Chapter 57

"Trapped from both front and back!" Cheng Yang muttered, cursing his bad luck. How could he have forgotten to check if there were any monsters at the other end of the alley?

These guys must have heard the commotion and rushed over. However, since he had chosen an alley with only two exits, he was now trapped like a fish in a jar.

He had to choose a direction to break out. If he stayed in the middle, he would definitely die, and there wouldn't even be any bones left.

The black water crocodiles were clearly not a wise choice. There were still over a thousand of them waiting outside, and the two late-stage first-rank giants hadn't even shown up yet. If he were stopped, his small body wouldn't withstand their bites.

The only remaining option was the rear exit, hoping the number of green-skinned monkeys wouldn't be too many.

At this moment, Cheng Yang wasn't particularly afraid. After all, he still had about ten bottles of red potion in his backpack. Even if he had to tough it out, he could kill two to three hundred early-stage first-rank monsters. However, the key issue was that the distance to the base was too far. Without the potions, if he encountered danger, it would be troublesome.

After making his decision, Cheng Yang immediately turned and ran toward the rear passage. In a few breaths, he encountered the green-skinned monkeys.

Cheng Yang didn't want to face them head-on. He immediately leaped, jumping three meters high, and using the momentum, he landed several meters ahead.

The more than ten green-skinned monkeys that rushed in were stunned. The target they were about to hit suddenly disappeared, which was too hard for them to accept.

Soon, Cheng Yang's strength was exhausted, and he fell toward the group of green-skinned monkeys. As he landed, seven or eight spears stabbed at him, as if trying to skewer him like a popsicle.

However, Cheng Yang knew that even if these spears had high attack power, as long as they didn't have a piercing effect, they couldn't penetrate his body. The moment his feet touched the ground, he instantly used the Ice Spike skill.

The more than ten green-skinned monkeys were bathed in ice spikes, and their health points instantly dropped by more than half.

At the same time, the attacks from the green-skinned monkeys finally landed on Cheng Yang. This round only took away two points of his health, which was no different from scratching.

However, Cheng Yang took the attacks from the green-skinned monkeys seriously. He constantly made minor adjustments to his body, trying to avoid being hit in vital areas. This wasn't because he was worried about higher damage if they hit vital areas, but to prepare for future battles.

As the monsters' strength increased, some of their attacks would have special effects, such as cutting or piercing. For example, if a monster with a cutting attribute hit a person's neck and the cutting effect activated, tragedy would occur. In such a situation, no matter how weak the monster's attack was, the player would instantly lose all health.

Monsters were like this, and players were the same. A skill or equipment with a special attribute, once activated in battle, could instantly kill an opponent. At such times, battle experience and skills would be crucial. Unlike now, where hitting the opponent just reduced their health, making people not even want to dodge.

This unintentional guidance made people unable to adapt to such battles in the future, leading to many players becoming sacrifices. This made others realize that battles were not as simple as they seemed.

In his previous life, Cheng Yang had gradually adapted to a battle style that required movement and dodging, but he was only adapted, not familiar. Therefore, he needed to take advantage of the early stage, where the monsters' attacks didn't have special effects, to train his battle skills and prepare for the future.

Returning to the main topic, after another Ice Spike attack, all the green-skinned monkeys around Cheng Yang fell to the ground, turning into more than ten corpses.

Cheng Yang didn't hesitate, immediately rushing forward a few steps, then jumping again, landing ahead. Another Ice Spike was cast.

The two consecutive attacks cleared out a large area. Cheng Yang took two more steps and rushed forward.

At this moment, Cheng Yang was about twenty meters from the exit, while the black water crocodiles were only forty meters behind him. Fortunately, there were still dozens of green-skinned monkeys between him and the crocodiles. Otherwise, facing the large black water crocodiles, this tactic wouldn't work, as he wouldn't even have a place to stand when he landed.

After three more rounds, Cheng Yang had been attacked seven or eight times, reducing his health, which made him quite frustrated. For a mage, being surrounded by monsters was indeed a tragic situation.

At this moment, Cheng Yang finally noticed a very good sign. He saw that there were no large groups of monsters outside the exit, meaning that once he broke out of the alley, he would be free.

With excitement, Cheng Yang leaped and landed again...

"Damn!" Cheng Yang couldn't help but curse, as his health instantly dropped by seven points upon landing.

There was a mid-stage first-rank green-skinned monkey. Cheng Yang cursed himself for being careless. In such a large group of monsters, how could there not be a mid-stage first-rank one? He looked around and found the green-skinned monkey that had attacked him from the side.

What was Cheng Yang going to do now? He directly cast a magic missile. After the green-skinned monkey had already taken an Ice Spike attack, it was instantly killed by another ice ball.

At this moment, the black water crocodiles finally encountered the green-skinned monkeys. Clearly, the green-skinned monkeys were focused on killing Cheng Yang and didn't notice the black water crocodiles behind them. The crocodiles didn't hesitate, opening their massive mouths and biting the thin green-skinned monkeys.

A fierce battle between the two groups of monsters instantly erupted...

Cheng Yang hadn't expected the two groups of monsters to fight each other. This rarely happened before. Most of the time, different types of monsters would avoid each other. Even if they saw each other, they would deliberately go around. But now, the black water crocodiles and green-skinned monkeys had no choice but to collide.

Cheng Yang was naturally delighted. He immediately killed the green-skinned monkeys in front of him and continued to leap backward.

In less than half a minute, Cheng Yang successfully broke out of the alley and entered another area of ruins. At this moment, he suddenly noticed that large groups of black water crocodiles were surging toward him from both sides of the ruins.

"Damn! Who said monsters aren't smart?" Cheng Yang's urge to curse grew stronger. He realized that in his previous life, he had stayed in the apocalypse for a year but hadn't deeply understood it. For example, these guys, just first-rank monsters, already knew how to surround and attack.

Cheng Yang could only attribute this to the special favor of the gods, since the things they guarded were extraordinary.

Cheng Yang felt very fortunate. If the green-skinned monkeys hadn't rushed in first, he would have faced the encirclement of over a thousand black water crocodiles. It would have been much harder to break out.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang immediately ran. There was no direction to choose from, as the black water crocodiles were almost surrounding him, leaving him no choice.

While running, Cheng Yang quickly took out a health potion from his pocket, drank it, and instantly restored his health, which had dropped to less than one-third. This made him feel a bit more at ease.

If it were before the apocalypse, with Cheng Yang's current speed, the so-called world sprint champions would only be able to eat his dust. However, now Cheng Yang still felt his speed was too slow. As long as he was still within the black water crocodiles' encirclement, he wouldn't feel safe.

"Whoosh..." He was only seven or eight meters away from breaking out.

But at this moment, two particularly large black water crocodiles suddenly rushed out of the group and blocked Cheng Yang's escape route. Their bodies, about four to five meters long, were intimidating. Even when lying on the ground, they were over one meter tall.

Cheng Yang's expression changed. Even if he used his toes to think, he knew these two must be the late-stage first-rank leaders of the black water crocodiles. The mid-stage black water crocodiles he had killed earlier were much smaller in comparison.

Facing two late-stage first-rank monsters at the same time? Cheng Yang was a bit unsure. If he used the kiting tactic, he would be more confident. But now he was still within the black water crocodiles' encirclement.

No choice! Break out first.

Cheng Yang didn't stop, rushing straight toward the two black water crocodile leaders. At the same time, he moved his staff, and a faint blue light emerged, directly covering one of the black water crocodile leaders.

The black water crocodile, which had been moving, suddenly froze, unable to move or even blink.

"This is the moment!" Cheng Yang calculated the time, stepped on the back of the frozen black water crocodile leader, and used it to leap far away.

The other black water crocodile didn't idle. Although it didn't understand why its companion suddenly stopped, it was determined to stop Cheng Yang. It swung its massive tail, aiming to sweep Cheng Yang off his feet.

Cheng Yang was in the air, with no place to borrow force. However, his rich battle experience came into play. An ice ball quickly formed at the end of his bone spirit staff and was directly aimed at the sweeping tail.

"Bang..." The two collided, and the massive impact made the black water crocodile leader's tail pause for a moment.

PS: It seems I'll be adding two more chapters today. However, I have a request. If I add these two chapters, it means I will leave the new book list the day after tomorrow. The performance of my book isn't great, and leaving the new book list will further reduce its exposure. Therefore, I plan to delay the two additional chapters for five days, including the additional chapters for the next two days. I will not go back on my word, and I hope for your understanding...