Chapter 112: Slaying the snake together
When the Medusa slowly emerged from the swamp, Han Shuo discovered that it was even bigger than he’d imagined. Its hair full of small snakes was waving wildly as they extended in dance. Its serpentine lower body was as thick as a bucket, and its body was five or six meters long.
“Everyone be careful, I think the Medusa is ready to leave the swamp to hunt.” Han Shuo could clearly see the Medusa’s movements through the observations of his original demons and he immediately warned everyone.
“Bad guy, bad guy, big bad guy!” A scream rang out from his arms after Han Shuo’s alarmed words and the beautiful and pure elven maiden in his arms started erupting in violent action, railing her small fists into Han Shuo’s chest, accompanied by a look of panic.
Seeing that the female elf had regained her senses, Han Shuo immediately stopped holding her as the Demonslayer Edge abruptly appeared in his hand. His eyes calmly patrolled the four corners as he planned on finding an appropriate location to fight the Medusa.
“What, what do you want to do?” The elven maiden was greatly startled as she thought Han Shuo wanted to kill her. She took two steps back in a panic, a magic staff suddenly appearing in her hand and sent a sharp blade of wind hurtling towards Han Shuo’s head with a magical incantation.
“d.a.m.n it, what are you attacking me for?” Han Shuo immediately roared furiously at this elf after he dodged it.
However, it looked like the elven maiden was even more irate than Han Shuo. She was staring at Han Shuo with extreme enmity and also said huffily, “What did you do to me just now?”
The hungry Medusa had obviously lost its patience when it saw that no prey had entered the swamp. Its colossal body moved swiftly within the swamp and drew close to Han Shuo’s group.
Han Shuo didn’t have the time to waste with the female elf at this moment and beckoned quickly with his hand when he saw the female elven archer Nia walk over from the distance. He pointed at the clueless elven maiden and said, “Explain everything to her.”
Han Shuo immediately left quickly after saying these words and arrived where Trunks, Aphrodite, and the others were. He spoke urgently, “It looks like the Medusa couldn’t hold out against its anger and is attempting to leave the swamp to find prey. It’s heading in this direction, everyone be on guard.”
“The two mages hurry and leave, take up positions in the big tree behind the traps. The two swordsman should split up and don’t let the Medusa discover your tracks. Han, you and I leave temporarily. When the Medusa appears in a moment, we’ll block off its path of retreat. It’s extremely difficult to handle a Medusa creature within the swamp, but it may not even be up to the task of fighting my manticore when it leaves the swamps. Therefore, we have a high probability of killing it, but the only thing is to not let it discover our tracks. We’ll find it dreadfully hard to fight it if it returns to the swamp.” Trunks suddenly spoke up loudly at this time and quickly instructed everyone to return to their posts.
At such a pivotal moment, even the other adventurers, who previously bore enmity towards Trunks, didn’t say anything else. They all nodded and started moving according to their positions in accordance with Trunks’ instructions.
Han Shuo nodded at Trunks and suddenly left, avoiding the path that the Medusa would definitely take. Han Shuo’s grasp of the greater picture far exceeded everyone else’s, due to the information he received from the original demons. The Medusa looked quite cautious as it warily crawled onto the sh.o.r.e, and wasn’t in a hurry to immediately leave the marsh. It dithered by the side of the marsh, as if contemplating something.
The magical creatures that had appeared just now had been stripped of all their valuables and their corpses abandoned in the enormous trap that’d been previously prepared. The Medusa’s beautiful head turned around a few times, her watery eyes appearing a bit confused as to why not a single human or beast had approached after hearing her alluring voice.
After a while, the Medusa still hadn’t seemed to think it through and finally left the marsh, walking towards the place where Aphrodite and the others lay in wait. Through the observations of the original demon, Han Shuo discovered that the previously angry elf had finally calmed down after Nia’s persuading and was looking with interest in his direction. She finally backed up unwillingly towards the back under Nia’s repeated encouragement, but she wasn’t willing to move too far.
After leaving the marsh, the Medusa cautiously proceeded forward. Han Shuo and Trunks circled around and appeared from another direction the marsh, completely blocking off the Medusa’s path of retreat. Han Shuo and Trunks traded a meaningful glance and approached the Medusa from behind at the same time, soundlessly, prepared to make a move against it at any time.
Finally, when the Medusa was ten or so meters away from the marsh, its undulating body suddenly drew near to the trap. Its bizarre body was elongated, when its upper body perceived the existence of the trap, it leveraged the strength of its lower body and slowly eased its slanted body out of the trap and moved away with the undulations of its body.
At this moment, a water dragon and lightning suddenly flashed through the sky, cras.h.i.+ng down onto the Medusa with a thunderous roar. Up ahead, not too far away, Nia also pulled back her bow and fired. Several sharp arrows broke through the air and headed straight for the Medusa.
On the side, Gordon and the two other swordsmen swung out together and chopped down a branch that had been hoisted up high. A tremendous crack rang out as the sharp end of the thick tree branch came shooting straight down to the Medusa.
The Medusa immediately realized that it had fallen into an ambush, and its lower body magically curled around a big tree next to it. Its body had been about to fall into the trap, but flew high through the air and crashed back down onto the ground with a thud.
The branch that had been shooting towards the Medusa shot past where its neck had been before the Medusa dodged, thudding into the bottom of the trap and ringing out loudly.
Aphrodite’s water dragon crashed into the Medusa’s body, but obviously didn’t reach the amount of destructive power it should have. When the Medusa shook its head, the water dragon dispersed into countless water droplets. It was rather the bolt of thunder and lightning that caused the Medusa to cry out in pain.
Only one of the Nia’s arrows pierced into the soft, tender nape of the Medusa’s neck, but it didn’t sink in that far and didn’t cause a fatal injury. The Medusa’s frantic, violent writhing proved that it hadn’t suffered grievous wounds.
After the first wave of attacks had landed, the Medusa swiftly turned around and retreated. It didn’t attempt to seek revenge on the people who had attacked it and crawled directly towards the marsh. It seemed that it wanted to retreat and fight back after entering the marsh.
It was a pity at this time that Han Shuo and Trunks had long since been ready. Brutal, milky-white fighting aura and the ear rattling whistle from the Demonslayer Edge rang out as they both made for the Medusa, suddenly appearing on the Medusa’ neck and cheek.
The Medusa had been able to easily handle the previous attacks, but Han Shuo and Trunks’ combined attacks finally let it sense the threat of death. These two waves of attacks were swift and fierce. The domineering killing intent encompa.s.sed within caused the highly ranked Medusa to deploy all of its energy.
Its enormous body suddenly became incredibly agile as its numerous snakes for hair suddenly danced. The hundreds and thousands of small snakes danced wildly in the air, transforming into a sky of tentacles to obstruct Trunks and Han Shuo’s attacks.
Trunks’ milky-white fighting aura and Han Shuo’s Demonslayer Edge attacks hurtled into the midst of the numerous dancing snakes and instantly filled the air with a b.l.o.o.d.y mist. The small snakes were pulverized into b.l.o.o.d.y chunks that were sent flying and plopped onto the ground.
Both of their attacks were greatly weakened at the same time and couldn’t approach the Medusa’s vital parts at all. The small snakes that had been chopped off wriggled on the ground and struggled in Han Shuo’s and Trunks’ direction, attempting to swallow the two.
“Huh. Go to h.e.l.l.” Trunks snorted coldly as a longsword once again appeared in his hand. However, it wasn’t the broadsword that had been chipped by the Demonslayer Edge.
Trunks’ body was surrounded by milky-white aura and a gust of flying sand and small rocks exploded towards the small snakes approaching him, swiftly making for the Medusa. On the other side, a figure dashed out like lightning. It was the manticore who had long been lying in wait. It maintained the same speed as Trunks and shot towards the Medusa.
Han Shuo remained unmoving where he stood, closing his eyes instead and manipulating the Demonslayer Edge with all his concentration. The small snakes that covered the Medusa’s head all screamed as they one by one, turned into a b.l.o.o.d.y rain that filled the sky. The indestructible Demonslayer Edge reaped the life of one small snake after another and chopped off half of the Medusa’s small snakes in the span of an instant.
The other adventurers in the distance all surged out from the back when they saw that the Medusa had no avenue of retreat and was heavily injured. Even more attacks appeared with their combined efforts. Trunks and the manticore were even more fierce as they directly challenged the Medusa. Trunks had turned into a cloud of milky-white aura and his every move caused the Medusa’s blood and flesh to fly everywhere.
Ranked on the same level as the Medusa, the manticore circled the Medusa on the ground and dashed to and fro. Its claws, that were as sharp as blades, left injuries on the Medusa so deep that bone could be seen. When all of the small snakes on the Medusa’s head had been executed by Han Shuo’s Demonslayer Edge, the Medusa’s struggles suddenly became quite listless and its writhing body suddenly became quiet.