Chapter 43 - The Fierce Rabbit

Fifty seconds later…Pandora hurled the half-dead black bear she held in her hands, knocking down the last few frenzied animals in view and once again clearing the surrounding area.

Stepping down, Pandora jumped back onto the clearing in front of the ancient castle and then picked up another intact tree trunk.

Earlier, in search of a suitable weapon, she had pulled up four trees and eventually felt that the heaviest one was the most suitable, but she hadn’t discarded the other three.

Now that the most suitable one had broken, she reluctantly chose a lighter one instead. Although it was a bit unwieldy, it was still a large wooden stick over ten meters long, and the force it wielded when swung was not necessarily weak.

The next moment, numerous frenzied animals charged again, and Pandora, with a tense face, fiercely swung this second tree trunk.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

From above, one could see the whole hill was packed with frenzied animals, continuously charging towards the last open space at the peak of the hill. Pandora stood like the last soldier facing thousands of enemies, valiantly holding her ground.

Blood won’t dry, nor battles cease till death.

Of course, the blood that flowed was all from the frenzied animals; Pandora suffered no injuries, though her eyes showed slight boredom and disgust.

“Bang, bang, bang…Crack!”

Not too long later, perhaps half an hour, perhaps an hour, hundreds if not thousands of frenzied animals had died. They were still fiercely attacking, and the tree trunk in Pandora’s hand snapped once more.

Watching the broken tree trunk fly away, Pandora hurried back to grab the third tree trunk, but the frenzied animals naturally didn’t allow it, desperately blocking her. Seeing Pandora turn around, they continuously attacked her back.

Pandora frowned, her gaze sweeping the surroundings, and she noticed that perhaps the frenzied animals had learned their lesson from before. Now, smaller animals were attacking, such as purple minks, leopard cats, and macaques, whereas larger animals like wild boars and black bears were all kept to the periphery, which prevented her from cleaning out a space as before.

Should she ignore the attacks, grab the tree trunk first? Or should she deal with these small animals before grabbing the tree trunk?

Pandora appeared a bit conflicted as she thought this over, suddenly feeling a strong gust of wind blow past her side, fiercely towards the group of small animals attacking her.

The next moment, she saw numerous small animals emit a series of screams, blown over ten meters away by the wind force, landing among the crowded throng of animals.

What?

Pandora turned her head in slight surprise, just in time to see Richard slowly lowering his raised hand.

Spell·One-Circle Low-Grade·Strong Wind Repulsion!

“Perhaps…you didn’t need me to do that, maybe you had your own way to handle it, but at least I didn’t make things worse, right?” Richard said softly.

Pandora didn’t respond, taking a few steps forward, she grabbed the third tree trunk and swung it, knocking down batch after batch of frenzied animals. After clearing the area for the third time, she turned to look at Richard, her mouth opening and closing several times, looking as though she wanted to say something, but in the end, it was compressed into a strange syllable: “Gah!”

Gah?

Richard was startled. What was that? Thanks?

He shrugged his shoulders and looked around, his gaze becoming sharper the next moment, his hand flipped, and he now held a scalpel-like knife, its blade sharp, emitting a cold light that captivates the soul.

Because some of the animals around were looking over with ill intentions, perhaps because of his intervention just now.

With Pandora’s protection, Richard didn’t think large animals like black bears or wild buffaloes could get close to him, but smaller animals like gray rabbits or otters couldn’t be ruled out.

As he pondered, a black shadow flashed by. A yellow weasel sprang forward like an arrow released from its bow, its sharp claws viciously aiming for the eyes.

Richard’s eyes slightly squinted, his hand moved, and a cold glint flashed in mid-air, followed by a blossoming of blood.

The weasel’s claws softened powerlessly; they were half a meter away from touching the eyes when its neck was completely sliced open.

The intense movement accelerated the weasel’s heart, pumping blood throughout its body. In such a situation, when the main arteries were severed, the blood instantly spurted out like a fountain, scattering in mid-air like a blooming blood lotus.

“Bang,” the weasel fell from the sky, crashing onto the ground, convulsing to death.

Richard flicked the surgical knife in his hand, and beads of blood strung together flew off as he looked again at the crazed swarm of animals, noticing the worsening situation.

Killing a weasel did not instill fear in the animals, instead, it triggered their ferocity.

Pandora swung tree trunks wildly, stirring up a storm of blood and gore among the animals, but she couldn’t block them all. Continuously, some got through and attacked.

Richard was not frightened; he calmly watched and then acted calmly.

There were no special moves, just swiftly slicing with the surgical knife at the enemies’ critical points, ending the battle during a brief encounter.

Compared to Pandora, Richard’s fight lacked any sort of spectacle, but it was more precise, straightforward, and efficient. Richard didn’t kill the most, but he was the fastest, and there was one thing— the animals Richard killed were generally not scavenged by the others because any that dared come close became the souls under his knife.

Sometimes, several small animals would attack Richard together; at these moments, he would generously unleash a spell. Usually starting with Wind Repel to blow the animals away and then killing them one by one.

If that didn’t work, he would use Wind Barrier to ensure his safety before launching an attack.

And if that still wasn’t enough, he’d reinforce his body with “Wind Light Spirit” and “Wind Force” to enhance his agility and strength, continuously attacking the animals’ critical points, causing them to bleed out and die.

Gradually, animal carcasses began to pile up around Richard, forming a small mountain.

Richard was about to cast a “Fiery Flame Impact” spell to ignite the pile of bodies, impeding the onslaught of the frenzied animals.

Suddenly, sensing danger, he instinctively turned his head and saw a streak of silver flash before his eyes, immediately feeling a scorching pain on his face. Touching it lightly with his hand, it came away bloody, clearly from a scratch.

This was…

Richard’s eyes narrowed as he looked towards the silver shadow not far away, his eyebrows slightly raising, discovering it was actually a rabbit.

The opponent was about twenty-something centimeters long, weighing over ten pounds. The undercoat was blue-black, while the guard hair was white, giving it a silver appearance, evidently a close relative to the modern Earth’s small rabbit or Silver Rabbit species.

However, this rabbit was clearly more formidable than the other crazed animals, otherwise, it wouldn’t have injured him. It wasn’t just its incredible speed, but also its perfect timing just as he was about to release his spell.

More importantly, there were slight mana fluctuations within the body of the opponent, indicating it might be a demonized creature, similar to the Flame Python they once captured outside Blue Lion City.

Yet, it must only be in the early stages of demonization; otherwise, it might resist the spiritual power emanating from the distant mountains and not join the other animals in frenzied combat.

Regardless, this opponent was much more dangerous than many of the other animals.

Are rabbits ferocious?

Richard murmured to himself, gripping the surgical knife tighter in his hand.