Sheyan appeared to have overestimated himself with his medical treatment, as Mbenga continued to groan with immeasurable agony. His facial muscles were all warped as he rolled around the floor intensely, before stretching his hand towards his back.
Instantly, Sheyan realized there was an elongated canteen crafted from a hollow tree trunk strapped behind his back.
Helpless in the face of this crisis, Sheyan hastily unstrapped and handed over the canteen to Mbenga. Meanwhile, Mbenga’s reddened face scar continued to swell with utmost woefulness, as he proceeded to gulp down the liquid contents of the canteen ferociously.
Within a split second, Mbenga’s struggling body was abruptly repressed, allowing him to sprint towards the nearby swampy water. Without caring for hygiene, he splashed knee deep into the swamp before ravenously searching out for eccentric organisms and stuffed them into his mouth.
Those eccentric organisms comprised of many creatures – water treading spiders, leeches, water loaches, black fleas and all sorts of reeds with black muddy roots....
Unexpectedly, Mbenga’s mobility gradually turned increasingly nimble and deft as he devoured these grotesque organisms.
After Mbenga’s health was roughly rejuvenated, Sheyan finally heaved a sigh of relief. If his guide were to perish here, it would truly be a great inconvenience.
After his excessive consumption, Mbenga blatantly squatted and defecated before proceeding to slump down lifelessly onto the ground.
Sheyan hurriedly rushed over and observed the foul smelling, bloodstained and viscous slender excretions. Sheyan then dragged Mbenga away and rinsed him with fresh water.
After some pondering, Sheyan retrieved his ‘Endless Spirited Vodka’ and poured several mouthfuls into Mbenga’s mouth. Sheyan had learned from his experience that Soul Equipments were probably categorized between contestant’s items and unique storyline items. Thus, both contestants and storyline characters could utilize it.
As expected, after a mouth of alcoholic stimulation, Mbenga spontaneously seized that wine cup; drinking till it was empty before shaking his head with regret. After detoxification, Mbenga stood up as he limped forward with fatigue.
Sheyan quickly pared off a makes.h.i.+ft crutch from a nearby tree, which managed to barely a.s.sist Mbenga to continue advancing.
At present, Sheyan finally had the spare time to listen to Mbenga’s narration, about the events after they had split up.
As it turns out, after they were a.s.saulted by those great crocodiles, the group of them managed to maintain a fighting state of equilibrium thanks to Sheyan luring away two other great crocodiles. Moreover, if that state of battle persisted on, they would even have the chance to slaughter the rest of the Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles.
Listening till here, Sheyan couldn’t help but become amazed at the formidability of Reef. After he had become a Growth-hunter, Sheyan had always felt his battle capabilities were like the dark abyss; unfathomably bottomless and utterly indiscernible.
At his current state, Sheyan reckoned that he could only hold his ground against a single Deathmarsh Great Crocodile, for at most half an hour. In contrast, Reef could tank unyieldingly against 3 Deathmarsh Great Crocodile, and even possessed the ability to triumph over them.
Such terrifying strength was intrinsically related to his equipments, yet much more, it was due to Reef’s outstanding foundation. Only upgrading to an official Growth-hunter after stalling till the most despairing of situations, Reef had attained immense benefits along the way.
In spite of that, events didn’t transpire according to their expectations.
Just when the situation was slowly s.h.i.+fting to their advantage, the clamours of battle with the gigantic crocodiles had alarmed the barbarians of the nearby Ndipaya Tribe village.
Seizing this glorious opportunity, those Ndipaya barbarians mounted a sneak attack from the rear, throwing the entire aspect into disarray.
In the end, more than half of the hired aborigines were ma.s.sacred, while the others had dispersed.
The only solace was that those Ndipaya barbarians couldn’t coexist in harmony with those Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles as well. Probably losing their sense of measure upon the delight of their sneaky skirmish, they similarly suffered the wrath of those savage beasts.
Amidst the three-sided chaotic battle, the brave Mbenga was unluckily locked on by one of the Great Crocodile. As such, he and that masked old barbarian experienced a sequence of pursuit and escaping, before fleeing till this very spot.
Fortunately, Sheyan had arrived to rescue him. Nevertheless, the rest of the natives were still scattered and being pursued.
********************
Knowing that Mbenga was familiar with the terrain, Sheyan allowed him to take the lead; heading towards several possible locations in search of their fleeing comrades.
Eventually, after visiting 2-3 areas, they noticed speckles of blood stains from afar. Apart from that, there were puddles of basin sized chartreuse coloured trails. Surrounding those puddles were carapace sh.e.l.ls that spurted out minute shots of mucus.
Upon seeing those trails, Sheyan’s heart was stirred as he immediately hastened along these trails.
Soon after, he finally witnessed Reef raising a dark-golden s.h.i.+eld, that was beaming out a scorching radiance, as he blocked the frenzied a.s.sault of a Deathmarsh Great Crocodile.
Behind him stood 7 other native aborigines that appeared exhausted. Instead, their morale was skyrocketing, as they repeatedly leapt forward with their bow legs, utilizing their pikes to stab the crocodile while hollering sonorously.
Peculiarly, on an average of every 2-3 attacks that Reef blocked, a distinct colourful flare would beam out quietly from his s.h.i.+eld, before piercing into the Great Crocodile’s body. Then, that area where the flare drilled in, would swell into a tumour.
Very quickly, that tumour would rupture, allowing a beetle with solid chitin carapace to emerge.
This beetle was roughly the size of a fist. Its carapace sh.e.l.l flashed with black, green and silvery l.u.s.tre. Moreover, its crawling speed was miraculously fast!
Those beetles would viciously adhere to the surface of that Great Crocodile, as they incessantly nibbled with their mandibles. After 1-2 minutes, the beetles would self-destruct, dispersing a mist of blood into the air; which would then dissolve into the bodies of Reef and the nearby natives, thereby refuelling some HP.
At present, the right eye of this Deathmarsh Great Crocodile had been blinded and was oozing out turbid pus.
Lodged into that eye, was the feathery tail of a bizarre flying dart. The surface of that dart was shockingly engraved with imprints that resembled vein likes, akin to the greenish veins of a human. Those vein lines with pulsating and throbbing with absorption.
Furthermore, identical vein like imprints had been engraved onto the flying dart purse that was strapped across Reef’s waist. As it turns out, the veins of the flying dart were absorbing the enemy’s vitality, while transferring vitality nourishment back to its owner through the flying dart purse.
These were two of Reef’s most valiant abilities. One was the ‘Birmingham ‘Stuka’ Hand-dart Pocket Sling’, and the other was the ability of the newly acquired dark-gold grade s.h.i.+eld – ‘Parasitic Sage-Scarabs’!
Relying on those two excellent abilities, Reef could continue tussling with these Deathmarsh Great Crocodiles. Even though he appeared like a pathetic clay monkey, even having a plumpy black tick pasted on his face, he could ultimately still hold his ground.
Furthermore, the brave and fierce natives around him were supplying auxiliary a.s.saults, employing those wooden pikes that Sheyan had plundered for them earlier on; allowing them to effectively transmit pestilences as well. In addition to the area healing properties of those kamikaze Sage-Scarabs, the native aborigines surged with vigour as they unleashed thrusting torrents.
Yet at this instant, Sheyan could perceive that Reef was approaching imminent danger. It appears that he had already exhausted the party ability ‘Gloryheal’ and his additional honorary medicines. Watching the tottering and fatigue Reef, Sheyan hastily charged forward!
A cold flash of s.h.i.+mmering deep-blue swept in, as he slashed down towards the right hind leg of that Deathmarsh Great Crocodile.
Blood and blade ray launched out of its hind leg instantaneously.
That hind leg of the Deathmarsh Great Crocodile was already riddled with splintered wooden pikes, where the fringe of its wound was already festering with blackness. Even its incomparably enduring crocodile hide was mangled with rotting flesh.
Sheyan’s lethal blade cleaved into an existing wound and immediately sliced through the thick crocodile hide. Blood and thick fluids splashed out, as the exposed eerie white bones of the crocodile were irrigated with blood.
Grunting with matchless agony, that Deathmarsh Great crocodile swept its tail mightily against Sheyan.
Instead, Sheyan was long prepared as he half knelt to the ground to minimize his centre of gravity to the ground! Hoisting up his ‘+7 West’, he braced himself to receive the impact.
Bam! His vision darkened as the gigantic tail of the crocodile smashed in. Nevertheless, he wasn’t sent flying but only staggered several metres backwards with blood trickling from his lips.
Yet that single tail whip had actually triggered Sheyan’s pa.s.sive ability – ‘Zergling Rush’! An illusion of a zergling materialized behind his back, as Sheyan lifted up his long saber.
Cha! Cha! Cha! Three unhesitating blades cleaved against the wound of this Deathmarsh Great Crocodile.
Not only did those three brutal slashes mutilate the flesh and bones of the crocodile’s hind leg, after Sheyan executed his slashes, he disregarded another impending collision of the crocodile’s tail. Lifting up his leg, Sheyan maliciously stomped down onto a splintered wooden pike lodged in that same area, causing the pike to bluntly stab deeper into the crocodile’s body!
In the next second, the unguarded Sheyan was then whipped flying with immeasurable pain by the crocodile’s gigantic tail!
This was a retaliating blow from the great crocodile. Its might was definitely not tiny. Sheyan was practically smacked flying like a ‘hole in one’ golf ball, as he bluntly crashed into the swamp behind.
Spas.h.!.+ Spas.h.!.+ His inertia carried him tumbling a further 20-30 metres away and directly transformed him into a filthy black clay monkey.
After scrambling back up with, he vomited several mouthfuls of blood.
Yet Sheyan’s series of actions had utterly crippled the right hind leg of this Deathmarsh Great Crocodile. A crocodile’s mobility on land was already slightly impaired, what more one that only had three limbs?
After staggering back up, Sheyan instantly discovered this unfortunate crocodile had unexpectedly lost all rationality in its searing anguish, as it furiously stampeded straight towards himself.
After having been sent flying by a tail whip, Sheyan was experiencing a dizzy spell and had probably fractured a few of his ribs. Fortunately, his legs weren’t injured and he immediately scrambled to flee.
This current location was situated along the border of the Kijuju Marshland and the primitive jungle. After making a huge detour, Sheyan directly fled into the dense jungle. Only after dragging the crocodile 200-300 metres deep into the jungle, did Sheyan jump and climbed up a tree.
With this period of buffer time, Reef managed to ease himself as he panted heavily while sitting on the ground. He then produced necessities like bandages, medicines, food and other miscellaneous stuff.
From Sheyan"s escape, till he climbed up that tree, Reef had earned sufficient regenerating time. His HP was restored from 20% back to roughly 90%.