Everything happened too suddenly. Even Bella and Natasha, standing at a distance watching, were startled.
The centipede-like tendril creature replaced the scrawny man's head, taking control of the headless body. It spread its arms wide and lunged straight at Jason.
It had to be said—Jason truly was a legendary warrior from Crystal Lake. He could fight on land, fight in water, and even battle enemies in outer space for thirty straight exchanges.
A scene that would freeze normal people in terror was like a gentle breeze to him.
He showed no fear whatsoever. Ignoring the sharp tendrils slicing at his hockey mask, he reached out with his left hand, grabbed what seemed to be the creature's head, and tried to pull it out. The result? The more he pulled, the longer it got. He quickly changed tactics, switching to his blade.
Viscous plasma splattered everywhere. Chunks of flesh and severed tendril limbs flew through the air like grease.
Bella stopped Natasha from rushing to help. She recognized this thing! It was some kind of bioweapon virus cultivated through parasites.
Whether it was contagious remained unclear, but keeping distance was definitely the right call.
"Shoot! These people are probably all infected!"
"All of them?"
"All of them!"
If there was one bioweapon carrier, the rest likely couldn't escape infection either.
Bella fired repeatedly at the group. Natasha's movements were just as swift. Some dropped dead immediately; others, despite taking three bullets, could still slowly crawl back to their feet!
The two retrieved rifles from their rental car, braced the stocks against their shoulders, aimed, and opened fire with a thunderous barrage.
The twenty-plus men were caught completely off guard. The weak-willed turned and fled, but no matter how fast they ran, they couldn't outrun bullets.
Those with aggressive personalities—already secretly infected by the parasite virus—ignored the centipede-tendril monster beside them as if they couldn't see it at all, continuing to swing machetes at Bella and Natasha.
The two moved quickly. The space was large enough for tactical retreat. They absolutely refused close combat. By the time all twenty-plus men had been killed, Jason had also finished his bout with the centipede-tendril creature.
The monster had been hacked into chunks of varying sizes, while Jason looked like he'd suffered death by a thousand cuts. However, a pale cyan mist rose from his body, and within a minute, his wounds had completely healed.
The scene was littered with severed limbs and hands. Even more numerous were the corpses—some cut in half at the waist, others beheaded with a single stroke, some split vertically from head to groin, and those who'd died under Bella and Natasha's gunfire.
The stench of blood was overwhelming. Bella ordered Jason to collect all the bodies, then burn them to ash.
"This is getting dangerous. Should we...?" Bella remained extremely wary of bioweapon viruses. She had no idea if she could withstand such a thing. Without serum, charging in would be far too risky.
She wanted to retreat, prepare properly, then return.
Natasha smiled and withdrew two greenish syringes from inside her clothing.
"Is that serum? Where did you get it?" Bella asked in surprise.
"From the intelligence organization I work for. Feel better now?"
Bella nodded, though inwardly she became even more determined to develop antiviral serums herself. Even without 006's help, she would research them alone.
She had no choice! Everyone said bioweapons were strictly controlled by nations, but looking at the current situation, that clearly wasn't the case!
S.H.I.E.L.D. researching bioweapon viruses was fine. Them using their technological prowess to develop antiviral serums made sense and seemed reasonable. Bella acknowledged their capabilities.
But S.H.I.E.L.D. leaked like a sieve. Others might not know, but didn't she? If Natasha could obtain antiviral serum, Hydra could walk in like they owned the place and take viral samples! Who knew how widespread bioweapons proliferation had become?
She ultimately couldn't trust serums developed by others. Without her own supply of these lethal weapons, she couldn't even sleep at night.
With Natasha's antiviral serum prepared, they decided to continue their investigation.
Bella kept Jason with her. Buddy, don't go back to Crystal Lake just yet. Come contribute to Africa's cleanup efforts!
Seeing that Jason would be accompanying them, Natasha had to ask, "This guy... I didn't prepare serum for him. Does he need it?"
Did Jason fear bioweapon viruses? Absolutely not! He was already dead. What could parasites possibly do to him?
Often, magic was powerless against science. If a Tsar Bomba came flying over, Bella certainly couldn't withstand it. Conversely, science frequently couldn't solve magical problems either.
Jason was immune to bioweapon viruses. To him, they were no different from tap water.
"Don't worry, he doesn't need serum. You saw the previous battle—not a single sign of infection." Bella spoke with complete confidence.
"Is this guy alive? Or dead? You summoned a dead person to help?..." Even 006 had been secretly seeking mystical knowledge, let alone Natasha.
It wasn't about becoming Bella's enemy, but rather feeling she needed a certain degree of understanding.
Nick Fury also wanted to know Bella's actual power level. He'd adopted a truly one-eyed approach to Natasha's secret use of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence network to search for mystical knowledge.
Leveraging S.H.I.E.L.D.'s substantial resources, Natasha's theoretical knowledge of the occult now far exceeded that of amateurs like Heather and Max, approaching Sam Winchester's level.
"Well, strictly speaking, he's an undead..." Bella gave an ambiguous answer.
They'd come to this oddly-named town called Nwat to track down a bioweapons dealer named Irving. Numerous leads pointed to him as the middleman conducting bioweapon transactions with Tricell.
This town was extremely isolated. The outside world knew very little about it. They'd hired several guides, only to be led straight into ambush circles each time.
The three of them—two humans and Jason—hid in a wooden shack, organizing equipment and analyzing their next moves.
"Hmm, there might be a CIA informant nearby. Maybe we can ask him for intelligence..." Natasha's finger slid across a tablet computer. These devices didn't exist commercially yet—this was purely military hardware.
Bella suddenly looked around, then pointed northwest. "Look over there. That platform at the very top—the guy tied up—isn't that your informant?"
Natasha quickly looked up. Through somewhat dirty glass, she saw over two hundred townspeople gathered in the town square. A wooden platform stood at the center.
A man with his head wrapped in cloth knelt on the high platform. Two muscle-bound men held his arms. Beside him stood a figure over seven feet tall with a physique like a mountain of flesh, face covered by a black cloth, wielding a wicked-looking giant axe.