Bloodbath

While Li Le searched for Tao Yu's tracks and gathered the few scattered Blood Orchids that remained.

Up above the valley, Yosef and Winuo had also turned their attention away from the giant snake carcasses and were now frowning as they looked back at the dark rainforest.

Rustle~

A faint sound came from within the dense forest, as if something were approaching.

In the darkening forest, the shadows of swaying branches and leaves were just barely visible.

"That kid wasn't wrong. There really is something out there."

Winuo hefted his axe and twisted his body. The armor on him scraped with a metallic sound, and a hint of wariness appeared on his face.

He was confident in his own strength. The mere Awakening Day shouldn't be enough to cause any trouble.

But anything was possible inside an Abyss fragment, so never letting your guard down was an ironclad rule.

"It's not one of those giant snakes. The noise would be louder. Whatever it is, it's small, and it's moving fast. There are... quite a few... Stay alert."

One of Yosef's pupils mechanically contracted, switching to infrared mode.

Yet even with the dark rainforest now outlined before his eyes, he still couldn't see anything useful!

He could see the lizards in the trees, the rats on the ground, and even some insects through this mode, but he truly couldn't find anything else.

"Infrared can't pick them up? They must have some kind of temperature-insulating shell..."

Yosef had barely finished speaking when a shadow plunged down from above, moving incredibly fast!

But Yosef was even faster as he raised the cannon mounted on his shoulder.

Bang~

The diving figure was blown apart in midair, spraying green liquid everywhere.

Yosef didn't know the danger posed by the blood, but he still dodged out of caution.

Even so, some of the viscous green blood splattered onto him, immediately sizzling.

His metal arm was made of corrosion-resistant metal, yet it still showed slight signs of corrosion. Yosef's expression changed.

"Careful! Their blood is highly corrosive! They must be the same kind of Wish Power Creature as the ones from the grasslands."

As he relayed the information, he quickly pulled out a bottle of water with his other hand and rinsed the spot where the blood had landed. At the same time, his raised mechanical arm shifted with a series of clicks, transforming into a rotating gun barrel like a Gatling gun!

He hadn't switched to this form even when attacking the giant snakes earlier, but now he did so without hesitation.

The two from the Inner City might have acted like they were above everyone else, but they were undeniably capable.

Although the broadcast had only given them a rough explanation, they had still made a quick assessment and confirmed that the blood was strongly acidic, all at a relatively low cost.

Nearby, Winuo watched the black-and-green heap of mangled remains on the ground and listened to the sizzling as the ground corroded.

With a grim expression, he pulled a metal disc from his waist with his other hand. A shake transformed it into a triangular boomerang.

"The blood's acidic too? That's a real problem for me. How many bullets do you have left?"

"That depends on how many of them there are!"

Yosef's expression darkened. Between the treetops and behind the trunks, he could already see the grotesque creatures with exoskeletons probing their surroundings, but they still hadn't charged.

A quick glance revealed more than a dozen of them!

Black exoskeletons, long and dangerous tails, grotesque faces, and viscous drool dripping from their mouths.

They kept appearing and vanishing behind the trunks, darting through the dark shadows.

"Are they trying to bait me into wasting my bullets?"

Seeing the creatures poke their heads out only to immediately retreat, Yosef could hardly believe it.

That meant they were much smarter than those giant snakes!

"Everyone, get up here! Get ready for an attack!"

Winuo roared, hurling the boomerang ahead of him.

The triangular metal boomerang shot through the air with Winuo's immense strength, slicing branches along its path and displaying its terrifying sharpness.

Its sudden burst of speed forced one creature to twist aside at the last moment, but the returning boomerang cut a deep gash into its body.

The creature let out an angry hiss as green acidic blood sprayed out. Before Winuo had even caught the returning boomerang, he had already thrown a second one.

They weren't nearly as powerful as his high-explosive grenades, but at least they were reusable!

Winuo caught the first boomerang and saw the slight corrosion on it. His expression grew heavy.

This was far too effective against him!

Nearby, Winuo's roar made Li Le, who was gathering scattered Blood Orchids, change his expression. His eyes flickered uncertainly, then he slung his gun over his shoulder and continued sliding down the valley.

He raised his gun at the others and shouted,

"Didn't you hear me? Get up there! Or I'll shoot you!"

While using his gun to force the other four to go up, Li Le also looked toward the situation above.

He had been waiting halfway up, so he'd heard some of the conversation. It sounded like they were dealing with something extremely troublesome!

Thinking of the Blood Orchids in his hands and the huge bag Tao Yu had, Li Le drove the others onward while quickly retreating himself. He ran along the bank toward another opening on the other side of the valley.

Damn it, I haven't even joined the Cannon Fodder Sequence yet! If you die, I won't be dragged down with you. I have no obligation to follow your orders!

All I have to do is find that guy who ran off. Just find him!

Thinking of the backpack he'd seen, which must have held dozens of Blood Orchids, Li Le felt a surge of greed...

Zhang Wei was climbing up behind the others. He heard Li Le fleeing and turned to look at his back, then glanced up ahead. His face darkened, and he quickly tucked his gun away and retreated as well.

He'd finally awakened a Combat Talent. He just had to survive this time—he had to survive!

As if sensing the others drawing near, the creatures that had been circling and probing from behind the trees changed their tactics the moment their ambush failed.

With only a few short hisses, they immediately charged at the two from several directions!

They were smaller and weaker than the giant pythons, but their more agile bodies gave them better ways to dodge.

They darted through the forest, making constant use of cover!

Bang~

Rat-a-tat-tat~

Yosef opened fire first. His shoulder-mounted cannon blew one apart, while the wrist that had transformed into a Gatling gun riddled another with bullets.

The hard exoskeleton shattered, and green acidic blood sprayed everywhere, sizzling as it hit the ground.

Although he quickly took down two of them, Yosef's expression immediately turned grim.

"Damn it! These things are highly resistant to bullets!"

The shoulder cannon could still kill one with a single shot, but his arm-mounted Gatling gun dealt far less damage than he'd expected!

If he'd fired at one of those giant snakes' heads, he would've punched right through and hit two or three more targets.

But here, it took twenty or thirty rounds just to barely kill one?

With a slight movement of his finger, a belt-like device around his waist launched a row of small spheres into a fan-shaped area ahead, quickly setting up trip mines for close-range defense.

Then he reached behind himself with his apparently ordinary hand and pulled out a red grenade. Without even looking, he hurled it into the forest.

Boom~

A tremendous flare of light erupted. The branches and leaves in the forest were damp and should have been difficult to ignite.

But the flames from the high-explosive incendiary grenade spread across the area in an instant, like napalm, and several creatures writhed as they burned.

At the same time, a creature approaching from another direction was struck by a trip mine that launched itself from the ground, exploding with a boom and blowing it to pieces.

He hadn't brought out any of these good weapons against the giant snakes earlier, but now he was pulling them out as though they cost nothing. It was clear just how much more they had at their disposal than the people from the Outer City.

Meanwhile, Winuo carefully avoided the trip mines while flinging more and more boomerangs.

He looked bulky, but he was incredibly agile. He kept five boomerangs flying at high speed, throwing them one after another without a pause.

His double-bladed axe was planted in the ground, ready to be pulled up whenever he needed it!

Every now and then, he also threw a high-explosive grenade to keep the creatures at a distance.

But the ranged attacks that should have given Winuo plenty of staying power seemed rather ineffective against the creatures.

The corrosion-resistant alloy was already battered and pitted after slicing into their bodies several times.

Soon, only two of the five boomerangs remained intact. The other three had lost their smooth surfaces and become stuck in the creatures, unable to return.

"Damn it! I'm taking a drug. Watch yourself!"

Seeing the troublesome creatures reduce their probing around Yosef and increase their numbers on his side, Winuo roared. Then he raised a hand and slapped his left shoulder hard.

A built-in needle inside his shoulder guard stabbed into his neck and injected an unknown liquid.

Almost at once, as Winuo roared, his entire body grew larger, stretching his full-body armor until the gaps widened and revealed layers of skin that looked like keratin.

"Roar!"

An unfamiliar beastly roar burst from his mouth. Winuo's body had swollen by a full size, and both his speed and strength surged. Gripping his double-bladed axe, he charged back at the creatures.

Bang~

One creature was smashed flat by a single blow, its blood bursting out!

His armor and axe still couldn't withstand the corrosion, but their thickness slowed it down. While he was in this clearly desperate state, suffering from the drug's side effects, the corrosion hardly seemed to matter.

One creature after another lunged at Winuo; one after another was sent flying or smashed flat.

Just then, Walter climbed up and saw the scene before him.

Though terrified, the ingrained reverence for the great figures of the Inner City still drove him to raise his hunting rifle and move forward.

But the next moment, Winuo split him in two with a single swing of his axe!

His entrails and blood spilled across the ground.

Chen Guan and the other man from Winuo's group from the Outer City, who had climbed up behind him, both felt their hearts tighten. Then they turned and slid back down the valley.

They looked back at Li Le, who was almost out of the valley, Zhang Wei, who was halfway there, and Tao Yu, who had vanished long ago. Both of them cursed furiously to themselves...