Chapter 61: Frenzied Targeting (Double Chapter)

Ever since that near-death starvation experience where Li Rui had pulled her back from the River Styx, Millie’s face had become completely frozen.

The ordeal of death had stripped away something she once possessed.

The muscles in her face no longer obeyed her will. No matter how tumultuous her inner emotions surged, her face remained as still as a plaster cast, unable to squeeze out even the faintest trace of a smile or a frown.

She had also sunk into a taciturn, suppressed state. Unless she had something that desperately needed to be said, or Li Rui took the initiative to break the silence, she could go days and nights without uttering a single word, her breathing so soft it was barely perceptible.

Yet, when Li Rui drew close, when the distance between them narrowed to the point where only their breathing could be heard, and when body heat silently passed between them, a drastic and violent transformation would suddenly descend upon Millie’s face.

The delicate, exquisite countenance that had previously been as unchanging as plaster would rapidly collapse with the shift in body temperature. In a matter of moments, she would transform from cold and seemingly indifferent to all things in the world into something as fierce, wild, and feral as a beast.

When consumed by an overwhelming passion, she would even leave faint marks upon Li Rui’s shoulders.

Because of his [Low-Light Vision], which allowed him to see clearly even in pitch darkness, Li Rui had grown quite accustomed to Millie’s rapid transitions from rigidity to collapse.

However, the light kiss Millie had pressed not to his lips, but to his cheek, revealed an expression on her face that he had not seen in a very long time.

It was neither cold and stiff nor violently shattered, but rather a quietness bordering on shyness.

A faint smile.

*Thump!*

Li Rui suddenly felt as though his heart had been struck a heavy blow.

The desire he had forcefully suppressed before sleep, stirred by the intimate atmosphere of the narrow air bubble and Millie’s initiative, reignited fiercely like a spark landing in dry grass.

Almost instinctively, Li Rui reached out his arms and pulled Millie tightly into his embrace.

Even through the colloid wall and the trapped air inside, the cold lake water still radiated a chill, yet the temperature of the body in his arms was searingly hot.

In the darkness, he lowered his head and kissed her lips eagerly and deeply. Millie was stunned for a moment, seemingly caught off guard by his sudden loss of control, but she quickly cast aside her lingering confusion and responded with burning passion.

All words seemed entirely superfluous; only the friction of lips and teeth and the strength of their tight embrace conveyed their mutual existence, comfort, and the deep bond of interdependence forged in the crucible of a desperate situation.

Time seemed to freeze until a strong feeling of suffocation in their lungs reminded them that the oxygen in the bubble was about to run out. Only then did Li Rui reluctantly release Millie. Panting heavily, relying on the buoyancy of the colloid, they quickly floated toward the surface.

When they broke through the water and breathed in the air scented with decaying wood by the lakeshore, their cheeks bore a distinct flush from their strenuous movements and oxygen deprivation. Their intertwined palms were slick with sweat, the fierce pulses in their hands constantly declaring to one another the lingering ripples of passion.

Yet, a major battle was imminent, and physical stamina was a precious resource.

Without the need for speech, both of them understood what mattered most at that moment.

The "fire" ignited underwater was forcefully suppressed in their chests by reason and responsibility, transforming into a deeper tacit understanding and the resolve to fight side by side.

Silently, they crawled ashore and began their final pre-battle preparations...

***

Kobolds are creatures with a higher potential ceiling than goblins.

They are not fragile, short-lived beings like goblins; theoretically, they can live for a hundred and thirty-five winters, outliving human lifespans.

However, reality is always cruel.

Their short, slightly clumsy reptilian bodies, combined with the constant accidents in this perilous world—such as cave-ins, predators, disease, and conflict—mean that most kobolds reach the end of their lives around the age of sixty or seventy.

Eight years old is the threshold where they bid farewell to cubhood and step into adulthood.

At this stage, a kobold’s size is roughly comparable to that of a common goblin, but as reptilian creatures, they possess a unique ability: shedding their skin.

Every time the old skin sloughs off and new scales grow in, it is accompanied by an imperceptible yet continuous increase in physical stature.

Over the years, this growth allows a initially tiny kobold to eventually reach nearly the absolute limit of its race’s height—around one and a half meters.

Although this height is still a fraction shorter than a human, it is astonishing for a kobold. Furthermore, growing close to this height indicates that the concentration of dragon blood within the kobold is higher than average.

Generally speaking, however, by the time a kobold truly reaches this physiological limit, the passage of years has long since eroded its bones and tendons, leaving it hunched, sluggish, and raising the question of whether it can even stand under its own power.

Unless it has awakened its draconic bloodline and become a kobold sorcerer.

Those fortunate individuals whose thin draconic bloodlines awaken, granting them mastery over supernatural power, might find a way within that heritage to enhance their physical strength, making a body size exceeding two meters no longer a mere fantasy.

Unfortunately, beneath the mushroom forest of this nameless peninsula, the kobold tribe known as the "Black-Scale Clan" had yet to witness the arrival of this miracle.

The faint glimmer of their draconic ancestry also slumbered deep within their blood, but perhaps the clan’s history was too short; to this day, the tribe had not produced a single sorcerer truly capable of igniting that tiny hope and harnessing extraordinary power.

The history of this kobold den was not a long one. Thirty years ago, a female kobold named Ao Jin, carrying several kobold eggs, had journeyed from an unknown distant land to this unfamiliar territory, digging a den, hatching offspring, and multiplying.

Today, the entire Black-Scale Clan was the continuation of Old Grandmother Ao Jin’s bloodline.

Old Grandmother Ao Jin had already lived through more than forty winters. Every two or three months, she would lay an egg for the clan, adding a new member to the community.

As the clan leader and one of the rare females among them, she did not need to go out foraging for food, allowing her to constantly indulge in her favorite pastime: using her claws, which were slightly more dexterous than those of ordinary kobolds, to pick lice off her clansmen, especially the little ones.

At this very moment, Old Grandmother Ao Jin was meticulously inspecting every young kobold’s body just as she always did, checking for any annoying ticks.

However, a sharp and frantic bark suddenly tore through the peace of the den.

"Yip! Grand! Grandmother! Yip yip yip! Bad! Bad!"

A young kobold came tumbling and scrambling up to Ao Jin. "Fire! Yip! Mushroom forest, up top, exit, fire! Outside, smoke!"

Ao Jin let out a disgruntled low growl, slapping the ground with her tail to produce a dull thud. "Yip! What's the rush! We still have seven exits!"

In her more than forty years of long life experience, as long as the entire mushroom forest wasn't engulfed in a sea of flames, the safety of the deep den was guaranteed. The tunnels ran in all directions with plenty of retreat routes, and rushing rashly to the surface was the most dangerous thing to do.

She patted the little cub in her arms and continued to enjoy her own exclusive leisure.

In Ao Jin’s understanding, whatever burned on the surface would grow back eventually; as long as the deep cavern remained safe, everything was fine.

Yet, ominous portents followed one after another.

A second kobold came screaming, reporting that yet another exit had been swallowed by flames.

Putting on a brave face, Ao Jin placated them once more: "Yip! It's fine! There are other ways!"

Just as she flipped the little cub over to scratch its back, kobolds came rushing in one after another like ants from a disturbed nest, all carrying a heavy stench of smoke and terrified whimpering.

Five! News of five more exits on fire!

This time, Ao Jin didn't dare take it lightly anymore. She abruptly stood up, paying no heed to the little cub rolling away to the side, and raised her voice to override the noisy clansmen: "Yip! Shut up! Speak! Which exit isn't smoking?!"

A slightly cleverer kobold replied, "Water... water side! The... the small dock one! No... no fire!"

The small dock exit leading to the lake?

Ao Jin’s rigid brain struggled to process this.

This definitely wasn't right, but...

She forcefully rallied her spirits: There were still dozens of palm-sized ventilation holes! Smoke couldn't get in!

No sooner had this thought crossed her mind than a pungent, scorching odor suddenly invaded her less-than-sensitive nostrils.

Turning her head, she saw that the ventilation hole closest to her was billowing smoke.

This small vent was located in the deepest part of the den, just large enough for a cub under a year old to crawl in and out of, with its hidden exit near a water source.

It had always been cool and damp in there, but now it was smoking!

"Yip-ao—!"

Ao Jin’s pitiful sliver of wishful thinking was instantly burned away by the stench. She let out a warped shriek, snatched up two eggs from beside her, clutched them tightly to her chest, and roared at the chaotic crowd of clansmen huddled in the cave: "Run!"

Thirty-four large and small kobolds, urged on by the old grandmother, stumbled and scrambled toward the only exit not blocked by smoke and fire—the one leading to the small dock by the lake.

The light of the exit was right ahead!

A few nimble-legged kobolds rushed out, but before they could even take a breath of the turbid air outside—

"Pfft!" "Gag-ack!" "Pfft-cough!"

The three kobolds who had just rushed out suddenly vomited large mouthfuls of blood, their entire bodies instantly going stiff before collapsing limply outside the exit, copious amounts of blood gushing from their eyes, nostrils, and even ears!

The kobolds following closely behind shrieked in terror, violently shrinking back into the shadows of the cave.

Sonic bats!

Ao Jin shoved her way to the front and, mustering her courage, cautiously poked her wrinkled, scale-encrusted head out of the exit.

The sight before her made her draw a sharp breath: all around the perimeter of the small dock exit, those tall mushroom trees were blazing fiercely, the flames soaring into the sky with billows of thick smoke!

And amidst the leaping flames and heavy smoke, a dozen menacing sonic bats were wheeling silently and coldly like ghosts crawling out of hell.

They were being blockaded!

Should they turn back?

No!

Ao Jin instantly realized that even the ventilation shaft in the deepest part of the den was smoking, which proved the lair was doomed to be overrun by thick smoke; returning meant suffocating to death collectively!

Since that was the case, they might as well fight their way through!

"One by one, follow me! Rush out, jump into the water!"

Ao Jin roared with all her might, clutching the eggs and plunging headfirst toward the murky lake water.

*Splash!*

She was fortunate; the sonic bats were either climbing upward or circling back, failing to close in near enough to trigger the range of [Ripping Shriek].

Upon diving into the water, Ao Jin immediately kicked her joint-reversed legs and swam toward the deep depths.

Although kobolds resembled bipedal lizards, as an ancient reptilian branch, they naturally possessed the ability to hold their breath underwater.

Ao Jin herself was a master among them; her diving skills were sufficient for her to catch several crabs underwater in a single breath!

Seeing their old grandmother take the water, the remaining kobolds jumped into the lake one after another like dumplings dropped into a pot.

In the turbid underwater, they closely followed their old grandmother’s blurred silhouette, dog-paddling toward the direction where the small peninsula connected to the vast mainland.

The sonic bats could not detect the kobolds deep beneath the surface. A single underwater swim allowed them to escape the terrifying grim reapers circling the fiery perimeter of the small dock.

After struggling in the water for who knows how long, the exhausted kobolds finally crawled ashore, collapsing into the mud and panting heavily like fish out of water.

After watching the faint glow of the distant fire for a moment, Ao Jin finally caught her breath.

She carefully placed her two precious eggs on a bed of damp moss, extended her hand with its eight claws (the limit of a kobold's counting ability), and clumsily counted the wet, terrified heads over and over again.

"Yip-woo? Fewer? Who didn't make it up?" Her voice carried a mix of confusion and anxiety.

Beside her, another kobold whose scales were still dripping water was also counting. Panting, it reminded her, "Old Grandmother... yip... weren't those three... who came out of the small dock exit... and got killed by the sonic bats... not counted?"

Another kobold chimed in, "I... ran... first... Ao Tong... fell..."

"And Ao Mu..."

"And Ao Yu..."

Ao Jin’s claw-counting motion froze, a mix of realization and confusion flashing through her turbid eyes.

She looked at the faint fire in the distance, then at her shivering, huddled kin, and counted her claws again... well, it seemed... that was indeed the case.

Whatever, yip, it gave her a headache.

Cubs could always be made anew. Compared to that, she missed the goods she had traded from other tribes over the years much more.

Fortunately, their den was made entirely of earth and couldn't burn, and nothing nearby would steal their belongings. Once the fire died down, they could go back and continue living there.

Next, dragging their exhausted bodies under the leadership of their old grandmother, they arrived at a temporary resting spot along their annual trade route—a narrow, crude subterranean burrow.

It had only a single narrow entrance, making it difficult to squeeze all of their kind inside.

To accommodate all the survivors, they had to suppress their exhaustion and use their own claws to dig and widen the internal space of the burrow until every single kobold could curl up and lie down.

The exhaustion of surviving a catastrophe washed over them like a tide, and most of the kobolds quickly sank into an uneasy, semi-conscious sleep, leaving only a single sentry posted at the entrance.

The sentry guarding the inner side of the entrance strained to keep its eyes open, staring up the slanted tunnel.

Perhaps due to the fire, this dark subterranean world could be faintly seen through a dim haze.

Just as its eyelids began to droop, a sudden change occurred!

A lump of viscous, transparent slime silently lowered itself from above the entrance, tightly sealing the only exit shut!