Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 772 - 37 Captured Prey_1

Chapter 772: Chapter 37 Captured Prey_1

It seemed as though Catherine’s legion was in the offensive, with her directing the knight spirits in battle and not suffering any harm herself. However, every one of the knights was connected to her power. The energy they spent in their attacks and the impact they endured when defending bounced back slightly onto her. Thus, when the knights were heavily wounded, the damage Catherine sustained was a collective sum of the assaults endured by tens, if not hundreds, of knights. For the strong young woman, such injuries were still too massive. As each knight vanished into particles of light, Catherine’s complexion paled further. Despite her wheat-like healthy skin now reduced to the color of blank paper, devoid of any blood, the young girl’s waist remained as straight as a spear, maintaining her forward-facing stance―that was until she heard Lina’s gasp.

Turning around, Catherine just caught sight of the process of Lina being entangled by the tentacle. After perfect integration with Earth’s Praise, Lina could gain strength far beyond her own for several minutes. However, once this period expired, she would suffer a brief moment of adjustment due to the loss of the augmented strength. Moreover, this sudden enhancement of strength did not appear out of thin air; it was achieved at the cost of her vitality and mana. Therefore, after the duration ended, not only would she return to her usual strength, but she would also enter a brief period of weakness.

When merging with the magical books, Lina had gleaned this flaw from their messages and was mentally prepared. When the boosted strength vanished rapidly, and she was no longer able to control the earth as she did her body, she immediately alerted Catherine and quickly retreated. Just as she prepared to escape the range of the lurkers’ attack, something unexpected happened.

The young priestess discovered that she underestimated the cunning hunting instinct of the Marsh Stalker – most likely, everyone present did. As Lina was retreating, she suddenly felt her ankle tighten, as if something had entangled it. With her heart sinking, she quickly looked down and was startled to find that what had entangled her ankle was not the silent tentacle of a lurker that she had been vigilant about, but a severed limb that Freya’s crystal energy cannon and Vivian’s magic had previously blasted off – which now lay immobile on the ground. No one expected the lurkers to manipulate the tentacles that had already detached from their bodies – and with such cunningness. They saw how the tentacles remained unresponsive even as Catherine and Ava passed by earlier. As such, Lina had let her guard down, not knowing that the lurkers had been pretending all along. They waited until a suitable victim came near before manipulating the severed limb to wrap around Lina’s ankle.

Clearly, the Marsh Stalker’s action was premeditated. As Lina was entangled and struggling to free herself, the lurkers lunged forward a few meters, beating everyone else to the rescue. They wholly stretched their tentacles out, and several gooey tentacles coiled around Lina’s body simultaneously. Almost fearful of her escape, the tentacles worked in unison to tightly envelop her, leaving only her head exposed. She only had time for a single cry before being catapulted into the air by the tentacles.

"Big sis, we’ve got this." Vivian’s voice stopped Catherine’s rescue attempt in its tracks. Upon hearing the young mage’s voice, Catherine didn’t spare a glance at Lina in the air. Instead, she turned back to her opponents, continuing her battle with the lurkers alongside Ava.

Freya and Vivian sprang into action at the same time. The two young women, no longer leisurely whittling the enemy’s strength down with ranged attacks, switched their offensive style. Freya quickly slapped her crystal energy cannon, slightly altering its form. When she finished the three-second modifications, Vivian’s magic had transformed from the wide-ranged Fireball Technique to the focused Ice Spear Spell. The modified Ice Spear Spell was rather peculiar; its original length of over a meter was condensed to the length of an adult’s forearm. Although it’s called an Ice Spear, it appears more like an Ice Arrow that she would throw by hand. Nevertheless, despite its reduced size, the mana within it didn’t decrease – it even increased significantly. The highly compressed mana contained more potent destructive power.

Vivian lifted both hands over her head. Her control over mana and magic, ranking among the world’s top three, allowed her to execute altered magic with ease – something others would struggle with. Ice Spears continuously formed in both of her hands post-compression. Taking turns with her now completely healed arms, she flung the Ice Spears, thrust forward by their innate magic, towards the few tentacles of the lurkers entwining Lina.

Vivian cleverly chose a unique target. She didn’t vainly attack the scales-covered tentacles of the lurkers, nor did she strike the malignancies that dealt the most harm to those creatures. Instead, she targeted the meaty suckers on the lurkers’ tentacles. Although the lurkers possessed a demi-god rank body, it was measured based on their outer scales and skin combined with their inner muscles. Devoid of their skin and scales protection and reliant solely on their muscles, the lurkers’ defensive capability dropped dramatically. Thus, the Ice Spears easily plunged into the tender flesh of the suckers. The cold-attribute mana erupted instantly, covering the lurkers’ suckers in a thick layer of frost.

The next moment, the hum of Freya’s crystal energy cannon resumed. The modified cannon, though less powerful, was more precise. Its blast radius was reduced to a circular area of around fifty centimeters in diameter. Also, due to its decreased power, the attack frequency increased. The roar of the cannon was almost continuous, with fiery energy bullets lining up in the air in a constant stream, consecutively hitting the lurker’s tentacles. Seeing Vivian’s selected target, without needing any verbal communication, Freya understood her intent immediately. The princess, without a moment’s hesitation, worked in tandem with Vivian and initiated a powerful bombardment on the suckers of the lurkers’ tentacles using the crystal energy cannon.

An ice spear pierces the soft flesh and starts freezing it, an energy bullet causes a shock that shatters the already frozen and necrotic muscle, exposing the wound to the air again. Then the ice spear thrusts again, initiating the second round of freezing attack. The two girls collaborate with each other and, within ten seconds, a tentacle entwining Lina is severed. Soon they realize that the lurkers can remotely control their severed tentacles to respond in the simplest way, although their actions are much slower and less complex, and their power is even lower than a gold rank. If Lina had been prepared, she wouldn’t have been interfered by the tentacle. Unfortunately, the lurker was too well concealed and a surprise attack on the most crucial target led to the current situation.

The one that was severed by the two girls’ collaboration is one of the sixteen thickest main tentacles of the Marsh Stalker. It caused immense pain to the stalker. However, it only uses some medium-sized tentacles to resist the two girls’ attacks and occasionally maneuvers the main tentacle that was entangled around Lina to dodge attacks. Most of its attention is focused on the captured prey, wrapping its tentacles around Lina’s body like a python, intending to directly crush all her bones. According to the race memory of Marsh Stalkers, they have been using this way to break their prey’s ability to resist, then bring them back to the nest to enjoy the meal slowly. Now, it’s the same. Since getting entwined by the tentacles, Lina hangs her head without moving, letting the squeezing power of the tentacles continue, with her bones creaking.

There was a loud bang, and another tentacle was severed. But the purple blood from the severed tentacle stopped spewing out. At the severed location, a large amount of tiny meat buds are struggling to grow, a new tentacle is growing at a visible speed. It can be predicted that if they continue to destroy the lurker’s tentacles at their speed, not only can’t they save Lina before she’s choked to death, but their efforts won’t help the war result. Even if they could cut off half of the lurker’s tentacles, it could easily regenerate in a short time through its powerful regenerative ability.

This is evident. Most people can judge this trend. But neither Vivian nor Freya seems to see it. They still wear the same calm face and launch their attacks at a certain frequency. With rhythmic roars, they seem to have composed a melody of war.

As the Marsh Stalker’s tentacle gets closer and tighter, Lina’s face becomes redder, almost as if she’s about to bleed. It seems that the silver-haired priestess girl has lost consciousness and is tossed around like a rag doll by the tentacles.

However, when the second ten seconds passed, and the third unsuspecting tentacle was severed by Freya and Vivian, Vivian suddenly raised her head and shouted, "It’s time, and it’s now."

Hearing the voice of the mage girl, Lina’s tightly closed eyes suddenly opened. Due to the pain she was enduring, her eyes were filled with bloodshot veins. Despite this, a painful smile appeared on her face. Her blue magic shield that had been suppressed to its limit expanded abruptly by several centimeters, providing her body with a brief respite. At the same time, a silver magical book flew out from the entwined tentacles. It hovered over the girl’s head almost touching her. The book automatically opened to a certain page, and a faint millet-yellow light sprinkled from the book onto the girl’s head.

Although Lina’s body could not move yet, she had enough space to raise her head to gaze at the floating spell. With a smile, she gently uttered an incantation, "Sacred Protection."

Then, the sacred protection descended. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian.com to vote for recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile phone users can read on m.qidian.com.)