Chapter 55: Tangling devil’s snare
Translated by: CHua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
Sheyan glanced back, to his horror he saw Phelps had fallen to the back of the pack. His eyes were desperate, frantic and even contained a chilling bone deep unwillingness. Sheyan felt an enormous tugging at his heart. Previously, before entering the realm, wasn’t I the same being chased by that group of hooligans?
Reflecting on that, Sheyan immediately darted to Phelps’s side and pulled him by the arm, dragging him as they advanced. Phelps had a grateful look while continuing to run for his life. At this time, Deke also rebounded back as he lent an arm to the other support contestant! As the saying goes, when there are winners there are losers. The last supporter naturally fell behind, before he could say anything, a massive shadow with a tail cast over him before a pungent odour pierced into his nose! The rest of the black figures caught up, before a painful shriek turned to mournful wails. Lastly was the piercing sound of flesh ripping and muffled sounds of bones breaking.
At this moment, the frantically running Phelps managed to cough out his words under the heavy panting.
“Seaman, continue running. Don’t look up or don’t show any startled expressions. The following things i’m about to tell you are extremely important, I reckon we’ll definitely die here! I’m afraid the reason why the Metals professor and Fanu have brought us here, was to use our lives as bait for the snares and mechanisms here.”
“Fanu doesn’t know that I know about these high level beasts. That’s why he could spew such lies. He doesn’t know that during my stint at the pet shop, I acquired much knowledge. They are not chinese crocodiles but black serpent alligators. They were using the stream’s temperature to hatch their eggs. They are extremely aggressive and violent, and will wildly attack anything that approaches them. But Fanu and him would have to waste much time clearing up these beasts, and definitely won’t catch up to the Banks Syndicate.”
Presently, sounds of the black serpent alligators pursuing had vanished. Everyone halted as they panted heavily, drinking some water to recover their strength. Phelps kept his lips sealed. But even though Deke and the others weren’t aware of Fanu’s deceit, they were not fools. Thinking back carefully, a raging suspicion formed in their hearts.
Naturally, the Metals professor had caught onto the awkward atmosphere of his party. He quickly offered.
“Next, me and Fanu will lead the way.”
After speaking he immediately advanced.
At present, their retreat path had been obstructed by the black serpent alligators. They couldn’t even retreat if they wanted to. Therefore, they reluctantly continued forward.
After walking for nearly an hour, that warm stream had ended. Even stranger was the fact the glowing lining on the walls had died out. Ahead of them was an unfathomable darkness. Walking till here, the most loyal Deke halted and muttered to the Metals professor.
“Professor, we shouldn’t carry on.”
The Metals professor turned around, glaring grimly.
“With me and Fanu leading the way, what are you scared of?”
Previously the contestant whom Deke rescued had already touched death’s doors. Faced with another immense danger, he couldn’t care much about the Metals professor’s authority as he argued.
“Did others lead the road previously? Didn’t someone die in the end? Professor, if you have the relevant information please take it out for us to discuss. Truthfully speaking, everyone is already prepared to die in this realm, but we at least want to die with a reason!”
The Metals professor deathly stared at him for a full 5 minutes, like a wolf eyeing a sheep. Beads of perspiration dripped profusely from that contestant’s forehead. At this moment, Phelps stood out with a cold voice.
“What he says is right.”
Deke didn’t have any expression, he only hugged his bow and sat down, using his body language to express his frustration.
Sheyan shrugged his shoulders, unfolding his hands and laughed.
“This desolated place is already so dangerous. To walk into that darkness is essentially taking our lives for granted. I don’t approve of staying here, but i feel we need something to illuminate the area.”
“No lights.” Fanu coldly replied. “Ahead of us is the devil’s snare district. They are immune to all damages, the tighter one resist, the tighter it will grip! But once you don’t struggle, it will release you. But once it interacts with any light forms, its horrendous vines would be agitated and crazily surge forward, tightly seizing you! When that happens, there is no hope for escape!”
“You should all be aware of the storyline scenario right? Dumbledore similarly used those vines to guard the philosopher’s stone. But the devil’s snare growing in Hogwarts cell was transplanted at the last minute, its scale is only the a tiny fraction. Therefore, after exposing to Hermione’s magic illumination, it instantly withered. But over here….. The devil’s snare have grown for thousands of years. If anyone dares to shine a light at it, he would instantly receive the scariest retaliation of the devil!
Phelps suddenly interrupted.
“Devil’s snare are plants with stubborn invasive personalities. In the storyline, the devil’s snare was placed underneath the cerberus nest. It used the cerberus excretion as food. But in this place, what is the devil’s snare going to eat?”
After saying these words. Fanu’s glare was like two needles piercing into Phelps’s face. Phelps then ignorantly released a grin.
“It’s a beetle! That beetle appears like that of the egyptian scarab. They use the devil’s snare as a nest to protect their larva. Moreover, there’s a stream here, these beetles can hunt for marine organisms. Their excretions can support the devil’s snare existence. If we charge in, most of us would be able to survive. But, there will be one or two covered in these scarabs, enduring the agony of parasitic eggs laid in their organs, before they turn insane and die!”
After Phelps released this statement, unless the other 3 were idiots, they would rather directly die here then suffer such torture! Obviously there weren’t willing to take a step forward. The Metals professor then stepped forward as he stared at Phelps.
“Well done, you did well. If not for your warning, then we would have lost another brother. Even though Fanu possess extensive knowledge, he hadn’t considered that part. Since that’s the case, leave the responsibility of paving the way to me.”
He then whispered towards Fanu.
“Call Iron horn out, use it to lead! Just a mere devil’s snare would not be able to resist its sheer brute force!”
Metals professor then waved his hand, most probably casting an illumination spell. Concurrently, everyone could see a layer of black threatening movements covering the cave’s ending, occupying at least thousands of square metres, scattering out on both sides. It was hard to determine any distinct characteristics, but more specifically, magnifying a cancerous cells in the human body by hundred thousands of times should to its features.
As the light shone onto the devil’s snare, it started boiling up like a viscous liquid boiling. Following that, countless stocky black tentacles danced around frenziedly! It really looked like a hellish image, like the end of the world. And on the ground before the devil’s snare, thousands of black dots swarmed around – probably the scarabs that Phelps mentioned.
That bone plated stegosaurus was extremely violent. Upon being summoned, he roared out shaking the place, as it stomped the ground with its enormous hoofs. It was like a sports car accelerating at full throttle. After Fanu and the Metals professor boarded it, it charged forward fanatically! The floor shook beneath Iron horn’s acceleration. ‘Thump Thump Thump” as it trampled over the ground. This historic beast mindlessly buried its head forward as it charged!
Sheyan and the rest didn’t dare to delay, the hurriedly followed.
That devil’s snare was actually that frightening. After the stegosaurus ridiculous beastly strength could only penetrate for 50 metres before being tightly coiled and bound by the powerful vines. At this time, the Metals professor cast a powerful magic ability as a bright glow appeared, shining on the devil’s snare as its vines squirmed violently and emitted white fumes. Iron horn was able to charge a further 10 metres.
Yet the Metals professor was not of the same calibre as Dumbledore. The bright light could only persist for 5-6 seconds, before the devil’s snare coiled back. They could only rely on the stegosaurus repeated aggressive struggling, before finally breaking out of the devil’s snare encirclement. But the stegosaurus, Iron horn, also suffered greatly as numerous bone plates were ripped off as it leaned on the ground and wailed incessantly. The Metals professor who caste close to 20 glows of light was also mentally drained. He violent panted, even if he had some MP left, it was only a slight trickles.
Even the 4 men following behind suffered a casualty. While Deke was following the stegosaurus, an accident occurred. Several scarabs dropped from the stegosaurus and broke through his defence, causing him to fall to the ground. He could only do his utmost to prevent the scarabs from entering his body.
Seeing that he was about to be engulfed, the support contestant he rescued darted out and released a fireball to slay the scarabs. Instead, that fireball agitated the devil’s snare! Instantaneously, that contestant was gripped by the devil’s snare vines. Although he followed Fanu’s advice and didn’t resist, the surrounding scarabs swamped him like insatiable ants.