Chapter 215: Solving the Water-Spitting Crocodile, the Captured Disheveled Bandit, What Do People Need Most While Alive?

Afterwards, the two of them immediately took action.

Just as Jier had said, he jumped up and swung the head of the Water-Crossing 【beast】, hacking down heavily from the air right into the center of the monster crocodile's skull. Jier still played it smart; he intentionally let this strike land in almost the same spot as the previous one, hoping to break through the monster's bony forehead and kill it outright without needing the Dwarf's help.

But as his axe went down, it was the same clanging, thunderous sound of hard object colliding with hard object as before.

Woo—clang!

Jier landed both feet on the monster's back, which was covered in mud and water. Stepping on its hard dorsal bone plates, he refused to accept it and smashed down hard two more times, but aside from producing a banging sound, it had no great effect.

It wasn't that it had no effect at all; at least, having taken a heavy blow to the head, the entire monster was dizzy. It was hard to say whether it wasn't fighting back because of excessive blood loss or because it had been stunned by his several heavy blows to the forehead.

"Alright, alright, stop knocking."

Shishou shouted, jumped down from the stone, and ran quickly toward the front of the crocodile monster.

It must be said that, for a Dwarf's height, this monster's body, which was two meters high even while lying down, still possessed a very strong sense of oppressive size. Just like when it had rushed to the edge of the Yingdi earlier, almost every Human and Dwarf Warrior who saw it had been severely shocked by the monster's massive size.

However, Shishou was no ordinary person. In the nearly one hundred years that the Zhenbao Mine had been out of contact with the Dwarf Kingdom, he had at least several decades of experience fighting monsters and Magic Beasts in the mountains and forests.

Especially after the original Mine Defense Captain was sent away, he himself had become the strongest among these Dwarves in the Zhenbao Mine.

Of course, in the beginning, his strength was not much different from the other Miner followers of the God of Strength, but as time went on, the deity's favor for him grew day by day, which allowed his strength to grow rapidly through successive battles.

At this very moment, Shishou spread his hands to the sides and approached the crocodile monster lying on the ground from a distance with quick but steady steps.

His cautious actions were necessary but ultimately unused; with Jier's several axe blows, the monster's blood loss and head trauma meant that it was only the natural structural advantages brought by its ancient bloodline that were protecting it, allowing it to still be alive at this moment.

Crack!

The half-open blood-red maw was forcefully clamped shut by Shishou's bronze-like hands. Then, Shishou exerted force with his arms, clamping the monster's huge mouth shut like a hydraulic press.

The crocodile monster still tried to open its mouth to bite, but no matter how hard it struggled, it couldn't open even a tiny gap in the jaws that had crushed countless living things.

Seeing that Shishou had successfully controlled the monster's mouth, Jier rolled off the monster's back and jumped down, his movements agile and graceful. Once he landed, he raised his axe high, putting his full physical strength into it (without using Life Energy), and hacked fiercely at the base of the monster's right forelimb.

Crack, crack—two axe blows split open scales the size of palms, and then the blue blade cut deeply into the tough muscle beneath the scales. The tender, pale muscle was like beef tendon, solid and containing abundant strength.

Unfortunately, the crocodile monster had lost too much blood, and these powerful muscles lacked sufficient blood supply, so they could no longer exert enough strength.

The monster was even hacked repeatedly on its forelimbs, yet it didn't even have the strength to dodge.

It took a full minute, with Jier not using any extra power, before he finally severed the crocodile monster's right forelimb at the root.

Next was the left forelimb.

When the crocodile monster's tail and its four limbs, which were like giant pillars, were all severed, the monster completely lost the ability to move. The blood flowing from the wounds on its four limbs made the monster look lifeless and sluggish, even though there were no obvious wounds on its torso.

"This monster is dying."

Shishou brought his face close to the nostrils at the tip of the monster's mouth and found that the monster's breathing was weak, with almost only exhalation and no inhalation.

Jier didn't care at all: "That's just right. To be honest, this monster is the most troublesome guy I've encountered recently. Its whole body is like it's made of iron—no, this guy is even more troublesome than a solid Iron Ingot. At least an Iron Ingot doesn't bite people, right?"

"Hurry and give it the finishing blow. Facing a monster like this, you still have the mood to joke?" Shishou shook his head, standing on one leg, using his left knee and left hand to clamp the monster's mouth, while his right hand reached out and patted the monster's upper jaw.

Jier smiled, jumped onto the monster's back, and stood firm behind the crocodile monster's forehead. He raised his axe high, and for a moment, the atmosphere became grim.

The blue axe face gradually emitted a blue light, and the monster head on one side of the axe took on a bloodthirsty look; the head of the water ghost, in particular, was the most excited.

At the same time, Jier briefly activated all his Life Energy, increasing his strength more than tenfold, and then sensed the Divine Power of the Dwarf God of Strength within his body, letting that restless alien Divine Power assist his body, tripling his overall strength.

Finally, Jier activated the Magic Bracer on his left forearm, which ultimately increased all his strength by another factor of one point something.

When all the things that could increase Jier's strength were in operation, Shishou, who was controlling the monster's mouth in front, frowned as he looked at Jier, because he had already discovered that at this very moment, although Jier still had a certain gap in strength compared to his own prime, it was already far greater than the strength gap when the two of them first fought with all their might.

In other words, his own strength had not yet recovered to its prime, while Jier, in this short time, had gradually caught up to the strength he was most proud of.

"To think he's only in his teens..." he couldn't help but mutter to himself.

The next moment, Jier's axe blade fell. Shishou couldn't even hold onto the monster's mouth due to the violent vibration transmitted from it for an instant. Furthermore, the ground beneath his feet trembled violently for a moment.

As for the falling blue axe blade?

In just an instant, the solid bone plate that had been able to stubbornly block the axe's hacking earlier had almost no resistance under the massive force of the blow. It directly split the skull, the axe blade sank deep into the crocodile monster's brain, and instantly turned the monster's brain into a mass of mixed blood and brain matter.

"Whew! Refreshing!"

Jier let out a breath, gradually withdrawing the released power, closing the Magic Bracer on his arm, and soothing the active Divine Power of the Dwarf God of Strength within his body.

Click, the axe was pulled out from the monster's easily broken skull. As expected, the monster heads on it were all gorging themselves, and visibly, that water ghost's head had undergone some subtle changes; its originally humanoid head and mouth began to protrude forward, and sharp teeth grew in the middle of the protruding mouth, just like a half-human, half-crocodile head.

Jier didn't notice any other changes besides this. The other monsters and Magic Beasts in the axe were tearing at this monster's consciousness and Spirit, and it seemed this full meal made them quite satisfied.

"Let's go. Although this monster is dealt with, things aren't over yet." Jier jumped off the monster's back and said to Shishou.

"What else is there?"

"This monster's corpse can't just be left here, right? These are all good things! Besides, the Warriors under my command seem to have captured those Bandits who lured this monster to attack the Yingdi. Hmph, although this is the result I wanted, I can't let them go without a lesson."

Pulling his Sword from the monster's eye socket, Jier put both weapons back on his body, leaving his hands free to carry a large piece of the monster's leg in each hand. Shishou had a harder time; he carried the monster's massive five-meter-long, two-meter-high corpse back by himself.

Because his Dwarf body was somewhat short, if someone looked from afar, they could only see the crocodile monster's torso, but not Shishou himself, who was carrying the monster's body weighing several tons underneath.

Overnight Yingdi.

Jier made two trips, moving all four of the monster's legs back to the Yingdi faster than Shishou. Each of these huge legs with sharp claws weighed several hundred kilograms on its own; let alone hitting an ordinary person, even if they were just gently placed on someone, their own weight could crush an ordinary person to death.

The Warriors naturally gathered around to curiously fiddle with Knight Jier's spoils of war, while Jier, after arranging for people to go assist Shishou, followed Aoni to the disheveled Bandit who had been tied up.

Jier didn't speak; just the large amount of monster blood stained on his armor, as well as the huge monster legs stacked not far behind him, made the Bandit, who was tied and kneeling on the ground, tremble all over.

Although it was a summer night, the Yingdi was not far from a river with rapid currents, so the temperature was not high, but the sweat on this Bandit's head was as if he had washed his hair but hadn't dried it.

Visible sweat dripped from his matted hair and the bottom of his chin onto the ground.

Before Jier could even open his mouth after coming over, this disheveled and dirty Bandit took the initiative to speak: "My Lord, great Knight Lord, please spare this little one! I was forced into it, that's why I had no choice but to become a Bandit!"

Jier smacked his lips, exchanged glances with Aoni and Sipulu who was guarding the man, and shrugged, just about to speak, when the man shouted again: "My Lord, My Lord, please spare me! Not only was I forced to join those villains' gang, but after being forced to join them, I haven't done a single bad thing! All the gods are above, they can serve as witnesses! Not only that, I was forced by those villains to use my life tonight to lure the Water-Spitting Crocodile by the river to attack, to attack, My Lord, you and your team."

"Please know, this is an extremely life-threatening thing. It was only because those Bandit villains forced us with no other way that I and two others had knives held to our necks and came to do this almost certain-death task. Thanks to the gods protecting you, great Knight Lord, you defeated this terrifying Water-Spitting Crocodile!"

After finishing, the man kowtowed to Jier and the others regardless of anything else, his movements frantic, as if he were so glad that Jier had defeated the Water-Spitting Crocodile.

In reality, the man was scared to death. Although the Water-Spitting Crocodile was stupid, its strength was top-notch, and it was a monster that could dominate a region in the nearby mountains and forests. Not to mention that Water-Spitting Crocodiles were actually gregarious, gathering in nests in areas with abundant food to breed, and had almost no rivals except for rare natural enemies.

Even the Magic Beasts in the mountains rarely provoked these gregarious guys who had tough bodies and long-range attack methods.

The area where this pack of Water-Spitting Crocodiles lived was close to the Shanglu. In the past, it wasn't as if Knight Lords hadn't been hired to crusade against them, but the crusades had obviously failed. And now, Jier, this young foreign Knight, had actually killed and severed the limbs of the Water-Spitting Crocodile in less than half an hour and brought it back as a trophy!

"This crocodile Monster is called a Water-Spitting Crocodile, right? I don't care whether you were forced to join the Bandit Group or what bad things you've done in the past; I only care about the information you have on this Monster and the information you have on the Bandit Group. Tell me honestly, and don't make me and my men lose patience and use some interrogation methods on you that you won't like."

Jier crouched down, used his steel Gauntlet, which was stained with the Monster's blood and bits of flesh, to gently pat the Bandit's head, and spoke to him in a relaxed tone.

"My lord, great master, I'll talk, I'll talk, just please let me go afterwards. I was really forced to join this Bandit Group, and if it weren't for the fact that I refused to do those bad things, those wicked guys wouldn't have sent me out to do this almost suicidal task of luring the Monster. Please understand, my lord!"

Jier watched this person open his mouth to keep spouting this nonsense, and especially with the sour, foul smell on this person's body, combined with the stench from his mouth after he opened it, it made Jier frown directly.

Standing up from the ground, Jier spread his hands and said to his two subordinates: "You tell me, what is the most important thing that a person cannot live without while alive?"

Aoni and Sipulu did not know what Jier was playing at, but since Knight Jier was asking, they would answer.

Aoni glanced at the Bandit kneeling on the ground and guessed: "The thing a person cannot live without while alive is the quality of honesty, right?"

Facing this answer, Jier looked at Aoni with surprise, then looked at Sipulu to see how he would answer.

He hoped it wouldn't be an equally ridiculous answer.

"For a person to want to live, the thing they cannot live without should be their own life, right? Without a life, one isn't considered alive." Sipulu's answer was a bit convoluted.

Jier looked down at this annoying Bandit: "What do you say?"

This disheveled Bandit did not know what this formidable young Knight was up to, but he still guessed and answered: "To, to live, one must eat and drink, right? The weather is so hot now, one can live without eating, but one cannot go a day without drinking water. My lord, look at this answer..."

Jier smiled and pointed to the river south of the Yingdi not far away: "The quality of honesty, the life itself, and eating and drinking all have some merit. But if you ask me, when I send someone to hold your head in the river water not far away, I reckon you will understand that a person must breathe deeply to stay alive."

The disheveled Bandit's face changed drastically; the cunning and clever fellow immediately understood something from Jier's words, his whole body began to tremble, and he immediately begged Jier for mercy, asking Jier to let him go.

"Let's keep it simple. Use the quality of honesty to tell me the information about the Water-Spitting Crocodile Monster and all the news about your Bandit Group, otherwise I will make you lose your life and you won't be able to live! And you will immediately taste the feeling of being unable to breathe after your head is held underwater! Believe me, that is not pleasant."

When Jier finished his intimidation, the Bandit immediately understood what the young Knight before him wanted to know from his mouth, rather than listening to his endless lies and poor excuses.

So, like spilling Beans, he poured out all the information he knew about the Water-Spitting Crocodile in one go.

Jier listened carefully and repeatedly asked the Bandit random questions about the Water-Spitting Crocodile; after confirming several times that the person was not lying, he then let him continue to tell the news about the Bandit Group.

At this time, the disheveled Bandit had neither the time nor the courage to make up lies, so he could only tell all the true information about the Bandit Group.

?? Making up for the chapter owed previously.