Chapter 632: Unknown Monster, Strong Wind, Heavy Rain, Hail!

Just as Jier was being suspicious, the wind around him grew stronger.

The breeze that had originally been weaving through the Shulin gradually became violent, and the entire Yingdi suddenly darkened all at once.

Jier looked up at the sun and only then discovered that the sun above was being blocked by a cumulonimbus cloud mass as thick as Bread, which happened to cause the light in his own Yingdi area to dim.

"Everyone be careful, hide back in the Tents and hold them down, don't stay outside. Warriors, draw your swords and blades, gather together! There is an enemy nearby that can control strong winds; it might be some kind of Monster in the mountains and forests."

Jier shouted loudly; only ten of his subordinate Warriors remained here, as the others had followed Bataer Jiaoshi and the first batch of fifty returning Villagers out to serve as guards on the road back and forth.

At this moment, the Villagers also sensed that something was wrong and began to clamor, no longer watching the excitement, each of them scrambling in a panic back into the nearest Tent, regardless of whether it was the one they liked. The Warriors, meanwhile, hurriedly put on their Helmets, drew their weapons, or temporarily donned their Plate Armor.

The trees around them were blown by the strong wind, making a rustling swaying sound, and some branches that were not tough enough were snapped by the strong wind, with the broken branches being blown up or falling down.

Jier, riding on his horse, whistled; it seemed like nothing had happened, but in fact, he had already sent out the Spirit Dog Big Nose, who was already quite dim by today, letting it—now on the verge of disappearing—quickly scout the surrounding Shulin to see which Monster was stirring up trouble here!

Once Jier discovered the other party's tracks, he would definitely make them pay a price!

"Where are you, where could you be?" Jier muttered to himself, putting away his Soldier Bow and instead taking the Dwarf Soldier Spear from the Weapon Rack behind him into his hand, while also preparing to activate his Life Energy and 【Grass and Wood Source】 ability at any time.

If the enemy was in the surrounding Shulin, he would have to dismount and rush over; a warhorse like Tianxuecao was not suitable for moving in an environment with rugged and soft ground like a Shulin, so he had to go on foot.

Just as Jier was still suspecting that the enemy was in the surrounding Shulin driving the strong wind to attack them, the Spirit Dog Big Nose, which he had sent out to find the enemy, had only run two steps before squatting on the ground and barking loudly at the sky.

Woof!! Woof woof woof!!

Jier was startled; he followed Big Nose's prompt and looked at the sky. Big Nose had just told him that the one causing the trouble and the wind was precisely that cumulonimbus cloud mass hundreds of meters in the sky blocking the sun.

How could this be?

"Hiding in the clouds?" Jier jumped off his warhorse and bounced the Dwarf Soldier Spear in his hand, but he still felt something was missing. The cloud was so big, and who knew exactly where the enemy was hiding inside; if he threw the Long Spear, it would be troublesome to find it again in this forest.

Moreover, at an altitude of several hundred meters, that was not just a difference in height, but also the distance of the specific position on the ground; all in all, the distance would be even longer.

Even if he operated all his Life Energy, added the Magic Tool that strengthened strength, and the triple strength enhancement given to him by the Dwarf God of Strength, he didn't know if he could throw this not-so-light Dwarf Soldier Spear to that distance.

"Damn it!"

Jier held the spear and cursed loudly at the cloud mass blocking the sun: "What are you? How dare you attack us? Do you have the guts to come over and fight me? Instead of controlling the strong wind from this distance to disrupt my Yingdi!"

The wind in the Yingdi became even stronger at this time; some small Tents that were not fixed securely had already been blown over, and the Villagers inside had to scream and hide in other Tents, although those other Tents also looked like they were teetering.

Jier did not see that while he was holding his spear and cursing loudly at the clouds in the sky, the usually honest Huimao Hu Li also looked up at the sky, and then, in a panic, used its front paws to quickly dig a hole in the ground, attempting to bury itself underground.

It even felt that the movements of a pair of front paws were too slow, so it struggled to transform two more front paws to assist it in digging a hole to hide inside.

After hiding underground, it shivered and opened its mouth to complain: "This guy Jier, who does he think he is? Is defeating us small Shapeshifting Monsters something to be proud of? How dare he provoke the terrifying Cloud Monster so wantonly? Is he tired of living with all these Humans in the Yingdi?"

After complaining, it curled into a ball and prayed that the Cloud Monster would not discover its tracks.

Jier did not notice the movements of the Huimao Hu Li, which was a Shapeshifting Monster; he saw that the cloud mass in the sky seemed to have heard his provocation and began to gradually lower its altitude and approach.

However, the wind in the Yingdi did not increase synchronously; it even unexpectedly became a little smaller.

Jier held the middle-rear part of the Long Spear with his right hand, turned his body to the side, and held it above his head, making a standard throwing motion, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the approaching cloud mass, searching for the Monster in the cloud mass that could control the strong wind.

Or was it some kind of Magic Beast?

To be honest, although Jier had previously hunted a spider-type Magic Beast with the Knight Lanisha, that was also a quite difficult hunting operation that took several days and resulted in many deaths and injuries (all of them Bandits eaten by the Magic Beast); everyone had exhausted their efforts to kill the spider-type Magic Beast that moved on the ground.

And facing a Magic Beast that flew in the sky and hid in the clouds, what was he, Jier, supposed to do?

Jier had not even heard from the legends of the Bards about how many flying Magic Beasts there were in the sky.

This was also natural; Humans were a race that lived on the ground, and because they were born unable to fly, although they naturally yearned for the sky, they were not good at dealing with opponents in the air.

However, some Knight Orders that raised battle Gryphons were not in this category; they could wrestle with some aerial enemies, but it was mostly for expulsion, and life-and-death struggles were rare.

At this moment, Jier was just like that; facing a Monster or Magic Beast that flew in the air and hid in the clouds, he did not have many effective counterattack methods other than being able to throw the Dwarf Soldier Spear a few limited times.

The opponent was flying in the sky, holding the complete initiative; it could come when it wanted and leave when it wanted, and Jier simply had no way to deal with it.

At this time, he could only watch the other party's cloud and constantly judge the actual distance between himself and the cloud, estimating the angle and force for throwing the Long Spear.

But when that cumulonimbus cloud approached and flew over the top of the entire Yingdi, Jier stood stunned on the spot.

His breathing became rapid, and even the Long Spear he was holding fell to the ground because his hands went limp.

Jier stared with a dazed look as the cloud mass swept over his head at a high speed, and because of this, he turned his head to look at the other side of the Yingdi. The cumulonimbus cloud mass, which looked small from a distance, only made him realize how huge it was when it lowered its altitude and swept over his head.

Not only that, Jier's right eye was currently activating 【Shadow Reconnaissance】, letting the Shadow Bird not manifest externally but instead replace his eye to observe the outside world, so in the vision of the Shadow Bird, the huge low-flying cloud mass sweeping overhead at this moment saw things far more terrifying than what ordinary people saw.

Previously, Jier had thought that this cumulonimbus cloud mass was the Monster or Magic Beast in the clouds controlling the clouds in the sky and hiding itself in the clouds to conceal its figure and paralyze the enemy.

But when he looked at the huge cloud mass flying overhead from a "close distance" through the vision of the Shadow Bird, he discovered that the entire cloud mass was actually mostly the body of that Monster or Magic Beast!

So huge!

It was a massive Monster several times larger than his entire Yingdi; the entire cloud mass was only a few circles larger than its body. This kind of thing that broke his imagination, combined with the situation of observing the true size of that Monster or Magic Beast, left Jier completely dumbfounded.

And he stood there stunned.

"So huge..." Jier swallowed a mouthful of saliva; he looked at the Dwarf Soldier Spear that had fallen on the ground and felt that this weapon he had been satisfied with might feel even weaker to that Monster or Magic Beast than the prick of the finest needle.

This gave him a sense of mental powerlessness.

After the huge cloud flew over the Yingdi, the wind blowing in the Yingdi became much smaller; although it was still there, it could already be classified as a normal level.

Everyone ran out of their respective Tents one after another, looking at the chaotic Forward Camp and shouting.

Jier casually grabbed the Long Spear from the ground and sighed; he did not bother with the chaotic Villagers, but just waved his hand to let the Warriors maintain order and direct the Villagers to maintain the Yingdi.

When he turned to look at the surrounding sky, Jier suddenly discovered that the huge, terrifying wind-controlling Monster that relied on clouds to hide its figure had not flown very far away; it was hovering in place above a water source in the forest not far from the Yingdi.

A sudden impulse arose in Jier's heart; he gripped the Long Spear tightly, ignored the Villagers, leaped with all his might, jumped directly from the spot into the forest, and rushed toward that water source at a very fast speed.

When Jier rushed toward that water source at nearly his fastest speed, he heard a series of wails from animals.

The wails came from the air ahead.

Looking up, through the sparse branches and leaves, Jier saw some animals of various sizes that had come here to drink water wailing while being sucked directly into the middle of the huge cloud mass less than two hundred meters from the ground by the strong wind that had suddenly been whipped up from the ground, their four hooves and four claws flailing in the air.

The middle of the cloud mass was as black as ink, seemingly like an Abyss sucking in one animal after another that had come here to drink water.

Jier's footsteps slowed down for a moment; he was somewhat hesitant and afraid, fearing that he would enrage this huge, terrifying Monster and bring about consequences he could not be responsible for.

But slow as he was, the Forward Camp was not far from the water source; Jier still rushed out of the Shulin and immediately felt a very strong upward wind on the ground at the water source.

He felt that he was about to be sucked into the sky, so he immediately stuck the Dwarf Soldier Spear in his hand into the ground to anchor himself.

In this short moment, all the animals, large and small, that had come to the water source this morning to drink were sucked in one breath into the body of the Monster in the sky; there was not a trace left on the ground that they had ever been there.

But the suction in the air did not stop; it even intensified, until it sucked up the accumulated water in the middle of the water source as well, and only after maintaining this for a while did this abruptly appearing gale finally stop completely.

If Jier had a heart, it would clearly be pounding violently at this moment, but he did not, though he was certainly covered in sweat.

Jier landed on the ground, pulled his Long Spear from the rock, slowly raised his head, and looked at the massive cumulonimbus cloud group in the sky, no more than a hundred meters from the ground.

He breathed rapidly; it was only by summoning all his Yongqi that he dared to raise his head and look the opponent in the eye.

Suddenly, Jier felt an extremely powerful and clear will projecting down from the cloud group in the sky, seemingly sizing him up.

Jier breathed heavily, his gaze burning as he looked at the opponent's massive form, and shouted with all his might: "What are you looking at!!! I'm not afraid of you!!!"

The moment the words left his mouth, a massive gale blew horizontally from the surroundings, hugging the ground; caught off guard, Jier was blown flat onto the ground by this powerful wind.

But he immediately scrambled up, stabbing his Long Spear into the rock on the ground. At the same time, he pulled out his Hunting Sword with his left hand and jammed it into the ground to forcibly anchor himself.

The gale came again, but this time it was ineffective.

After trying several times in a row, the massive Monster above seemed to confirm that it could not deal with this tiny Human, Jier, by wind alone, so—

Pitter-patter, bean-sized raindrops suddenly fell from above Jier's head. These raindrops carried significant kinetic energy, almost like a stream of water rushing down from a waterfall, instantly soaking Jier to the bone.

But Jier gripped the hilt of his Hunting Sword and the shaft of his Long Spear, standing motionless without dodging, and shouted loudly: "Refreshing!! I haven't bathed in days, thank you for the free rainwater!!"

"Hahahaha..."

Jier laughed out loud.

But the next moment he could no longer laugh; seemingly provoked by Jier's laughter, the bean-sized raindrops ceased, then the massive cloud group above churned for a moment, and what fell next were hailstones the size of goose eggs!

Moreover, these falling hailstones were extremely fast. Jier dared not use his steel Helmet to block hailstones of this speed and weight, so he hurriedly took the olive-shaped Metal Shield he had captured from the Hartna Knight off the shield hook on his back.

This shield was very heavy, and carrying it on his back was quite cumbersome; it was far less suitable for long-term carrying than Jier's previous Elven Metal Shield. But at this moment, this shield performed a great service.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump...

The hailstones fell densely and incessantly within a dozen meters around Jier. Just hearing the sound from the surface of the shield made Jier feel a lingering fear. And the hail fragments that landed around him, even when they splashed onto Jier's body, made his armor plates clatter loudly.

And because of the cold of the hailstones, his already soaked armor was rapidly cooled and frozen together.

Jier felt the chill on his body, and while maintaining the posture of holding the shield toward the sky, he twisted his body to break off the ice shards frozen on his surface, regaining his ability to move.

To prevent the low temperature from harming his body, Jier activated the Life Energy within him, freed his right hand, held it up, and called out: "Yueshui Skull! Come! Come quickly! Yueshui Skull! Come! Help me fight!"

In the Forward Camp, inside Jier's tent, the Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe, which had been hanging on the wooden Weapon Rack, seemed to hear Jier's call; it first trembled, then fell from the Weapon Rack on its own, then it began to spin, sliced through the tarp on one side of the tent, and flew out of the Forward Camp while spinning.

Many people saw this scene. Some of the Warriors under Jier subconsciously wanted to follow this weapon to help Knight Jier, but when they saw the Yueshui Skull axe heading straight for the massive cumulonimbus cloud group hugging the ground not far away, they subconsciously felt fear and dared not take a step.

Jier's call was effective. In less than half a minute, just as the incessantly falling hailstones were about to submerge Jier, the Two-handed Axe whistled as it spun close to the ground, first flying in a circle around Jier to knock away the large amount of hail around him, before landing in Jier's hand with a great deal of cold energy.

Seeming to sense that the weapon in Jier's hand was extraordinary, the massive cloud stopped the terrifying hail disaster. Jier took the opportunity to stand up, shield in his left hand, axe in his right, standing straight on the earth, looking up directly at the massive, terrifying Monster.

Clang!

Jier struck his shield with the axe, making a loud noise.

"Come again! I'm not afraid of you!!"

He shouted loudly.

Seeming to be provoked by the actions of this tiny Human, Jier, a strange screech came from the clouds, as if the massive Monster was saying something. Then, a flash of light crossed the cloud group, and a bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, heading straight for Jier.

Jier was stunned.

?? I modeled this Monster after the image of an atmospheric monster from a thriller/horror movie in recent years, as well as some of the abilities of the classic bounty boss weather cloud from the game "Metal Max 3," incorporating them into the otherworld setting of my novel. Book friends who watch a lot of movies have probably already guessed what kind of monster it is. But the monster in the novel will of course not be as fragile as the one in the movie/game; on the contrary, it is very powerful and not something the protagonist can deal with right now. Finally, I welcome everyone to subscribe to this book, add it to your favorites, and give this book recommendation votes, monthly tickets, and tips for support. Thank you all.