Chapter 97: The Gale Squad That Completed the Mission First

Boom!

A fierce collision rang out.

The instant they crossed blades, Luo Yong knew that this mutated Reaper Dragonfly was level eighteen.

And the strength it now displayed was also level eighteen, only far more savage and violent.

Under normal circumstances, even if a human hero of level twenty met a monster like this, he would most likely have to retreat. To force a head-on fight would gain nothing at all, and could easily end in bitter regret, even with one’s life lost in the bargain. It was simply not worth the price.

No one would willingly test such a thing.

But Luo Yong had no choice now. His invincible state had already been activated, and once his full combo was spent, he would fall into a weakened state.

So either he killed the mutated Reaper Dragonfly within this window of time, or he left before weakness set in.

"Die!"

There was no time to think. Luo Yong glanced aside and saw that Duo Duo had already opened the portal, ready to withdraw at any moment, and with no worries left behind him, he shouted and struck with ever greater ferocity.

The lights flashing within the dragonfly’s compound eyes grew more and more brilliant, like a small multicolored sun, turning the dim surroundings into a wash of vivid splendor, beautiful to behold.

Yet, as the saying goes, the lovelier something is, the more poisonous it tends to be. In close contact, Luo Yong could clearly sense wave after wave of powerful mental assault, surges of vicious psychic force roaring toward him.

It was all useless.

He was in an invincible state and could not lose health.

Meanwhile, the berserk Reaper Dragonfly was already covered in wounds beneath Luo Yong’s frenzied assault.

Of its six transparent wings, three had been severed. Of its eight steel-fork legs, four were gone.

Most importantly, cracks had been carved across its compound eyes, and its head had been hacked askew.

And yet its life force remained astonishingly tenacious. It still hurled itself at Luo Yong with savage relentlessness, refusing to yield even a single step.

But if it would not retreat, Luo Yong would.

"Tactical lean-back!"

"Backhand grab!"

"Now face the wind!"

Searing light flashed.

The final strike of the ultimate technique landed from first to last in perfect completeness. Luo Yong’s qi surged like a rainbow; his figure flickered in and out of sight, leaving several afterimages in place before he closed in at point-blank range and beheaded the Reaper Dragonfly on the spot.

"Battle over. Mission complete!"

Luo Yong had originally intended to say something like a crude victory taunt, but worried that others might not understand it, so he changed it to a different line.

Then, with a flash, he stepped straight into the shining gate Duo Duo had opened.

Duo Duo immediately rushed forward, collected the remains of the mutated Reaper Dragonfly, and returned to the camp through the portal.

"Captain, you’re back!"

The team was still waiting in camp, with nothing else to do for the moment.

No one had expected that the mission issued by the camp would end as soon as it began.

And the other teams still had no idea what had happened.

"Mm. I need to rest for a while."

Seeing that everyone was present and no one was missing, Luo Yong nodded, entered the general store, and returned to his room. As the weakened state came crashing down upon him, he lay on the bed and drifted into a drowsy sleep.

"I didn’t see that wrong, did I? The weapon the captain was holding..." Mira said.

"He must have used that berserk skill again!" the Storm Sorcerer said.

"Didn’t we say before that it’s called an ultimate art, and there are several kinds of it? Warriors have them, mages have them too. We just haven’t come into contact with them yet," Aria said.

"Aside from ultimate arts, there should be even higher-level secret techniques, the kind used as one’s final trump card," the Wilderness Hunter said.

"Don’t overthink it. We’ll all run into those things sooner or later," Wendy said.

"Duo Duo, what exactly happened just now?" While the others were discussing, the barbarian priest pulled Duo Duo aside and asked in a lowered voice.

"A mutated Reaper Dragonfly attacked us, and Master defeated it," Duo Duo said.

"What?" The barbarian priest immediately cried out, "Mu-mut-mutated?!"

"Mm. It was very strong, stronger than the other Reaper Dragonflies, but in the end it was still defeated by Master!" Duo Duo said, waving her little fists, stars practically sparkling in her eyes as blind adoration welled up.

"No wonder Luo Yong used a skill like that," Wendy said.

"This should be reported, shouldn’t it? There’s a mutated Reaper Dragonfly in the Land of Divine Lamentation," Lillian said.

"Shh!"

Aria made a gesture for silence and looked around. Seeing no irrelevant people nearby, she said softly, "The monster’s already been eliminated. What’s there to report now? Things like this can’t be explained clearly, and if we make a report, we might end up being investigated. That would be a real pain."

"But..." Lillian wanted to say more. She felt that just sweeping this under the rug without understanding it properly might not be right.

Then she looked pleadingly at Wendy.

"Let’s wait first. Even if we’re going to say anything, we should wait until Luo Yong has rested. We don’t know the exact situation ourselves, so we wouldn’t be able to explain it clearly anyway," Wendy said gently. "He’s the captain. Let him make the decision."

"Then... is the mutated Reaper Dragonfly worth anything? Duo Duo, take it out and let us see what it looks like," the barbarian priest asked.

"It’s only a little different from the ordinary ones. It has an extra pair of wings, is a bit smaller, and has a higher level... Nothing else is especially unusual," Duo Duo said calmly.

"..." No one said anything.

That already makes it unusual. What more unusual do you want?

"Oh, right. I remember that the last mutated little spider was also collected by Duo Duo. How about it? Did you research anything good from it?" the Storm Sorcerer asked.

"This..." Duo Duo tilted her head, thought for a moment, and then looked at the Curse Witch, Aria.

"No. Duo Duo seems to have hit a bottleneck lately, and the research hasn’t made any progress. I didn’t get anything, and I know nothing!" Aria said, pressing a hand over her pocket in a rather obvious denial.

"Aria, we may be good sisters, but you can’t keep all the benefits to yourself!" the barbarian priest said.

"Exactly! Hand over all the good stuff!" The Storm Sorcerer pounced at once.

"Ah! There aren’t any good things. They’re all poisonous tools and the like. If you want to try them, let’s go outside. Don’t break anything in the store!" Aria struggled and said, in a very stingy tone.

"What are you talking about? Who’d go test poisonous tools with you?"

Everyone began to complain at once.

After a bit of commotion, the shop grew quiet again. Wendy stretched lazily, loosening her body, and the fat man stared so hard his eyes nearly bulged out, almost drooling.

But before anyone else noticed, he quickly recovered, tucked away that foolish expression, and looked elsewhere, while his heart hammered so violently it felt ready to leap from his throat.

"All right, nothing urgent for now. Everyone go and rest. We haven’t really had a proper rest during this whole stretch, so take the chance and stop forcing yourselves."

With that, she walked straight back to her room.

After the general store was built, a dormitory had been erected beside it to provide the team with a place to rest.

The interior facilities were fully equipped as well, arranged according to the highest standards in the camp.

It was also meant for recruiting more heroes into the team in the future, as well as the youth mercenary corps currently under construction...

"Oh my heavens!"

"What am I seeing?!"

The Land of Divine Lamentation.

After Luo Yong killed the mutated Reaper Dragonfly, there was a brief silence here. But very soon, countless Reaper Dragonflies began beating their wings and flying madly in every direction. Some of the higher-level ones, with more powerful bodies, began fighting in pairs, devouring one another, and the whole scene gradually slipped into chaos.

"They’re carrying out an internal purge, choosing a new leader!" The small team standing on a distant cliff had all hidden themselves away, yet they still refused to withdraw. They wanted to linger here until the very end and see whether they might catch some chance benefit.

At this point, there was no way they could enter to hunt. If anything, they might provoke the dragonflies and become their prey instead.

"Survive by keeping steady. Save yourself by staying hidden," one of the team members muttered under his breath.

"Only the survivors can rule!" the others answered after hearing him.

Then everyone exchanged an understanding smile and hid themselves even more deeply.

If Luo Yong witnessed such a scene, he would probably be in awe.

If his Otherworld Survival Guide did not get revised and upgraded immediately, it was very likely he would be outdone by these "survivalists"!

Too impressive.

Too fierce.

Look at that earth mage, who had even smeared himself to match the color of the surroundings.

And look at that plant mage, who had nearly blended into the environment itself.

Then look at that fire mage, who, while swinging his shoulders and brandishing a shovel, had dug a large pit in a very short time and buried himself in it on the spot, leaving only the top half of his head exposed so he could observe the situation cautiously.

"I say, can’t you at least cooperate with one another?" the mage leading them said helplessly.

"It’s enough to take care of yourself," one team member said.

"Just mind your own business," said another.

"It’s already good enough to be alive..."

"We were only temporarily formed into a team for the camp’s mission, and the captain was only appointed temporarily. Don’t think too much about it!"

"..."

So how did other people’s teams ever manage to grow?

After these people had lain in ambush for a while, a stir arose nearby as other teams gradually arrived.

Among them were the ones who had already retreated earlier.

After returning, they had rushed back without the slightest delay.

"Has the Rage Squad already left? Did they complete their mission?" a tall man asked between gasps.

"The Rage Squad? The group led by Wendy? They came too?" someone from another team asked.

"You’re behind the times. They’ve already changed their name to the Gale Squad, and their captain is a man. I haven’t seen him much before. It looks like they’ve already completed the mission!" someone else suddenly said.

"What? With their strength... they finished so quickly? How did they do it?" some people asked in confusion.

At the same time, they pointed at the Reaper Dragonflies still swirling wildly above the Land of Divine Lamentation.