The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 187

Chapter 187: The Chapel

The white, brick building across the river was a chapel.

Hao Ren approached the chapel with the pot in his hand. As he got near the entrance, he saw runes as well as a heraldry with a circle, triangle and bolt on the door. The door was closed. The heraldry belonged to the Disciples of Glory. He remembered Vivian mentioning it and he knew the meaning behind this insignia: the circle signified the view of the Church of this world, where completeness, formlessess and emptiness formed it; the triangle, signified the authority of the goddess, who was right and it also formed a three-point support for the circle, representing a determinator by which the goddess made the rules of the world; the bolt was right in the centre, signifying the church. The tip of the bolt met the tip of the triangle denoting that the Church’s authority was a third of the goddess’ power. It was an interesting sect; they had a clear definition of their authority, which was one-third of the authority of God. Hao Ren had a very deep perception about it when he first heard the ministers of the Church claiming that they had only one-third of the authority of God.

If not for the heraldry, there was no way Hao Ren could tell this small building was a chapel: the size of the building was small and it was not a typical steeple building. There were no stained glass windows or religious decorations. Compared to the churches in town, this chapel was built with function in mind rather than form.

The light he saw by the river had disappeared. The chapel was pitch dark in and out but, Hao Ren was pretty sure the light he just saw came from the circular hole above the door. He enabled the MDT to go up there for a quick look and confirmed that it was a decorative opening through which he could peek inside the chapel. There were no light fixtures on the inside.

The gleam of light seemed to have appeared for quite a while. Hao Ren did not notice it earlier because for one, the entrance was closed. In addition, the main windows were at the side of the building so, he could not have possibly seen any abnormalities in the chapel.

He placed his hand on the door, giving it a little push but, the door remained close. He frowned. “It’s locked.”

“Looking to go inside?” The MDT stayed afloat beside Hao Ren as if it was interested too. It left Lil Pea alone as this had drawn its attention. Lil Pea curled herself up and slept at the bottom of the pot: she was probably frightened quite a bit in the river so, she was likely going to stay quiet for some time.

Recalling the moment when Lil Pea was swimming against the river’s strong current almost made Hao Ren laugh his head off.

“Get a position inside then, teleport me in there.” An idea came to his mind: the convenience of technology was using the MDT to go wherever you wanted, no matter where and how secured the place was. You could “sneak” through any opening bigger than a rat hole and get to the other side.

Without further ado, the MDT sneaked through the hole above the door and Hao Ren was shortly teleported inside. No need to blast through the door, the whole action was absolutely silent.

The chapel was empty. A solemn, dark-red carpet lay across the rectangular hall. There was no furniture. Unlike churches on Earth, the Disciples of Glory believed and practised the Theory of Human Atonement; believers and even the popes were not accorded the luxury of any kind of bench and seating.

The pulpit was at the end of the hall and it was the only fixture present.

Coming before the pulpit, he set his foot on its steps, which had four levels and began to walk up to the pulpit. He immediately sensed that the number “4” had a special meaning in this world—the Kingdom of Holletta had four holy places, the Orb of the Holy Synod stopped at the Blood Lake for four days, and now the pulpit of the chapel four levels of steps. But, what did it mean? He could not think of any religious explanations.

There was a heavy, black book on the pulpit. The book cover had some shades of dark red to it, which was difficult to perceive. Hao Ren flipped the book open and found that it was just a bible.

Coincidentally, the page he opened detailed the achievements of the goddess. It was written in a rather obscure and uninteresting language to him. “…in the beginning, She lay between the heavens and the earth, spiritful and spiritless, Her existence was in the high places where no man could comprehend… She was the original water, the original ocean, the original source, the original thunder storm, the source of life, and the promised land… because She is the mother of all lives, She is the Goddess… She is omnipresent and exists between the stars, She carved the world and sowed the seeds of billions of mortals. This was Her authority and mercy…”

“I don’t really understand it.” After quite some time, Hao Ren got fed up with it. He flipped to the end and there it was, the chapter on the banishment of the world by the goddess. “…man went astray in their search for truth, and were unrepentant despite the Goddess’ warning. The ancient werewolves, the Blood Clan, spirits and humans, who desired to claim sea of origin as their own backyard, were full of arrogance and absurdity. The Goddess was enraged, saying, “It was a mistake to gift you with spiritual knowledge, and this must be put right.” Then, the old world was destroyed in a fire. Persons of virtue bowed down to Her…and they survived.”

The more he read, the more confused he got.

Anyway, he did make something out: Despite the fact that the Disciples of Glory had a defined god that they worshipped, there were no mentions of the image of their god in the religious doctrine.

Any mention, if at all, about the goddess in the sacred book was as good as vague descriptions like “place of origin” or “the origin of something”, which was totally unlike other religions. Others clearly or vaguely described their god’s image in detail, whether it had wings or an eight-yard tall or whether their god was filled with light or authority—such descriptive words were non-existent in the sacred book. It seemed the goddess had no form, the book lacked even the slightest abstract illustration. It gave the impression that the Disciples of Glory worshipped a symbolic thing.

All Hao Ren found out from the sacred book was about some phenomenon of nature, despite “Her” being called a goddess.

They worshipped the creation of the world.

“Their understanding of their goddess is pretty interesting.” That inadvertently led Hao Ren to think about Raven 12345 and he shook his head. “There’s simply no comparison.”

“Where did the light come from?” Putting down the sacred book, Hao Ren scanned their empty surroundings. At a glance, there was nothing there which could have been the light source. He turned around and looked at the mural on the wall behind the pulpit. By right, this was where statues or other religious symbols were supposed to be at but, the Disciples of Glory had put up a strange picture of a twisted shadow, red fog and light. He was not sure if other chapels were the same but he found this particular chapel rather strange.

After spending almost half the night looking around, nothing was found. Realising that the others were still waiting for him at the village head’s home, he left and headed back to the village of the mountain people.

The chapel returned to darkness once again. The double moons shone through the coloured-glass at an angle and onto the strange mural behind the pulpit. Under the moonlight, the strange, twisted black and red picture slowly came alive—so slow that it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

Amid the black and red bands, the moonlight on the mural was becoming less intense.

Vivian came up to Hao Ren when he stepped through the door. “Where did you go? What happened to your pants?”

Before Hao Ren could explain, Lily chimed in noisily. “Haha, Landlord, have you just peed your pants?”

That pricked him and he forgot what he was going to say. He lost his coolness as he lunged forward and used his hands to pull Lily’s ears. “Think before you say anything!”

Lily jumped up and down in pain. She muttered, “Ouch, that hurts! My bad… I should know no man could have peed so much in a day…”

“….”

He yanked the husky aside. “I slipped and fell into the river while I washing my hands. By the way, is that a chapel across the river?”

He did not mention the strange things in the chapel, and his venture in it though.

“It was built by a pastor from Lamberg.” The village head did not suspect anything. “The mountain people believe in mountain spirits but this doesn’t violate the teachings of the Disciples of Glory. The pastor would come on every full moon to preach and perform healing here. During other times, the chapel would stay closed. Are you a believer? If you want, I have a key with me, you could go in there to pray tomorrow.”

There were two moons in this world; the larger one was called the primary moon a.k.a. the big moon, the smaller one was called the secondary moon. The secondary moon’s phase cycle was 17 days, exactly half of the primary moon’s phase. Most religious activities of the Disciples of Glory coincided with the cycles of the primary and secondary moons. The full moon of the secondary moon was a particularly meaningful day.

“No, I’m not. Just asking. I didn’t know there was a chapel here.” Hao Ren waved his hand. He did not show any abnormal expression on his face.

“I’m sleepy.” Becky yawned. “The village head has arranged for us to stay at the two houses next door. Us girls will have to put up with the crowded space as there are many of us. You two guys will have the luxury of space.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment, figuring that the Disciples of Glory could wait. He still had plenty of chances to explore the various myths of this world later. So, he set his thoughts aside and found his room. He rested for the night as tomorrow, their journey would begin.

Chapter 188: The Echo in the Valley

The mountain people were kind. They prepared a lot of local specialties for Hao Ren and company before they set off on their journey. Despite the oversize backpack on Y’zaks’ back, which suggested they would not be short of supply, the mountain people insisted that they accept the gifts, saying it was their custom of bidding farewell. Overwhelmed by friendliness, Hao Ren gave in.

However, thanks had to go to Becky, who had formed a good relationship with the mountain people. The mercenary was highly respected among these foreigners. Her explanation was simple. “It’s easy to understand the mountain people—kindness for kindness, hatred for hatred. It’s very much similar to who I am. So, after a few times of doing them favours, we became friends.”

Never thought she possessed such a rustic and simple side to her mercenary life.

After leaving the village, the group kept going without further delay. They went ahead at full steam for several days.

Going on a journey night and day across the vast steppe was torturous but, the beautiful, alien scenery along the way was a comforting distraction. It was like a journey of a life time; even the well-travelled Vivian and Nangong Wuyue were in high spirits not to mention Lily—she was absolutely like a duck taking to water. She would ride on the horse one time, and run together with Y’zaks at the rear of the convoy with the horse on her back some other time. What a journey!

Hao Ren felt that if they did not manage to find places with humans, Lily was going to regress into her pre-evolution state—she got down from the horse’s back and ran on her four limbs, trying to outrun her horse.

It was a scene too unbearable to watch.

“You lot are interesting.” Becky looked over her shoulder, seeing Y’zaks running at full-steam, and the werewolf maiden racing against her own horse. She witnessed the weirdest things she had ever seen before in her life during these few days. “Just asking: are you guys really wizards?”

“Totally.” Hao Ren had answered the same question for a thousand times, he could basically lie to your face, and you would think it was the truth. “Lily took the wrong drug during an alchemical experiment…”

“Didn’t you say that she was struck by lightning during an experiment?”

“Err… yes, she was struck by lightning while having the drug. Her head was pinned to the door too.”

Vivian spoke to Nangong Wuyue as she breathed heavily. “I suddenly feel like I shouldn’t have bullied Doggie. I’m going to treat her nicely.”

Lily had no idea what these heartless fellows were discussing about. She gamboled happily for a while before she pulled up beside Hao Ren. She then leapt onto the back of the horse again in an agile manner. She grabbed and shook Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Landlord! We’re reaching the bottom of the mountain!”

Like an overexcited child, Lily yelled cheerfully before getting down on her feet again. She pulled up alongside the horse and hopped back on it. The entire action looked frighteningly dangerous but to her it was just a piece of cake. No doubt she had a weird personality as well as amazing blood-line, and her kenetic ability was second to none among the group of five. Although Y’zaks won hands-down in terms of brute strength, the title of most skilfull fistfighting belonged to Lily.

Unfortunately, this maiden had not been able to apply her talent in the right place.

Hao Ren almost got shook off the horse’s back but, he managed to stabilise himself. As he looked up, he could already see the mountain range ahead of them—in fact, the mountain range had appeared in the horizon some time back. However, it still took them a few more hours before they reached the foot of the hill.

The mountain range was the famous Dragonspine Ridge in the western part of the Kingdom of Holletta. It got its name from its endless spine-like formations, stretching from the west of the Kingdom of Holletta to the steppe. The range was a natural barrier, which was impossible to go around if they were to go to the Beinz Blood Lake.

As the sacred Beinz Blood Lake was located on the other side of the moutain range, the people of Holletta spent enormous amounts of effort and resources, boring tunnels as well as building highland highways to connect both sides. Expensive, always-operational teleportation points were installed in a few critical places—mainly, to connect the sacred buildings such as cathedrals on both sides. The Church and the royals spent a fortune just to ensure they had constant access to the sacred place. Hao Ren and the gang initially planned to circumvent the mountain range at the south of the Kingdom, and pass through a newly constructed tunnel from there. However, in order to catch up with the “alien woman”, who was two days ahead of them, they made an impromptu decision while they were in the village of the mountain people. They would cut across the barrier through the ancient trail near the edge of the steppe.

The latter was a shorter route but, it would take an equal amount of time to get across. This was because, even though taking the tunnel meant they had to go around the range at the south of the Kingdom, it was relatively easy; conversely, in spite of the ancient trail cutting across the range, the terrain was rugged and complicated, it was not a shortcut in reality. Anyway, both routes had little difference in the eyes of mercenary veterans.

Becky was a Tier-Two mercenary. Although young, she had already passed various tests. She was naturally skilled. Before the lock-down of the Beinz Blood Lake, she had scaled the mountain range several times—mostly for money. Hence, she was taking the lead in this expedition. She led the group to a col, which was inconspicuous and could have been easily missed by rookies. There, she found the ancient trail that went up the slope.

“Be careful here.” Everyone got down and walked. Becky was pulling her horse and walking in front. “It’s said that this place is a historical site of an ancient civilisation. And there are some very weird monsters in these mountains. While they’re not hard to deal with, it won’t be fun to meet them here. This place isn’t ideal for any kinds of engagement.”

“It seems like ancient civilisations were everywhere,” Nangong Wuyue muttered. The barren mountains blocked the warm air from the steppe. And at that altitude, there was not much humidity present. The siren was in bad mood because of the dry air. “What wrong did they do?”

“Something that angered the goddess.” Becky laughed. “Legend has it that Dragonspine Ridge was created by Eloken, a human mage-emperor, who used a forbidden incantation. That’s why the abrupt rise on the steppe. My grandpa said the creation of this mountain range disrupted the creation blueprint created by the goddess. He created this barrier because he disliked the cold wind from the West plain. That’s how much of an… Err—”

“A**hole?” Hao Ren interrupted.

“Yeah, that’s how much of an a**hole these ancient mage-emperors were.” Becky nodded. “It’s a very apt word. My grandpa said that the mage-emperors of all the ancient civilisations were an arrogant lot. All of the wizards or mages during that time were arrogant; Sanur, the werewolf mage-emperor created the Volcano of Dusk; Lorissa, the elf queen—also a mage-emperor—trespassed into God’s territory and created a semi-eternal tree of life, which kept itself alive for eternity by sipping nutrients from the holy spring of the goddess; Darian, the mage-emperor of the Blood Clan was the one who originally incited the encroachment of God’s authority to create a perfect life.”

“Whoa…that’s crazy.” Hao Ren marvelled at the creativity of the mage-emperors. He began to think, what could have happened if these “crazy scientists” appeared before Raven 12345. He thought about it for a long time and inevitably came to a conclusion that Raven 12345 would have left it to her subordinates to clean up the mess because it was too troublesome…

“Dragonspine Ridge was the creation of Eloken and the power of this king still remains.” Becky was foaming in the mouth as related the stories her grandpa told her. She continued, “Legend has it that the strange rocks that attack people are possessed by the broken spirit of Eloken. We better not bump into them; although they aren’t a threat, they’re very annoying and hard.”

Boom!

As Becky’s voice trailed off, a thunderous sound came from the mountains.

The one-thousand-eight-hundred “early-warning indicators of a hoax” in Vivian’s body went off at once. She was afraid that bad luck was coming her way again.

Chapter 189: The Accidental Battle

The muffled sound resonated throughout the mountains like rolling thunder. It was as if a huge rock was crashing down a cliff. The rumble went on for at least half a minute and then, it stopped. Becky was left staggering. “Could it be a landslide?”

Hao Ren’s face dimmed. “F*ck, are we that unlucky?”

“Keep going, the least we have is time.” Nangong Wuyue led the way before she wheeled around and said, “Becky, you take the lead. I don’t know the directions…”

They did not say a word since as they hustled through the rugged ancient trail.

The trail was built by Holletta Royalty several hundred years ago. It was now in disrepair. Only the bravest and most skillful mercenaries or adventurers in urgency would take this route. The ancient trail ran across the slope of the mountain like a snake. Certain stretches were wider and layered with slabs while the steeper and narrower stretches had stone steps. Some other areas were just part of the natural rocky slope with safety railing made of thick, iron chains. Even the toughest breed of horses found this terrain extremely challenging. Theirs had slowed down quite a bit after passing the gentle terrain earlier.

Shortly after that, they came to a renowned and dangerous section of the ancient trail. It was a narrow stretch carved out from a steep cliff—there was a rock face on one side, and cold wind and a 1000m fall on the other. The trail only allowed two persons, walking side-by-side at a time. Even though there were safety iron chains on the outer side, the metal columns that held the chains were rusty, and slanted outward. If you slipped, you could fall straight through the gaps, and down the cliff easily. So, the safety railing there was more form than function. Hao Ren walked one step at a time while Lily was held on to Hao Ren and followed closely behind—the maiden was still in her human form. If she had shapeshifted into a werewolf, her tail would have been between her legs at that point.

“It must hurt, falling down there,” said Lily breathlessly as drafts of cold, mountain wind swept past.

Hao Ren rolled his eyes. Lily said that because she had a body made out of steel. “Hurt” would be an understatement if humans were to fall down there.

Vivian was the most relaxed one because, she could fly…

Before they set off on this dangerous stretch, Becky made sure the horses walked in front while they followed from behind; it was a strategy she learned from her experience as a mercenary: these horses knew their way on the dangerous trail, and it was to prevent these horses from crashing into people in front of them should they become frightened, and run amok.

“I can smell…” Vivian was walking in front of Hao Ren, they were halfway on the trail when Vivian turned around and frowned. “…blood ahead. And it’s fresh.”

“Blood?” Hao Ren was taken aback. Some guy from this foreign world probably had a bloody encounter. “Keep going!”

The group finally passed through the narrow cliff path. As they went around a huge rock, the road opened up in front of them. Meanwhile the stink of blood became stronger as they went farther ahead. Even Hao Ren could smell it a little.

Just then, a noisy commotion was heard, with sounds of angry shouts, blades hitting each other, and some kind of explosion. There was probably a fight happening.

Becky drew her enchanted sword. “How many of you can fight?”

Vivian’s eyes had turned blood-red while Lily’s ears and tail had come out from their hiding place. They shapeshifted into their true selves at once without having to worry about anything. It was a different world. Becky was relieved seeing that. “Aha, a werewolf and a member of the Blood Clan! At least, self-defence isn’t going to be a problem. Let’s go nearer but, be very careful.”

They were getting nearer to the sound of battle because they could hear people groaning in pain. As they came out from the last corner, Hao Ren could see what was happening right in front: a group of people were fighting some rock monsters.

Judging from their attire, these people were mercenaries. About 12 or 13 of them, wearing all kinds of armour, equipment and weapons—a typical, ragtag squad. Attacking them were some strange creatures. Hao Ren did not know what to make of them. These creatures looked like stone sculptures. They were about four or five metres tall, greyish brown in colour like rocks with heads and limbs. Additionally, their bodies were covered in moss and broken vines which made them look like something that just walked out from some grotesque fairy tale.

The battle had been going on for quite long so, these mercenaries were suffering from injuries. Some had even lost their fighting capability. They were covered in blood and could barely stand on their feet, leaning on their weapons as support. They stood at the side while they struggled to avoid the occasional assaults that came their way. The remaining mercenaries were not any better either. The rock monsters had an overwhelming combat capability; although they were slow, their heavy, rocky bodies were impenetrable by all kinds of weapon. The only damage the mercenaries could inflict was some sparks from their sword when they hit the monsters. They also managed to blow off only a few chips of stone by magic. In contrast, these monsters had inflicted terrible wounds on the mercenaries of flesh and blood.

The rock monsters fought in a brute way; they either smashed with their bodies or stamped with their feet. Their slow body movement was not a problem as they stood at four to five metres tall. No human could have caught up with their speed when they ran. All the mercenaries could do was engage in close quarter combat as these monsters got near them: perhaps, this was what they had just learned.

There were only three rock monsters but, the squad of mercenaries had already been beaten black and blue.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the trail, Hao Ren noticed a pile of broken rocks, which was likely a monster killed by the mercenaries. But, how did they do it?

Hao Ren was stunned as it was the first time he had ever seen such a bizarre battle. At the same time, Y’zaks shouted and lunged forward. “Let’s give them a hand!”

The rest could not just sit by. Vivian spread her wings and flew up in the air before transforming into two swarms of bats. She began to attack with her powerful Lightning Strike; Lily summoned her claws of ice and fire then, looked up at the sun—it was day time by the way—and howled. She was blinded by the strong sunlight and instead of going towards the enemies, she was headed directly into the cliff. In a quick move, Hao Ren lunged forward and pulled her around so that she could charge in the right direction.

Nangong Wuyue found herself a hiding place to lessen the chances of being a sitting target. She could not help it as she was just a healer. Her siren powers may have had some uses against normal creatures but, no matter how she looked at it, these rock monsters did not seem to be made of water. Not only that, they did not seem to have an intelligent mind, which would allow them to be hypnotised by her singing…

Hao Ren passed the pot, which contained his daughter to Nangong Wuyue before he joined the party with his shield switched on.

Although he did not like odd battles like this, he was a man. He could not sit by and do nothing.

Boom!

Vivian’s Lightning Strike was fully charged. Double lightning drills formed by the swarms of bats shot the nearest rock monster like a TNT warhead. Smoke, dust and rocks flew everywhere. The sound of the explosion resonated throughout the mountains for quite a while.

Meanwhile Lily was happily running towards the centre of the blast, vowing to chop down the head of a monster. “Watch me!”

Exactly a second later, she ran out frantically. “Battie, you stupid daughter of a bat! Don’t you know that rock aren’t conductors?”

Wind in the mountain cleared the smoke and dust in the air, revealing the rock monster that was hit by Vivian’s lethal Lightning Strike. It was a powerful blast and the monster lost a layer of its skin as well half of its head. There were also burnt marks and cracks all over its body. Despite that, it was still alive and kicking. It was now coming after Lily.

This kind of damage was not a big deal to rock monsters.

Vivian’s Lightning Strike was divided into two parts: one was the high heat generated when the lightning drills hit their target; the other was the electric shock, in which its energy was comparable to natural occuring lightning. The damage caused to normal creatures was catastrophic. But somehow, the vampire maiden lacked the experience when it came to this strange, new monster: they had high electrical resistance and were not afraid of the blast.

There was no more element of surprise. It was now time to fight with flesh and blood.

Chapter 190: Can We Solve Problems the Normal Way?

The rock monster ran clumsily towards Lily, the earth trembling like an earthquake with every step it made. The werewolf maiden was waiting for the clumsy monster with full composure. Lily swiftly evaded the assault when the monster’s rock arm crashed down on her. She leapt onto the monster’s arm and climbed to the back of it, jumping like a nimble squirrel on a tree. She was as fast as a faint, white shadow, circling the upper body of the monster. Her movements were accompanied by a series of cutting sounds and chips of stone falling off the monster like snowflakes. However, that did not cause much damage to the monster. The monster was twisting its body, trying to shake Lily off. Lily was having a hard time hanging onto the monster as she could have been shaken off at anytime. However, she hung on anyway.

Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop—

Lily was still leaping back and forth on the rock monster. Wielding her fire and ice claws, she cut her enemy and shouted in frustration. “It’s futile!”

The rock monster was not made out of any ordinary rock—she learned soon enough. It was extraordinarily hard and could regenerate itself. The cracks on its body caused by the blast from Vivian’s Lightning Strike had healed.

By then, the rock monster knew it was going to be difficult to shake off the “little bug”. It was enraged as if capable of thought. Lily planted one of her claws in the monster’s head to stabilise herself while she used another to hack it. The monster suddenly wheeled and it was about to crash its back against the nearest cliff face.

“Watch your back!” While he was engaged with another monster alongside Vivian, Hao Ren saw Lily in danger. He shouted and lunged towards the monster. With his limited strength, he knew what he could do was minimal before the monster. He just crouched on the ground with his shield in the rock monster’s way. The rock monster did not try to avoid it, thinking that it could easily crush the tiny human. As the monster stamped its foot on Hao Ren, it almost lost its balance. Lily pulled her claw out from the monster’s head and jumped down onto the ground. “Thank you, Landlord…”

Hao Ren was buried halfway into the ground. But, he kept his head high and roared at the rock monster. ” Eat me!”

Boom!

There was another explosion on the other side. Y’zaks was alone in taking on the third rock monster. The cramped space was rather inconvenient for the great demon. Being in human form was also limiting his fighting style. However, he could not have cared care less. Y’zaks exchanged punches and kicks with the rock monster; his style was no-frills, simple but brutal with every punch smashing a chunk of rock off the enemy.

Yet another loud boom followed as Y’zaks raised his leg and kicked the enemy. The five-metre rock monster was sent flying. Y’zaks then strode forward, stepped on the monster’s shoulder, grabbed its head with both hands and pulled it off.

“It’s not working.” Y’zaks crushed the head into pieces and looked on as the headless rock monster got to its feet again like nothing happened. As though driven by some strange force, the gravel floated up in the air and quickly condensed, forming the monster’s new head.

You could break off its limbs and head, chop its body into two, or even crush it into smaller pieces; no matter what the tactic used against these rock monsters, they would not bleed. They had no sense of pain, and could regenerate using natural ingredients from their surroundings. For a moment, Y’zaks was at a lost of what to do next.

He was thinking if he should fight in his original form, or toss these monsters somewhere else and summon a meteorite to crush them—he was thinking as a demon and he was seriously considering these measures.

Vivan and Becky were together, keeping another rock monster busy. Although the dazzling moves of Becky’s enchanted sword were powerful, they were useless against the rock monsters during close quarter combat. Her half-past-six magical powers did not help either. These rock monsters were only slowed down by Vivian’s frigid cold and some magic curses. Becky raised her voice and asked the injured mercenaries, “How did you guys kill it?”

They were rescued by Hao Ren earlier but had not regained their strength. Some of them were still fighting while others were pulling the injured away. When they heard Becky, a middle-aged man, who looked like the leader among them limped as moved on his feet and said, “We have no idea. One of them just broke like that while the fight was going on.”

“This is not the way to go.” Vivian was using extremely cold ice to freeze the rock monster in front of her. But, in just a few seconds, the layer of ice started to crack. “Can’t you lot recall what you did?”

The mercenary leader was as anxious as Vivian was but, he could not recall what had happened because the situation was pretty chaotic at that time. Just when everyone seemed unable to find a solution, Y’zaks suddenly shouted happily. “I know their weakness!”

Hao Ren turned his head and saw Y’zaks in a standoff with a rock monster. He was in a rather bizarre position: he first broke the rock monster’s limbs off, and while the monster had not regenerated its limbs yet, Y’zaks raised its body above his head, three-metres above the ground. As the monster was limbless, very much like a stick man, no matter how hard it struggled it was not going to touch the ground. Then came the incredible moment: a layer of black matter slowly covered the monster’s body. The monster’s struggling became weaker and weaker until there was a loud crack, then it broke into pieces.

“Let them leave land!”

The mercenary leader finally recalled the moment when the first rock monster was killed: a senior druid in his team trapped the rock using poison ivy and dragged it up mid air.

However, the druid was lying dead nearby so, no one thought about him earlier.

Finally, there was a way to deal with these rock monsters. Lily was the most elated. She rushed towards the monster she had fought with earlier, grabbed its leg and swung it in the air in a terrifying way.

The rock monster struggling grievously as its body began to disintegrate at an alarming speed after it left the ground, before being yanked to the other side of the mountain several hundred metres way from them. It then broke into thousands of pieces.

But, it stood up again: Lily did not toss it at the right angle, and the rock monster did not exhaust its magic while it was still in the air. It reformed after it came into contact with the ground.

Lily was dumbfounded. As the rock monster marched towards her again, the werewolf felt her pride as a warrior was seriously being insulted. She first stopped Y’zaks from intervening. Before the rock monster arrived, she squatted and wrote something on the ground using a pebble. Once she was finished, she threw the pebble away, rolled up her sleeves and lunged towards the monster. With a loud cry, she heaved her enemy up and out!

This time, she had carefully calculated the angle. The rock monster stayed up in the air a tad longer, and before it landed, it had exhausted every single bit of its magical power. It was totally dead in front of everyone.

Lily’s tail almost stood upright. She ran towards the wreckage and waved her fist. “My physics teacher will now rest in peace, you idiot!”

Knowledge is power, my friends!

At last, the third rock monster was dealt with by Vivian: she split into a swarm of bats, wrapped around her enemy and lifted it half-a-metre up in the air. The vampire maiden was white-eyed as she returned back to human form. She sat on the ground disregarding her posture. “It was too heavy. I should’ve brought a set of pulleys…”

Everything was breathtaking from the beginning to the end for Hao Ren. He could not utter a word as his mind was jammed: what kind of team is this? Why could they never be normal when it came to solving problems?