Volume 1: Chapter 12 – The Dinichthys
The Deinonychus lived in the Cretaceous era more than 100 million years ago, and was a relative of the Velociraptor. The difference between the two, however, was as plain to see as the difference between a lion and a Persian cat. The Deinonychus is one of the most well known dinosaurs. It is twice the size of a Velociraptor, and has sickle shaped claws that make it possible for it to cut open a rhinoceros’s hide. Upon encountering a group of Deinonychus, even larger carnivorous dinosaurs would be hesitant to attack.
As Leng Yun fell to the ground, a Deinonychus bit at her backpack and attempted to tow her away. Leng Yun decisively let go of her backpack and got back up in order to continue running. As a result, the Deinonychus screeched and clawed at Leng Yun’s back, leaving behind several bone-deep wounds. This immediately caused three fourths of her health points to drain away!
The flesh on her back was cut down to the bone. Leng Yun nearly fainted, but the hope of survival kept her going. She just had to endure the pain. But would she still be able to run away from the Deinonychus after falling once? The Deinonychus leapt towards Leng Yun, causing her rosey cheeks to turn pale.
Zhang Mu rushed over to her side in the nick of time, and clenched his dagger to slash against the Deinonychus’ neck. Its skin, however, was too tough and leathery, so he was only able to inflict 8 damage. While the Deinonychus’ attention was shifted, Zhang Mu used Quick Step. It seemed as if he were making his exit on a skateboard together with Leng Yun. A distant whoosh sounded behind them.
This skill was the most beneficial when one needed to run. No matter where they were, they could use this skill as long as they could use both of their legs.
Leng Yun had narrowly dodged the Gates of h.e.l.l.
“No matter what happens, don’t stop running!” Zhang Mu said as he twisted his head back, “Qin Min, throw your backpack away!”
Qin Min kept running while simultaneously taking off her backpack, and throwing it onto the ground. She was a Summoner, so her dexterity and physical skill levels weren’t very high. Her speed and endurance would doom her unless she lightened her load, and the Deinonychus would have definitely caught up to her.
At this moment, a woman fell down, and the Deinonychus bit down at her. While she was alive, it tore off half of her face, causing her eyeb.a.l.l.s to squeeze out of their sockets and blood to cover her face. This was truly a demon from the depths of h.e.l.l. She desperately clung onto a tree root while crying for help and crawling forward. The Deinonychus bit off part of the flesh on her waist and possibly part of her b.u.t.t numerous times, tearing off huge chunks of flesh. Unless the player’s health points reached zero, they would not be able to die. This amount of vitality was extraordinary for an ordinary person, but this only extended the woman’s inhumane torture.
Zhang Mu wasn’t able to save her, and was only able to listen as her screams became increasingly shrill, leaving a haunting sense of hopelessness lingering in the depths of his soul. The survivors madly struggled through the dense overgrowth of the jungle. Everyone ran like their lives depended on it, and finally, they arrived at a wide river after a few minutes.
The river’s bank was large, and there were approximately ten large trees surrounding the land. Each tree was thick enough for several people to wrap their arms around it, and each tree had several vines hanging from it. The vines blocked one’s line of sight from seeing the end of the river. The water was a bit muddy, and algae, twigs, and leaves floated upon its surface. Thankfully, the river was slow moving and would not carry them away.
The Deinonychus chased after them on the sh.o.r.e, but they could not swim after them as they were naturally unable to swim. The dinosaurs were only able to run back and forth around the river bank, screeching continuously. The group had narrowly escaped. After swimming across seven or eight meters, the river had already reached a depth of about two meters. This meant that the center of the river had to be about six or seven meters deep.
Fatty’s foot hit open air, and he fell into the water. After taking in two mouthfuls of the river’s water, he exclaimed “Ah! It’s no use, I can’t f.u.c.king swim!”
Zhang Mu found a large piece of floating driftwood and threw it towards him. In order to lighten his load, Fatty deposited his axe into his backpack. He held onto the piece of driftwood, only able to barely keep himself from sinking as he swam with the current.
Several people swam towards the center of the river. Finally, after pacing around for awhile, the Deinonychus lost interest and turned around, making their return back towards the center of the jungle.
Qin Min, still suffering from the shock, asked, “Are we safe now?”
“Maybe not!” Zhang Mu looked around, “The river is flowing too slowly. We should hurry and get out.”
Looking in the near distance, Sun Bing astonishedly asked, “Is there someone else in the river?”
Suddenly, everyone felt a ripple form in the middle of the river. There was definitely someone or something moving under water, and everyone’s expressions couldn’t help but contort drastically.
A black man boldly called out, “It’s no good! There’s something in the center of the river, swim over to the opposite bank!”
All of a sudden, something rose out of the water. A sinister monster arose. The monster resembled a centipede, and it’s body was an ash gray in color. It was approximately a meter long, had a thick sh.e.l.l covering its thighs and back, and had ten pointed feet. The first foot was the thickest, and was about two-thirds of a meter long. It was very sharp and knife-like, resembling a saw toothed sickle.
【Eurypterid】(Common), Level 4, 30 health points, 30 mana.
The river’s center was filled with strange, ugly insects. WIthin the span of a few seconds, hundred of insects were clinging onto their feet, making their scalps tingle.
This insect-like-fish monster had thick thighs that were at least a meter long!
A huge meter long insect? What was this thing?
If this was in normal China, a normal little girl would faint at the spot. A man wouldn’t do much better either. What’s more is that there wasn’t only one of them, but hundreds! At least one hundred of them! To their surprise, the most deadly place to be in was at the center of the river, and now everyone was on their own. The dreadful situation caused them to shout in fear as despair surged through their hearts.
Zhang Mu reacted the quickest, “Don’t swim over to the river banks, it’s too far and there’s not enough time. There are trees at the end of the river, climb up them!”
The river was lined with many trees. Most of them were about 30 feet long and thick enough for a person to wrap their arms around the trunk. The dense foliage blocked the sun, acting like a huge umbrella standing over the water’s edge. These trees were their only hope of survival. The tree that Zhang Mu was closest to was covered in slimy moss. Fortunately, the moss was uneven and b.u.mpy, which meant that it provided enough leverage for one to climb up. Due to that and his skill, he was able to climb up in no time.
One after another, other people began to swim over to a tree. Fatty, who could not swim, was very lucky to float over to a fat tree just in the nick of time. He hurriedly abandoned the driftwood and went over to climb up the tree trunk.
“Squeak, squeak,” strange noises began to cry out.
Two of the strange insects jumped out of the water. One fell on top of Fatty’s back, and the other one fell on his b.u.t.t. Their sickle-like forelegs quickly left behind several b.l.o.o.d.y holes on Fatty’s body. Fatty screamed out in pain. His back was completely dyed red with blood, but he didn’t dare to let go. Instead, he desperately forced himself to climb up. Sun Bing saw this from the side and promptly took out his shield to swat the strange insects down.
Other people were also suffering from the strange insects’ attacks.
As the bulky dark-faced man climbed halfway up a tree, he slipped on the slippery lichen on the bark of the tree and plunged into the water. This resulted in ten of the strange insects to surround the man immediately as their sharp and slender forelimbs mercilessly plunged into his body.
“AH! AH!”
The dark-faced man was covered by the strange insects. He frantically screamed as he struggled to dislodge them. Fresh blood dyed the surrounding water a sickly red. While the Eurypterids weren’t very strong, being surrounded by ten of them in a disadvantageous river environment meant it was impossible to escape. The large man was quickly disembowelled, dying pitifully in the depths of the river.
Zhang Mu climbed onto a big tree while Leng Yun struggled to climb up behind him. A couple of the insects had followed behind her. These monsters obviously also had some climbing ability. Since their too limbs were too short, and because they were unsuited to climbing, they were only able to move very slowly.
“Hurry up!”
Zhang Mu pulled Leng Yun up. Then, he retrieved two daggers and struck at two of the strange insects. Although they were level 4 monsters, the Eurypterids had abnormally low health and defence. As long as they were stabbed at their critical areas, they would definitely die. Zhang Mu stabbed and killed four of the insects that were trying to climb up. Meanwhile, Leng Yun also took out a sharp dagger from her waist and worked together with Zhang Mu to repel the strange insects. The insects must have felt that this wasn’t easy prey, and so they reluctantly jumped back into the water after a while.
On a large tree not too far away, Fatty had also succeeded in climbing up. He used his axe to hack five or six of the strange insects to death while Sun Bing had used his shield to fend off the attacks of the strange insects. On yet another tree, Qin Min and an unknown couple had managed to take shelter. The three people wielded daggers, clubs, and other weapons. Currently, they were in the midst of driving the swarm away.
Finally, the swarm retreated.
The unfortunate large man had been shredded to pieces by the Eurypterids. Several dozens of them surrounded the body as they madly thrashed, ripping pieces of flesh from the corpse. Everyone else stood atop the large trees, helplessly watching as a man that had been kicking and breathing mere moments ago was erased by the swarm of horrifying insects.
The strange insects swarmed around the corpse, forming three layers on top of each other, happily eating away. A ripple in the water not too far away revealed the presence of something approaching. The Eurypterids seemed to have been visibly shaken, as they simultaneously slipped into the water, dispersing in all directions. Only a few remained, too distracted by their meal to notice.
Then, a gush of water whipped forth. A terrifying huge dark silhouette burst forth from the water. It had a humongous jaw capable of swallowing half a bus. The large man’s corpse and remaining strange insects were swallowed in one mouthful, and with a “Hua la” sound, it sunk back into the depths of the murky water.
[Dinichthys], level 9 Bronze Elite, health: ?? (100%), mana: ?? (100%).
The players were probably unable to see the monster’s health due to their overwhelming gaps in strength. The monster was very similar to the Dunkleosteus from tales and legend, a prehistoric creature that rampaged in the Late Devonian period 400 million years ago, dating about 100 million years before the dinosaurs appeared. The Dunkleosteus were over ten meters in length, and they had a bite force ranging from five to ten tons, more than enough strength to snap a Deinonychus in half.
This was something that would give any man the chills. Extinct monsters that had died millennia ago were appearing in this jungle.
Zhang Mu maintained a calm appearance despite this, not scared one bit by the appearance of the gigantic fish. However, he wrinkled his brow slightly, “This monster’s body is very big, but it’s not very flexible. It will be unable to attack us at our current height.”
Leng Yun was unable to shake off her lingering fears, “It was… really too terrifying!”
Having just emerged from the water, the party was completely soaked. Leng Yun’s glossy hair clung to her chest. Water dripped from its ends, while her clothes clung closely to her exquisite body, accentuating the rise and fall of her chest. She had three bone-deep slashes on her back. Fresh blood oozed unceasingly from the wounds, a result of the Deinonychus’ attack. She began to feel a chilling numbness in her four limbs. Her head felt slightly dizzy as a result of her excessive blood loss. She was possibly suffering from the onset of wound infections.
Leng Yun took off her outer coat, exposing a white short sleeve T-shirt. Most likely due to her body’s amazing shape, the T-shirt that covered her curves was clearly visible, and it exposed a fourth of her tender white chest. The deep and mysterious divide was alluring enough to entice any man’s imagination. Thankfully, at this moment, no one had the attention to spare to notice such things. So Leng Yun began to heal herself.
Zhang Mu observed the surrounding environment. The tree branches were extremely dense, and their branches were covered in moss. Under the dark rotting bark, there was a countless number of coc.o.o.ns and green caterpillars. They were undetectable if one did not carefully observe and notice them. According to adventuring common sense, such bugs often had a toxic nature.
“It won’t be long until the sky turns dark. We will have to spend the night up here.” Zhang Mu glanced up at the sky through the thick foliage and took out a dagger, “Let’s clean up first.”
Leng Yun healed her wounds and put on her coat before she went to help Zhang Mu clear up the surrounding branches.
The sky gradually turned dark. The sound of shrieks and screams echoed out from within the depths of the jungle. Anyone who has been in a jungle before would know that the evening was the most dangerous time of day to be in it!