Chapter 140: Queen

"Is that so?"

Just as the rhinoceros warned, the monster’s arms were absurdly long — each one thick as a tree trunk, tipped with claws like butcher’s hooks. A hideous grin split its face as it snatched a beastman warrior off the ground, hoisting him up like a rag doll.

’Not on my watch.’ Ethan kicked off the ground and closed the distance in three strides. He swung the Holy Sword at the Ravager’s arm with everything he had.

Slash!

The blade bit deep through muscle and sinew. The Ravager howled — a sound like cracking stone — and dropped the beastman. Its vicious red eyes locked onto Ethan.

"Bring it on." He flicked the blood from his sword and settled into a low stance, the Holy Sword leveled at the creature’s chest.

The Ravager sneered, flexed its remaining good arm, and lunged.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Ethan met every swipe blow for blow, the Holy Sword ringing against the Ravager’s iron-hard claws, sparks flew with each collision, bright enough to light the surrounding dirt. The beastmen fighting nearby stopped to stare.

The longer they fought, the more alarmed the Ravager grew. ’How can this human be this strong? His strength actually exceeds mine? Impossible — he’s just a human, a weak, frail human!’

Slash!

The Ravager overextended. Its guard dropped for half a heartbeat. Ethan drove the Holy Sword straight at its throat.

Squelch!

The blade punched clean through. The Ravager’s eyes went wide — then empty. Its massive body went slack, sagged forward, and hit the ground with a heavy thud. Black mist poured from the wound, eating away at the corpse until nothing remained but scorched earth and a single glowing mana crystal.

"Oohraaaahhh!"

"The human took down the Ravager,"

"Charge!!"

Morale soared. The Ravager’s death lit a fire under the beastmen. They fought with renewed fury, pushing the monsters back. The tide was turning.

And then, from the sky, a voice rang out. "The Ravager Lord has been eliminated."

Without their leader, the monster army collapsed into chaos. They scattered in every direction like startled animals.

"Pursue them! Don’t let a single one escape."

The beastmen chased down the fleeing monsters, hunting every last one. The battle ended in victory.

Although the Ravager Lord was gone, the remaining monsters were still numerous enough to drag the fight on for hours, Ethan and Pearl had to step in again with their wide-area attacks — Wrath of the Earth from below, Meteor Summon from above — before the horde was finally shattered and scattered.

"Good work! Hahaha!" The task force deserved the lion’s share of credit, but many beastmen considered Ethan’s group the real difference-maker, they had been passing through — strangers with no obligation to fight — yet they had thrown themselves in without a moment’s hesitation. That was something the western beastmen would remember for a long, long time.

"Come! Come! Drink!" Rhazak stumbled over carrying a large jug of fruit wine, grinning from ear to ear despite the wounds covering his arms and chest. He pressed the jug into Ethan’s hands.

He scooped Liora up and set her on his shoulder, she looked down at him, expressionless, but didn’t protest. Rhazak raised the jug and roared for the whole camp to hear, "It’s thanks to you that we won this victory!"

In any battle, losses were inevitable, without Ethan’s cooking boosting their strength, the magical support from Ethan and Pearl, and Zharok single-handedly killing that high-tier guard, casualties would have been far worse. Every beastman knew it. Rhazak’s words were well earned.

"Everyone fought hard. I merely pitched in."

"No. We will remember what you did — all of us. By the way, this is for you, bring it over."

A tiger beastman from the task force stepped forward holding a block of black metal. It gleamed with a cold, eerie light, and the air around it seemed to hum faintly.

Ethan took it, Pearl gasped. "This is Ravager Black Iron, meow~"

"You know what it is?"

"Of course, meow, powerful Ravagers grow a special metal inside their bodies to protect their hearts, meow! That metal is Ravager Black Iron — incredibly hard, incredibly rare, meow!"

"That’s right." Rhazak recalled how Ethan had used scrap metal from the stronghold to forge quick equipment for the task force before the battle, the blades and spearheads he had hammered out in a single night had held up through the entire fight.

"Your hands are skilled, and it seems you can imbue items with special power."

He placed the Ravager Black Iron firmly into Ethan’s hands. "I hope this will be of use to you."

"Such a precious item... You should keep it."

"You, an outsider, risked your life for us. If we were stingy with something like this, that would be completely unreasonable, wouldn’t you say?"

"That’s right!"

"He made us all that food, too — a piece of Ravager Black Iron is nothing!" The beastmen chimed in from every direction.

At that moment, Ethan was preparing a lavish feast to celebrate the victory. Every beastman eating his food was deeply grateful.

"We fought together, we eat together, we drink together — that makes us friends, no yours or mine among friends! From now on, you are a friend of the west! If you ever run into trouble, come find us — we will go through fire and water without hesitation." Rhazak declared, voice firm and unquestionable.

An alliance with the western beastmen was a very good thing, Ethan had allies in the central forest, the north, and the south, adding the west meant friends in every corner of the Great Forest, if trouble came, they could call on each other, if trade opened up, everyone would benefit, looking at the sincere faces around him, Ethan raised the jug of wine. "I look forward to your support."

"Hahaha, by the way, my friend — I have some good news for you."

"What good news?"

"Aren’t you going to find the merfolk? When you meet them, give them this." Rhazak handed Ethan a piece of shriveled jerky.

Ethan took it, confused.

Rhazak smiled. "This is a miracle cure that can heal their Queen."

"Mermaid Queen?" That was unexpected. Beastmen usually lived in tribes, a queen was something new entirely.

"The merfolk are different from other beastmen. They are a unified race."

That made sense — the ocean was vast, and the merfolk population probably large.

"Their Queen is sick?"

"That’s right." It had started a few months ago.

Aside from the monster rampage, the west had always been peaceful — until an uninvited visitor broke the quiet. ℴℴ𝘮

It was a turtle beastman from the western coast, Beastmen rarely left their own territories, so a turtle beastman appearing this far inland immediately drew attention, the other beastmen gathered around him, asking his purpose.

While eating fruits they offered, the turtle beastman explained, he was searching for the liver of a Blood Rabbit.

"What is a Blood Rabbit?" Ethan had encountered his share of rare creatures, but this name was new.

Pearl, as usual, had the answer. "A Blood Rabbit is a rabbit-like high-tier monster covered head to tail in blood-red fur, meow. It’s about the size of our cabin, meow."

"A high-tier monster? On the same level as a Wyrm or a Ravager Lord?"

"That’s right, meow. If a monster that devoured Chaos Fragments mutated into a Blood Rabbit, everything around it would be devastated, meow."

"Why?"

"Because a Blood Rabbit devours all plant life, meow. Flowers, grass, trees, fruits, vegetables — it eats anything and everything. Every leaf, every root. It strips the land bare, meow."

"Not only that," Rhazak added, leaning forward, "its digestion speed is incredible, there was once a dense forest — old-growth, hundreds of years standing — that was completely devoured in a matter of days. By the time anyone noticed, there was nothing left but dirt and rock."

’That’s terrifying, an upgraded locust.’ Even on Earth with modern technology, locust plagues were catastrophic, a creature that could do the same thing but was also a high-tier monster capable of fighting a Wyrm or a Ravager Lord? The thought made Ethan’s stomach tighten.

"And then?" Ethan asked.

Rhazak continued, the turtle beastman had been searching for a Blood Rabbit’s liver, but the western beastmen found the request nearly impossible to fulfill, the moment they found any trace of a Blood Rabbit, their first and only instinct was to exterminate it, nobody had ever thought to harvest the liver — the idea of keeping any part of such a destructive creature was unthinkable.

The turtle beastman had left disappointed, the Mermaid Queen had fallen gravely ill with a wasting sickness, and only a Blood Rabbit’s liver could cure her, he had searched every corner of the west and found nothing at all.

"That’s the story."

"Then what is this?" Ethan asked, pointing at the piece of jerky in Rhazak’s hand.

Rhazak patted his broad chest with one massive paw and grinned, clearly pleased with himself for having held onto it all this time. "I once exterminated a Blood Rabbit together with Lady Witch, at the time, she told me to take out the liver and keep it, saying it would be useful someday."