The Black Bug
In the camp of the Darkmoon clan, after a busy day had ended, Serea sat at her desk, carefully examining the gemstone called 'Deep Sea Relic'.
However, after trying all sorts of thods, nothing happened with the gemstone—it was just a large mana crystal. Still, the gemstone had a golden quality, so there must have been so secret hidden within.
Just as Serea was left puzzled, Celia walked into the room.
"The item has been salvaged, and the underground cavity has been sealed off, with Talius in charge of taking people to guard the cave."
"Mm, I know."
Celia was reporting about the dragon bones. After the dragon bones were discovered, Serea had ordered Maro and the others to go salvage them. Such a rare material—how could she possibly let it slip away?
As for the gemstone in her hand, since fiddling with it for a long ti yielded no results, Serea tossed the 'Deep Sea Relic' into her spatial ring, planning to study it slowly when there was an opportunity. For now, what she needed was a good night's sleep.
"Finally, I can rest."
Buzz!
Just as Serea stood up, the red orb on her desk suddenly lit up.
"!!!"
That was a tracking and communication device from the Xiyun rchant Guild, but this orb was not connected to the Xiyun rchant Guild—it was linked to the Jawfang tribe of the lizardn.
Reaching out and touching the orb, Serea used her ntal power to obtain the information within.
"Camp under attack by unknown monsters, requesting support!"
Upon receiving this ssage, Serea imdiately used her spiritual connection to communicate with Little Black.
"Cancel patrol. The Skeleton Warrior unit will be the main force, skeleton Cavalry as the vanguard, plus Black Knight, chilia, Little White—you are to lead them imdiately to support the Jawfang tribe."
"As you command, My Queen."
Little Black received the order, and then the Undead, who had been resting in the graveyard, were roused from slumber. They grabbed their weapons and swiftly assembled, charging out of the camp.
Hearing the commotion outside, Celia asked,
"What's happened?"
"The Jawfang tribe is under attack. It seems Maregof couldn't contain himself any longer."
As Serea spoke, she felt this was an opportunity.
Although she could not initiate an attack herself, if Maregof made the first move, whoever he sent, she would deal with them all.
But then again, knowing that launching an attack was bound to be a disadvantage, why would Maregof still do it?
As she thought of this, Serea felt a vague sense of unease. So—
"Pelam, you go as well, and take these with you."
She tossed a small pouch of material Crystals to Pelam. With Pelam present, it would be almost as if Serea herself was there. If anything happened, she could handle it.
...
With Raven providing reconnaissance and the Carrion Beast lurking in the woods, it took less than two hours for Little Black, abandoning the main force and leading the vanguard, to reach the outskirts of the lizardn's camp.
From a distance, the camp appeared peaceful. There were only bloodstains on the ground but no bodies. As they ventured further in, they saw the destroyed lizardman camp. Now, aside from the surrounding walls, there was nothing intact left in the camp.
Following the blood trail led to the riverbank, where a hole cut in the ice had yet to completely refreeze. Clearly, the lizardn had escaped the camp through here.
"To evade pursuit, they used the river to mask their scent and tracks..."
Thinking this, Serea instructed Raven to search along the river. Sure enough, a break in the ice was found at a bank further down. The blood trail extended into the jungle, in the direction of...
The holy ground of the Jawfang clan—Lake Nos!
"Keep moving forward, pursue toward Lake Nos."
Little Black did not waste words. The group crossed the frozen river surface, heading straight for Lake Nos.
...
Within the jungle, several injured lizardn tribespeople were being carried by their companions as they rushed through the forest. Beside them were so elderly, weak, and young ones—these were Jawfang tribespeople without any combat ability. They managed to escape temporarily because their old Clan Chief, tifia, had lured away a large number of monsters.
But safety was always temporary...
"Hurry, everyone, evacuate quickly,"
Digue commanded the lizardn, but so were heavily wounded, others too exhausted to proceed.
"The monsters are catching up."
"I... I can't run any further. Let stay behind as bait. You all hurry and get away."
One of the wounded spoke, but Digue would not agree. Yet before he could refuse, that terrifying sound had already reached them.
"Awoo!"
They appeared—ten monsters in all. Even though Tifia had led away the majority, a small number had still managed to catch up.
"Bastard, how did they find us?!"
Digue cursed and moved to stand before his companions, readying his spear to face the enemy.
"Digue, you all must go. These monsters are not sothing we can handle."
"Stop talking nonsense, I'll hold them off."
With these words, digue charged straight out, and the other lizardman guards followed suit.
Deadly Thrust!
In order to buy ti for his companions, digue fought fearlessly. As a level 27 silver elite, his power was not to be underestimated.
Squelch!
The spear whistled as it pierced through, and upon feeling it strike ho, digue was overjoyed. As long as he struck this vital part, the monster would...
But tentacles coiled out, binding Digue's body, and barbs pierced his arm. Digue's face changed dramatically.
"What!"
In desperation, he let go of his spear and desperately drew the dagger at his waist, slashing at the tentacles. Then he stabbed the dagger into the monster's chest.
"Awoo!"
The monster wailed in pain and fell silent.
One!
Even though he had managed to kill one, digue's expression was grim. The arm that had been grabbed by the tentacles now had several small holes, and a sharp, burning pain radiated from them. He understood he had been poisoned by the monster.
"Argh!"
But the other two lizardman guards were not so 'lucky'. Without enough strength to resist, they were directly strangled by the tentacles. Seeing his companions being devoured brought blood veins to Digue's eyes.
"Bastards!!!"
He was furious. But suddenly, a monster maneuvered to his side, wrapping its tentacles around his neck. Another monster's claws reached straight for his chest.
Facing the oncoming claws, digue's pupils rapidly contracted. But at that critical mont, a series of raven cries echoed through the woods.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
The monsters clutched their ears in pain, and then a squad of Skeleton Cavalry charged out from the woods.
At the lead was Black Knight, who swung his giant scythe down and cleaved off the head of the monster before Digue. Then Little Black followed, using Arm Blade Thrust paired with Blade Rend to run through the monster that had Digue restrained.
And as that monster's chest was torn open, a pitch-black bug was revealed inside it. The tentacles on the monster's body had all grown from the opened carapace on its back.
Through Raven's eyes, Serea saw the bug, and imdiately used Appraise.
Level 10, bronze elite, erosion Demon!
(To be continued...)
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