The fountain starfish finally stopped pretending to be dead.
Only then did Ji An let out a sigh of relief.
When he decided to rush over with Ping An to deal with the large group of gray-spotted rats and the steel-toothed rat and save the fountain starfish, he had taken the fountain starfish's battle power into account.
If the fountain starfish really chose to stand by and play dead, he might have no choice but to run away with Ping An.
Facing the siege of the rats, Ping An, who had thick skin and flesh, would probably be fine.
As for him, if he faced the siege of the gray-spotted rats alone, it would be inevitable that he would be injured.
Facing one or two gray-spotted rats, Ji An was still quite confident in a one-on-one fight.
However, once he was surrounded by three or four gray-spotted rats while alone, he didn't have much of a chance of winning.
At the end of the day, as a beastmaster, his main combat strength was his familiars.
Without a suitable weapon-type wondrous item, not even a gun, he still could not be a match for an evolved creature with a physique that was far beyond ordinary people.
More than ten gray-spotted rats were surrounding him.
He definitely wasn't a match for them.
Fortunately, the fountain starfish still knew what was important and what was not.
It chose to attack.
Ji An shot a glance at the fountain starfish.
He found that the dense scars left by the gray-spotted rats and the steel-toothed rat on the fountain starfish's body had scabbed.
Although it was obvious that the wounds had not completely healed, they would probably be recovering soon.
At this time, the fountain starfish should have recovered some of its combat power.
"Little guy, stop lying down. Let's face the enemy together, back to back!" Ji An said to the fountain starfish.
As he said this, he even used the technique of soul communication to make sure that the fountain starfish could understand him.
"Nigu!" The eye-like patterns on the fountain starfish's body trembled slightly. It let out a somewhat childish cry and rolled over to get up from the ground, standing close to Ji An.
The fountain starfish's "Fountain" skill was the only offensive skill it had.
The power of Fountain, which had a skill mastery value of over 100, was not bad.
The impact of the water pillar was even more powerful than that of high-pressure water jets.
A few gray-spotted rats that weighed at least 20 to 30 kilograms were sent flying when they were hit by the water pillar as if they had been hit by an iron hammer.
The gray-spotted rats that were sent flying were dizzy for a while after they fell to the ground.
Even though they weren't severely injured, they couldn't continue their attacks in time.
Unfortunately, these gray-spotted rats were only the ones at the forefront.
The gray-spotted rats that followed behind had long known the tricks of the fountain starfish and were not intimidated by them. They pounced on them without stopping for a moment.
A translucent white wave appeared on the body of the fountain starfish, and a wave-like ripple appeared in front of it.
Pfft!
A pillar of water as thick as an adult's thigh shot out.
This time, the gray-spotted rats that were charging at them were clearly on guard.
The sudden attack of the fountain starfish, which had hit three or four gray-spotted rats just now, did not happen again.
This time, only one gray-spotted rat was unable to dodge in time and was sent flying by the water pillar.
Two other gray-spotted rats were grazed by the water pillar, and their momentum was immediately slowed.
The remaining seven or eight gray-spotted rats came around.
Ji An held the boning blade in his right hand while taking the gravity rings from his backpack with his left hand.
Then, he looked at the enemies who were pouncing at them with a serious expression.
The gravity rings were only a wondrous item used to train the strength of a familiar, but under certain circumstances, they could also be of some magical use.
Ping An could control the weight and gravity of the gravity rings by injecting energy into them.
As for Ji An, he could naturally achieve the same effect by injecting his soul power.
Four or five gray-spotted rats pounced on the fountain starfish.
The fountain starfish shot out another water pillar and sent one flying.
However, its strength and defense were not as good as Ping An's.
It was immediately sent flying by the remaining four gray-spotted rats.
Ji An and the fountain starfish's formation immediately collapsed.
The other three gray-spotted rats pounced viciously at Ji An.
Ji An's expression didn't change as he held the gravity rings in front of his chest.
He silently poured his soul power into the gravity rings.
The sharp claws of two gray-spotted rats, which were aimed at Ji An's chest, were right before him.
However, when they were less than a foot away from Ji An...
Buzzzzzz!
The sharp claws were instantly blocked by an invisible force in front of Ji An, and they were ruthlessly repelled.
Only one gray-spotted rat that attacked from the side was not blocked by the invisible force.
Its sharp claws were aimed at Ji An's abdomen.
It was obvious that the attack would probably remove his kidney.
The ten years of adventuring in his previous life had given Ji An wealth of combat experience.
In the face of this unavoidable claw, Ji An hurriedly turned, turning his backpack into his shield.
Slash!
The canvas bag made of tough and durable material was instantly torn apart by the gray-spotted rat's sharp claws that could easily tear through timber.
The materials inside immediately fell out of the hole.
However, Ji An managed to successfully block the attack.
Pfft! Pfft!
Ji An waved his boning knife and slashed twice at the gray-spotted rat whose claws were still in his backpack and hadn't pulled out in time.
The two knives were stabbed into its neck and the gray-spotted rat immediately started bleeding.
Ji An didn't look at the gray-spotted rat that he had severely injured.
Instead, he turned his eyes to the two gray-spotted rats that had just been bounced away by the gravity rings.
The two rats were only bounced back, not injured at all.
The gravity rings didn't have any killing power.
Being able to use it as a shield was already a pleasant surprise.
This was all thanks to Ji An's various fiddling and research of the gravity rings.
Without this "shield", he wouldn't have dared to rush out and save the fountain starfish just now.
He would've probably asked Ping An to go and rescue the fountain starfish alone.
Even if it was surrounded by the rats, it would be difficult for them to cause any substantial damage to Ping An anyway.
He did not have Ping An's thick skin.
If he were to be hit by the claws of those gray-spotted rats, it would definitely not be as simple as a light injury.
The claws and sharp teeth of these gray-spotted rats were poisonous.
The poison sacs in their bodies were not just for show.
The fountain starfish with Regeneration might be able to ignore the poison of the gray-spotted rats, but he definitely could not.
The two gray-spotted rats glanced at their injured companion and hesitated for a moment. Then, they immediately rushed forward again with fierce expressions.
This time, the gray-spotted rats flanked him on both sides, making it difficult for Ji An to deal with them.
Ji An had no choice but to use his gravity rings to control the force of gravity to deflect the attack from the right.
At the same time, he swung his knife and stabbed at the claw that was coming from the left.
Bang!
Ji An's angle was quite tricky.
If the gray-spotted rat continued to attack, it would only be stabbed.
Helplessly, the gray-spotted rat could only choose to hit the back of the sharp knife and then jump away.
"Hiss!" Ji An sucked in a breath of cold air.
He almost lost his grip on his sword.
The web between his thumb and forefinger split open.
"As expected, it's still too much to compete with an evolved creature in strength," Ji An felt a little helpless.
That gray-spotted rat's strength was too astonishing.
As the gray-spotted rat pounced on him again, Ji An glanced at the fountain starfish not far away from him.
He saw that the fountain starfish was even more miserable than him.
The fountain starfish had not recovered to its peak.
Under the joint attack of five gray-spotted rats, it was once again covered in injuries.
It was sent flying, suppressed, and bitten again and again.
It could only unleash water pillars from time to time to send the gray-spotted rats flying.
However, the water pillars' destructive power was limited and it was difficult to cause fatal injuries with them.
After the disoriented gray-spotted rats regained their balance, they could quickly continue to pounce.
Looking at the miserable fountain starfish, Ji An felt powerless.
He could only continue to parry the two gray-spotted rats that repeatedly attacked him.
Gradually, the injury on the web between his right hand's thumb and index finger, where he held his knife, worsened.
His entire right hand was gradually dyed red by the blood, becoming bloody.
Ji An could only switch to holding the knife in his left hand and the gravity rings in his right.
With this, he held on for a while.
By now, Ji An's physical strength had already been severely depleted, and he was panting like an ox.
In terms of physical strength, humans could not compare to evolved creatures.
On the other side, the winter bear cub's battle finally took a turn for the better.