"Their speed!"
The two silver figures were naturally the two rodents.
Although Bruce was shocked by their speed, his hands moved swiftly, holding a large blade as he quickly rushed to Aaron's side and ferociously slashed at the rodent descending from the sky.
Whoosh…
Bruce's basic strength exceeded twenty thousand catties, and the force of his swing swept up the snow on the ground, showcasing its power.
The rodent pouncing towards Aaron obviously sensed the threat of Bruce's strike and abruptly shifted its body to the left in mid-air.
Bruce, unfazed by the miss, withdrew his blade in stride.
His intention with the strike was merely to assist Aaron, not expecting to swiftly kill the rodent.
Whoosh…
However, just as Bruce was about to retract his blade, a sudden gust of wind reached his ears.
His heart constricted abruptly, and he swiftly turned, ready to block horizontally from the left.
The rodent, using the momentum from its body turning left, swung its over two-meter-long barbed tail towards Bruce.
Bruce's reaction was swift, his side block was indeed effective.
But the rodent's tail was soft and incredibly fast.
Snap… Riiiip…
Amidst the sound of a whip and the tearing of flesh, intense pain registered in his mind.
Bruce turned to see four or five deep wounds on his waist.
Instead of anger, a gleam of joy flickered in his eyes.
The rodent had returned to the tree branches, standing alongside the other.
Their blood-red eyes filled with fierce menace as they glared down at the two below.
"Leader, they dug from underground to the heart of the tree and directly reached my side. I couldn't escape in time, and one of them bit my arm while another clawed at my chest."
Aaron, now safe, spoke with a pale face as he explained the situation to Bruce, taking out Golden Sore Powder from his pocket to apply on his left arm and chest.
Bruce also rubbed some Golden Sore Powder on his waist, stopping the bleeding.
He then looked at the tree where Aaron had been hiding, noticing a large hole over a meter wide.
He glanced up at the two rodents on the branch, a chill passing through his heart.
They had burrowed over a hundred meters from afar, tunneling from the tree stump's base to Aaron's side.
That entire process took merely seven or eight minutes without making a sound.
Aaron was of Earthripper Realm capability and had hunted with him for half a year, known for his extreme caution.
The fact that he didn't notice the rodents until they were beside him said enough.
Moreover, these two rodents must have been attracted by the torches, but their sensing ability far surpassed the three previous Cold Beasts.
Not only did they detect Aaron's hiding spot, but they also knew to sneak up for an attack.
They are smart, cunning, united, possess tremendous biting and burrowing capabilities, exceptional sensory abilities, and tremendous speed, coupled with team cooperation.
The rodents' only weakness is…
"Don't be afraid, they may be fast, but their strength is quite ordinary!"
Despite having his waist scratched by the barbs on the rodent's tail, Bruce was not alarmed but pleased, having discovered their strength wasn't formidable.
Forget comparing them to Snow Mane, even Frost Wolf was stronger than these rodents.
As Bruce voiced his observation, the two rodents on the tree once again charged at him.
Their speed was blinding, moving like two silver flashes, arriving in an instant from the branch to right in front of him.
Aware of the blade's threat in Bruce's hand, the two rodents chose neither to use their claws nor to attack head-on.
Instead, they bared their sharp gnawing teeth, attacking Bruce from both sides.
Bruce swiftly swung his blade horizontally to block the left side, while Aaron, with his injuries temporarily suppressed by the Golden Sore Powder, gritted his teeth and charged towards the right, lifting his blade to block the incoming rodent.
Clang…
The gnawing teeth and the large blade collided fiercely, emitting sparks, seemingly powerful in force, yet neither Bruce nor Aaron, with their backs against each other, moved an inch.
Only their hands holding the blade trembled slightly.
"Their strength truly isn't strong!"
Having been ambushed before, Aaron was now reassured.
He could tell, despite the rodents' speed, that their bite force only amounted to six or seven thousand catties – a power he had no fear confronting directly.
"Don't be careless, check the blade!"
But just as he began to feel relieved, Bruce warned him.
Looking down at his blade, Aaron's expression shifted dramatically, his earlier ease swiftly turning tense again.
The blade of his weapon, which had just clashed with the rodent's teeth, had developed a large nick, resembling teeth marks, with the edge curling over three to four inches beyond the dent.
"So hard, how is that possible!"
"Don't get bitten, focus on dealing with them first."
Bruce understood Aaron's shock.
Up to this point, the hardest material they had encountered was Iron.
Yet these rodents' teeth were harder than Iron.
If it bit a person, it would be disastrous!
Bruce's face displayed shock yet also a hint of joy.
But there was no time to think about it now.
"Squeak…"
The two rodents let out a low cry and lunged forward once more.
This time, they bypassed Bruce, targeting Aaron instead.
More specifically, they aimed for Aaron's left arm and chest.
The two rodents coordinated an attack simultaneously at Aaron's already injured left arm and chest.
Bruce leaped to block on Aaron's left side, only exchanging a glance with him, storing energy in his great blade.
He took advantage of the moment when the rodent on the left had yet to attack, and slashed down preemptively where it was about to bite.
Aaron, on his side, wielded his blade to fend off another rodent attacking his chest.
The speed of the two rodents was similar, almost simultaneously confronting the two in front.
Clang…
The situation was exactly the same as their first clash.
But this time, the sparks flying from the collision of the great blade and the rodent's teeth were only a single burst.
Aaron, who had just blocked the rodent attacking his chest, suddenly turned at the critical moment, blocking horizontally towards the teeth of the rodent on the left, ignoring the one attacking his chest.
Originally, Bruce had completed storing energy.
As Aaron turned, Bruce slashed with his blade, and then withdrew it, swinging it around again, changing his stance with the momentum, and completing a second energy charge.
Bruce's pupils suddenly constricted, and he slashed decisively at the rodent that had just arrived.
From the moment the two switched positions to Bruce's second energy charge and his slash towards the rodent,
the whole process was as smooth as flowing water.
Most critically, they communicated the entire time with just one glance.
"No matter how well you cooperate, can you be more synchronized than humans?"
Bruce slashed down, his gaze fierce, and his expression a bit ferocious.
The strength of these two rodents, when it comes down to it, wasn't that strong.
He and Aaron suffered in their first encounter because they were unfamiliar.
Aaron didn't expect that the opponent could so silently dig from the ground to before him; Bruce was surprised by the opponent's speed, not expecting its tail to be so agile.
With Aaron's sudden positional switch in the battle, with a calculated move against an unprepared opponent, the rodent facing them couldn't react in time.
Because of their speed, responding in such a short time was impossible.
Additionally, Bruce and Aaron were in a state of rest waiting for action.
They switched positions at the last moment, sealing the fate of the rodent head-on.
The rodent that initially attacked Aaron, upon seeing Bruce coming over, had a flicker of panic flash through its eyes, clearly realizing it couldn't react in time.
Whish…
Bruce's slash aimed at the rodent's head seized the timing precisely.
The blade cut through the air with a whistling sound, as if the surrounding air had paused for a moment.
But just as the great blade was about to strike, the rodent suddenly lifted its head mid-air.
Its pair of scarlet eyes shot out two beams of red light about an inch long, seemingly solidified into substance, like two sharp arrows meeting Bruce's blade like needle points.
Sss…
The eye beams collided with the great blade, sending a strong recoil force that caused Bruce's hands holding the blade to tremble incessantly.
The blade that was initially aimed at the rodent's head was deflected over half a meter by the recoil.
"These Cold Beasts indeed each have their trump cards; this inch of light must be the rodent's last-ditch effort to stay alive. But you're not quite mature enough to rely on this to survive!"
Bruce's ferocious expression didn't fade in the slightest.
He gritted his teeth, steadied his blade, ignoring his cracked tiger's mouth, and forcibly twisted the half-meter off-course blade back on track.
Crack…
The sound of bones breaking echoed in the night sky as the rodent's body fell to the ground with a thud.
The massive force of impact almost completely buried it in snow, leaving only its back exposed.
"Squeak, squeak…"
Accompanied by the last feeble squeak, its vitality was completely extinguished.
Bruce looked down at the rodent's broken spinal column, taking a deep breath.
"Its teeth may be hard, but the strength of its internal bones is average. The inch of light is powerful, but the attack range seems short and might only be unleashed under mortal danger. So as long as these Long-tailed Rodents aren't in swarms, the threat shouldn't be too great!"
Whoosh…
"Leader, it's trying to run!"
Before he could relax for long, Bruce was startled awake by Aaron's alert.
Turning his head, he saw the other rodent had turned into a silver streak heading towards the cliffside, and his expression immediately tensed.
"Can't let it escape, hurry and chase!"
Bruce shouted lowly, leading Aaron to chase swiftly.