thefictionvixens Chapter 15 Stitching Together the Corpse Horde
Chapter 15 Stitching Together the Corpse Horde
With his newly repaired carapace and spider spears, Luo Lan climbed back to the intact iron gate.
Raising one of its front legs, the tip of the [Rusty Steel Spider Spear] aimed at the iron gate and tentatively stabbed it.
"call out--"
The first strike alone left a deep mark on the iron gate, while Luo Lan's newly formed spider spear remained unharmed and did not crack again.
Seeing this, Luo Lan did not hesitate any longer. He adjusted his angle, supported himself on the ground with his eight limbs, and began to swing his forelegs rhythmically.
"Click—click!"
With a crisp snapping sound, the thick iron bar, strong enough to withstand the charge of the giant armored spider, broke in two like rotten wood before the enhanced cutting force of the [Rusty Steel Spider Spear]. The cut wasn't perfectly smooth, but the sharpness of the spider spear was already evident.
The iron gate wobbled a few times, then tilted and fell to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Instead of rushing in, Luo Lan turned around and climbed back into the underground palace hall.
In the hall, there was a pile of rubble that Luo Lan had used to imprison several young armored spiders.
With a flick of its sharp spider spear, several heavy pebbles were violently flung away. Inside the stone circle, several young spiderlings, who had been cowering in fear, were finally freed.
These little creatures were so frightened that they frantically clawed at each other with their eight legs. Luo Lan used his thick, long limbs to block their retreat, gathered several young spiders together, and drove them toward the iron gate.
Following the swarm of tiny insects that served as scouts, they slowly advanced through the T-shaped passageway of the underground palace behind the recently destroyed iron gate.
The reason Luo Lan spared these little insects was to use them as bait to probe the behavior logic of the stitched corpses.
[Disguise Shell] is activated, and now a layer of dark water ripples also appears on the dark gold shell.
Luo Lan followed at a distance behind the group of young armored spiders, occasionally activating [Heat Vision lv.1] to scan the area.
Returning to the corner of the corridor, a faceless, stitched-up corpse with grayish-white skin was slowly walking across the T-shaped intersection.
It was similar to the one Luo Lan had seen before, over two meters tall, covered in thick black stitches, with a face without features facing forward, as if looking at something, yet also as if looking at nothing at all.
The young spiderlings made no attempt to conceal their presence, crawling past its feet with considerable noise, their eight arthropod legs rustling on the ground.
The faceless, stitched-up corpse continued along its original route, completely ignoring the small insects.
No attack. No alertness. Sluggish and lethargic.
[Is it because it doesn't have facial features that it can't detect anything? Then what's it patrolling for? That's so strange...]
Luo Lan was filled with doubts. A few days ago, when he was forced into this corridor by the giant armored spiders, he was terrified by the group of faceless monsters at the corner.
I once thought these guys had incredibly sharp senses, but I never imagined they were a bunch of blind people who just sleepwalked around following a set route.
Hanging upside down in the shadows of the corridor ceiling, relying on [Grasp Bristles], Luo Lan waited for a while, watching the faceless, stitched-up corpse slowly walk away.
Once he confirmed that it had turned onto another side road, Luo Lan continued to drive the swarm of spiderlings deeper into the area.
More branching paths began to appear on the walls along the corridor, the air grew increasingly damp and cold, and messy scratches of varying depths were visible everywhere.
After dodging two or three more wandering, faceless, stitched-together corpses, Luo Lan finally discovered the second type of stitched-together corpse.
This other form of stitched corpse is completely different from the tall, thin, faceless monsters from before.
It was extremely short and stout, even bloated. Its short, thick legs moved slowly across the ground.
His skin was an unnatural purple, as if it had been soaking in water for a long time.
Its unusually large head had no nose or ears. There was only a foul-smelling mouth that split open to the side of its face, with a pool of sticky liquid trailing from between its yellowed teeth; and in the very center was an enormous, single, scarlet vertical eye that was staring intently at the end of the corridor.
This single eye is almost identical to the one on Luo Lan's body, except that its blood color is lighter.
[This is... a crawling, stitched-together corpse?]
Looking at that big eye from afar, Luo Lan immediately understood—the one eye she was using now came from this ugly thing.
Its eight legs immediately slammed on the brakes, using their gripping bristles to pin its entire body to the ceiling, ceasing all further movement.
Luo Lan knew all too well how powerful this eye was. This thing possessed [thermal vision]!
Even if you activate [camouflage shell], you might still be discovered if you move around recklessly.
After losing Luo Lan's control, the young armored spiders began to scatter and crawl around.
Some crawled into the cracks in the corner of the wall, some circled in the middle of the corridor, and one, bewildered, crawled toward the direction of the crawling stitched corpse.
The very slightest vibration was transmitted outwards along with the movement of the tiny insects.
The short, stout, stitched-up corpse, which had been slowly wriggling, stopped. Its neck twisted more than ninety degrees as it stared intently at the small insect a few meters away.
Upon seeing the "outsider," the already enormous mouth of the wriggling, stitched-together corpse opened even wider, to a frightening degree, almost tearing its entire face in two.
"Aaaaaahh ...
A shriek emanated from its throat, sharp as if metal were scraping against metal, bouncing back and forth in the underground palace corridor and spreading in all directions.
Luo Lan, hanging upside down not far away, felt his carapace trembling. The sound waves penetrated his carapace and went straight into his brain, buzzing.
[Tsk, what a loud voice.]
It doesn't possess any extraordinary power, unlike the giant centipede monster which has sonic attacks; this wriggling stitched corpse simply roars loudly.
With that huge shriek, various sounds came from the depths of the corridor: the sound of running footsteps, the sound of something being knocked over, and more and more intense shrieks echoing in the distance...
In a short while, the faceless stitched corpses that had been patrolling slowly rushed over from all directions, much faster than Luo Lan had ever seen before.
The faceless stitched-together corpses rushed into the corridor and surrounded the crawling stitched-together corpses.
The crawling stitched corpse stared at the few young armored spiders that were terrified and lying on the ground. Its scarlet single eye suddenly narrowed, and a circle of dark red light burst out from the depths of its pupil, spreading out invisible mental fluctuations.
The feeling of this mental fluctuation was somewhat similar to Luo Lan's [Terror Lv.3], but not quite the same, and it covered all the faceless stitched corpses present.
All the faceless, stitched-up corpses started moving at the same time.
They charged toward the scattered young spiderlings, raising their bony protuberances high and slamming them down with a whooshing sound.
The first blow shattered the spiderling's carapace, splattering green juice and fragments of soft tissue all over the ground.
But the faceless body stitching didn't stop.
One, two, three...
He kept smashing and hitting, his hands falling repeatedly, smashing the mangled flesh, no longer recognizable as the young spiderling, into the ground, creating dents in the stone slab.
Until a glimmer of light flashed again in the single eye of the crawling, stitched-together corpse.
The faceless, stitched-up corpses stopped simultaneously, their hands frozen in mid-air before slowly retracting.
They turned stiffly, ignoring the deep crater behind them, and continued their patrol route, disappearing into the shadows of the corridor.
[Good heavens, these seemingly lifeless, stitched-together corpses are actually quite ruthless.]
Luo Lan mentally reviewed the scene she had just witnessed and began to understand the basic logic behind the stitched-up corpses' actions:
The crawling stitched corpse searches for enemies, shrieks to alert, issues mental commands, the faceless stitched corpse attacks wildly, and resumes patrolling after eliminating enemies.