Gravely Wounded

In a blaze of dazzling violet light, rotten flesh flew everywhere, and severed mycelium thrash­ed wildly like torn electrical cables! Corpse Mountain's advance faltered, and it let out an even more frenzied howl!

"It worked!" Alina's eyes lit up, and she sent a rapid succession of arrows into the wound left by the explosion. Karl also concentrated his ice spikes on the spot, trying to make the most of their success.

But Corpse Mountain's regenerative power was beyond imagination. More mycelium surged from underground and from its body, rapidly filling the wound like wildly growing vines and even reattaching the severed tentacles.

Though it looked even more twisted!

Su Ran's attack seemed to have enraged it completely. More tentacles emerged from all over the mass of flesh, some smashing toward Rex, others snaking toward Alina and Karl,

and two particularly thick ones lashed like whips at Su Ran and Xiaoguang in the rear!

The battle instantly reached a fever pitch!

Rex roared again and again, swinging his shield to block and strike. Several deep gashes had appeared on his body, exposing bone, and blood had stained his armor red.

Alina and Karl dodged the tentacles' coils and blows in disarray, their rhythm of attack disrupted. Xiaoguang desperately cast healing spells, but his weak dispelling magic had little effect on the mycelium, and his face was pale.

Su Ran kept moving, dodging the tentacles while seizing every opportunity to cast [Arcane Explosion] again and again!

Every blast tore apart masses of rotten flesh and mycelium, temporarily holding back Corpse Mountain's assault, but his mana was draining fast! He had no choice but to down a Guild Standard Mana Potion.

"This can't go on! Where's its core? Inside its body?"

Su Ran's mind raced as [Knowledge Insight] frantically analyzed the flow of energy through Corpse Mountain.

He discovered that the source of all the mycelium seemed to converge at a point just below Corpse Mountain's center, where an unusually active energy fluctuation mixed undead, twisted life, and alien energies!

"Rex! Try attacking just below its center! That might be the core!" Su Ran shouted.

At his words, a fierce light flashed in Rex's eyes. He took the blows of two tentacles head-on and roared, activating his Charge Skill to slam toward Corpse Mountain's center like a raging bull!

Earth-yellow light flashed across his mace as he brought it crashing down!

"Break, damn you!"

At the same time, Su Ran poured out the last of his mana and unleashed his strongest [Arcane Explosion] yet at the same spot Rex was attacking!

The staff's [Arcane Resonance] special effect triggered at just the right moment! The violet light of the explosion was brighter than any before it, and its radius expanded!

"Boom...!!!"

Rex's mace and Su Ran's Arcane Explosion struck almost simultaneously!

Rotten flesh and mycelium sprayed wildly outward, as though a bomb had gone off inside them!

Corpse Mountain let out an earthshaking, piercing wail of anguish, as if countless lives were ending at once!

The massive lump of flesh convulsed violently, swelled, and then exploded with a thunderous crash! Countless fragments and globs of slime rained down, staining the fungal mat for dozens of meters around a sickening blue-purple.

Corpse Mountain had finally been destroyed.

But Rex had paid a price.

At the center of the explosion, he had borne the brunt of the blast and the corrosive slime that splashed everywhere. His tower shield was completely warped, his breastplate shattered, and he had been blasted away, landing hard on the fungal mat. He spat great mouthfuls of blood, unconscious and breathing faintly.

"Captain!" Alina and Karl cried, rushing over.

Xiaoguang immediately threw himself down beside Rex, pouring out holy light as though it cost nothing in an attempt to stabilize his injuries.

Su Ran leaned on his staff, gasping hard, his mana nearly exhausted and his face pale.

He looked at the mess of shredded flesh and the mycelium still wriggling faintly on the ground, then at the gravely wounded, unconscious Rex. He felt no joy in victory, only crushing exhaustion and a lingering trace of fear.

This so-called freebie run had nearly wiped them all out.

He glanced into the distance. Unusual commotion and sounds of fighting seemed to be coming from the other areas as well.

This rift was probably not so simple.

The stench and the mess of the battlefield left behind after Corpse Mountain's destruction left everyone shaken.

Rex was gravely wounded. His breastbone had caved in, his internal organs were damaged, and corrosive slime had burned him in several places. He remained unconscious, his breathing faint.

Xiaoguang used all his strength to cast divine healing arts, but he could only stabilize Rex's injuries temporarily and keep them from worsening. He could not wake him immediately.

"We have to get the captain out for treatment right away!" Alina said anxiously as she looked at Rex's terrible condition. Karl's face was grave as well, and he nodded in agreement.

"Retreat! Back to the entrance!" Su Ran said decisively. This was clearly no safe freebie area; that bizarre Mycelium Aggregation Monster had nearly killed them.

Alina and Karl carefully lifted Rex onto a makeshift stretcher, while Xiaoguang tended to him beside it.

Su Ran stood guard with his staff as the group abandoned any plans to explore further or gather other resources. They quickly retreated along the route they had come, heading for the rift entrance.

Along the way, they encountered several other teams that had also been attacked and suffered casualties of varying degrees.

Some had encountered Animated Puppets made of rock and mycelium, while others had been attacked by swarms of small Otherworldly Insects controlled by mycelium.

One team even reported finding an aggregation like Corpse Mountain, but made from the remains of other monsters.

The atmosphere inside the rift abruptly grew tense. The supposed stability and completed cleanup were clearly just an illusion, or some unknown change had occurred after they entered.

Su Ran and the others picked up their pace and finally returned to the relatively open area where they had first entered.

The rift entrance was just ahead, emitting a steady blue glow, but the professionals could not leave because the Otherworldly Rift's core had yet to be destroyed.

Quite a few teams had already gathered there after retreating, most of them bringing wounded. Everyone looked grave as they exchanged information in low voices, and the air was thick with unease and the smell of blood.

The temporary commander-in-chief, the Lv.7 fire Elementalist, was anxiously counting heads and contacting the outside world through a Special Communication Device.

"Damn it! There's something wrong with the reconnaissance report! The corrupted fungal mat in this rift is far more active than estimated! It can control corpses and certain materials!"

The commander-in-chief growled into the communicator, "We need reinforcements, or we need to organize a retreat immediately... What? Abnormal fluctuations in the core's energy? You're trying to destroy it?"

Just then...

"Boom!!!!"

A deafening crash suddenly erupted from deep within the rift space!

The sound was not a simple explosion. It was more like the wail of some kind of energy core being forcibly torn apart, its structure collapsing!

The entire rift space trembled violently with it. Fine cracks seemed to appear in the lead-gray sky, and the fungal mat on the ground writhed madly, letting out a soundless shriek.

Immediately afterward, a scorching, violent wave of flame energy, brimming with an aura of destruction, swept out from the depths like a tsunami!

Even from so far away, Su Ran could feel the suffocating heat wave and its sheer destructive power!