Mercenaries and Adventurers

While Keir was interrogating the captured 'Hanged Ghost' weirdo, the loggers who felt that they should start working quickly ran to the left and right sides to start logging.

The sound of swinging the axe, dow, dow, made Kil chuckle and let go of the nose that was twisting the strange human face on the weirdo's left chest.

"Answer me, what do you call yourselves internally? And who are you? Why do you want to scare my people? And make these smelly flesh and blood, mixed with blood, and stick them on the tree trunks?"

"We have plenty of time, please answer me one by one slowly, okay?"

Kiel raised his right hand again and made a gesture of twisting his nose in the air. Although his movements looked funny, the weirdo who had just been repaired in this way did not want to try it because it was too painful. The human face and nose on the left side of his chest had already been scrapped due to this movement.

So he nodded quickly, looking much more honest.

Keir let go of the man's neck and chin and stepped back so he could speak.

"The village...the village is now...managed by Lord Prophet. He led...everyone to establish, phew, established...the religious order."

This man spoke intermittently, as if he had not spoken seriously for a long time, but Keir suspected that this man's language ability had been forcibly degraded due to physical changes.

"Prophet? Order? It's interesting. Doesn't this order have a name?"

This weirdo raised his head and said with some pride: "There is... our sect... is called... [Flesh and Blood Paingiver]."

Kil's eyes rolled behind his visor and asked: "Answer me first, what is your scale? How many people do you have?"

Hearing this question, the weirdo felt a little embarrassed and responded in a low tone: "Three...thirty-two people, but this scale...is already huge, right?"

As he spoke, the weirdo looked at the people cutting wood around him and stopped talking, as if he realized that their so-called religious order was actually a very small organization. After all, there are more than 20 people around Kiel who are busy logging. In comparison, it is difficult to say how powerful a small mysterious cult organization with only 32 people and occupying a village can have. .

After all, he was rewarded by the prophet, the leader of the sect, and turned into the terrifying and "powerful" weird person he is now, but it doesn't seem to have any effect? The strong, young man in armor in front of him subdued him in just one move.

"Hmph, the Southern Province is really a magical land. As soon as the noble knights and lords from all over the country lead their troops away, strange things will start to grow quickly like the vegetation in this spring."

Kil snorted coldly, feeling that there were so many things going on in the southern province. Not only were there endless bandits everywhere, but there were also more strange people and organizations. However, he looked around at the empty commercial roads and the dark mountains and forests everywhere, and felt that in the southern province where the entire land was divided by various mountains and forests, such a situation was quite normal.

"What's your name?" He continued the previous question.

"My... name? Uh, name, name..."

This strange man with an old face seemed a little confused, as if he couldn't find or remember his name.

Kil narrowed his eyes and asked another question: "Then you should know the name of your so-called 'prophet', huh, honorary title, right? Otherwise, how do you usually call each other?"

"Prophet? The great prophet... uh, his name, uh, ho, ho, ho, how could it be? I... I can't remember it."

The man became more and more confused as he talked, and the muscles in his face were all twitching with blood.

At the same time, his hands and feet seemed to be electrocuted, and they kept swinging and twitching in disorder.

Seeing this, Kil quickly took a few steps back, quickly took out the elf metal shield hanging on his left back, and blocked it in front of him. At the same time, he shouted to the woodcutters nearby to avoid this man.

But the guy whose hands, feet, and face were twitching more and more violently did not explode as Kiel expected. On the contrary, a lot of purple liquid flowed out of his ears and mouth, and something as valuable as blood flowed out. This The guy stopped shaking and died immediately.

"Huh?" Kil was a little surprised. He thought this thing was very tenacious, but it was over? Or is it because he wants to say something that cannot be said, which directly triggers some fatal finishing method arranged on the body?

Just when Kil was suspicious, the four special faces on the front of the man's torso were broken without knowing where, and were directly separated from the body of the dead weirdo, as if they were forcibly glued together. Seemingly unable to stick to the water, the four human faces, together with some flesh and blood structures behind their faces, slipped to the ground in the forest.

Kil did not step forward rashly. He opened his hand and found that the long sword that fixed the monster's body to the tree trunk trembled for a while, but did not let the weapon come back on its own. After waiting for a while and confirming that the man's body would not suddenly explode or spontaneously combust, Keir then approached the strange man's body in small steps.

He looked down and discovered that behind the four human faces that had separated from the monster's body, there was something like a plant root. The thin and dense brown roots seemed to have been inserted directly into the parasite. On this person's torso.

And when he looked up again, he found where several human faces had fallen off, and his sight passed through a palm-sized hole. Almost none of the important human internal organs could be seen inside, and only a few parts were still there.

"Hey~ It seems that the so-called prophet is not a good thing. People in my own organization are doing this. Either they have no ability, or this person is just a consumable for surveillance and investigation."

Kil checked the dead-looking human face on the ground and the strange corpse with holes in its torso. Finally, he found that the biggest reason why the purple liquid leaked out was that his hunting sword penetrated directly through the center of the opponent's chest. That weird face, so the other person died as if he had died of excessive blood loss inside his body.

Pulling out his long sword to hunt, Kil grabbed some leaves from the tree at hand and wiped the blade of the sword. Strangely enough, it was obviously a purple blood-like juice flowing from a strangely mutilated corpse, but the smell of this liquid was very good. , a refreshing flavor similar to green apple.

Picking up a dead-looking fallen human face with roots on the ground, Kil pulled out a dagger and cut it open. But as soon as the magic dagger touched the face of the thing, the thing suddenly let out a strange cry, which frightened him. Keir jumped.

If the warrior instinct hadn't made him subconsciously tighten the weapon in his hand, he would have been so frightened that he would have thrown the Heart Fire Magic Dagger.

"What's the weird name! What's the weird name! I know you're not dead yet, just die!"

With one hand, Keir held down the thing that looked like plant roots swinging wildly behind the face, and with the other hand, he held the dagger directly and neatly to cut open the entire face.

As expected, it just looked like a human face, so lifelike that even Kil just thought that the face on the weirdo was fused to the human body in some strange way.

It turns out that the thing under the human face is not like that at all. Rather than flesh and blood, it is more like a plant with a strong stress response, which has forcibly parasitized the human body through the roots behind the human face.

On the one hand, it cuts off human beings' perception of pain, making the parasite feel that they have become great and can fight. On the other hand, the many fine roots behind the human face 'eat' all the internal organs of the parasite.

Kil didn't know if the poor guy just now felt that he had eaten less recently. If this guy knew that most of the intestines and stomach for digestion were gone in his body, there was only one section leading to the root-covered intestines. With his esophagus hanging in the air, would this guy still think that the prophet was treating him well?

The surrounding woodcutters did not dare to come near, so after a while, they felt that there was nothing unexpected happening with the Kiel Knights, and they continued to cut trees.

Kil stood up, wanting to leave here to help everyone cut down trees and go back to the camp for dinner early.

But after he had just taken two steps, he strode over to the corpse of the weirdo, took out an empty leather bag from his waist, picked up the other three motionless human faces with roots on the ground, and put them in them.

After sealing the bag, Kil hung the things on his belt, then overturned the corpse of the dead weirdo, drew his sword and slashed across the man's head.

With a pop, the head of this strange corpse was chopped off at the same level. Although the human skull is very strong, long sword hunting is also particularly powerful, and Kil's strength is also particularly strong.

When Kil saw the inside of the weirdo's head, he finally let out a breath, wiped the sword again, and said, "I knew that if people were parasitized by this weird thing, they would be hopeless."

On the corpse of the weirdo, there was no gray brain of a normal person in the chopped head. All he has is a shrunken brain with plant roots occupying less than half of the back of his head.

-

"Sir Knight, what should I do with these big trees that have been smeared with stinky flesh and blood?"

The logging operation was almost over, and a logger came to Kiel to ask. Although these guys were scared to death of these strange trees before, once they discovered that the weirdos that had scared them before were simply defeated by the knights, these people looked at the big trees covered in flesh and blood differently.

"How do you decide? How do you want to handle it?"

At this time, Keir was pulling a piece of log with branches and leaves removed, dragging it easily on the ground, and asked questions while working.

"Haha, some people say don't care about these ghosts, and some people say cut them all down so as not to scare other people in the future."

The lumberjack scratched his head and smiled.

Keir knew everyone's opinions as soon as he heard this, so he waved his hand: "These big flesh-and-blood trees nearby are unknown. Brothers all listen to me and chop them down. As for the wood, the few logs on hand are enough now." go a head."

After receiving the knight's advice and order, the lumberjack quickly passed the message to the other lumberjacks. Everyone gathered together, waiting to chop down the big trees that had frightened them and embarrassed them. Because the tree was simply cut down, there was no need to remove the branches or trim the log trunk, so it only took a short while for everyone to clear out everyone in the area with loud shouts of "The tree has fallen! Be careful!" All the big trees stained with unknown flesh and blood and internal organs fell to the ground.

-

Kil left the thick log trunk he carried alone on the ground, and then untied the rope from a log trunk dragged by Blood Licker. He patted the horse's butt and asked Blood Licker to find the grooms who were taking care of the horses in the camp.

What awaits the bloodgrass licker will be a comfortable brushing and a pot of late-night beans that will make other horses envious.

"Where is Padre Batar?"

Kiel randomly grabbed a member of the public who had just finished dinner and asked where the priest was at this time.

"Sir, the priest seems to be taking care of the injured. I just saw him finishing dinner with everyone, and I immediately rushed over to save people. If I had the skills of a priest, I would definitely follow him and help him. Let’s save people together.”

The person who spoke was a boy who was younger than Keir. He was particularly excited and nervous when Keir asked him.

After patting his head gently, Kil went to the priest and said: "If you want to have such skills, don't run around after eating. Do you believe in the god of agriculture? If you have free time, go to the religious people." Let’s pray together. Maybe one day the gods will see your piety and choose you to bless you.”

However, as soon as this boy heard that he was going to join a group of religious people, he immediately hesitated. Kiel knew that when bandits were attacked before, brave religious people rushed to fight, and then all died in the battle, this incident was quite a shock to confidence.

But there was nothing that could be done about it. These refugees did not have much fighting skills before, and those who had some skills were absorbed by Kiel into the hands of the armed squad. The quarrels and fights among the farmers in the village, and the scolding and tearing of the peasant women, cannot improve the fighting ability even a little bit.

After all, the bandit swung the knife and then pointed at the bandit and cursed. Apart from making the other party slash more powerfully, it had no practical effect. And the skills of random fights among the villagers are mostly one-on-one random punching with bare hands.

There does not appear to be any local training of militiamen in Kendall County.

Real life-saving battles mostly involve the use of sharp metal weapons, and few people use fists to hit people with bare hands.

Even if Kil punches someone, he always wears heavy and strong steel armor gauntlets. This way, even if he can catch the enemy's dagger or short knife with his bare hands, there will be no problem, and it will have a certain practical effect in combat.

In the tent where the wounded gathered in the camp, Kiel found Priest Batal who had just finished treating a civilian who had been slashed in the back.

The priest who had just completed part of the treatment had consumed his already severely depleted divine power reserves. Therefore, after the treatment was completed, he knelt down in the open space next to the injured person, placed the protective statue of the God of Agriculture in front of him, and clasped his hands together. Pray to the idol.

When the priest prayed to the statue of the amulet, the palm-sized wooden statue became gleaming, and the power of the believers' prayers that gathered slightly flickered into the priest's body, transforming into a 'processed' rough The power of the god of agriculture,

When Kil came over, he felt like the God of Agriculture in his body was about to move. Kiln didn't like this very much. With a groan, he mobilized his own life force in his body and tightened the power of the God of Agriculture that was about to move. Give them some extra twist.

Just boosting his stamina and energy, Kiel doesn't need them to do anything more.

"Priest, this is Kil. Let me tell you something that just happened to the woodcutter."

Many of the injured who had been treated by divine magic fell asleep, so Keir didn't speak loudly, just to let the priest hear him.

Although the priest was kneeling on the ground with a "do not disturb" look, Kil himself didn't care whether he disturbed his companions or not, because his matters were not small.

Priest Batal, who had just undergone the transformation of his divine power, had to give up on restoring his divine power. After whispering an apologetic prayer to the great God of Agriculture, he picked up the protective statue and put it into the bag on his waist.

Then the priest nodded apologetically to the next injured person who was waiting behind him and said he was sorry, and then he stood up weakly.

Kiel grabbed the arm of the priest who was swaying slightly after he stood up. After the priest stood firm, he whispered: "You see you are tired. Everyone's injuries will be treated until they start to improve. Eat and drink enough, our bodies will be fine." He will take care of himself."

Priest Batal lowered his head and silently followed Kiel out of the tent full of wounded people. After he was a certain distance away from the camp, he whispered: "It's all because of me that they suffered so many injuries. And more people lost their lives. I'm very sorry. If not Because of what happened to me and my village, so many people would not have died or been injured on the road."

Kil said nonchalantly: "Don't think so. Although it's a bit dangerous to follow us, at least everyone will be full, right? Besides, won't these people die if they stay at the Whitestone City Wall level? Have you forgotten? The scene at that time? As for us, taking these hundreds of people out of the checkpoint actually saved the lives of hundreds of them. Humph, and not only their lives, but also their elders and others who stayed in the checkpoint at this time. The lives of wives and children.”

"What you said makes sense, but..."

The priest wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by Keir: "Okay, okay, don't just do this and that. Look at this, the strange thing I just knocked down and got."

Keir lifted the cloak on his right side and removed the three human-faced root parasites tied with ropes.

At this time, the expressions on the faces of these three people were particularly calm, and the roots behind their faces were motionless. If he hadn't known that they were alive and had the ability to parasitize human flesh and blood, Keir would have thought that these strange things were some kind of murderer until his brain was damaged. The lost bandit created a surreal post-modern, grotesque 'art work' full of humanistic thinking.

Priest Batal didn't pay attention at first, still thinking about what Kiel said just now.

But when he was attracted by Kiel's playful whistle, he raised his head and saw the thing that Kiel the Warrior was holding in his hand.

The whole person was stunned for a moment, and then he subconsciously matched the things in front of him with the knowledge he had learned when he was studying in the church. Then he wanted to say something loudly, but he suppressed it with his gritted teeth. The voice asked in a low voice: "Isn't this the parasitic species of the cult 'Flesh Demon'? You damn reckless guy, why do you just hold it in your hand like this?"

But then he saw that Kiel was wearing a thick armor, and the hand holding the so-called parasitic species tied with a rope was also protected by a thick steel gauntlet. Then he breathed a heavy sigh of relief: "No, what you just said , you just got this? Where did you 'get' this thing from?"

Seeing how the priest was facing a powerful enemy, Keir glanced at the motionless root parasite with a human face. After swallowing, he immediately explained what had just happened.