"Why haven't you left yet?" Henry and others, who finally returned to the mountain hut out of breath, saw the other people who looked panicked but didn't know what to do.
They threw the ropes they had sorted out casually on the ground, and one end was fixed to a wooden stake at the door of the hut. But this wooden pile, which was only used to chop firewood, was obviously not heavy enough and buried deep enough. It was pulled out of the soil with a slight pull.
Judging from the panicked reaction of Aiji, who was squatting next to him and holding his head, he should be the first person who wanted to use the rope to go down. However, because the fixed anchor point was unstable and loose, their legs and feet became weak from fear, and the others also became a little at a loss.
Among the other six people except Mira and Henry, only Lulu, who was a hunter, knew some knowledge about ropes. However, due to the language communication barrier, she was unable to explain it clearly to these people. She could only stand aside with a helpless expression. Have to move back and forth.
The sage and the Luoan girl delayed for a long time, but they were not even ready to rappel. The survivability of this team composed of porters, missionaries, and doctors is obviously in doubt, but the current situation is critical and it is not a good time to quarrel and accuse.
"Lulu and Ling, come here, Galeva, you too." The returning Luoan girl found some more crossbow arrows from the little unicorn, and then she loaded up another undamaged crossbow machine and threw it to the stupid one. young people. Lulu and Ling, who were next to them, picked up their bows respectively and inserted all the bow arrows they could find on the dirt in front of them. They used two crossbows and two bows to form a slight firepower from above.
"Priest Alfonso, please throw the quilt over here." Under the emergency situation, Henry was no longer polite to them. Fortunately, the leader of the priest team was not a person who liked to put on airs. He quickly took the quilt over, and the sage found a rock wall that looked very steep but also had the shortest distance, folded the quilt and placed it on the edge of the rock wall.
The purpose of this is to prevent the rope from being worn down by sharp stones. Henry finished this part without saying a word and tied the rope to the load-bearing side pillar of the cabin, and then waved to the little unicorn.
"Crack--" The sage unloaded all the supplies on the little guy's back and threw them down the mountain. Then he turned his head and stretched out his hand to the missionaries: "Gold and books."
"But-" The other missionary wanted to retort, but Alfonso raised his hand to reject him.
"It's hard to climb with these things on your back. It's better to break some of them than to lose them all." The elderly priest leader said, then hesitated briefly, and after a while, he tied up all his belongings and threw them down the mountain.
But the sage turned around at this moment and tied up the little unicorn first.
"Calm down, I will descend slowly." He said to the panicked little guy, and the humane little unicorn immediately became quiet. But at this moment, Aggie next to him opened his eyes wide and screamed: "At this time, we still want to give priority to the beasts?!"
He was obviously overcome by fear, and repeated incidents made this mentally fragile young man become hysterical.
"Aggie!" Alfonso reprimanded him loudly, but even the voice of his superior had no effect on the young man at this moment. He rushed over and tried to grab the rope and lower it, but the sage He raised his foot without mercy and kicked him away.
"Ugh--" The young missionary was kicked in the stomach several times and finally started to vomit. He knelt on the ground with a pale face and couldn't get up for a long time.
"If you don't let it go down first, what will you do later?" The little unicorn, which is the heaviest and cannot climb alone, is a decision that a smart person would make before going down first, and it also needs its help to carry the supplies dropped in advance. . Aggie was overwhelmed by fear, but fortunately everyone else remained calm. Alfonso and another missionary ignored Aggie and came over to help Henry slowly lower the little guy to the foot of the mountain more than ten meters high. After reaching the ground, the little guy snorted smartly in response.
"Put the rope between your feet and wrap it around your calves and feet like this. Put the rope alternately with both hands. Once you feel that you may fall if you go too fast, tighten it like this." Henry demonstrated briefly and clearly: "Tighten The rope will wrap around your feet and stop you."
Alfonso and the other missionary glanced at Aiji, who was still kneeling on the ground, nodded, and then tremblingly followed the method taught by the sage and descended one after another.
"I..." Aggie, who seemed to wake up from physical pain after being kicked by Henry, raised his head weakly.
"Get down quickly." The sage patted his shoulder.
"Well..." The young missionary glanced at him apologetically, and then began to descend under his guidance.
"Bang!!" The struggle of the Kazuto warriors finally ended at this moment. The war horse weighing hundreds of kilograms was thrown out from the right side like a rag bag, and then the huge monster slapped its fat tail and spread its blood. The horse's body was bitten hard.
"Fire arrows!!" Mira shouted loudly, and then the four people shot out the weapons in their hands in succession.
But none hit.
"Pa--" The two light crossbow arrows with the shortest range landed more than thirty meters away, while Ling's arrow flew directly into the sky, and Lulu, who had the most accurate aim, also lost her temper because it was in action. It came up empty.
"Ah..." Mira realized that she was also a little panicked and that the range and performance of the weapons were fundamentally different and could not form covering firepower. Mira was speechless for a moment, and at this moment, the sage who had put down the other three people left. come over.
"Let's go." He asked Lulu and Ling to turn around. They hesitated a little but immediately grabbed the bows and arrows stuck on the ground, turned around and ran towards the rope.
"Crack--" The monster with a mouth full of only fangs and no ability to chew, like a snake, raised its neck and swallowed the horse corpse in its mouth, including the bones. Judging from its fat belly, it seems that all the other people and horses have also been swallowed.
"Teacher." Mira and Galeva also turned around.
"I'll be here right away." Henry said this and took the crossbow in her hand.
"..." The Luoan girl and the young porter looked at each other, and then they both ran towards the rope.
"Uh--" The sage who stayed in place half-squinted his eyes in the wind and snow and stared at the monster that looked like a giant salamander magnified 1,000 times--it stopped in place after eating the horse. , shaking and struggling all over, the arms above that were waving randomly stopped shaking and opened and closed neatly like the fins of a fish, and finally closed on the surface of the skin.
"Uh-ah-" It opened its mouth and exhaled air. At first, the air showed no response, but later, mist gradually emitted.
"Do you have body temperature?" Henry took Kramer behind his back and glanced to confirm that everyone had lowered his temperature.
"Uh-ah-roar-" and the monster's exhalation continued, eventually changing from a simple sound of airflow to some kind of weird mixed roar.
"Then there's the vocal cords."
"Crack -" a sound like an egg cracking came next, and two huge black eyes popped out of the monster's head that originally only had a mouth and nose -
The moment they appeared, it stopped all movements and turned to look at Henry on the mountain.
"Oh -" the sage breathed out.
"Roar--" The monster roared and twisted its body and rushed towards him.
"In order to enhance the ability to hunt, the eyes evolved to understand and use visual senses to capture prey. But -" He raised the crossbow in his hand.
"This way you also have a weakness." "Pah - ah -" The crossbow arrow accurately flew out and hit the monster's huge black eyeball.
"Ouch -" It immediately lost its balance due to this incident and fell to the ground. However, the sage did not pursue the victory but hung the light crossbow on his belt, turned around and ran towards the rope.
"There is pain." The purpose of the test had been achieved. He ran over and grabbed the rope and started running on the rock wall with his whole body facing the bottom of the cliff.
"Teacher!" Mira in the distance waved her hands vigorously, and the sage immediately chased after her.
"Where is that thing?" The person who asked the question was Ling, but judging from the way her eyes were shining, it was clear that the doctor was more concerned about the dynamics of the creature than the safety of her group.
"Eyes and vocal cords evolved, and the body had body temperature." Although the situation was urgent, Henry still emphasized the key points concisely during the escape process.
"Prey? It is true that the vast majority of predators rely heavily on vision. Body temperature can be regarded as a process in a cooling environment to prevent themselves from becoming sluggish due to blood cooling. In other words, as I expected, the magic power The evolution that has been facilitated is not over yet - it has evolved from simple mineral bacteria to parasites that actively absorb the magic power of other creatures, but up to this point they are still passive creatures."
"So the next stage - ha -" she ran out of breath but the doctor still did not stop analyzing: "It is to assimilate with the villagers and have the ability to act independently, but in this way, multiple individuals are not better than one The individual survival rate is higher——"
"No, the fusion became a dominant individual and showed the characteristics of a predator, and the vocal cords-" Aya stopped.
"I appreciate your dedication, but Miss Doctor, now is the time to escape." The sage grabbed her whole body and lifted her up. Then the three missionaries who came down from the front first and Lulu stood on a higher ground. The place waved vigorously at them.
"Cave!" The short words indicated what they found, but when the sage and others passed by, they found that things were not that simple.
"It's a tunnel used for mining. It's a good thing. It's connected in all directions and you should be able to run down the mountain quickly." Ling, a local, nodded: "If it's this size, that thing might not be able to get in."
"Vocal cords." Mira, who had been listening next to her, brought up the topic again.
"Well, the eyes and body temperature are understandable, but the vocal cords..."
"Animals have evolved vocal organs for two purposes: one is to demonstrate self-defense and drive away natural enemies or competitors." The few people in front found lanterns that fortunately were not broken from their luggage and began to light them into the narrow tunnel. The doctor from the Moon Country said solemnly.
"And for..." She hesitated but did not say it, and the Luoan girl next to her was stunned for a moment when she reacted.
"Communicate with companions..." Mira murmured.
"There's more than one of these things?" Both of them looked at the sage, but Henry shook his head after thinking about it.
"This thing can feel pain. I knocked it down to buy time. If it evolved purely for prey, it would have succeeded if it didn't feel pain just now." The sage downplayed the danger he faced when discussing the near-death situation. Mira seemed to be just drinking tea, and Mira was used to this, while Ling glanced at him with the look of "You are also a lunatic who is not afraid of death to satisfy your curiosity," but then blinked thoughtfully. Blink.
"In other words, it will also have some unnecessary abilities during the evolution process. Although, the speed of change is still..."
"Roar--" A huge roar came from not far away.
"Now is not a good time for analysis." The sage shrugged.
"You just know." Mira rolled her eyes at him, and the three of them quickly followed the footsteps of their teammates in front and rushed in.
