Sudden Foul Spirits (14)

Over the next few days, Ang led the team deep into the areas where the foul spirits had once appeared, conducting a meticulous and cautious search.

Over three days, they found only scattered enemies in a burned woodland and the abandoned sites of two Lizardmen tribes—fewer than fifty foul spirits in total, moving in dispersed squads.

The foul spirits' tracks were difficult to find. Clearly, they were trying to avoid this elite force from the human territory.

That morning, the team encountered a small group of foul spirits beneath a hill.

After a brief but fierce battle, the ground was littered with the foul spirits' mangled corpses.

Ang gathered the team and gave an impromptu tactical lesson at the edge of the battlefield.

"Look at these foul spirits' skeletons." Ang pointed at a corpse lying against a rock, his expression grave.

"Their bones are exposed, wrapped in an outer layer of leathery tissue covered in magic patterns. Those patterns are not mere decorations—they are a manifestation of dark runes."

Several young mages bent down and carefully examined the dark purple patterns coiling across the corpses.

"What do these magic patterns represent?" one mage asked, looking up.

"They give the foul spirits' attacks a dark attribute." Ang's tone was calm, though it carried a faint warning.

"Being struck by a foul spirit is not as simple as suffering an external wound."

"Dark power will erode flesh like poison, causing tissue necrosis, poisoning, and even rapidly draining your stamina."

The mages' expressions turned serious. Quite a few instinctively glanced at the talismans and protective scrolls they carried close to their bodies.

Then Ang walked over to a foul spirit corpse, turned it over, and pointed to its armpits and neck. "These areas are the foul spirits' weak points."

"Look. There is no