Chapter 79: The Parasitized Great Earth Bear

Early the next morning, Jier left behind a portion of the men to transport supplies, while the others set out with him.

They followed the "road" left by yesterday's logging; the messy trail left behind after dozens or hundreds of large trees were felled was the best path into the forest.

With dozens of people walking together and non-humans from the forest scouting the perimeter, the whole process was not as difficult as Jier had anticipated. Unlike outside the forest, the air inside was much more humid; in the gaps of some rock formations protruding from the ground, one could occasionally find seeping water, and these places were often very lively watering holes.

From small creatures like birds to large ones like Forest Deer and forest bears, these animals would all come to find ways to obtain water.

Jier tried it himself, but he quickly spat the small amount of water in his mouth out with a "ptui, ptui, ptui."

"You wouldn't dare drink this stuff; it has an intense bitter taste, and my tongue even went a bit numb. Unless you are about to die of thirst, I do not suggest that everyone drink this water source that the forest animals drink."

Jier explained to the group.

A shop thug who didn't believe it went up to try it himself. After using his hand to scoop up a bit of the water seeping from the rock crevice, he hesitated for a moment before taking a small sip. But the next moment, this big, burly thug wrinkled his face and spat everything in his mouth out.

"Forget dying of thirst; even if I were truly dying of thirst, this water is impossible to drink at all."

The crowd burst into laughter; this kind of foolish guy who doesn't believe in evil is also the kind of "fun-maker" that everyone in the team needs most. Watching these guys act stupid every day is also a fun way to relieve stress.

Don't let the fact that Knight Jier is young fool you; in reality, the earnestness and sincerity of Jier are things everyone in the team can feel. If Jier says this water cannot be drunk, then most of the warriors who understand Jier will believe it. There is no need to verify anything; Jier himself is an object of their extreme trust, and there is no need to re-verify what Jier says.

As the warriors spread out to walk through the forest, they followed Jier's request to take turns having some people fell the large trees one by one along the path they had come from.

In this way, the fallen trees would clearly indicate the group's route, so that whether it was the personnel transporting supplies from the rear or when they were retreating, they could all follow the trees fallen in sequence on the ground to find the path they had come by.

Jier and his group were not advancing randomly through the forest; instead, every time they walked a certain distance, they would stop to check the traces on the surrounding ground. Those Parasitic Monsters had no rivals in the forest, so they never paid attention to the movement traces left under their feet when traveling.

Moreover, Jier had discovered that starting from yesterday, they would send personnel to the Sasi County plain river valley area every so often, and the route was straight through the entire forest area.

So when Jier and his group didn't know which way to go, they only needed to wait in place for a period of time to find a small group of Parasitic Monsters setting out from the monster nest.

These guys were still easy to deal with; the truly difficult ones were the beasts in the forest that had also been parasitized and controlled by the Parasitic Monsters.

Not long after, Jier and his group encountered the Parasitic Monsters' truly powerful means.

"Surround it, surround it!" Jier shouted and commanded while moving.

Mao Mao was constantly hitting stones with his tail on the surrounding branches, distracting and drawing the attention of the strong monster to provide an opportunity for the warriors running around it.

The seven Church Priests who had come along also stood out, rolling up their sleeves and curiously sizing up this terrifying monster that had suddenly appeared in front of them.

This was a hegemon of the forest—a Great Earth Bear, which could be considered a powerful existence between a beast and a monster.

Of course, it was a powerful existence to ordinary people, but not to Jier.

But even so, this monster had become even more troublesome after being parasitized by the Parasitic Vine Monster.

This guy stood four meters tall and weighed over a ton. From its brown-yellow fur, a large amount of small, sturdy vines were constantly emerging, and on some of the matted, tangled fur, there were even moss and Snail Shells present.

Every time this monster walked, the ground pressed and stepped on by its paws would emit a slight tremor, and when it smashed the ground in a rage, it could make it impossible for people to stand.

It could be considered an extremely terrifying forest monster.

Generally speaking, this large area of forest around here should have been its hunting ground and territory; it was unknown how the seemingly fragile little Parasitic Core managed to parasitize this big guy.

From the various small vines emerging from this guy's body, one could tell that it had already been parasitized by the Parasitic Vine Monster; it was just unknown how long it had been parasitized, and whether it would turn into a flowering monster if they waited any longer.

If a Great Earth Bear were added to a flowering monster, Jier estimated that this guy's destructive power would not be inferior to some true Magic Beasts.

It would only take half a day for the combined monster to easily destroy a Human Cunzi, and in half a month, it could destroy the entire Northern Sasi County.

"Surround it, don't let it run away! I don't know if we are lucky or unlucky to have run into such a big guy after only being inside for half a day!" Jier exclaimed, the blue light on the Blue Axe in his hand shining brightly, ready for battle at any moment.

If any of his teams of subordinates had run into a monster of this level, there would have been almost no chance for the warriors to survive, but it was also the monster's bad luck to have run head-on into Jier's entire team.

The archers in the team kept shooting arrows at this giant bear-like monster, but the Arrows that could easily shoot a Human to death could, for the most part, only be considered as hanging onto the thick, dirty fur of the parasitized Great Earth Bear.

The metal-tipped Arrows couldn't even pierce the opponent's skin, let alone the thick fat beneath the bear's skin.

But fortunately, it was early summer now, not late autumn or the beginning of winter; this was the time of year when bears were at their "thinnest," and there was almost no fat under its skin, which didn't cause much difficulty for Jier and the others.

The warriors surrounded it, but no one dared to truly go up and have a close-range encounter with the four-meter-tall standing Great Earth Bear, including the usually bold Bawei. This guy didn't talk tough anymore either; he carefully held his axe and gestured at the monster in front of him, seemingly feeling that no matter which direction he hacked from, he couldn't inflict fatal damage on the opponent.

But just because he couldn't didn't mean others couldn't.

Bang! Bang!

Two sounds of a Bowstring vibrating came; the Tusi Brothers stood more than thirty meters away from the perimeter, each firing one shot, directly sending two Large Arrows flying, accurately shooting into the place where the opponent had opened its mouth to roar.

The weight and penetrating power of the Large Arrows were naturally different from ordinary Arrows, and the Tusi Brothers had extremely high precision; at this distance, they hit exactly where they said they would.

The Arrows shot in from the monster's mouth and drilled out from the back of the monster's head.

Under normal circumstances, even if this monster didn't die, it wouldn't have many breaths left. But the Tusi Brothers forgot that this was a monster parasitized by the Parasitic Vine Monster!

The two arrows that emerged from the back of its head seemed to have had no effect on the monster at all; instead, it chose the Tusi Brothers, who posed the greatest threat to it, and slammed its bear paws onto the ground, preparing to charge toward them.

The ground trembled; every life that needed to stand on the ground would be unable to escape due to the trembling of the ground, which was precisely the signature skill of the Great Earth Bear for hunting and survival.

However, the Tusi Brothers had dealt with beast-monsters like the Great Earth Bear before; they pulled on the Rope on their bodies, and the two of them flew directly toward the sky.

Oh, it wasn't that they had suddenly learned to fly, but that they had ropes tied around their waists; one end of the rope was hung on a tree beside them, and at the far end, three people were pulling hard on a rope, which allowed the two of them to fly up quickly and avoid the Great Earth Bear's pounce.

But this guy didn't give up; after standing up, it fiercely waved its sharp claws toward the sky. At this moment, a Blue Axe flew over from the side, hitting the monster's two claws squarely, causing the huge, heavy, parasitized Great Earth Bear to stagger.

Then Jier rushed over, accelerated and leaped in a few steps, and with a flying kick, knocked it down in one blow.

But the vitality of the parasitized Great Earth Bear was a hundred times more tenacious than that of the Parasitic Vine Monster that parasitized Humans; it climbed up from the ground like nothing had happened and swiped its paw at Jier.

The sharp claws on any one of its paws were over ten centimeters long, basically the same length as a sturdy and sharp Dagger, and it had five such "weapons" on a single paw. If it grabbed a Human body, the result would easily be disembowelment. If the target were smaller, being torn to pieces was entirely possible.

Jier immediately swung his axe to parry.

But the result of the giant bear paw clashing with the Blue Axe was that Jier was knocked flying by the opponent's immense strength—no, Jier's strength was not inferior to the opponent's, it was just that his body weight was insufficient, and he was knocked flying by the one-ton Great Earth Bear's swipe.

This parasitized Great Earth Bear didn't have it easy either; the intense collision just now had directly split most of its left front paw, several claws were hacked off, and the remaining few were only hanging by a bit of skin, barely not falling off.

"Woo—"

It let out a roar, and ignoring the injury to its left paw, it moved with its three remaining limbs, rushing quickly toward Jier.

But the Tusi Brothers, who were hanging from the tree, fired their arrows again. This time it was still the Great Earth Bear's head, but instead of shooting into the mouth from below, they shot from above, the Large Arrow piercing through the bear's skull and shooting directly into the opponent's empty head.

Even though the Great Earth Bear was parasitized, it was still not a very smart guy. After realizing the attack from above, it gave up chasing Jier and stood up, attempting to use its right paw to reach the Tusi Brothers in mid-air.

"Someone come help quickly! Don't just stand there! Come help quickly!" Xiao Tusi still lacked a bit of courage; being targeted by the giant monster beneath his feet, he was shrieking, while Zhongtusi beside him was much better, his mouth tightly shut, not saying a single word of weakness.

It was just that at the leg of his trousers, a suspicious liquid was trickling down.

Jier pulled himself out of the scattered wood chips from the trunk of a large tree, shaking his head; it was truly rare to have the experience of being sent flying by an enemy relying on a weight advantage.

It was also because he had always been the one with the weight advantage in battle; suddenly fighting a one-ton Earth Violent Bear, he had forgotten that the opponent's weight was several times his own.

"Spit! Don't just stand there, Warriors with wood-chopping axes, throw them at me. Warriors holding iron shovels, throw those shovels with both hands too. Quick!"

Jier ordered, and the Warriors finally reacted, one after another putting strength into both hands and fiercely throwing these extra items they were carrying forward.

Since the Warriors were only a dozen or so meters away from the Earth Violent Bear, it was somewhat difficult to miss at this distance.

Therefore, with thuds and tearing sounds, a large number of weapons were thrown at the Earth Violent Bear; the Monster's fur, which could originally block Arrows, was now useless, being sliced open one after another, and the thick skin underneath did not stop the attacks of the axes and shovels, leaving bloody gashes exposed just like that.

But after being parasitized, the Earth Violent Bear did not have that much blood inside its body, so the wounds were just wounds; not long after the somewhat pale bear muscles were exposed, tiny vines emerged from between the muscles, secreting fragrant plant sap that acted like glue, attempting to seal the wounds all over its body.

The Earth Violent Bear immediately wanted to hunt down these little humans attacking it from the surroundings, but Jier rushed up again, followed immediately by another direct clash between an axe and a bear paw. Amidst the intense sound of the collision, the Earth Violent Bear's right front paw was also completely ruined.

Jier was also sent flying just like last time, but this time he was knocked even further; perhaps because there was no time to assist his subordinates, Jier threw the axe in his hand while being knocked away, letting the blue axe spin out and rotate around the Earth Violent Bear, making the already scarred Monster even worse off.

Boom, Jier slammed sideways into a large tree trunk, shaking the tree's branches and leaves violently, and Jier also retched a few times, but didn't vomit much blood, though he did spit stomach acid all over the ground.

Jier touched his back and found that some parts of the Armor behind him had been smashed, and the Metal Armor Plate was also twisted and deformed significantly.

Sure enough, Plate Armor that was useful against Humans was not so useful when dealing with Monsters whose weight and strength were off the charts.

Without time to wipe the stomach fluid from his mouth, Jier ran quickly, charging straight at the Monster. While running, he reached out and summoned, and the axe head flew back into his hand.

Because the area near the Earth Violent Bear would cause one to fall due to the trembling ground, making it impossible to stand firmly, Jier simply jumped from over ten meters away, passing through the obstruction of tree branches with a crackling sound, and directly slammed an axe into the Earth Violent Bear's head from the air.

With a loud smack, the bear's head, which was half the size of a person, was directly smashed by Jier's axe, and a large amount of flesh and tissue splattered everywhere; to Jier's surprise, looking into the severed neck of the headless Earth Violent Bear, most of the Monster's internal body was still as it was, and the parasitic vines did not seem to have modified the Earth Violent Bear's body much.

Although the Monster could not perceive its surroundings without a head, it could still fight, and its tattered palms reached out to embrace Jier, wanting to hold him and then crush him to death.

But if Jier were simply competing in strength, he was not weaker than the opponent. Being sent flying by this Monster twice was simply because his weight was not as great as the opponent's, not because his strength was insufficient.

"Hey-ah!" Jier shouted, bracing his hands and feet against the surroundings, exerting force continuously, while the body of the Earth Violent Bear, parasitized by vines, also struggled to contract its arms to squeeze Jier into a pulp.

The two held each other in a stalemate, and for a moment, it seemed impossible to tell who would win.

The surrounding people seemed stunned for a moment, but Weier reacted, drew his Long Sword, and stepped forward to stab the Earth Violent Bear's body directly.

The Monster's body was quite sturdy, just like inserting one's Long Sword into a piece of dense wood.

But Weier held the sword with both hands, relying on the acceleration inertia and his own weight to stab directly into the Monster's ribs, to see if he could be lucky enough to kill the Parasitic Human-faced Core hiding in the Monster's torso.

The others also reacted, one after another using their respective weapons to approach, and even though the ground around the Earth Violent Bear's paws kept trembling, making it hard for everyone to stand firmly or exert force from the ground, dozens of Warriors still took the risk to step forward, using their weapons to damage the dying parasitized Earth Violent Bear bit by bit.

After quite a long time, the Warriors were exhausted, but the Earth Violent Bear only had superficial wounds; however, several Warriors injured the Earth Violent Bear's arm joints, suddenly destroying the opponent's structural ability to exert force, which allowed Jier to take the upper hand in the clash of strength.

Jier gritted his teeth, his entire body's Life Energy circulating, and the Magic Amplification Bracer on his left arm also emitted light. He bit by bit pried open the Earth Violent Bear's arms, which were posturing to hug his chest, and then twisted his wrists, snapping the Earth Violent Bear's two arms, which were as thick as his entire body, into pieces.

"Die!"

Jier pushed aside the two arms he had snapped, grabbed the Heart Fire Magic Dagger at his waist, and stabbed it directly into the Monster's abdomen, piercing through the thick layer of abdominal fat and entering the area where the Monster's internal organs should be.

He activated the Magic Dagger's 【Scorching】 ability, spraying a large amount of Magic Power flames directly from inside the Monster's body.

The huge Earth Violent Bear's body trembled, and soon it stopped moving.

And from the Monster's severed neck, a large amount of water vapor sprayed out; clearly, the Earth Violent Bear's abdominal cavity had turned into a high-temperature steamer, and those Parasitic Human-faced Cores that were controlling this big guy from inside were dead beyond a doubt.

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