Blood Moor (Part 2)

Again, several staff blows came down in succession, striking the same spot on the back of the Zombie's head. Diya attacked with all his strength, each hit producing a dull thud, until at last there was a crack and the wooden staff snapped in the middle. A hole had also split open in the back of the Zombie's skull, and pus-like ** seeped out from within. The stench instantly rushed into his face.

Diya covered his nose with one hand and quickly backed away, dodging the splattering pus at the same time. The Zombie swayed, let out its final roar, then collapsed onto the grass. A wisp of faint white smoke shot out from the Zombie's body and swiftly flew toward Diya.

The white smoke circled once around Diya's body. As if discovering that Diya could not absorb this share of Source Power, it began drifting around nearby instead, until it drew close to Flavia. Then, like steel drawn to a magnet, it shot into Flavia's body with a whoosh.

Seeing this difference in treatment, Diya helplessly curled his lip. Who told him he wasn't a native of hell?

He threw away the broken branch left in his hand, walked over to the withered little tree, and snapped off another trunk of the same thickness and length. He swung it twice. This thing was not sharp at all, nor pointed; even though he had practiced Basic Swordsmanship, Diya could not bring it into play. But as a sap for knocking people from behind, it was a decent choice.

"A Zombie's overall strength should be about the same as a mid-level Soldier Rank warrior of Brahma Continent. Counting that powerful ability to take a beating, it's a little stronger than an ordinary mid-level Soldier Rank warrior. Maybe it can contend with an ordinary upper-level Soldier Rank warrior," Diya summarized, then said.

"Let's go. We'll see what the other monsters are like." With a wave of his hand, Diya walked at the very front and continued ahead. The short clumps of green grass seemed extremely resilient. When Diya stepped down, he could feel the grass resisting, thrusting upward to straighten itself. Wherever his footprints passed, the grass quickly returned to its original state.

Aside from Zombies, there were two other kinds of monsters on the Blood Moor. If there was not too great a difference from the game, then before long, Diya and the others saw something moving in a small grove several dozen meters ahead.

A dim silvery gray. From afar, it looked like a huge, stretched-out hedgehog. The moment Diya saw this kind of thing, he immediately knew it was a Quill Rat, a monster that attacked from range, capable of firing the spikes on its body. And if struck by those spikes, one might be infected with lethal poison.

From dozens of meters away, the Quill Rats sensed Diya and the others' arrival. One after another, they quickly turned their bodies, their backs arching as their spikes stood straight up one by one. At a rough glance, each spike was actually thirty to forty centimeters long, and a faint cold glimmer flashed at the tips.

Hissing cries came from the mouths of the three Quill Rats crouched low to the ground. Diya and the others did not approach, and the Quill Rats did not rush over either. They remained deadlocked just like that.

"Advance." After Diya spoke, he carefully moved closer to the Quill Rats, the tree trunk in his hand pointed forward, ready at any moment to deal with the Quill Rats' spike shots.

Flavia followed tightly on Diya's left side, her wooden bow already drawn to its limit, ready to attack at any time. When Diya and the others were less than thirty meters from the Quill Rats, Flavia loosened the fingers pinching the tail of the arrow. With a twang, the arrow turned into a blur and shot rapidly toward one of the Quill Rats.

After crossing a distance of thirty meters, the arrow's power had already weakened considerably. The Quill Rat also retracted the spikes on its back in time, forming armor-like defenses. The arrow struck the spikes, scraped out a few sparks, then fell to the ground.

Flavia's proactive attack enraged the Quill Rats. The three Quill Rats moved together, charging rapidly toward Diya and the others. Each one retracted its spikes, protecting its back and sides. Looking at them like this, the Quill Rats were roughly one and a half meters long, and their bodies were about thirty centimeters across at the widest point.

Facing the Quill Rats' group charge, Diya and Flavia quickly retreated. The quality of the wooden bow was not good enough, and the penetrating power of the arrows it fired was also insufficient, unable to pierce the Quill Rats' protective layer of spikes. This also showed that the hardness of the Quill Rats' spikes was no worse than the arrowheads.

"Whoosh." "Whoosh." "Whoosh."

The Quill Rats, rushing forward, suddenly stopped in unison. Their spikes rapidly spread open, their backs quickly arched upward and then contracted just as quickly. Three blurs flashed at the same time, and three spikes shot from the Quill Rats' backs, flying toward Diya and the others.

Diya saw the spikes perfectly clearly. He flicked the branch upward, immediately knocking away the spike shooting at him. Flavia fired an arrow; arrow and spike collided, and both fell to the ground. As for Diablo, the spike had only just shot in front of him when it was surrounded by Hellfire and turned to ash.

"The attack strength is about the same as a mid-level Soldier Rank Swordsman," Diya said, then quickly moved, lowering his body as he charged to the side, just avoiding the Quill Rats' second wave of shots.

At this moment, Flavia's archery skill revealed itself. Arrow after arrow collided with the spikes. If not for the poor quality of the wooden bow and arrows, Flavia would have been able to kill that Quill Rat.

Diya's speed was extremely fast. In a few steps, he curved around in an arc, rushed with quick thudding strides to the side of one Quill Rat, and smashed his staff down. The Quill Rat rapidly retracted its spikes. Diya only felt his right hand tremble, as if he had struck steel, and a slight numbness spread through his palm.

Diablo was the most relaxed, floating in the air and easily dodging the spikes' attacks.

"Their weak points are the head and abdomen," Diablo reminded him when he saw Diya had no way to deal with the Quill Rat. Diya looked at the Quill Rat's tiny pointed head, almost completely covered by spikes, then looked at the thick end of the tree trunk in his hand and overturned the idea of attacking the first weak point.

Flavia, however, fired an arrow. After knocking down a spike, she swiftly nocked another arrow, aimed at the Quill Rat's pointed head, and shot it with thunder that left no time to cover one's ears. Blood sprayed from the arrow. It sank into the Quill Rat's tender head, stabbing straight in several centimeters deep. That Quill Rat did not even let out a cry. Blood quickly flowed out, its whole body convulsed a few times, and then it stopped moving, while a fishy stench spread.

Immediately after, Flavia aimed an arrow at another Quill Rat. Another arrow shot out. As for the remaining Quill Rat, Diya fiercely inserted the tree trunk into the Quill Rat's side, then pried with force as if prying up a stone. With the several hundred jin of strength in his arms, prying over a giant rat that weighed less than a hundred jin was no problem.

The Quill Rat flipped over like a turtle, exposing its white belly. Diya brought the staff down hard on that belly. Like beating a drum, the entire belly shuddered, and the Quill Rat let out shrill screams from its mouth.

"I'll leave it to you," Diya said to Flavia. At the same time, he gloomily glanced at the tree trunk. It really could only be used as a sap. It seemed next time he still had to bring in some weapons, to save himself the trouble.

The Source Power of all three Quill Rats entered Flavia's body. After that, Diya and the others encountered a new monster. It was a little over one meter tall, with a nearly triangular head, a fiery red body, and a belly like a beer gut. Its right hand held a bright, broken blade that quivered and trembled. Its legs appeared thick and short, and a piece of rag was wrapped around its waist.

When the Fallen saw Diya and the others appear, it was like a burly man who had eaten ** seeing a completely naked beauty. It charged over viciously and with incomparable speed, waving the broken blade as it ran, while gibbering something from its mouth. It came on in a fierce, menacing rush, carrying quite a bit of tragic ferocity.

Flavia fired another arrow, but unexpectedly, one Fallen shifted its steps to the side and actually dodged Flavia's shot, startling Diya. These monsters really did each have their own special traits.

Fortunately, there were only two Fallen. Diya charged over and smashed his staff down. Seeing Diya's ferocious stance, the Fallen immediately cried out in alarm as it defended or dodged, giving Flavia an opening. With Diya and Flavia coordinating again and again, staff and arrows crossing, they killed the two Fallen.