Chapter 0023: Escaping Death

As the saying goes, a thief never leaves empty-handed! Having risked his life to escape to this place, it would be an affront to Simba’s “generous hospitality” if he were to turn around and leave immediately.

Grimm summoned his elemental vision, scanning the cavern like a treasure hunter. In the heaps of miscellaneous items piled like small mountains, there was little that caught his eye. These swamp-dwelling hags had little opportunity to amass anything of true value. Though their collection was plentiful, only a handful of items were truly worth taking.

Seven or eight top-grade blood sacs, gleaming red like pearls; a shattered piece of a witch’s implement, its original form unrecognizable; a fist-sized chunk of metal ore, glowing with an uncanny blue light; an egg-sized, mysterious white stone… Without hesitation, Grimm stuffed them all into his pouch.

He had specifically chosen these items for the faint traces of elemental energy they bore. As for the rest of the clutter, Grimm abandoned them without a second thought. He was still fleeing for his life, after all; the more he carried, the slimmer his chances of escape.

The hags’ lair had more than one tunnel leading in and out; clearly, their leader Simba understood well the wisdom of a wily rabbit with three burrows. But today, it was Grimm, an amateur thief, who would reap the rewards. After orienting himself, he plunged into a damp tunnel leading away from the central mire.

Some time later, in another mud pool over a hundred meters from the central swamp, a strange human head emerged. Thick, filthy sludge slid down from his scalp as Grimm revealed only his eyes and nostrils, silently observing the distance.

Normally, this pool would have been home to more hags, but they had been drawn to the distant battle, joining the fray at Simba’s furious command. Thus, Grimm slipped through the area as if no one were there to stop him.

The distant battle raged beneath the murky, viscous surface. Only the bubbling of the muddy water betrayed the chaos below; the actual conflict was hidden from view. Grimm had no desire to see that terrifying little girl again, so he immediately turned and swam for the edge of the swamp.

Let Alice’s sinister spatial attacks be the hags’ problem!

But as he stealthily reached the bank, about to scramble ashore, the muck exploded not far behind him. A massive swamp crocodile burst forth, jaws wide, lunging straight for him. The attack came so suddenly—and in such treacherous terrain—that the beast’s ambush was perfectly concealed. Only at the very last instant did Grimm receive a frantic warning from his bio-chip.

A rapid series of rolls and contortions saved him by a hair's breadth from the creature’s lethal bite. Its maw, bristling with razor-sharp fangs, snapped shut where his waist had just been. The gust and the stench of decay made Grimm’s hair stand on end.

Had he not dodged at the bio-chip’s urgent prompt, the savage crocodile would surely have bitten him in half. All his grand ambitions would have been for naught.

Taking advantage of the monster’s failed strike, Grimm scrambled up the muddy bank to solid ground. He spun around and unleashed a swift, vicious Flame Arrow, aimed straight into the beast’s open jaws.

His previously prepared “Flame Arrow” spell had already been solidified, allowing him to cast it without delay.

A roaring burst of elemental fire engulfed the crocodile’s head, the violent explosion flinging teeth and shards of flesh across the shore in a gruesome “downpour.” Writhing in agony, the beast’s massive body lashed up waves of mud several meters high, making a mess of the bank.

Grimm had chosen Flame Arrow over Fireball as his first ranged spell for good reason: besides elemental damage, Flame Arrow also inflicted partial physical harm—a crucial advantage against monsters with high resistances.

Of course, Grimm would never admit that the real reason he abandoned Fireball was its daunting complexity: a staggering fifty-four runic circuits.

Yet his vengeful attack had inevitably exposed his position.

“Well, well, so that’s where you’re hiding! Don’t think you can get away…” A sharp, piercing voice echoed from afar. The terrifying Alice had, against all odds, forced her way through the spatial barrier at the central swamp and now bellowed at Grimm from a distance.

But in the very next second, a long whip woven from special swamp vines lashed out, coiling tightly around the transparent shield around Alice. The little girl had barely emerged when she was pinned in place.

Countless hags, wild beasts undaunted by death, hurled themselves at the spatial barrier. Their sharp claws and vicious bites could not breach the transparent defense, so more of them clung to the shield, trying to drag this hated human—who had slain so many of their kin—back into the mire.

For a time, it was as if dumplings were being dropped into a pot: innumerable hags swarmed the transparent shield, clambering over their companions, bursting from the water, and crashing madly into the struggling Alice. The urgency to be free drove Alice to a fury beyond words.

Under her desperate command, visible rifts in space snaked around the shield like divine blades. Any hag that brushed against a spatial rift—be it a limb or a thick, resilient body—was silently split in two, their dark purple blood spraying everywhere.

Even so, the hags pressed their assault, showing not a hint of fear.

Simba’s giant lizard slithered close for a sneak attack, its tail slamming into Alice’s shield and plunging most of her body back into the mud. The violent shock made Alice’s small frame cough up blood.

And so, across the broad expanse of the swamp, Alice and the mob of hags waged their desperate struggle, while Grimm, beset by the swamp crocodile’s relentless attacks, faced peril at every turn.

The earlier emergency Flame Arrow had mangled the giant crocodile’s maw, but such wounds were hardly fatal for a creature so savage and resilient. In its rage, the beast locked its hatred onto Grimm, hauling its massive, scaly body out of the swamp to launch assault after assault.

Blasts of sluggish energy beams shot toward Grimm, forcing him to dodge frantically. These damned swamp creatures often possessed earth-based abilities, not to mention their tough hides and sharp claws. Fighting them in this muddy morass was a recipe for being dragged to death.

Worse, the bio-chip’s sensors detected shifting lines on the surface of nearby pools—signs of more aquatic monsters closing in on the battlefield.

Damn it, I’ve stumbled into a monster nest!

Grimm cursed under his breath as he dodged the crocodile’s relentless attacks, guided only by the chip’s persistent alerts.

He was not so much on the bank as on a narrow, muddy ridge between two swamps. The soil was loose; every step sank to the ankle. To evade a swamp crocodile in such conditions was nearly impossible—unless he could fly, like Alice.

Now was not the time to regret not having learned the Airborne spell. Grimm staggered through the muck, his heart sinking as he watched more and more ripples drawing close. He clutched his magical talisman, which he had already activated countless times, all to no avail.

Normally, the swamp monsters would fear a wizard’s power, but today their bloodlust had overruled their caution. There was no intimidating them now.

A foul wind blasted toward him. Murky water sprayed in all directions as two enormous crocodiles erupted from the depths, their monstrous jaws gaping wide enough to swallow Grimm whole, snapping at him from both front and rear.

He stared in horror at the reeking maws, the glinting fangs, the bottomless gullets… The bio-chip’s alarms screamed in his mind, but there seemed no way out.

As Grimm squeezed his eyes shut, resigned to his fate, his body jolted—suddenly he was soaring, as if riding the clouds.

The shocking clatter of jaws snapping shut rang in his ears, but Grimm had escaped by a hair’s breadth, skimming over the water at incredible speed as the beasts roared in frustration.

What just happened?

Grimm opened his eyes in disbelief, seeing the churning waters flashing beneath his feet. Above his head came the frantic beating of wings.

He looked up and was startled to see a giant humanoid bat laboriously carrying him through the air.

Yes, laboriously! Though its wings stretched four or five meters wide, the creature itself was slender and frail. Flying alone, it would be untroubled—but bearing Grimm’s weight, it struggled.

A new swamp monster? Of course not. Grimm sensed a faint aura of magic and a trace of familiar scent. With the bio-chip’s help, a woman’s face surfaced in his mind, both familiar and strange.