197: Chapter 197 The Collapsed Foothold

The mammoth skeleton was massive but thoroughly decayed.

As soon as the two landed on it, the bony beams let out an overloaded cracking sound.

Zhao Mengmeng's foot slipped, and she slid down the ribs toward the Iron Swamp.

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

The Dark Weaver's Nano-wire pinned her belt, dragging her back to the skeletal ridge by sheer force.

Below, the pack of Iron Mud Lurking Crocodiles woke up.

The white powder blocked their vision, but it couldn't drown out the muffled, sloshing sound of the churning swamp.

Giant mouths filled with iron teeth emerged from the mud one after another, then quickly submerged again.

There was no roaring or growling throughout the entire process.

Zhao Mengmeng spat out a mouthful of dry skin mixed with blood.

"Mute monsters?"

"Ambush predators."

Lin Ye pressed one knee against the bony beam, his Left Eye briefly opening and closing.

"They track prey through vibrations. They're blind, but their senses are extremely precise."

"So standing on these bones is useless?"

"The skeleton's three load-bearing legs are planted in the mud."

With every impact below, the vibrations traveled up the thick skeletal legs straight to the soles of their feet.

The bullet comments in the Great Xia Live Stream instantly exploded.

[This skeleton is just a giant megaphone!]

[They can't stay there! Every move they make, the crocodiles will know exactly where they are!]

[But where else can they go? The bottom is full of fucking mouths!]

[This twelfth floor is too insidious! Even the safe landing spots are traps!]

Deep in the Iron Swamp, the lead crocodile surfaced, showing half of its carapace.

It was over eight meters long, with half of a sharp, broken gear embedded backward in its carapace, and its eye sockets were completely welded shut with rust.

It swam half a circle around the mammoth's skeletal leg, and its massive tail suddenly whipped out!

Bang!

The entire skeleton tilted violently.

Zhao Mengmeng hooked her bronze rod tightly onto a rib to avoid being thrown off.

"They're tearing down the load-bearing pillars!"

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

The Dark Weaver's Nano-wire tore through the air, shooting straight at the lead crocodile.

The Nano-wire wrapped tightly around the broken gear, and the electromagnetic cutter pulled with full power.

Blue arcs of electricity flared in the pale dust.

The gear was sliced through and sent flying.

Thrashing in pain, the crocodile plunged half of its body back into the muddy water.

The blade only left a white scratch on the carapace, failing to break its defense.

Lin Ye simply retracted the wire.

"The back shell is too hard, I can't cut through it."

Zhao Mengmeng raised her staff fiercely. "Aim for the mouth."

"How can we hit them if they don't show their heads?"

The Iron Mud Lurking Crocodiles below gave them no chance to counterattack.

Over a dozen crocodiles quickly split into three echelons.

The outer layer stirred up the mud to create turbulence, while the middle layer rammed the three load-bearing legs.

The remaining three crocodiles clung tightly to the skeletal legs submerged in the swamp, biting down hard.

Their sharp teeth tore at the bone.

The mineralized layer on the surface of the skeletal legs crackled and fell off in large pieces.

The mammoth skeleton shook so violently it was on the verge of falling apart.

Lin Ye's gaze pierced through the white powder, looking ahead.

In the distance, dry wreckage was faintly visible above the mud.

The closest piece was twenty meters away, a semi-submerged alloy spine.

Further away, there was an upturned mechanical ship hull.

There was a path, but they had to fly right over the heads of the crocodile pack.

The Dark Weaver could swing them across.

The white powder in this space was highly water-absorbent, and a pale, hard crust had already formed on the surface of his bracer.

The retraction speed of the main Nano-wire was slowed down by a full twenty percent.

A fourth crocodile slammed heavily into the skeleton's base.

A long crack split open along the bony beam.

Zhao Mengmeng was knocked to her knees by the shock, the bloody cut on her lip splitting completely open.

She pulled out the purifying crystal core directly.

The slightly cool sensation seeped through her palm, barely sustaining her rapidly depleting bodily moisture.

Lin Ye pulled out the Red-scaled Snake Skin from the side of his backpack.

He poured the last finger-width of water from his canteen onto the inner side of the scale.

"Hold it in your mouth, don't swallow."

Zhao Mengmeng glanced at the nearly empty canteen.

"What about you?"

"I'm drought-resistant."

Without wasting words, Zhao Mengmeng took the scale and pressed it to her face.

Lin Ye's Left Eye forced itself open for a split second.

Blood red.

The dangerous red light at the base of the skeleton had deepened to the point of turning black.

Of the three load-bearing bones, the back-left one was about to snap.

The only green safety line on the entire skeleton was located at the main chest bone.

It could only withstand one final, maximum-force leap.

Lin Ye drew his horizontal saber.

"When the skeleton tilts to the left, run at full speed toward the main chest bone."

"Use the momentum of its collapse to launch ourselves out."

Zhao Mengmeng glanced down at the dense cluster of snapping, iron-toothed giant mouths.

"Is there really a foothold?"

"Yes."

Below, the lead crocodile surfaced from the mud.

It swam to the back-left of the skeleton and bit down hard on the cracked support bone.

Its massive body pulled with immense force.

Crack!

The skeletal leg snapped.

The mammoth skeleton tilted to the left.

"Go!"

Lin Ye grabbed Zhao Mengmeng's shoulder strap and dashed toward the main chest bone against the direction of the tilt.

The decaying bones beneath their feet snapped in rapid succession.

A rib Zhao Mengmeng had just stepped on was crushed into bone dust by a crocodile that lunged upward.

The iron teeth snapped shut right against the sole of her boot, shearing off half of the rubber sole.

Lin Ye didn't look back.

The main wire of the Abyss Thorn shot out violently, wrapping tightly around the main chest beam.

The engine spun furiously, forcing their sprint speed to its absolute limit.

The white powder was whipped into a vortex by the airflow of the collapsing skeleton.

The two stepped through the air amidst the pale dust.

The bullet comments in the Great Xia Live Stream came to a complete halt.

They reached the main chest beam.

Lin Ye stomped heavily on the spot illuminated by the green light.

The bony beam sank abruptly.

Before the rebound force could transfer, the lead crocodile burst from the mud, its giant mouth snapping shut in midair, aiming for the lower edge of the ribcage.

Lin Ye thrust his horizontal saber out violently with his right hand.

The tip of the blade wedged into a crack in the bony beam.

The direction of the skeleton's rebound was forced half a foot off course.

Just that half a foot made all the difference.

The two were launched by the terrifying force, flying straight toward the alloy spine twenty meters away.

Having lost its supporting point, the mammoth skeleton disintegrated on the spot.

Tons of decaying bones crashed into the Iron Swamp.

The crocodile pack below fell into a frenzy, tearing into one another.

In midair, Lin Ye raised his right arm.

It jammed.

The pale rust powder had formed a crust, causing the Dark Weaver's shoot action of the main wire to be half a beat slow.

A miss by a hair's breadth.

The anchor failed to grip the alloy spine, only scraping a shower of golden sparks off the iron casing.

"We missed!" Zhao Mengmeng's body began to fall.

Lin Ye forced his Left Eye open.

His vision was filled with deathly red.

Around the alloy spine, a total of five crocodiles had long been lying in ambush beneath the mud.

Just waiting for them to fall.

The only green sign of life was hidden on a thin, broken steel rib at the base of the spine.

It was extremely low and extremely narrow.

Lin Ye swept out his right arm's secondary wire, wrapping it tightly around Zhao Mengmeng's belt.

With his left hand, he stabbed his horizontal saber downward at an angle, wedging it perfectly into a thick, decaying bone falling alongside them.

They plummeted, brushing right past the edge of the alloy spine.

Bang!

Two pairs of combat boots slammed heavily onto the broken steel rib.

The thick steel rib bent to a terrifying angle under their weight.

Below, a crocodile's giant mouth was less than two inches from Zhao Mengmeng's calf.

The pungent stench of bloody rust rushed straight at their faces.

Lin Ye erupted with power once again, utilizing the rebound force of the steel rib.

The Dark Weaver shot out again, pinning itself firmly into the side of the spine above.

The winch retracted, and the two flipped onto the metal column.

Zhao Mengmeng knelt on one knee, not even having time to catch her breath.

Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet sank.

The inside of this alloy spine had long been hollowed out by corrosion.

It couldn't support the weight of the two of them at all.

The crocodile pack beneath the Iron Swamp rammed it violently once more.

In the blink of an eye, the muddy water flooded over the base of the column.

Lin Ye's Left Eye throbbed with intense pain, and the edges of his vision began to go dark.

He forced it open for another half-second.

Thirty-five meters ahead, there was a green light of life at the edge of the upturned mechanical ship hull.

Meanwhile, the area below the entire path was a deathly red blind zone filled with swimming crocodiles.

Lin Ye squeezed his Left Eye shut, drew his horizontal saber, and scraped it harshly against his Dark Weaver bracer.

The blade sliced through the solidified crust of powder.

Zhao Mengmeng gripped her bronze rod tightly.

"Run?"

"Shut up and keep up."

The alloy spine sank into the iron mud.

The two figures dashed once again into the depths of the pale dust.

Behind them.

Dozens of giant mouths covered in barbs snapped shut with a resounding crash.