll perched on its back was now turning its head frequently to look back in the direction of the Crystal Tower.
Shen Mo saw this and felt a jolt of alarm. He stopped deliberately dodging and charged out of the building, driving his sword straight at the stuffed cat — trying to provoke its fury again!
Yu Yaqing followed him out, joining Shen Mo in attacking the rag doll and the cat. Even though both of them knew perfectly well that these wounds could do nothing to the stuffed cat.
The stuffed cat let out a yowl and slammed one paw down hard!
Shen Mo and Yu Yaqing both rolled to the side to avoid it.
But the cat did not press its attack. Instead it turned and ran toward the Crystal Tower — as if that one swipe had only been meant to drive them back!
“How many minutes?” Yu Yaqing asked.
“Six minutes.” Shen Mo gave chase again.
Bai Youwei had asked them to stall for ten minutes. Four minutes remained! At the stuffed cat’s speed, the distance from here to the Crystal Tower was less than thirty seconds!
“Ink-bro! I found what you wanted!!!” Tan Xiao’s voice suddenly rang out.
From an intersection not far away, Tan Xiao came sprinting toward them, a thick, heavy coil of rope slung over his shoulder.
It was the lasso loops that Yan Qingwen and Lu Ang had made earlier! Reinforced with wire, then cut apart by the rag doll — and now back in Shen Mo’s hands once more.
Shen Mo quickly re-tied the rope into a lasso, tossed one to Yu Yaqing, kept the other in hand, sprinted ahead, then leaped off the ground behind the stuffed cat — and at the apex of that jump, hurled the lasso!
It caught around the running stuffed cat!
The enormous drag force yanked Shen Mo off his feet and sent him skidding across the ground!
Tan Xiao dove down behind him, grabbed the tail end of the rope, then looped it around a nearby streetlamp!
The streetlamp bent under the strain — cracked — buckled!
The stuffed cat’s body lurched to a stop, the rope pulled taut!
—
