Chương 43: Fangs, Probing, and Flowers

Bang! The heavy armored rear hatch slammed onto the hard wasteland ground, kicking up a cloud of gray dust. Wind mixed with a thick, bloody stench rushed into the cabin. Facing them were several monsters nearly two meters long. Their limbs were thin and sharp like blades. Their bodies were hairless, with a pair of fleshy wings growing from their backs. Sickly green corrosive saliva dripped from their interlocking fangs, hissing into white smoke the moment it touched the ground.

The two Wind-Raider Aberrant Wolves that had been clinging to the outer armor were startled by the opening hatch. They leapt down from the roof and joined the three outside.

"Five of them! Watch yourselves!" Carl roared. His mechanical jaw trembled with both excitement and tension.

"Everyone, push the defensive line twenty meters away from the armored vehicle!" Solly's voice was steady as he issued the order.

"Their blood and saliva are highly acidic. If we fight too close to the vehicle, they'll melt through the treads and suspension system. Front line, move up. Rear line, stay near the vehicle's blind spots!" At that moment, the mercenaries showed their discipline. Carl charged out first with a roar. Solly and Grey Raven followed close behind.

Forced back by their momentum, the aberrant wolves retreated a short distance, and the three quickly formed a half-fan defensive line more than twenty meters away from the armored vehicle. Syringe, carrying the Tactical Terminal, Adams with his heavy medical kit, and Logan with his magitech rifle remained in the relatively safe area behind the vehicle. Rowan stayed between the two groups according to the original plan. After all, he was assigned as mobile auxiliary damage.

His job was to attack any enemy that broke through the three-man front line. Facing these wasteland mana-beasts he had never seen before, there was no rookie panic in Rowan's eyes, nor any urge to rush forward and show off. His years of scraping by in the Lower Hive had taught him one thing: the one who lived longest was always the one who understood the game first. He kept both hands tucked into the sleeves of his worn robe, deliberately condensing only a standard Water Blade in his palm.

He looked as if he were ready to provide fire support at any moment, while focusing all his Mental Power on the battlefield ahead. It was not only because he knew nothing about these mana-beasts. He also wanted to use this fight to measure the strength of his temporary teammates.

"Awooo—!" The aberrant wolves scattered instantly, turning into gray-green blurs as they lunged at the three in front from multiple angles.

"Come on, you stupid dogs!" Carl's muscles bulged as he activated his magitech prosthetics. He completely ignored the splashes of weak acid and relied on his body-refinement technique and prosthetic limbs to ram the first wolf away. At the same time, his right hand swung several times in quick succession. Several sharp [Rock Darts] accurately stabbed into the abdomen of another wolf. Unfortunately, those wounds did little to affect the aberrant wolf, whose sense of pain seemed to have gone wrong long ago.

"Carl's earth magic leans toward physical shaping. Average power," Rowan quickly noted in his mind. Then Solly made his move. As a Tier 1 Dual-Phase Mage, he brought both hands together before his chest. Mana surged. [Quicksand Spell]! With a heavy wave of earth-yellow mana, the hard ground beneath two aberrant wolves softened and collapsed just as they were about to leap. Their greatest advantage—speed—was forcibly interrupted, and half their bodies plunged into the mire.

"Earth element. Extremely precise control. Stable mana output." Rowan narrowed his eyes slightly. After releasing [Quicksand Spell], Solly reached out with one hand. The moisture in the air was forcibly drawn together, forming a high-pressure [Water Spear] as thick as an adult's thigh. With a dull whistle, it slammed into the skull of one trapped aberrant wolf. With a muffled bang, the wolf's head split open under the impact, and it let out a miserable howl.

"His second phase is water. The cutting power of his Water Spear is lacking. Or maybe the wolf's skull is simply too hard." Rowan evaluated silently.

"If it were my [Supercritical Water Blade], with the same mana cost, that wolf's head would already be cleanly cut off." He gave Solly's second elemental spell a low score. Only by comparing the two did Rowan realize the true value of the Military's spell models. On the other side of the defensive line, Grey Raven, the hooded man who had remained silent the entire time, also displayed impressive destructive power. He raised his right hand.

A condensed red flame whip, about three meters long, cracked through the air and lashed across the back of an aberrant wolf trying to circle around. Its flesh carbonized instantly. The acid blood evaporated under the heat before it could even splash.

"Fire element. Extremely high single-target burst." Rowan stared at Grey Raven's profile, half-hidden beneath the hood, and marked him as dangerous.

"So far, he's only revealed fire. His second phase is unknown." The three worked together well. The battle at the front was mostly under control. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Under the suppression of Solly and Grey Raven, the five aberrant wolves were soon reduced to two.

"Looks like I won't need to act." Rowan felt more at ease. Saving mana was always good. However, he soon realized that he had underestimated the cunning instincts of wasteland monsters. Beep—beep beep beep beep! Behind the armored vehicle, Syringe had been crouched over the tactical screen. The mana detector in his hand suddenly let out a sharp alarm.

"Shit! High-frequency reaction! Nearby!" Syringe jerked his head up, his voice twisting with fear. From the blind spot of the observation turret at the top of the armored vehicle, hidden by dust and wind, a sickly green blur dropped down like a ghost. There had been six wolves in the pack. Only five had attacked from the front. The last one had used the cover of the frontline battle and the vehicle's blind spot to circle around to the rear.

"Damn it! Fall back!" Twenty meters away, panic finally flickered across Solly's face. But he had just finished casting, and he was still too far from the armored vehicle. Carl was also being delayed by a badly injured wolf and could not return in time. The hidden wolf's target was clear. It lunged straight for the closest and most important rear-line member—the medic, Adams. The stench of blood hit them head-on. The aberrant wolf's foul, gaping mouth was less than a meter from Adams's neck.

Acidic saliva had already dripped onto his outstretched mechanical arm, corroding a smoking black hole into the metal. Adams roared and raised his thick mechanical arm to block. But in the end, he was still mortal. Compared with the evolved agility of the Wind-Raider Wolf, his movements were slow, like an old rusted gear. At that instant, Rowan, who had been holding back the entire time, tensed his muscles. The team's logistics could not fall here. Buzz!

Inside Rowan's left chest, the Water Source Rune deep within his Source Crystal Core began to run at full force. The [Wellspring Step] model from the ancient text of the other world formed in an instant. A large amount of mana gathered beneath Rowan's feet, condensing into a thin layer of high-pressure water mist. Bang! Without using the overloaded [Lancer · Instant Shadow], relying only on the basic [Wellspring Step], Rowan's body turned into a blur and cut into the center of the battlefield.

At that moment, the powerful body tempered by [Furnace Melding Art], comparable to a Tier 1 Single-Mark Martial Artist, displayed its explosive strength. A highly compressed blue Water Blade formed in Rowan's right hand. Hiss— A soft tearing sound spread through the air, like a sharp blade cutting through fine silk. Rowan's body crossed past the aberrant wolf mid-lunge with powerful flexibility. The ice-blue Water Blade flashed through the air. Then he landed steadily on the other side of the armored vehicle.

A second later, there was a dull thud. The Wind-Raider Aberrant Wolf, so vicious just moments ago, had been cleanly split in two from snout to spine. Its organs and sickly green acid blood burst into the air. Just as the acid blood was about to splash onto Adams and Syringe, who had collapsed to the ground, Rowan did not even look back. He lightly opened his left hand behind him. A wave of cold white mist surged out.

The Extreme Chill mana of [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] instantly formed an invisible cold barrier in front of Adams. The acid fluid, strong enough to melt through steel plates, froze into sickly green ice shards the moment it touched the white mist, clattering to the ground. The entire rear side of the vehicle fell silent. Adams remained frozen in the posture of raising his mechanical arm. Cold sweat had already soaked his back. Syringe had not yet recovered from the shock.

Adams stiffly lowered his head and looked at his mechanical arm, which was still smoking. Then he looked at the aberrant wolf lying on the ground in two pieces. His throat moved.

"Brother Rowan..." His voice was dry. For the first time, his honest smile carried a trace of lingering fear.

"I'll remember this life." Carl, who had just rushed back, looked at the smooth cut through the wolf's corpse, then at Rowan standing nearby. The muscles on his rough face twitched.

"Guess I underestimated you..." Carl said it through gritted teeth, as if praising someone was deeply uncomfortable for him. He had thought Rowan was still a student, probably with limited strength. He had already expected someone to be injured this time. But the movement technique and spell Rowan had just displayed were far beyond his expectations.

"Good timing." Rowan expressionlessly tucked both hands back into his robe sleeves, as if everything just now had been nothing more than instinct. Solly looked at Rowan deeply, surprise and scrutiny in his eyes. Beside him, Grey Raven also turned his head slightly. Beneath the hood, his gaze locked onto the water stains under Rowan's feet.

"Well done, Rowan." Solly clapped his hands.

"Looks like the fee I paid for outside support was worth every credit. Pack up quickly. The smell of blood will bring more trouble." The group packed up the useful materials, including the polluted mana crystals, and threw them into the vehicle. The armored vehicle started again. Its treads crushed the dirt beneath them as it continued deeper into the No-Man's Land. Rowan closed his eyes and silently rehearsed [Lancer · Instant Shadow] in his mind.

The Source-Energy Neutralizing Solution was slowly restoring his mana. After his dangerous save just now, the atmosphere inside the cabin had changed subtly. Adams looked at Rowan with clear gratitude. Carl had put away his earlier veteran's attitude, and his tone had become much more polite. In the wasteland, strength was always the best pass. However, the road through Sector 5 was never going to be peaceful.

Half an hour later, the convoy startled a flock of [Iron-Feather Carrion Vultures] circling above a weathered stone forest. Carl controlled the ballista on the roof while Grey Raven fired several fireballs. After the first few carrion vultures, whose feathers were sharp as blades, were blasted into chunks of flesh, the rest of the opportunistic monsters scattered and turned on their companions' corpses instead, tearing into the meat.

"Keep driving. Don't waste time," Solly said calmly. But less than five kilometers farther on, Syringe, who was acting as navigator, suddenly narrowed his eyes and shouted,"Carl! Brake! Stop, now!" Screech! The heavy armored vehicle carved two deep trenches into the wasteland and stopped just before a high slope.

"What's going on? There's nothing alive on the radar!" Carl tightened his grip on the controls and rubbed the spot on his head where he had hit it during the emergency stop.

"There isn't, but look at this!" Syringe pointed at one of the gauges in front of him.

"The mana contamination detector is off the charts! The whole area ahead is full of high-density Tainted Energy!" Everyone looked through the dusty bulletproof glass. Carl immediately felt his scalp go numb.

"What the hell is that?" The flat wasteland ahead had been completely sealed off by a strange field of plants that seemed to stretch without end. It was a sea of enormous flowers covering the hills and plains. Their petals were dark purple. At the center of each flower was a natural pattern resembling a twisted, wailing human face. In the gray wasteland wind, the flowers swayed gently, releasing visible purple-black spores into the air. Deep within the flower field, several wrecks could be seen faintly.

Their surfaces had been corroded full of holes by the spores, and white bones lay scattered nearby.

"Mana-Devouring Ghost-Face Flowers..." Adams's expression changed, and his voice carried heavy caution. This mutated plant had no fangs or claws, but to mages, it was one of the deadliest nightmares. It hungered for pure mana. As long as anything containing mana approached, living or not, the flowers would spray high-density Tainted Energy pollen together. Once contaminated, a mage's Source Crystal Core would be polluted at terrifying speed.

"Boss, this flower field covers at least three or four kilometers." Carl swallowed.

"Do we burn a path through with fire spells?" Grey Raven remained silent and only shook his head slightly.

"Burn through?" Solly waved the idea away.

"The Tainted Energy environment here is already suppressing spell power. Even if we could burn them down, these weeds wouldn't give us half a mana crystal. Drain half our mana just to pass through? Then what are we going to use to explore the ruin?" He patted the back of Carl's seat.

"Turn hard left. We go around. I'd rather take an extra ten kilometers through a dried riverbed than waste our strength fighting something that gives nothing back." Rowan sat in the back, looking at the deadly flower field outside the window. Listening to Solly's decision, he nodded inwardly. There really was no need to burn through everyone's condition just to save a little time. The armored vehicle turned clumsily and continued deeper along the cracked riverbed.

After nearly two more hours of long, rough travel, the sky had darkened until it looked almost like dusk.

"Boss, coordinates match. We're here." Following Syringe's report, the tracked vehicle finally slowed to a stop at the edge of a huge circular pit. Everyone pushed open the heavy doors and got out one by one. Before them stood a massive alloy blast door, more than ten meters tall and half-buried in yellow sand. The surface of the door was covered in rust and weathering, but at its center, a faded mark could still be faintly made out. [Fifth Biological Warehouse]"Everyone, check your condition. Ready your weapons."

Solly looked at the door, which stood like the maw of an abyss, and his gaze sharpened.

"Syringe, prepare to run the Explorer's Association authentication."