Ark Undead

They were only two steps behind Melanza.

However, it now seems that Kroos entered the game at the perfect time.

Before she could respond to Kroos, Melantha's mind was completely focused on her right hand, which was gripping the hilt of her left waist knife tightly.

The minefield created by the two javelins cleared the last obstacle for Melantha.

At this point, Melanie only saw three red lines.

The red thread, like a dying flame in the wind, shone brightly before Melantha's eyes.

So, he drew his sword.

Only managing to see three fiery red knife marks, Gretia's eyes widened, barely able to make out Melantha's route.

Melantha, empowered by flames, completed her slash.

Just as Melantha was about to strike, a slender tentacle emerged from the mud and lashed out at her.

Its body flew backward, and the purple cat, engulfed in flames, tragically flew back to Gretia's side.

Goredia reached out to take it, but before she could, she felt an irresistible heat.

Her survival instinct made her pull her hand back.

"Hey!"

Fortunately, Kroos ran two steps forward and caught Melantha as she flew backward.

"cough!"

Melantha coughed lightly, her eyes still fixed on the sludge aggregate standing on the other side of the corridor.

Ignoring the burns on her arms, she still gripped the straight knife tightly in her hand.

This is Melantha's fighting style; she knows her physical strength is her weakness. So she prefers to concentrate her limited power and try not to waste time.

Facing the three slashes from the sludge aggregate, he cut the three sludge figures that had transformed into archers in half.

Before the silt could even change its shape, it was chopped into three pieces by Melantha.

The flames covering the blade instantly engulfed the three pieces of remains, forcing the mud to retreat several meters.

The three pieces of debris fell from the sky and burned on the ground for several seconds before being completely consumed by the golden flames.

The last bit of substance resembled black coke, having lost the oily sheen of the former silt.

"Success!"

Goredia finally witnessed her first attack that truly caused damage.

Three mounds of mud, each half a person tall, were vaporized by the flames right before the four people's eyes, while the remaining mud, unable to sense any part of its own body, began to writhe irregularly.

It smelled fear.

"Sorry, this is the best we can do."

With Kroos's help, Melantha stood up and shakily tried to sheathe the straight knife in her right hand.

Her right hand had begun to tremble slightly, and after aiming two or three times, Melantha finally managed to sheath her sword.

Those three slashes were not the kind of powerful strikes Melantha usually delivers during training.

When faced with an attack, the mud seems to control its own body changes, constantly evolving in terms of flexibility and hardness.

Melantha's three slashes had exceeded the range of adaptability and change that the mud itself could handle, and it had taken a great deal of her energy.

Otherwise, how could Melantha have been slapped away by another tentacle that suddenly appeared?

That was just a normal slap, something even a greyhound could easily withstand.

"Are you OK?"

Upon hearing this, Greta recovered from the joy of causing the damage and turned to look at Melantha beside her.

Laurentina is already incapacitated. If Melantha can't handle her either, then things will be truly dire.

"It's nothing, it's just that it's impossible to launch an attack like that again... or rather, it's very difficult. And I can't hold out for much longer."

Melanie shook her head, trying to calm herself down.

The flames burning on her body gradually subsided after the straight sword was sheathed.

However, the burning, which lasted less than a minute, made Melantha look more than ten years older.

Wrinkles appeared on her face out of nowhere, and even her once radiant complexion became dull.

Her once lustrous purple hair had become slightly dry, making her look almost like a completely different person.

Melantha still has a long way to go to master the power of fire.

But the fact that she can control the flames is already a huge improvement.

"To defeat this monster, we must find its critical weakness."

"While my strikes were indeed intimidating, they didn't actually do much damage to it. At most, they enraged it."

Just as Melantha uttered those words, the mud that had been retreating on the other side seemed to sense the fading of the flames, and it began to spread forward once again.

The dark black silt spread across the charred remains, as if it were alive.

Realizing that it could no longer reclaim its body, the voice it was sending out began to become indistinct again.

This voice, which went straight to the brain, was filled with anger and incomprehension.

Such a spread was truly unstoppable, and the four people present could only barely slow its advance.

"Then let's try to delay it for now."

Give me some space, and I'll see if I can try again.

Melantha understood that there was no time to delay. Since she was the only one capable of causing harm, the responsibility lay with her.

"I understand, leave it to me."

Goredia nodded. Her pride as a Deepsea Hunter was useless in the face of this nightmare, and the feeling of having to rely on others was indeed not good.

But at least it's a solution, and Goredia never refuses victory.

After learning that Melantha needed time, Grandia took a step back, raised her hand and summoned a thin film in front of everyone, which blocked the tentacles of the mud aggregate that were attacking again.

They still need to find opportunities, at least for Melanie.

However, just as the three were preparing for another attack, an unexpected change occurred.

In this corridor, which was originally only used by Greta and Laurentina, all the room doors simultaneously unlocked.

This made the three of them even more tense.

"what?!"

Before Gretia could react, she saw countless sea creatures of various shapes suddenly pouring out from the numerous doors.

Some are twisted bodies that were originally born as sea creatures, while others are even parasitic on the bodies of originally humanoid beings.

Now, whether transformed or native, the sea creatures are rushing toward the sludge aggregate on the other side of the corridor.

Suddenly, a chaotic cacophony of chirping and fluttering tentacles began to surge forth.

Grandia could only kick away Hai Si, who had rushed in front of her, and then quickly picked up Laurentina, who was leaning against the wall, and retreated once again.

Melantha and Ceobe were also caught off guard, and all their prepared attacks were abandoned. Like Gladys, they turned and left via the corridor to the next floor.

"what's the situation?"

Melantha caught up with Gretia, who was holding Laurentina and trying to break through the Sea Siege waves, and asked.

"These marine offspring?!"

"I do not know."

Goredia answered honestly.

She really doesn't know.

“I know that among the Sealings, there is a practice called sacrificial feeding. Sealings will voluntarily offer lower-ranking creatures as food to higher-ranking creatures. This is very common for them, but this thing in front of me is definitely not a Sealing. And these Sealings are definitely not going to offer food.”

During the brief moment of retreat, Goredia even took a quick glance at the aggregate of silt over there.

After the sea creatures arrived at the mud aggregate, they all launched offensive attacks.

For example, they could use their fangs and tentacles to strike, or try to ram their bodies into the mud aggregate.

However, for the sludge aggregates, these were like delicious food delivered to their doorstep; they accepted them without fear, drawing them all into their bodies and attempting to digest them.

Even Goredia had never seen such a bizarre scene.

"Let's go first, don't worry..."

Just as Gretia was about to tell the two to speed up and catch up with her so they could rush out, she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye of a thin, long trail of black silt emerging from the tidal wave.

"careful!"

Goredia reacted, attempting to raise the long spear in her right hand to gather a storm and disperse the thin, tentacle-like mud entity.

However, even moving around in the surging tide is difficult, let alone raising one's own weapon.

Just as she raised her right hand, Goredia's arm was slammed back by a sea creature that whistled past.

The storm, which had been halfway through its formation, was shattered by the tidal wave.

At this point, the thin, long sludge stream had stopped flowing, and its surface began to gradually become rounded and smooth.

However, Melantha, who had just extinguished the flames, no longer possessed the same keen insight as before.

Hearing Gretia's reminder, Melantha only had time to turn around and glance back.

And the slender tentacles formed from the silt had sprouted a sharp black thorn from their tips.

It was stabbed into Melantha's heart.

Its goal was clear. Even though there were countless sea creatures between the two sides, Melantha vaguely sensed a hateful gaze that seemed almost tangible from the sludge aggregate on the other side.

This is revenge; it will surely kill Melantha.

At the crucial moment, Melantha's well-trained body reacted on its own.

With sea monsters rushing past on both sides, Melantha would be crippled or killed if she crashed into them, so she could only leap upwards.