Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1059 - 174 Arrow Mouse

Chapter 1059: Chapter 174 Arrow Mouse

The six groups of magical beasts blocking the way were quite troublesome; some had their tribes scattered across their territories, others had a vast range of perception, or had symbiotic creatures, just like the forest rhinoceros’ symbiotic partner the rhino sparrow, which could help alert the rhinoceros. This made it impossible to sneak through a part of the territory unnoticed. Appearing in any location in the territory meant there was a great likelihood of being discovered by various magical beasts.

Therefore, Pannis devised a plan, one that seemed risky, but was, in fact, feasible. He had left early in the morning, spending an entire day observing the patterns of these magical beasts, comparing them with their behavior from his memory, and finally finding a relatively safe passage. However, the timing had to be precise; a missed opportunity could lead to the plan’s failure.

That evening, everyone sat down to study Pannis’s plan over and over again, trying to consider every possible problem that could arise with each step of the action. They finally decided to give it a try the next day. As for what other strategies they would rely on if the plan failed, Pannis did not say, and no one asked. Everyone believed there must be a backup plan. It was just that Pannis felt it was not necessary to mention it yet. With that in mind, each team member was willing to trust him completely.

However, the whole plan did not take into account the great mage Antuin. Antuin was over a thousand years old. Though as an elf, he had a long lifespan, after living for more than a millennium, his body had gradually begun to age, and both his speed and stamina were beginning to weaken. The plan demanded a high level of physical fitness, requiring several hours of nearly nonstop high-speed running. It was somewhat unfair to ask such an elderly person to do this. Therefore, everyone unanimously agreed that Antuin should stay at the campsite for the time being. Once the others reached their destination, he would find another way to catch up.

Thus, the old mage stayed behind in the camp. Although he was alone, there was no need to worry about his safety. A powerful Demigod, protected by the camp’s defensive enchantment, would not be in danger. If that were not enough, then having more people remain behind would have been useless.

Antuin, staying in the camp, did not rest easy. In fact, the connection between the two mirrors had never been completely severed. Although he could not see any images, he could still faintly hear voices coming from the mirror. The sudden sound of a giant tree snapping startled Antuin, making him think the plan had run into problems and the team had been forced to confront the enemy head-on. He could not help but activate the connection between the mirrors, causing an image to appear: "How’s the battle going? Do you need support?"

"No need. It was just Conaida fighting a tree a moment ago," Flare said, somewhat displeased with the dwarf’s unwarranted aggression towards a tree, and commented with a teasing tone, "Actually, he just knocked over a drooping beard tree. There hasn’t been a real fight."

"Alright, I see." Antuin’s image nodded, quickly understanding why his queen had teased Conaida, but the serious and cautious old mage did not comment on it, only advising, "Be careful. If you run into trouble and need support, let Vivian notify me. I’ll get there as quickly as I can."

"We don’t need you for now." Since they were in communication, the team’s pace unavoidably slowed down. Pannis, who had been leading at the front guarding against unknown dangers, noticed the change in speed and rejoined the group in the middle. He waved at Antuin dismissively, saying irritably, "Just stay quiet at the camp, okay? Right now, we’re at the most critical stretch where we need to make up time. Don’t mess with our pace, or it’ll be your fault if the plan falls through."

"You..." Antuin realized he had been getting irritated by Pannis during every recent conversation, but the old mage couldn’t be bothered to argue back. He snorted coldly, wordlessly terminating the communication. Catherine cast a slightly disapproving glance at Pannis and muttered in a low voice, "You did it again to Master Antuin, always purposely provoking him. Don’t do it next time."

"Haha, I know." Pannis’s response clearly lacked any sincerity. He chuckled and said, "According to our current speed, we can leave their territory before the brown pythons finish hunting and catch up to us."

"The brown pythons will catch up?" Lina exclaimed in surprise, "They’ve hunted so many shadow deer already. Isn’t that enough for their entire tribe? Why would they still chase us?"

"If someone barged into No. 6 Fox Street, wouldn’t you kick them out? Even if they didn’t enter the mansion and just loitered on the lawn, they’d still be chased away, right?" Pannis replied with a rhetorical question, "The brown pythons are the same. Their den is like the mansion, the hunting ground, which represents the other parts of their territory, is like the yard of the mansion, and we are the uninvited intruders. It’s just that they don’t have as good a temper as us who merely shoo away intruders. To them, if an intruder doesn’t leave their territory promptly, they become an afternoon snack."

"Don’t describe it in such a scary way," Lina bared her teeth at Pannis. Her expression was not threatening at all; instead, it was rather cute, "I’m interested in afternoon tea, but I have no interest in being the afternoon tea."

"What a coincidence, I don’t have one either," Pannis shrugged and said, "Don’t worry, at our current speed, they can’t possibly catch up with us. I reckon they haven’t even reached halfway before we’d have already entered the Arrow Mouse territory."

"Arrow Mouse?" Lina asked curiously, "Is it that kind of mouse that can shoot arrows? I saw a picture in the bestiary, they look quite cute, all snowy white with just two bright red eyes."

"Yeah, if they were a bit smaller, they would be quite cute, maybe a couple hundred times smaller," Pannis grimaced, clearly not having a good impression of these magical beasts, "And if you took away all the thorns, they’d really be cute."

Arrow Mice are a special breed of mice from the Forest of Death, generally living on the small plains within the forest. They closely resemble mice in appearance, of course, just a bit larger than normal mice—about a hundred times or so. In fact, each Arrow Mouse weighs around five or six kilograms, nearly as large as an adult wild rabbit. These big mice have countless snow-white sharp spines on their backs that can regenerate within three days, each about fifteen centimeters long. Normally, these spines curl around their bodies, making them look fluffy, but in attack mode, the spines stand up and harden. When hunting, they shoot these spines at their prey like a rain of arrows. The spines travel incredibly fast; some scholars have calculated that the Arrow Mouse’s spines travel at three times the initial speed of a crossbow’s bolt, nearly exceeding the dynamic visual limit of most professionals. Not only are they fast, but they also have strong penetrating power. The innate Wind-attribute Element gives their spines amazing armor-piercing abilities. Tests by the same scholar proved that within sixty meters, they can easily penetrate full body armor like piercing a layer of paper. The penetration power has even surpassed that of the previously encountered killer bees. The only consolation is that the spines aren’t poisonous, so a small wound won’t be fatal.

Being mice, they are naturally gregarious. In a small territory of about twenty square kilometers, there would live about eight hundred to a thousand Arrow Mice. The numbers aren’t as high as regular mouse swarms, but that’s only because of the quantity of food and the threat from surrounding magical beasts. Without these constraints, each Arrow Mouse colony might be ten to a hundred times larger. However, even though they are gregarious, these Arrow Mice each have their own nests, loosely distributed across the territory, and almost as soon as you step into their land, you’ll be spotted by at least one of them. In addition, these Arrow Mice have an unknown way of communicating; once an enemy or prey is spotted, the whole group will receive the message within a few seconds and swarm over. At that point, the rain of arrows pouring down on the enemy will leave them with little chance of escape, forcing them into a passive defense, and there’s a great possibility that they won’t be able to defend at all.

"Aren’t snakes the natural predators of mice?" Lina asked, puzzled, "Even if we escape to Arrow Mouse territory, not to mention how to deal with the Arrow Mice, wouldn’t those brown pythons follow us?"

"They wouldn’t dare to follow us there," Pannis shook his head and said, "Once they cross the boundary, the Arrow Mice would teach them an unforgettable lesson with their lives."

"How would they teach them? The scales of brown pythons are so tough, I doubt even the Arrow Mouse’s spines could penetrate," said Catherine, who had been closely following the two as they ran. She couldn’t help but interject, "I can’t figure out how Arrow Mice would deal with brown pythons."

"Indeed, they can’t penetrate the scales of brown pythons, but there is one part of their body that is not covered in scales," Pannis explained, "When brown pythons fight Arrow Mice, many of the mice bravely rush towards the pythons. As soon as a python opens its mouth, the Arrow Mice will actively jump into it to be swallowed. Of course, the python would use its muscles to squeeze the prey to death, but imagine swallowing a porcupine whole. Likely at the cost of seven or eight Arrow Mice’s lives, they could fill a python’s esophagus with spines like a bug-catching net. It wouldn’t be fatal, but the injured python would suffer agonizing pain for a while. So, brown pythons would never dare to invade Arrow Mouse territory. Our worry isn’t the pythons, it’s the long-range, highly aggressive Arrow Mice that we really need to worry about."

"What if we are really discovered by Arrow Mice?" Catherine pressed, "What should we do?"

"Arrow Mice are mostly active from afternoon to night, and as daylight approaches, they will retreat to their nests to rest until around ten o’clock. But that’s not absolute; there’s still a possibility that we may encounter roaming Arrow Mice," Pannis said, "Once we enter Arrow Mouse territory, everyone must move as slowly as possible to avoid making loud noises that might alarm the Arrow Mice. If we do alarm them and they come out to investigate, we must kill them as quickly as possible. Any delay and we will be faced with hordes of mice."

"Ten o’clock?" exclaimed Lina, "That’s coming up really soon."

"We have one hour and eight minutes left," Flare stated the precise time, "That’s why we’re rushing so much on this journey—we need to allow enough time to pass slowly through their territory."