Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 403 - 29: Rock Attack_1

Chapter 403: Chapter 29: Rock Attack_1

The appearance of Ghost Cry Mountain was odd, as if the mountain had been split into two distinctly different parts. The lower half had a gentle slope which didn’t exceed 10° with the ground, making it barely noticeable when walking on it. The upper half, however, had very steep ridges, with many parts that could be considered sheer cliffs. Crossing over required detouring.

If this were any other place in the grasslands, one would now have a view full of life’s activity. Rabbits, moles, rodents, plateau pikas, hyenas, hedgehogs, flesh-tearing beasts; various grassland animals would be chasing and hunting in the gentle slope area. In the steep slope area, mountain wolves and goats would be leaping around between the rocks, rock beasts and climbing badgers would be climbing on the cliffs. Occasionally disturbed, bat rats and mountain swallows would fly out from tiny wall crevices, and eagles, perched at the top of the cliffs, would be soaring in the sky with spread wings.

However, none of these usual sights could be seen here, ghostly silence swallowed the whole mountain. Except for the green grass on the gentle slopes, there was nothing else. As for the steep slopes, it was completely quiet, not even the sound of any life breaking the silence. No getting around it, this was a world of death, totally cut off from the world of life and hope.

"Let’s wait for a bit." Pannis looked back. Most of the undead that had been chasing them were left far behind, eventually losing their targets and reverting to aimlessly wandering again. Only a few groups of undead were still drawn by

the breath of life, relentlessly chasing after them. But even the closest was a kilometer away, and given the staggering speed of the skeletons, it would take at least six or seven minutes to cross that one kilometer. Pannis nodded, continuing, "I’ll go scout ahead first and try to find an easy way up. You all wait here. In case I am slow and can’t get back before the undead arrive, you should defend in place first. After all, there are only a few thousand undead coming, a lot fewer than the group we encountered in the sewers over a month ago."

"Go ahead." Catherine and the others stood at the foot of the steep slope, having already dismounted their wolf mounts, "Be careful not to fall."

"Don’t worry, I’m a pro." Pannis gave a thumbs up and grinned, his white teeth gleaming in the sunlight, "I won’t fall on this kind of slope. I’ll be back in a few minutes."

"Why do I have a feeling that he definitely won’t be back and that he will definitely fall?" Vivian quietly murmured, her expression unchanging.

"Hmm, let’s just pretend we didn’t think of that." Catherine responded with an equally expressionless face.

Pannis stepped back a few steps, observing the terrain of the slope before breaking into a run, leaping onto a protruding rock. He gently pushed off it, propelling himself further upward, his left hand wedging in a narrow rock crevice. This acted as a pivot allowing him to swing his body horizontally, landing firmly on another rock. Ghost Cry Mountain wasn’t completely a sheer cliff, there was still some slope, which made it easier for Pannis to climb. He quickly reached halfway up the 300-meter rock face.

"Be careful." A tense shout came from below. A sudden sense of warning surged in Pannis’s heart. The force he was going to use to leap upward was redirected to the side in that instant, and he swerved five meters to the right in mid-air, gripping a vine on the rock. At the same time, a sharp-angled boulder half a man’s size fell from the sky, landing right where Pannis had just been.

"What the hell?" Pannis, swinging on the vine, looked up to see a white skull appeared on the mountaintop, gleaming under the sun. For some reason, Pannis felt as if this skull, which shouldn’t have any expression, was mocking him in a sarcastic manner; moreover, it was holding another slightly smaller rock in its hand.

"Pannis, watch out, there are more up there." The shout came from Catherine, from her viewpoint, thousands of skeletons suddenly cropped up on the barren mountaintop, occupying every place and pushing or lifting big rocks, seemingly intending to bury Pannis under a rain of rocks.

"Damn thing." Pannis cursed, putting force into his arms, using the vine to try to propel himself upwards hurriedly. However, several rocks fell at once, covering several meters in his vicinity. He had no space to evade left or right, and he pushed himself off the rock face, barely avoiding the rain of rocks. Although he was temporarily safe, Pannis was now hanging mid-air, unable to keep ascending and was quickly falling due to gravity. Amidst the cries of the girls below, the falling Pannis twisted his waist as best he could, almost in violation of the laws of physics, to change his direction from straight down to a slant. Halfway down, he was already close to the rock face. As soon as he got close, Pannis kicked hard off the rock, effectively reducing some of the falling force and slowing his descent while making himself fall away from the rock face.

"Catherine, Charge." Around fifty meters away from the ground, Pannis suddenly shouted. The anxious Catherine below grasped Pannis’s intentions instantly as a flash of insight sprang up in her mind. She figured out the distance and launched a Charge of Fearlessness at Pannis from below. The Charge skill caused Catherine to surge up directly in a straight line from below, landing on Pannis, once more reducing part of the falling force. By then, Pannis was less than twenty meters from the ground. As soon as the skill ended, Catherine’s sight swirled around as she launched a Rescue Charge towards Marcia without pause, instantly appearing by Marcia’s side and standing firmly on the ground.

Pannis, who was falling, flipped in the air several times, both reducing the impact and getting closer to the ground. The moment his feet touched the ground, Pannis curled up his body, rolling several times on the ground to distribute the impact evenly across his body, and swiftly moved away from his landing spot to avoid the rock attack that followed.

"How are you?" The nearest Lina rushed up, didn’t dare to assist him carelessly, squatting by his side and asking, "Did your bones or organs get hurt? Do you need treatment?"

"I’m fine, no major problems." Pannis gave a grin, rubbing his waist and standing up with Lina’s help, immediately pulling Lina back a few steps to keep them out of the rock-throwing range of the skeletons on the top. Only then, groaning, did he answer, "Those bastards, I almost fell into their trap."

"Another conscious skeleton?" The rest of the group and the wolves also gathered around. Catherine and Vivian examined Pannis carefully, confirming that he was not seriously injured. Then Catherine grit her teeth and angrily stared at the skeleton on the peak, saying, "They’ve even learned to lay ambushes?"

Atop the mountain peak, the skeletons receded out of their sight again, except for a single Bone Knight who pointed a bony finger at the five people and five wolves beneath him. His lower jaw unhinged in silent mockery of their futile efforts.

"Let’s try another route." Catherine looked back at the skeletons in close pursuit within a few hundred meters, then sighed, "Let’s see if we can get over the other two mountains."

"No, it’s the same for all three mountains." Marcia shook her head, "The Beastmen placed their altar here precisely due to the concealment and the difficulty of entering this spot."

"So we have to forcefully climb up?" Catherine asked, "An all-out attack would be too challenging, and it’s hard to ensure no injuries. It’s safer to consider other methods."

"We’ll have to take the route I previously used." Marcia said unwillingly, "There exists a canyon that leads through half a mountain into a small valley. At the end of the valley, a tunnel in the cliff can lead to the Sacrificial Valley. I was told that centuries ago, when they still made yearly sacrifices to their ancestors, this was the main route they used. I was planning on taking this route initially."

"That sounds like a pretty good route," Catherine asked, "if such a route exists, why didn’t we take it earlier instead of climbing the mountain?"

"Because of the concentration of the Undead." Pannis, who was rubbing his waist grimacing in pain and had recovered somewhat, answered for Marcia, "She was probably injured in this canyon before and forced to flee."

"Right." Marcia didn’t hide her failure, "First confirm if we want to go that way. If we do, we can talk on the way. The pursuers are just a hundred meters away."

Everyone’s attention rested on Catherine. She grit her teeth, nodded emphatically, and said, "Let’s take that route. The Undead may be many, but we’re not few either. Narrow places inhibit easy encircling by enemies."

"Okay, let’s proceed then." Marcia promptly remounted her wolf to lead the way, adding to her previous statement, "When I entered the canyon, which is about twenty meters wide, it was filled with Undead, crowding together in large groups. The canyon is about two kilometers long, and it houses tens of thousands of Undead. Just Bone Knights of Gold Rank there are fifty to sixty of them. I charged through a distance using Blade Storm, but inevitably, I was surrounded. It was crowded with ordinary skeletons around me, preventing all the Bone Knights from surrounding me at once. At any time, not more than three of them could attack me. Otherwise, if all the Gold-Ranked Undead rushed in, you probably wouldn’t see me here today."

"Fifty to sixty?" Catherine’s face turned pale, she asked, "And all Undead are of Gold Rank?"

"No, not fifty to sixty." Marcia emphasized, "I could confirm fifty to sixty, at least. But in the canyon, it’s hard to differentiate the Bone Knights from other Undead based on their movement; I could only judge by their aura."

"So in reality, there might be even more?" Lina who was standing nearby, rubbing her forehead, sighed and said to Catherine, "Big sister, how about we reconsider the climbing the mountain plan?"

"Stop stirring the pot." Unable to reach Lina at such a distance while riding their wolves, Catherine could only chide her irritably. Continuing her conversation with Marcia she asked, "The denser the troops, the better it is for us in reality. Both Vivian and Lina excel at dealing with dense formations so the number is not a huge concern. But, if the path is through a canyon, will we face the same attack as on the mountain with someone ambushing us with thrown rocks?"

"No, that canyon is triangular, with a narrow gap measuring less than half a meter at the top. We can ensure our safety as long as we walk near the cliff." Marcia suddenly pointed forward, "Look, it’s the formation you see there. We have arrived." (To be continued. If you like this novel, please vote or leave your recommendation at qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)