Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 590 - 57 Uncontrolled Flame_1

Chapter 590: Chapter 57 Uncontrolled Flame_1

Locusts are a headache-inducing creature, regardless of the country, because once they swarm, they often number in the hundreds of thousands to millions. They devour all visible plants, humans’ crops, Beastmen’s grasslands, Elven forests, Dwarf’s terraced fields, leaving no plant in their wake. Yet, they are very frail. A mere flock of poultry could eliminate a significant quantity of locusts, and a high-ranking or even Legendary Mage could severely damage them by casting a few Fire-attribute spells. The intelligent creatures of the Yarran Continent have waged war on locusts for tens of thousands of years, and are now very familiar with the locusts’ habits. But probably no one knows that perhaps in ancient times, these locusts did not eat plants as they do now, they were quite ferocious carnivores, surviving by swarming to hunt large creatures and devouring their flesh and blood.

At the end of a narrow tunnel, countless swift underground swashed locusts lingered. Their beating wings set them jumping and flying inside their cavern due to the noise of six people climbing. Huge heads, protruding gray eyes, multi-lobed mouthparts, their frighteningly strong hind legs covered with sharp serrations and barbs, and brownish yellow wing membrane resembled a withered leaf when spread open.

These locusts had always lived on the fourth layer of the Underground World, without fixed territory, accustomed to wandering around for hunting. Every large arthropod was their food, except those with formidable defenses. They would use their serrated hind legs to tear open the prey’s shell, use sharp limbs to rip open the prey’s wounds, and use the sharp mouthparts to devour the prey’s flesh and blood. In the dark underground world, countless locusts swarmed in tunnels and cavities, killing every living thing in their path, just like their distant relatives on the surface.

The expedition team only encountered a small swarm of these, and even though it was a small swarm, every person could hear the buzzing get louder as the locusts were disturbed. The sound gradually converged and sounded like hundreds of magic-powered motorbikes starting simultaneously. Just from listening, one could guess that the ’small’ in small swarm was relative. The small swarm in front of them probably numbered at least a hundred thousand.

"People at the front, lie down!" Catherine at the end of the group heard the sound and yelled gravely: "Vivian, fire! Everyone else, turn off your lights."

Lina forcefully pushed Ike in front of her and lay flat on the ground with Pannis. Suddenly the air became hot, a ball of searing fire rushed forward brushing their backs, even charring some hair behind their heads. Blinding flames went through the remaining part of the narrow tunnel in an instant, exploded at the tunnel exit, and spread into a wall of burning flames. The fire was fierce, not only blocking off the tunnel but also showing signs of spreading inside.

"Something’s wrong with this flame." Vivian’s countenance changed and she anxiously said: "Retreat, retreat immediately, at least a hundred meters. Lina, seal off the front, fast, now!"

"Oracle, terrain change!" Lina lay on the ground and struck the floor of the passage with her hammer. A piece of rock rose from in front of Pannis, completely sealing off the narrow tunnel without leaving even a tiny slit. Having summoned divine magic, Lina immediately shouted: "If you’re going to retreat, do it now. My divine spell will not hold under such intense fire for too long, a maximum of five minutes."

"Five minutes is enough." Starting with Catherine at the end of the group, they slowly retreated. It was impossible to turn around in the narrow tunnel, and backward crawling was much more difficult, they could only inch backward slowly. Five minutes later, the rock summoned by Lina’s divine magic disappeared, a hot breeze came, roasting them all. They had just made it to a place where they could barely hunch, warily watching the front. After a while, the dark tunnel was still, without any wing flapping or locust leaping noises, deathly quiet, just like nothing had ever happened there.

"Shh." Pannis grimaced, forcefully pulling a locust as long as half his forearm off his arm. The locust’s mouthparts were firmly attached to Pannis’s arm, breaking through the physical defense of the Demigod, its teeth deep inside his skin. The locust was still alive, severely struggling in Pannis’s hand, its strong hind legs kept kicking, its small legs, covered in teeth, constantly cut Pannis’s arm. Although they cut through his clothes, they couldn’t cut his skin, leaving only white marks. With a twitch of his mouth, Pannis threw the locust to the ground and stepped on it. The locust’s body made a sound as if a barrel had burst, its upper half was crushed, brownish yellow fluid splattering all over. But the lower half was still writhing, the two hind legs still convulsing.

"How’s the bite?" Catherine was four people away from Pannis and, because, as per her previous command, everyone had turned off their shoulder lamps, she couldn’t see Pannis’s wound and could only ask worriedly: "Do you need treatment? But I didn’t smell any blood, so you probably weren’t bleeding."

"Ha, you’ve already learned to rely on your sense of smell to perceive the environment, that’s a great improvement." Pannis remained optimistic, nonchalantly saying: "Don’t worry, my skin is too thick for them to bite through. But you all need to be careful, judging by how they bit me, if you don’t have your shield on, you’re bound to lose a chunk of flesh. I don’t think that would be a pleasant experience."

"Is everyone alright?" Catherine felt relieved, she looked around in the dim light of a single headlamp and saw that everyone seemed fine, so she asked: "Vivian, what happened earlier?"

"I don’t know." Vivian’s face looked uncertain in the gloom and solemnly said: "I found it strange when my flames were released. The temperature was unusually high, and the range was much larger than I had expected. When I called you guys, it was because I found that the flames seemed to be out of control, spreading uncontrollably in all directions. I didn’t have time to cast a protective spell and was afraid you would get burned by the flames. I had to have Lina block the fire."

"What was the cause?" Catherine, looking equally uncomfortable, found it hard to say whether Vivian’s fire magic loss of control had anything to do with her physical state: "You’d better check your own bodily condition and see if there’s a problem."

"It’s not an issue with my body. When I withdrew just now, I very quickly tested a few other attribute magics, all of which were normal. However, when it came to fire-attribute magic, no, that’s wrong, it’s when it comes to explosive fire-attribute magic, the power is distinctly amplified."

"From when did this start?" Catherine asked further, then slapped her own forehead: "How stupid of me, the last time you used magic was outside Grand Highland City."

"Exactly, I also don’t know when it started." Vivian said in contemplation: "I think, perhaps it’s the special environment here causing this effect, such as the especially abundant free state fire element here? But it also doesn’t seem that rich, or is there some other strange thing here?"

"Forget it, thinking like this likely wouldn’t yield any results, control yourself afterwards, try not to use fire-attribute magic, and when we leave here later, test again to see whether it’s an issue with the environment here." said Catherine: "Pannis, what’s the situation ahead right now?"

"It smells so good, I’m hungry." Pannis wiped his mouth corner, speaking longingly: "Turns out these locusts smell so good when roasted, just don’t know how they taste. I think..."

"Don’t even think about it." Lina raised an eyebrow as soon as she heard it, raising her voice to say: "Don’t harbor that sort of intention, we absolutely won’t be eating such ugly insects, yesterday’s scorpions were delicious but that’s the limit."

"Such a pity, actually in the Dragon Worship Autonomous Prefecture, they like to eat roasted locusts or fried locusts as the most delicious snacks." Pannis looked regretful and sighed: "I used to not quite understand why they loved to eat those things, but now that I smell it here, I finally understand."

"Still, you’re not allowed to eat." Catherine gritted her teeth to issue the prohibition: "What’s the situation up ahead? Can you hear it?"

"I can’t hear much noise, the locusts seem to have been scared off by a fire, the sounds are getting farther and farther." Pannis closed his eyes to sense it: "This is how it is, I’ll go take a look first, you wait here for a while, if there’s no problem, I will inform you with the Resonance Crystal. While you’re here, it’s best to only light one shoulder lamp, I’m not certain whether the locusts here will react to the light, but the locusts outside definitely will."

"I already knew about this, which is why I told everyone to extinguish their lamps just now." Catherine nodded: "You be careful, if there’s a problem, come back, in the worst case, we can just make a detour. Your life might be big enough, but dying time and time again isn’t a good thing."

"Haha, don’t worry, if I encounter danger, I will open a realm to escape." Pannis waved his hand behind him unconcernedly: "You all wait here patiently, um, I hope the ground has cooled down by now. I don’t want to crawl over red-hot rocks, otherwise I would smell no different than those roasted locusts."

"Just go." Catherine scolded irritably: "The way you speak makes me feel nauseous from the smell, go, go." (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to come to Qidian.com and vote for it, use monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)