All of a sudden, a m.u.f.fled groan drifted into Sheyan’s ears; knocking him from pensive contemplation to reality. Sheyan spun around quickly and immediately realized not a single soul remained where Mbenga had been. It had merely been a few seconds since he heard a groan, yet Mbenga had utterly vanished from his sight.
To his astonishment, Sheyan instantly rushed towards the source of that groaning. Repeated swaying could be seen within the shrubs, as a clear trace of forceful treading could be seen. Sheyan hastily pursued in fear that he would lose track of his opponent if he was just half a step slower.
After leaping over a dishevelled heap of rocks, Sheyan immediately sighted a Licker who was pinning Mbenga to the floor.
With his wooden pike horizontally raised above him, he attempted to defy the Licker’s a.s.sault in incomparably pathetic fas.h.i.+on.
"Slither slither"! Instead, the Licker’s tongue slithered out of its mouth as it viciously whipped down like a scorpion sting!
A thousand considerations of a wise man begets a single careless mistake. Indeed, Sheyan didn’t expect that after feeding Mbenga mouthfuls of rum to raise his mentally unwell spirit, the unprecedented aroma of intense alcohol had transpired into bright directional lights; foiling the masking scent of the Tigfog herb medicine, and attracting the attention of a Licker.
By now, Sheyan no longer cared much as he heavily bent his waist, and abruptly executed a soaring leap into the air. Raising his ‘+7 West’, he unleashed a malicious slash downwards.
Yet as the blade approached the Licker’s body, although Sheyan had clearly mounted an exceedingly advantageous sneak attack, he could feel a surge of savagely unrivalled aura rus.h.i.+ng against his face. An individual with weak mental fort.i.tude would never be able to land this. .h.i.t. One could fathom how daunting this Licker might be.
Clenching his teeth tightly without loosening his grip, Sheyan hacked his ‘+7 West’ down ferociously. Instead, he felt as though he had hacked against an extremely slippery and solid object, merely leaving a deep wound strip along the Licker’s neck.
Taking advantage of this momentum, Sheyan hooked his ‘+7 West’ back up as he carved out a long chunk of flesh; causing turbid blood to spew out everywhere!
After unleas.h.i.+ng this slash, the other property of the Tigfog herb medicine instantly took effect; burning and provoking its wound as sizzling sounds were emitted. A property that forcibly lowered the might of the Licker by 25% - 50%. Within a flash, Sheyan could sense the domineering aura surging out of the Licker weakening substantially.
After receiving such a slash, the Licker rolled 5-6 metres backwards with its claws dug into the ground.
Hu! Hu! Hu! It released threatening deep cries, as its tiny bloodshot eyes flickered with an ominous intent. Straightening its tail, the incisive spinule tip of the tail could be faintly seen.
Concurrently, large clumps of a foul black surfaced from the Licker’s neck wound, which swiftly extended to the rest of its body through its veins; appearing exceedingly strange, as though many black vein lines had surfaced across its body. Even its four limbs were trembling violently.
Meanwhile, Mbenga climbed back up after making a backwards roll, as his chest undulated like rapidly blowing bellows. His pupils had shrunk to the size of needle tips, as his forehead scar exhibiting a blinding fresh red. His muscles were taut like swollen rounds, as Mbenga appeared with robust ruthlessness.
Suddenly, the Licker lifted its head and unleashed a drawn-out hiss; beckoning for its comrades.
This creature was still extremely foreign to Sheyan, as he only awaited in strict formation. On the contrary, Mbenga reacted at first notice. He understood that they couldn’t drag this out.
With a m.u.f.fled roar, Mbenga pounced forth head on towards the hissing Licker!
Mbenga’s prowess was truly improving at an impressively shocking pace, after going through numerous extremes of life and death. His pounce was seemingly not the least bit inferior to Sheyan’s previous a.s.sault.
However, the Licker was still lying on the ground, as it propelled a bone spur from its tail. Once Mbenga lands, he would inevitably be impaled by the Licker’s tail.
Instead, few metres before reaching the Licker, Mbenga abruptly hurled his pike through the air. The pike carried a sliding shadow as its acute tip pierced deep into the Licker’s back, mercilessly puncturing its organs.
Instead, after hurling his pike, Mbenga curled up in midair as he substantially reduced his area susceptible to attacks; like a diver jumping off a ten-metre high springboard, he rolled towards a shrub in a flash.
Nailed by this wooden pike, the Licker released a shrilling bitter hiss! Piercing into the ears of everyone and leaving a constant buzzing sound.
Fiercely turning around, this wild beast brandished its razor-sharp claws as it bluntly cleaved the wooden pike into two. Then, it proceeded to chase Mbenga’s fleeing direction.
Instead, would Sheyan allow it to? Sheyan was one exceptionally adept at grasping opportunities. Without an opportunity, he wouldn’t rashly execute. But if there was one, n.o.body could stall him from seizing it!
He buried his head and charged up at once. Raising his saber singlehandedly, he lunged forward while the Licker was still cleaving away the wooden pike lodged in its body.
When the Licker finally felt a threat behind and spun around, all it could see was a peerless sharp tip thrusting in with breakneck speed. Its eyes widened instantaneously.
Puchi! Sheyan’s ‘+7 West’ long saber thrust down between the exposed brains of this Licker, and deep into it.
Mentioned previously, a Licker had no skull where its vital and weak brains were fully exposed to the atmosphere, where only a membrane film covered it. Moreover, Sheyan had deliberately acc.u.mulated and poured all his strength into this one thrust!
After thrusting his long saber in, Sheyan even did his utmost to twist the saber; forcibly twisting it by 60 degrees, as it ravaged the innards of the Licker’s brains.
Subsequently, he spared no delay to evade the incoming venomous sting of the Licker’s propelled bone spur. Darting to the side, Sheyan rolled away with the same speed as he came, leaving the opponent he severely wounded far behind.
However, although his actions were sublime and couldn’t have been done better, the venomous sting still managed to sc.r.a.pe a sliver of skin off his chest; leaving just a trifling streak of superficial red flesh.
Instead, after carelessly overlooking it for several dozens of seconds, Sheyan realized that the red scar was blackened with rot, as it emanated an awfully thick a.s.sailing stench. Then, the wound festered inwardly, as the rotting destructiveness spread towards his ribs and turned his ribs incomparably weak!!
How vilely potent this highly toxic disease it carried!
Presently, Sheyan’s physique was 49 points and he even possessed his indomitable ‘Stronghold’ innate as his second layer of defence. Yet, with just a casual retaliation strike by the Licker, all his defences were seemingly reduced to tofu like existences.
Within a split second, Sheyan broke into an indescribable kind of hysterical panic. If he didn’t do anything, he would inevitably perish.
All the cells within his body were unanimously feedbacking a deadly threat to his brain.
Sheyan observed as his HP plummeted downwards a descending elevator. Without hesitation, he consumed the ‘Ancient Gjesi’ herb medicine. In a flash, his vitality was a 100% restored and the single disease plaguing his body was instantly expelled.
When the ‘Ancient Gjesi’ herb medicine took effect, that immeasurably rich sensation of death simultaneously vanished from his heart.
One could tell, though this unbeatable abomination had been weakened by the ‘Tigfog’ herb medicine, the pestilence virus it carried was equally horrifying; its killing potency equally lethal, but couldn’t be weakened by the herb medicine. It was something the current Sheyan was completely incapable of defying.
When Sheyan attempted to view his combat log, all he could see was blank. Even his perceptive sense had been utterly suppressed by the difficulty of this world.
One could fathom how vast the disparity of difficulty had widened, the moment Sheyan entered this inner core reaches of the Kijuju Marshland. Just a single ordinary predator could reduce him to such a sorry state.
Thinking of that, Sheyan raised his vigilance to a maximum, as he fixated his gaze on the Licker, who was rolling and hissing in agony several tens of metres away.
Even though Sheyan had virtually no experience in dealing with abominable creatures of this sort, he still understood the logic – an injured beast is the scariest.
Although the Licker appeared relatively weakened in this state, Sheyan believed that if he recklessly charged in boldly now, he would certainly have to pay for such contempt. Paying with his limbs, or perhaps his life.
Only after retreating away and pulling apart the distance, did Sheyan fished out his improved ‘Tigfog’ herb medicine and smeared it across the wound on his chest. In this manner, he obviously masqueraded the scent emitting out from his wound.
Then, he hastily leapt up; intending to chase up to Mbenga.
In his plans, Sheyan hadn’t factored in slaying or hunting any freakish creature at all. Hence, he harboured no intentions to finish off the Licker while the iron was still hot. More critically, he didn’t have the luxury of time to slay this beast, and its wretched hissing would definitely attract the attention of its comrades.
Sheyan crept cautiously and unhurriedly, as he gestured towards the direction that Mbenga had fled. Then, he gently flicked off the greyish white cerebral tissue substances that were smeared across the surface of his ‘+7 West’ long saber.
Yet at this very moment, a shrilling long pike catapulted through the air, speeding with unbelievable velocity, as it stabbed in and utterly bore through the Licker’s body!