novelraw Chapter 300: General Winter and the Snake Flute
Chapter 300: General Winter and the Snake Flute
The swamp waterway instantly transformed into a circular arena filled with the scent of blood.
The Armored Crocodile, with a size resembling a small cruise ship, had completely descended into madness.
Its massive maw, lined with terrifying sharp teeth, opened and closed like two guillotine blades in a frenzy, each bite churning up towering splashes of water and the piercing sound of shattering bones.
Its tail, akin to a battering ram, swept continuously across the water's surface, lashing the surrounding sturdy mangrove roots with loud "crack-crack" sounds, sending wood chips flying everywhere.
"God almighty... these two, are they crazy?"
On the flatboat hidden within the shadows of the mangrove roots, Brewer watched the scene through his binoculars and couldn't help but curse under his breath.
Brewer saw the pair of unidentified hunters, with remarkable courage and astonishing synergy, tenaciously grappling with the frenzied behemoth.
The man, built like a bear and drenched in blood, seemed to have his feet nailed to the giant crocodile's neck. No matter how violently it rolled and thrashed, it couldn't shake him off in the slightest.
Lin Jie could see the man was wearing an extremely heavy, blood and mud-soaked Russian-style woolen military greatcoat that was completely out of season.
The style of the coat looked like standard winter military attire from the era of Tsar Alexander III, carrying the rugged aesthetic of a land of ice and snow.He was like a moving mountain from the Siberian tundra, using his own flesh and blood to withstand the terrifying force capable of tearing steel.
Meanwhile, the girl, agile as a cat, sprinted and leaped across the Armored Crocodile's rugged back. Every step landed precisely in the gaps between its bony plates.
The pair of ice-blue short blades in her hands looked like miniature versions of Cossack cavalry sabers. Each swing drew forth a spray of scalding, foul-smelling blood reeking of decay.
"Hang on, Ivan! Don't let go!"
The girl shouted in a language Lin Jie couldn't understand at all, but which Brewer found strangely familiar, laced with urgency.
"It's Russian," Brewer lowered his voice, explaining to Lin Jie. "She's calling that man... Ivan."
"Russians?"
Lin Jie's heart stirred slightly.
"They're also interested in this swamp?"
Just as Lin Jie was pondering, the situation on the battlefield changed once more.
After dodging a lethal sweep of the giant crocodile's tail, the girl agile as a cat suddenly let out a clear shout:
"Ivan! Its right eye is blind! Attack its left eye!"
"Received!" The man named Ivan roared. He abandoned defense, allowing the giant crocodile's sharp claws to rake several wounds across his chest.
Then, he poured all his strength into his right fist and smashed it fiercely towards the crocodile's remaining left eye.
A few seconds before his fist struck home, the Armored Crocodile suddenly emitted a strange hiss.
A thick layer of stark white frost, radiating a chilling cold, visibly condensed on the surface of its bony plates at a visible speed.
Even the surrounding murky river water froze solid within mere seconds, turning into a hard, mirror-like sheet of ice.
"[Winter General's Breath]!" Ivan bellowed.
He activated his Grotesque Armament.
— That seemingly ordinary, heavy Russian military cap he wore on his head.
This Grotesque Armament was fused from the core fur of the legendary Siberian Yeti and the soul of a certain Russian general who died in the ice and snow, his obsession unyielding. Its core ability was "Extreme Cold."
An intangible frost domain embodying the concept of "Absolute Zero" spread outwards from Ivan.
The previously frenzied Armored Crocodile, faced with this extreme cold, saw all its movements become sluggish and stiff, as if trapped in a slow-motion film scene.
Ivan's fist, carrying the momentum of a thunderous force, finally met no further obstacles.
"BOOM!!!"
A dull, thunderous sound, like a heavy blow on a muffled drum, rang out.
The giant crocodile's lantern-sized eyeball burst accordingly, splattering corrosive, ink-green fluid everywhere.
"ROAR—"
The overlord of the swamp let out the most miserable and despairing wail of its life.
Blinded, its body crashed and rolled across the frozen ice sheet, triggering violent, earth-shaking tremors.
Victory seemed within grasp.
A tired smile appeared on the Russian woman's face.
She was just about to step forward to deliver the final blow to the dying giant beast.
However, right at that moment—
A strange, melodious flute sound rose from the shadows of the densest mangrove forest on the shore.
The flute sound was not loud.
But it was like an invisible venomous needle, piercing through the battlefield's clamor and roars, accurately stabbing deep into the brain of every living being present.
The Armored Crocodile, struggling madly on the ice, stiffened mid-motion.
Anya, preparing her final attack, also shuddered, a fleeting moment of confusion flashing in her eyes.
Even Lin Jie and Brewer, hidden on the flatboat in the distance, felt an inexplicable wave of dizziness in their minds.
Only the White Ghost, wearing his white ceramic mask, remained like a soulless statue, completely unaffected.
"Careful! It's a mental attack!"
Lin Jie was the first to react. He pinched his thigh; the pain, combined with the protection of the [Serene Heart], allowed him to break free from the hypnotic flute melody.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
The Russian duo, disoriented by the flute sound for several seconds, saw the hard ice layer just frozen around them begin to crack and shatter with a "crack-crack" sound.
Several thick, dark shadows covered in ink-green scales shot up from beneath the ice.
Infected venomous water snakes!
These swamp vipers, whose size had become abnormally large due to plague corruption, had been lurking underwater, waiting for this perfect moment to ambush.
"Thud!"
...
Accompanied by several muffled sounds of sharp objects piercing flesh, and the Russian woman's short, disbelieving gasp of surprise.
Those venomous water snakes had already tightly coiled around the bodies of the Russian duo.
Their fangs sank deep into their flesh.
"The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."
Lin Jie watched the bloody scene reverse before his eyes, his heart turning cold.
He shifted his gaze towards the direction from which the flute sound came.
He saw three Latin American hunters, dressed in tight-fitting leather armor of South American rainforest style, slowly emerging from the shadows of that dense mangrove forest.
Smirks played on their faces.
Their necks and arms bore tattoos of that ouroboros symbol Lin Jie knew all too well—the serpent eating its own tail, representing eternity and chaos.
"Remnants of the Eternal Serpent? Why are these troublemakers everywhere?" Lin Jie couldn't help but curse inwardly. Ever since getting entangled with them at Loch Ness, these people seemed to haunt him like a curse.
The leader was a tall, thin, dark-skinned man with a hooked nose and cold eyes.
In his hand, he held the culprit responsible for this tragedy.
It was a long flute, crafted from the complete spinal column of an unknown snake species, emitting a ghastly pale glow.
"Ivan... Anya..."
The leader of the snake cult looked at the Russian siblings being frantically bitten and injected with venom by the snakes, a gleeful, cat-and-mouse smile spreading across his face.
"...What a pair of northern dumb bears who only know brute force. Don't you know that in this swamp teeming with life, fighting alone is the most foolish act?"
As he spoke, he continued to play the snake-bone flute in his hand.
The melodious flute sound became shrill at this moment.
Some of the venomous water snakes seemed to receive a "divine" command.
They released Ivan and instead turned their venomous fangs towards the blinded Armored Crocodile.
The snake cult's target was the ultimate prey they had finally crippled with their own lives and blood.
The battlefield descended into a chaotic three-way melee.
The Armored Crocodile, at the end of its strength, driven by survival instinct, erupted with its final burst of power.
It thrashed and bit wildly, trying to shake off the entanglement of the venomous snakes.
The poisoned Russian siblings, in despair, mounted their final resistance.
"Anya!"
Ivan let out a heart-wrenching roar.
Ignoring his own injuries, he turned, wanting to rescue his sister from the deathly coils of the venomous water snakes.
However, the flute melody from the shore changed its tune at that moment.
The venomous water snakes received clearer instructions.
They abandoned their lethal attacks on Anya, instead behaving like tactically-minded soldiers. Some tightly coiled around her limbs, others transformed into shields blocking the space between Anya and Ivan, and even constructed a living, venomous snake wall for the commander on the shore!
"Brother... I..."
Anya's voice grew weak and feeble as the venom rapidly took effect.
An ominous black aura appeared on her face.
"Don't speak!"
Bloodshot veins filled Ivan's eyes.
He charged like a mad bull, using his own flesh and blood to crash frantically against that "snake wall" constructed of vipers.
But each collision only resulted in more, deeper fangs sinking into his already battered body.
"What a touching, heartwarming scene of sibling love."
The hook-nosed leader of the snake cult on the shore lowered his snake-bone flute, a look of intoxication on his face.
"However, my dear northern friends, your performance should come to an end."
As he spoke, he raised the flute again, preparing to play the final requiem that would decide the fate of the two.
"...It's not... over yet..."
The dying Anya, shielded behind Ivan, suddenly lifted her head!
"Ivan... do you remember... the last song... Mother taught us?"
She spoke to her brother in a voice barely audible.
Ivan's movements halted.
Seeing the familiar light in his sister's eyes, he understood what she intended to do.
"Of course I remember, my dear... Anya."
He slowly closed his eyes, recalling a distant childhood night filled with wind, snow, and song.
Then, almost simultaneously, the siblings began to softly hum, in their hoarse Russian with Siberian accents, a Cossack war song imbued with a sense of tragic epic.
"...Under that birch grove, the Cossack warrior falls. His warhorse, mourning for him. His beloved, in the distance... weeping..."
Their singing was very soft.
The extreme cold domain originating from [Winter General's Breath], which had been lingering around Ivan, resonated with their song and erupted one last time!
But this time, it wasn't the wide-area frost used earlier for slowing and freezing.
It was an Absolute Zero cold current, condensed to its extreme, carrying the intent of mutual destruction!
A terrifying ice-blue energy ripple surged outwards in a violent wave!
The venomous water snakes tightly coiled around the siblings' bodies, upon contact with the cold current, had their blood and muscles frozen from the inside out into fragile ice sculptures.
Then, with a "crack," they shattered into a sky full of icy crystal powder.
Even the Armored Crocodile and the swamp water stained red with blood around it were completely frozen at this moment, becoming an icy tomb!
On the shore, the smiles on the faces of the three snake cult hunters, who had been smugly admiring their handiwork, instantly froze solid.
They never dreamed that these prey, already at the end of their rope, could unleash such a terrifying counterattack.
The ice-blue cold current, after sweeping the battlefield, continued its momentum unabated, rushing towards the shore where they stood.
"Get out of the way!"
The snake cult leader let out a sharp cry.
Forgetting to play the damned flute, he performed an extremely clumsy dive-roll, narrowly avoiding the direct impact of the cold current.
But the two members behind him weren't so lucky.
One was engulfed by the cold current. His entire body, along with the weapon in his hand, was frozen into a lifelike ice sculpture, his face still wearing an expression of terror.
The other, though only grazed by the edge of the cold current, also let out a miserable shriek.
One of his arms was covered in frost, losing all sensation.
With just one counterattack, the Eternal Serpent cult paid the painful price of one dead and one severely wounded!
Ivan, who had unleashed this earth-shattering blow, had also exhausted his last ounce of strength.
His body knelt on the frozen river surface he had personally created.
The miraculous military cap, [Winter General's Breath], also dimmed and lost its luster due to depleted energy, sliding off his head.
"Well done... brother..."
Anya leaned against her brother's broad chest, which was gradually losing its warmth, a satisfied yet weak smile on her face.
Then, using the last bit of her strength, she threw the ice-crystal short blade in her hand with all her might towards the snake cult leader, who had just scrambled up from the ground, his face filled with shock, anger, and lingering fear!
"For Mother..."
The short blade traced a blue arc through the air.
But in the end, it fell powerless, embedding itself in the ice less than a meter from its target.
"Huff... huff..."
The snake cult leader stared at the short blade so close at hand, still emitting a chilling cold, his heart pounding wildly.
He glanced at his team member frozen solid into an ice sculpture, thoroughly dead. Then he looked at his other team member, clutching his frozen, useless arm, writhing and wailing in agony on the ground.
Finally, he turned his eyes, brimming with venomous hatred and killing intent, towards the Russian siblings, their fuel spent and lamp extinguished, kneeling on the ice.
"You... you damned, bastard scum from the icy hell!"
He spat out this curse through gritted teeth.
"What now?"
Brewer looked at the battlefield before them, his voice grave as he asked Lin Jie.
Lin Jie didn't answer immediately.
He watched as the Russian siblings, under the dual effects of blood loss and venom, finally fell unwillingly onto the ice.
He watched the expression on the snake cult leader's face grow increasingly hateful and violent.
He was waiting.
Waiting for the perfect moment that would allow him to gain the maximum benefit at the minimum cost.