Here Came a Big One
The baby otter's mournful cries grew weaker and weaker behind him, but the cold smile on Lu Heng's lips slowly crept up.
He casually wiped away a drop of blood splattered on his cheek, rubbed his fingertip against his lips, and his eyes shone with a frightening intensity.
This is exactly what I wanted.
Killing the cubs is bait; he doesn't want to scare them away, he wants to drive them mad. Only a mad prey will abandon all rules and willingly hand over their life to him for a price.
The roar of the lead Giant Otter was already upon them.
The voice had lost all its previous playfulness and composure, leaving only a burning madness—fur bristling, back arched, saliva and blood clinging to its canines, and only Lu Heng's reflection in its dark, bright eyes.
Behind it, four adult Giant Otter used the murky water as cover to outflank it, while two glided along the muddy surface like four gray shadows flowing along the ground, blocking all escape routes.
They saw the crossbow in Lu Heng's hand.
They also saw the last arrow remaining on the crossbow string.
One arrow, six lives. Not enough.
The lead Giant Otter's judgment was simple—if they dispersed and approached, the crossbow could take down at most one, and the remaining five would be enough to tear the two-legged beast to shreds.
Lu Heng laughed as he watched the beast pounce on him.
"You dare to come close?"
He raised his hand, retracted the crossbow into his system inventory, and drew the Rat King Bone Knife. Its cold white bone light shone like a polished fang in the dim light of the river bend.
The Bone Demon shifted half a step to the side, its massive skeletal body blocking Lu Heng's path. Its arms hung down, its bone claws slightly open, and its empty eye sockets slowly turned to its sides—where two gray shadows were gliding along the muddy surface.
"Watch how I teach you guys a lesson."
The lead animal came from the front at an angle, its body skimming along the muddy surface at high speed, aiming straight for Lu Heng's left ankle.
The Bone Demon moved.
The massive, skeletal body neither flinched nor dodged, meeting the onrushing Giant Otter- on. The Giant Otter's canines bit down hard on the Bone Demon's forearm bone, producing a teeth-grinding "crunch"—the sound of teeth digging into dense bone, leaving not even a white mark.
The Bone Demon has no sense of pain.
It didn't even look down at the Giant Otter that was biting it. Its right arm claw swept out with a whoosh, its five sharp bone fingers like knives and halberds, slamming hard into the Giant Otter's ribs.
"Click."
The sound of breaking ribs was crisp and piercing. The Giant Otter let out a shrill scream as its body was slammed into the ground by the claw, flying heavily onto the mudflat. It rolled twice, struggling to get up, but its hind legs were too weak to move.
Upon seeing this, the other two Giant Otter that had leaped ashore from the shallows immediately changed their target, lunging at the Bone Demon from the left and right.
The Bone Demon swung both arms simultaneously, its bone claws drawing two pale arcs in the air. The one on the left was struck in the face by the claw tip, its nose shattered, and half of its face collapsed, howling as it fell back into the water. The one on the right fared even worse; the Bone Demon swung its claw into its abdomen, its sharp bone fingers tearing through the fur and muscle, its intestines mixed with blood spilling onto the ground.
The otter's flexibility becomes a joke at this moment—its proud twisting and dodging are meaningless to a painless, tireless skeletal Puppet. If you bite it, you're only hurting your own teeth; if it grabs you, it can disembowel you in an instant.
Lu Heng was not idle.
Taking advantage of the moment when the Bone Demon was bearing the pressure from the front, he moved like a ghost to cut into the flank. His bone blade slashed down from above, landing precisely on the back of a Giant Otter that was trying to flank from behind. The blade pierced flesh, and the Giant Otter hissed and rolled. As it landed, it tried to pounce again on all fours, Bone Demon's bone claws attacked from the side, piercing through its skull.
Seeing that things were not going well, the fifth Giant Otter turned around and tried to escape.
Lu Heng flicked his wrist, and the bone knife flew out of his hand, its blade spinning as it sliced through the air, precisely slicing into the Giant Otter's nape. The Giant Otter collapsed to the ground, its limbs twitching a few times before falling still.
Finally, only the leader remained.
It stood on the mudflat, its body bearing several deep, bone-revealing claw marks. Its hind legs trembled slightly, but its gaze remained fixed on Lu Heng, and a low growl escaped its throat.
The Bone Demon slowly stepped forward, its bone claws dripping blood, and blocked Lu Heng's path.
The Giant Otter did not retreat.
It arched its back, pawed at the ground, and pounced suddenly.
This was its last attack.
The bone knife slashed down, the blade precisely slicing into the top of the Giant Otter's skull.
The lead Giant Otter froze in mid-air, its front paws drooping limply as they crashed onto the mudflats, where it remained motionless.
The river bend quieted down.
All six adult Giant Otter perished.
The mudflats were soaked in blood, and the carcasses of otters lay scattered haphazardly between the bank and the shallow water. The Bone Demon stood silently beside Lu Heng, its skeletal body covered in blood, the clear row of teeth marks on its forearm bone gleaming coldly in the dim light.
Lu Heng walked over, pulled the bone knife from the Giant Otter's corpse, and shook the blood off the knife.
He glanced down at his ripped trouser leg; the faint teeth marks on his knee still throbbed with pain.
"Well done." He raised his hand and patted the Bone Demon's hard shoulder bone, making a crisp "snap" sound.
The Bone Demon's empty eye sockets turned towards him, as if in response.
Lu Heng bent down, picked up the carcass of the lead Giant Otter from the ground, and weighed it in his hand.
I wonder what otter meat tastes like.
He muttered something to himself and threw the body into the Wristband's Storage Space.
Then I bent down and collected them one by one.
Just as he reached out to touch the last Giant Otter's carcass—
His mental energy suddenly exploded.
An extremely powerful wave of malice surged from the depths, stagnant, cold, and enormous, like a giant rock that had been submerged at the bottom of a river suddenly opening its eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Heng abruptly retreated, moving away from the water's edge.
A huge splash erupted underwater.
A Megalodon, far larger than the previous Black Iron Tier Giant-Toothed Crocodile Giant-Toothed Crocodile, leaped out of the water and viciously bit into the pile of otter carcasses on the ground.
Lu Heng's pupils contracted slightly.
wrong.
The Giant-Toothed Crocodile in this area shouldn't be approaching this group of giant otters.
A group attack by Giant Otter is deadly to crocodiles—they will climb onto the crocodile's back and tear at its eye sockets, throat, and abdominal armor. Once entangled, even the largest crocodile cannot withstand it.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, Giant-Toothed Crocodile will actively avoid the territory of the Giant Otter, preferring to take a detour rather than engage in direct conflict.
But now, this Bronze Tier creature is charging forward recklessly.
The intense smell of blood completely stimulated it, overpowering its instinctive fear of the Giant Otter pack.
Hunger triumphed over fear.
The Wristband displays biometric information:
[Bronze Tier - Giant-Toothed Crocodile]
Description: Its size far exceeds that of ordinary species, and it is a fierce fighter in the water, relying on its sharp, saw-like teeth to tear and bite. The water is its home ground.
Lu Heng gazed at the giant beast, a sense of awe washing over him.
No wonder my mental abilities detected the danger in advance.
This Bronze Tier Giant-Toothed Crocodile is just too audacious.
The Bronze Tier Giant-Toothed Crocodile lay coiled on the beach, tearing at the otter carcass with its jaws, blood dripping from its serrated teeth. As it swallowed, it stared at Lu Heng on the shore with its cold, vertical pupils, its body slightly turned to shield the pile of otter carcasses beneath it.