Jiang Yuntan looked toward the sound and saw Lin Xuan knocked to the ground by a spiked ball. He was curled up, clutching his calf. His pants were torn in several places where the spikes had pierced through, blood seeping out and soaking the fabric. Lin Xuan couldn't stop gasping and moaning in pain.
Lin Tingxue and their new teammates reacted, attacking the spiked ball. Ren Ze's fireball landed on it, perhaps burning it, causing it to suddenly roll toward him. Lin Tingxue used vines to bind the spiked ball, and then they began attacking.
By then, Jiang Yuntan's group could clearly see what the spiked ball was—a hedgehog.
Soon, a half-meter-high earthen wall rose before them, with Shen Hegui reinforcing the outer layer with metal. Just as he was about to finish, another hedgehog rolled toward them from their patch of ground, curled into a ball.
Coincidentally, the rolling hedgehog got stuck against the metal plate, unable to move. The originally curled-up hedgehog inadvertently exposed about a third of its belly. Seeing this opening, Shen Hegui stabbed straight into its belly. After a few struggles, it went still.
Only then did they see that the hedgehog was about half a meter long—before the apocalypse, these hedgehogs were only about fifteen to thirty centimeters.
More and more hedgehogs emerged from the ground. Some had strawberries stuck on their spines, suggesting that after the apocalypse, this strawberry patch had become their territory.
Over on the other side, after being stabbed by the hedgehog, Lin Xuan kept convulsing on the ground—it didn't seem like a simple puncture wound. As the hedgehogs multiplied, Lin Tingxue and her group couldn't attend to him.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yuntan's group, though facing many hedgehogs surfacing, was protected by the hastily erected earthen wall and metal plates.
Lin Tingxue's group, overwhelmed by the continuous onslaught, saw Lin Xuan's condition and didn't want to get hurt themselves. So, after seeing Jiang Yuntan's earthen wall, Lin Tingxue used her ability to create a vine net, at least providing a simple barrier against the hedgehogs.
Two of the women in Ren Ze's team retreated with Xia Chujing. Ren Ze could only throw fireballs at the hedgehogs, which burned them but didn't kill them instantly.
Luo Yu, with his strength mutation, was strong but dared not fight the hedgehogs barehanded. Fortunately, they had previously found a few machetes to use as weapons. Now he swung his blade at the hedgehogs trapped in the vine net, using his strength to wound them and draw blood.
Seeing that they were temporarily safe, Lin Xuan called out weakly and painfully, "Tingxue, I'm dying. Heal me first."
He raised his hand and found it stiff. A wave of terror washed over him—why was he moving slowly? Was he about to die? All because of a tiny hedgehog?
Lin Tingxue also sensed something wrong and hurried over. Rolling up his pant leg, she saw the wounds from the hedgehog were black and blue.
With no other choice, Lin Tingxue used her wood element ability mixed with healing ability to treat him. Lin Xuan's slightly bluish complexion gradually eased, and his body was no longer as stiff.
Feeling the change, Lin Xuan slowly calmed down.
Ren Ze and the others finally witnessed Lin Tingxue's healing ability and marveled inwardly at its power. This was their first encounter with a poisonous mutant animal. If they faced one without a healing ability like Lin Tingxue's, wouldn't they just watch themselves die from poison?
If they had been hesitant about following Lin Tingxue before, they now had no doubts.
Jiang Yuntan wasn't surprised that Lin Tingxue could heal Lin Xuan. After all, the healing ability was very useful—it could treat external injuries and even cure a certain degree of zombie virus. Moreover, it was beneficial to the ability user themselves. If the ability level was high enough, limb regeneration wasn't impossible. Right now, she was curious about how Lin Tingxue had obtained her healing ability before the apocalypse.
Shen Hegui and the others were attacking the hedgehogs blocked by the earthen wall. Seeing her curiously looking toward Lin Xuan's group, he said, "Some hedgehogs smear poisonous plant juice on their spines to enhance their defense."
"How do you know?" Jiang Yuntan asked instinctively.
"Saw it on TV," Shen Hegui replied casually.
Jiang Yuntan: ...
Soon, she had no time to think. She noticed the hedgehogs burrowing underground, and she didn't think they were trying to escape.
Glancing around, without hesitation, Jiang Yuntan stood on the earthen wall they had just built and shouted, "Get up here!"
Perhaps through days of cooperation, Shen Hegui, Yu Ke, and the others inexplicably trusted her words, just like when she had yelled "fall back" before. So when they saw her standing up, they all climbed up, expecting her to scatter something on the ground. But she did nothing of the sort—instead, she pulled out a laser sword, activated its switch, and precisely stabbed a hedgehog.
As it writhed in pain and emerged, she raised the sword and decapitated it with a single stroke. The whole motion was fluid and seamless.
Only then did they realize that even though the hedgehogs had burrowed through the ground from behind, they couldn't jump onto the earthen wall to attack them. They had noticed the hedgehogs burrowing earlier but thought they could just attack when they surfaced. They simply hadn't thought of standing on the wall.
On the other side, Lin Xuan, who had just been healed, and Lin Tingxue and her group were shocked to see the glowing laser sword in Jiang Yuntan's hand with such lethal power.
But then, Yu Ke's actions made them unable to believe their eyes. Yu Ke, Xue Zhao, and Qi Ruoshui all pulled out laser swords to kill the hedgehogs. The hedgehogs that had given them so much trouble seemed like mere cabbages under the coordination of Shen Hegui's team.
Shen Hegui used his ability to form chains, flipping the hedgehogs over and tying them up in front of Jiang Yuntan for her to dispatch with her laser sword.
Jiang Yufeng used his wind ability to blow the hedgehogs over, while Qiao Chengming simply raised the soil beneath them, exposing their bellies.
Over with Ren Ze's group, even though they managed to kill a few hedgehogs, they lacked such coordination. Facing the fierce hedgehogs defending their territory, they struggled. Someone nearly got stabbed again.
So Ren Ze had to say, "Maybe we should forget about these strawberries. If we get poisoned by the hedgehog venom, it won't be worth it."