Chapter 175: Claw of the Sudden Raid

The key weakness of the so-called Zaku is the parasite inside its head, which controls the entire corpse through countless fibrous roots, replacing the original nerves and internal organs.

"How far is the next tribe from here?" Vinigo asked, turning back to Soft.

"About ten kilometers. The Alepo tribe."

Vinigo tapped his fingers as he calculated, then nodded. "Rest for two hours. Eat. Then we attack."

"What are our casualties?" Vinigo asked Sophie.

"Thirty-two minor injuries, six serious injuries, five KIA," Sophie replied.

"Hmm, acceptable losses," Vinigo nodded. "Leave the compensation matters to Marlin."

Sophie nodded. Having previously worked as a solitary mercenary, she had seen plenty of life and death. Though kind-hearted, she would not let her emotions cloud her judgment.

"There's a rat..." Vinigo scratched his head. "Arcana? Suna?"

The little wolf-kin and the young vampire let out a soft acknowledgment and vanished on the spot. A moment later, the shrill scream of the wolf-kin echoed from afar, followed by the clashing of metal, the twang of the young vampire's crossbow, and half a strangled cry.

Shortly after, the little wolf-kin dragged someone over.

"Who is this?" Vinigo asked.

"Looks like one of Ross's subordinates," Soft said, taking a glance. "She's a wilderness ranger. Her name is... uh, Kisha."

"Kisha." Vinigo gave an acknowledging hum. "A foreigner?"

Soft responded in the affirmative. He reached out to help the injured ranger up, pulled the crossbow bolt embedded in her right shoulder, and expertly smeared ointment over the wound.

"Did Ross send you to keep an eye on me?" Vinigo asked, feigning sympathetic comfort. "Why didn't you say so earlier? I thought you were a Mal扎 warrior." *(Translator's note: Malza)*

Kisha kept a stern face and said nothing. Vinigo did not press further, signaling Soft to let her go.

"The little wolf-kin loves to play too much, actually hurting you like this," Vinigo said with a grin. "If it were me, I would have killed you first and asked questions later."

A smile hung on his face, yet his words carried an icy intent to kill.

"Stop scaring her," Sophie pulled at Vinigo's sleeve and said.

Vinigo chuckled, turned around, and walked away. Sophie lingered a glance at Kisha and sighed.

==The Youthful March==

The raid was launched six hours later, which coincided with the Alepo tribe's dinner time. When Vinigo and his group appeared outside the settlement, smoke from cooking fires was rising everywhere, and the tribe was wrapped in peace.

There were sentries stationed on the outskirts of the tribe. From afar, Vinigo spotted two Malza warriors standing high up in the snowy cedars, scanning their surroundings.

The moment Vinigo saw them, they also spotted Vinigo's direction. However, the Malza warriors lacked Vinigo's Eye of Perception; they could not see Vinigo lying completely motionless across the snowfield, draped in a snow-white cloak.

Vinigo, Suna, Soft, and Sherry.

"Are just the five of us enough?" Soft asked in a whisper.

"Before, we used a heavy-handed frontal assault just to intimidate all the Malza. This time, we're just burning food," Vinigo replied. "Sherry, use that form."

"Ugh, I hate appearing in that form," the little girl let out a sweet, whining protest. Yet the moment the sentence left her lips, her expression shifted entirely from spoiled petulance to absolute icy detachment, as if she couldn't even be bothered to speak.

"Suna, you go first and take care of the one on the left. Sherry, you take out the one on the right. Soft, get your lightning ready—if either of them misses, back them up immediately," Vinigo reminded them in a low voice.

"Mmh," Suna nodded firmly, transforming into mist and drifting toward the cedar tree.

Sherry followed closely behind Suna, utilizing the camouflage of her cloak to advance toward the cedars.

"Truly wondrous. Those uneven little grid patterns you painted seem even harder to spot than a pure white cloak," Soft praised. "To be able to walk right under the enemy's noses like this."

"I utilized visual distortion of the human eye," Vinigo explained. "Don't underestimate this unremarkable cloak; painting these grids took a lot of effort on my part."

These grid patterns weren't just drawn randomly to achieve this effect. Vinigo owed it entirely to the ready-made data within the Escardon Information Ball to pull this off.

Up in the cedar tree, Suna quietly materialized behind a Malza sentry, gently thrusting the Blade of No Light into his back and twisting it horizontally. She withdrew the blade, stuffed a ball of snow into the wound to prevent blood from spraying, and propped him against the trunk.

At the exact moment Suna's blade pierced the human body, Sherry launched her attack as well. Her methods were somewhat louder; six ice prisms scattered through the air, piercing straight through another sentry's forehead, throat, heart, left and right lungs, and kidneys.

"Move!" Vinigo grabbed Soft and dashed toward the interior of the tribe's encampment.

As he glided across the snow, he activated Character Building.

Snow Bros... those little fellows who pelt enemies with snowballs to turn them into snowmen.

Seeing Vinigo suddenly transform into a comically shaped snowman, Soft almost burst out laughing. However, the little snowman's movement speed was anything but slow; clearly, Vinigo had selected an enhanced snowman build.

Maximum speed, maximum snow-pelting volume.

The moment Vinigo rushed into the camp, two Malza warriors happened to lean out of a doorway right in front of him. Vinigo immediately raised his hands and flung two bundles of snow at them, turning them into a single giant snowball.

Then, Vinigo kicked it hard. Like a boulder, the snowball rolled into the house with a thunderous rumble, stirring up a racket.

The plan was simple: Vinigo would draw the attention, while Soft planted the fireworks. Once Vinigo had finished playing around, he would naturally turn the ice cellars storing the food supplies into a roaring furnace.

"Monsters! There are monsters!" the Malza warriors shouted, beginning to chase the erratic Vinigo, attempting to teach this mischievous monster a lesson with the weapons in their hands.

However, Vinigo ran extremely fast. The snowman was completely unaffected by the snow, dashing back and forth. Whenever he encountered an unavoidable enemy, he would fling a handful of snow to freeze them solid. If the opportunity arose, Vinigo didn't mind tossing a few more handfuls of snow to turn the enemy into a snowball, then kicking them away.

The snowballs frozen and kicked away by the snowman rolled with an "unscientific" impact force resembling boulders. Even strong Malza warriors, when struck by these snowballs, would be sent flying far away.

Of course, most of the time, the sent-flying Malza warriors would suffer only minor internal injuries and still manage to stand back up. Therefore, a massive horde of enemies was always trailing closely behind Vinigo, shouting and brandishing their weapons in pursuit.

Consequently, even the children of the tribe were soon drawn into the chaos. The entire settlement became a clamor of noise, all because of Vinigo.

After running around for the better part of the day and seeing that most people had been lured to the entrance of the camp, Vinigo finally came to a halt.

In an instant, a massive figure sprang up from beneath his feet, kicking up a flurry of snow dust as it charged with murderous intent straight toward the oncoming Malza warriors.

The corpse of the Snow Leopard Tribe's chieftain, Comrade Giarla... the monster Vinigo called a Zaku.

Roaring, it batted the foremost Malza warrior to the ground with a single sweep of its tower shield, crushed another's skull beneath its boot, and swung a giant axe to cleave two following enemies in half along with their weapons.

"The Snow Leopard Tribe? Do you want a war?" The chieftain of the Alepo tribe arrived at the sound of the commotion and roared angrily.

Greeting her was the giant axe swung by the Zaku.

Boom!

The two hulking chieftains collided violently, but the Zaku's strength surpassed her own. Without budging an inch, it shoved her back and brought its axe crashing down.

Ignoring the greatsword she thrust toward its waist, the Zaku simply hacked off its opponent's right arm with a single swing. A wound that should have been lethally grave merely caused a flurry of fine fibrous roots to spurt from the Zaku's body.

The parasite's roots rapidly sutured the Zaku's wound. This sight made the armless enemy chieftain snap to a sudden realization.

This isn't the Snow Leopard Tribe—it's a monster!

"I curse you in the name of the Alepo clan! Bear the wrath of our Mother's Sacred Mountain!" she screamed, pointing a finger at the Zaku.

The Zaku's legs buckled abruptly, and it slowly forced itself back up. Clearly, the opponent's curse imposed a heavy burden upon the Zaku, akin to severe over-encumbrance.

"Interesting," Vinigo chuckled with a dark grin. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed a handful of snow, freezing a Malza warrior standing right in front of him.

He no longer bothered turning his opponents into snowballs; simply freezing them in place was enough as he sought his next target. The frozen Malza warriors would naturally be dealt with by Sherry and Suna.

"Demons!" Vinigo heard the Malza warriors roaring in fury one after another. The enemy's terror was Vinigo's favorite post-meal dessert. His feet possessed a magical ability that allowed him to sprint across the snow at high speed despite the snowman's stubby little legs, while the snow in his hands could unscientifically be tossed quite far—and even more unscientifically, freeze Malza warriors dead in their tracks.

Soon, there was hardly anyone left in the Alepo tribe capable of hindering the one-on-one duel between the Zaku and their chieftain.

The Zaku finally straightened its posture. Although the opponent's curse made it nearly impossible for it to take a step, the giant axe it wielded remained a massive threat, keeping the Alepo chieftain from daring to approach.

Did staying far away make her safe?

The Zaku let out a heaven-shaking roar. It abruptly hurled its tower shield, forcing the Alepo chieftain to dodge sideways. At that instant, the Zaku violently straightened its left hand, spreading its five fingers wide to reveal the pitch-black propulsion port in its palm.

How could something named Zaku not be equipped with a ranged weapon?

With a deafening roar, the accumulated energy blossomed in an instant, converging into a blinding stream of lightning—the lightning energy Giarla hadn't fully expended before his death, amplified through the parasite's resonance to form an explosive torrent of light that blasted straight toward the inescapable Alepo chieftain.

This single strike pierced straight through the center of her chest. Not a single drop of blood flowed from the terrifying cavity; there was only a hollow hole through which one could look right past the auntie-chieftain and see the tents behind her.

Her blood vessels had been instantly melted and fused upon impact, which was why no blood splattered—only an empty void remained.

Boom!

Almost simultaneously, every single food storage point in the Alepo tribe—those ice cellars deeply buried underground—erupted with pillars of dust piercing the sky. Several kilograms of high explosives smuggled into them by Soft were detonated by his electric current, ruthlessly reducing the dried meat, grass seeds, highland barley, and everything else within the ice cellars to absolute nothingness.

"Mission accomplished. Fall back," Vinigo called out.