Chapter 537: Chapter 272: Desecrating Steel and Corrupt Flesh
The gaps between the buildings should have led deeper into Grey Valley, but the crush of ruins on both sides turns it into a cramped narrow path.
The sky hidden by gray mist and stone dust, the dangerously suspended brick walls, the shadows silently stretching across the ground, and the ghostly wails echoing through the air in the dead silence, twisted into shrill gusts through the crumbling walls...
This small square feels like a dead town, strangled at the throat.
Everywhere you look is suffused with a stifling and decaying atmosphere.
The strange and abrupt environment is just one aspect of it.
What truly halted the Blood Blade Squad was in the plaza center, a sight at first glance that engendered dread—a colossal, twisted figure composed of desecrated steel and corrupt flesh.
A knight.
An armored knight, clad in full heavy armor.
Perhaps in life, he made outstanding contributions on behalf of himself, his lord, and the commoners of his domain, earning this expensive and sturdy armor through his esteemed merits, a figure admired and revered by the masses.
Yet now, he has become a mere corpse.
A corpse, utterly transformed, unrecognizable.
The knight’s platemail, symbolizing honor and loyalty, was forced open in a grotesque distortion, like a moldy, bloated dough. Layers of pale, decaying flesh seeped out from the gaps between iron plates, suffused with nauseating, oily grease.
Chains and cracked rivets barely constrained the armor deeply embedded in folds of flesh, resembling maggots wrapped around the massive, greasy, repulsive body.
Layers of a bloated belly nearly hung to the ground, with purple-blue veins writhing like waves, emanating a foul stench.
The fountain, once a source of refreshing water for the town’s folk, now serves as the pale throne for this decaying corpse, crushed and fragmented amidst grease and rusty iron.
Stone Belly couldn’t measure the exact size of this corpse, but even seated in the pond, it was a head taller than the tallest half-orc in their squad.
Standing upright, its height must nearly reach three meters.
Not someone they, or anyone in the squad, could easily deal with.
Fortunately, the knight is dead, sparing them from battling him.
What truly concerns the Blood Blade Squad are the six mummified corpses scattered across the plaza in unnerving positions—kneeling, upright, or leaning at various locations.
The attire on these corpses, unlike the one recently smashed by the half-orc, varied—some donned soldier-like simple leather armor, others wore linen shirts like town’s common folk, and some were completely naked.
But they all have one thing in common, their seemingly frail yet incredibly resilient desiccated bodies with high physical resistance.
"What should we do, charge through it?"
Glancing toward the path leading deeper into Grey Valley on the other side, Mountain Dwarf Stone Belly asked their captain.
Marcus pondered, hadn’t yet replied, when Gorg, the half-orc who had been lying stiff on the ground, spoke in a tiny voice the squad had never heard from him before:
"Gorg doesn’t want to be at the front."
The beastman blood running through his veins might make him unintelligent and quick-tempered but also grants him a perception ability far surpassing ordinary people in sensing danger.
His beastly eyes stared fixedly at the massive bloated corpse in the plaza center, his instinctive awareness and aversion to the aura of danger made his fingers pressing against the ground tremble.
Evidently, this usually rash and fearless half-orc... was frightened.
Marcus was equally tense.
Given the combat strength shown by the earlier corpse, those six mummified creatures in the plaza posed a challenge that wouldn’t be easy for their squad of professional adventurers, though it wouldn’t be much of a hassle either.
What truly alarmed him was the massive knight slumped in the fountain.
Aware that this was likely the ruin left by a necromancer, Marcus was not fully convinced that the knight was completely dead, fearing it might suddenly rise as they passed by.
But since they had come this far, returning empty-handed was not something Marcus nor his teammates would agree to.
A desire for the potential treasure deeper within the ruins gleamed in Marcus’s eyes, who, after considering briefly, grit his teeth under three pairs of watching eyes and whispered:
"Proceed forward!"
"But avoid the center, we’ll circle around it from the side."
"Be cautious, don’t make any noise!"
They were all experienced professional adventurers, having encountered countless dangerous situations.
Following Marcus’s orders, a discipline and orderly manner emerged, contrary to the squad’s usual chaotic impression.
Half-orc Gorg remained at the forefront, though his stance lacked the usual arrogance and boldness, akin to a noble lady at a ball, he cautiously moved his robust legs step by step, his arms exerted silent power, muscles bulging to maintain body balance and focus.
The bulky, muscular figure resembling a mountain of flesh, with this awkward stance, created a stark contrast, appearing particularly comical.
Similarly, Marcus and Stone Belly behind him, their movements were equally cautious, unashamed of the precaution.
No one cared about these things at such a crucial moment.
Only the ranger-archer Qianli in the Blood Blade Squad showed minimal change.
With their specialty "Silent Stealth," she could walk across leaf-strewn ground without making a sound; her stealth in movement was instinctual.
Taking the opportunity to observe the colossal figure sunken in the pool.
On the deformed and expanded armor plate surface, some emblem was barely visible, likely a family crest of allegiance, but details were obscured by the grayish dust; a rusted bucket helmet atop the head, faceplate slit shrouded in darkness, the helmet looked proportionate to a normal human head, but seemed small compared to the lumps of fat around the neck.
Mighty arm deeply buried in the mud alongside the pool, with a glint of metal shine visible.
"Is that its weapon?" Qianli wondered, "Shame it’s inappropriate now; perhaps if we get a chance to pry it from the mud later, it could fetch some coin."
Just then, a strange heaviness engulfed her right foot for a flash moment, like a fleeting illusion.
An unseen force at an intricately precise moment, as her left foot landed, and right foot was about to lift, subtly clung to her foot.
Like accidentally snagging a step with her toe.
Her balance abruptly lost, swaying forward.
If she were ordinary, a strike of misfortune could have drenched her in blood.
Fortunately, Qianli’s extraordinary agility swiftly regained her balance without falling.
Still, to stabilize herself, her right foot stomped heavily rather than gracefully landing.
"Plop!"
The sudden footstep echoed across the silent plaza.
Blood Blade Squad froze on the spot.
Amid stares of disbelief from her teammates front and back, six empty gaze pits sharply turned towards them at once.
Tremors.
Stone dust fell off the bloated, odorous body, its thick arm slowly withdrew from the mud, revealing the menacing metal chain in the air.
From the faceplate slit filled with hollow darkness, two murky and blazing points of yellow light surged amidst the abrupt heavy breathing sounds!
"Prepare for battle!!!"