"Cough!" Krune coughed out blood as he felt difficulty in breathing. The impact was way too powerful for him to handle. On top of that, when he crashed into a couple of bone trees, some of the sharper objects managed to penetrate his defenses, lodging into his body.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Krune hurriedly pulled out all the bone tree fragments in his body, quickly inspecting himself as he soon heaved a sigh in relief. He had pulled all of them out in time. Though, when he looked at a piece of the bone tree fragment, noticing the roots that had formed on it, he shuddered in fear.

If he had been a couple of seconds late, the bone tree fragment would have lodged itself in his body. The only way to remove it would have been to cut a part of his body out and hope he would survive long enough until he finished healing.

Ocean Heart!

Krune activated his healing ability, barely managing to stabilize himself as he picked up his Whale Tooth Sword and sprinted towards the battlefield once more, unleashing his Neon Radiance at maximum intensity.

He kept it activated, preventing the Monster Gecko Kings from being able to see. If they opened their eyes, they would be affected. Though, upon hearing the sounds of his footsteps again, they began to flail their fishing rods, intending to keep him at bay.

Even though he failed to attack them, he kept one of their hands busy, only leaving them one hand to pull out the bone tree sprouts. This caused them to waste time and allowed the sprouts to grow faster as they finally took root.

The moment this happened, the sheer pain caused them to let go of their attacks and focus entirely on their legs. Krune took this opportunity and attacked with all his might, slashing the hand of one of the Monster Gecko Kings.

Unfortunately, to his dismay, he noticed that his slash didn't even manage to sever its arm. It only managed to reach halfway through it, stopping after hitting the bone. The Monster Gecko King flailed its attacked arm, sending Krune flying away once again.

After all, Krune was a bit above two meters in height. But as for the Monster Gecko Kings, they were both five meters in height. The sheer difference in their muscular power caused each of their attacks to prove devastating to him.

Coughing out blood, Krune got up, flinching at the pain as he could feel a lot of his bones had cracked. The pain was unbearable. But, he hadn't completed his task yet.

With his every move, crunching sounds emanated from his body as Krune continued to move, delaying the Monster Gecko Kings from treating themselves as he hacked on another arm, this time retracting the Whale Tooth Sword before it managed to retaliate.

This way, Krune kept up with his attacks, being sent flying at times. He barely managed to defend against the attacks, preventing himself from dying. A single mistake was enough for him to lose his life, especially against opponents who were way stronger than him.

"Aargh!" Followed by a bellow, Krune slashed with the sword once more, severing the right arm of a Monster Gecko King. He then traced around, attacking the nearby Monster Gecko King, severing its arm as well.

Unsurprisingly, the loss of an arm caused them to panic. They had to remove the bone tree sprouts from their legs while defending against his attacks. With one hand, it wasn't possible. Besides, the roots of some bone tree sprouts were slowly creeping up their legs, intending to burrow into their entire body.

And just as they thought of that, Krune jumped up with all his might, bringing his sword slashing down, hacking off the second arm of the Monster Gecko King from the first village, incapacitating it first.

Hearing its roars of pain and loss, the second Monster Gecko King pulled out the bone tree sprouts from its legs in a hurry, not caring about losing its flesh and foot bones in the process. Though, having figured its plans, Krune lunged forth with a thrust, piercing the sword through a cut he had caused before.

Inserting his sword into the cut, Krune lodged it deep into its arm, slashing down with all his strength as he severed it, mentally heaving a sigh of relief for a moment. Then again, before he could relax, the second Monster Gecko King turned around and opened its jaws wide, clamping on his right leg before grounding it into a pulp.

"Aaargh!" Krune screamed in pain, plunging his sword into his ground leg, severing it right as the Monster Gecko King pulled its head backward. It planned to use its upper body to slam him into the ground and smash him into pulp.

Thankfully, Krune acted decisively, severing his right leg. He then limped back as he watched the bone tree sprout in its legs, beginning to grow into a tree. The Monster Gecko King gazed at him and smirked derisively, causing Krune to scowl in response.

'I shouldn't have been too greedy.' He mentally rebuked himself but was unwilling to leave it as is. The reason he didn't go for their heads immediately was to obtain their Blood Essence Crystal. Krune realized that if he absorbed their blood as is, he would only obtain a normal Passive Ability.

But, if he did that using the bone trees, he would obtain a stronger one like the Ocean Heart. That was why he didn't even wish to kill the Mutant, intending to evolve them into a King. Unfortunately, he had killed one by mistake. And now that he looked at the second one, he sighed, seeing bone tree saplings sprout from all over its body.

After he had hacked its hands, it crashed into the ground. Now, a bone tree was growing all over its body.

Left with no other choice, Krune could only sever its head. He then limped on his left leg, watching the body of the second Monster Gecko King turn right as a bone tree grew from it entirely. Sighing, he hacked its neck, eventually severing it as he touched its blood with his hands.

Immediately, his body burned for ten seconds as Krune could feel his body turning colder. Surprisingly, it didn't feel odd, but rather as if his body was now naturally cold like the Monster Geckos.

Even though his vision spun from the blood loss, Krune couldn't waste any time, arriving before the first Monster Gecko King that could only helplessly stare at the bone tree that sprouted from its legs. It didn't even have any hands to do anything. It also couldn't reach its legs with its jaws, so it was unable to even clamp its legs.

Krune soon arrived in front of it and hacked its legs immediately, taking numerous slashes before he managed to sever them, freeing itself from the growing bone tree. He looked around, watching bone trees grow out of all the Monster Geckos in the area. It seemed the place would soon become a thicket of bone trees.

In a hurry, he summoned his tablet and placed it on the ground. He then barely managed to place the Monster Gecko King on it. Without its limbs, lifting its body was barely possible. Though, without his right leg, Krune also faced a lot of trouble, slipping on the ground at times before he had to hurriedly clean himself of all injuries and pull out the bone tree sprouts.

Tying a rope to the tablet, he pulled it on the floor, preventing the Monster Gecko King from being damaged any further as he used his body weight to pull it. He then focused on stopping his blood from flowing out of his severed right leg, wounding it up with thread tightly.

This did prevent the place from bleeding any longer. Plus, his healing ability slowly healed the area, stopping the blood loss. Though, as he did that, he noticed that the Monster Gecko King was on the verge of death due to blood loss.

After pulling it away for a certain distance, Krune kneeled on the ground, placing his hand on the severed parts of its body, unleashing his Neon Radiance. But this time, he infused the healing effect into it, emitting a blue light that began to heal the Monster Gecko King.

Then again, this healing effect was only one-third as effective as normal. It was because he was using the Neon Radiance as a medium to unleash it. Though, as long as it did its job, Krune was satisfied. After patching up its wounds first using the rope he had brought, Krune used the healing light to barely stop its bleeding.

He had attempted it a couple of times before. When the Neon Radiance turned blue, Krune knew that it was possible. That was why he went for their limbs in the first place. It was because he had the confidence in patching them up before they bled to their deaths.

Nevertheless, his plan consisted of capturing all four elites. In reality, he only managed to capture one King and even ended up losing his right leg in the process. Eating up the reserve of meat he brought with him and drinking the pouch full of water, Krune barely managed to prevent himself from fainting.

He then pulled the Monster Gecko King slowly, eventually reaching a cave as he placed it within. The moment he did so, Krune slumped on the side, fainting. He woke up after a long time had passed, feeling pain all over his body as he faced difficulty in even moving.

In any case, his condition was a tad better than before as the Ocean Heart's healing effect had corrected some of his broken bones to their original positions. But when Krune looked at the Monster Gecko King, it noticed that it was barely alive at this point.

He then dragged himself to another cave and harvested the massive fruit from there, dragging it back to the cave as he placed it before the Monster Gecko King. "Eat!"

The Monster Gecko King looked at him but refused to do so. Instead, it seemed willing to accept death at this point than accept his help. Unfortunately, Krune had no intentions to allow that. So, he cut the massive fruit into pieces, propped open the mouth of the Monster Gecko King using a couple of tools, and kept it open.

He then dropped tiny pieces of the massive fruit into its mouth. Even if it refused to eat them, its saliva would eventually get the job done. And in such a process, while he recovered, Krune made the Monster Gecko King consume the massive fruit.