The situation was urgent.
At this moment, Ji An didn't have the time to consider whether he and Ping An would be able to defeat the group of gray-spotted rats.
He could only go head-on.
"Roar!" Ping An, who no longer had to hide, let out a war-like roar and charged forward.
The winter bear cub had completed its sixth Morphing.
It was no longer that young bear cub with a childish roar.
Its roar already revealed the domineering aura of the bear race.
It had to be said that, the awakened Ping An was beginning to show the domineering aura of his parents, adult winter bears.
The group of rats that were surrounding the fountain starfish was startled by Ping An's sudden roar.
They all turned to look behind them only to see a white bear charging at them on all fours.
This gave the rats a fright.
Soon, they realized that there was more than one white bear.
Behind the white bear was a human with a boning knife in his hand.
Ji An and Ping An were only a few dozen meters away from the group of rats, to begin with.
Once they charged like unstoppable warriors with boundless courage, they arrived in front of the rat group in the blink of an eye.
By the time the rats finally reacted, Ping An had already come bombarding their encirclement.
While Ping An was charging forward, it had already used Hard Ice to form armor.
The weight of Hard Ice armor was shocking, to begin with. In addition to Ping An's Monstrous Strength and the momentum of its charge, the gray-spotted rats that Ping An had hit head-on were almost all sent flying ten meters away, unable to get up for a long time after hitting the ground.
Ji An also brandished his sharp boning knife and ruthlessly stabbed a gray-spotted rat.
As an adventurer who had been fighting to survive for more than ten years in the new era in his previous life, Ji An was well aware that the damage that a sharp blade could cause was extremely limited when dealing with this kind of tough-skinned and thick-fleshed evolved creature.
If a human wanted to pierce or even severely injure them, one could only pose a threat by piercing through the target.
Ji An's knife accurately pierced the gray-spotted rat's neck. For a moment, blood spurted and it screamed in agony.
Fighting was the same as dismembering an ox.
At this moment, the group of rats had come to their senses.
Under the command of the steel-toothed rat, the dozens of rats left who could still fight temporarily gave up on attacking the seriously injured fountain starfish.
They turned their attacks and surrounded Ping An and Ji An instead.
However, without receiving the steel-toothed rat's order, the group of rats did not rush to attack.
Back to back, Ji An and the winter bear stared nervously at the group of rats that were eyeing them like tigers.
Blood was dripping from the deboning blade in Ji An's hand while frost slowly formed on the winter bear cub's palm.
It was condensing the power of the Ice-breaking Palm.
"Squeak!" The confrontation between the two sides did not last long.
The steel-toothed rat was the first to impatiently let out a sharp cry of attack.
With that, dozens of gray-spotted rats charged at the man and the bear.
Ji An's originally nervous expression relaxed as he looked at the menacing enemy.
When the menacing gray-spotted rats were within ten meters of Ping An, their speed immediately decreased greatly.
A thin layer of frost formed on their bodies while the ground that they were standing on was emitting a mist-like chill.
This was the reason why Ji An was so fearless.
Compared to evolved creatures, beastmasters were undoubtedly extremely weak.
In particular, their physical bodies and recovery abilities were far inferior to evolved creatures.
If Ji An really were to be pincered by a few gray-spotted rats, he would definitely be injured.
However, while they were confronting the rats, Ji An had already instructed Ping An to quietly release Cold Air.
The Cold Air did not cover a large area this time, only a ten-meter radius around the man and the bear.
Moreover, the Cold Air spread from Ping An's feet along the ground.
As such, neither the grey-spotted rats nor the steel-toothed rat had discovered it.
The effects of Cold Air on these gray-spotted rats, who had average resistance to cold, had long been verified in the previous actual combats.
With this, the rats had fallen into the trap.
In the face of the gray-spotted rats' decline in speed, Ji An didn't even have to do much.
The winter bear cub had already transformed into the "God of War" Ping An.
It wore heavy ice armor that weighed at least a hundred pounds and rushed out.
In an instant, five or six of the slower rats were slapped by Ping An.
Ping An's palm was far more powerful than Ji An's boning knife.
Upon taking a hit from Ping An's bear paw, which was a combination of Monstrous Strength and Ice-breaking Palm, these gray-spotted rats might not die on the spot, but they would not be able to recover any time soon.
Seeing that it had instantly lost another five to six subordinates, the steel-toothed rat could not maintain its calm anymore.
With that, the steel-toothed rat, which was almost the size of an adult dog, immediately pounced at him.
The Cold Air that the gray-spotted rats couldn't resist at all only slightly slowed the steel-toothed rat.
However, it still continued to charge at Ji An without losing its momentum.
That's right, the steel-toothed rat had noticed how difficult it was to deal with the white bear.
As a rat that had been living in the sewers for many years, it wasn't the first time the steel-toothed rat had come into contact with human beastmasters.
It knew very well that compared to those familiars, these beastmasters with weak bodies and strength were much easier to deal with.
Once the beastmaster died, it would be much easier to deal with the familiars.
"Good lord, to capture the bandits, first capture the leader, huh?" Ji An knew what the rat was trying to do with one look.
He quickly rolled to the ground and ran towards Ping An, who was killing like crazy.
Ji An had already taken in all of the steel-toothed rat's stats.
It was a beast that had completed its sixth Morphing, which made it on the same level as Ping An.
Even though he was a rank five Entry-level beastmaster that only looked to be one level lower than the sixth Morphing level, his brain was probably damaged if he even attempted to fight a sixth Morphing beast.
Without a familiar, he wouldn't be able to defeat this steel-toothed rat even if there were ten of him.
The steel-toothed rat's exposed, blade-like silver-gray teeth could probably bite off his arm with one bite.
Ji An didn't dare to risk his life.
Ji An's dodging roll, which he had done since he had long predicted the enemy's actions, was effective despite leaving him in a sorry state. The steel-toothed rat's attack missed.
Still, the steel-toothed rat, which had missed its target, clearly wasn't going to let Ji An off the hook for instigating his familiar to injure so many of its subordinates.
Fortunately, Ping An, who had already charged into the group of rats, realized that its beastmaster was in danger and hurriedly came over to save him.
When the Hard Ice reached the third realm, the Proficient realm, its characteristic was that the ice could now cover Ping An's entire body.
It allowed Ping An to completely transform into an armored war bear.
Ping An, who was clad in heavy ice armor, collided with the steel-toothed rat.
The former had responded in a hurry while the steel-toothed rat had come prepared.
However, with the buff of Monstrous Strength, it was the steel-toothed rat that was sent flying.
Unfortunately, the steel-toothed rat, which had thick skin, was not injured at all.
Without any hesitation, it pounced over again and battled Ping An.
Not only was Ping An about to be held up in the fight, but the steel-toothed rat was also making squeaking sounds.
It was summoning people, no, summoning rats.
Soon, around twenty gray-spotted rats came to help.
For a moment, it would be difficult for Ping An to escape.
The remaining gray-spotted rats were not idle either.
One after another, they surrounded Ji An.
Ji An didn't panic. He waved his sharp blade to force the gray-spotted rats to stay away from him while he retreated.
Soon, he reached the fountain starfish.
"Fountain starfish, if you keep pretending to be dead, you'll really die later!" Ji An threatened the fountain starfish, which was lying motionlessly by his feet.
He naturally knew that the fountain starfish had just been seriously injured by the attack from the group of rats.
However, he knew better.
The fountain starfish had mastered Regeneration to a skill mastery value of more than 200, which was the Proficient realm. It had a ridiculous recovery ability.
After all, he had witnessed the fountain starfish recover more than once.
Even ordinary starfish had the special ability to regenerate, let alone this Extraordinary-level starfish that had evolved and had improved its racial skills to this extent.
Even if it had been beaten to the verge of death just now, it had been enough time for the fountain starfish to get up.
On top of that, the fountain starfish was definitely not on the verge of death just now.
It was obviously playing dead!
Sure enough, Ji An had just finished speaking when a powerful water pillar shot out from the fountain starfish next to his feet.
It knocked down the few gray-spotted rats that were surrounding him and the fountain starfish.