Chương 57: Back

The blood-colored arc skimmed close to the mud. It did not sever the mud beast's head. It only cut a crack into the inward-rotating ring of bone teeth. Pfft. Gray-green blood splashed from the crack and landed on the wet mud, immediately releasing fine white smoke. The mud beast's movement jerked to a halt. The spear-bearing guard finally rolled out from under the tooth rings. His left arm armor had been scraped open, and a bloody line now marked the side of his neck.

If that wound had been half an inch deeper, it would not have been a matter of bleeding.

"Bren!" The middle-aged herb gatherer shouted hoarsely. Rowan understood the name. Bren. Bren still tried to get up, but his left leg slipped in the mud, and he fell back down again. He looked up at the mud beast, all color draining from his face. The mud beast was not dead. It crouched in the muddy water, gray-green blood continuously seeping from the crack in its tooth ring.

Its mana fluctuation, which had been scattered like that of a mortal-grade beast, was now withdrawing little by little from the surface of its skin. The next instant, that aura suddenly solidified. Tier 1 Single-Phase. The copper bells on the wooden palisade rang sharply.

"Damn it! Pull back! Pull back!"

"Don't shoot! Bren's still under its mouth!"

"Harg, what are you standing there for? Drag them back!" Several voices came from the camp gate. They spoke too quickly. Rowan only caught scattered words. Pull back. Don't shoot. He did not turn around. The Bone-Flesh Blade was in his hand, and the sensation coming from its spine was already bad. That Blood Blade Swing had nearly drained the last of the Mud-Jawed Crocodile blood inside the marrow cavity.

The dark red bloodline had gone completely dim, leaving only a few traces of residual blood energy clinging to the edge of the armament patterns. The cracks along the blade spine had extended another half inch forward. The fascia wrapped around the handle had lifted slightly, like a leather belt about to dry and split. It could not release another Blood Blade Swing. It could not even withstand too many more impacts. This first-generation Bone-Flesh Blade had only one final chance left.

Rowan lowered the blade and turned his attention back to the mud beast. The mud beast did not lunge immediately. It was like a gray-brown stone pressed against the mud. Its front claws slowly tightened, and the muscle bundles behind the cracked tooth ring expanded and contracted. Bren's broken short spear was still lodged in its shoulder. The spearhead was caught beneath the hard hide, but it had not truly pierced deep. The shoulder hide had trapped the short spear.

The scales along its back could deflect frontal slashes. But after the tooth ring cracked, the traction muscle bundles inside were exposed. Rowan stared at that crack. The most dangerous part of this thing was the first bite. As long as it did not drag him into the mud, the rest was a structural problem.

"Come back!" Outside the wooden palisade, a guard rushed halfway over with a crossbow-like launcher. Seeing Rowan still standing in front of the mud beast, he could not help shouting. Rowan did not move. The guard cursed, raised the launcher, then lowered it again. Bren, the herb gatherer, and the young girl were all nearby. He did not dare shoot.

"Harg! Don't just stand there! Take Aila away!"

"I know!" The middle-aged herb gatherer grabbed the young girl with one hand while still clutching his sickle with the other. His face was terribly pale. But after only two steps back, a cart wheel sank into the wet mud, and he nearly tripped. The mud beast suddenly sank. Its body seemed to be swallowed halfway by the wet mud. Its spine lowered, and its front claws dragged two shallow lines beneath the surface. Water mist burst beneath Rowan's feet. [Wellspring Step] pushed his body sliding to the side.

The next instant, the mud beast sprang up from beneath the place where he had been standing. Its tooth ring snapped shut on empty air, and foul-smelling mud splashed onto the hem of Rowan's robe, burning several black spots into it.

"It can dive through mud!" A guard shouted. Rowan condensed a Water Blade in his left hand and threw it toward the side of the mud beast's eye. The Water Blade cut into the hard hide and left only a shallow mark. It failed to break through. Stimulated, the mud beast suddenly swung its head. Its tail swept out from beneath the muddy water, carrying a large sheet of gray water toward Rowan's lower legs. Rowan pressed his left arm down.

The cold of [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] covered his forearm, and his body retreated another half foot with [Wellspring Step]. The tail brushed past the edge of the frost, making his left arm go numb from the impact. Gray-green muddy water splashed onto the gauntlet, and black spots immediately appeared across the white frost. Its strength was greater than he had expected. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. This thing was not impossible to kill.

But he could not kill it head-on.

"Bren! Crawl away!"

"My leg won't move!" Bren clenched his teeth and answered, fear clear in his voice. He tried to drag himself away from the mud beast, but the mud was too slippery. His movements were pitifully slow. The mud beast lowered itself again. Its cracked tooth ring slowly turned toward him. Rowan's eyes darkened. It was still choosing the weaker target. Just before the mud beast lunged at Bren again, a gray shadow shot out from the side. Chestnut did not pounce at the mud beast.

It rushed close to the mud and arrived beside Bren. With a hard shove of its body, it knocked Bren half a roll to the side, just enough to avoid the mud beast's line of attack. The tooth ring bit into the mud and churned up a sheet of rotting wet earth.

"What is that?" Someone cried out in surprise. After landing, Chestnut shook the mud off its body and quickly retreated to Rowan's rear side. As if it had merely happened to pass by. The young girl froze for a moment. Her gaze shifted from Chestnut to Rowan, then back to the small gray-scaled beast. Her lips moved, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she only squeezed out a trembling syllable.

"Thank you..." Rowan did not understand it. Chestnut, however, raised its head and glanced at her, its black-bean-like eyes blinking. After missing its second bite, the mud beast did not immediately attack again. The crack in its tooth ring had been pulled wider by the traction muscles, and gray-green bloody foam swelled from deeper inside. At the same time, a section of skin along its abdomen contracted slightly, as if something was being squeezed.

"Don't get close!" A woman's voice came from the camp gate. Rowan only understood "don't" and "close." He glanced sideways. A woman wearing a short white shawl hurried out from behind the wooden palisade. She carried a medicine box in one hand, and several long, thin glass vials hung at her waist. She did not look at Rowan. Her gaze landed first on the cracked tooth ring of the mud beast and the smoking blood on the ground. Rowan forced out a word in stiff Gardian.

"Back!" Several guards who had been preparing to approach Bren froze for a moment.

"What did he say?" The woman's face changed.

"It's corrosive blood! Back! Don't touch the blood!"

"Back! Elaine said back too!" The next instant, the mud beast suddenly opened its tooth ring. It did not bite. A cloud of gray-green blood mist sprayed out from deep within the cracked ring. The closest guard had just taken half a step forward when his companion grabbed his shoulder and dragged him back. The blood mist brushed past the edge of his leather armor. The leather immediately released white smoke, and a honeycomb-like patch of holes was corroded into its surface. The guard's expression changed sharply.

"Damn it!" Harg was so frightened that he fell backward, half dragging and half pulling Aila behind the cart. Elaine stared at Rowan, her expression finally changing. This person, who could barely say the word "back" properly, had already stepped back half a pace before she shouted "corrosive blood." After spraying the blood mist, the mud beast's tooth ring clearly slowed.

The jaw root that had bulged earlier also loosened for a brief instant, and the traction muscle bundles behind the crack were pushed outward by the blood mist. There was only one chance. Rowan moved. He did not throw another Water Blade. [Wellspring Step] pushed his body sliding close to the mud from the side. The mud beast sensed the danger, and its damaged tooth ring swung violently toward him. But after spraying blood, its movements were half a second slower. Half a second was enough.

Rowan held the Bone-Flesh Blade in a reverse grip. The tip followed the soft groove beneath the crack in the tooth ring and stabbed in. The instant the bone blade entered flesh, the armament patterns along its spine lit up hard. The last bit of residual blood energy was pressed into the blade edge, like a final thin dark red film, forcing the crack in the tooth ring wider. Rowan followed the direction in which the mud beast's jaw tightened and flicked the blade upward. The traction muscle bundle snapped.

The mud beast's tooth ring stopped like a broken winch. Half the ring of bone teeth still twitched under inertia, but it could no longer rotate. It let out a sharp hiss, its huge body rolling violently. Pain jolted through Rowan's wrist from the counterforce. A crisp crack sounded from inside the Bone-Flesh Blade. His fingers almost dug into the dried fascia of the handle. He did not retreat half a step. If he let go now, this thing would absolutely dive back into the mud again.

A Water Blade condensed in Rowan's left hand and pressed into the crack opened by the Bone-Flesh Blade. The Water Blade did not need to cut through hard hide. It only needed to enter the exposed wound. The next instant, the Water Blade burst deep inside the mud beast's mouth. The sound was muffled. Like a bag of water being crushed beneath thick hide. Gray-green blood sprayed from the mud beast's mouth, landing on the mud and corroding out countless tiny holes. Its front claws beat the ground wildly.

Its tail swept in chaotic arcs. Then, all at once, it stiffened. Rowan immediately retreated. The mud beast's massive body slammed into the wet mud. After twitching several times, it finally stopped moving. The copper bells were still ringing. But the surroundings had gone quiet. Rowan stood beside the mud beast's corpse, his breathing slightly heavy. This mana-beast was not especially strong. At least, it was weaker than many of the things inside the ruin.

But he could not use the high-frequency straight blade, and he could not let the people of Antler Camp see too many traces of Terra equipment. The fewer methods he could use, the more carefully every step had to be taken. He lowered his head and looked at his right hand. The Bone-Flesh Blade was still in his grip. The next moment, the blade body split from the middle. The dark red fascia loosened loop by loop. The gray-white bone broke into three pieces along the old cracks.

The tip remained inside the wound at the mud beast's jaw root. The middle section fell into the muddy water. Only the handle and a short section of bone spine remained in Rowan's hand. The first Bone-Flesh Blade was completely ruined. Rowan was silent for one breath. Mortal-grade bone material was still too strained. Even with a Tier 1 mana crystal as the core, even with Mud-Jawed Crocodile blood added in, the blade body could only withstand this much.

After three Blood Blade Swings, forcing it into close-range penetration against a Tier 1 mana-beast's weak point had already squeezed out its final value. But it had completed its task. And it had proven that [Flesh Armament Art] was not merely a fragmented scroll that could only lie inside a crystal disk.

"Don't touch the corpse!" Elaine's voice pressed in from behind. A guard had just reached out, trying to pull the broken spear from the mud beast's shoulder, when she slapped his hand away.

"Do you want your hand to rot? Can't you see the blood smoking?" The guard froze from the slap, cursed, then quickly withdrew his hand.

"Cover it with ash soil! Use shovels. No hands!"

"Elaine, Bren's neck is bleeding!"

"I have eyes." Elaine crouched beside Bren, first checking his neck, then looking at his leg.

"Is your leg broken?" Bren was panting like a broken bellows, his face pale as if dusted with ash.

"Not broken... just stuck."

"You nearly got your head bitten off, and you're still worrying about your leg." Elaine's face was cold. She pulled a roll of white cloth from her medicine box.

"Don't move. If you rub more mud into the wound, I'll have to scrape rotten flesh out of you tomorrow." Harg helped Aila walk over, his own legs clearly still a little weak.

"Bren, you owe this kid your life." Bren lay in the mud and looked at Rowan. His gaze first landed on Rowan's face, then fixed tightly on the broken bone blade handle.

"I know." He paused, then lowered his voice. Aila did not look at the corpse. She stared at Chestnut, not far away.

"Was it the one that knocked Uncle Bren away?" Chestnut shook the mud from its claws and ignored her. Aila whispered, "Can it understand us?" Harg immediately tugged her back.

"Don't ask."

"I was just asking..."

"Then ask less." Harg lowered his voice.

"He just saved us. Don't act like you're watching a show." Aila closed her mouth, but she still could not help sneaking glances at the small gray-scaled beast. The buzzing conversations around them were fast. Rowan could not understand complete sentences at all. He did not speak. Saying one wrong sentence now would be more troublesome than saying nothing. At that moment, a guard used a long spear to pry open the mud beast's head.

When he saw the tooth ring and the blade wound at the jaw root, his expression turned grave.

"That cut was too precise." The companion beside him glanced at Rowan and whispered, "Hunter?" The guard's voice was even lower, but it carried a chill.

"That blade was drinking blood just now."

"But he saved Bren."

"I didn't say he didn't, but..." Harg heard a few of the whispers, and his expression changed as well. He seemed to want to speak up for Rowan again, but his mouth opened, and no sound came out. Chestnut walked to his feet, shook mud from its claws, and looked up at him. Rowan did not lower his head. The crowd at Antler Camp's gate suddenly parted to both sides. The copper bells gradually stopped ringing. A woman wearing a gray deerskin cloak walked out from behind the wooden palisade.

She did not look old, nor did she seem like one of the camp elders. But the moment she appeared, the guards' posture changed at once. The crossbow-like launchers had not been lowered, yet everyone subconsciously made way for her. Elaine also stopped what she was doing and looked up.

"Camp Chief." The woman did not immediately respond. She first looked at Bren, confirming that he was still alive. Then she looked at the mud beast's corpse. Her gaze lingered for several breaths on the cracked tooth ring, the cut at the jaw root, and the corrosive blood stains gradually being covered with ash soil. Finally, she looked at Rowan. Or more precisely, at the broken Bone-Flesh Blade at Rowan's waist. She spoke. Her speed was not fast. But Rowan still only understood half.

"... Abyss-Iron... Hunter?" Hunter. He knew that word. The term before it, "Abyss-Iron," had not appeared in any of the recordings he had made over the past three days. But almost at the same time, the crossbow-like launchers held by several nearby guards rose an inch higher. Bren's body stiffened as well. Farther away, in the shadow of the camp gate, someone pressed a hand against a sword hilt. Rowan's fingers paused beside his sheath. He did not know what an "Abyss-Iron Hunter" was. But he knew one thing.

The person he had just saved was not enough to offset the trouble brought by that name.