After several more rounds of testing, Morrow had gained a sufficient understanding of the Toothed Leaf.
These creatures possessed a degree of individual strength, but they couldn't withstand aura attacks.
The truly tricky part was their numbers.
However, as long as Morrow implanted Star Marks on the Toothed Leaves in advance, he could firmly seize the initiative with Shooting Star · Star Rain.
This was the key to his plan to use the Toothed Leaves against Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake.
If everything went smoothly, the team would be able to safely harvest the Nitro Rice afterward.
Of course.
All of this was predicated on the plan unfolding successfully.
Some time later.
Relying on the Chimera's flight ability, the team followed the intelligence provided by the Lakeside Tribe and eventually found the naturally formed swamp region without any major incidents.
This was the place where Nitro Rice grew, and it was also the territory of Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake.
The Federation Of Ochima, one of the V5, had once organized an army of 1,200 elites to advance along the Dark Continent's coastline toward this swamp.
However, the army was almost completely wiped out and became fodder for Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake without even catching a glimpse of the Nitro Rice.
In the end, only 11 people managed to escape the Hellbell's attack.
Looking down from high above, the swamp was overgrown with dense, giant reeds.
Surrounding the swamp, however, was a forest that looked quite 'normal.'
Yes, normal.
The trees and vegetation here were perfectly in line with human understanding of conventional sizes.
But the reeds growing in the swamp, like most flora and fauna of the Dark Continent, were abnormally large.
Although they were only eight or nine times larger than ordinary reeds, on this continent, that was considered quite restrained.
However, it was precisely because the surrounding forest was so ordinary that it inadvertently highlighted how extraordinary the swamp's reed beds were.
The Chimera continued to circle high above the swamp.
Due to the great distance from the ground, the team members could not see the specific situation below clearly.
Even using aura to enhance their vision, they could only barely make out the silhouettes of the swamp plants. Trying to spot the movements of other creatures among them was nearly impossible.
But this was a necessary precaution.
Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake was a mechanism-type calamity. From a certain perspective, its direct threat was even more lethal than that of those giant creatures.
If they hadn't seen quite a few flying creatures passing safely below, the team might have had the Chimera fly to an even higher altitude just to be safe.
Yet even with these creatures as a reference, they didn't dare let their guard down for a second.
"Should I have my babies go scout first?" Ponzu suggested.
At this altitude, it was truly difficult to see the swamp's specific conditions with the naked eye.
Biscuit shook her head in opposition. "It's best not to. We can't be sure if the Hellbell's 'bloodlust infection' can be transmitted through 'aura'. Sending the bee swarm down rashly carries a certain risk."
"Alright."
Ponzu hadn't considered that point, but she had a good trait: she always trusted the experience and judgment of the team's senior members without reservation.
Morrow raised a hand to his chin and said calmly, "That possibility does exist. However, to confirm whether the plan is successful, we will ultimately have to rely on the bee swarm to investigate the situation. In other words, our target is the Nitro Rice growing in the swamp. Given the need to investigate, we have to face this risk no matter what."
"That's true," Biscuit sighed softly at his words.
On this Dark Continent, it was nearly impossible to obtain an object of hope without any risk.
All humans could do was to mitigate the risks as much as possible before taking action.
Whether the bloodlust infection was transmitted through aura was a potential threat, but to obtain the Nitro Rice, the team had to face this risk.
Their experiences over this period had already given them an extremely clear understanding of 'risk and reward.'
"Using the bee swarm for reconnaissance right now is indeed quite risky," Morrow concluded. "But if we wait until after the plan is implemented to send the swarm, we can at least reduce the risk."
"Indeed," Biscuit nodded.
Morrow suddenly looked at Ponzu, hesitated for a moment, and said, "This is the risk involved..."
"I have no problem with it," Ponzu interrupted Morrow, her face showing no hint of retreat.
The girl who was once so terrified by Chimera Ants that she lost her wits had grown into a truly qualified Pro Hunter through a series of trials.
At the very least, in terms of courage in the face of the unknown and the boldness to bear risks, she was completely up to the task.
Morrow nodded at Ponzu.
"Then, let's begin the 'plan'..."
Morrow stood at the edge of the Chimera's back. The sky was clear and there was no wind. He lowered his gaze, his eyes falling upon the silent swamp below.
Fighting disaster with disaster.
This was the core of the plan.
With the key intelligence provided by the Lakeside Tribe elder, Morrow was quite confident in the plan's success rate.
The team quickly divided the labor and efficiently entered the execution phase.
The plan itself was not complicated.
First, they would drop a large number of dormant Toothed Leaves, which had already been implanted with Star Marks, into the central area of the swamp. Then, they would use the water contained within the Water Droplets to provide sufficient moisture for the Toothed Leaves' revival.
Once the swarm of Toothed Leaves was activated, they would, following their biological instincts, begin a carpet-like consumption outward from the center of the swamp.
In the process, any creature hiding in the reed beds would become their target.
If things went smoothly, the Toothed Leaf swarm would advance continuously like army ants until they spread to the forest area at the swamp's periphery.
By then, all creatures, including Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake, would likely be devoured by the Toothed Leaves.
After clearing the threat this way, the team could first dispatch the bee swarm to confirm the situation and find the location of the Nitro Rice, and finally descend to the central area of the swamp to begin harvesting.
However, there was one problem with this plan.
Although Gel's dissection had confirmed that the Toothed Leaves had no auditory organs, they still couldn't be completely certain that the leaves were immune to the attacks of Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake.
But as long as the Toothed Leaf swarm's advance continued to expand into the forest region, it should prove that the creatures along the way had been cleared out.
This also provided a certain degree of assurance for verifying the outcome.
High in the sky, the group tossed down bundles of Toothed Leaves.
Immediately after, the team members on the Chimera's back simultaneously split open the pre-soaked Water Droplets.
In an instant, a torrential flood of water poured down from the sky.
From a distance, it looked like a giant wave pouring down from the heavens, crashing straight toward the swamp.
And before this man-made downpour touched the ground, the abundant stream of water had already drenched the falling Toothed Leaves.
The withered Toothed Leaves revived upon contact with water. Their blades expanded rapidly, instantly snapping the grass ropes that bound them.
Then, countless awakened Toothed Leaves plummeted like living things into the dense reed beds below.
The downpour of a large amount of fresh water and the landing of numerous Toothed Leaves immediately alerted the creatures in the swamp.
They all looked toward the source of the commotion, completely unaware of what was happening.
Nevertheless, their biological instincts made them appropriately wary of the abnormal noise. They kept staring toward the source of the sound, not looking away for a long time.
Just then, using the dense, tall reeds as a cushion to land safely, the swarm of Toothed Leaves awakened like starving wolves and then swept outwards in all directions with the force of a Stellar Collapse.
In a mud pit nearest to the Toothed Leaf swarm's landing zone, a giant toad covered in spikes suddenly looked up. Its round, bulging eyes extended from their sockets like a snail's tentacles, warily scanning its surroundings from on high.
The next second.
Sensing danger, it kicked its hind legs forcefully, its massive body launching into the air, attempting to leap over the reeds and escape into the distance.
However, the moment it leaped over the reed bed, individual Toothed Leaves shot up from below, clinging to its body in mid-air like bloodthirsty leeches.
"Scree–!"
A strange, miserable cry rang out.
The mouths of the Toothed Leaves, covered in vein-like oral discs, acted like high-speed chainsaws, instantly shredding and devouring the giant toad.
The poor creature didn't even have time to fall from the sky; not even a single drop of blood was left behind; it was all devoured cleanly by the Toothed Leaves.
This was because the Toothed Leaves generated a powerful suction force while feeding, like a vacuum cleaner, completely engulfing every inch of tissue, every trace of their prey.
After devouring the giant toad, the Toothed Leaf swarm continued to advance.
Everywhere they passed, the creatures that had survived in the swamp under the protection of Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake were all devoured by the swarm.
This locust-like, large-scale predation soon attracted the attention of Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake.
"Kala, kala..."
A twin-tailed snake, its body covered in crack-like patterns, with a black fleshy tumor at the seven-inch mark and a tail as slender as a needle, slithered rapidly through the mire.
The fleshy tumor on its neck seemed to be hollow and filled with fine granules. As it moved, it shook continuously, producing a crisp and rhythmic sound.
As the sound spread, faint ripples appeared in the air.
The sound waves, through collisions with the reed leaves, underwent a series of bizarre, unnatural refractions, rapidly spreading to every corner.
As if feeling this method of propagation was still not powerful enough, one Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake after another leaped to the tops of the reeds and began to sway their seemingly light serpentine bodies from side to side.
As the swaying intensified, the granules inside the fleshy tumors collided violently within the hollow cavity, producing an increasingly dense and rhythmic sound.
This was their fatal move.
The entire reed bed of the swamp became a conductive medium for their death knell.
In other words, any creature that stepped into the reed bed, even if buried deep beneath the mud, could not escape the assault of this bloodlust-infused sound wave.
Only weak creatures that posed no threat to the swamp's ecosystem could avoid being targeted by the bloodlust sound waves of Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake.
However, when the lethal sound waves spread to the Toothed Leaf swarm, they surprisingly had no effect whatsoever.
The numerous Toothed Leaves, having transformed from 'sheets' into 'individuals,' faced the sound waves rippling through the air and shot up without any hesitation, pouncing straight at the Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snakes perched atop the reeds.
This sudden counterattack was clearly beyond the twin-tailed snakes' expectations.
They subconsciously opened their fanged maws, their bodies tensing as they adopted a highly threatening posture.
The scene was almost ironic.
Even a calamity-level creature like Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake, when faced with a sudden, imminent crisis, would react with an instinctive threat display like an ordinary animal.
However, this aggressive posture was meaningless to the Toothed Leaves, which possessed only the instinct to feed.
The Toothed Leaves mercilessly pounced onto the snakes' bodies, shredding and devouring the flesh inch by inch like meat grinders.
In the blink of an eye, all the twin-tailed snakes within sight were cleared away by the Toothed Leaf swarm.
But in the more distant parts of the swamp, and even in the forest surrounding it, many more twin-tailed snakes were still active.
The Toothed Leaves did not contemplate how many prey lay ahead.
Their only purpose was to devour every living thing in their path.
And in their eyes, Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake was merely food that was a bit lacking in Flesh.
Perhaps Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake never imagined, even at the moment of death, that they would meet their doom in such a manner.
In their long genetic memory, there was no record of the Toothed Leaf.
It was the external variable of humanity that had forcefully delivered a natural predator right to their doorstep.
The vigorous Toothed Leaf swarm continued its advance, devouring all creatures in its path, finally spreading to the edge of the forest.
Here, many twin-tailed snakes were still coiled among the tree branches, waiting for prey to come to them.
This time, however, what awaited them was not prey, but the natural enemy that was about to be written into the depths of their genetic memory.
"Kala, kala..."
The bloodlust-infused sound waves echoed through the forest, followed closely by the brutal sounds of flesh being torn and devoured.
No creature in this area could resist the invasion of the Toothed Leaf swarm.
This outcome was also related to the territorial nature of Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snake.
As the overlords of this region, they would eliminate any threatening creature that entered their territory.
Consequently, those weaker species not considered a threat were able to survive in this miniature ecosystem.
Because of this, the only dangerous creatures in the entire swamp and forest area were the Hellbell The Twin-Tailed Snakes themselves.
Thus, the Toothed Leaf swarm swept through all visible life with almost no resistance.
As for Morrow's group, the instigators, they had ascended to a higher altitude after dropping the Toothed Leaves into the swamp.
So, while waiting for the result, they could only imagine the possible scenarios of what was happening after the Toothed Leaves fell into the swamp.
They couldn't actually see the scene of the Toothed Leaves devouring all creatures like a swarm of army ants.
All they could see was still a quiet, even deathly still, swamp.
When Ponzu's bee swarm flew through the reed beds, the images transmitted to her consciousness from the wasps showed no trace of any living creature.
Not even a tiny insect.
Although she could indirectly sense the rich life force of the Nitro Rice through the wasps' own biological senses, the sense of lifeless stillness in the images was the first to overwhelm her senses.
Life and death mingled so paradoxically on this land.
It made her feel an unspeakable cruelty.
But she could not empathize.
This was an ecological race filled with predation and being preyed upon.
Every existence could meet its end in the next second.
And the team had won this competition.
That was all.
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Bonus chapter @400powerstones!