Chapter 204: A Brutal Battle (Part 3)

Facing the monster's pouncing coverage, the middle-aged Warrior wore a look of despair, feeling only that he had underestimated this 【Sludge Monster】 too much; not only was he conducting the crusade at night, which was extremely disadvantageous to Humans, but he had also failed to take the monster down directly in the first attack.

Furthermore, during the subsequent retreat, he had failed to quickly pull back to the carriage to use the heavy crossbows—which possessed enough power to be lethal even to the monster—to shoot the creature dead in a volley.

This resulted in the battle dragging on to this desperate state, where not only was he finished, but he had also implicated the young members of the Tiaofa Dui under his command, most of whom were likely to perish here as well.

Just as he was despairing and holding the Flint that wouldn't spark, preparing to meet his death, a black shadow—blacker than the foul-smelling black mud on the 【Sludge Monster】 and deeper than the night sky—suddenly burrowed into the monster through a tear in its chest. In the next instant, the middle-aged Warrior heard a dull, explosive sound. The 【Sludge Monster】, which had been poised to pounce, swelled up by an entire size. Then, from the gashes on its chest and back, a large amount of Human remains that it had swallowed and absorbed were squeezed out. The entire 【Sludge Monster】, composed of rotting black mud, instantly collapsed. Ignoring the middle-aged Warrior who was drenched in corpses, and ignoring the Human bodies it had yet to digest, it slumped into a heap on the grass by the road and crawled, rolling and scrambling, toward the pitch-black Shulin nearby.

The middle-aged Warrior was stunned. He had no idea what had happened. The movement of that black shadow just now was simply too fast, and it didn't look like a Heavy Crossbow bolt shot by his subordinates from the other carriage. After all, Heavy Crossbow bolts could only pin a monster to the ground or pierce straight through them; they wouldn't, like just now, magically squeeze out the corpses of the Tiaofa Dui members the monster had eaten, cause its entire body to swell up by a whole size, and then shrink back to its original state.

"Pfft—ugh."

The middle-aged Warrior spat out the fragments of his subordinate's corpse that had just sprayed into his mouth. Unable to care about the further nausea and urge to vomit, he shouted for his subordinates to be careful; the monster had escaped into the nearby Shulin.

With his mind in a daze, he reloaded the Heavy Crossbow on the carriage, adjusted the direction of the bow, and stared nervously at the Shulin ahead.

He had a premonition that since both sides had suffered heavy losses in this battle and were in such a wretched state, the monster would certainly not just flee like this.

"Stop running, all of you! Come back! Light the fires! Gather in front of the two carriages!"

He shouted loudly, not even realizing how hoarse his voice was at that moment, or whether his subordinates were even capable of continuing the fight. Many of the Tiaofa Dui members under him had previously only dealt with monsters and beasts that were not so difficult to handle; they had never experienced such a brutal battle as tonight. At this moment, many of them had already suffered mental breakdowns and could not hear the hoarse orders of the Tiaofa Dui Captain.

Even if they had heard, given that their minds had already been shattered, it would likely be difficult for them to correctly follow orders and obey.

These people were in intense pain all over, their faces covered in bloody gashes, emitting incoherent cries from their mouths as they scrambled along the road they had come from, heading east. They didn't even have the presence of mind to untie the horses bound to the trees to ride or drive back.

After all, having seen their companions eaten bit by bit into the monster's body with their own eyes, and having been subjected to attacks that affected their own life force several times, the pain erupting from within their bodies was truly unbearable for these Tiaofa Dui members.

When people are experiencing intense pain, they have no energy or will to think, and one cannot blame these people for anything.

Watching nearly ten subordinates run away like this, with even the two Tiaofa Dui members from the third carriage—who hadn't engaged in close-quarters combat—following them, the middle-aged Warrior gave a bitter smile that was both relieved and helpless. He looked at the motionless Shulin; his intuition told him that the monster was watching him from within the pitch-black Shulin.

Finding a way to tear a strip of cloth from his body to bind his left elbow tightly and simply stop the bleeding, the middle-aged Warrior pulled an unsoaked Torch from under the driver's seat of the carriage. He dipped it into the Huoyou Guan spilled all over the carriage, then glared at the pitch-black Shulin before him.

"Want to eat me? Is that it? Come on! Haha, come and eat me!"

The middle-aged Warrior picked up an unopened Huoyou Guan, carried it on his back, and roared several times at the Shulin, gathering his strength to run rapidly toward the illumination fire on the other side of the bridge.

Yet, the middle-aged Warrior's act of defiance did not actually attract an attack from the 【Sludge Monster】. Even though both sides had clashed many times tonight and were desperate to kill each other, the monster truly did not pursue.

Running back onto the bridge, the middle-aged Warrior suddenly heard the miserable neighing of horses from the east. Only then did he realize that the monster was ignoring him not because it didn't hate him, but because it had switched to an easier target for predation—when the Tiaofa Dui members arrived, fearing that the horses would get in the way of the monster, they had tied the horses to the edge of the Shulin near the third carriage.

"Damn it! Why didn't those bastards think to ride the horses away? %￥! A bunch of trash! They can't even run away properly!"

After cursing fiercely, the middle-aged Warrior hesitated for a moment. If he took the opportunity while the 【Sludge Monster】 was devouring their horses to head west along the road now, he should have a chance to escape.

But he was unwilling. Not only had the crusade against the monster failed, but if he just fled west like this, the monster would inevitably pursue him, and that might bring disaster to the village at the Chalu to the west.

Without correctly using the appropriate weapons, a monster like the 【Sludge Monster】 is very difficult to deal with.

What to do?

Should he run, or fight the monster to the death?

Without much thought, the middle-aged Warrior used his only remaining right hand to take out the Metal Shield pendant from his chest and kissed the Divine Emblem of the God of War on it.

"Please protect me, my Lord, but not for the sake of survival, only for the victory of the crusade. For this, I am willing to offer my life, and I am prepared to offer my life."

As the resolute oath was uttered, the Divine Emblem of the God of War shone brighter. Even the Divine Power Spirit light escaping from it swirled around this Warrior who was determined to die, leaving Divine Power markings—hard to distinguish with the naked eye—on his forehead, the center of his chest, and the palm of his remaining right hand.

If any Priest of the Church of the God of War saw this scene, they would immediately recognize that the God of War was currently paying attention to this believer and had remotely granted a Divine Art: 【Battle Maintenance】.

This Divine Art allows the recipient to not lose combat effectiveness due to bleeding, fainting, weakness, or other conditions for a short time before the battle is decided. Of course, the Divine Art itself is not infinitely powerful; it can only be said to help the recipient continue fighting under certain circumstances. If all the blood in the body is drained, the person will still die; after all, this is only a low-level auxiliary Divine Art, not some high-level Divine Art capable of completely maintaining a Warrior's combat ability with Divine Power.

The middle-aged Warrior naturally sensed the difference in his body; the intense pain seemed to gradually recede, and the weakness brought by blood loss left his body. Thus, the middle-aged Warrior kissed the pendant twice more fiercely, then took the Torch, walked quickly to the riverbank on the opposite side of the river, lit the Torch, observed the situation, and then strode back toward the east.

However, unlike before, he was no longer afraid of the monster pouncing out from the pitch-black, gloomy Shulin; he was even quite looking forward to it happening.

Because as long as the monster dared to think about eating him, he could use his own life to give this monster a fatal gift.

But things often do not go as one wishes. When the Spirit-controlled Shadow Bird flew to this place like an arrow, what it saw was this middle-aged Warrior standing awkwardly by the carriage, holding a Torch and carrying a powerful Huoyou Guan on his back.

Jier saw through this man's plan at a glance, but the monster that should have taken the bait did not come.

Thus, the middle-aged Warrior could only force himself to stay alert, standing in place. Fearing that the Torch in his hand wouldn't burn enough, he even took down more torches from the nearby carriage, looking as if he were going to lock horns with this monster today.

But where had the monster gone?

Jier, behind the Shadow Bird, also felt curious. He had the pitch-black Shadow Bird follow the tracks left by the monster's crawling on the ground, chasing all the way into the night Shulin to search for the traces of that 【Sludge Monster】.

Unexpectedly, the monster hadn't run far. After eating three Nanyangshandima that were pulling the third, unmanned carriage nearby, it retreated into the nearby Shulin, found a damp spot, and stayed there. It was surrounded by many slime monsters from the nearby Forest, which seemed to be guarding it while the monster was gorging itself.

Jier hesitated, not knowing if he should take the initiative to use the Shadow Bird to guide the Warrior—who was determined to fight to the death—over here. Looking at the current situation, as long as the 【Sludge Monster】 dared to swallow the Warrior, it would inevitably be burned to death from the inside by the Huoyou Guan the Warrior was carrying.

And the night's monster crusade would then be completely over; one side had been crusaded against, but the other side had also suffered heavy losses. As for those fleeing members Jier saw on the road when he controlled the Shadow Bird to come back, by the time they ran back to the town in the middle of the night, the town would likely send out a second wave of crusading forces.

After all, the Shanglu cannot really be harassed by these monsters, especially monsters! As for things like Bandits, it was clear that in the eyes of the 【Sweet Fruit Merchant Guild】 that managed the smooth operation of the Shanglu, they were also people who could be communicated with.

This could be seen from the fact that the bridge had previously been guarded by four elderly Bandits.

As long as someone could manage and guard the bridge checkpoint, the Merchant Guild didn't care if these people were local Villagers or Bandits.

After the Shadow Bird circled in the air a few times, it landed on a tree. It seemed that because of the presence of the 【Sludge Monster】, there were no nocturnal birds active in the vicinity; the birds had long since flown away in terror. At this moment, in this small patch of Shulin, only this pitch-black Shadow Bird existed.

It seemed that the Shadow Bird's bold landing on the tree caught the monster's attention. It tremblingly lifted a lump of foul-smelling black mud limb and probed in the direction of the Shadow Bird. It seemed that the Shadow Bird's presence made it feel terrified, because the fierce, internal-swelling blow it had received just now seemed to have been done by another existence similar to this one.

The monster was a bit afraid, fearing that this pitch-black bird would launch a fierce attack on it just like before. So, it wanted to move its body to hide in some nearby caves or ground fissures; in an underground environment, it wouldn't have to fear the existence of this unknown bird, right?

But the monster tried to move twice and failed. Its body was bulging, and its foul-smelling black mud could barely even wrap around the three Pack Horses being 'digested' inside its body. Compared to Humans, the size of the horses was still too large, not to mention eating three at once.

The monster tried hard, but couldn't move.

So the surrounding slime monsters stepped forward and gathered under the monster's body, trying to help their 'boss'.

But the size difference between the two was simply too great, and they failed. Several unlucky slime monsters were even crushed to death by the 【Sludge Monster】's swollen body, and their bodies were gradually absorbed by the black mud.

The monster gave up. Seeing that this terrifying unknown bird did not launch an attack as soon as it saw it, it honestly slumped in place, trying hard to digest the horses inside its body.

Time passed bit by bit. The Moon Goddesses in the sky tonight gradually crossed the firmament; one moon set, and another rose from the horizon as if in a relay.

Among the fleeing Tiaofa Dui members, the two in the best physical condition were the fastest to run back to the already quiet town.

This town, whose name Jier had never asked, went from calm to noisy in just a short while, at least near the west gate of the town.

Crying sounds arose, and Jier also heard the sound of the town gates opening, with more people going out in groups to meet more fleeing Tiaofa Dui members throughout the night.

Jier calculated in his heart that, just as he expected, it didn't take long before someone on horseback approached the caravan's overnight Yingdi, and they were intercepted outside the Yingdi by the Human and Dwarf Warriors on night watch.

There were questions and urgent answers, followed by footsteps walking toward the tent where Jier was.

"My lord! I am very sorry to disturb you late at night, but Cui'erfute Zhen has sent someone over, saying that the Monster Tiaofa Dui from earlier tonight, uh, they have met with an accident."

The person reporting was Weier; the few team members with relatively strong abilities always rotated to guard the Yingdi during the second half of the night. This was not just for Yingdi in the wild, but the same even in towns; there was always a capable Warrior in charge of handling all matters during the night watch.

Just like now.

Jier opened his eyes, his mind split between the blurry environment inside the tent and the 【Rotten Mud Monster】 under the surveillance of the Shadow Bird.

He exhaled, knowing it was his turn to step up.

Exterminating a Monster was, to him, something that should be done; after all, having watched others fight for quite a while, Jier himself was feeling very itchy to join in.

Those so-called Enforcement Team members hired and trained by the Merchant Guild were truly beyond words; despite holding weapons issued by the 【Tianguo Merchant Guild】 for dealing with such threats, they ended up fighting so poorly against a Monster they should have been able to handle before.

It really left Jier not knowing how to evaluate their existence.

"I'm coming, I'll be out right away."

Jier walked to the Water bottle in the tent, poured some water onto his hands, and then patted his cheeks; the little sleepiness he had left was completely gone.

Lifting the two layers of the tent flap, what appeared before Jier was a middle-aged official from the town, who was being watched with cold eyes by the two guards stationed at the tent entrance and looked quite at a loss.

This man was dressed quite decently, wearing a dark green cotton long-sleeved outer garment, and on his head, he wore a finely crafted leather hat, which was ostentatiously adorned with a fluffy, fiery-red bird tail feather.

The man wore a pair of flat-soled, low-cut leather boots on his feet; he was clearly a town administrator who did not often go out.

"Hmm, may I ask if you are from this town, or are you from the 【Tianguo Merchant Guild】 that manages this Trade Route?"

Jier was sizing up the person opposite him, and the person opposite was, of course, also sizing up Jier.

However, Jier was in ordinary casual clothes, and apart from his unexpectedly strong and tall physique, he did not even exert as much pressure as Weier and the two Warrior guards nearby.

This could not help but make the middle-aged man hesitate, wondering if seeking help from these passersby in such a hurry was a mistake.

?? My tooth hurts so much; if it really doesn't work, I'll have to get it pulled.