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Screee!
A piercing shriek split the air above the woods.
The badly wounded spellcasting Harpy summoned every last ounce of strength it had. The pale blue currents still clinging to its body surged in an instant, and a ring of lightning burst outward from it.
The powerful shock wave, crackling with electricity, slammed into Gu Su and the skeletons, hurling them several meters away.
Gu Su crashed hard against a tree before falling to the ground.
A dull ache throbbed in his chest, and the Plague Cutter nearly slipped from his hand.
He gritted his teeth and scrambled to his feet, fixing his gaze on what lay ahead. To his shock, the Harpy leader, which should have been dead, was dragging its battered body along, beating its nearly severed wings as it staggered toward the nest on the gas station roof.
Black blood dripped all along the way, leaving a ghastly trail across the ground.
"After it! Move!"
A fierce glint flashed in Gu Su's eyes as he issued the order without hesitation.
The skeletons also clambered to their feet. A few of their bones were damaged, but their fighting spirit remained undiminished.
To them, the Harpy leader escaping despite being so badly wounded was an insult—and they would be missing out on a major accomplishment.
So more than a dozen standard-sized skeletons raced with all their might out of the woods toward the abandoned gas station. Every one of them gave it their all, afraid a companion would steal the credit for killing the leader.
But just as the skeletons emerged from the woods and neared the gas station—
A sharp, urgent shriek suddenly rang out from the nest on the roof.
BOOM!
After a muffled crash, the ground around the abandoned gas station began to shake violently.
Then large amounts of thick, pitch-black sludge oil gushed from the doors, windows, and cracks of the convenience store beside the gas station. The oil flowed together like a rising tide, gradually taking shape as a gigantic Sludge Oil Monster.
The Sludge Oil Monster had a bulky body, its surface constantly dripping with viscous black oil. It looked like a giant snail carrying the ruins of the gas station on its back. Slowly, it poked its head out of its shell, then slammed its enormous oily body down hard.
The six skeletons at the front had no time to dodge. The massive oily body swallowed them in an instant.
They made no sound at all. A few faint ripples appeared on the oil's surface, and then they vanished without a trace, evidently corroded and dissolved completely.
Seeing this, the two Elite Skeletons behind them showed no sign of retreating. Instead, they raised their cleavers and iron-rod spears and charged forward with a roar.
But their weapons had no effect on the enormous Sludge Oil Monster.
The iron-rod spears plunged into it, only to be instantly wrapped up and swallowed by the thick oil. They didn't hurt the monster at all; instead, the oil stuck fast to the spears, making them impossible to pull free.
The cleavers fared no better. They struck the monster like they were hitting cotton, leaving not even a mark. The oil clung to them, and rust slowly spread across the blades.
Even more alarming, the monster made of sludge oil was dragging the ruins of the abandoned gas station along as it slowly moved toward Gu Su and the skeletons.
Black oil stained the ground wherever it passed. Grass and trees withered and rotted away at once, and a pungent stench filled the air.
Gu Su's pupils contracted. He understood at once that this bizarre Sludge Oil Monster was beyond their ability to handle.
Without the slightest hesitation, he gave the order. "Fall back! Everyone, retreat!"
The remaining skeletons were reluctant, but they obeyed his command to the letter. They stopped attacking, turned, and quickly retreated toward the woods, not daring to linger.
Only after confirming that every retreating skeleton had made it safely to the edge of the woods did Gu Su finally breathe a little easier.
He quickly counted their numbers. Of the more than a dozen skeletons he had brought, only five remained intact.
The rest had either been swallowed and dissolved by the Sludge Oil Monster or destroyed in the earlier battle.
In just a short while, he had lost sixty percent of his Skeleton Squad, including the five skeletons he had temporarily summoned.
Fortunately, they were undead troops. If they had belonged to any other army, morale would have collapsed long ago.
Looking at the five unharmed skeletons, Gu Su's breathing grew heavier. Heartache and fury churned in his chest.
He looked toward the Sludge Oil Monster, which was still slowly moving their way. His gaze turned icy as he muttered to himself, "Just you wait!"
Once his anger had passed, Gu Su forced himself to calm down and swept his gaze over the Harpy corpses scattered through the woods.
Some of these bodies were from their earlier hunt; others had fallen just now alongside the Harpy leader.
Gu Su didn't hesitate. He bent down, grabbed a relatively intact Harpy corpse beside him, and issued a firm order. "Take the bodies. We're leaving."
The five skeletons immediately stepped forward and divided the work. Some carried two Harpy corpses, while others struggled to hoist three. They followed steadily behind Gu Su as he led them deeper into the woods.
As they retreated, Gu Su kept glancing back to watch the Sludge Oil Monster. Gradually, he noticed its weakness.
Although the monster made of sludge oil was enormous and destructive, and seemed deeply intimidating, it moved extraordinarily slowly—like a snail. It couldn't keep up with them at all.
Seeing this, Gu Su quickly came up with a plan. He changed direction instead of heading straight for the Graveyard Demon, veering off to one side.
He planned to lead the skeletons in deliberately drawing the Sludge Oil Monster away in another direction. Once they had completely escaped it, he would bring the Harpy corpses back to the Graveyard Demon.
After all, the Skeleton Squad had suffered heavy losses, and even a temporary summoning wouldn't be enough to fight the Sludge Oil Monster.
For now, the best thing to do was take the Harpy corpses to the Graveyard Demon as soon as possible and replenish the number of Elite Skeletons.
What Gu Su hadn't expected was that when he and the skeletons ran off carrying the Harpy corpses, the Sludge Oil Monster stopped near the woods.
It didn't enter the woods. Instead, it extended tentacles made of sludge oil and swallowed the small-animal carcasses hanging upside down from the trees.
If Gu Su had been there, he would have realized—
These little animals hanging upside down in the trees had been left as food for the Sludge Oil Monster.
The creature hadn't appeared for no reason. It was a symbiotic creature of the Harpies.
The Harpies provided everything it needed to live.
Whenever the Harpies got into trouble, the Sludge Oil Monster had to step in and fight for them.
This time, the Harpy leader had underestimated Gu Su. It hadn't expected him to fight so dirty.
In just one brief clash, he had managed to kill every last Harpy.
Otherwise, with the Sludge Oil Monster attacking from the ground and the Harpies launching ambushes from the sky, it wouldn't have mattered how many troops came. They'd all have died.
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