"Hiss!"

One of the Tsuchinokos let out a loud hiss before opening its giant mouth. Green liquid shot out from the hole in its fangs towards where Graham and Luuk were standing. They quickly avoided the projectile and managed to get out of its area of damage. The ground that it touched made a sizzling noise and smoke came rising up.

"Do we run for it?" asked Luuk.

The Tsuchinokos were not really strong as a supernatural creature, but they were very troublesome. Their weak spots were under their bellies that were covered most of the time. Because of their size and weight, it was almost impossible to topple Tsuchinokos unless the person possessed super strength.

"We fight. Buy me some time," replied Graham as he retreated to a safe distance.

Graham slit his palm and drop his blood to the ground. Luuk, who was now left to face three Tsuchinokos on his own, had to concentrate very hard not to get killed. Jacco kept beating the War Drum, which boosted Luuk's overall power.

Badum! Badum!

"Hiss!"

The Tsuchinoko hissed again and Luuk swiftly ran towards the direction of another one. The Tsuchinoko that Luuk was running forward suddenly lunged at him, but he had expected that. Luuk nimbly dodged to the side.

Splash!

The first Tsuchinoko sprayed the other one with its venom. However, it didn't seem to do any significant damage to it besides creating some stains on its hard scales.

"Jacco, can you make them fight each other?" asked Luuk.

Jacco looked to the back where Graham was to ask for confirmation. The latter said that he would divine it but he hadn't told him the result.

"It will work, right, detective?"

"Yes! Do it!" shouted Graham from the back without stopping what he was doing.

Jacco kept beating his drum and amidst that, he started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of War, grant the words I say the ability to provoke my enemies!"

A red mist of war spread out from his mouth and quickly dispersed.

"Hey, ugly bastard, that thing over there stole your food yesterday!" he shouted at one of the creatures while pointing at the other with his free right hand.

Luuk could see a very thin, barely noticeable, red mist entering the snake-like creature that Jacco just shouted at. It then changed direction and lunged at the one that Jacco pointed at.

"That stupid lie worked?" said Luuk in disbelief.

Jacco was also surprised. He didn't think his ability would really work. It was his least frequently used ability because there were just not a lot of chances for him to use it. Who knew it would be a lifesaver in that situation.

The two Tsuchinokos were now busy fighting each other. One of them opened its mouth and tried to sink its fangs into the other, but was stopped by the hard scale. The defending creature then opened its fang and tried to bite the other one in the eye, and the other one couldn't dodge in time.

"Hiss!!"

Blood came dripping from its left eye that had been pierced by the other's fang. The other eye remained intact because the creature's fangs couldn't reach both eyes at the same time.

"My ability won't last much longer!" exclaimed Jacco.

"How much longer?" asked Luuk.

The remaining Tsuchinoko had tried to spray him with its venom, but Luuk managed to dodge. He was now running away from its attack.

"A moment!" shouted Graham from the back.

Underneath him was now a pool of blood that kept getting wider by the second. His blood kept dripping on it, increasing the pool's size slowly.

Clank!

Luuk defended against the creature's attack with his knife, but he was still sent flying back several meters.

"I, in the name of the Deity of War, grant the words I say the ability to provoke my enemies!"

Jacco finished chanting again and now he was targeting the creature that was attacking Luuk.

"Hey, shithead! That thing over there will eat us and leave you starving. You need to kill it now!" Jacco shouted at it while pointing at one of the fighting Tsuchinokos.

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The same faint red mist entered the creature and it became strangely irritated by the other one. Meanwhile, the previously attacking Tsuchinoko suddenly stopped as if it had come back to its senses. It turned around and looked at Jacco in anger. It quickly jumped at him with full speed and its mouth was open wide, ready to devour the man in one bite.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare your intention to attack Jacco mine!"

Luuk made a swiping motion with his right hand and the Tsuchinoko stopped in its track in confusion. It then saw Luuk who was closer to it and opened its mouth to use its venom spray.

"Bring it here!" said Graham finally.

There was now significantly more blood on the ground that it started to spread around. Graham looked weak, but with the effect of Jacco's War Drum, he was rapidly recovering. Luuk let go of the stolen intention in his hand and the creature suddenly had the urge to attack Jacco again. It closed its mouth and started charging at him with its huge body.

Jacco ran towards the pool of blood near Graham to lure the Tsuchinoko. The other two, who by now had stopped fighting, also lunged at the human enemies. Luuk had dodged all of their attacks swiftly while Jacco was jumping over the blood puddle. The Tsuchinoko that was chasing him quickly got on the red pool and Graham quickly chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Bloodshed and Manslaughter, order my blood that covers the earth to attack my enemy!"

The blood boiled and it quickly formed tiny pellets that started shooting at the Tsuchinoko above it. Its hard scales protected it from most of the attacks, but its weak spot, which was right on top of the blood puddle, was not spared. The blood pellets shot right at the weakness and injured the creature greatly. The snake-like thing tried to move away from it but the barrage of attacks made it difficult to do so. With that amount of blood, the attack kept on coming and not long after, the Tsuchinoko lost its life shortly after that, and the blood pellets stopped shooting.

"One down. Two to go!" exclaimed Jacco excitedly.

"Bright that one here as well!" commanded Graham.

Luuk quickly ran away from his spot, bringing the two creatures with him. The dead body of the previous Tsuchinoko was blocking the blood puddle that had now reduced in size significantly. There would only be enough blood to kill one of them. Luuk agilely jumped over the puddle and when one of the creatures was on top of it, Graham chanted again.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Bloodshed and Manslaughter, order my blood that covers the earth to attack my enemy!"

"Hiss!"

Blood pellets started forming again and attack one of the Tsuchinokos, leaving the other the freedom to attack Luuk. Luckily, he hadn't let his guard down and managed to dodge the attack safely. He then tried to stab its intact right eye with his knife. Luuk jumped high in the air and aimed for the yellow eye of the creature, and quickly sank his knife deep inside its eye.

"Hisss!!!"

It hissed loudly in pain with blood running down its destroyed eyeball. Meanwhile, the other Tsuchinoko had completely died because of Graham's blood attack, and the pool of blood on the ground was no more.

"This is the last one!" shouted Luuk.

Badum! Badum!

The War Drum kept on beating, strengthening the three men considerably. Luuk dodged the creature's blind tail swipe with ease, and it struck a wall, destroying a little part of it. If he had been hit by the tail, things would be ugly.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to roll over!"

As Graham finished his chanting, the last Tsuchinoko stopped in its track and involuntarily rolled over, exposing the weak spot on its belly. Graham and Luuk didn't waste time and quickly stabbed it. The creature let out a loud hiss that was full of pain and then died not long after.

"What was that blood ability just now?" asked Luuk.

Graham cleaned the dust off his coat and then answered, "It's something I copied from a Murderer. I've used up all of it for today, though,"

"But you still have Order, right?" he asked again.

"Yes. I'm saving it in case something more powerful shows up," replied Graham.

Jacco, who had stopped beating the iron plate on his stomach, approached the group and looked around at the aftermath of the battle. There are three corpses of snake-like creatures with bulging stomachs, one of which was lying upside down. From the upside-down corpse, an egg-like object had completely formed and lied on top of the wounded belly. Luuk picked up the object and put it inside his backpack.

"What about these two?" asked Jacco and pointed at the other two corpses lying next to each other.

"We might have to turn them upside down," replied Luuk.

The three men stood next to the corpse, in the gap between the two that was big enough for them to slip in. They lifted the Tsuchinoko's dead body and put all of their strength into it.

"Hnggh!!"

It was heavier than they thought. It was definitely easier to push the corpse aside than to flip it. It took them a while but they managed to roll the creature's body over and exposed its injured belly. There, stuck inside the wound, the egg-like object that they were looking for was found. They did the same thing with the other corpse and after working hard to turn it upside down, they could retrieve the egg object, which Luuk kept safe inside his backpack.

"Phew. I'm glad it ended without a problem," said Jacco in relief.

"Yes. It could have ended badly for us. We should avoid fighting many at the same time again," replied Graham.

The three men then pushed the corpses to the side with less difficulty than when they flipped them and after the job was done, they continued their way. Luuk led the team because he was the one who could feel where the gemstones were located. On the way, he also collected some plants that grew on the cave floor.

The deeper they walked, the darker the cave became. The holes that let the sunbeams to come through became more scarce, but it was still enough for Graham and Jacco to see. If it became any darker, they would have to use another source of lighting.

"Here," said Luuk.

He stopped in front of a cave wall with a low hanging ceiling that had green spots on it.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the gemstones inside this spot mine!"

His right hand made a swiping motion and the green spots inside the cave ceiling disappeared and reappeared in his hand. There were small pieces of green gemstones with murky color. He put all of them inside his backpack and then continued deeper into the cave.

"Wait up!" said Jacco.

He took out a small flashlight with a strap and then wrapped it around his forehead. With his flashlight, Jacco and Graham now could see well while Luuk had had his night vision activated.

"Stop!" interjected Graham quietly.

The others also felt what Graham was feeling, so they stopped right away. Jacco turned off his flashlight and the cave became dark. Luuk, who was still able to see perfectly, could see something in the distance, unmoving. The thing emitted an aura more dangerous than the Tsuchinokos.

"What can you see?" asked Graham whisperingly.

"It's a giant bat hanging from the ceiling. It has human hair," he replied quietly, "It seems to be sleeping,"

"Describe it to me in detail," requested Graham.

"It's probably around one and a half meters tall. Its wings are red, and it's covering its body. The hair grows from the head to toe, including the wings," answered Luuk with a low voice.