The wooden 【Guard Captain】 token at Damon's waist flared with sudden light.
Seizing on his momentary stiffness, the roots tightened abruptly, dragging nearly half his body off the stone road.
A strangled roar of pain erupted from Damon's throat.
He looked down and saw his right arm already twisted out of shape by the roots.
His hand still gripped the shield's handle with a death grip—the shield he had forged with his own hands.
Damon's eyes flared with ruthless resolve, and he suddenly cursed,
“Screw your damn chests!”
He whipped out the short axe at his waist with his left hand and hacked viciously at the roots binding his right arm and the shield handle.
The root was sliced halfway through, but the tendrils wrapped around his arm refused to let go, giving a sudden, violent yank.
Crack.
Damon's entire right arm was ripped clean off, plunging into the writhing mass of roots along with his iron shield.
Like bait thrown to a school of fish, they were instantly swallowed by the black roots.
Damon stared blankly.
Blood gushed from the stump of his right shoulder, quickly soaking through half of his leather armor.
The pain took a moment to register.
It felt as if someone had rammed a red-hot iron hook through his shoulder and straight into his brain.
“Ahhhhh—!”
Damon let out a gut-wrenching shriek.
It was impossible to tell whether it was from the agony of his severed limb, or the despair that washed over him as he watched his right arm and shield vanish together.
It was gone.
His shield was gone.
His right arm was gone, too.
Even if he survived and made it out, without a hand to hold a hammer, he would never be able to forge his own gear again.
All those chests he had refused to let go of earlier had become a complete joke.
Damon slowly raised his head and looked at Xu Zhiheng.
Xu Zhiheng didn't care about his injury in the slightest. He simply bellowed, “What are you standing there for? Protect the chests, hurry!”
Breathing heavily, Damon's eyes were bloodshot, making him look like a beast that had lost all reason.
Blood dripped from his severed shoulder as he stared dead at Xu Zhiheng.
“The chests?” He tightened his left hand around the short axe, his eyes burning crimson. “I don't give a single shit about that garbage anymore.”
Seeing Damon step toward him, Xu Zhiheng's face paled instantly.
“What do you think you're doing? I'm the Caravan Master, how dare you—”
Before he could finish, Damon, covered in blood, raised the short axe in his left hand and lunged at Xu Zhiheng.
“I'll fucking kill you!”
Xu Zhiheng turned deathly pale and stumbled backward.
The axe blade grazed his shoulder, tearing through his clothes and leaving a bloody gash in his flesh.
Xu Zhiheng raised his sword halfway, but froze.
He was the 【Acting Caravan Master】, and Damon was the 【Guard Captain】.
On this trade route, even losing cargo was recorded. Who knew what would be triggered if the 【Acting Caravan Master】 killed a 【Guard】 first?
He didn't dare risk it. He could only stumble backward.
But Damon didn't stop. He seemed completely numb to the pain of his severed arm. His face was covered in blood, and his left hand gripped the short axe, his gaze locked solely on Xu Zhiheng.
“Didn't you want your chests?” Damon closed in step by step, his killing intent flaring. “Go die holding them, then!”
Xu Zhiheng stepped on a broken branch and nearly tripped.
“Damon, you're insane!”
Damon let out a harsh laugh. “Yeah, I'm fucking crazy.”
He raised his axe again, swinging it down at Xu Zhiheng.
Xu Zhiheng instinctively dodged to the side, but Su Xiaoman was right behind him.
Seeing the axe coming down, Su Xiaoman didn't even think; her body moved on instinct.
“Zhiheng!”
She threw herself in front of Xu Zhiheng, raising her arm to block. The axe blade grazed her forearm, spraying blood instantly.
Su Xiaoman shrieked in pain, collapsing into Xu Zhiheng's arms.
Bumped backward half a step, Xu Zhiheng's face was still filled with terror, yet his first instinct was to grab her shoulders and shove her in front of him.
Su Xiaoman looked up, staring at him in a daze.
Xu Zhiheng seemed to realize what he had just done, his fingers freezing for a split second.
But Damon was already charging again.
Reece saw the chaotic situation and drew his sword to intervene, only to be forced back by two roots striking from the side.
Kolo had just cleaved through a cluster of roots wrapping around the cargo chests when another dark shadow slithered along the stone road from the other side.
She cursed under her breath, forced to turn back to guard the cargo chests behind Su Xiaoman.
Isolde watched everything unfold. She found it absurd and ironic, yet incredibly familiar and comforting.
No matter how many times she watched people reap what they sowed, she would never grow tired of it.
Severn raised his staff, his firelight suppressed by the mist until only a dim, yellow ring remained.
“What are you all doing?! Calm down!” his voice was urgent. “If this chaos continues, none of us are getting out alive!”
But no one was listening.
Su Xiaoman knelt on the ground, clutching her arm as blood welled between her fingers.
Clutching his shoulder, Xu Zhiheng backed away, his eyes fixed warily on the axe in Damon's hand.
Ryan had an arrow nocked, but he hesitated to release it.
Isolde found her path of retreat cut off by two slender roots as well.
She slashed diagonally with her dagger, her Soul Thread snapping taut along the blade to sever a thin root that was creeping through a crack in the stone.
The other root seized the opportunity to wrap around her ankle, but she immediately retreated, using the opening Reece had cleared to dodge.
The scene had descended into absolute chaos.
Yet Damon seemed completely blind to everyone else; his eyes were fixed solely on Xu Zhiheng.
“It's all because of you.”
His voice grew lower and lower, but the crimson in his eyes only deepened.
“My arm, my shield... it's all because of you.”
Xu Zhiheng gritted his teeth. “You wanted those things too! Don't pin all the blame on me!”
These words seemed to stab directly into Damon's chest.
His pupils shrank, and his fury erupted completely.
“That's why I fucking regret it now!”
Damon roared as he lunged forward, raising his axe once more.
Just then, the decaying leaves churning outside the stone road suddenly burst upward.
The roots he had severed earlier seemed to have finally found their chance, lunging from behind to wrap around his body and his bleeding stump.
Damon's body went rigid, but he still struggled to push forward.
But the roots gave him no further chances.
One coiled around his leg, another constricted his waist, and several fine tendrils bored into the raw flesh of his severed arm, pulling like meat hooks.
Damon squeezed a muffled groan from his throat and swung his short axe backward with his left hand.
But he had lost too much blood and was completely drained of strength. The strike only severed the outermost layer of thin roots.
More roots crawled out of the decaying leaves, swarming over him in a dense mass and dragging him off the stone road.
Damon dropped his short axe and clawed at the edge of the stone slab with his left hand, his fingernails scraping against the stone and leaving bloody streaks behind.
Half his body had already been dragged into the mist, with only his left hand desperately clinging to the stone road.
He lifted his blood-spattered face, staring with venomous hatred at everyone still standing on the road.
With half his body already off the road, anyone who reached out to pull him would cross the boundary as well.
Reece's sword raised and fell, and in the end, he could only stand there, refusing to step forward.
Damon looked at them and suddenly laughed.
Blood spilled from the corners of his mouth. His voice was hoarse and malicious, like a curse crawling out of the mist.
“You're not getting out. Not a single one of you is getting out.”
With a violent yank from the roots, his fingernails were ripped clean off, dragging a long streak of blood across the stone slab.
Damon was still laughing. “All of you must die! All of you must die!”
His final words were swallowed by the thick mist as his hand finally slipped from the edge of the stone slab.
In the next instant, the decaying leaves outside the road churned violently.
Countless roots, like a pack of beasts smelling blood, surged together toward the spot where Damon had fallen.
Muffled tearing sounds and the sharp snaps of breaking bones echoed from the mist.
The sound made everyone's skin crawl.
Su Xiaoman finally couldn't take it anymore; she covered her mouth and began to retch.
Xu Zhiheng's face was dreadfully pale, and blood from his shoulder dripped down between his fingers, yet his first instinct was still to cast a glance at the cargo chests behind him.
Isolde didn't waste any time.
The roots were completely occupied with tearing Damon apart.
This was their only window of opportunity.
“Run!”
Rena's voice suddenly rang out, snapping the stunned crowd back to reality.
“Hurry and run forward while we have the chance!”
Reece was the first to snap out of it. He gritted his teeth and gave Milo a hard tug.
“Go!”
Ryan abruptly tore his gaze away, raising his bow once more as he retreated, keeping his eyes locked on the mist to either side.
Severn forced his staff higher. The firelight flickered, illuminating a narrow stretch of the stone road ahead.
Kolo cleaved through a blocking root with her axe and bellowed over her shoulder,
“Su Xiaoman, move!”
Only then did Su Xiaoman seem to wake from her daze. Clutching her bleeding arm, she stumbled to her feet.
The fifteen cargo chests slid along with her, the scraping of wood against stone resuming.
Creak, creak.
No one looked back at Damon.
The horrific tearing sounds in the mist continued.
All they could do was use the time bought by Damon's body to sprint toward the ancient tree that was drawing closer and closer.
Rate on N.U.
