Book 6 Chapter 16.3
Book 6 Chapter 16.3 - Battle Invitation
His chest rapidly rose and fell, his panting audible from far away. His black clothes that were made of rare materials were torn in many areas, revealing many claw marks. Extreme excitement burned within his eyes, staring firmly at the black shadows that continuously moved around behind trees, in the grass, and even in the treetops; there were at least twenty Herkula.
At the limits of one’s sight, many Herkula corpses could be seen. Their postures were all different, their bodies almost completely dismembered, and only then did they die. To kill them, the young man paid quite the heavy price as well. However, he didn’t have any intentions of running or carrying out guerilla warfare, still burning with battle intent, planning to bury these twenty or so Herkula here as well. For him, every single Herkula was a complete evolutionary point, this type of crazy evolution chance definitely hard to come by. However, the lightning swift battles that had just happened just now also made him understand that this definitely wouldn’t be an easy task. The wolf-like Herkula could overwhelm mature male lions with their power, their speeds several times the latter. What made them even more frightening was their intelligence, knowing how to coordinate with each other, as well as their fearlessness towards death. Even now, after killing more than ten Herkula, the young man still didn’t find a fatal weakness to exploit. If he didn’t completely dismember them, they would still possess fighting strength.
The young man suddenly leaned over, his entire body almost leaning over the ground, and then several Herkula already passed over above him. A short blade flipped in his hand, stabbing outwards towards a Herkula’s abdomen at a strange angle! The hand that was holding the blade was extremely steady, the blade remaining still like a stone pillar. When the Herkula with its tremendous momentum moved past the blade, its entire abdomen was hacked open.
Another three or four Herkula attacked from the ground. All of the Herkula launched attacks at the same time, and they covered high, mid, low, all three positions, every degree of height split into two waves. If the young man acted carelessly just because he thought he evaded a wave of attacks, then he would definitely be injured under the second wave of attacks. This was a tight, net-like assault, only, the young man had already experienced it several times. The short blade in his left hand moved out horizontally, blocking before his head. A Herkula whose large mouth was almost sticking to the ground couldn’t stop its momentum, almost bringing his own head to the short blade’s cutting edge. The short blade reached entirely into the Herkula’s mouth, and then moved with a fierce twist, only then was it pulled back out. The Herkula’s mouth was completely mutilated, but it still used its two front claws to viciously scratch over, the damage inflicted by the full powered strikes of those sharp claws reaching more than ten centimeters in length would be about the same as being cut by the short blade.
The young man’s body suddenly bounced up, knocking the second wave Herkula above him flying, thus naturally avoiding the attacks of the Herkula below. Even though the angle of contact was carefully calculated and chosen, the young man seemingly avoiding damage to any vital area, his body still couldn’t help but have a few extra scratches added. Borrowing the opposite force of colliding into the Herkula, his body strangely sank down, and then the two blades crossed, almost removing the seriously injured Herkula’s entire head. However, when the blades crossed on its neckbone, metallic grinding sounds rang out, unexpectedly unable to completely sever the neck bone, though, in the end, this type of injury still proved sufficiently fatal for the Herkula.
The youngster’s blades spun above again, finally fully removing the wolf head. Then, as if there was a spring installed in his body, he strangely stood up again. As if he was sliding on ice, he withdrew ten meters, withdrawing from the battlefield.
“So goddamn hard to deal with.” When he saw that the Herkula who had already lost its head was still attacking all around it with its claws, the young man couldn’t help but curse out loud.
He originally wanted to follow Su’s army and wait for an opportunity to strike. The death of his companion didn’t make his reckless self feel much fear, instead making him feel an urge to properly torment those at Su’s side, the young lady who roused the interest of his companion as well, she in particular definitely couldn’t be let go. The rainforest was his world, and as such, he was able to quickly track down Su’s troops’ whereabouts. However, when he got closer, he unexpectedly suffered the attacks of a few Herkula wandering around. He excitedly killed two of them, never expecting that this would attract even more.
However, no matter how difficult the Herkula were to deal with, they were still nothing more than beasts in his eyes, nothing more than needing a bit more time and strength to deal with.
Right at this time, the youngster suddenly felt pain from his ankle. When he lowered his head, he discovered that a wasp was currently nailed there, tearing at that area viciously. Its jaws were abnormally sharp, as well as possessing an even more abnormal amount of power. They actually chewed through the young man’s skin that was comparable to the toughness of steel, even barely piecing into the densely woven muscle tissues whose rigidity wasn’t any less than rock before injecting a pitch-black venom into his body. Once the venom entered his body, it immediately dispersed. Even though the young man’s powerful immune system immediately activated a response, most of it neutralized and counteracted, a small amount still tenaciously remained. Just this bit of poison alone was similarly enough to make the injury somewhat inflamed.
“Yi, what is this thing?” The young man cried out in surprise. The short blade drew out a streak of lightning, already cutting the wasp in half. The wasp that only had half its brain left still continued to open and close its jaws, the speed at which it chewed at the young man’s flesh not lessening in the slightest. Only, when the short blade’s edge passed through the wasp, there was actually a sharp and clear metallic striking sound that made the young man’s mind slightly fall. This sound was quite similar to that of when he blocked the Herkula’s fangs and claws. It wasn’t a misconception, but rather that these two creatures’ skeletons both possessed quite a bit of metal components, these components substantially increasing their toughness.
There were many types of mutated creatures, but he had never heard of any who were able to evolve a metal skeleton. If this type of creature could further evolve, it might very well achieve some type of flesh and mechanical integration.
This meant a new evolutionary path, the significance of this for Sun God Temple which specialized in biochemical science and technology extremely great. However, the young man wasn’t in the mood to collect specimen right now, because his sharp intuition already caught a whiff of danger. This danger was extremely hard to understand, like the undercurrent in an ocean; the surface appearing rather calm, yet energy brewing underneath. Once it erupted, it would release devastating might.
He frowned. While observing his surroundings vigilantly, his body quickly shifted sideways, guiding the surrounding Herkula over, moreover, he seized a moment of opportunity to remove a Herkula’s legs. Unfortunately, the remaining Herkula’s follow-up attacks were just too timely, not even giving him a split second of extra time, leaving him with no choice but to give up on the chance to obtain a full evolutionary point.
While flickering, something suddenly flashed through the rainforest, drawing his attention. Ability users were all strong, the young man’s intelligence and memory even more exceptional. In that instant, he already replayed the scene he just saw in his mind, moreover continuously enlarging the details, finally finding the source of his uneasiness. There was a tiny black dot between a few leaves, and when enlarged, one would discover that it was the abdomen of a wasp. It was currently flying, but it wasn’t relying on its wings, but rather releasing several fine blasts of air from its abdomen, allowing its speed to be exceptionally fast, to the extent where it was a bit blurry even when the young man replayed the scene in his memories.
Air jet propulsion? This was still a wasp?
Before the young man had time to feel shock, he suddenly felt as if he couldn’t be bothered to deal with the Herkula all around him who were waiting for a chance. He stopped, his face gradually falling as he stared into the rainforest depths.