Chapter 1 A Clang

The high-frequency cutting blade struck something. The blade itself followed the arc of the Kui Ox mech's arm, slamming heavily into the ground and silently slicing it open.

Meanwhile, two large trees on either side of Li Ang and the others suddenly exploded, sending wood chips flying in all directions.

This is...

Li Ang scanned his surroundings and saw a sharp steel rebar inserted into the severed trunk of each tree.

The upper part of the rebar was black, the lower part brown, and the middle was cleanly broken, showing signs of being cut off by the high-frequency cutting blade.

"Something's coming from ahead."

Ding Zhensi's voice rang out from the Kui Ox mech. His expression was stern, his eyes fixed on the massive shadow projected on the display panel by the thermal radiation sensor.

Crack, crack—

As if to confirm his words, a loud and chaotic sound of breaking branches came from the dense forest ahead.

Branches snapped, accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of trees splintering. Trunks that would take several people to encircle crashed to either side, shaking dew and yellowed leaves onto the ground.

Bang!

A towering tree in front was suddenly thrown aside, and a wild boar the size of a truck charged out of the depths of the dense forest, appearing in everyone's sight.

The boar's head was disproportionately large compared to its body, accounting for a third of its total length.

Its mouth contained four protruding, razor-sharp tusks. It was dark brown all over, with sharp spines growing on its back, the shape and color of which matched the steel rebars the Kui Ox mech had just struck.

Overall, it looked like a hybrid of a warthog and a porcupine (the former being an even-toed ungulate, the latter a rodent).

The giant boar was not in good condition. Several wooden spears pierced its mouth, and its tough, dark brown skin was covered in scars and blood.

Its black eyes, glancing backward, were filled with terror, as if it were fleeing from something terrifying.

Thump!

The boar shook its head and flung away the broken tree trunk stuck in its tusks. Turning its head, it finally saw Li Ang and the others blocking its path. It quickly lowered its head, seemingly intending to send the players flying.

The spines covering its body bristled, pointing forward like a peacock's tail, ready to be launched at any moment.

A magical beast from the forest?

Li Ang glanced at it. The beast's strength was actually not bad. Being able to run at high speed for a long time with a truck-like size and weight under Earth-like gravity was already beyond the scope of ordinary life, bordering on the supernatural.

It was probably on par with the Phinks ant beast in his [Sub-Master Ball].

However, if it wanted to fight against players... it was still lacking.

Li Ang and the others didn't even move their feet, simply standing still.

Ding Zhensi, at the very front, took a deep breath and controlled the Kui Ox mech. He put away the Gatling gun on his left arm and took out a circular tortoise shell shield with a diameter of one meter, a green background, and a Xuanwu pattern from his backpack, holding it in his hand.

[Name: Tortoise Divination Entanglement]
[Type: Armor]
[Quality: Perfect]
[Effect: Ren Gui Auspicious Omen. Automatically adjusts the shield's angle to minimize damage and impact from at least 3 high-intensity attacks.]
[Consumption: 400 Spirit Power, 400 Stamina]
[Cooldown: 10 minutes]
[Requirements: Strength attribute greater than or equal to 13 points, Tortoise Divination result of Auspicious or Very Auspicious, Great Auspicious every 24 hours]
[Note: If the divination result is Auspicious, the Ren Gui Auspicious Omen effect will work on three attacks. Very Auspicious grants five, and Great Auspicious grants seven.]
[Note: Supreme good is like water, neither lead nor tin, nor of the class of many stones; water is the divine water of the River Cart.]

This tortoise shell shield looked like a shield, and functioned like a shield, but it was actually a divination tool.

The user had to perform a divination with the tortoise shell shield every day. Only when the divination result was "Auspicious" could the shield's effect be used—this could be considered a restriction on the shield's powerful ability to automatically reduce damage.

The Kui Ox mech held the shield in its left hand, bent its back, lowered its center of gravity, and braced its right hand holding the high-frequency cutting blade against its left wrist, blocking in front of the porcupine like an unyielding reef in a raging storm.

Bang!

The truck-sized giant boar slammed into the tortoise shell shield.

Its snout was quickly flattened, its tusks snapped off, and its hind legs were raised high. Its entire body briefly flew off the ground.

The Kui Ox mech holding the tortoise shell shield still stood firmly on the ground, its footprints dragging back less than half a meter.

Thump!

The giant boar's massive body crashed heavily to the ground. The spines that had already been sticking out all over its body seemed to have triggered a switch, exploding out like dense crossbow bolts.

The sound of them piercing through the air was endless.

The trees surrounding the players were hit and shattered, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

"What a move, Pear Blossom Needle Storm."

Li Ang praised, his hands hanging at his sides, showing no intention of moving—his teammates all took action. Amberlee drew the Tidecaller pirate cutlass and casually slashed at a vine hanging down beside her.

This triggered the Tidecaller's splash attack effect, shattering most of the porcupine's spines flying toward them.

The few spines that weren't intercepted and shattered were also melted away by a corrosive light curtain released by Hohenheim with a casual wave of his hand.

The porcupine's spines could easily pierce through heavy armored vehicles in the real world, and their power exceeded most anti-materiel rifles, but for players of their level, it was only a question of whether they wanted to intercept them, and what the cost of interception would be.

The boar, which had fallen to the ground on all fours, was clearly not lightly injured. It shook its head vigorously and barely managed to stand up.

Its black eyes focused on the players, and its single-threaded brain seemed to have forgotten the fear from before, replaced by rage.

"Roar!"

It roared, its broken tusks growing rapidly, and its body, which had already fired all its spines, grew sharp, rebar-like thorns once more.

"Not bad self-healing ability..."

Hohenheim frowned slightly. The pages of the Sand Book in his hand moved without wind, automatically turning to a certain page in the book.

Just as he was about to cast a spell to capture this large creature he had found in the forest alive, a narrow black shadow shot out from the depths of the dense forest, jumping back and forth between the tree trunks, dragging out a z-shaped afterimage, so fast that it was almost impossible to see its specific trajectory.

"Hmm?"

This time, not only did Ding Zhensi's expression change drastically, but Hohenheim and David's faces also shifted slightly.

The former flipped through the pages of his book, rapidly releasing several defensive spells in a short breath to defend against a possible fierce attack.

The latter drew the Judge's spear, holding it upside down in the palm of his right hand, ready to throw it and pierce through the enemy at any time.

However, before they could make any further moves, the black shadow had already crossed a hundred meters and stopped abruptly in the sky above the boar's head.