The sword blade and claws collided, sparking.
The woman who failed to hit Gauss swiftly retreated.
Her body twisted and elongated in a way defying human anatomy, her limbs on the ground, spine arched, emitting a creepy crunching sound.
Around her, several others had already surrounded her.
Looking at her again, the transformation hadn’t stopped.
Her face became more terrifying, her mouth tearing up to the ears, exposing pink muscles while continuously spewing out a large mass of black turbid flow.
Her large eyeballs suddenly turned pitch black, shimmering with a needle-like crimson malicious glow.
"It’s a Demon Race!" Nancy warned.
During her reminder, the woman quickly completed her mutation.
Tearing apart her human disguise completely, she transformed into a terrifying being about two people tall, covered with a writhing mass of living rats and decayed fur.
Her main body still retained a relatively bloated humanoid torso, but her limbs turned into giant elongated rat limbs with hooked claws, a tail full of barbs formed by entwined rat tails whipped hard onto the ground.
The giant rat muzzle on her head opened and closed continuously, spewing green clouds, through which countless dense sharp teeth could be vaguely seen.
Gauss looked at the giant rat monster before him, his scalp tingling, feeling slightly uncomfortable both physically and mentally; this image evokes a physiological aversion in any normal human.
He couldn’t help but recall last year, when he and Aaliyah embarked on their first mission, taking on that Ratman extermination commission.
At that time in the abandoned church cellar, he encountered the first bizarre incident since arriving in this world.
If he remembers correctly, that elderly Ratman who eventually plunged into a poisonous pool seemed to mention a name, "Vesperilia," and subsequently, he had a rare nightmare three days after returning.
Could these two incidents be connected?
Is this why it’s coming to "trouble me"?
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sorin and Nancy, Elton exchanged a glance.
Quickly communicated their thoughts.
[As expected, as long as purification begins, trouble will always keep coming.]
[Let’s wrap this up quickly]
[Gauss and the others might be quite puzzled, right]
...
Brief communication concluded.
Sorin already holding a shield in one hand, and a war hammer in the other, took brisk strides toward the rat monster.
Almost every step left a deep imprint on the ground.
"Roar!!"
Sorin let out a deafening battle cry, his stout body emitted an unexpectedly fierce aura, like a cannonball surging toward the gigantic rat monster.
The war hammer in his hand swung in a semi-circle under the moonlight, bringing a mournful tearing of air, savagely smashing towards the rat monster’s head.
The rat monster had just completed its transformation, instinctively raising its hooked-claw rat limb in an attempt to block.
Sorin’s full-force strike was so immense that the surrounding air seemed to be compressed by the impact, the hammer itself carried a massive pressure jointly crashing onto the giant rat’s skull.
Bam!!!
The heavy war hammer struck solidly on the sturdy arm, making a muffled sound.
The arm fractured instantly, then all the deflected force continued to descend on the rat monster’s head.
Crack, crack, crack!!
A tooth-aching noise sounded.
The skull shattered, green pus and broken bone fragments splattered out!
Its head instantly collapsed, forcibly hammered into its body.
However, surprisingly, despite sustaining such a "fatal wound," it still didn’t die.
Its entire body emitted shrieks of pain and anger, another forepaw ferociously grasped at Sorin’s head.
But Sorin’s response was swift, the massive tower shield already raised accordingly.
Clang!!!
The rat monster’s claws drew a scattering of sparks across the hefty tower shield, the shield’s surface shone with a thick golden glow, preventing this strike from ever breaking through the mountain-like solid defense.
Meanwhile, Gauss seized the moment to charge forward, taking over the assault like in a wheel battle.
Sorin’s power-driven strike earlier slightly startled him, he almost believed it would completely smash the rat monster with a single hit.
As Gauss activated the tough scale bloodline within him, every step he took forward covered his body with more energy scales, at a certain moment, his right hand assumed a gripping motion, and a dragon claw combined with special magic power and racial talent suddenly formed.
The others, especially Sorin, Nancy, Elton all subconsciously widened their eyes, focusing on Gauss’s attack movements.
This demon race’s semblance of a rat monster didn’t seem beyond their capability to deal with, dwarf Sorin could single-handedly defeat it, but presently it served well to observe Gauss’s prowess, anyways several were nearby ready to provide support if needed.
Gauss was unaware of the thoughts from Sorin and the others in the distance.
His intentions were simple, after Sorin had battered the rat monster to a semi-defeated state, it was his turn to finish it off.
And he had a very justified reason.
Sorin had been "blown away," now it was his turn.
In the team, apart from Sorin, he was the remaining front line, voluntarily stepping forward to tank the monster seemed only reasonable.
Gauss moved swiftly.
Underfoot, both [Monster Strength] and [Enhanced Jump] erupted simultaneously, and the activation of [Tough Scale Bloodline] similarly enhanced his physical capabilities, plus his inherently outstanding strength, agility, and physique, without the burden of weapons or heavy armor, he unleashed a terrifying burst of speed in a short amount of time.