In the flash of gunfire, I saw the dark figure rushing towards me. I raised my shotgun and instinctively pulled the trigger in that direction.
"Click!"
After I pulled the trigger, I only heard the sound of the spring clip moving; the trigger seemed to be stuck in something and I couldn't press it down no matter what.
When we first entered the jungle, Sasha trained us on how to use firearms. He said that water inside a hunting rifle would not affect its use, but the mud and sand must be cleaned up promptly after it falls into the water to prevent these things from jamming important parts of the firearm, which is exactly the situation I am facing now.
At that critical moment, I didn't even have time to check what was wrong with the gun before I was knocked to the ground by a force.
In the pitch black, I was knocked to the ground. I reached out to push it away, but when I grabbed that thing, it felt slippery in my hand, and I also grabbed the other person's arm.
It felt like holding a baby and grabbing his arm.
"Wow……!"
The thing in my arms, which I was clutching, let out a cry like a baby. The shrill sound sent chills down my spine, making me feel even more strongly that what I was holding was a little child.
In this dark environment, the monkey beside him could not see anything and dared not launch an attack rashly. It asked nervously, "Young Master Duan, how are you?"
"The thing that attacked me was like a child!"
While answering the question, I tried to push the child off me, but the thing was extremely strong and its legs were wrapped around my waist.
"Bang! Bang!"
In an attempt to break free, I began to punch the monster on my body. But after only two punches, I felt an unbearable pain in my shoulder, so intense that my body was spasming.
This sharp pain also triggered my potential; I grabbed his body and roughly threw him off.
"Waaaaah!"
The monster crashed to the ground, letting out a painful groan. I grabbed the hunting rifle beside me, used the sound to pinpoint its location, and hurled it forward.
"Waaaaah..."
Just then, a chorus of wailing sounds rang out, as if more monsters were approaching us.
The monkey beside me groped for a bullet in the dark and called out, "Young Master Duan! Give me a sound, let me know where you are!"
"I'm here!"
I swung my hunting rifle and moved closer to the monkeys: "Be careful, this monster is very aggressive, it might bite!"
"Wow……"
Just then, a voice suddenly rang in our ears, followed by a scream from the monkey, which fired a shot at the same time.
I originally wanted to take advantage of the gunfire to observe the location of those monsters, but before I could see them clearly, I was knocked down by a force from the side, and then a sharp pain shot through my leg as I was dragged towards the underground river.
When I fell into the water earlier, the low temperature had already exhausted my strength. If I were dragged into the water again, I would definitely not have the strength to struggle. So I swung the shotgun in my hand and smashed it down.
"Bang!"
My shot didn't knock down the monster, and I also forgot that the gun's trigger was jammed. The moment the butt hit the ground, the bullet was inexplicably fired, and a wave of heat flew out from my skin.
The accidental discharge of the gun gave me a fright. Luckily, I had loaded a slug; if it had been a shotgun, I might have been killed right there.
The monster dragging me was probably startled by the gunshot and released my body, but the monster next to me bit my arm again.
To prevent my soaked clothes from taking away my body heat, I had just taken off all my outer clothes, leaving only my underwear. Now that my arm was being bitten, I could even feel the sharp teeth piercing my skin, so I reached out and grabbed it.
What I touched was a round head, wet and slippery, with a disgusting feel. Moreover, the sticky substance on its surface made it impossible for me to hold onto it or push it away.
Just then, a light suddenly shone in the cave, followed by a gunshot.
The monster biting me let out a sharp cry and began to roll on the ground.
The visitor was Song Laosan.
His clothes were also soaked through. He took down that monster with one shot, and without even saying goodbye to me, he charged toward another monster with his military knife.
With a light source, I was finally able to see my surroundings clearly.
The monsters that attacked us were not children, but crocodile-shaped creatures, generally over a meter long, with a tail.
I saw a monster attacking the monkey, so I picked up the hunting rifle from the ground, ran over, and smashed it on the monster's head. It let out a squeak and twisted as it retreated.
Thump!
The monkey blasted the monster's head off with a single shot and then began gripping the gun and smashing it against the other monsters.
Whether these creatures were afraid of gunfire or light sources, they quickly retreated back into the water and disappeared after our counterattack.
Under the flashlight's beam, I discovered that although we were in a natural cave, the surrounding walls were engraved with patterns that looked like talismans. In feng shui, these are called talismans for warding off evil spirits.
Water is considered yin, and yin breeds evil spirits. The main purpose of a talisman is to prevent water ghosts from rising from the river and entering the tomb.
The monkey saw Song Laosan standing in front of him, and his chest heaved violently: "Third Master, why did you come down here too?"
"Nonsense! We all came here together. If you were in danger, how could I not care! After you fell, I thought you were all dead. I was up there thinking about how to get out when I suddenly heard gunshots below. So I gritted my teeth and jumped down!"
Seeing the wounds on my body, Song Laosan pulled a sealed plastic bottle from his pocket: "The first-aid kit is soaked with water. We don't know if the monsters' teeth or the underground river are poisonous. Clean the wounds first! Where is that bastard Zhou Peng?"
"I don't know where it drifted down the river to, all I encountered was this monster!"
I took the hydrogen peroxide that Song Laosan handed me and rinsed my wounds before examining what had attacked us.
This thing isn't a crocodile, but a strange fish with hands and feet. It's gray all over and covered with dense black bumps, which makes it look unsettling.
The larger of these monsters are nearly two meters long, while the smaller ones are about one and a half meters long. Their open mouths resemble those of sharks, with three rows of teeth on the top and bottom.
The monkey poked the monster's teeth with the gun barrel: "Could this thing be the giant salamander we often talk about? I've heard that giant salamanders have arms and legs, and their cries are similar to those of a child. Could the sounds we heard before have been made by these things?"
"This thing is not a giant salamander, but it should be a kind of giant salamander. I heard that adult giant salamanders usually live in caves and rock crevices in deep pools of streams and rivers below 1,000 meters above sea level. This thing has poor eyesight and mainly perceives external information through its sense of smell and touch. It can also sense vibrations in the water through the warts on its skin."
Old Song used his foot to flip the giant salamander over, then his features scrunched up: "Wait a minute, why does this thing have four eyes?"
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