Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 418 A Crackling Scream
The four met on the beach, but instead of setting off immediately, they turned back to pick up Colin.

Just now, because they smelled the pungent smell of blood in the air, for safety reasons, Nick and the others temporarily left this boy, who had no fighting power in the face of professional-level combat, at the rear.

When Xia Nan saw the boy, he was hiding anxiously behind a huge rock, huddled up like a quail, occasionally peeking out cautiously to look around.

Upon seeing his group, Colin first breathed a sigh of relief, then was pleasantly surprised by Xia Nan's appearance, unconsciously displaying an expression of increased sense of security.

Xia Nan greeted the young man from afar, but his brows furrowed unconsciously.

"It's dangerous here, why did you bring him here?"

Although Colin had received basic hunter training for a period of time, he was still quite far from becoming a truly mature adventurer, let alone a seasoned veteran like them who had already obtained a professional rank.

Even now, the prefix "apprentice" still appears on the sailor's identity, so participating in such a professional-level adventure mission is practically tantamount to suicide.

Sensing the displeasure in Xia Nan's tone, Nick's expression stiffened. He forced a smile and lowered his voice as he explained:

"He was also present when that monster attacked the village, but he was knocked unconscious by the aftershocks, so he was a witness."

“Leda has expertise in tracking monsters, but she needs Colin as an intermediary, so we brought him over.”

Now that things have come to this, the group has ventured deep into the middle section of the northern cliff of Qiaoyan Island, with stone walls on one side and the sea on the other. Sending the other party back would take too much time and could easily lead to problems.

Letting Colin return alone was a risky decision, given the dangerous environment where the route was full of sharp reefs and one slip could lead to being swept into the undercurrents.

Therefore, they could only let him stay with the group for the time being.

Fortunately, the two members of the Silverclaw Osprey Squad were quite clever. Although it was possible that they had hit the bullseye by accident, at least they brought along the halfling Alton.

With this lucky goddess in the group, nothing should go wrong.

Having come all the way from his remote birth village to Suoyu Bay under the protection of Xia Nan, Colin may not have much experience in other areas, but he is incredibly adept at being a "burden."

Even though the gruesome fish-man corpses on the beach made his face turn pale, he endured it without uttering a sound, treating himself as an invisible person and very sensibly following behind the group.

Occasionally, the half-elf at the front of the group, responsible for tracking, would pause slightly. Without needing to be reminded, he would step forward and use his own body to help the other party enhance their perception of the monster's aura.

When faced with difficult terrain that would be hard for ordinary people to traverse, they did not try to be brave, but simply treated themselves as an accessory, letting Nick carry them through.

It didn't take long, about ten minutes.

When the monster aura detected by the half-elf Leta's special perception was almost within her "half-hour" residual limit, the group arrived at their destination.

It was a deep cave, isolated from the beach by the tides and reefs, seemingly embedded in the cliff face, directly connected to the sea.

However, because the terrain is slightly above sea level, it was not flooded by seawater, and the entrance area has formed several small puddles due to the erosion of the waves.

Without a doubt, the entire cave would be filled with seawater when the tide comes in.

So close, even without the help of a half-elf's special abilities, Xia Nan could smell the strong, fishy odor emanating from the cave.

"Find a place to hide here first, and leave on your own after we come out... or when it's light tomorrow."

Not in a hurry to go in, Xia Nan turned around and gave instructions to Colin at the end of the line.

Understanding his meaning, Colin nodded obediently and began searching for a suitable hiding place on the rocky beach.

"Let's go there. It looks pretty high, and the view is good." Alton stood on tiptoe and pointed to a pile of rocks near the rock wall to the south. There were several rather large rocks clustered together there, which could block most of the view from the surrounding area.

Seeing Colin's figure disappear behind the rocks, the group continued forward.

Although there was a large area of ​​shallow water covered with slippery rocks between the cave and the beach, the four of them were professionals after all, and they easily crossed to the other side by stepping on the rocks protruding from the water.

Almost the instant Xia Nan's feet touched the ground, accompanied by a chilling gust of air rushing out from the depths of the cave ahead, he smelled a strong stench of blood emanating from it.

Unlike the rustiness of ordinary humans or the filth of goblins, this bloody scent was mixed with a faint salty taste.

Xia Nan was very familiar with it.

It smelled exactly like the fish blood that still lingered on my body.

Feeling something was amiss, they alerted their teammates, and the four of them lined up and slowly walked into the cave at the edge of the cliff.

The passageway was damp and spacious, allowing Xia Nan and Nick, the only two front-row members of the team, to walk side by side at the very front.

Alton lagged slightly behind by two steps, facing the unknown enemy in the darkness. He carried the lute, which was responsible for applying the buffs, on his back, and held two small curved blades in his hands. His profession as a bard was not a pure spellcaster type. The lute's buffs were only auxiliary. In a real hard battle, he also had a good dual-wielding skill.

Having arrived at their destination, the half-elf Lyda, who had previously relied on her special ability to lead the way, now held her longbow and trailed at the back of the group. Her bright eyes reflected the silvery-white light unique to her elven bloodline in the dim light.

As expected, as the four of them went deeper into the cave, the once spacious cave passages gradually began to reveal the corpses of the Shahua fishmen.

The corpses varied in age; some were already rotting and stinking, while others appeared to have died recently, their bodies still secreting a moisturizing mucus.

But coincidentally, the wounds on these corpses all showed an irregular biting pattern, clearly from the monster that the Silver Claw Osprey Squad was tracking.

As for Xia Nan, who was looking for clues about Morton, he did indeed find some traces of human habitation along the way.

However, the time gap is too far, and it has become somewhat blurry. We can only guess that it was left by Lelo Morton when he lived on Cliff Rock Island many years ago.

Just as he was pondering the possibility of finding the key to the [Dream Corridor] here, he suddenly seemed to sense something.

Xia Nan subconsciously focused his mind and raised his hand to signal the people behind him to stop.

In the silence, a "whoosh" sound, like chanting with a strange rhythm, came from the deep, dark depths of the cave.

It could be vaguely discerned that this was the language of the Shahua fish people, but no one knew the meaning of their chants.

Feeling increasingly uneasy, the group tiptoed toward the direction from which the chanting was coming.

Finally, after turning a corner, a huge and spacious cave space came into view.

The air was damp, cold, and sticky, filled with a strong, salty smell; the moss growing from the cracks in the stone walls seemed to breathe, emitting an unnatural, eerie blue light, providing a little light to the otherwise pitch-black environment, but also swallowing up more details in the swaying shadows.

At the deepest part of the cave is a calm pool of water, its surface without a ripple, reflecting the darkness and light in the air like a mirror.

In front of the pool, there was an extremely simple and primitive altar.

The main structure is pieced together from several rough, barely polished dark brown reefs and shipwrecks salvaged from the sea, with inexplicable patterns and runes faintly visible on its surface.

The orc Bone Card... or rather, Bone Card's corpse, lay quietly on the altar.

Even if his race and profession endowed him with physical abilities far exceeding those of ordinary people, given his professional level, having a third of his body eaten away, along with his right shoulder and a small part of his neck, clearly meant he had no chance of survival.

Even the blood had been drained, turning into reddish-brown grime on the surface of the body, leaving only a pair of lifeless gray eyes gazing at the top of the stone.

This former member of the "Silver Claw Osprey" squad has become a kind of sacrifice.

The priest who presided over the sacrificial ceremony was a strangely shaped saka fish-man. It was significantly thinner and longer than those that Xia Nanfang had just slaughtered.

Two pairs of long, slender arms covered in slimy scales stretched out in completely different poses. The two upper arms were raised high above the head, their sharp claws gripping a crude staff made of fish bones and conch shells. The lower pair were slightly lowered, crossed over each other, and made a complex, twisted gesture toward the orc corpse.

The gaping maw, covered in hooked fish teeth, was wide open, emitting a continuous, low, trembling sound. The "whoosh" sound that Xia Nan and the others had heard earlier was coming from it.

A sacrificial offering, a merman priest.

as well as……

Beneath the altar, nearly twenty adult Saka fish-men lay prostrate on the ground, like devout believers.

Without the slightest hesitation, it was like some kind of instinct.

Quite perceptive, the moment Xia Nan's gaze swept across the four-armed merman priest's staff, the priest became his primary target.

"Tick."

Water droplets from the top of the stone dripped gently, splashing up a small cluster of sparkling water droplets on the calm, still surface of the pool.

Ripples spread.

The chanting that had been echoing between the rock walls suddenly stopped. The merman priest raised his head slightly, his lifeless, dark fish eyes reflecting several blurry figures in the direction of the entrance in the distance.

Their gazes collided in an instant.

Time seemed to stand still.

One could see the contours of the muscles on the merman priest's face as they writhed; his open mouth was subtly contracting, and the tone of his chanting was distorted, about to transform into some kind of warning word; magical particles surged from his fingertips, turning into a ghostly blue light that rapidly condensed and flowed towards the tip of his staff.

But it was at the same time as all of this was happening, or even before that.

The moment it met those dark eyes.

The howling of wolves had already begun.

"hold head high……"

With its mane swaying, the deep winter wolf, like a shadow, emerges amidst a howling wind, carrying with it a fierce gale.

Too fast a reaction!

The instant Xia Nan realized that the enemy had discovered their presence, he immediately turned the hostility and thoughts in his mind into actual physical actions.

At that moment, even his teammates hadn't reacted yet.

A wolf's howl rang in his ears, a strong wind whipped at his clothes, and Xia Nan vanished from the spot.

The young man from River Valley Town never hesitated to use his fighting strength against enemies who wielded staffs and cast spells with a glance.

Like the young mage on the pirate ship whose head was the first to be chopped off.

hum-

【Gravity Etching】+【Heavy Tide】.

The surface of the black-gray longsword was covered with runes-like ochre-red light, and the surrounding air rippled faintly, like the bloodstained fangs of a black wolf howling.

[Gravity Control] took effect silently. The merman priest's staff had just begun to gather magic when it was as if something invisible was pulling it hard from below. As his arm trembled, the half-solidified dark blue light dissipated and turned into specks of light.

The distance of tens of meters was covered in an instant by the [Fang Hunt]'s charge.

Before the four-armed merman priest could even recover from the backlash of magic caused by the interrupted spell, Xia Nan's feet had already stepped onto the altar.

Aim for the enemy's neck and exert force with your arm.

With a slight bonus effect, the most ordinary [Spinning Slash] was unleashed.

The interrupt effect of [Chongchao] renders the opponent's dodging action futile under the pull of gravity.

The force field energy of [Gravity Etching] exploded before the blade even touched the flesh, and the purest force field energy, like "true damage," eliminated the fish's tough scales on the surface of the straight sword in advance.

When the black and gray sword, enveloped in ochre-red light, landed on the lower edge of the merman priest's neck, even the bones in his throat had been mostly destroyed by the force field energy.

Half-turn your waist and abdomen, and twist your wrists.

"Sizzle."

A dazzling, arc-shaped flash of sword light streaked across the dimly lit cave.

The fluorescent blue fish blood gushed upwards like a fountain, lifting the ugly head covered in fish scales high.

When the saka fishman, who was crawling below and closest to the altar, was startled by the wolf's howl and raised its head in confusion.

The blood of their priests fell right onto its face.

And so, fear erupted.

The sudden surge of astonishment, anger, and sorrow was swallowed up like a tide under the influence of the [Night Mother's Gaze].

All that remained was a profound and boundless fear and panic.

He picked up and put down the weapon at hand, shifted his center of gravity backward, and almost collapsed to the ground. He braced himself with his hands on the ground, his fish tail twitched, and his pair of thick, long legs kicked wildly, as if he had encountered some kind of natural enemy and wanted to get as far away from the altar as possible.

The fingers rubbing against the ground seemed to have touched something sticky, leaving a sticky residue between them.

I instinctively turned my head to look to the side.

Unbeknownst to him, his companion, who had just been praying alongside him in chanting, had transformed into a horrifying mass of mangled flesh, lying convulsing in a pool of blood.

"Sizzle! Sizzle!"

Two more sounds of swords being swung came from ahead.

The sava fish-man seemed to have lost its subjective thoughts, instinctively following the sound and looking up at the altar once again.

Before their priest could even fully land, his body was already split into three pieces by two flashes of sword light.

"Gah...Gah!"

This was the somewhat off-key scream of the Shahua fishman.

(End of this chapter)