NOVPUB
Chapter 741: Chapter 762: A Harsh Stab
"Do you feel something?" Bruto anxiously asked Lancelot.
"Nothing specific, but something is definitely off." Lancelot closed his eyes and then opened them quickly, scanning the surroundings, "Some presence has noticed us..."
"Tulaglas? Should we not have mentioned that name?" the Dwarf speculated nervously, "I don’t see anything strange around... some kind of invisible magic? Kalalin, can you detect it?"
"I’m afraid it’s not magical." Lancelot shook his head slightly, "I said noticed, not watched. Anyway, it’s nothing good; we better leave this bizarre plane as soon as possible..."
The group started moving again, this time with weapons and shields in hand, clearly more tense than before. After walking a bit more, Lancelot suddenly stopped again, causing Kalalin behind him to almost bump into him.
"What is it now?" Bruto instinctively lowered his voice, "Any new discoveries?"
"The ground just trembled a bit." Lancelot frowned, "It’s gone now, but it shouldn’t have been my imagination..."
He had barely finished speaking when another tremor came from below. This disturbance was significantly stronger than before, and everyone could clearly feel it. The intensity of the tremors increased rapidly, as if something was swiftly approaching them. Lancelot’s expression quickly darkened, and he fiercely raised his longsword, pointing it straight at the ground, and shouted at the same time:
"Run! To the top of the mountain!"
No one asked for further explanation; the four others immediately rushed out following his command. Something that had been dormant within the mountain was awakening, rapidly approaching their location, and it was certainly not some freak natural phenomenon. Moreover, Lancelot was not planning to passively wait for the attacker to make its move; he preferred to keep the initiative in his own hands.
A few moments later, the Human Knight’s longsword suddenly burst with a dazzling sword aura, and then he plunged it fiercely into the ground.
Lancelot wielded about eighty percent of his strength for that strike, and he half-knelt on the ground, with only the hilt of Frostslash still visible outside. Although the Hand Half Sword itself was only several feet long, the Qingyuan Sword Technique’s sword aura extended further, piercing deeper into the earth. As a Wood Attribute cultivation technique, the dense soil was like merely a lump of hardened cheese against the sword aura, barely impacting its power.
Lancelot distinctly felt that he had indeed hit something, which brought a brief joy to his expression. However, in the next second, the Human Knight was thrown high into the air. The predator lurking underground burst through the surface, exposing its terrifying body. 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓅𝓊𝓫.𝒸ℴ𝓶
Lancelot circulated the True Yuan inside his body, swiftly adjusting his form in mid-air, evaluating the enemy he had ’stabbed’ out. It was a terrible giant beast with the appearance of a worm, with a radius alone nearly ten feet, and the part he could see was fifty feet long, with more hidden underground. The monster’s body was covered in ringed, purple chitin carapaces, which interlocked like plank armor, each segment boasted a saw-toothed bone spur that could either facilitate burrowing forward by rotating its body underground or crush an enemy’s body like a meat grinder as it passed over.
At the front of this horrifying body, there were neither eyes nor organs like noses or ears, just a gaping mouth split wide open, filled with densely packed, unusually white, sharp teeth.
Having been in the Abyss for so long, Lancelot had come to understand one thing: a creature with an exceptionally clean mouth might prioritize personal hygiene, or it might be because its saliva had a strong corrosive quality. In any case, it definitely wasn’t because it hadn’t eaten for a long time and licked itself clean.
When Lancelot had first arrived in this dimension, he and Bruto had encountered a huge sandworm lord, and the two had made a fortune from it. The purple giant worm in front of him, though similar in size to that sandworm, presented a completely different aura with its additional carapace and spikes. In the Human Knight’s Spirit Perception, its presence was almost comparable to a six-armed Serpent Demon in a furious state. With its enormous gaping mouth, it could swallow the entire squad of five in one bite. If it were to launch a surprise attack from beneath their feet, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Lancelot easily located the wound he had just inflicted. About thirty feet from the monster’s head, a large amount of fresh blood was pouring out of a bowl-sized gap, looking just like the spring of an underground fountain. Clearly, the monster was furious at being wounded by Lancelot. With a terrifying twist of its body, it snapped towards the airborne, leverage-less Human Knight like a predatory snake.
Had it been anyone else, dodging this attack would have been impossible. Although Lancelot had not yet reached the Golden Core Stage and couldn’t use Imperial Qi to fly, making some maneuvers in the air was still no problem for him. His body seemed as if it was pulled by an invisible rope, suddenly accelerating downward, dodging the enormous mouth while his longsword plunged into the body of the giant worm once again.
This time he specifically aimed for the seams of the armor on the beast’s body, but the result did not meet his expectations. Lancelot felt as though he was thrusting into a piece of steel-like bone. Even with the empowerment of the Qingyuan Sword Technique, the longsword could only penetrate about a foot before it could go no further.
As an experienced warrior, Lancelot knew there was no point in struggling against the opponent’s armor. The same principle applied in this situation. His legs, abdomen, back, and shoulder muscles all exerted force at the same time, instantly pulling the half-stuck sword out of the enemy’s body. He then immediately leapt aside, narrowly evading the armored worm’s devastating crush roll.
"Lancelot!!!"
"Brother!!!"
Shouts of alarm came from the distance. From their perspective, the Human Knight’s figure resembled a small boat submerged by a giant wave, disappearing under the rolling form of the purple worm. Bruto instantly charged forward. Although he could no longer activate the power of Titan’s Blood today, the Dwarf, in his Berserk State, had long forgotten what fear was. Filling his heart was only a pure and primal urge to destroy.
But another figure moved even faster. Two huge bat wings extended from behind little Isa, her originally pale golden hair inexplicably turning almost translucent white. Although it was daytime on this plane, the thick clouds in the sky blocked the sunlight, allowing her to utilize some of the Vampires’ powers.
Further away, the Elf Priest was half-kneeling on the ground, softly chanting sacred prayers, the shield he supported growing ever brighter; and Kalalin pulled out five or six scrolls from his backpack, hesitated for a moment, then opened the thickest one...
The peak was already near. Everyone knew that the Portal to leave was not far behind, and though the beast behind them seemed invincible, each of them was committed to the fight without hesitation. There were no grand reasons, no embarrassing excuses, and they hadn’t even considered whether it was worth it...
Their companion was in danger, and that alone was enough.
