Chapter 203: A Brutal Battle (Part 2)

First were the Tiaofa Dui members operating the winch-powered Heavy Crossbows on the wagon carriages; having been swept at close range by the grayish-white energy ripples that affected their life force, they were all dazed and physically unwell, either tumbling off the wagon carriages to collapse on the bridge deck clutching their heads and screaming, or simply squatting in the carriages and slamming their heads hard against the wood, struggling to clear their minds as quickly as possible.

The unluckiest one was the fellow next to a crossbow's Bowstring; when swept by the grayish-white ripples, he fell headfirst onto the nearly-cocked Bowstring, accidentally triggering the cocking mechanism, and the immense force of the bow arms pulling the Bowstring taut and snapping back actually sliced the poor fellow's head right off!

The blood-stained Bowstring vibrated, while the headless neck spurted fresh blood outward, in rhythmic gushes.

The other Tiaofa Dui members who had retreated to the wagons on the bridge deck fared no better.

They had been swept at close range by the grayish-white energy ripples several times tonight, and the Divine Power badges they each carried had long since dimmed; only the one carried by the middle-aged Warrior in command seemed to have been provoked, becoming even brighter instead, releasing a blood-red Divine Power radiance outward.

But this could only protect the middle-aged Warrior alone!

This commander of the Tiaofa Dui, watching his subordinates around him collapse on the bridge deck curled into balls, their mouths hanging open silently, their eyes rolled back to show the whites, blood-tears streaming from their sockets, and blood leaking from their noses and ears, did not know what to do for a moment.

There was even an unlucky soul who, because he was too close to the unprotected edge of the bridge, was swept by the grayish-white energy ripples and tumbled directly into the river over ten meters below, splashing water several meters high; the person didn't even struggle once before being swept away by the turbulent river.

The Shadow Bird saw that the 【Monster】 (Corpse Mud Monster) seemed to be reaching its limit after unleashing its special ability attack; while struggling to 'swallow' the corpses of the Tiaofa Dui members that no longer made a sound on its body, it rushed out from behind the bridge-keeper's Wooden Bridge hut and crawled rapidly toward the bridge deck.

The only middle-aged Warrior still capable of fighting gritted his teeth and took a Huoyou Guan from the wagon carriage, roaring as he held it high, posturing to throw it at the Monster to fight to the death.

The Monster possessed evil intelligence; it had nearly been burned to death by this thing not long ago, so it was naturally quite fearful of this type of pottery jar that could explode into intense flames, and seeing the only Human still able to fight about to throw this thing at it, it was so scared that it immediately retreated behind the bridge-keeper's Wooden Bridge hut again.

In reality, when the 【Monster】 (Corpse Mud Monster) had just stepped onto this Wooden Bridge, the middle-aged Warrior, as an employee of the 【Sweet Fruit Merchant Guild】, had not dared to throw the Huoyou Guan in his hand at the Monster at all. Why? Because he knew that compared to the lives of these people, this important cross-river Wooden Bridge on the Shanglu was clearly more important.

If he burned the bridge just to deal with one 【Monster】 (Corpse Mud Monster), regardless of whether it was to suppress a Monster that might hinder traffic on the Shanglu, he and his subordinates, as well as their families, would suffer severe retaliation from the Merchant Guild.

Yes, they were employed by a Merchant Guild established by the local Baron family to maintain the peace of the first half of this Shanglu; even if they all died in the action of suppressing the Monster, they could not burn the bridge built with the Merchant Guild's capital.

Because, to put it cruelly, the value between the two was completely unequal.

The Monster would not destroy the Tiaofa Dui's weapons and equipment; they only wanted to eat people. Even if the suppression failed and these people were all eaten by the Monster, the 【Sweet Fruit Merchant Guild】 would only need to hire some more bold and experienced Tiaofa Dui members. But if, because the Tiaofa Dui members burned the bridge built with the Merchant Guild's capital while fighting the Monster, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the loss would be very serious.

Not only would the lucrative Shanglu be severed, requiring passing merchants to spend an extra half-day detouring across the river at the shallows upstream, but the three Shanglu of Ke'er Shan Jun were already competing for the support of passing merchants; if they could not provide convenience and peace of mind on the road, and people chose not to use the middle Shanglu next time, what would happen if they walked the other two?

By that time, it would not just be a huge loss for the 【Sweet Fruit Merchant Guild】, but all the people, families, and various power organizations along the entire Shanglu—in villages, checkpoints, and bridges—who could earn a profit from passing merchants would lose that income.

Then, with so many people, what would they eat and drink?

One must know that because so many people in the villages along the route served passing merchants, regardless of whether they were gouging customers or were overly greedy, countless people were at least eating from this trade route service.

Because of suppressing the Monster, the cross-river bridge was accidentally ignited.

Because the cross-river bridge burned and collapsed, the passing merchants chose the other two routes through Ke'er Shan Jun.

Because the merchants took other routes, hundreds or thousands of people on the Shanglu lost their jobs, and their livelihoods were left without a foundation.

That chain of huge losses was not something the lives of a few Tiaofa Dui members and their families could bear.

When they became Tiaofa Dui members employed by the 【Sweet Fruit Merchant Guild】, they were clearly taught that at no time should they damage the important bridges on the Shanglu, even when facing man-eating Monsters.

Therefore, the middle-aged Warrior's act of holding the Huoyou Guan high just now was merely a subconscious bluff to survive; how could a Monster understand the interests and background behind this?

The Shadow Bird saw that after scaring off the 【Monster】 (Corpse Mud Monster), the middle-aged Warrior immediately roared something, telling his companions who had been injured by the Monster's special ability to pull themselves together; after the people operating the crossbows on the wagons re-strung and reloaded, only one person needed to stay, and everyone else should immediately push the last wagon on the bridge deck backward, striving to have everyone covered by the third wagon that had not approached from afar.

In fact, if they had been able to retreat off the bridge deck just now to provide a firing space for the third wagon behind them that had not approached, the Monster would likely not have approached the first two wagons on the bridge deck.

It was precisely because of the presence of these people that the third wagon at the rear, acting as a reserve, could not fire, because these Tiaofa Dui members, the wagons with winch-powered crossbows, and the Monster were all in the same line of sight.

The Tiaofa Dui members climbed up shakily from the ground and from the carriages, and under the command of the middle-aged Warrior, abandoned the first wagon—the winch-powered crossbow on that wagon was sprayed with blood, and the headless half-corpse of a Tiaofa Dui member was stuck on the Bowstring; it really didn't look like a situation where they could fight the Monster.

A few Tiaofa Dui members in worse condition stood on the bridge deck, holding pottery jars filled with Huoyou, making gestures to intimidate the Monster, while the others in better condition, including the middle-aged Warrior, pushed the second wagon back toward the way they came with all their might; in this wagon carriage, only one Tiaofa Dui member remained to operate the winch-powered crossbow, but this member looked at the other side of the bridge with a face full of terror, looking at the dark, terrifying Monster figure looming in the place where the firelight could not reach.

He was trembling all over, his hands gripping the trigger mechanism that released the Heavy Crossbow Bolt, looking like he might fire at any moment, but looking at his terrified expression, it really made one doubt whether this person would throw away the winch-powered crossbow in his hands and flee directly at any moment.

The Tiaofa Dui members who had previously attacked the Monster had their bodies hit by the Monster's special ability several times; even with the Divine Power badge items prepared in advance, they were still seriously injured, and their spirits and bodies were severely affected.

Just after pushing the wagon off the bridge, several Tiaofa Dui members pushing the cart curled up on the grass by the road with faces full of pain; no matter how loudly the middle-aged Warrior shouted, their bodies could no longer hold on.

The Shadow Bird saw that just as these people's attention was diverted by the fallen members, the 【Monster】 (Corpse Mud Monster) actually rushed out from behind the bridge-keeper's Wooden Bridge hut; the crossbow operator, who had been nervously staring in the direction of the wooden hut, subconsciously tightened his hand and pulled the trigger, firing the Heavy Crossbow Bolt.

But because he was overly tense in spirit and body, this arrow was fired before the Monster was completely in a position where it could not dodge; his movement was too fast, so when the Monster merely tentatively poked its body out, discovered the situation was wrong, and retracted, this precious blocking arrow actually missed!

It stuck directly at an angle into the solid ground of the Shanglu!

The next moment, this cunning Monster crawled out and crawled rapidly toward the Humans who had already left the bridge deck, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws.

At this time, the Tiaofa Dui members who had been holding the Huoyou Guan that the Monster feared on the bridge deck had also retreated to the route they came from, carrying Huoyou Guan on their backs, struggling to push the carts or climbing onto the carriages to assist in reloading the crossbow bolts.

The Shadow Bird controlled by Jier flew across the bridge in a hurry, following to observe the progress of the battle.

He saw that when the Monster crossed the bridge, the Tiaofa Dui members struggled to push the wagons from the road to the side; this was clearly to provide enough field of fire for the winch-powered crossbow on the third wagon, which was in the best condition.

Sure enough, from over a hundred meters away, and at night, relying only on the moonlight and the scattered lighting on both sides of the bridge, the Heavy Crossbow Bolt fired from the third wagon still failed to hit the Monster itself, merely shooting into the sturdy wooden bridge deck and giving the Monster a fright.

But soon, this 【Monster】 (Corpse Mud Monster) noticed the headless corpse in the wagon carriage on the bridge deck, as well as the corpse's original head that had rolled into the carriage. It impatiently stretched out its pitch-black, foul-smelling black mud limbs, wrapped them around the Human corpse, and rolled it onto its body, attempting to devour this already-dead Human.

Its body seemed to have expanded to the same size as when Jier first saw it, but Jier knew that this guy was only this size because its pitch-black, rotting black mud body was filled with at least five corpses of Tiaofa Dui members.

At least half of its original body had already been burned clean by the violently burning toxic Huoyou in the pit under the cliff.

The 【Monster】 (Corpse Mud Monster) crossed the bridge deck, but on the side of the road only twenty meters away from it, the Tiaofa Dui members were still in a flurry and failed to reload the string and fire a second arrow; instead, on the third wagon in the distance, which was in the best condition, the two remaining Tiaofa Dui members were faster than the four or five people in front who were in a flurry, directly hitting the middle of the Monster's body as it rushed across the bridge with no cover or space to dodge.

But the Shadow Bird saw that the effect of this arrow was far less useful than when they first suppressed the Monster and nailed it to the rock wall.

The crossbow bolt pierced through the center of the Monster's body, bringing out a trail of rotting black mud that sprayed two meters behind the Monster, along with a visible amount of Human body fragments.

And the Heavy Crossbow Bolt that passed through the Monster's body shattered, except for the steel arrowhead that stuck into the ground.

The Monster swelled up suddenly, like a cat with its fur standing on end, and then it accelerated, all its black, sticky black mud limbs clawing at the ground, rapidly closing in on the Tiaofa Dui members.

Facing the approaching Monster, the members reloading on the wagons became more nervous and made more mistakes; when reloading the Heavy Crossbow Bolt, they actually loaded the Heavy Crossbow Bolt they were holding in the wrong direction.

But no one noticed this.

The reloading member roared, the middle-aged Warrior also roared along with him, and then the winch-powered Heavy Crossbow fired.

Then.

The Heavy Crossbow Bolt loaded in the wrong direction was fired off by the sturdy crossbow string to who knows where!

Despair instantly enveloped them.

Having no other choice, the middle-aged Warrior could only risk throwing the Huoyou Guan at the Monster. Fortunately, at this moment, both they and the Monster had left the precious cross-river bridge.

The middle-aged Warrior swung his arm around and threw the Huoyou Guan at the Monster; at such a close distance, he couldn't possibly miss like his subordinates!

But the Monster's evil, cunning intelligence came into play; it faced the crowd—if it had a front—and spat a large mouthful of Human bones directly at the Huoyou Guan.

In such a short time, the few Tiaofa Dui members it had swallowed earlier in the Shulin by the river had already been digested until only some residual bones remained.

These messy things sprayed forward like a shotgun, but were intercepted in mid-air, shattering the Huoyou Guan.

The Huoyou spilled all over the ground, but that was all that happened.

The Rotting Mud Monster, which had originally intended to retreat, realized something; it closed in on the group again, and the group, lacking a suitable ignition source for the moment, had no choice but to choose between fleeing or fighting to the death.

The Shadow Bird saw the middle-aged Warrior wave his hand and shout something to his subordinates, then draw his weapon and charge toward the Monster with all his might.

The unknown deity emblem on his chest sensed his fighting spirit and emitted an even more vigorous red Spirit light, seemingly wanting to lend him a hand.

But unfortunately, while the middle-aged Warrior had decent martial arts and appeared to have plenty of combat experience, he lacked precisely the experience of melee combat against a Monster.

His weapon was wreathed in red Spirit light, but when it struck the Monster's mud-like body, it only caused mud to splatter, failing to inflict any damage at all.

The next instant, the Monster lunged at the middle-aged Warrior, appearing as if it would swallow him whole.

"Puchi!"

Jier imitated the sound of a Heavy Crossbow Bolt piercing through the Monster's body.

It was the members of the Tiaofa Dui on the third carriage in the rear, who had been straining to draw and load their weapons, firing them at the first opportunity.

Just like before, the Heavy Crossbow Bolt at this distance shot straight through the Monster's entire body; the wound was a small hole in the front, but a head-sized hole in the back, from which black mud and human limbs gushed out, splattering several meters away.

The middle-aged Warrior had just shouted something with an excited look on his face when his left hand was suddenly grabbed and stuck by a black mud limb that emerged from the Monster's body.

The middle-aged Warrior's face turned pale, knowing he was finished, but the next moment he acted ruthlessly and severed his own left hand; knowing he was doomed today, he turned and lunged toward the carriage, telling his subordinates to run far away, then smashed a Huoyou Guan and, gritting his teeth, pulled out the Flint with his one remaining hand.

But only then, looking at the Flint in his right hand, did he realize that it is very difficult for a Human to strike a fire with this thing using only one hand.

And behind him, the Monster's entire body lunged forward.

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