Chapter 47 : Chapter 47
Chapter 47: Seventy-Two Transformations
At the sight of the gigantic Bone Ghoul charging at them, Li Mu and the others felt their vision darken!
The largest Bone Ghoul they had faced so far had only been four meters tall.
This one was actually six meters tall!
"This is a Fourth Grade monster! Scatter!" Ma Jun shouted.
If they tried to take this Fourth Grade Bone Ghoul's charge head-on, it would likely crush them outright.
But the group immediately discovered that they seemed to have been locked in place.
Their bodies turned abnormally stiff and heavy. They could barely shift a little to the side.
Rolling out of the way was completely impossible.
Li Mu could only roar, "Freeze!"
The gigantic Bone Ghoul instantly stopped in place. Even the inertia of its charge seemed to vanish.
It was as though what had been immobilized was not the Bone Ghoul's body,
but the very space and time around it.
Everyone suddenly felt the weight on their bodies lighten, and they tumbled aside in a miserable heap.
Just 0.5 seconds later, the Bone Ghoul instantly resumed its charge and thundered past them, barely grazing their bodies.
Ma Jun and the others stared at Li Mu in utter shock.
Li Mu had only shouted a single word, and that monster had actually stopped right there.
Their confusion and astonishment were even greater than the relief of narrowly escaping death.
"Don't just stand there! Hit it!" Li Mu shouted.
The others snapped back to their senses at once.
At that moment, the Bone Ghoul's claws were buried deep in the ground as it forced itself into a sudden stop, carving long trenches through the earth.
Dust billowed everywhere!
But before the group could even attack the Bone Ghoul, the ground shook violently.
Six or seven smaller Bone Ghouls came charging right behind it and instantly smashed apart the defensive ring around Li Mu's group!
The scene descended into utter chaos!
Clearly, this giant Bone Ghoul had brought underlings with it!
"Don't get separated!" Ma Jun roared.
The greatsaber in his hand suddenly doubled in size, transforming into a massive executioner blade over two meters long!
When he swung it, a gale actually rose with it!
One slash cut a three-meter Bone Ghoul cleanly in half!
The others also scrambled back to their feet and engaged the Bone Ghouls around them.
Meanwhile, Li Mu was already locked in combat with the gigantic Bone Ghoul.
As the Bone Ghoul's massive claw came crashing down, a golden shield from Dragon’s Final Resonance suddenly rose in front of Li Mu.
Clang!
With a muffled impact, the gigantic claw instantly shattered the shield. The explosion of the shield rang out like a dragon's cry, its sound shaking the heavens.
The enormous shockwave staggered the Bone Ghoul.
Li Mu rushed in after it and smashed its lower jaw apart with a single strike of the cudgel.
But the Bone Ghoul truly was worthy of being a Fourth Grade monster. Even with its jaw blown apart in a spray of flesh and blood, it counterattacked at the fastest possible speed with a life-for-life style of combat.
One claw raked straight across Li Mu's body!
Li Mu was sent flying and crashed heavily to the ground, three wounds torn open across his waist and back by the claws!
This was the first time Li Mu had suffered such a serious injury in the Abyss.
A wave of fear rose in his heart.
If he had not taken those two Low-Grade Body-Fortifying Pills earlier and toughened his body even further, that claw strike probably would have ripped his kidneys right out!
And before Li Mu could even stand back up, the Bone Ghoul had already rushed in front of him again and slammed another claw down.
Li Mu was horrified!
It was too fast. This Bone Ghoul might have had poor defense, but its speed and attack power were simply too ferocious!
Li Mu had no time to get up and could only raise the Thornflower Cudgel to block it head-on.
But Ma Jun came charging in from the flank.
His greatsaber had already broken cleanly in two. Ma Jun hurled his own body forward and slammed into the Bone Ghoul's claw.
He knocked it off course, and the claw smashed into the ground beside Li Mu, blasting out a huge crater!
The others also rushed in to support him.
No matter how dangerous the smaller Bone Ghouls were, they were still not as threatening as this giant Bone Ghoul.
There was no way Li Mu could hold it off alone.
But just after Ma Jun knocked aside the monster's huge claw, before he had even landed, a bone blade suddenly sprang out from the Bone Ghoul's side!
It was unbelievably fast, and it slashed cleanly across Ma Jun's lower legs.
Crack!
Both of Ma Jun's legs were severed below the knees.
Like a warhorse whose legs had been cut out from under it, Ma Jun crashed to the ground with a thud and rolled a long way.
Even a hard man like him let out a sky-shaking scream!
Everything had happened too quickly, and far too close to Li Mu.
Blood splashed directly across Li Mu's face!
"Damn it!!"
Li Mu did not have even a moment to stand there in shock. Roaring in fury, he rolled up from the ground.
He brought the Thornflower Cudgel down on the Bone Ghoul in a wild, relentless barrage.
Zhao Meiting rushed to check on Ma Jun's condition, while Zhang He and Song Biao moved in to support Li Mu, attacking from three sides.
The giant Bone Ghoul was far too fierce, and far too fast. Even one against three, it did not fall behind.
Immobilization Art had a cooldown of one minute.
Li Mu had wanted to drag things out for a minute, but before that minute was up, Zhang He and Song Biao were both gravely injured one after another.
They were both only at the peak of the Second Grade Realm. There was no way they could withstand the Bone Ghoul's attacks.
A single hit meant broken bones and torn tendons!
The moment Song Biao was sent flying backward, the cooldown on Li Mu's Immobilization Art finally ended.
Li Mu's eyes had already turned red!
He leaped high into the air.
"Freeze for me!!"
The giant Bone Ghoul was immobilized again. Li Mu brought Iron-Cleaving Form crashing down on its head.
The Bone Ghoul's head exploded like a burst water balloon, and even its neck was smashed through by Li Mu's strike.
The giant Bone Ghoul crashed heavily to the ground.
The corpses of the six or seven smaller Bone Ghouls were also scattered all over the area.
At last, the group gained a brief moment to catch their breath.
Panting like an ox, Li Mu rushed over to Ma Jun.
Ma Jun's features were twisted together in agony. Blood was pouring from Zhang He's head, and he had already fallen unconscious.
Song Biao's leg had suffered a devastating injury. The entire leg was shattered.
Even one of Zhao Meiting's arms had already been broken.
Her shoulder had been crushed open, and the ruined arm hung limply from her side.
Li Mu pulled a bottle of medicine from his Storage Ring and handed it to Zhao Meiting.
"Give them hemostatic medicine. One pill each!"
As for himself, he took out strips of cloth and bound the wounds of Ma Jun and the others as tightly as he could.
But Zhao Meiting had already broken down completely. She was sobbing so hard that she could barely breathe.
The grievous injuries of her teammates were too terrible to look at. Every one of them was almost at death's door.
With the endless fog all around them, every time a Bone Ghoul burst out without warning, it was a lethal strike.
That fear of the unknown made calm impossible. It shattered people completely.
Shaking her head, she cried out, "Go. There's no hope anymore. Just go!!"
Four people had already lost the ability to move.
There was no way they could survive the next wave of Bone Ghoul attacks.
Li Mu could still run. There was no need for him to stay here and die with them.
"Hurry up!!" Li Mu barked sharply.
The force in his voice frightened Zhao Meiting so badly that her sobbing abruptly halted.
By the time Li Mu finished binding Ma Jun's wounds, the howls of Bone Ghouls were already rising again all around them.
They were getting closer and closer!
Inside the command center, Wang Longcheng and the others all clenched their fists tightly, their hearts in their throats for Vanguard Squad.
Fairly speaking, Vanguard Squad had already performed astonishingly well.
Facing the charge of a Fourth Grade Bone Ghoul leading seven Third Grade Bone Ghouls,
and in a fog that overwhelmingly favored the Bone Ghouls, the fact that they were still alive was practically a miracle.
Every single one of their responses had been close to perfect.
The only thing to blame was the Bone Ghouls themselves. They were simply too terrifying.
Within this fog, humans were nothing but prey.
And the Bone Ghouls were hunters with an absolute advantage!
Even so, Wang Longcheng did not dare issue Li Mu any direct order.
At a moment like this, he could not interfere with Li Mu's choice.
From the bottom of his heart, he wanted Li Mu to survive.
But there was no way he could tell Li Mu to abandon his teammates either.
Even though the current situation was different from that of Loyalty and Righteousness Squad.
Even if Li Mu truly did leave his teammates behind, it would still have been understandable.
But very soon, they saw his answer.
After only a brief moment of thought, Li Mu suddenly reached up and tore off his cloak with a sharp rustle.
With a sweep of his arm, the cloak expanded with a boom as it caught the wind.
It covered all four of his teammates beneath it.
Zhao Meiting and Song Biao both lifted their hands to hold up the cloak, looking at Li Mu in confusion.
"Hide under this! Cover yourselves tightly and hide the smell of blood!"
That was all Li Mu said. He offered no further explanation.
Instead, he opened the system panel.
The whole time just now, he had been under constant pressure, without a single moment to spare.
His Triumph Points had already accumulated to 912!
Li Mu quickly found the divine ability among his arts that could turn the situation around.
Seventy-Two Transformations!