Chapter 134: Swamp Escape

"Captain, they've caught up, and the number is twice what it was two hours ago."

"It seems our traps didn't work at all, not even slowing down these lunatics. Stop resting, move immediately! Suo Lun, you take people to open the path in front. Damn it."

The moment the order was given, a standard Drow scout team slipped into the gray-white reed cluster silently, their movements clean and neat, without even making a sound.

However, this swamp, which harbored deep malice toward order, was destined not to let them escape easily.

"Bang!"

"Ah—my eyes!"

A cluster of inconspicuous gray-white giant mushrooms by the roadside exploded violently, and spore smoke scattered. Two Drows walking in the middle of the team covered their faces and fell wailing, but still drew their scimitars from their waists with astonishing reaction speed, assuming a defensive stance.

"Shut up! So pathetic, how did you come out of the Fighting Tower alive?" Dai Meng, walking at the front of the team, scolded in a low voice, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings like a knife.

"Relax, Dai Meng, the young ones still need to be tempered." Captain Kai Nuo cut off a withered vine that was reaching out silently with a casual slash, his tone indifferent.

But his pupils contracted slightly—the gray-black patterns had already begun to spread around the eye sockets of the team members injured by the spores, like spider webs spreading toward their cheeks.

This was not an ordinary exploding mushroom, but a rot-spore fungus contaminated by the "Old Man of Rotten Wood's" mycelial network.

"The toxin will paralyze the optic nerve, but it won't be fatal." Kai Nuo judged quickly, taking two dark purple antidote pills from his waist pouch and throwing them over.

"Chew and swallow, cover your eyes with cloth strips. Follow the team closely with hearing and smell. Suo Lun, speed up!"

As soon as the words fell, a dull and rhythmic "gurgle" sound came from the depths of the swamp, as if thousands of wet drumsticks were hitting rotten mud at the same time.

The reed clusters began to collapse toward both sides in large patches, revealing the gray-foggy water surface and churning mud behind them—more than a dozen raised backs cut through the swamp, surrounding them. Each back was lined with pale bone spurs, glowing with ghostly light in the dimness.

Bone-Spur Toad Demon.

"Three o'clock direction, fifty meters, at least twelve." Dai Meng lowered his body, crossed his double blades in front of his chest, his voice finally carrying a hint of tension, "Captain, they are circling from the side, not like passing by by accident."

"Of course it's not by accident." Kai Nuo spat out the grass root he was chewing halfway, his eyes turning cold.

"The old thing sees us clearly through the mycelium network underground. Since the traps are useless, then go head-to-head—

Listen to my order, the moment they jump out of the mud, everyone shrink to the left flank, leaving the first wave of impact to that patch of rotten wooden stakes."

The rotten wooden stakes he mentioned were a dense patch of rotten wood stumps more than ten steps ahead, half-buried in the mud, sharp as barbs. The Bone-Spur Toad Demon had a bloated body and amazing jumping ability, but its turning was slow after landing. As long as they were lured to hit the wooden stake array, most of their impact could be wasted.

"Suo Lun, don't stop your people, continue to explore the path toward the Whispering Shoal." Kai Nuo licked his dry, cracked lips, the hilt of his sword turning half a circle in his palm, "The rest—follow me to gut these toads."

Kai Nuo's order had just fallen when the mud exploded.

The first Bone-Spur Toad Demon jumped out of the swamp, its bloated body stretching out in the air, actually the size of a calf.

The gray-green skin was covered in slimy pus, and a row of bone spurs on its back emitted a sickly fluorescence in the dimness, like teeth growing out of a rotting corpse.

It opened its giant mouth—that was a crack split to the chest, filled with barbs, and a purple-black long tongue shot out like lightning, aiming directly at the nearest Drow.

"Move left!"

Dai Meng moved first. He didn't retreat, but stepped forward half a step, crossing his double blades in front of him to parry the slippery long tongue, the blade edge cutting a shallow wound on the tongue surface, the sprayed juice carrying a strong stench of rot, landing on the reed leaves and actually sizzling with white smoke. Poison.

The Toad Demon smashed a large patch of mud waves when it landed, but as Kai Nuo expected, its heavy body was difficult to turn immediately among the slippery rotten wooden stakes. Its webbed feet stepped on a sharp rotten wooden stake, the bone spurs got stuck in the wood seam, emitting a hoarse roar of anger.

It was time.

Kai Nuo cut into the side of the Toad Demon like a black lightning, the dark purple Drow longsword in his hand precisely piercing into the base of its skull between the bone spurs. The Toad Demon twitched twice, its limbs stiff, and it collapsed, gray-white blood mixed with brain matter gushing from the wound.

"Don't just stand there! Maintain formation!"

More Toad Demons jumped out of the mud, over twenty in total, surrounding them from three directions. The dull sound of their landing formed a piece, like thunder rolling over the swamp.

Kai Nuo's pre-judgment saved them; most of the Toad Demons did indeed hit the rotten wooden stake array, their bone spurs stuck in the stakes, unable to move for a while. But a few smart ones bypassed the obstacles and lunged from the flank.

A young Drow scout, named Rui Wen, reacted a beat slow and had his ankle entangled by a Toad Demon's tongue. The tongue's power was astonishing, instantly dragging him to the ground and dragging him toward that split giant mouth.

"Save me—" his shout only reached halfway when Dai Meng's scimitar had already slashed down. The blade light flashed, the long tongue was cut off at the root, the Toad Demon shrank back in pain, and Rui Wen was dragged up by Suo Lun. But the leather armor at the wound had been corroded into a hole the size of a fist, revealing the black and festering skin underneath.

"Antidote!" Suo Lun shouted.

Kai Nuo threw a small bottle from his waist without looking back, "Apply it, keep going! This is not a place to stop."

At the same time, the swamp itself was waking up.

Perhaps the movement of the battle had alarmed something deeper, or perhaps the mycelium network of the Old Man of Rotten Wood was deliberately manipulating it.

The mud swamp beneath their feet began to bubble finely, and gray-white mist surged from the cracks, carrying a sweet, rotten smell. The reed clusters moved without wind, emitting a rustling whisper, as if the entire swamp was giggling.

"Watch your feet! There's something in the mud!" Suo Lun slashed into the mud while opening the path. The mud churned, cutting off a thick root-like object, the broken end flowing with dark red juice, as thick as blood. The root felt pain and shrank back underground, bringing up a string of mud waves.

Kai Nuo's face changed slightly. Those were the mycelium tentacles of the Old Man of Rotten Wood, seemingly disgusted by the incompetence of his subordinates, no longer simply monitoring, but already beginning to intervene directly.

"Don't get entangled with the things underground." Kai Nuo made a quick judgment, "Suo Lun, abandon the original route and walk toward the high ground in the northeast. The terrain there is hard, and the mycelium can't reach up."

"But Captain, the northeast direction is—"

"I know, it's the nesting area of the Rotten Scale Crocodile." Kai Nuo gritted his teeth, "Sacrifice is inevitable, go!"

The team began to change direction. Dai Meng and two other veterans brought up the rear, while retreating, they sprinkled silver-gray powder behind them—Drow special herbs.

It could block the mycelium network's perception in a short time, although the effect was only a few minutes, it was better than having their movements live-streamed all the way.

The remaining Toad Demons trapped by the wooden stakes were still struggling, and a few had already broken their bone spurs and crawled out of the mud with residual limbs.

They didn't pursue immediately, but raised their heads in unison, emitting a low "coo—coo—" sound. The sound pierced the fog and echoed over the swamp.

"They are calling for reinforcements." Dai Meng said coldly.

"Then let them call." Kai Nuo had already rushed to the forefront of the team, taking the lead in stepping into the knee-deep mud. The reeds here were higher and denser, almost covering their heads, and the gray-white reed flowers swayed in the fog, like the fingertips of countless ghosts.

The mud ground here was indeed beginning to harden; this was the humus layer formed after the rotting plants piled up layer by layer, stepping on it felt like stepping on an old mattress, sinking slightly but holding up.

But strangely, the plants here were more active.

A seemingly withered vine suddenly sprang up, entangling the second rear-guard team member, the old scout Ke Er's arm. The vine's dense suckers bit into the flesh instantly, Ke Er groaned, cut off the vine with a backhand, but a row of blood holes had already been sucked out on his arm, blood dripping along his elbow.

Immediately after, several gray-white mushrooms by the roadside exploded simultaneously, and spore mist filled the air. Fortunately, the team members had already covered their mouths and noses in advance, but two people still inhaled a small amount and began to cough violently.

"Hold on!" Kai Nuo's voice pierced the chaos, "We'll be out of this reed area in front, I see it—the high ground is less than two hundred yards away!"

Indeed, a piece of raised terrain faintly emerged in the fog, on which grew a few twisted bare withered trees, the bark glowing with dark red luster, as if soaked in blood.

That was the territory sign of the Rotten Scale Crocodile—these Abyss crocodiles liked to smear their prey's body fluids on the trees to declare territory.

Kai Nuo looked back. The Toad Demon's calls were getting denser and closer, and more fluorescent bone spur shadows had already appeared in the gray fog in the distance.

And the mycelium tentacles underground also began a new round of stirring, and the humus layer beneath their feet began to squirm and heave like a living thing.

"Suo Lun, take three people up to the high ground first, clear the field!" Kai Nuo said calmly, "The rest, block that group of toads behind me."

He gripped the longsword in his hand tightly, his gaze sweeping over every team member.

Dai Meng nodded, double blades in hand, expressionless. Ke Er and Rui Wen, although injured, still had their blades pointed outward. The other young Drows were full of fear, but no one retreated.

Behind them, the entire reed bed exploded with a boom; over a dozen Bone-Spike Toad-Demons leaped out simultaneously, opening their blood-filled maws, their long tongues dancing through the air.

The fog was thicker. In the gray-white world, the black figures of the Dark Elves and the fluorescent bone spurs of the Toad Demons flashed and moved, the blade light like the moon, blood splashing on the reeds.

Kai Nuo took a deep breath of the foul-smelling air and took the lead in meeting them.

They crouched on the opposite side of the mud belt, their abdominal cavities heaving violently, and something seemed to be churning under the gray-white skin.

The Spirit Toad raised its head, a huge meat tumor bulging in its throat, and then, it pressed its head down violently, and the bone spurs on its back stood up in unison.

"Ssh—Ssh-ssh-ssh—"

Dozens of pale shadows shot out from the back of the Toad Demon; these were not simple bone spurs, but hollow, cone-shaped bone tubes with tiny barbs at the end, emitting a sharp whistling sound when flying.

Most of the bone spurs grazed over the heads of the Drows and pinned into the withered tree trunks on the high ground. But two hit Ke Er, who couldn't dodge in time; one pierced his left shoulder, and the other grazed his flank, bringing up a spray of blood mist.

Ke Er groaned and knelt on one knee. He wanted to pull out the bone spur on his shoulder, but as soon as his finger touched the spur, his face changed drastically.

From his wound, the flesh began to soften and collapse at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if something was pumping into his body from the other end of the bone spur.

"Don't pull!" Kai Nuo rushed over and slashed off the bone spur exposed outside the body, but what gushed out from the broken end was not blood, but a yellow-green murky liquid, mixed with tissue blocks like minced meat, exuding a sweet, fishy stench of rot.

That was digestive fluid. The bone spur was like an injection needle; while piercing, the gland sac on the back of the Toad Demon pumped highly corrosive digestive fluid into the prey's body through pressure, dissolving muscles and organs from the inside.

Ke Er's left shoulder had already collapsed, and the dissolved cavity could be clearly seen under the skin.

"Don't pull!" Kai Nuo shouted, while taking out a dagger and decisively cutting a cross-shaped opening along the wound on Ke Er's shoulder.

The yellow-green liquid and dissolved tissue gushed out, Ke Er trembled all over from the pain, but stubbornly did not let out a sound.

Suo Lun rushed up and poured a small bottle of dark purple potion into the wound; this was a potion specially formulated by Drow mages against the digestive fluid of Abyss creatures, and it emitted a large amount of white smoke the moment it was poured in.

"Can you still move?" Kai Nuo asked.

Ke Er gritted his teeth and moved his fingers. "Can... but the left arm is useless."

"Retreat behind the withered tree, be responsible for vigilance." Kai Nuo pushed him toward the center of the high ground, then turned to look at the Toad Demon group opposite, his eyes becoming extremely dangerous.

Dai Meng leaned over and asked in a low voice: "Why didn't they use this move just now? When chasing from the reed cluster, we were all on flat ground, and that round of volley was enough to wipe us all out."

Kai Nuo stared at the Toad Demon group, observed for a few breaths, and sneered. "Look at their backs."

Dai Meng narrowed his eyes. The bone spurs on the backs of those Toad Demons that had just fired were significantly shorter, and new bone spurs were slowly pushing out from under the skin, but the speed was very slow, as if they needed to accumulate.

And the few smaller Toad Demons beside the Spirit Toad had their bone spurs fully grown again—they were firing in turns, reloading alternately.

"This thing consumes a lot of energy." Kai Nuo judged, "The bone spur itself is keratin, and growth takes time. More importantly, digestive fluid is stored in the back glands after they swallow rotting meat and decompose mycelium in the swamp, and it's used up once."

He paused, his gaze falling on the Spirit Toad's bulging throat sac. "But it's different now; they climbed up the high ground, melee attacks failed, so they were forced to use ranged means."

As soon as the words fell, the second batch of bone spur volleys came again. This time, the Drows were prepared and hid behind withered trees and rocks one after another.

The bone spurs pinned into the tree trunks, emitting "puff-puff" dull sounds, and digestive fluid slowly seeped out from the end of the hollow bone spurs, flowing down the bark; wherever it passed, the bark bubbled and peeled off, revealing the charred inner layer.

Rui Wen's shoulder was splashed with a drop of digestive fluid, the leather armor immediately smoked, he scrambled to cut off that piece of leather armor, and there was already a burn the size of a fingernail on his skin.

"This thing is much more poisonous than the Toad Demon's tongue." Rui Wen was still afraid.

"Suo Lun, has the signal been sent out?" Kai Nuo asked.

"Sent out, the Matriarch's side has already received it." Suo Lun gripped his scimitar tightly, "But the nearest pickup team will take at least half an hour."

Kai Nuo looked at the Toad Demon group below the high ground; they stopped volleying and crouched there waiting for the bone spurs to regenerate.

The Spirit Toad let out a low gurgle, and more Toad Demons with larger bodies walked out from deeper in the swamp; their back bone spurs were longer and denser, and the color was not pale, but dark red, as if soaked in blood.

Those were "Bone-Spur Veterans" in the Toad Demon tribe, with more digestive fluid reserves and longer range.

"They are not waiting for regeneration." Dai Meng's voice turned cold, "They are gathering, preparing for a saturation coverage."

Kai Nuo took a deep breath, stood up, and pressed his palm on the humus rock at the edge of the high ground. Muddy water seeped from the rock cracks, feeling cold.

He scanned the high ground, three withered trees, a few half-buried rocks, three Rotten Scale Crocodile corpses, and less than two acres of open space behind him.

Then he unslung a short bow from his back and drew three special arrows from the quiver; the arrowheads were hollow crystal bottles filled with silver-white liquid.

That was the Drow mage's special "Mycelium Disintegration Agent", specially designed to overcome the Old Man of Rotten Wood's mycelium network, originally intended to blast out an escape route in the worst case.

At the same time, the gray-white fog surged, and below the high ground, the dark red bone spurs stood up in unison. ===== CHAPTER 135 =====

At the same time, gray-white mist surged, and below the high ground, dark red bone spikes stood up in unison.