Chapter 375: I Want to Reach the End of This Place

The Spiked Lizard danced in a merry, without a single care about the world. Its screeches resounded a fair distance away, faintly rattling the sand granules on the dunes, creating tiny avalanches of sand.

Jyorta stood on the steps, alert, keeping watch through his eyes and his domain. The Spiked Lizard spun its head along with its spinning tongue, making an echoing sound similar to an ambulance. It was a comical sight to see, almost breaking Jyorta's seriousness numerous times.

Even though he was the one directing it to behave in such a manner, the result still made him laugh. The Spiked Lizard shook its hips, tapping its tail on the sand dune, raising a dust cloud. Suddenly, spikes flew out from under it, lodging themselves into its body.

Jyorta timely removed his hallucination, watching the Spiked Lizard scream in pain. It growled, pulling out the spikes with its tail. Though its injuries were numerous, the wounds weren't severe. Its skin was tough, the scales and its exoskeletal outgrowth shielding most of the attacks.

The Spiked Lizard sniffed the sand, making a sudden leap to the side, watching three spikes fly out from its previous spot. It continued to sniff and dodge the attacks, showing its capabilities as a hunter.

It sported exceptional defence and agility, also possessing the quick wit and cunning of a hunter. If it didn't possess such qualities, it wouldn't have been able to hunt the Floating Spiders daily for its meals. It was only injured by the first attack because Jyorta was controlling its actions.

Blood dripped out from its injuries, causing the scent to spread through the area. The blood acted as the catalyst that sought to lure out the Frenzy Beasts from within. Jyorta crouched a bit, storing power in his legs, ready to jump at a moment's notice.

More than twenty Steel Porcupines drilled out of the sand, surrounding the Spiked Lizard. They were in a standoff for less than a second before the Spiked Lizard sprang forth towards the nearest Steel Porcupine, dodging a couple of launched spikes at point-blank range before it bit its neck.

It clamped with its sharp teeth, injecting its poison into the bloodstream of its opponent while shaking its head like a dog, swatting the body of the Steel Porcupine on the nearby opponents. It used it like a whip, defending against the incoming spikes while dodging the remainder.

The Spiked Lizard was constantly on the move, keeping the fight one-on-one while avoiding being surrounded. It always ensured to keep a Steel Porcupine in its mouth to defend against the spike attacks, deftly evading critical blows.

It munched on its prey, taking quick bites before throwing the rest at its foes, always staying on its toes. It suddenly drilled into the sand, emerging below a Steel Porcupine to grab its tail before shaking its head, using the tremendous power it generated to throw it a fair distance away.

The Steel Porcupine crashed into a dune and hissed in pain, trembling at the clobbered mess its tail had become. It aimed its spikes at the Spike Lizard, shooting forth all of them. The Spiked Lizard burrowed into the sand, disappearing from the scene.

The Steel Porcupine sensed its arrival through its Tier 1 Skill, moving from the spot as the back of the Spiked Lizard peaked out, severing its tail. The back of the Spiked Lizard was full of sharp blades, forming an aerodynamic curve.

Because of them, it could move through the sand easily. Twenty Steel Porcupines fought against the Spiked Lizard, with six of them already dying in the process. Not even a minute had transpired since the start of the battle.

Seeing the ensuing battle, Jyorta sighed, 'That's why Spiked Lizards are inefficient for Credit accumulation. They don't die easily and put up a tough fight. The worst part is that they would try their best to pull their enemy down with them while on the verge of death.'

This was one of the reasons he refused to fight them. Another fact was the location of their Heart Crystals, which took a lot of effort to fish out. It expended a lot of psychic energy. And, if he tried to hack using his hands, it would take longer and he would exhaust himself by the time he was done with three Spiked Lizards.

Moreover, the Essence of Frenzy in them would corrode his weapons, rendering them useless after a couple of attempts. And in the end, their Heart Crystals would only net around 6-7 Credits. Fishing their Brain Crystals was even more difficult. The process needed him to invest more than twenty minutes for each. They were just not worth the effort.

He was weak in the subject of dismantling the corpses, a subject he didn't have the mind to study seriously. Even though he knew the importance of it, he just didn't feel like learning about it. It was a sense of revulsion brought about by his personal preference.

'As a soldier, I would move in teams. I'll leave the dismantling to someone with greater expertise.' He thought, watching the fight between the Steel Porcupines and the Spiked Lizard continue, with both sides unrelenting.

Even though it was overpowering its foes, the Spike Lizard's injuries accumulated. Three spikes were lodged in its left foreleg, hindering its movement, causing its evasive manoeuvres to slow down. It was now clumsily avoiding the attacks, at most barely managing to dodge them.

A long spike flew out from the sand, piercing the underside of its jaw, penetrating all the way to its brain. Blood gushed out of its orifices as its degenerated eyes popped out from the pressure. The Spiked Lizard that was hunting expertly died from a single attack.

A Tier 2 Steel Porcupine drilled out of the ground, the spikes on its back trembling as it hissed in anger at the Spiked Lizard, noticing its fallen brethren. It crawled towards the Spiked Lizard, slamming its head with its tail, smashing it into pulp.

Jyorta immediately sprunt into action, facing his palm towards it, unleashing an aura beam while infusing his aura personification of hallucination into it. He also sent a tattoo of hallucination through it, slamming the whole into its body.

Aura Induction!

The tattoo fused into its aura, synchronising instantly, inducing the desired effect from within itself. The hallucination affected it after that, pulling it swiftly into his hallucination. The Tier 2 Steel Porcupine hissed once, motioning for the Tier 1 Steel Porcupines to take the carcass of the Spiked Lizard and their fallen brethren and return.

When they did as commanded and burrowed into the sand, it slithered towards the entrance, hissing once as it gazed at Jyorta. It swiped with its tail towards the other side, launching the spikes on its tail end.

Once the part was bereft of any spikes, it extended it towards Jyorta, motioning for him to hold it. Jyorta held the extended tail, feeling its soft texture, similar to a snake's. He gazed at its three body-length spikes, the fourth it had launched at the Spiked Lizard.

It was a fairly powerful Tier 2 Frenzy Beast among the Steel Porcupines. Jyorta lay flat on the sand, his two psychic arms fusing into one to form a barrier around him, making the external surface as smooth as possible while keeping him invisible.

As his hands held the Steel Porcupine's tail, it began to slither forward, dragging him like a sled. After a second, Jyorta heaved a sigh of relief upon finding his psychic arm barrier remain intact. It was thanks to him making its friction with the sand zero. It took him a lot of time during his previous explorations to find the right texture that would cancel its grainy arrangement and annihilate the friction.

He would have preferred to ride on the back of a Crust-Mantle or even a One-Horned Rhino would have been better. But, he didn't have a choice on the matter. After all, he could only make do with what was available.

Still, he was thankful for spotting a Tier 2 Steel Porcupine. A Tier 1 Steel Porcupine wasn't strong enough to drag his body all the way to the other side of the path. It was bound to get tired mid-journey. Moreover, it lacked enough muscular energy to pull him over any traps, should they emerge.

Jyorta sensed his surroundings through his domain, keeping watch for anything odd or dangerous. The hallucination he induced into the Tier 2 Steel Porcupine was simple. It was a simple mental cue, igniting a false desire of sorts into it.

The Tier 2 Steel Porcupine gazed at the sand dunes before it, its expression serious. The mounds of the sand looked like hurdles that it wished to conquer. 'I want to reach the end of this place.'

This was the thought resounding in its mind, a simple desire that fuelled its will to move. Its surroundings weren't modified in the hallucination, except for this one desire that clouded all its other desires and wants.

The Tier 2 Steel Porcupine continued to slither forward, evading all the traps it knew in memory and experience, taking safe routes along the journey. Jyorta watched himself be dragged across the sand, moving up and down the dunes along the way, spotting a couple of Tier 1 One-Horned Rhinos along the way.

He waved with his hand at them, as if he was on a sightseeing trip. Though, he didn't receive any greetings in return. After all, he was invisible, their senses unable to perceive him. The trail created by his body being dragged on the sand was covered in a couple of seconds by the low winds flowing across the surface.

Jyorta had a poker face, getting dragged across layer 2.