Acid Arrow and Ballista

The ground trembled.

The clear, heavy sound of gravel being crushed pressed in relentlessly from the forest.

A massive ballista, like a ferocious beast, crashed into the battlefield where people fought.

Three enormous bows—two facing forward, one reversed—were mounted on the wooden frame of this ballista.

The foremost giant bow was unmistakably the [Giant Lightning Bow] crafted from the charred Divine Wood left over by Blair.

Two [Giant Arrows] had already been loaded side by side into the grooves.

This [Ballista] weapon, designed specifically for hunting giant beasts and dormant for over a decade since its creation, was finally about to fulfill its purpose.

Behind this wooden-wheeled behemoth, more than a dozen towering warriors spread out, veins bulging on their faces, expressions fierce. They kept their distance, shouting anxiously at the top of their lungs to draw the sea monster's attention.

These clansmen who had come to reinforce were none other than Boer and his guard team, rushing here in a frenzy after receiving the news.

Yet, upon arriving, the guards too felt a surge of panic.

The brutal scene and the thick stench of blood churned their insides.

A sight of carnage far beyond imagination shook everyone to the core.

But as the guard team, they clearly calmed down faster than the ordinary clansmen.

"Spread out! Use Acid Arrows—don't let the sea monster get near the ballista!"

Boer roared.

He tried to use that fierce shout to drive away the trembling and fear in his own body, not letting the guards see his slightly quivering frame.

This scene forced him to uncontrollably recall that day, when as a youth he was chased by a sea monster on the open sea, a terror he could not forget.

Faced with this kind of primal battle for survival, this young chieftain, who had always carried out the merciful will of the gods, was separated from his father by a chasm-like gap.

But Boer quickly forced himself to steady.

He was the son of the God-Chosen.

He could not disgrace his father, nor could he disappoint the gods.

He and the guard team shouted loudly, buying time for the panicked clansmen.

"Delay its movements—buy time for the ballista!"

Strange arrows flew out one after another.

These were specially treated [Acid Arrows], filled with the venom of the Yamal Spider.

However, such powerful arrows were extremely costly to produce.

The Yamal Spider took a long time to produce this highly corrosive venom.

Often, it could only be harvested once a year.

Thus, only the guard team possessed such precious arrows.

"Sizzle!"

As those valuable Acid Arrows landed on the monster's hard carapace, the people watched with delight as wisps of white smoke immediately rose from the wet, pitch-black shell.

"It's working! The acid is eating through its shell!"

Seeing that the Acid Arrows were truly effective, the guards no longer hoarded the precious arrows in their quivers, hurriedly pulling them out.

Arrow after arrow of Acid Arrows fired off relentlessly, as if they had nothing to lose.

But this corrosion still took time.

The Crab Sea Monster charged through the rain of arrows, ramming into the people ahead.

A single casual swing of its crab claw sent men flying, spitting blood as they crashed to the ground.

Before such a monster, humans were as fragile and helpless as blades of grass.

Under this savage onslaught, more and more people became souls claimed beneath the crab's claws.

This also made it nearly impossible for the ballista to get a clear aim.

Given the sea monster's movement like this...

The cumbersome ballista had no way to precisely adjust its aim to target and hit.

Just as people were frantic with anxiety...

A tall guard, emboldened by some unknown courage, Seized the moment when the Giant Monster overturned a clansman, silently gripping a stone rope and charging forward without a word.

Before dying, the blood-soaked guard used that stone rope to entangle one of the hermit crab's giant legs, making it hard to move.

This finally created an opportunity for the ballista to aim.

Under the combined effort of several sweating clansmen turning the winch, the wooden bowstrings were drawn taut in unison.

Sounds like tearing coarse linen rang out repeatedly.

This signified that the bow had been fully drawn to its limit.

"Fire!"

A wooden mallet struck the trigger.

A whistling sound arose.

Like a fierce gale sweeping across this stretch of sand.

Human eyes could only catch a dark shadow.

After that shadow flashed past...

The massive arrow had already pierced into the sea monster's shell.

A loud, crisp crack rang out.

The monster's shell, already corroded and weakened, was finally breached by the arrow.

As those two giant arrows drove in...

An unprecedented surge of electricity leaped within the sea monster's body, now stripped of its hard armor, instantly vaporizing the moisture on its shell as white smoke billowed up.

"Boom!"

The sea monster suddenly collapsed, kicking up sand and gravel, a few crab claws twitching uncontrollably on the ground.

Large cracks began spreading across the hard shell, followed by sections caving in.

From the shattered shell, a pungent, stinking pale yellow liquid splattered out, resembling its blood.

After the flickering arcs of electricity faded...

The struggling monster gradually stopped moving.

But the guards dared not cease their archery.

Only when the arrows were nearly embedded all over the shell did Boer call them to stop.

"Stop!"

At Boer's command, the guards, drenched in cold sweat, halted their shooting in shock and uncertainty, panting heavily.

The monster had long since ceased moving.

A highly stinking pale yellow liquid...

Slowly spread out from beneath its fallen massive body.

"We killed a sea monster?!"

Staring at the seemingly dead sea monster, the guards' faces first lit up with wild joy, but that expression vanished in an instant as they quickly scanned their surroundings.

Given the way this youth had just blown the whistle, and the intense whistles now ringing out one after another along the nearby coast...

It was clear that more than one sea monster had landed on the island.

This dead creature was merely one of them.

The tribe had not yet claimed victory.

After ordering the clansmen to rescue the wounded...

Boer hurriedly found the stunned youth, who had first witnessed the sea monster's invasion and seemed frozen in fear.

"Speak quickly! How many of these sea monsters did you see? Where did the others scatter to?"

Upon learning the number of sea monsters and their scattered directions...

Boer's heart sank to the bottom.

He looked up at the other shores, then turned his gaze toward that direction, a vague unease stirring within him.

"Brother."