Chapter 332: Sheriff Chuck's Mission (2)

"Surrender?! You're the ones who should surrender! The Snake God will eventually descend and rule the earth. It's not too late to offer your faith now and beg for his forgiveness!"

"Lunatic! Absolute lunatic!"

Chuck frowned deeply, his vigilance growing. He despised these irrational religious zealots more than anything.

More often than not, these fanatics threw away their own lives and treated everyone else's as completely worthless.

Chuck looked past the snake woman. The gnoll pursuit team led by Samoru Deceptive Blade was over five hundred meters away. Given the running speed of the hyenas, Chuck and his squad needed to hold out for nearly two minutes.

Once they arrived, the combined strength of two High Tier powerhouses would reduce the risk of capture to a minimum. Chuck had an idea.

"Priest Daixunna, may I ask which deity this Snake God of yours is?"

"Mortal! His Majesty the Snake God's true name is not to be spoken so lightly!"

"Please don't misunderstand. I have no intention of offending His Majesty. I merely wish to learn about his teachings."

Up on the cliff face over ten meters above, Malu Bloodfeather paused at his words. She instantly realized Chuck's plan—he was stalling for time until Samoru Deceptive Blade could close the net.

Hearing someone ask about her god's teachings, the snake woman instinctively wanted to answer and convert a new believer for her master.

But faith had only twisted her will; it hadn't erased her intelligence. Now was clearly not the time to proselytize. Her tail lashed uneasily across the snow.

"Mortal, if you wish to serve His Majesty the Snake God, help me escape. I will explain his teachings to you then."

"But I don't know the first thing about his teachings. How do I know if His Majesty the Snake God is worth serving?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Chuck regretted them.

Questioning an evil god right to its priest's face—he was just asking to get himself killed!

Sure enough, the snake woman flew into a rage.

"Shut up, mortal! How dare you question His Majesty the Snake God's greatness?!"

Chuck's words felt like a direct insult to her faith. Her tail lashed as she charged straight at him.

"You will pay for those words!"

The situation had instantly backfired. Instead of placating his target, he had provoked her. As Chuck became the focus of her attack, Bloodclaw led the hyena pack and lunged at her.

Sinister incantations spilled rapidly from her lips. Four sickly green energy shields materialized around her, blocking the hyenas' claws. At the same time, her tail swept out, sending the hyenas behind her flying, while she somehow found the time to hurl a blast of energy at Chuck.

"Hah!"

Chuck channeled the qi in his body, wrapping it around his weapon, and shattered the incoming energy blast. The police officers drew their Hand Crossbows and fired. A dense volley of bolts clattered against the magic shields before falling uselessly to the ground.

But the volley wasn't entirely ineffective—the magic shields were visibly weakened.

Afraid of catching the attacking hyenas in the crossfire, the harpies didn't dare use wide-area destructive spells. Instead, they rapidly chanted incantations.

Weaken!

Daze!

...

They hurled negative status spells at the snake woman one after another.

However, her physically modified body boasted terrifying magic resistance. The magic from the Novice Mages barely affected her at all; only the spells from the Intermediate Tier harpies and Malu Bloodfeather had any real impact.

After a full day on the run, the snake woman was already in poor condition. Weakened further by the negative spells, her reaction speed plummeted drastically, allowing the hyenas to land frequent hits.

The thirteen hyenas employed pack-hunting tactics. The ones in front snarled viciously to draw her attention, while those in the back leaped silently to rake her with their claws, retreating the moment they struck. Whenever she spun around to retaliate, the hyenas in the front would lunge again.

She was constantly caught off guard. Within moments, her unshielded tail was covered in claw marks. Scales shattered and peeled away, and blood stained the snow beneath her red.

The pack leader, Bloodclaw, found an opening. Crouching low, he slashed his claws fiercely across her tail.

Bloodclaw's strike, rivaling that of an Intermediate Tier combatant, was far beyond the capability of an ordinary hyena. His razor-sharp claws ripped four deep gashes into her tail, and dark red blood immediately surged from the wounds.

"Ah!"

The snake woman threw her head back and screamed in agony. A cloud of pale green gas burst out, engulfing her completely.

"Careful! The gas is poisonous!"

Malu Bloodfeather rapidly chanted a spell. A whirlwind materialized out of thin air, sweeping the toxic green gas up into the sky and stopping it from spreading further. Even so, three hyenas had been too close and inhaled the fumes.

Poisoned, the hyenas staggered unsteadily toward the police officers, letting out pitiful whimpers.

"Graham! Obi! Vak! Drag our wounded partners away!"

Even as he shouted, Chuck raised his weapon and charged. Seeing their captain advance, the three other Intermediate Tier gnolls in the squad followed suit, while three other officers rushed to grab the staggering, poisoned hyenas.

Buff spells rained down from the sky, landing squarely on the four charging gnolls.

Chuck instantly felt weightless, his muscles surging with power.

Light body spell!

Bull's Strength!

Seeing their masters attack, the hyena pack, led by Bloodclaw, charged the snake woman once again.

Four blades slashed at her from four different directions. Possessing excellent combat instincts, the snake woman made a split-second decision. She blocked two of the strikes with her slender, scale-covered arms, while her magic shields swirled to intercept the other two.

Two fists cannot fight four hands. No matter how she tried to block, she couldn't completely fend off the siege. It wasn't just the officers attacking—after she swatted a few hyenas away, the rest clamped their jaws viciously onto her body.

Chuck's blade struck her arm, but to his surprise, the scales were unbelievably tough, rivaling iron armor. His strike failed to sever her arm, merely carving a deep gash down to the bone.

Heavily wounded, the snake woman shrieked and swiped at Chuck. Her sharp nails glinted with a sickly blue-green hue—obviously highly venomous.

In a split second, a Magic Shield materialized in front of Chuck. The snake woman's razor-sharp nails scraped against it, leaving three visible claw marks in the barrier.

At that moment, Bloodclaw rammed headfirst into her slender waist to protect his master. Dragged down by the hyenas still clinging to her tail, she lost her balance and nearly collapsed. Seizing the opportunity, Chuck thrust his blade through a gap in her magic shields and drove it straight into her stomach.

Squelch!

The sharp blade sank into flesh!

"Fall back!"

Chuck released the hilt and rapidly retreated, and the three other officers did the same. Hearing Chuck blow his Bone Whistle, the hyenas let go and scattered.

The snake woman stared blankly at the blade protruding from her abdomen, blood pouring freely from the wound. A moment later, the excruciating pain snapped her back to reality.

"The Snake God will punish you all!"

Sinister incantations spilled from her lips at a frantic pace. The besieging officers and their hyenas retreated again and again. A wounded beast was always the most dangerous.

A twisted, ominous will permeated the air. The snake woman's skin began to shrink and wither right before their eyes. Malu Bloodfeather instantly recognized it—a self-sacrificing summoning spell.

She was going to sacrifice herself to summon the entity behind her.

Having graduated from Afiaiv Royal Academy and even studied abroad in Snow Dragon City down in the South, Malu Bloodfeather's solid foundation in magic allowed her to react instantly. Making the correct choice, she triggered the magic necklace around her neck.

Mana Disruption!

A chaotic magical field enveloped the snake woman, disrupting the mana flow within her body. The sacrificial spell was severed. Struck by the magical backlash, she began bleeding from all seven orifices.

Her mind entirely blank, the snake woman stood dazed in the snow before slowly collapsing, her tail twitching.

From the rear of the valley, the galloping Samoru Deceptive Blade saw this and stopped pushing his massive hyena mount.

The battlefield fell dead silent. The officers just looked at each other.

"Give it to me."

Chuck pointed to the Hand Crossbow at the waist of the officer next to him. The officer hurriedly handed it over.

He pulled the string back, loaded a bolt, aimed, and pulled the trigger in one fluid, seamless motion.

The sharp bolt cut through the air and struck the fallen snake woman, burying itself in her neck. Her body gave a slight twitch and finally stopped moving entirely.

Malu Bloodfeather flapped her wings and slowly descended. To ensure the snake woman didn't have any final tricks up her sleeve, she used Mage Hand to roll the body over and then scanned it with her magic.

"The fugitive is dead."

Phew!

Everyone breathed a long sigh of relief. Even though they held an absolute advantage, their opponent had been a High Tier powerhouse. If she had decided to take someone down with her, Chuck couldn't guarantee he would have survived.

Fortunately, the target was dead and that hadn't happened. The only casualties were the three wounded hyenas.

The three poisoned hyenas had been brought together. They lay weakly in the snow with their eyes closed, panting heavily, while the rest of the pack paced anxiously around their injured companions.

"Lady Malu, do you happen to know any detoxifying spells?"

For the sake of his hyena comrades, Chuck interrupted the harpy as she examined the corpse.

Malu Bloodfeather looked up at the three poisoned hyenas and offered an apologetic smile.

"Unfortunately, I don't know that kind of magic."

Chuck's brow furrowed tightly. If they didn't get timely treatment, these three poisoned hyenas were in critical danger of dying.

"Officer Chuck, I have a potion specifically for snake venom. I don't know if it will work on this, though."

The gray-furred gnoll who had just arrived—Samoru Deceptive Blade—dismounted from his hyena, pulled a vial of potion from his breast pocket, and handed it to Chuck.

Chuck was overjoyed.

"Thank you so much, Officer Samoru. I will definitely repay you for this later."

Samoru waved his hand dismissively.

"Repay what? No need. This counts as a work-related injury. I'll just get the higher-ups to reimburse me later, hahaha!"

The rest of the officers burst into laughter as well.

Amidst the laughter, Chuck carried the potion over to the poisoned hyenas.

Under the hopeful gazes of both the pack and the officers, Chuck gently pried the hyenas' mouths open and poured an equal amount of the potion down each of their throats.

The potion took effect. The poisoned hyenas' breathing steadied and they opened their eyes, though they still looked incredibly lethargic.

On the other side, Malu Bloodfeather stored the corpse away.

"Officer Chuck! Officer Minna! Thanks to your help, we were finally able to uproot this harmful Church of Evil Gods once and for all."

"You're too polite, Officer Malu. It was our duty."

"..."

After the fierce battle, it was getting late. The two groups chatted for a short while before parting ways. Samoru Deceptive Blade and Malu Bloodfeather needed to return to Puji City to report in, while Chuck Broken Tooth and Minna Ironfeather had to head back to Whirlpool Town.

However, while the three poisoned hyenas were doing better, they still couldn't travel normally. This put Chuck in a bit of a tough spot.

"Minna, there's no point in you staying behind. You might as well head back first."

Minna looked down in thought and realized Chuck made sense.

"All right. Be careful on your way back."

Minna flew off with the harpies. Chuck frowned at the three weak-legged hyenas. After a moment, he came up with a solution.

"Everyone, let's chop some branches and build a sled."

"Great idea!"

"Let's get to it!"

The officers used their weapons to hack off some branches and worked together to fashion a crude sled. While they built it, Chuck unfolded his map and mapped out a gentle, albeit winding, route back.

With everything ready, Chuck looked up at the setting sun.

"Move out!"

They placed the poisoned hyenas on the sled, letting the healthy hyenas pull it while Chuck and the officers jogged alongside. Because the sled was so crude, they worried about jostling the injured animals, so they kept their pace slow.

Gradually, the sky grew dark, and night fell.

Early spring nights were bitterly cold. The freezing wind howled through the forest, piercing right down to the bone. When the silver moon rose, casting its light over the snowy woods, the chill only seemed to deepen.

However, thanks to the exceptional insulation of White Castle's specially made winter combat uniforms, combined with the gnolls' natural fur and the body heat generated from running, the group didn't feel cold at all. In fact, they were actually a bit warm.

But after an entire afternoon of traveling and fierce combat, they were feeling quite exhausted and hungry. Chuck could hear the officers' stomachs rumbling, and it wasn't just one person.

"Halt!"

The squad came to a stop.

"Take a break. Let's eat something before moving on."

Following Chuck's lead, the officers washed down their rations of dried meat with melted snow, not forgetting to feed their silent comrades as well. After resting for a while to finish their food, they hit the road again.

Nighttime was when the predators came out to hunt. To avoid any unnecessary trouble, they needed to make it out of the forest as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, no predator dared to mess with such a large group, and they made it out of the forest without a hitch.

Under the bright moon, they finally arrived back in Whirlpool Town.

Ignoring the curious stares of the townsfolk, Chuck led his men back to the Police Station and sent someone to fetch the town cleric to provide further treatment for the three poisoned hyenas.

Through a combination of potions and divine magic, the three hyenas were fully restored to health. Chuck fed them and locked the pen gates, finally finishing his duties after over an hour of busy work.

After dismissing his men, Chuck began the walk home.

Because of the festival, very few people in Whirlpool Town had gone to bed. Most of the houses were still lit up, some with dim oil lamps and candles, others with bright Magic Lamps.

Walking down the moonlit street, the sounds of men clinking glasses and the clear, joyous laughter of women and children filled the air. Listening to it, Chuck smiled silently to himself.

Wasn't this exactly what he fought so desperately to protect?

Before long, Chuck arrived at his own front door. The lights were on inside, though there wasn't any laughter just yet. But there would be soon.

Smiling, Chuck pushed the door open.

"I'm home."

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