novelraw Chapter 255: Countered to Death
Chapter 255: Countered to Death
"Whoosh — crack!"
A grass python suddenly materialized and coiled around Li Wei's legs as he ran. But almost simultaneously, a flash of blade light — Li Wei had already sliced through it with his two-handed heavy sword. That was the ram-headed man's spell: he could shape grass and wood into serpents that coiled around targets. Fairly hard to defend against, for most people.
For most people. With Li Wei's current Perception at +1, it was meaningless.
The ram-headed man tried to overwhelm with numbers — three grass pythons came flying from all directions at once, clearly confident in the outcome. But Li Wei didn't even glance at them. One hand on the heavy sword, blade dancing with fluid precision, he shredded all three pythons without breaking stride, and in an instant had covered over a hundred meters.
The speed and agility left the Ability Users behind him speechless.
"Stop! Friend, we mean no harm. From what we've seen, you're not one of the Flame Idiot's people, and you're not a natural person either — so you must be some kind of Ability User who's managed to stay rational. We're probably no match for you. And thank you for holding back just now!"
"You're going to hunt the man-eating flower? It's yours. Come visit the Frost Underground City sometime!"
"We're leaving!"
The five Ability Users were impressively decisive. One probing attack, and they immediately withdrew. Respectable, actually.
Though it wasn't out of the question that they were playing the waiting game — watching the tiger and the dragon fight from the mountain.Li Wei said nothing and made no further moves. He watched the five Ability Users retreat a dozen or so kilometers, then — predictably — stop on a small hill in the distance. The snake woman slithered up into the crown of a large tree, clearly trying to observe the situation.
What did they think they were going to pick up?
Well — what they'd said was probably mostly true. Maybe their Frost Underground City really could shield against radiation storms. Something to explore in the future, perhaps.
But hoping to scavenge the aftermath? They weren't quite there yet.
Li Wei was confident enough to act. He wasn't worried about them picking up scraps.
He headed straight for the mutant cabbage.
At two hundred meters out, he switched to the Dog Butcher title, bringing Agility to 34. He drew both heavy swords into a dual-wield stance, slowed his footsteps, letting the blades occasionally clink against stones — a deliberate sound.
The mutant cabbage still showed no reaction. But the sense of danger was rising sharply now — like walking into a predator's hunting ground.
Meanwhile, on the distant hillside, the snake woman had a forked tongue flickering and a pair of binoculars in hand — an absurd combination.
"Captain, shouldn't we warn him? He's already entered the man-eating flower's secondary attack zone."
"Warn him for what? He wouldn't listen anyway. Ability Users who've somehow survived a radiation storm on their own — even the sane ones — tend to be stubborn. You can't reason with them. Better to wait until the man-eating flower swallows him, then go in and pull him out. Two birds, one stone. And that crow up there is really annoying — why would a crow be flying alone?"
The centaur spoke with the air of a seasoned veteran. He was a proper wilderness hunter. Raw power mattered, but a sharp mind mattered more.
"Heh heh, snake lady, pass me the binoculars — I love watching miracles happen."
The fat pig Ability User drooled, standing under the tree and staring upward. What a view.
"You disgusting pig, get away from me — one more word and I'll make you a dung pig — oh my god! The man-eating flower is attacking!"
The snake woman let out a sudden low cry, as if she'd witnessed something unbelievable.
The man-eating flower's petals burst open. Dozens of writhing stamens shot out, stretching over a hundred meters in an instant, each tipped with razor-sharp barbs. Anything they hooked wouldn't escape.
But even more lethal — from underground, wooden spikes of all sizes erupted wildly, aimed straight at the lower body. Vicious, insidious, impossible to block. And there was nowhere to dodge, because spikes could erupt from any position at all.
Under normal circumstances, a person would be skewered in seconds. And even if you somehow avoided the spikes, those flexible, tapeworm-like barbed stamens — there was a variety for every occasion.
Even if you held on for a while, you couldn't hold on forever.
How many wilderness hunting parties had this man-eating flower already swallowed?
But Li Wei was completely calm.
His footwork shifted constantly — like a shadow-step technique. Wherever there was an opening, wherever it was safe, that was where his foot landed. As if his feet had eyes of their own. Not a single misstep.
And if that were all, it might still be manageable. The problem was his heavy sword — it had no business being this agile. It moved like a one-handed blade, slicing through wooden spikes ten to twenty centimeters in diameter with a casual sweep, clearing a wide swath with each stroke.
Including those barbed stamens trying to coil in — anything that dared come close was met with terrifying slashes.
And Li Wei wasn't retreating at all. He was charging forward while slashing — within ten seconds he'd cut down over twenty barbed stamens and more than two hundred wooden spikes. Was that all?
Not quite.
When Li Wei closed to within fifty meters of the mutant cabbage, the valley suddenly erupted with even more vines. They didn't come at Li Wei directly — instead they twisted and wove themselves into a massive net, dozens of meters high, then swept down toward him like a rolling carpet of turf.
Truly savage.
And at the same moment, more barbed stamens regrew and threaded through the vine net, while more wooden spikes erupted from the ground — a combined assault from air, land, and underground.
But Li Wei still didn't flinch. He knew exactly what was happening. This level of output required enormous energy consumption. And how many trees were there within five hundred meters?
None. He'd cut them all down.
When two forces meet, the bolder one wins.
In that moment, Li Wei truly became the lumberjack incarnate. Vines, stamens, wooden spikes — anything that touched his blade was severed instantly, like paper.
The damage output was simply too high.
Even when the vine net came crashing down, one sword stroke tore a massive gap through it with ease. That 30% bonus damage was an enormous advantage.
Even dozens of vines twisted together, thick as a person's armspan — useless.
The two-handed heavy sword swept through everything, leaving only shredded debris.
Cutting once wasn't even enough — he had to go back and forth several times to finish each piece.
This wasn't a battle. This was a one-man lawnmower.
Sky, ground — nothing worked. Everything that came at him got shredded.
As for underground ambushes — not even worth thinking about. Li Wei's footwork was so fluid, his evasion so effortless, that he seemed like the serpent himself. Wherever he passed, wood chips flew.
The mutant cabbage had thrown out its ultimate moves — and they amounted to nothing.
Of course, if this went on indefinitely, Li Wei would eventually tire. His Stamina wasn't limitless.
But alas.
When the mutant cabbage's stored energy ran low and it tried to draw life energy from the surrounding trees — it suddenly realized: someone had cut off its entire supply line.
No regeneration was a fatal weakness.
It could extend its roots further out, but that required enough nutrients and time to grow.
And the lawnmower was already right in front of it.
"Whomp!"
The mutant cabbage's enormous leaves folded inward, wrapping itself into a roughly three-meter-diameter ball — like a giant dumpling — and began rolling away, trying to escape like a rubber ball.
Li Wei wasn't about to let it go.
He swung the heavy sword with full force — and the blade bounced back. The leaves had changed — the entire surface had become like a rubber tire.
Watching the mutant cabbage roll frantically away, Li Wei didn't hesitate. He shifted the heavy sword to his left hand, blade pointing down, hilt up, and angled it back — slotting it neatly into the custom clip below his pack. Simultaneously, his Three-Star Dagger was already in his right hand. He crouched low, pushed off with both legs, three steps becoming two, and shot after the mutant cabbage like a gust of wind. One leap — and he was on top of it.
Then, without any force at all, he simply pressed the dagger lightly against the mutant cabbage's strange leaf surface.
Something remarkable happened.
The leaves that had sent a full-power sword stroke bouncing back — were now being sliced open by the sharp dagger, centimeter by centimeter.
As the mutant cabbage rolled faster, the cut grew longer.
By the time Li Wei tumbled off as it rolled, the cut had stretched three or four meters.
Yes — remarkable.
It seemed to be immune to blunt force, but vulnerable to a sufficiently sharp edge. Hard strikes bounced off; a keen blade could peel it open.
Li Wei matched the mutant cabbage's rolling speed, right hand holding the Three-Star Dagger perfectly still — no force applied, no separation — just circling around and around, like a knife slowly peeling a fruit. The mutant cabbage's skin peeled back layer by layer. Oddly beautiful.
Less than a kilometer of rolling later, the mutant cabbage's leaves had been completely cut open. At that point, Li Wei stopped being gentle. He tore the gap wide, squeezed inside, and went to work with the Three-Star Dagger — stabbing and slashing in every direction.
He had no idea what he was hitting. But barely thirty seconds later, the mutant cabbage collapsed with a wet crash, unable to roll any further, its leaves spreading flat. The end had come.
Li Wei didn't rush to finish it off. Instead, he seized the opportunity to frantically cut away sections of its leaves — this material had to be valuable.
Without question.
As long as he harvested it before the creature died and stored it in his Resource Card, it was profit.
He cut three large leaf sections and stored them in the Resource Card. Just as he was about to cut the fourth, without any warning, the mutant cabbage spontaneously combusted. In an instant, black mist rose and dissipated — leaving behind only a single golden card, shimmering like clouds at sunset.
What the —
Five stars.
Li Wei practically dove for it, shielding the golden glow with his body and snatching it up. Good — at this position, even with binoculars, the Ability Users couldn't see.
["You have single-handedly destroyed the main root of the mutant man-eating flower that dominated this forest! You have claimed this resource point. However, as this location is one hundred kilometers from the Scavenger Camp, you will need to station troops here to prevent other mutant creatures from claiming it. If you cannot take action, this occupation will yield no Pioneering Points or Family Contribution."]
["Note: Without a Monthly Main Task or a Random Task directing you here, any combat more than fifty kilometers from the family camp will not yield Pioneering Points or Family Contribution — unless a team is dispatched to occupy this location for at least one month, within fifteen days."]
["You have completed the Frost Duke's bounty to eliminate the man-eating flower. You may bring any proof of this kill to the Frost Underground City within the next six months to collect your reward."]
["You have obtained a special Universal Gold Card. You may make one of the following choices:"]
["Option 1: Submit the Gold Card. You will receive 3,000 Standard Gold Coins."]
["Option 2: Exchange for one Silver Quality Clearance Token."]
["Option 3: Enhance any two Titles."]
["Option 4: Enhance any two weapons or equipment."]
["Note: Unless you choose Option 1, any other choice will increase the difficulty of your Pioneering Side Missions by an additional 90%."]