March 23, 5th year of the federal calendar

Since being attacked by Nightmare Weave the day before, Hanekawa and I have become more cautious. The jungle is full of dangers, and if you start a battle, you can kill yourself. We deliberately evaded pursuit, and until this afternoon, the operation was going well. Later, we found a small piece of abandoned makeshift camp.

……

What Duzi found was a very rudimentary makeshift camp, with only a bonfire, a few stray footprints, and a few small skeletons. The appearance of these footprints made Dozie feel a little bad, they were very strangely shaped, similar in size to the palm of Dozi's hand, but only three toes, and long claws at the end. In addition, it is evident from the traces that the base of the creature's feet is covered with fine scales.

"Judging by the distribution of footprints, it is likely that this is a creature that walks upright like us. And there were only these footprints in the camp, and there were no traces of a fight, and the bonfire was clearly lit by them. If you look at the shape of these skeletons, they should be rabbits, and they are here to barbecue food. Du Qi frowned, analyzing the information on the scene as best he could, "If you know how to make fire and use fire, you must be a highly intelligent creature." Hanekawa, can you think of anything? ”

"If it's just fire, I know of monsters that can breathe fire. But I can't imagine consciously making a campfire barbecue like this. Could it be that there is some kind of highly intelligent creature in this world that has not been discovered by humans? Hanekawa quickly shook his head again and denied his guess, "It's impossible!" If we were now in a forbidden place like the Abyss Forest or the Blood Sand Forest, it would be somewhat convincing. But this is the Black Pine Forest, a place that has long been explored by humans. ”

"In other words, our discovery may shock the whole world!" Du Qi smiled bitterly, this kind of unknown he had experienced too many times in the recent past, and it was also the situation he hated the most. He put his finger on the campfire and probed it again. "It's still a little warm, and they should leave soon." He said.

"Then let's catch up and have a look." Hanekawa was clearly a more adventurous man than Dozi, and this situation only made him more excited.

Not long after the passage of time, the footprints left by the mysterious creature are still very clear, and even a half-hanger like Du Qi can easily track them. In fact, the footprints indicated that the mysterious creature was going in a different direction than the mission had pointed out, but he decided to go there first.

Duzi remembered that the murderers who attacked the caravan had left no suspicious traces after the plunder, but this group appeared to be unscrupulous, and clearly weaker in their guards. This is good news for them.

Searching for the line all the way, the two didn't spend much effort. About a kilometer or two, they heard a chaotic noise.

There seemed to be some kind of behemoth rampaging through the jungle, and even from a distance, Duzi could hear the sound of trees breaking and the roar of terrible rage. In addition to this, he faintly heard several regular shouts, which were incomprehensible but seemed to be some kind of language.

Based on the change in the noise, Dozi quickly judged that the battle was spreading in this direction. "Did you hear that? It sounded like some kind of language. He crouched in the grass and asked softly, "Ghosam-oh-ga!" Sata ...... There is a sentence that seems to go like this. ”

"I heard that, but I don't know the language either. But the roar of the monster sounded familiar. ”

"What kind of monster? How strong is it? Can we deal with it? After this time together, Duqi found that Hanekawa, the little guy, was simply a know-it-all in terms of monsters, and in most cases he could talk a lot about it except for the mysterious creatures they were currently tracking.

"Haha, don't worry, it's good news!" Hanekawa heard the worry in his partner's voice, and couldn't help but smile, "Judging from the roar and movement, it should be a monster called Hunger." Although it may be scary to hear, the monster actually feeds on plants, and the amount of food is surprising. It's really huge, but it's not too strong in terms of combat power. Well...... Let's put it this way, the power of hunger is indeed very terrifying, but the action is very cumbersome, but the blood is thick and the defense is high, and it is a little troublesome to solve, but if the two of us cooperate, it is not a big problem. See...... It's over. ”

Two large trees fell in the distance, and Duqi finally saw the true face of hunger. It was a monster larger than an elephant, somewhat similar in size to a common feline, with a large black spiral horn on its forehead, which seemed to have no nose, but a terrifying mouth under its eyes. As Hanekawa said, the skin of the hungry man looked very conspicuous, as if he was covered with a thick layer of brownish and yellow earth armor. The behemoth looked very embarrassed, covered in wounds large and small, and the bright red blood almost stained its entire body red.

"See that giant horn? It rampages through the forest with that thing, knocking down a large number of trees with a single sprint, and is the only attack it can use. ”

As he spoke, three more figures rushed out of the thick grass after the hungry.

The Finally Manifested Monster is a creature that resembles a human, but is much stronger. His head resembles that of a chameleon, with two rows of conspicuous spines on the back of his scaly body, covered in a translucent membrane, making him look unusually hideous. In addition, Du Qi clearly saw that they were wearing rudimentary black leather armor and had all kinds of rudimentary weapons in their hands.

"Look." "Now we're almost certain that it's not the same group, but it's the creature that's leading the attack. Maybe...... Judging by their appearance, we can call them lizardmen. ”

"Brother Duqi, let's do it!" Hanekawa said eagerly.

"Wait a minute, after they've killed the starvation, I'll strike first, and you deal with the lizardman with the bow first."

"No problem."

The lizardmen didn't keep them waiting long, and after only a few minutes, the battle was already in its final stages. Hungry and exhausted, already scarred, he had stopped at this point, making his last dying throes in place. On the other hand, the lizardmen were not easy, as one of the warriors was badly wounded in the left arm and had to withdraw from the standing circle, muttering a few words from time to time as they watched the other two companions wrestle with the hungry.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Du Qi had already touched the back of the lizardman team, and quietly hibernated in a patch of grass waiting for the opportunity. After a few more minutes, the exhausted hunger finally fell to the ground with a wail, and the ground around him trembled with its massive body.

The lizardmen raised their hands in the air and cheered, muttering in an unfamiliar language, and the two warriors stepped forward to dispose of the corpses, while the wounded lizardmen pulled out some green paste-like objects from their waist bags and smeared them on the wounds as they scanned their surroundings for their companions.

Duzi knew it was a great opportunity.

He rushed out of the grass and quickly swept six or seven meters away, his iron sword slashing through from top to bottom. The lizardman didn't even have time to react, and his left arm, which was already badly wounded, was severed in two. Without the slightest hesitation, Du Qi took a step back with his right foot, slapped his shield on the lizardman's face while his body was slightly sideways, and then the iron sword swept and decapitated the dazed monster neatly.

On the other side, Hanekawa stood up from the grass at the same time, and the longbow that had already been mounted quickly shot three flying arrows, and the lizardman archer, who was crouching on the ground to deal with his prey, did not even have time to let out a scream, and his heart, neck, and right eye were pierced by the arrows, and he fell limply to the ground.

"Gosam, oh ga!" The last remaining lizardman had a very human surprise in his eyes, but there was not the slightest hint of fear in his gaze, and even though he was in the first and second place, he raised his long knife in his hand, and roared words of unknown meaning in his mouth, and charged towards Duqi, who was closer to him.

"Kill!" Du Qi roared and met the enemy.