Final Lord

Chapter 296 Medusa's Decay

Wang Bufu put away the contract with satisfaction, his smile deepening.

However, Keynes was unaware that a deadly trap was hidden in the contract.

When will the caravan depart? The contract makes no mention of it.

When does the escort mission end? There is no end date.

In other words, as long as Wang Bufu never sends out this caravan, the Minotaur tribe will forever be his protectors, obligated to fight, defend cities, and risk their lives for him until the end of the contract—and that end may never even exist.

Keynes, consumed by the ecstasy of his impending revenge, thrashed his thick tail excitedly against the ground, spewing forth a torrent of sulfurous breath: "Hahaha! Medusa, just you wait! Once I have the armor, I will nail your serpent tails to every single pillar in the labyrinth!"

He had no idea that what he had just signed might be an eternal contract of servitude.

……

Meanwhile, deep within the poisonous swamp, the nest of the Medusa clan was filled with a long-lost atmosphere of jubilation.

The shimmering blue fluorescent fungi swayed on the stone wall, reflecting the snake scale wine that the Medusa warriors were drinking. The amber liquid slid down their slender necks and dripped along their slippery scales onto the banquet table covered with fresh fish.

The young warriors raised their longbows high, their snake tails slapping the ground excitedly, the rustling sound of scales rubbing together with the songs of victory.

"Long live Chieftain Aisana!" A young Medusa warrior raised his goblet, his golden vertical pupils gleaming with fanaticism. "Those arrogant minotaurs have finally tasted defeat! Their armor melted into molten iron under our arrows, and their warriors wailed in our poisonous fog—this is a great victory that the Medusa race has never experienced before!"

“That’s right! They’ll never dare to set foot in our swamp again!” another warrior chimed in, brandishing a copper arrow she’d salvaged from the battlefield, its arrowhead still bearing the dark brown marks of dried minotaur blood.

"Cheers to our homeland, to victory!"

"Woo!"

Amidst the laughter of countless girls, only Chieftain Aisana remained silently seated on a high stone throne. Her serpentine tail clung tightly to a rock pillar, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the empty quiver on the table.

On the leather inside the quiver, there are still several charred marks, which are the high-temperature traces left from the use of the copper arrows.

"Does victory... truly belong to us?"

Her gaze swept over the drunken clansmen at the banquet, but her heart felt as if a heavy boulder was pressing down on it.

The battlefield from Aisana's memory resurfaced: the minotaur warrior's armor melting as a copper arrow pierced his chest, Cairns's hateful roar, and his final, bitter cry of "Pay back in blood."

"The copper arrows are all used up..."

She clenched her fists, her sharp nails digging into her palms.

Without the red copper arrows forged by the dwarves, Medusa's arrows wouldn't even be able to penetrate the minotaurs' most basic breastplate.

What's even more terrifying is——

The Tauren never forget their grudges! Aisana knew that the copper arrows might intimidate the Tauren for a time, but not forever. Once Cairns regrouped and returned with the remaining stockpiled armor…

A scene flashed through Aisana's mind: a minotaur's battle axe splitting Medusa's altar, a snake's tail pierced by an iron hook and hanging from a stone pillar, and the cries of cubs drowned out by the flames.

And the arrival of this scene doesn't seem to be far off.

Driven by hatred, the minotaurs will give them no more chances. The Medusa race will be wiped out, just like the other underground races near the Minotaur labyrinth.

"Chieftain!" A guard suddenly slid into the hall, his scales scraping the floor with a rapid sound. "That caveman Shanpao is here again! He says he has something important to report!"

Aisana's tail tip snapped straight up.

"Quick, ask him to come in."

On the humus-covered edge of the swamp, Shanpao stood hunched over, his gray-brown skin covered in mud. Unlike Medusa's celebration at the banquet, his eyes held the weariness of someone who had survived a calamity, yet also a strange hope.

“Thank you for giving us the chance to escape from hell,” he said hoarsely, pulling an iron plaque engraved with the Minotaur's battle axe emblem from his leather pouch. “This is a token I took from a dead Minotaur, proof of our rebellion. We have left the Minotaur.”

“That’s wonderful. Congratulations on your escape from suffering.” Aisana sincerely blessed you, “May you live a good life and no longer be enslaved by other races.”

Shanpao bowed to Aisana to express his gratitude once again.

“But now, the dwarves have all fled with us. We need to leave this underground world.” Hillbilly’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “We can no longer provide you with copper arrows. If the minotaurs come again… what will you do?”

Aisana's pupils contracted sharply, and her serpentine tail curled up uneasily. This was her deepest fear—without her copper arrows, Medusa was prey to be slaughtered by the minotaurs.

“We may…have to abandon the swamp,” she finally whispered, each word seemingly squeezed from between venomous fangs, “even though this is our ancestral home.”

Aisana looked around.

The miasma of the poisonous swamp churns in the background, and the roots of the withered giant trees intertwine like the fingers of a dying giant—this land is soaked in Medusa's blood and tears, yet it is also the only natural barrier that allows them to escape from external enemies.

If a suitable home for Medusa had not been so hard to find, they would not have endured the pain of repeated raids to settle here.

But now, the time has come when we have no choice but to give up.

"But there is no unclaimed land in the underworld!" Hill Cannon suddenly raised his voice, his claws digging into the mud. "The weak tribes either become slaves or food—just like we cavemen once were!"

“Fortunately, we encountered ‘him.’” Shanpao’s voice suddenly softened, even trembling with an almost pious tone. “That lord… he gave us armor, weapons, hope for resistance, and… dignity.”

Just then, Shanpao suddenly straightened his hunched back, his grayish-brown skin gleaming strangely under the fluorescent moss, his acting skills were top-notch!

His claws dug deep into the mud, yet his voice was surprisingly calm: "Chieftain, you may actually still have a way to survive."

Aisana's golden vertical pupils suddenly contracted, and her serpentine tail unconsciously tightened around the stalactite pillar beside her. She noticed that this usually humble caveman now had a light in his eyes that she had never seen before—neither the timidity of a slave nor the despair of a dying man, but a glimmer of hope!

(End of this chapter)