Under Leo's lead, we finally arrived at the cave in the heart of the Swamp of Pain. Outside the pitch-black cave was a pile of corpses. Everyone had a bad premonition.
Leo told us that these should be the beastmen of the Thunderhammer Tribe.
Fahns lit a torch and shone it into the cave. This was a bottomless cave. Fortunately, the air in the cave was still flowing.
Thus, we split into two groups. One group stayed outside the cave, while the other went inside to see what was going on. In the end, Kelvin, Mayfair, Shaman Leo, Makarov, and a portion of the mercenaries stayed outside the cave.
Flants, Natalia, Avina, Fahns, Loser, Ivina, and I decided to enter the cave with a group of high-ranking mercenaries.
Using the weak light of the torch, we pushed deeper into the cave. As we went deeper, we discovered that this underground cave was shockingly large.
However, we didn't notice that we had become prey in the eyes of others in the darkness.
The city gate of Sargeru collapsed under the gaze of all the beastmen. Every beastman was deeply shocked by the huge monster in front of them.
It was a huge centipede that had just crawled out from the ground. For a moment, the battle between the beastmen had reached its most difficult point. Whether we could survive or not depended on whether we could completely eliminate the source of this black tide.
Bulke waved his dual axes. He could only place his hopes on us. For victory, he had to persevere even if it meant death.
"Not good. Something is following us," Fahns, who was at the front, said to us.
Because the light was too dim, the rest of us didn't notice. Fahns' warning told us to be ready for battle as we advanced.
Kelvin, who stayed outside the cave, wasn't convinced. He wanted to go into the cave like us. However, Fahns said that he was too young and that it was better to stay outside.
However, Kelvin didn't know that this was the Swamp of Pain. There was no place that was absolutely safe.
A moment of carelessness, about a dozen huge green swamp frogs surrounded Kelvin and the others. The mercenaries and the frogs began to fight. These mercenaries could be considered veterans, but they were all splashed with the poison spat out by the frogs.
Once the poison touched their skin, it would immediately blister and fester.
Many mercenaries fell down one after another, suffering unbearably. Makarov immediately made his move, while Meffel immediately used Purification to detoxify the mercenary.
Makarov was facing a dozen Poison Swamp Frogs by himself. These frogs had amazing jumping ability. It was indeed troublesome. Makarov seemed to be struggling.
Kevin shot a poisonous swamp frog that was about to pounce on Makarov with his firearm. Makarov looked back at Kevin but didn't say anything.
Makarov activated Blade Shield while unleashing Infinite Edge. Streaks of cold light shot towards the Poison Swamp Frogs, and the ground was littered with their corpses.
Makarov fell weakly to the ground. Using such power was still a little too much for him, and he was also in danger of being devoured by the Wings of Destruction's mana.
After taking care of the wounded soldiers, Mayfair immediately went to treat Makarov. She couldn't care less about the exhaustion of her stamina and mana.
Makarov looked weakly at Kelvin and thanked him in a small voice.
A heart that had been frozen by fear was slowly melting.
At the same time, our situation in the cave wasn't any better.
Suddenly, there was a scream. A high-ranking mercenary at the back of the group was instantly pierced through the chest.
I looked in the direction of the torchlight. It was a monster with the lower body of a spider and the upper body of a human woman.
"It's a Spider Banshee!" Irina said.
Everyone immediately started fighting the several hundred Spider Banshees. We fought as we ran deeper into the cave.
The Spider Banshees were so agile that we couldn't shake them off.
Many mercenaries were killed by them. If it wasn't for Avina's arrow at the critical moment, I would've lost my life as well.
Soon, due to the difficult battle and the lack of light, we were left with less than twenty people.
Suddenly, a huge cave entrance appeared in front of us. Light shone through the cracks on the ground, illuminating the place.
With our backs to the cave entrance, we started fighting the Spider Banshees who were chasing after us. However, the Spider Banshees seemed to be afraid of light and the cave entrance. They scattered and disappeared into the darkness.
"Let them run. We need to hurry and find the source of the Black Tide," Fawns said.
"It should be here," Loser said.
In the end, we decided to enter the cave entrance. Many years later, Leo, who became the Great Shaman of the Beastmen, called the monster we were about to face the Terror Bug King, Zul 'Fao.
Of course, Leo only saw the corpse after we dealt with the Horrifying Bug King. If he saw the living Zul 'Fao, he would've been even more shocked.
After entering the cave entrance, the light inside was very good. Using the faint light, we were all stunned by the scene in front of us.
A monster ten times bigger than a cyclops was lying there, sleeping peacefully. We didn't dare to breathe for fear of waking him up.
Later, Fawns told us that these should be the Ancient Insect Tribe. This huge monster called Zul 'Fao was the same as the Spider Banshees.
They had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a spider. However, the Spider Banshees were only slightly bigger than humans. This Zul 'Fao's body was terrifyingly huge.
Zul 'Fao was the last Ancient Insect King. The Ancient Insect Tribe only had one male King. The rest were all females. The Spider Banshees could only reproduce by relying on the King.
The Ancient Insect King would never truly die. They would only continue to be reborn unless they were killed. This was because when their lives were about to end, they would eat a large number of Spider Banshees and form a cocoon around themselves. Then, they would be reborn.
We saw that on the other side of the cave, there was actually an exit.
However, even if we knew the entrance, we wouldn't be able to enter. The cave entrance was a huge and densely packed spider web.
Countless Beastman and Spider Banshee corpses were hanging on it. There were also some corpses that couldn't be identified.
We looked at each other. We wanted to kill the big guy while he was sleeping.
However, when we actually attacked, we realized that it was too simple.
With a violent shake, the huge monster was slowly waking up.
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