Chapter 554: Fragrant Blood
Translator: bingeants Editor: bingeants
“Another one?” Dean looked at the outline of the heat source and knew it was a powerful monster. He looked from the broken window and saw a nearly three meters high monster lying on the ground. It was bulky like a toad, the skin was covered with green scales, and there were long and short spikes protruding from the sturdy forelimbs and shoulders. It was actually a level 42 Serpent Toad.
Dean’s face changed. This was a venomous monster. The level was only 42, comparable to a low-level Frontiersman, but if careless, even the Pioneers would die under its venom. Ordinary antidote could not suppress its venom. Even the top pharmacists in the Dark Church who were good at developing poisons might not be able to save the poisoned person.
“Damn!” Dean cursed in his heart. He did not expect these tricky monsters to appear one after another in the hidden place that he found with great difficulty. He glanced at the unconscious Haisha on the seat next to him. His eyes flashed, if at the moment he used her wounded body to draw the attention of the Serpent Toad, he would have some hope to sneak away from the other direction.
However, when he saw her pale face, he could not help but remember the help he got in the Dragon Family’s prison and the rainy night many years ago. He dispelled the ruthless thought he had in his heart. If it were other people, he might not hesitate to betray, but Haisha had saved him several times. He did not have the heart to harm her.
“Can only fight.” He gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the dagger. He looked at the Serpent Toad jumping toward the subway, and a cold killing intent flashed in his eyes. He grabbed an abandoned dusty shoe from the ground and flung it toward the side of the Serpent Toad’s body.
Thud! The shoes fell to the ground.
The sound caught the attention of the Serpent Toad, and as it was looking at the shoe, Dean rushed out of the window like an arrow shot from a bow.
The Serpent Toad reacted immediately and thrust out its slender, bright red tongue, which was similar to an intestine, straight toward Dean. At the front end of the tongue, there was a little mouth full of sharp teeth.
Dean’s body suddenly swayed and evaded the tongue. The speed outburst made his body swift like a gust of wind. He appeared on the side of the Serpent Toad and thrust the dagger into the Serpent Toad’s eye.
The Serpent Toad could barely react and only had time to close its eyelids.
Puff! The extremely sharp dagger easily pierced its eyelids. Green blood spurted from inside, splashing on Dean’s arm guard.
Hiss! The metal arm guard was corroded.
Dean was surprised. He slammed his injured left hand down on the Serpent Toad’s body and used the force to jump onto its back, then stabbed the top of its head with the dagger.
The Serpent Toad roared. Its tongue chased back toward Dean, and at the same time, the spikes on its forelimbs grew, like sharp claws, attacking Dean’s back.
Dean noticed that the spikes were coated with green liquid, most likely highly toxic venom. His heart was shivering, and he stabbed the dagger downward at lightning speed.
Ka! The dagger pierced through the scales and seemed to hit a hard bone.
He did not dare to continue and quickly pulled out the dagger, jumping down from the Serpent Toad’s body.
While falling, he kicked at the Serpent Toad’s body, dealing as much damage as he could.
Swish!
When he just landed, he saw three snake tails behind the Serpent Toad had been flung toward his previous position. The tails were full of venomous spikes. He would surely be injured and poisoned if the tails hit him. It was troublesome if he got poisoned, so that was why he retreated as fast as he could.
The Serpent Toad’s body suddenly swayed and, as if there were several invisible limbs supporting its body, turned toward him with a strange posture that was like a crawling spider. Dean saw three shadows were sweeping toward him. His heart was beating madly, and his blood was boiling. He evaded the tails by a hair’s breadth and quickly retreated.
“Ssh!” The Serpent Toad made a snake-like sound, turned around, and leaped toward Dean. The spikes on its body were all extended, like a peacock spreading its tail.
Dean stared at the Serpent Toad with a grimace. The moment the Serpent Toad leaped, he fluttered his wings and flew high, and at the same time, his hand flung a shadow at the Serpent Toad’s other eye.
The Serpent Toad’s tongue immediately waved and hit the shadow.
Bang! It exploded into a cloud of dust. This shadow was actually a concrete block that Dean picked up from the ground.
The moment the stone was shattered, Dean swooped down and stabbed his dagger down into the Serpent Toad’s head.
Ka! The dagger instantly penetrated the scales and sank up to the hilt into the Serpent Toad’s skull, and at the same time, Dean raised his left hand and pounded on the Serpent Toad’s head. At this moment, he did not care about his left hand’s injury and pounded the head with all his strength.
The Serpent Toad roared and trembled with pain. Its tongue was waving chaotically toward Dean’s body. The mouth at the front end of the tongue opened and bit his right shoulder.
Dean’s eyes were slightly red. Feeling a severe pain in his shoulder, he pounded the Serpent Toad’s head harder. The dagger was pulled out and stabbed into the head again and again until the Serpent Toad was completely motionless.
Dean felt a sharp pain in his wrist. Looking down, the blood of the Serpent Toad had corroded his wristband and flowed onto his wrist. He hurriedly jumped down from the Serpent Toad’s body. He took two deep breaths while looking at the Serpent Toad. He was relieved as there was no movement. He immediately checked the painful places on his body, and his heart could not help but skip a beat.
He saw a big bite on his right shoulder. Although it did not bite off his flesh, the teeth marks were deep and ripped his armor. In addition, there were two bruises on his wrist and back. There was also a dent on his wings, like being hit by a hard object.
Dean returned to the subway, took off his armor, and tied a gauze around the wound to prevent the venom from spreading. After the dagger was cleaned and sterilized, he gouged out the flesh on his right shoulder. The flesh had been rotting, and the blood color was darkish-green, extremely spooky.
When cleaning the wound, however, Dean saw that the darkish-green blood did not spread too far, only a few centimeters.
Seeing this familiar appearance, his heart relaxed immediately. He did not expect that the Ice Blood Disease had a special method of resisting the venom too.
He cleaned the wounds, applied the therapeutic powder, and wrapped it with gauze. During the wrapping process, he saw that his left hand had been deformed, and the middle finger had been dislocated, looking weird. Apparently, it was caused by the excessive force he used in the previous beating.
As he was about to rest after the treatment was finished, he heard sounds coming from outside the subway again. This time was footsteps. He looked out and saw several Sickle Zombies coming wobbly.
Dean cursed in his heart and looked at Haisha. He had noticed the blood smell that was coming from Haisha’s wound had a strange fragrance. This place was so concealed that there was no monster footprint when they arrived, but in a short period of time after their arrival, these monsters appeared one after another. Most likely, they were led by the smell of her fragrant blood.
Although he did not know why her blood had such an effect, it gave him trouble.
He went out of the subway, picked up some stones from the ground, and flung the stones at the heads of the Sickles Zombies.
Bang! Bang! Bang! …
The Sickle Zombies’ heads were hit by stones and exploded. Their bodies trembled and fell to the ground. These Zombies’ levels were only around 10. In front of Dean’s current power, it was easy to kill them.
Dean leaned his back against the subway, seizing the time to rest and thinking of ways to suppress the smell of Haisha’s blood. The first way that popped up in his mind was to wrap her in a bag to keep the smell sealed, but if it were airtight, it would suffocate her.
“Do I have to hold her and keep flying in the sky? In this case, my strength won’t hold out…” Dean frowned. If he was in his prime, he could hold on for a while, but at the moment his strength was almost exhausted. His strength would be completely exhausted once he held Haisha for more than 10 minutes. As for flying straight out of the Wasteland from here, it was even more impossible.
Rustle!
He had rested only for a moment when sounds came again. This time was a large number of rustling, tiny sounds.
Dean’s face changed. Dense heat sources appeared in his vision. It was palm-sized insects.
Outside the wall, the Insect Tide, same as the Zombie Tide, was one of the most terrifying disasters. The danger was not inferior to the legendary monsters.
Dean was just about to return to pick up Haisha and escape when he saw the swarm’s width was only about 10 meters. It was not the legendary endless Insect Tide which could stretch for several kilometers.
He breathed a sigh of relief. This amount could only be regarded as a small swarm.
He glanced around and found some vines growing out of the ground. It had lost its moisture and withered. He quickly gathered and piled them around the subway, then poured the remaining kerosene he had. He ignited it with a torch, and suddenly a circle of flames blazed out to secure the subway he was in.
The swarm crawled quickly, but stopped in front of the flame and did not dare to move forward.
Dean stood in the middle of the circle of flames. Looking at the densely packed worms around him, he bitterly smiled. He sat and leaned his back against the subway while still holding the torch in his hand, taking the opportunity to breathe and recover his strength.
The flame continued to burn, but the insects were getting impatient. From time to time, several insects tried to break through the flame, but they were burned by the flame and fell in front of Dean’s feet, screeching and twitching pain.
Dean looked pale. He knew that this flame would not stop these insects and could only delay a little time.
He sighed at the dense swarm. Although killing these insects with his strength was as simple as stepping on the ants, he estimated that his strength would be thoroughly exhausted if he killed them all.
Meanwhile, Haisha was slowly awakened by the pain. She opened her eyes and suddenly saw flames jumping in the dark. She was surprised and hurriedly sat up, but when she exerted her abdominal muscles, there was a sharp pain in her back. She took a deep breath and could only slowly sat up with the support of her hands. She also felt a sense of dizziness in her head, which was the symptom of excessive blood loss.
She turned her head, looking around, and she was stunned. She saw the circle of flames was surrounded by a dense swarm of insects. There were some insects trying to crawl on top of the subway, making rustling sounds. In the middle of the circle of flames, a black-haired youth was sitting against the subway and gazing fixedly at the screeching insects. It was Dean.
The memories before the coma came rushing into her head like a flood. She looked down at her arms, then raised her hand and touched her head, touching the soft gauze. Her lips twitched slightly. Looking at the black-haired youth’s back, her eyes slowly softened.
Dean heard the movement behind him and looked back. He saw Haisha had woken up, and his eyes were brightened, then he said, “You’re awake!”
Haisha nodded gently. She moved her gaze from him and glanced at the surrounding insects, saying in a low voice, “When I was in a coma, have you been fighting here?”
Dean said, “Yeah, these monsters came out of nowhere and didn’t let me rest..”
Haisha serenely said, “You should leave, so as not to be implicated by me. Since childhood, no one near me ends well.”
Dean was startled and suddenly thought of the childhood she had told him in the prison. After a short silence, he said in a low voice, “You’re right.”
Haisha was surprised. She did not expect him to admit it. There was an inexplicable ache in her heart. She gritted her teeth and said, “You can leave now, I will help you divert—”
“However,” Dean spoke again and interrupted her, turning his head to look at her and saying with a smile, “I really like such an implication.”
Haisha stared at him blankly and could not say a word.
Dean turned his head again and stared at the swarm. As the flame became weaker and weaker, there were more and more insects that broke through the flame, climbing onto his feet before being killed easily by him. It would consume too much of his strength if this went on.
“I never thought that one day I’d be bullied by these little bugs.” Dean smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying to Haisha, “Let’s move somewhere else.”
Haisha looked at the surrounding insects. She laboriously lifted a hand and took off a pouch from her waist. She handed it to Dean and said, “There are insect repellents inside. You can sprinkle it around.”
