"There’s quite a number of them..."
More than thirty diverse "seafood monsters" gathered in the spacious altar hall, frantically destroying the towering statue at the center.
The statue depicted a goddess with a blurred face, her long hair composed of countless tiny tendrils. The material seed like stone, but its true composition was unknown.
These monsters had obviously been causing destruction for a while, but had only managed to damage about a quarter of the massive statue’s base, indicating its considerable durability.
Nurous corpses were scattered at the bottom of the hall, mostly various indigenous underwater demons from the Tide Sanctuary, clearly showing the invaders’ ruthlessness towards local creatures.
Among them was the severed corpse of a fishman, the cut smooth, as if sliced instantly by sothing extrely sharp.
"Gurgle!" The fishman guide, upon seeing the scene in the hall, was instantly filled with rage.
However, its anger seed more directed towards the desecration of the statue than the tragic death of its kin.
It tightly gripped the fish spear in its hand, its body trembling slightly with agitation, unable to maintain the water flow control that concealed the trio’s presence.
This slight disturbance was imdiately detected by several monsters in the hall with keen water flow perception!
Norris sighed inwardly; he intended to observe a while longer, but since they had been exposed, there was no room for hesitation.
Unclear about the specific strength composition of the enemy, the safest choice was to fight and retreat simultaneously, withdrawing to the nearest hidden passage.
If necessary, sacrifice Jida to hold back the enemy, allowing them the chance to slip into the hidden passage and escape.
These were all escape strategies he had discussed with Sister Blood.
Norris flipped smoothly, diving into the open cockpit space behind Jida.
"Listen to my command, retreat, I’ll cover!"
Almost at the sa mont, a special pointed mushroom cap Puki mounted on Jida’s waist was launched!
[Wake Jet Level 6]
Puki’s tail ejected a stream of air, accelerating rapidly with reaction force, shooting straight into the midst of the monsters at the forefront.
Imdiately...
[Self-Destruction Level 10]
Boom————!!!
Not the loud boom of a terrestrial explosion, but a deeply muffled, yet viscerally shocking thud in the water!
The terrifying shockwave, centered at the explosion point, ferociously compressed and expanded the surrounding water!
That area of water was instantly churned into a murky slurry, with pale blue blood, shattered shells, flesh, and mycelium remnants mixed together.
The nearest three monsters didn’t even have ti to react before they were completely torn apart.
The intense shockwave swiftly traveled through the dense water.
Norris, inside Jida, was protected as the shell and mycelium buffer absorbed all the impact.
Ming only swayed slightly, seemingly unaffected.
anwhile, the fishman guide grunted, with thin streams of blood oozing from its nose and mouth.
The fierce underwater shockwave further scattered the formation of the batch of monsters at the rear, sweeping them back and buying Norris’s group so ti.
Seeing the new Puki’s initial triumph, Norris felt invigorated and imdiately shouted in the fungal network, "Now we..."
The word "retreat" had not yet been spoken when a figure, defying the yet-unsettled shockwave, suddenly charged out!
"As expected, Jida is amazing! Brother Norris, I will do my best too!"
"Wait... damn!"
Norris nearly choked on his breath. He couldn’t fathom why soone would choose to recklessly charge forward against a nurically superior, unknown enemy.
But rembering the other was just one year old, he sowhat understood.
Whether for the sake of the mission or as a responsibility of a senior companion, he couldn’t just watch Ming fall into encirclent alone.
Gritting his teeth, Norris drove Jida, closely following with the propulsion from Puki’s jets behind him.
As for the fishman guide, having recovered from the explosive shock, the fury over the desecration of the statue had long burned away its fear of numbers.
It let out a low growl mixed with hatred and battle intent, clutching its fish spear firmly, propelling itself with powerful tail strokes, and without hesitation, charged towards the enemy group.
Ming, with a near-brutal stance, fiercely tackled a crustacean foe waving enormous pincers.
He held off those giant pincers capable of crushing steel with one hand while thrusting his other, spear-like hand towards the creature’s facial shell!
Crunch!
On the first strike, the shell emitted a shattering crack.
Plop!
On the second strike, his fingertips breached the defense, delving beneath the shell.
On the third strike, he twisted and gouged with his wrist!
Dark blue viscous fluid mixed with broken shell gushed from the forcibly enlarged hole.
The monster’s fierce struggle ceased, and it collapsed limply.
Ming shook off his filth-covered hand, the motion smooth as if he had just completed a routine training.
Another enemy seized the opportunity to attack Ming from the side, but a sharp mycelium spring spike shot from Jida’s hand, piercing through its abdominal joint, yanking it back fiercely.
Before it could even struggle, Jida’s foot had already stomped down hard!
Its shell shattered, juices flowing everywhere.
"The enemy doesn’t seem to be that strong..." The thought had just crossed Norris’s mind when a sense of crisis suddenly attacked from the side!
He didn’t even have ti to think, instinctively maneuvering Jida’s arm to move the heavy Rock Armor Shield to his side.
A terrifying slash mark, several inches deep, appeared on the surface of the sturdy Rock Armor Shield!
If this strike had hit Jida’s body directly... it might have been cut in two!
The enemy was...
It was a monster with a bizarre shape, sporting a streamlined, elongated torso covered with fine, blue-gray scales, with two pairs of constantly flickering cold compound eyes on each side of its head.
And what it used to attack wasn’t a weapon, but its arms.
The forearm bones had mutated into two ghastly white bone blades that could fold backward, their edges as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet their sharpness made Norris not dare to underestimate them at all.
Just as Norris was fully concentrated, preparing to find an opportunity to use the last fish spear at his waist to deal with this seemingly elite enemy, the bone blade monster’s four compound eyes flashed blue and it abandoned its confrontation with Jida.
Its leg muscles contracted suddenly, leaving several vortices in the water as it turned with astonishing speed, heading straight for Ming, who was entangled with two other monsters!
"Ming! Be careful!"
Norris warned Ming while directing Jida to fire a string of spring needles.
But the bone blade monster’s movents in the water were unpredictably elusive, leaving behind a trail of afterimages, easily evading all attacks.
In a mont of desperation, Norris made a bold decision.
He suddenly leaped out from Jida’s cockpit, and at the sa ti, the tentacles on Jida’s arm wrapped around him, flinging him forward along the monster’s charge path like a thrown chain ball!
Thud, thud, thud!
Norris’s heart pounded like a drum, blood rushing through his body, with all trics temporarily boosted.
This was his new talent acquired at the Gold Level, a skill described by the boss as an "ordinary enhancent skill stimulating physical potential."
At this mont, driven to the fullest, although it couldn’t induce a qualitative change, it added several crucial bargaining chips for the upcoming combat.
He flew swiftly through the water, magic power swiftly gathering at the cannon muzzle on his chest.
Although the opponent’s bone blades were sharp and agile, its slender and thin body didn’t seem like it could withstand a cannon shot.
As long as he hit it at close range with a single cannon shot, there was a good chance he could completely take it down!
Of course, the opponent’s bone blades likely wouldn’t have much trouble cutting through his body either; this was a life-and-death duel.
He had to intercept it before it could reach Ming!
This was the only way Norris could think of to ensure that Ming wouldn’t be cut in half by those terrifying bone blades.
Norris didn’t bla Ming too much for his recklessness; it was his responsibility as a veteran to act as a backup for Ming on his first battlefield, regretting only that he hadn’t coordinated properly in advance.
However...
"Ming! What the hell are you doing???"
A scene that nearly suffocated him unfolded.
Faced with his warning and the enemy rapidly closing in with an obvious dangerous aura, Ming not only did not retreat but instead suddenly stepped forward and charged!
In his hand, at so point, there was a sharp bone spike, forcibly torn from the corpse of one of the monsters on the ground, stained with blue blood, charging forward defiantly!
Confronted with the advancing Ming, the bone blade monster’s four compound eyes flashed blue again, showing no hesitation, simultaneously extending the pair of ghastly white bone blades on its arms, carving two nearly imperceptible crossed cold glints in the water, slicing straight towards Ming’s neck and waist!
"No—!" Norris’s anguished shout echoed through the Fungal Network.
Clang—!!!
The two incredibly sharp bone blades, the instant they touched Ming’s body, struck sothing indestructible, shattering simultaneously, fragnts of bone flying everywhere.
Ming’s rushing montum was montarily halted by the enormous impact, but he imdiately pushed off with his foot again, accelerating forward!
Giving the opponent no chance whatsoever, that blood-stained sharp bone spike in Ming’s hand drove rcilessly into its compound eye-covered head!
Thud!
Ming slowly straightened up, looking towards Norris, who had just completed a clumsy second jump and hastily halted his forward montum.
A light blue mist of blood, like a thin veil, slowly spread in the water between them.
"Brother Norris," Ming wore a clean smile, mixed with a hint of shyness and anticipation, as if he had just completed a beautiful training maneuver, "How did I do?"
Gulp—
"Ah... um... you did great..."
Norris quietly dissipated the magic power gathered at his chest...
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