Cave Refuge

Every decision to decisively abandon the current temporary camp was made primarily because there was never an intention to settle here during its construction. Even if tonight hadn't brought an attack from monsters, everyone would have abandoned the camp and left tomorrow.

Thus, to avoid danger, it wouldn't be too hard for people to leave the temporary camp early, without any sentimental longing.

When Blood Eye just obtained a vision of the previously easy prey scattering in all directions, a nameless rage ignited in the monster's heart. Along with a fierce roar, unnoticed by anyone, the creature expelled numerous tiny, undetectable bugs from its mouth.

These bugs, already small, now took advantage of the cover of darkness, making them invisible to the other humans.

The bugs released by the monster's maw sped off in all directions with astonishing velocity.

Compared to the monster's enormous size, these bugs were puny. Therefore, the survivors who were close to the area inadvertently inhaled these tiny creatures completely.

Once the small bugs were ingested by the survivors, they journeyed along the respiratory tract directly into the hearts of those who inhaled them.

After entering the heart through the respiratory tract, the inevitable fate of those who inhaled the bugs was clear. Even those with superior physical strengths could not fend off an attack from the inside of their organs.

However, unlike a poison gas that might be resisted simply by holding one's breath, the bugs sprayed out by the monster were not inanimate. Traditional methods used to ward off toxic gas proved futile against these living bugs.

After all, the bugs are living creatures. Once they land on a target, with the passage of time, they will ultimately invade the target's body.

Once the bugs enter the body of the target, they not only gnaw on internal organs but also rapidly reproduce while they feed.

The bugs inside the organs multiply through division and soon devour all the organs within the entire body.

Once the bugs have completely consumed a person from the inside out, they will return to the monster's mouth, freed from the confines of the human body.

Although the monster attacked the surrounding humans by releasing bugs from its mouth, it was immobilized, simply open-mouthed and stationary during the entire attack process.

Because the monster's body was already covered with minuscule bugs, humans couldn't get close enough to attack directly.

It was very difficult to spot the bugs under the shroud of night, but once they entered the body, they'd immediately begin feasting on the internal organs.

So even if the survivors were unaware of the bugs, seeing others collapse around them, they could infer they had been attacked by the monster. Although unclear about the nature of the attack, the simplest method of evasion was to distance themselves sufficiently from the monster.

Upon seeing their companions fall to unknown attacks, the hearts of the remaining survivors were filled with maximum fear. They sped away from the immobile behemoth as fast as they could.

Just as most were frantically fleeing from the behemoth, a massive whoosh tore through the sky.

As the colossal whooshing sound reverberated, everyone looked up in the direction it came from, and saw a fighter jet racing towards them at high speed.

Seeing the fighter jet approach, faces were painted with hopeful expressions.

After all, from the previous battle, everyone had come to understand that whether it was the Bat Monster or the current behemoth, these Otherworldly Creatures, though humanoid, were vastly different from any human race.

And the fighter jet soaring through the sky, soon to arrive, had the unmistakable look of human technology. So at this moment, as it approached, the vast majority believed that it was coming over to help willingly.

To the relief of everyone on the ground, as the combat jet approached, the belly hatch suddenly opened, and a missile launcher with a missile mounted extended abruptly.

Once the missile on the launcher was successfully ignited, it shot directly towards the monster's still-unmerged enormous mouth.

It was only in the blink of an eye that the missile carried by the combat jet hit the target with great precision—the monster's gaping mouth that remained open.

Accompanied by the missile entering the monster's mouth, the swallowing motion of its throat suggested that the missile had likely made its way into the creature's stomach.

Upon witnessing this event, everyone first felt extremely joyous—after all, even a fool knew that a missile exploding inside a monster's mouth would cause a significant difference in damage compared to it exploding near any other body part.

However, when everyone saw that although the missile had successfully entered the monster's mouth, it seemed to be a dud that did not detonate.

According to eyewitnesses, right after the missile entered the monster's mouth, the creature seemed to eat normally, unclear if it chewed what was in its mouth before swallowing in whole.

Watching the missile that entered the enemy's mouth without any reaction so far, everyone's faces immediately showed sorrow.

Just as everyone resolved to stop spectating and abandon the site, opting for strategic relocation, the missile, previously thought to be a dud, suddenly exploded.

The fierce explosion didn't kill the monster outright, but seeing its belly swell to several times its original size, it was clear that it was severely hurting inside.

Perhaps the monster hadn't expected that right after using the Bugs Clan to slaughter the surrounding survivors, the Human Clan would retaliate with a missile to silence it.

But just as it closed its mouth, the Bugs Clan it had spat out started dying en masse, wiped out in large swathes.

It was a pity that the bugs were too small, and ordinary people couldn't see them in the dark of night, hence they remained unaware of the bugs' demise alongside the monster's closing mouth.

Maybe due to the intense pain in its abdomen, the monster lost footing and fell down, lying on the ground.

Although an internal explosion from a missile could easily destroy all organs, it didn't inflict significant harm on the monster.

After all, the monster possessed rapid healing abilities similar to Vajra, though the stamina Vajra consumed for recovery, as everyone clearly understood, could quickly be replenished after a good night's sleep if depleted in a day.

However, the healing power of the monster relied on the blood reserves inside its body; if saturated with blood, the monster could regenerate as effectively as Wolverine whose severed limbs could regrow.

Yet, during times of peace, it was nearly impossible to secure a large volume of blood.

So, despite the monster's killing of many people and its consumption of their flesh and blood, its blood reserve was actually not abundant.

After all, in the previous battles, the monster never had the upper hand.

But in its recent revivals, following several battles, it barely suffered losses; despite the killings, it didn't sustain much damage, thus retaining a considerable amount of blood.

Yet, when the monster swallowed the missile, and it detonated within its stomach, to protect its core, it had to continuously draw on its blood reserves to repair the organs shattered by the explosion.

Although it eventually managed to use its blood to completely heal the internally ruptured organs, it expended all the blood it had previously conserved in one go.