Chapter 298: Death Battle and Swamp

Intertwined mist, yellowish-green thick miasma trembled slightly amidst sharp and terrifying hissing sounds, and black viscous slurry splashed and flew under the action of the majestic power surging from the depths of the mud swamp.

What was just a small, inconspicuous pile of squeezed silt and withered branches had now turned into a hideous insect beast filled with the aura of death and ominousness.

The first impression this magic beast gave people was a distorted, unnatural, and strange fusion.

Similar to a huge and deformed deep-sea lobster, or a mutated underwater spider.

Its whole body was wrapped in a layer of hard, yellowish-brown chitinous segmented shell, the texture was rough and matte, and the dense tiny scratches, etched patterns, and occasional tumor-like protrusions on the surface gave people a cold, damp, and uneasy chill and slime, as if coming from the depths of the earth.

Its head also had the characteristics of insect creatures, but the color was obviously darker, as if forcibly welded from other corpses; a pair of black and white distinct, dead-cold eyes were filled with chaos and brutality, and the mouthparts were composed of multiple slender, strong, and sticky tentacles, twisting and entangling with each other, making people couldn't help but get goosebumps all over.

The most obvious feature was a pair of huge, asymmetrical pincers growing from both sides of the front of its body.

This pair of pincers was extremely developed, and the structure was similar to a lobster or a scorpion, but the proportions were more exaggerated, and even appeared somewhat deformed and distorted from a distance.

As for the lethality it could cause... just the terrifying crisp sound made by the pincers closing and colliding with each other in the air was enough to indicate its power.

This strange magic beast that looked like a lobster was attacking from behind the squad.

Making Margaret, who was originally lagging behind, stand in the position closest to it.

It was precisely because of this that she first felt the thick fishy smell and stench emitted from this magic beast.

Her brain operated rapidly, trying to retrieve information related to it from her memory to identify the other party's identity, and at the same time, formulate corresponding countermeasures against the physical characteristics displayed by its appearance.

But before that, the muscle memory and survival instinct of her body had already made Margaret subconsciously manipulate her body to jump to the side, dodging the huge pincer that was smashed straight at her head.

Her wrist turned, and the longsword rubbed against the magic beast's shell; while the teeth-aching noise erupted, dazzling sparks flashed and disappeared at the edge of the sword blade, but they only left a few faint white scratches on its surface in vain.

She landed in a sorry state.

The golden braided hair tied behind her head swayed, and it was already stained with a few drops of sticky mud water.

It was only then that her brain finally completed the retrieval, finding information about the magic beast in front of her from the memory buried in the depths of her brain.

It was...

"Jiafu Guai!?"

This was definitely not a name that should appear in the Mist Forest.

In fact, this kind of magic beast was rarely mentioned even by those adventurers coming and going in the tavern.

On one hand, it was because the location it usually inhabits is usually the Underdark, or the deep ocean.

It rarely appears in other places.

On the other hand, it was also because of its overly rare quantity and strong individual strength.

Many times, the adventurers who encountered it didn't have the chance to pass the relevant intelligence back, and they had already died under the huge pincers of the other party that were enough to clamp rock and iron.

The color of Margaret's wheat-colored heroic face suddenly became ugly.

The challenge rating of a Jiafu Guai is "4."

Which meant that at least an adventurer squad composed of four lv4 professionals with reasonable positioning was needed to be able to defeat it without casualties under the condition of being in good condition and having sufficient supplies.

And the "Oath-Blackwood" squad right now, she, Suoerding, and Shajin might meet the conditions, but the professional level of the Mage Yueshuya was only just lv1.

Perhaps because of the particularity of the spellcaster himself, he possessed powerful functionality that ordinary professionals could not reach, but in this kind of high-intensity battle, he would undoubtedly become a short board for the whole team.

"Fuck."

Margaret cursed, her eyes staring tightly at the Jiafu Guai in front, and the tightly gripped sword hilt made her palms turn pale.

"Razg (Dwarf language, meaning 'beast'), look here!"

While she was pondering, a rough roar suddenly sounded from the other side.

Facing the sudden attack of the enemy, the dwarf warrior Suoerding in the team didn't hesitate at all and stepped forward.

Roaring, he knocked his prism hammer against the iron shield held in his left arm.

"Bang hum..."

Invisible sound waves raised tangible ripples in the miasma mist.

As if containing some kind of special power, it made the Jiafu Guai, which had missed a hit and intended to continue chasing Margaret, pause suddenly.

And then it turned around and let out a sharp hiss toward the dwarf.

Hatred had already shifted.

Sshh boom!!!

The huge pincers wrapped in yellowish-brown chitinous shell fell suddenly, leaving a blank area in the air filled with yellowish-green miasma.

There was no dodging, or rather, there was no ability to dodge at all.

Suoerding only had time to raise his iron shield to block above his head; the next second, the pincer crashed down.

The short body almost instantly disappeared from the line of sight of the few people on the field, just like a screw smashed into a wooden board by a hammer, completely submerged in the depths of the mud swamp.

Suoerding's combat technique effect was very effective; even though he was smashed into the ground, leaving only a shield like a nut embedded in the bottom of the mud swamp, the Jiafu Guai still kept smashing wildly as if it had gone crazy.

And at the same time, his teammates naturally couldn't just watch.

Shadows flickered.

A ghostly figure suddenly jumped up from the air, and the thin figure landed lightly on the spine of the Jiafu Guai.

The dagger wrapped in ink-black shadow power stung like a bee, precisely inserted into the gap between the shell of the monster's back neck.

Erosion, explosion.

One could clearly see a cloud of black mist composed of pure shadow energy erupting from the surface of the dagger, dyeing the surrounding shell pitch black, and corroding and spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was a pity that the Jiafu Guai's body was too huge; such a clean blow, if it were that Woodland Brown Bear before, might be enough to kill it with one blow.

But for this magic beast right now, it only barely broke the defense, penetrating that layer of thick chitinous protective shell, and couldn't reach the inside at all.

The next second, that huge pincer drove the Rogue Shajin off the spine of the Jiafu Guai.

Hum—

The high-frequency sound of energy whistling flashed in the air.

Three fist-sized, ochre-red light clusters swayed their tails, shaking and shuttling through the mist, smashing toward the monster's body.

First-ring Evocation-type · Magic Missile.

The special effect of force energy ignoring defense, as well as the relatively low learning cost and casting difficulty, made it one of the most common and practical basic spells among the spellcaster group.

Yueshuya specifically aimed at the direction of the wound caused by Shajin just now, hoping to use the gaps under the erosion of those shadow energies to pour the magic missiles in one by one and cause damage.

It was a pity that his mind control ability was still a bit short; of the three missiles, only one was penetrated along the wound, and the other two only landed on the shell nearby, leaving two sunken dents.

"Ang!"

The sharp hiss filled with pain echoed on the field.

Hitting the vital point of the back neck, that small magic missile straightened the Jiafu Guai's body, half-standing up, and two pincers waved up and down.

It was a pity that it was only this much.

After all, he was not a high-level spellcaster with subtle control of mind and spiritual power; if Yueshuya could really manipulate three magic missiles to hit the same position accurately one after another, maybe he could really cause substantial damage to the Jiafu Guai.

But right now, there was only pain and a moment of stiffness.

It was enough. ===== CHAPTER 299 =====