The scene was indeed heroic, yet, sadly, these people were far too weak.
The two Cold Beasts hardly moved.
With a few leaps, their sharp claws and flashing teeth ended those adults, either slicing them in half or disemboweling them, leaving them in a grim state.
The first to rush up, John and his sons indeed entangled the beasts for a few moments, but that was all; in less than three or four breaths, they were directly flung five or six meters away by the long tail of one of the Cold Beasts.
The Cold Beast's tail was full of barbs, and the parts of the trio struck by it instantly turned into a bloody mess.
The oldest, John, bled from the corners of his mouth, unable to stand immediately.
"Father, let's run; the commotion over at Redwood Ridge is getting bigger.
If those Cold Beasts return, we're done for."
Hearing his son, Bryan, John gritted his teeth, turned his head to see the two Cold Beasts still massacring the ordinary people in the camp, and without thinking, pushed him aside and forcibly got up, charging at the Cold Beast on the left.
"You run first!"
Smack…
Seeing John still recklessly charging, the Cold Beast's face flashed with a hint of mockery.
Its body flickered, and its over-two-meter-long tail whipped out with a crack, flying straight towards John's face.
John's speed was clearly not on the same level as the beast's.
He couldn't even attempt to raise the stone axe to block, seeing the barbs on the tail about to pierce his eye, John instinctively closed his eyes, a hint of relief appearing on his face.
He was over forty, and considering the average lifespan of forty years for humans in the Ice Abyss World, he was already quite elderly.
He had thought everyone in the camp would starve or freeze to death in the cave; having this many escape was enough for him.
Dragging on this long, quite a few should have gotten away by now; it's worth it!
Whoosh…
However, just as John was resigning to death, a whistle of an arrow suddenly came to his ear, and when he looked up, he saw the Cold Beast in front of him knocked back four or five meters.
He was stunned.
"Bows and arrows, don't let those two Rodents escape, quick!"
A calm and steady command came from behind.
John and his sons, as well as those yet to run far, all instinctively turned to look back.
At this sight, everyone involuntarily froze for a moment.
Six well-dressed, extraordinary youths quickly approached from behind, each with a large knife at their waist and an arrow quiver on their back, stringing arrows as they came, shooting rapidly at the two Rodents.
The one who commanded, the leader, his clothes were described as neat, but neat was far from enough.
A light blue velvet hat with two five-six-inch white beast teeth; straight white-brown trousers; shiny black beast-skin boots; coupled with an imposing black cloak.
Majestic!
The word popped into everyone's mind, including John.
"Manhattan Town, more have come?"
The thought spontaneously emerged in John's mind.
Such luxurious attire, coupled with the six people's lavish weaponry, reminded him of Matthew and Lex, and thus connected to Manhattan Town.
"Leader John, stop dawdling, quickly lead the people to escape!"
Knows me?
John was stunned, and at the same time, he clearly saw the approaching six men's appearances.
"Harper… Leader Bruce Harper… how could it be you?"
"Go, we don't have much time, finish them off quickly!"
Bruce had no time to explain to John, giving an order and putting down his bow and arrows, drew his knife, and led the charge.
Charlie, Aaron, and the others followed closely behind.
The six of them directly surrounded the two Rodents in the center, giving no chance, and charged in to kill.
With previous battle experience, leading the encirclement this time, the three of Bruce were naturally adept.
Charlie was the first to move his fingers, several threads flew straight towards two rodents, and with the cooperation of the other five, they first entangled their limbs.
The two rodents clearly sensed danger from the six people, their expressions slightly flustered, but their reactions were quick, each turning into silver light, constantly trying to break through the gaps between the six to escape.
Unfortunately, Bruce and the others wielded their blades to block, leaving them no gap, sparks flew as teeth clashed with blades, and after a dozen clashes, all hit the blades of Bruce and his team, showing no signs of breaking through.
And with these over ten headless charges, their range of movement increased, and their limbs were entangled even tighter by Charlie's white threads.
"Exert force, kill!"
Seeing Charlie's white threads were already taut, Bruce seized the opportunity when the rodents were exhausted, shouted fiercely, stepped on the long tail of one rodent with both feet, stomped hard, leaped with the blade, and struck towards its neck.
At the instant his shout echoed, Charlie in the distance exerted force with both hands, white threads instantly tightened, both rodents stumbled, flipped sideways, and fell to the ground.
At the same time, Aaron and the three Reeves brothers, seizing the opportunity, abandoned entanglement, gathered strength with their blades, and almost simultaneously with Bruce, slashed towards the back of the other rodent.
Crack…Crack…
The sound of bones breaking rang out consecutively, except for Charlie in the distance, all five of Bruce's blades cleaved into the bodies of the two rodents.
Although the four of Aaron hacked at the spine, the blades reached nearly halfway into the rodent's body, showing the strength of the four;
Bruce was even more extreme, hacking at the neck, though the rodent eventually avoided it, he still struck the back of the head.
With this strike, the rodent's skull shattered directly, flesh and brains splattered everywhere, leaving not a single intact bone in the head except for those two teeth.
Not far away, John and his son, as well as a few adults from Brocolli Camp, were already dumbfounded, filled with shock in their hearts.
These two powerful Cold Beasts, capable of wantonly slaughtering humans, lasted less than three minutes in the hands of these six people before being slain.
Could these six, perhaps be gods?
At this moment, even John, who had previously seen the Bruce brothers, couldn't help but have this thought in his mind.
When they came to their senses, everyone looked at Bruce and his team with only deep admiration and awe in their eyes.
"Clean up and run quickly!"
John and the others' thoughts were unknown to Bruce.
He instructed Aaron and the others to clean up the battlefield quickly, turned and saw John and the others still standing in place, and couldn't help but speak angrily: "What are you standing there for, run south quickly!"
Awakened by his words, John and the rest immediately continued to flee south.
On their end, seeing Charlie and the others tidying up the battlefield, Bruce said nothing, directly led the way south at full speed, with the five of them carrying the two wrapped rodent corpses, following closely behind.
Lighting the first torch and taking a detour from the south took over five minutes; watching the rodent swarm pass took over two minutes; just now, it took three minutes to kill the two rodents, which already exceeded twelve minutes.
Bruce roughly calculated the time in his mind, realizing that those torches would soon go out, hurriedly sped up his pace, catching up with the personnel from Brocolli Camp at the front in just a few breaths.
Seeing Bruce approach, John and the others, despite their injuries, immediately knelt down in excitement.
"Leader Bruce, great kindness and virtue…"
"Leader Jonh, time is tight, no need to say this, keep leading the people to run."
Bruce helped up John, directly interrupting him, and after pondering for a moment as he saw the slow-moving crowd, he turned and said, "Michael, you three take them back to the camp as fast as possible, Charlie and Aaron, stay with me to cover."
"Yes, Leader!"
The three Reeves brothers immediately nodded in compliance, each carrying a child, then ordered other able adults to carry the children as well, urging everyone to leave quickly.
With the organizing of the three Reeves brothers and the assistance of John and his son, the previously confused crowd quickly became orderly, and the efficiency of the southern retreat improved significantly.
Bruce and his team already found a tree, stood on it and watched everyone evacuate before breathing a slight sigh of relief.
Aaron couldn't help but shake his head with a sigh:
"John and these people, they are really lucky!"
"Indeed lucky, I saw the faces of John and his sons, they haven't eaten for at least two or three days, must have been trapped too long, ran out of reserve food, and as they just escaped the cave, they probably intended a final desperate fight, stumbled upon us leading the rodents away, if the timing had been slightly different, none of them would survive…"
Hearing Charlie's words, Bruce couldn't help but nod, internally marveled at the luck of the Brocolli Camp people.
"Fortunately, elder brother suggested checking back on the rodent swarm's movements, otherwise those two rodents might have slaughtered them all."
"Tonight's plan, up till now, should be considered a success, none of you six came to harm, there weren't many Cold Beasts along the way, the likelihood of issues with others is low, by morning we'll know, for now, just wait and see if the rodent swarm will return…"
Bruce spoke while keeping an eye on the outskirts of Redwood Ridge to the northwest, hoping the rodent swarm would never return.
Charlie and Aaron also looked towards Redwood Ridge, their expressions a bit tense.
Thud thud thud…
However, just three minutes into the watch, just when the torches were expected to go out according to Bruce's calculations.
A loud noise came from the ground.
First sensing it, Bruce was the first to look up.
Seeing the endless silver rodent swarm returning swiftly towards the north slope of the mountain wall from the northwest edge of Redwood Ridge.
Bruce's face instantly turned grim.
"They're back, it seems there's definitely something on the North Slope top that's attracting these long-tailed rodents; we can't stay here, let's go quickly!"
After speaking, Bruce turned without looking back, running south.
Charlie and Aaron followed closely behind.
As the three ran south, their expressions didn't look good.
The rodent swarm returning to the north slope of the mountain wall meant that tonight, their high-risk, manpower-intensive diversion plan was completely declared null.
Having exerted such effort, and the risk not reduced at all, equated to useless labor, and the three felt exceptionally heavy in heart.
With great speed, the trio soon caught up with Michael and the others.
"Leader, the situation how…"
Michael instinctively wanted to ask about the rodent swarm, but seeing Bruce's face, realized things were awry and wisely held his tongue.
"Leader Bruce, about a hundred meters up from the north slope on the mountain, there should be something attracting these rodents during the day. I haven't seen it myself, but hiding in the cave for over ten days, I can sense it."
Brocolli came over at this time, speaking with respect towards Bruce.
Apparently, during the escape earlier, he'd learned of Bruce's plan from the three Zhao brothers, and seeing the grim faces upon the trio's return, he realized the rodent swarm had come back, hurrying to explain what he knew.
Hearing this, Bruce nodded, this affirmation from John reinforced his earlier suspicions.