Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

"William, I have an idea, a somewhat risky idea." Kraft looked away from the rock blocking the road, pulled out a torch and handed it to William, "Don't be in a hurry to put down that rock, you can use it right away. On."

"This is not a liberal arts college. You don't need to be so tactful. It doesn't matter if you remove the word 'somewhat'." William put the end of the fuel wrapped against the flame, lit the torch by the fire, and weighed the feldspar in his hand.

It was too heavy to hold with one hand, and they couldn't swing it more than a few times, but they didn't have the chance to fight it for dozens or hundreds of rounds.

"The good news is, we don't have to dig through the rock formations with our own hands."

"How to say?"

"There happens to be a burrowing expert here. I believe that under the right circumstances, he will not be stingy with a little help." The long sword was drawn out of the sheath, and the silver light circulated around the unknown stubborn traces. It should not be human blood.

"First of all, those monsters that like to give themselves a human face are everywhere, and the kind of noise they make is related to the appearance of the things that built these caves."

"To a certain extent, this kind of guidance is quite accurate. Although I don't quite understand the principle, it doesn't prevent me from using it. As long as we pass by this place, we can easily help us turn these stones into pieces. .”

"So how can we ensure that we won't be smashed to pieces?" This plan sounded simple and crude, and William had no doubt that in front of that thing, rocks were no different from crispy black bread.

"We can go to the next level and come back up after it has finished doing this little favor."

"You said it takes time and the right environment." William pointed out the problem in time, and the timing required by Craft was quite clever.

Assuming that thing is a stupid bull, if you want it to vault over the low wall behind you, you have to get the right position and the time not too early and not too late. Standing in front of an obstacle and waiting for it to get out of the way is a trick that will most likely involve you.

"And you can't expect those faces to cooperate, so why should they help you?"

"This is the so-called risk." Kraft moved his wrist and held a sword. "Fortunately, I have an excellent way of persuading, which is also effective when the other party cannot understand Norse."

"I guess you're not talking about persuasion."

"In a broad sense, it's about getting the other person to do what we want, but not necessarily through language skills."

It made some sense, but William still felt it was unreliable. Inflicting damage to them and escaping unharmed after fighting for dozens of rounds were completely different concepts. "How to do it specifically?"

…

[First, take the initiative to look for them]

This is not difficult. You can go deep into the cave without going far. At the depth where the cracks disappear, you can hear the sound of the hard shell hitting the rock.

"Going both ways?"

A drum-like rhythm, the percussion rises from the bottomless darkness, and the sharp tool for peeling off the skin supports the body, perhaps like a centipede that can accommodate this number of limbs.

Like a winter nightmare, the sound of icy rain hitting the tiles is somewhere between reality and reality, resounding in and out of dreams. The cold and insects attracted by body temperature burrow into clothes, causing itchiness and discomfort on the skin. You look at the circular opening, like an open door, inviting something to come.

So it, or maybe they, arrived as promised. The drumbeats of carapace and rock rose, kept approaching, paused at the climax, and stopped in front of the aperture one after another.

White peeked out from the darkness, a clean old local face that had never been seen before, without dust and skin pigment, and it was too loose. It looks like an old cloth that has been washed and discolored over and over again, barely stretched on a wooden frame that does not fit the size, and has basically lost its human shape.

But Kraft still found a match in his memory on this face. It had similar features to that of the boy fetching water alone, but with the added traces of more than ten years of maturity and fatigue.

Next to it is a foreigner's face. The burn scar from the left lower jaw to the corner of the eye completely destroys the little bookish atmosphere. Some kind of liquid was spilled and burned and corroded, and the improperly treated contracture healing pulled the eyebrows and nose to the lower left. No matter how much adjustment was made, it could only reveal a more horribly deformed smile.

[Then, don’t wait for them to make the first move]

Kraft twisted William's backbone, and the stinging and tenderness mixed with pain allowed him to shake off the influence with psychological preparation, and raised the long stone to smash it.

"You damn thing, go to hell!"

The stone embedded with green crystals is lifted up by a strong arm, a natural mace that fits the nature of combat. It may not be that easy to use, but it cannot be denied that its lethality is directly proportional to its weight.

The darkness behind the face started to move, and it seemed to be prepared. A sharp shadow separated from the deep black background, and the invisible darkness became tangible, hiding behind the face's ears and forming an inconspicuous existence like a tuft of hair.

It is good at this, the face is the part that induces and attracts attention, and is a cover in front of the vicious moves.

The sharp matte limbs shot out and hooked towards William's eyeballs. It was not easy for a person who was in a state of excitement to notice it. He was still confused as to how the shadow could move on its own.

A sword tip penetrated between the two, blocking the way. Before William swung down the feldspar, the attack that penetrated the back wall of the orbital bone and penetrated the frontal lobe hit the spine of the sword, where steel and chitin intersected.

The sharp barbs scraped against the metal surface, and the harsh noise penetrated the consciousness of burning pain, making people feel as sore as tooth root decay.

But one of the two weapons has already been castrated, and it only needs to be postponed and smashed with inertia. The other hand is in the hands of experienced people. After intercepting it, it is pulled away, slashed horizontally, and chopped on the spikes coming from the feet to poke the lower body, creating a gap in it.

Meanwhile, the captain's wrath descended on the particularly abominable chemically burned face.

The effect of the large blunt weapon was extraordinary. The support behind the wide flat face shattered and collapsed with an echo, and the remaining force of the swing knocked back the local face next to it and fell back into the darkness.

The long sword reached out in time again, deflecting the counterattack that was already approaching William's flank.

"How did you see it?" Cold sweat dripped. William didn't expect that he would be on the line of life and death twice with just one swing of the stick. Kraft didn't even look at him sideways. The ghostly sword blade looked like a ghost. If you have eyes, you can catch an attack in the dark faster than a stabbing sword by holding it with one hand.

"I don't need to look." The sword holder handed a sword into the air. His dilated pupils had no focus in the blurred light and shadow, and his moves were completely unreasonable.

In an instant, three faces appeared side by side, and they collided with the steel blade that had arrived in advance. The timing was as clever as a perfectly coordinated stage play. The villain actor in the role accurately took the protagonist's planned action, and his face was split into two, and from the porous Nested convex exfoliation.

Tiny things were moving in those hollows that quickly sank into darkness, and more could be seen in the sword marks carved into them. They were small jointed limbs shaped like hooks, which were structures that replaced the facial muscles to control the dead smile.

The sight was enough to make a trypophobic patient gouge out his eyes on the spot, which made him hate things in the dark even more. He raised the feldspar and swung it, but failed on the spot.

Kraft changed direction and used precise swordsmanship to help fill the gap, shooting down the limbs and revealing another face.

Out of the scope of swordsmanship, it is purely an unreasonable prophecy, clarifying the darkness and obstruction, and movements precede vision. Something incomprehensible is commanding this weapon.

"Be careful before taking action, don't cause trouble!" He took time out from his busy schedule to point out that his teammates were proficient in otherworldly souls. Kraft's short voice was filled with elements such as anger and instructions, and it was conveyed very well.

His current situation is actually not as easy as it seems. Within the range of mental sensory radiation, the tip of the iceberg that can be glimpsed is only enough for simple prediction.

Things outside the light are constantly changing, and some kind of interference prevents its outline from being clearly displayed. They only know that what is piled in front of them is a plurality of protrusions, like a bunch of heads.

Part of the surface is covered with a thin layer, and there are at least a dozen of them according to rough calculation. Compared with the first time I saw it, the size difference among the groups is far greater than imagined. They took turns showing up with different faces, trying to find a familiar face.

The jointed limbs are free from the amorphous body, as if they are actually formed from the solid darkness, sprouting like sprouts, showing dynamic growth.

The most troublesome part is that those joints and limbs have a tendency to converge here. At first, he only had to deal with two or three, and if he dragged them further, he would have three heads and six arms, and he would suffer from this today.

But fortunately, what Kraft needs is not a fight between life and death.

"William, go forward on the right side!" Seizing the opportunity of a few more faces moving forward, Kraft threw away the torch, held the sword in both hands and cut off a jointed limb, and directed William when it retreated in pain.

Feldspar smashes into the invisible realm, creating spaces between faces. The carapace protection of the flexible parts was limited, and the sword penetrated straight through, bypassing the honeycomb-shaped protrusions and inserted into the body, half of it being submerged.

The darkness with growing faces and jointed limbs trembled. After a moment of brewing, a huge horn burst out, and the jointed limbs that were about to retreat were waving wildly.

Kraft tried to pull out his sword to defend himself, but the tightening of certain tissues and the carapace delayed the process.

The correct choice should be to let go immediately and save the sword, but this option has not been rehearsed in his mind. His feelings for the weapon that has been with him for many years do not allow him to come up with such a decision in a short time.

At the first moment, he kicked out reflexively, and based on his training experience in fighting normal humans or beasts, he used his legs to remove obstacles, kick away the seriously injured or dead target, and retrieve the weapon.

With one foot off the ground, his reason once again occupied the high ground, Kraft realized that at this moment, influenced by his emotions and conditioned reflexes, he made a blameless but very serious mistake - his opponent was not a normal creature. , no one knows how risky this action is.

The sound of the horn resounded through the space, followed by vibrations. William saw the maimed limbs clawing and cutting frantically in the turbulent shadow, and the pale and flat human faces simultaneously twisted into shrunken, ferocious and inhuman shapes. Kraft drew his sword and retreated from the darkness.