Mercenary Wars

Chapter 88 Shield Wall
Just as John turned his head to speak, a slight, strange noise suddenly came from behind him.

"Wow."

Before anyone could react, the "roots" beneath John's feet swept up and transformed into a thick vine, instantly binding his legs.

At the same time, the seemingly ordinary tree next to it revealed its true form amidst the swaying light and shadows—a huge, scarlet flower—a carnivorous plant!

The carnivorous plant twitched its vines, opened its petals with sharp internal thorns, and swallowed John whole!

"Clang clang clang!" Immediately following was the violent twisting and contraction of the bright red petals, with the sounds of metal colliding and rubbing rising and falling.

"John!"

Calcrow shouted, first instinctively trying to grab John, then failing and quickly taking out a spell scroll from his storage ring and tearing it open.

"boom--"

The blazing flames immediately burst forth, quickly engulfing the carnivorous plant and setting it ablaze.

The man-eating plant twisted its body wildly, and several vines lashed out like long whips. Gaucano and Colin narrowly dodged, Andrew was flung away, and Calcro was entangled and dragged toward the man-eating plant's mouth.

The good news is that the carnivorous plant is now full and has no intention of swallowing Calcro.

The bad news is that the man-eating plant is now engulfed in flames, and after Calcro was dragged over, his clothes also caught fire, and he was about to become a human torch.

In the moment of crisis, Colin took out a spell scroll and quickly tore it open at Karklow.

Armor of Aegasis!

The frost armor covered Karklo's entire body, instantly extinguishing the flames and temporarily preventing them from continuing to spread.

Immediately afterwards, Gaucano swung his sword, and the black Blood-Summoning Sword severed the vines that were binding Calcro.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Colin quickly dragged Calcro over and then retreated rapidly, away from the carnivorous plant.

“John is still inside the man-eating flower!” Calcro struggled.

The other three ignored him and stared nervously at the burning carnivorous plant.

The man-eating flower, engulfed in flames, continued to violently contract and writhe its petals, as if chewing on John inside its belly.

"Clang clang clang!" However, the sound of metal colliding and rubbing did not diminish at all, and the shape of the petals was occasionally pushed up, vaguely revealing a human figure holding a shield and struggling.

After a while.

"Crack!" A section of the shield tip suddenly pierced through the petals, then pushed outwards with all its might, tearing a gash in the carnivorous plant's body in the blink of an eye.

Immediately afterward, a furious shout rang out, and John leaped out through the crack, clutching a lump of something whose shape he couldn't quite make out.

Upon closer inspection, everyone saw that although he was covered in slime and wounds, he was clearly unharmed. However, the shield in his hand was pitted and cracked.

And the damage was continuing to worsen, with metal fragments constantly falling off the shield.

“Give me a water bath right now!” John said.

Calcro and Gaucano immediately cast spells, applying several water cleansing spells to wash away all the slime from John's body.

This slime was clearly highly corrosive; once it flowed onto the ground, it immediately emitted puffs of white smoke and had a nauseating odor.

As the slime was washed away, the shield in John's hand finally stopped breaking.

This made John breathe a sigh of relief.

Then he looked at the shield, which was almost completely destroyed, and a look of heartache appeared in his eyes.

"Thank God you're alright," Calcro said.

“Young master, you don’t need to worry about me.” John smiled. “After all, I am a level 5 warrior with a specialization in protection.”

Andrew asked, "You used 'Shield Wall'?"

John nodded, his gaze still fixed on the shield. "The shield took all the damage for me; otherwise, I would have been torn to shreds by the carnivorous plants." At that moment, everyone noticed what he was carrying in his other hand: "What's that?"

“A magical beast that hasn’t been fully digested yet.” John held up what he was holding, and everyone recognized it as a bird that had been completely disfigured. “Hopefully this will count towards the score.”

On the other side, burned and torn apart, the man-eating flower finally died in the increasingly intense flames, gradually turning into ashes.

The group went forward and searched through the ashes.

There were only two things: a piece of elemental soil worth some money and a broken sword—which undoubtedly belonged to John.

John appears to have only shield markings, not sword markings, which allows him to grip the shield tightly, but the sword could easily slip from his hand. For a guard, this is quite reasonable.

After resting for a while, John took out spare shields and weapons and continued leading the group on their way.

After the attack by the man-eating flower, everyone became much more cautious, especially when it came to plants.

Plants like the man-eating flower are not only dangerous, but they also don't count towards performance evaluations, and they may not even have anything good on them, so it's best to avoid them if possible.

A few hours later.

"Wait a minute," Calcro suddenly called out to the group.

"What's wrong, young master?" John asked.

Calcro didn't answer, but frowned as if he was thinking or hesitating. After a full half minute, he pointed to a patch of lush grass a dozen meters away: "There should be danger here. We need to be careful."

Upon hearing this, everyone tensed up, grabbed their weapons, and prepared for battle while carefully observing the bushes.

“It’s a snake,” Andrew concluded.

The others still hadn't noticed anything; all they could see was a vast expanse of green grass.

Where is the snake?

“Then,” Andrew pointed.

"Where are the snakes?"

Andrew nodded: "My eyes are very sensitive to cold-blooded animals, so it's easier for me to see through their disguises."

Seeing that no one could see the snake, he immediately drew his bow and aimed at something in the grass: "Let me shoot it!"

Gaucano and Colin also drew their bows and aimed in the same direction.

"call out--"

An arrow shot out from Andrew's bow.

"Roar!" A roar rang out, and the huge green python rose up, looking like a long piece of turf that had been lifted up.

"Whoosh—whoosh!"

Gaucano and Colin's arrows followed closely, then John charged forward and grabbed the python's body.

The giant python, being so large and long, was obviously difficult to capture alive, so the group launched a coordinated attack and killed it. Ensuring the python only had arrow wounds was quite a task.

Gao Jiano successfully secured the kill, piercing the snake's head with a single arrow.

Kill a level 4 monster, experience +100

After hunting down the giant python, the group returned to their camp.

The first thing to do upon returning to camp, of course, is to check the traps.

"Ha, a level 3 stone-tusked boar!" The group was pleasantly surprised to find a stone-tusked boar in the trap.

The stone-toothed boar, frozen in place by the freezing spell, lay motionless in the pit, staring intently at a ball of paste-like bait not far away, its eyes still revealing a deep fascination and longing.

(End of this chapter)