28: Chapter 28 Petrification and Branding

Cecilia instantly raised her shield to block in front of her.

The moment the metal surface of the kite shield made contact with the gaze, it began to turn gray, harden, and become brittle.

Within just two seconds, the griffin emblem on the shield's surface was covered by a layer of grayish-white stone; the metal had turned into stone.

Lia decisively unbuckled the shield straps, letting it fall from her arm, and used the momentum to roll to the side, ducking into the blind spot beneath the mother lizard's flank.

The petrified shield smashed into several pieces on the ground, the broken edges still bearing the magical traces of the metal's instantaneous petrification.

Richard did not have such fast reaction speed.

Although he was standing to the side of the mother lizard, the moment the flash powder dissipated, the mother lizard's Petrifying Gaze swept right across his lower body.

He felt as if someone had suddenly poured two buckets of liquid cement into his legs.

Starting from his toes, his skin, muscles, and blood vessels—

All soft tissues were hardening, turning cold, and graying at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Richard felt waves of excruciating pain, a tearing sensation from the outside in.

From his knees down, his skin had already turned into grayish-white stone, and the stone continued to spread upwards, crawling over his shins, over his knees, and beginning to erode his thighs.

But he did not stop fighting. At this moment, the passive effect of the Bloodthirsty Brand began to take effect.

This newly acquired passive skill allowed him to absorb the enemy's life force to heal his own wounds as long as he dealt damage in combat.

The halberd in his hand did not pause for even half a second; the spear tip plunged into the mother lizard's wound again, and the axe blade cleaved through its scales.

The life force within the lizard's blood flowed into his body through some invisible magical channel.

The petrified tissue began to fall away; grayish-white stone skin flaked off his knees, revealing the new flesh underneath, only to be petrified again and then flake off once more.

New flesh and petrified dead skin existed simultaneously on his legs, making it look as if two unyielding forces were tearing at the same body.

The overlapping pain turned into an extreme torment that was almost enough to make one faint. At this moment, Richard gritted his teeth, not stopping his attacks in the slightest.

In his eyes, there was now only the mother lizard's bleeding wound. Every thrust of his halberd landed precisely in the same gash, tearing the wound wider and driving deeper.

Cecilia attacked from the other side, her sword severing one of the mother lizard's legs. Then, gripping the sword with both hands, she thrust it through the mother lizard's ear canal.

The sword tip pierced through the gap between the eardrum and the skull, entering the brain.

The mother lizard's body twitched one last time, its legs simultaneously losing strength, and its massive body collapsed sideways, crushing a patch of ferns into rubble.

Purple blood continued to gush from the wound in its head, pooling into an expanding puddle of dark liquid on the ground.

Richard hurriedly looked down at his legs.

The petrification process had stopped. Cracked stone skin flaked off his knees piece by piece, revealing the intact skin and muscle beneath.

The newly grown skin was a shade lighter than the surrounding area, bearing a baby-like pale pink hue, but the contours and density of the muscles were clearly firmer than before.

The Bloodthirsty Brand not only healed his wounds but also continuously stimulated the regeneration and strengthening of his muscle tissue during the process.

He flexed his ankles, his joints making a clicking sound, then he raised his halberd and turned toward the other side of the battlefield.

The male lizard finally charged out of the smoke.

The blinding effect caused by the flash powder had completely faded.

Its eyes were brighter than the mother lizard's, and its gray pupils darted rapidly within their sockets, searching for the most suitable target to unleash its Petrifying Gaze.

However, Jinbao did not give it that chance.

The gnome pulled three fist-sized glass bottles from his tool kit, filled with some kind of viscous amber liquid, and threw all three bottles at once.

The bottles smashed on the ground in front of the male lizard, and the liquid inside expanded rapidly the moment it touched the air.

From less than a small bottle, it turned into a large mass of semi-solid gelatinous substance, sticking to the male lizard's four front legs.

When the male lizard lifted its legs, the gelatinous substance was pulled into long strands.

This substance was extremely sticky; every time it lifted a leg, it was like swimming through mud.

It shook its head angrily, trying to shake off the stuff on its legs, but the more it struggled, the tighter it stuck.

The Black Cat was holding her breath.

She pressed herself against the ground, moving almost by crawling to the rear of the male lizard, her hand crossbow aimed at its right hind leg joint.

The sound of the bolt leaving the string was very faint, so faint it was almost completely masked by the lizard's hissing, but the arrow struck precisely into the joint gap.

The male lizard let out a howl of pain, and the conditioned reflex of its right hind leg caused it to turn suddenly, briefly exposing its entire vulnerable abdomen.

The Black Cat's second bolt followed, shooting into the soft tissue between the scales of its abdomen. The arrowhead did not go deep, but it carried an unnatural black sheen; the tip was coated in poison.

Just then, the male lizard's eyes locked onto the Black Cat.

Its pupils contracted violently, and a mass of gray-green light condensed on the surface of its eyeballs...

Three magic missiles flew in from around the corner of the rocks, striking the side of the male lizard's face in a very strained flight path.

The impact of the missiles was not great, but they excelled in precision; one of them hit exactly the left eye that was glowing.

The Petrifying Gaze was forcibly interrupted in the last half-second before firing, and the gray-green light exploded on the surface of the eyeball.

The backlash of energy caused the male lizard's entire head to jerk backward, and it let out a hiss even more painful than before.

Morpheus poked half his body out from behind the rock, his staff still raised, his fingers trembling, his entire face as white as his own hair.

"Good heavens, I actually hit it!"

His tone carried a surprise that even he couldn't quite believe.

Then he quickly ducked back behind the rock, raised his staff over his head again, continued chanting, and began preparing the next round of spells.

Taking advantage of the opening, Richard had already rushed in front of the male lizard.

He spun his halberd half a turn in his hand, the spear tip aimed at the male lizard's left eye, which had been injured by the missiles.

The male lizard sensed danger and jerked its head, trying to use the bone plate on its chin to block the spear tip.

But its front legs were still entangled by the slime bomb, and its movements were half a beat slow; the spear tip grazed the edge of its bone plate and plunged into the soft tissue on the outside of its left eye socket.

Purple blood sprayed from the eye socket; the male lizard's left eye was instantly blinded, but it was still struggling.

Its tail swept across, slamming into the leather armor on Richard's waist and sweeping him and his halberd several steps away.

Although Cecilia no longer had her shield, this actually made her faster than before.

She gripped her sword with both hands, tip pointing down, and before the male lizard could retract its tail, she thrust the sword in!

The tip of the sword pierced through the cartilage between the vertebrae, severing the nerve connection between the tail and the body.

The male lizard's tail lost its connection to the body at the root, the back half hanging limply on the ground, with only the root still twitching powerlessly.

The male lizard let out a hoarse howl, its remaining legs frantically digging at the ground, gravel and dust exploding under its feet.

But its mobility had been completely crippled.

Its front legs were entangled by the slime, its balance was lost due to the severed tail, its vision was mostly lost due to the blinded left eye, and it couldn't even turn around.