Warriors will die if they charge.

The Riverside Forest is located in the southern hinterland of the continent, separated by the rushing Nileka River. Except for the most tenacious people who can survive by working hard and revering the Queen of the Water Demons, most people who want to explore the secrets of the rainforest will be drowned in the merciless environment.

This place is home to countless powerful beasts: star-striped leopards hunting in the canopy, multi-headed snakes lurking in the depths of the swamp, jungle anacondas that can devour humans and livestock in one gulp, and giant crocodiles hunting in packs... Some have even witnessed traces of dinosaurs in the depths of the rainforest.

Legend has it that an ancient and mysterious civilization exists in the Riverside Forest. They do not contact outsiders and occasionally send messengers to collect a mysterious object called Solar Energy Fragments, which they exchange for rare refined gold, turquoise containing a great deal of magic, and exotic delicacies. However, no one has ever confirmed this legend.

An adventure team once ventured deep into the Riverside Forest, but only one agile ranger survived. He brought back a blurred map, its center bisected by lines of blood, and a final message—

No one can cross the bloodline alive.

Many people who harbored ideas about ancient civilizations were very interested in the bloodline mentioned by the ranger and organized expeditions to venture deep into the rainforest, but without exception, the results were all terrible.

That bloodline seemed to be constantly moving, appearing in the cracks and ravines of palm bark, in cotton soaked by rain, on petals where yellow butterflies landed, and in purple lightning streaking across the sky—all seemingly markings of the bloodline, a mark that could never be crossed once unintentionally.

These were all things Jenny said, using textbook knowledge to refute Marcus's firm belief in the Water Queen's territory, but the tough guy from Riverside Town had a simple way of dealing with it—

How long have you been around that bitch Niloka? How could you possibly know the rainforest as well as I do?

But Jenny's explanation of the Riverside Forest also gave Marcus a useful clue—the snake people were preparing to steal the treasure of the Water Queen.

-

"Hiss~"

Marcus, shield in hand and sword raised, stomped heavily on the rain-soaked grass, his thick boots splattered with mud. He looked around at the dense jungle where raindrops pattered from the treetops.

He could smell it; the earthy scent of the rainwater carried the slippery, cold scent of the snake-man.

They come from another rainforest, but their taste is completely different from the decay and vitality of the riverside forest.

A kind of insidious poison suppressed in a damp swamp.

"Jenny, stay by Trish's side and take care of yourself."

Jenny gripped the half-person-high wooden staff nervously. She was not capable of handling things on her own, so she could only use magic tricks at opportune moments to attract the snake people's attention.

"good!"

Trissy, holding a powerful crossbow, slowly approached, her eyes beneath her cloak quickly scanning every gap in the trees and bushes:

"There are a lot of them..."

"kill!"

A chilling command was given, and then a series of rapid friction sounds echoed through the rainforest.

Marcus saw a group of snake-men wielding iron guandao (a type of halberd), their bodies covered in leaf and wood chips, rushing out of the forest in an instant.

They were significantly stronger than the snake-men encountered in the camp, with thick limbs, numb, icy eyes, and their two legs used their swaying tails to adjust their center of gravity, allowing them to move nimbly between the trees.

A cold, fishy stench assaulted the senses, and owls and woodpeckers hiding among the treetops flapped their wings and fled, their ears filled with the "cooing" sounds of birdsong.

"Hey you Muggles, can't you see I'm here?! Your tiny eyes are only slightly better than a goblin's!"

Marcus's first reaction was to taunt the charging snake-men.

Seeing the snake-man, whose attention was drawn by the gift in the tongue, rushing towards him, he raised his shield and rammed into him fiercely.

The guandao wielded by the snake-man warrior was extremely heavy, appearing at first glance to be like a thick iron plate embedded in a wooden stick. The warrior showed no fear, raising his shield to block the downward slash of the guandao, his arm catching it steadily without the slightest tremor.

"Thump!"

The warrior could smell the stench of rotting flesh emanating from the snake-man's mouth as he flicked his tongue, and the cold glint of his fangs in the dim light. Relying on his fighting instincts, he prepared to thrust his longsword before his shield could catch the slashing dagger.

His sharp gaze swept over them, a mocking sneer escaping his lips at the cold-blooded creature with its numb expression:

"Did you know that pythons can't be killed by snakes?"

Shield Thrust!

With a powerful stomp of his right foot, he thrust forward with lightning speed, instantly closing the distance between the two warriors. The silver blade gleamed faintly in the shadows.

The longsword, piercing through the snake-man's chest covered in hard scales, struck like a giant python. But what was truly deadly about the python was not just its fangs, but also its ruthless strangulation.

Marcus roared and pushed aside the weakening guandao with his shield. He then pulled his right arm outward, tearing the longsword that had pierced the snake-man's chest apart and leaving a dark bloodstain.

A few drops of cold, foul-smelling snake blood splattered on Marcus's cheek. He twisted his wrist, swinging it in a V-shaped arc in mid-air, and a head flew off his shoulder.

Before he could even mourn the soldiers who died in the charge, several guan daos were already slashing down from different positions.

His round shield blocked one blade, his longsword blocked another, and just as another blade was about to strike his back, the forced buffer from the speed bump gave him a keen opportunity to dodge, and he shifted his position to block three blades that came at him simultaneously.

"Come on, keep going! Haha, you little beast, I'm the biggest python in the Riverside Forest! Even your damned snake god Seth is nothing but a tiny insect in the Water Ghost Queen's territory!"

The dark sky began to drizzle again. The gift of the tongue that the warrior gave to the snake man angered the gods, and streaks of purple-black lightning flashed across the sky.

The towering sandalwood tree where the snake-man commander stood swayed precariously in the fine, cotton-like rain. He loudly ordered the cannon fodder converted from humans to continue the attack, but he didn't notice the slight cracking sound as the sandalwood shattered.

The sturdy sandalwood tree, as strong as an iron bell, was broken by the rain, and its dense branches and dew submerged the snake-man commander's body.

The sandalwood collapsed, not because of the rain—

The rain didn't have that much power; it was God punishing him, a punishment that allowed the blasphemer to live.

Triss fired two crossbow bolts in quick succession, accurately hitting the two snake-men who were entangled with Marcus.

She saw the snake-man warrior charging from the side, gritted her teeth, stopped drawing her arrow, and prepared to draw her scimitar to fight.

Bardin's figure blocked her way; the dwarf wielding his shield and axe was like an insurmountable mountain.

"Support the tough guy, you stupid elf. I don't want to drag his corpse back."

The dwarf raised his round shield, steadily blocking the halberd slashing from the side. His battle axe slashed through the gap between the shield and the ground, striking the snake-man's ankle and successfully tripping the monster as it leaned forward.

"Don't just stand there! If you want to die, keep spacing out, you grandson!" Marcus roared at the snake-men who had become hesitant after the ebony fell. His voice exploded in the rain like a muffled thunderclap from the ground.

This time, he sensed something was amiss. The snake-men should have continued to pounce after his mockery, but they simply stayed put, their vertical pupils darting around as if waiting for something.

The rain pattered against their cold scales, making a fine, crackling sound.

He heard the sound...

Beneath the fallen sandalwood tree, a very subtle tremor came from. Something was slowly awakening between the tree and the soil. The earth was trembling slightly, and ripples that shouldn't exist appeared in the rain in the pool.

"A snake spirit is casting a spell on that ebony tree!" Jenny's voice came from behind, her grip on her staff tightening, her voice trembling unnaturally.

"But I can't sense where he is."