Meanwhile, elsewhere.
That same afternoon, beside the newly opened drainage trench at Gallbladder Junction.
"Duck! Don't spill the medicine!"
A roar exploded beside the Hepa Apprentice's ear. His collar tightened, and he and the heavy medicine pouch clutched to his chest were hurled into a hollow in the hard rock wall.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Almost in the same instant, three black, poison-coated bone spikes screamed past his scalp and slammed into a scarlet shield that had appeared out of thin air!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Waves of blood churned, sending violent ripples across the dark-red, viscous shield. Blood sprayed from the shattered spikes, only to be dragged back by some uncanny force.
The figure holding the shield grunted under the ferocious impact. His feet slid half a meter across the muddy gravel, plowing two deep, smoking furrows.
His face, never particularly rosy to begin with, lost most of its color in an instant. He looked frighteningly pale.
"That was close... Little bro, if you'd taken another half step, I'd have needed a shovel to send you and that pouch home."
He grinned weakly at the apprentice in the rock crevice.
Still shaken, the Hepa Apprentice wrapped all four arms around the medicine pouch. But his horrified gaze was fixed on the otherworldly warrior's right hand—
A fresh cut ran across his palm, deep enough to expose bone!
Blood streamed relentlessly from the wound, weaving together and solidifying in midair at high speed to form that unyielding scarlet shield!
This lunatic... He's using his own blood as a blast shield?!
A gleaming golden tactical marker above his head stood out in the dim passage:
[Anemia].
LV.48, Second Advancement.
The [Landwalking Brood Mother] was too large to enter and was still beside the main road having the broken Bone Blade on her right