Chapter 259: Help, It's a Mutated Octopus
"Splash!"
Less than two minutes after Xiao Su put her foot in the water, there was a splash, and she fell into the river.
"Xiao Su, are you washing your feet or swimming?"
"Get out quickly, don't muddy the water."
"Help, help!"
Before they could finish their reprimands, they saw Xiao Su struggling to surface, calling for help.
"He...lp me! Save me!"
The rest immediately stood up.
However, the water was too murky for them to see or reach her.
Their powers were all elemental—lightning, wind, and so on—but were of no help.
Someone nearby spotted a small tree, broke it off without thinking, and stretched it toward the water.
"Xiao Su! Grab the branch!"
Hearing the word "branch," Xiao Su reached out, but just as she was about to grab it, she sank back into the water.
"Xiao Su!"
"This is bad!"
"Sh*t, what do we do now?"
This time, Xiao Su didn't come back up.
At the same time, the two who had drunk from the river earlier started foaming at the mouth, clutching their necks, and collapsed.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
The other five quickly helped their two fallen companions up.
"Liang Shi, Li Hui!"
At first, they were still making gurgling sounds, but soon blood started coming from their mouths.
"Look out!"
The woman facing the river shouted as a tentacle shot out of the water.
The five reacted quickly and dodged, but Li Hui, who was on the ground, was grabbed by the tentacle around his neck and pulled into the river.
"Sh*t! What the hell is that?"
"It looks like some kind of octopus!"
Some noticed it had multiple tentacles, just like the octopuses from before the apocalypse.
But this one was huge, and its tentacles could stretch and retract.
Soon, the river water cleared, and we didn't see the bodies of Xiao Su and Li Hui in the river. The octopus had vanished without a trace.
"Song Chao, what do we do now?"
The remaining five turned to their leader, Song Chao, for guidance.
Song Chao frowned and said, "Now that the octopus has disappeared, there's no way for us to avenge Xiao Su and the others."
As he finished speaking, Meng Ci, who had been observing the situation, suddenly spoke up.
"The octopus is at the bottom of the water. Don't you see it?"
The five immediately turned their attention to Meng Ci.
When the octopus first appeared, Song Chao and the others had already spotted Meng Ci and Shen Que, but seeing that they had no intention of taking action, they paid no attention to them.
"What do you mean, and where exactly is it?"
The five tentatively moved forward, wanting to see where the octopus was.
"It's in front of you, in the center of the river."
Meng Ci and Shen Que slowly approached, while Eagle and Octopus kept a wary eye on the river.
Hearing this, the five looked in the direction Meng Ci mentioned.
Sure enough, there was a large, black stone—over two meters wide—at the center of the riverbed.
But if that stone is really an octopus, why aren't there any tentacles visible?
The five were skeptical, wondering if Meng Ci was trying to trick them.
However, Meng Ci seriously suggested that if they didn't believe him, they could throw the remaining companion's body into the water as bait, and they would know the truth.
Naturally, Song Chao and the others refused—he was their companion.
"Your friend drank the contaminated water—he's going to turn into a zombie eventually."
"If we use him as bait to lure out the mutated octopus, we can take it down and stop anyone else from dying here," Meng Ci persuaded.
At this point, the octopus had not fully mutated, and its size was only about two meters, but if it continued to grow, it might become a giant.
Meng Ci remembered a passage in the original novel describing how mutated octopuses, sharks, and jellyfish in coastal cities would become extraordinarily huge after mutation.
Moreover, the skin of these marine creatures would become exceptionally tough, and ordinary axes and knives could not harm them at all.
Now that they had the chance to encounter this creature, they should seize the opportunity to eliminate it.
After all, it would be a good thing for humanity to get rid of one more of these monsters.
Plus, they've got five strong allies on their side.
With seven people, a wolf, and a dog, as long as they worked together, taking down the octopus shouldn't be difficult.
"Song Chao, let's agree."
"Exactly, Xiao Su and Li Hui were with us for so long, and now we don't even have their bodies to bury."
"Boss, agree."
Nowadays, teams that go out to fight zombies are usually made up of people who have known each other for a year or two.
As long as they're not total jerks, it's only natural to want to get revenge for a fallen teammate, as long as it doesn't put themselves at risk.
"Are you sure you can kill it?"
Song Chao, being the captain of this small team, was always steady and felt that he must be responsible for his team members, so he couldn't just take orders from others blindly.
"Of course." Meng Ci nodded.
"This octopus is only powerful in the water. Once we drag it onto the shore, we can deal with it however we want."
As he spoke, Meng Ci looked at their equipment, seeing that they had knives and axes. Given that the octopus hadn't fully evolved, it should be manageable.
"But we don't have any rope." A girl behind Song Chao spoke up.
"That's simple."
Meng Ci activated his powers, causing a green vine, about the size of a thumb, to grow near the shore.
"This is my ability."
"As long as we get its tentacles out, I can manipulate the plants to entangle it."
The green plant wasn't bare and slippery; instead, it was covered in dense fine hairs.
Once these fine hairs latched onto the target, they would grip it tightly.
Song Chao looked at the four people across from him; they were all fired up, determined to avenge Xiao Su and the others.
"Alright!" Song Chao agreed.
Then Song Chao and his team moved Liang Shi's body to the riverbank, carefully placing his feet in the water, before stepping back and waiting quietly.
Time ticked by, and after two minutes, the "rock" in the water seemed to finally sense something, wobbling slightly before becoming still again.
The water barely rippled before settling back into stillness.
Just as Song Chao and his team began to worry that the plan might fail, the "rock" in the water suddenly surged upward at an astonishing speed.
Its tentacles tightly wrapped around Liang Shi's legs, attempting to pull him underwater.
But Meng Ci was lightning-fast. The moment the octopus surged up, he decisively manipulated the green plants, using the sturdy vines to wrap around the octopus's tentacles, pinning them down.