C14 The Poisonous Breath

Zhou Mu's instinctive choice was the first one. If the situation was dire, he would resort to a dangerous gambit and force Gator to level up.

The gap between 2.9 and 3.0 wasn't significant; perhaps they could pull through.

As for the last resort, it was a desperate measure for desperate times.

After all, a shorter life was preferable to no life at all. Being alive meant there was hope, and who knows? Maybe he'd find a treasure that could extend his lifespan someday!

"Wait?"

Upon hearing Zhou Mu's plan, the group exchanged bewildered glances.

They were encircled by a horde of fiend beasts. If the energy shield failed, death was the only certainty.

But what other option did they have? Their only hope was for Zhou Mu to somehow reverse their fortunes.

Time flew by, and the first fiend beast had already reached them, slamming into the energy shield with ferocity.

Puff!

It was like a ripe squash hitting the ground, bursting into a spray of gore.

The beast had charged too recklessly and met its end upon impact.

Meanwhile, the energy shield stood unyielding, a steadfast guardian for the quartet.

Designed to withstand ten minutes of elite fiend beast assaults, the shield's endurance would surely dwindle given the onslaught they faced.

As expected, with each beast that hurled itself against it, the shield's surface began to show faint ripples.

With each second, the ripples multiplied, quickly escalating from one to over twenty in a mere five seconds.

Bang!

A rhinoceros-like fiend beast charged, its sturdy horns snapping, a visible crack splitting its skull.

It fell dead, and the shield, once ripple-free, now trembled slightly.

"Do I really have to do it?"

Zhou Mu gritted his teeth, his determination hardening.

He was on the verge of trading for third-rank spirit crystals to forcibly upgrade Gator when it felt like something snapped in his mind, followed by a wave of cool relief.

In this critical moment, his soul intensity had finally hit the three-point mark!

"Gator, eat this!"

Without a moment's delay, Zhou Mu produced the third-rank spirit crystals and thrust them into Gator's mouth.

A sudden glimmer caught the eye, this time concentrating on the head.

Zhou Mu glanced at his attribute panel, and his anxiety swiftly melted away.

Poison Fang: A bite that delivers venom into the target's body through the teeth.

Poison Breath: A spray of toxins projected forward, entering the target's body through inhalation.

Two abilities, one for a single target, the other for multiple.

One packed a powerful punch, the other covered a broad area.

The choice was clear—Zhou Mu didn't hesitate to pick the latter.

With just a thought, Gator instantly acquired the new skill.

...

...

Perched atop a small hill, roughly five hundred meters from the fiend beast horde, stood a black horse, its mane fluttering in the wind.

Majestic and muscular, it bore an expression of utter contempt; to its gaze, everyone was a fool.

This was the Chaos Horse, a fifth rank elite fiend beast of exceptional rarity.

Not quite a leader, but merely a hair's breadth away.

Unintimidated by the leader's might, it possessed abilities scarce even among those of leader caliber.

Were it not for the constraints of its lineage, it might well rank among the top echelons of the leaders.

"Hehe!"

The Chaos Horse trumpeted a defiant neigh, its resonant call echoing far and wide.

It was issuing a command to the peripheral fiend beasts: to slaughter the humans at any cost.

The beast tide had been in the making for a long stretch, and it was imperative that humans remained oblivious for now.

In no more than a month, the fiend beast leaders would be fully prepared, and even more formidable beasts, those surpassing the leaders, would emerge.

Humans, in its eyes, were nothing but chickens and dogs!

With this thought, a surge of excitement coursed through the Chaos Horse.

Yet, in that moment, it sensed an anomaly.

The numbers of fiend beasts were dwindling at an alarming rate.

"Hehe?"

Bewilderment washed over the Chaos Horse. It had rallied close to three thousand fiend beasts, mostly common ones of the first and second rank, a veritable overkill for a mere handful of humans.

So what was happening now?

Why were the fiend beasts perishing so swiftly?

Puzzled, the Chaos Horse pondered briefly before deciding to vacate the area.

Whatever the cause, any force capable of decimating three thousand fiend beasts with such speed was no ordinary adversary.

No matter the reason, the ability to swiftly eliminate three thousand fiend beasts was a clear sign that this was no ordinary character. If he confronted them, there was a near certainty of death.

...

Puff!

In a dire situation, Gator unleashed a new skill, spewing forth a cloud of toxic gas. A verdant fog of poison enveloped a twenty-meter radius in a fan shape before him, instantly killing the nearest fiend beast. A third-rank leader could effortlessly overpower a fourth-rank ordinary fiend beast with a mere flick of the wrist. This skill sacrificed the ultra-high damage against a single target in favor of a wider area of effect. While it might not be as effective against a leader of similar strength, it was devastatingly simple against a horde of ordinary and elite fiends.

Puff!

Puff!

Puff!

Hundreds of ordinary fiend beasts succumbed to the poison in less than a second. A handful of elites fared slightly better, lasting a mere two seconds before collapsing.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

A hare with blood-red eyes seized the moment of chaos, leaping through Gator's blockade and into the air. Its snow-white teeth glinted with a chilling brilliance in the sunlight, and its soft, long fur rippled in the wind, creating waves like those on a lake. Amidst the frenzy of fiend beasts and a landscape littered with corpses, there was an unexpected beauty to its ferocity.

Then...

Smack!

A hand materialized from thin air, landing squarely on the hare's face and sending it hurtling away.

"A delusional rabbit really thought it was a warrior!" Zhou Mu scoffed, though his mood was somber.

With Gator present, these fiend beasts posed little threat. But what if their numbers multiplied by hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands? That would be a Beast Tide: frenzied, ferocious, and seemingly endless. They wouldn't retreat unless more than half were slain.

Over the past four hundred years, the Noshar Empire had experienced over a hundred such events, and its scholars had long since understood the cause of the Beast Tides: rampant reproduction. Fiend beasts were simply powerful wild creatures that bred without restraint in the absence of natural predators. The inevitable result was an overabundance of offspring.

With resources stretched thin and fiend beast populations out of control, food shortages were inevitable. This scarcity would drive the varied fiend beasts into conflict with one another.

With numerous high-level Animal Whisperers, humans wielded formidable modes and technology, making tens of thousands of fiend beasts seem like mere dental floss.

Under normal circumstances, fiend beasts wouldn't dare to challenge such formidable species.

But reality begged to differ!

Just as humans had their elite Animal Whisperers, fiend beasts boasted high-ranking leaders.

While humans relied on advanced modes and technology, fiend beasts had an endless supply of low-level fodder.

To alleviate the survival pressures of their kind, many fiend beast leaders, including those of higher ranks, banded together to strike human settlements, thereby thinning out their lower ranks.

This was the onset of the Beast Tide!

Once the cause and effect were clear, the strategy was straightforward.

Match soldier for soldier, general for general.

High-level Animal Whisperers faced off with formidable fiend beasts, and upon their defeat, the lesser beasts descended into disarray, ripe for a firestorm.

Despite the inevitable human casualties and property losses with each Beast Tide, it remained the most effective response.

The fiend beasts nearby were insignificant in number, and they were but four.

Had Zhou Mu not bought time with his energy shield, or had Gator not ascended to third rank at the crucial moment, they might have perished.

In the end, Zhou Mu was prepared to fight to the death, but not for three strangers.

Lending a hand was already commendable; self-sacrifice for others was out of the question.

Witnessing Gator's rampage, annihilating hundreds of low-rank fiend beasts with a single toxic blast, Big Fatty Zhang couldn't contain himself, exclaiming, "Holy shit, that's badass!"

"Heh, mind your language!"

Zhou Mu glanced over with a loaded gaze.

Big Fatty Zhang was dumbfounded.

"Pfft! Hahaha!"

Zhang Liang burst into uncontrollable laughter, while Zhang Xiaomei blushed and bowed her head.

"I didn't mean it that way; it was just an exclamation."

Regaining his composure, Big Fatty Zhang quickly clarified, "Xiaomei's the one I love, not badassery!"

"Go to hell!"

Zhang Xiaomei retorted with a kick, having none of Big Fatty Zhang's comparison.

When Gator advanced, the dire crisis facing everyone was averted, and the perilous situation quickly turned around.

Zhou Mu surveyed the swathes of slain fiend beasts with no sense of triumph in his heart, only a burning rage.

"I swear, if I catch that beast..."

After stowing his telescope, Zhou Mu's eyes fell on the sports car, now resembling something repeatedly impaled by a horde of men, and he seethed with frustration.

The vehicle, renowned for its durability, had withstood the onslaught of numerous fiend beasts. Its windows shattered, its body riddled with dents, and its paint stripped away, yet its frame remained largely intact.

If the damage wasn't too severe, it could likely be fixed.

Prying open the car door, he gave it a try. True to the reputation of the Noshar Empire's craftsmanship, the Dongfeng car roared to life.

"We should head out and report today's events to the Animal Whisperer Union. I have a feeling something significant is on the horizon."

Zhou Mu's face was etched with concern. The image of the Chaos Horse lingered persistently in his thoughts, an unwelcome specter.

He was aware that higher-ranked fiend beasts possessed intelligence on par with humans, yet the fact that a mere fifth-rank elite could achieve such havoc was astonishing to Zhou Mu.

While a fiend beast's quality was supposedly unchangeable, its rank could climb indefinitely, much like humans.

Should the Chaos Horse continue to evolve, reaching the ninth or tenth rank, it might become uncatchable.

And yet, was it truly impossible to enhance a fiend beast's quality as the books claimed?

Zhou Mu harbored his doubts!

Considering Gator's case, it might not be that improvement was unattainable, but rather that it couldn't be achieved through conventional means.

It was akin to the protagonists in certain lowbrow novels who, after overcoming great hardships, undergo a metamorphosis that alters their destiny.

"I must contract a second spirit animal soon. If I face a similar situation again, luck may not be on my side."

With a heavy sigh, Zhou Mu resolved to seek out the elder.

His first spirit animal was a leader; the second could not merely be an elite.

Yet, whether elite or leader, acquiring them demanded substantial funds. Moreover, with his father pressuring him into an engagement with Qi Xiang, his options were limited.