Chapter 455: Swamp and Giant Snake

It wasn’t just Colonel Frayzer and Chief Hog who felt the tremors in the Foul Swamp. The student party members, who were already making territorial gains in the swamp front line, were even more aware of when this ghostly disturbance occurred.

When the first wave of tremors came, Cheche, who was resting in the newly captured Outpost No. 6, immediately jumped up. The high level of discipline developed through multiple battles made him leap into the air almost without hesitation, trying to get a better observation position from above.

However, this swamp was shrouded in heavy war fog, preventing Cheche from seeing anything of value.

From his high position, he could barely make out jumping lights flickering in the eastern direction through the dim haze, looking exactly like firecrackers being lit under the smog.

“Quick, quick! Get online, get online!”

Cheche landed in the outpost and immediately sat up from his bed offline, shouting to the others who had just finished breakfast and were chatting idly in the dormitory, without even removing his helmet:

“There’s a problem, there’s movement in the direction of Plague Town. Although I don’t know what’s happening, I think we can take advantage of this to launch another attack.”

“Right away! I’ll call the sports students, Niuniu was also revived a few days ago, we have a tank now so we can charge in with confidence.”

The dormitory immediately erupted in ghostly howls.

In less than 5 minutes, all six dormitory members had awakened in the outpost. Ah Yuen blew the communication horn, causing the members of the Eight Demon Elite Group outside the outpost to also direct their skeleton armies to move in this direction.

The process from Cheche observing the anomaly to these guys organizing an offensive was smooth as flowing water. When the second wave of tremors arrived 15 minutes later, under the cover of their skeleton army, the vampires had already launched an attack on the seventh outpost.

This mobilization ability might not be considered top-tier across the entire continent, but it was already first-class in Transia’s military sequence. However, the results were not very good.

Although there were indeed problems at Plague Town, the defensive line around the town had not relaxed because of this.

The student party’s offensive crashed head-on into the dense firepower network of the undead army’s tight defense ahead. After persisting for 10 minutes under various spirit energy spells and covering bone arrow and javelin attacks, they retreated after losing a vanguard squad of skeleton soldiers.

“This situation isn’t right!”

Gugu Chicken, who had nearly been headshot by a corrosion beam, wiped the filth off his face while jumping up and down, cursing loudly:

“How come the counterattack force is even stronger than yesterday? There are actually three Corpse Mages guarding that tiny outpost! This is really crazy, isn’t this just the outer defense line?”

“First of all, if we breakthrough Outpost No. 7, it means we’ve achieved a breakthrough in the area approaching Plague Town and driven in a wedge, so it’s appropriate for them to heavily defend against this.

Secondly, our activities over the past few days seem to have caused changes in the skeleton army’s deployment, they’ve begun to focus their defense on our area.”

Ah Yuen sheathed his twin blades and thoughtfully stroked his chin, saying:

“No wonder Brother Stick and Brother Meow aren’t rushing to attack on their sides. Those two cunning guys probably realized this change early on, they’re waiting for us to draw the fire before making breakthroughs from the other two directions.”

“Damn! Should we still continue then?”

Cheche cursed in frustration:

“If we keep being this stubborn, aren’t we just doing their work for them?”

“No, no, no, you can’t look at things that way.”

The “Fire Demon Sheng Zhu” who had just launched the attack with the student party leaned on his evil bone staff decorated with a goat skull, wagging his finger as he said:

“We’re at a disadvantage now, but as long as they both make a decisive breakthrough of the outer defense line closer to Plague Town than us, the battlefield salient becomes theirs. Given the troop deployment thinking these gnolls have shown so far, the harder-to-crack town defenses will reinforce the south and north because of this.

This way, when we attack into the Plague Town area, we’ll actually face the least pressure.

This, ah, this is called pincer movement and flexible changes in battlefield posture.”

“I’m not well-read, don’t try to fool me, I don’t think pincer movement works like that, right? I’ve been reading the history of the Volunteer Army recently.”

Leading Pigeon made a sarcastic comment, but then said with a serious face:

“But what the Fire Demon said isn’t wrong, right now the three front lines are in a mutually supporting relationship, we’re one group, don’t quibble too much about these small matters. But we must coordinate with both sides in advance to prevent them from pulling some tricks that end up implicating us.

By the way, what exactly happened over at Plague Town?

Why are these tremors getting more and more intense?

Could it be that the gnoll sorcerers are preparing earthquake spells to try to take us out? But this disturbance doesn’t seem quite like that.”

————————

“Forward! Press on! Quickly!”

While the outer defense line was under attack, at the foot of the towering mountain pass leading from eastern Plague Town to the swamp forbidden zone, a massive undead legion was rapidly advancing.

Led by 100 Netherworld Knights, assault zombies wearing crude armor and wielding rough weapons trudged through the mud pools. In the dark sky above, Magic Heart Wraiths, more dangerous and cruel than ordinary wraiths, flew forward in groups while screaming at the top of their lungs.

The most vulnerable skeleton cavalry provided support on the flanks, while necromancers and skeleton mages skilled in ranged attacks were formed into arrays led by dozens of gnoll sorcerers to shape large-scale freezing winds to make the swamp terrain easier to advance through.

These undead were specially shaped in the Construction Tower for today’s operation. They received speed specialization allowing them to move through the swamp as if on solid ground.

In the air, several Wyverns adorned with clan armor carried Flesh Render and his trusted lieutenants as they conducted aerial reconnaissance of the situation while making timely adjustments to the battlefield conditions.

They had now officially entered the swamp forbidden zone.

But the first wave that jumped out to attack them wasn’t the legendary swamp giant snake, but rather a group of wild beasts living in the swamp. From giant alligators to swamp tigers to horrific blood-sucking spiders and venomous bats, almost all the dangerous wild beasts existing in this swamp jumped out at once.

They couldn’t really speak of coordination and command, only attacking based on animal instinct, but the sheer number of beasts did indeed cause some trouble for the undead legion’s advance.

This unexpected encounter was actually the gnoll sorcerers’ own doing.

In their years at Plague Town, they had been massively awakening swamp undead while randomly discharging Construction Tower waste, causing the ecological environment of this area to be destroyed completely. The wild beasts living nearby were forced to migrate.

From the current situation, most of the swamp beasts seemed to have migrated to the forbidden zone, and they had formed their own food chain here, allowing their populations to redevelop. Flesh Render even spotted giant individual specimens among the swamp tigers pouncing on the vanguard. Using the humanoid power system, these were Black Iron Rank beast individuals, and there were even more dangerous elite individuals active among the beast groups.

“The source of power for the creatures in this swamp has always been a mystery.”

On the Wyvern’s saddle, the old gnoll narrowed his cloudy eyes and thought:

“When we first arrived, there were even instances of barbarian soldiers being dragged away by alligators appearing out of nowhere. It’s hard to say how many unique individuals are hidden in this swamp. I wouldn’t be surprised if White Silver Rank giant beasts jumped out from within.

No matter how you look at it, this doesn’t seem to be a naturally formed ecology. Even in the Dark Mountains, there have never been scenes of so many elite beasts collectively appearing on such a large scale.

Ah, if it weren’t for the mission I carry, just the mysteries and truths hidden beneath the surface of the Foul Swamp would be worth thoroughly exploring.”

“What are you thinking about?”

Just as Flesh Render was pondering, a hoarse voice suddenly sounded from beside him, causing the old gnoll to turn his head for a look.

Floating next to his Wyvern was a luxurious and spacious “magic carpet”. The high-quality leather and exquisite runic threads woven together, plus the pearl tassels adorning its contours, gave this spirit energy-powered vehicle a fantastic charm.

Its driver sat cross-legged on the magic carpet.

It was someone whose body was covered by a red hood, even wearing full-coverage gloves on their fingers.

But from the build, one could tell this was a man. Beside him sat a still-brewing teapot and smoking incense. He himself held a book in his hands, looking not like he came for war but rather like a spirit mage’s excursion.

Looking carefully, the book in this guy’s hands clearly had “Carpe’s Travelogue: Traveling with Vampires” written on its cover.

Tsk, this was Colonel Frayzer’s “wild fan” alright.

This mysterious person was the one sent by “Source” to support the Plague Clan, but Flesh Render didn’t like him. Apart from the old gnoll’s wariness of the Dusk faction, it was also because Flesh Render could sense danger from this guy.

Although he was also just a White Silver Rank spirit mage like himself, Flesh Render guessed that in the event of a conflict, he probably wouldn’t be a match for this guy.

The servants of Dusk all had various strange abilities that were not power granted by the material world.

Faced with this guy’s inquiry, Flesh Render said in a calm tone:

“I was just pondering the truth of this swamp. I can sense that its mysteries are no less significant than the gnoll secret treasure we seek.”

“Congratulations, Lord Flesh Render, your intuition is correct.”

The spirit mage sitting on the magic carpet let out a slight laugh and said:

“But I advise you not to investigate too deeply. The truth of the Foul Swamp is not something you can comprehend. In fact, its background is far greater than you imagine. Apart from helping you obtain the secret treasure of King Gnawbone, I also have a task entrusted by my organization this time.

I must retrieve something from the source of the swamp for my organization.

And once I complete this task, this swamp will shed all its wonder and mystery, no longer able to be an obstacle interfering with the Black Plague’s advance into Transia territory.

You know, a major reason why your first four Black Plagues couldn’t sweep into the continent in one go was because of the Foul Swamp’s obstruction.

Even King Gnawbone couldn’t conquer this swamp…

By the way, aren’t you curious why the perfect leader born to the gnoll race had to enter the Foul Swamp in his moment of defeat?”

The mysterious spirit mage said in a subtle tone:

“He didn’t flee here out of desperation. According to the information I have, King Gnawbone still had one last hunting guard blessed by the Lord of the Hunt at the time. Relying on just that legion, he could have completely broken through the encirclement and returned to Moss Valley.

But he didn’t do that.

Instead, he threw all the forces he had left into this swamp forbidden zone. Guess, Lord Flesh Render, why would your king make such a crazy move when at the end of his rope?”

This question gave Flesh Render pause, but soon the gnoll sorcerer said in a low voice:

“King Gnawbone believed there was power hidden here that could turn defeat into victory?”

“Hmm, I can’t give you an answer.”

That spirit mage waved his hand, deliberately keeping him in suspense as he said:

“Whatever is in the forbidden zone, it’s not power that you can covet. It has already caught the attention of Lord ‘Source’, so its final fate can only be driven and used by us, even if just to correct this wrong era.

Ha, the true master of this place has appeared. Your little army is about to face a real challenge.”

Flesh Render immediately looked up ahead.

The undead army he had assembled had already defeated the obstruction of the swamp beasts. The leading 20 Netherworld Knights were leading the assault zombies across a strangely shaped ruined wall.

When the first Netherworld Knight crossed that boundary, intense tremors rang out from the fog-shrouded area.

Like an earth-shaking impact, it seemed as if the entire swamp “came alive” in this instant.

The frozen zones just shaped by the gnoll sorcerers were instantly torn apart by rolling muddy water. And in the low, desolate, far-reaching roar that made people uneasy, a huge creature appeared before Flesh Render and the other gnoll sorcerers.

Like the scene of a Brachiosaurus appearing in Jurassic Park, what first came into view was a slender neck like a giraffe, standing like a tall tower. Just the length of this fellow’s neck exceeded 30 meters, making it hard to imagine the shocking scene when this huge creature’s body was fully extended.

Part of its body was hidden in the mud swamp as it charged toward the undead who had crossed the “boundary”. The surrounding swamp mist also changed because of this, with a strange power beginning to fill the rolling fog.

“Prepare to slow!”

Flesh Render immediately shouted. A few seconds later, several gnoll plague sorcerers jointly threw forward a biological stasis curse. In the jumping purple light over a large area, the speed of that charging huge beast suddenly decreased. However, in the next moment, with an angrier roar, the effects of the stasis curse were instantly torn apart.

Before Flesh Render could make the next decision, that huge beast suddenly disappeared as if blinking, reappearing in the center of the undead army when it showed up again.

Now without the thick clouds and mist blocking the view, everyone finally saw the appearance of the legendary swamp giant snake.

It had a round, plump body that didn’t quite match its slender neck. Four short but sturdy claws gripped tightly under the mud swamp, allowing it to stand steadily.

But what drew the most attention was this giant snake’s skin.

As luxurious as if studded with jewels, it would display different colors with changes in light, making it look like a rare beast forged from diamonds.

The head atop that neck was quite majestic, with tiger eyes and fish whiskers, a single horn growing from its head, and beautiful and dashing cloud manes adorning its neck. Bone plates like those of a Stegosaurus extended along its spine all the way to its inverted triangular, engineering hammer-like tail.

Just this appearance alone certainly deserved the words “legendary creature”.

However, in stark contrast to its exquisite and dignified face was this fellow’s brutality. The moment it appeared, the jewel-like skin on its body was like some kind of energy accumulation followed by an eruption.

Dazzling light radiated outward from Ningkinanka as the center, covering a position nearly 300 meters away, like a small sun exploding in the swamp. All creatures illuminated by the light, whether undead or gnoll sorcerers, were subjected to an unavoidable confusion and blindness spell.

Under Flesh Render’s widened eyes, the swamp beast roared as it raised its body then slammed down heavily. The instant its body contacted the ground, super large-scale earthquake spells and war stomps struck those poor fellows who absolutely could not dodge or defend.

Except for a few Netherworld Knights who were barely standing, the remaining undead were all pressed into the rolling swamp water under this super heavy strike. Weaker undead were even crushed on the spot.

Just this one combo caused Flesh Render to lose one-tenth of his army, and also made him truly understand the weight of the words “legendary creature”.

This was absolutely not an opponent that mortals could match!

“Ah, I was still hoping you could create a miracle.”

The mysterious spirit mage on the magic carpet said in a mocking tone.

Before Flesh Render could get angry, this guy stood up from the magic carpet, and in doing so pulled out a peculiar-looking “staff” from his spirit bag, propping it in his hand and activating some mechanism to aim and lock onto the giant snake that was rampaging in the swamp below.

Dazzling streams of light flashed past, and amid the beast’s low roars, the space around the huge creature was shattered as if star seas closing their teeth, swallowing it in one gulp amid its struggles.

“The astral banishment will only last 30 minutes.”

That person propped on his staff and said in a low voice:

“Ningkinanka can survive in the Astral Realm too, we must find what you’re looking for and leave before it returns.”

“But what about a nest of giant snakes.”

Flesh Render expressed some worry, but was met with a sneer from the spirit mage:

“Don’t worry, there’s only one of it in Zone A of the swamp ecological area. Its mate was personally slain by Vampire Lord Payne a thousand years ago, so as long as you and your soldiers don’t get itchy hands and run off to other zones, you won’t provoke any more ‘exhibits’.

Let’s go.

The Place of Creation lies ahead, and you and I don’t have much time left.”