Blackpine Central Command's chessboard

In the No. 2 waterway, the Gillsplitter Beasts' scales crackled under the licking flames of the Corrosive Flame-Rain Shell.

A short copper whistle sounded behind the position. A gap opened in the rear defensive line, and dozens of Auxiliary Soldiers in heavy protective armor pushed wheelbarrows forward through the icy mud.

The foremost Auxiliary Soldier drove a long-handled iron hook, its point barbed, into the back of each Gillsplitter Beast's neck.

He yanked the hook. If the Demonic Beast still twitched, an Auxiliary Soldier beside him stepped up and finished it with a sword.

Purification troops followed, scattering Sacred Ash from their bags in the prescribed proportions.

The gray-white powder covered the bubbling black blood, suppressed the acid seeping from the gill sacs, and prevented the territory from being contaminated a second time.

Milo watched the routine, then turned to Todd. "Captain, aren't they going to burn the bodies?"

In the Inland Kingdom, Demonic Beast corpses were piled together and burned clean to prevent plague.

Todd flicked the foul blood from his spearhead. "They're collecting materials."

An Auxiliary Soldier carrying a toolbox walked over to the mangled corpse of the Third-Tier Riftgill Ambush Hunter.

He knelt on one knee, drew a silver-plated dissection knife, and cut along the cartilage seam beneath the Demonic Beast's jaw. Thick black blood gushed out.

Ignoring the blood, the Auxiliary Soldier reached into its chest and pried out a dark-red Magic Crystal that glimmered faintly.

Beside him, a Recorder opened a sheet of parchment and scratched across it with a charcoal pencil. "One Tier Three Sourceblood, to Special Storehouse No. 1."

The Auxiliary Soldier turned his blade and scraped it along the bone of the Ambush Hunter's back.

He peeled off the entire sheet of slick scales that could deflect even a heavy crossbow bolt