Mercenaries and Adventurers

Not long ago, the enemy who was suspected to be blocking them did not appear. As a result, not long after Kil's words, some human roars and shouts were faintly heard from the woods in front of the left side of the team.

Kiel, who was still in the middle of the team, immediately drew out the long sword from his waist and shouted to signal the armed people in front of the team to be vigilant.

"Something is rushing out of the woods! Pay attention to defense! Form a battle formation! Hurry!"

Following Kiir's reminder order, the two armed teams at the front of the refugee team immediately panicked. Although Kiel gave them a simple training when they camped at night, and they seemed quite decent at the time, when it came time to use them, the armed squads formed by these civilians were still in a mess.

The bow-wielding team member who was supposed to be at the back suddenly ran to the front of the queue as soon as his mind got hot. The warrior holding a shield and sword couldn't find his fighting partner in the chaos for a while, so he hurriedly shouted the familiar name loudly. The captain of the team, who should be the most centrally commanding officer, relied on the fact that he was wearing an old leather armor captured from the bandit leader and called on the people around him to come forward and fight with him.

What can I say, everyone is quite courageous. But the mess still made Keer very angry.

He cursed a few words in a low voice, and then muttered words to reassure himself, comforting himself: After all, these people are not like the Kendall militia, who have enough time and training experience in the army knights (Knights of Crow) during the off-season every year. and Rumi Knight) to take charge of the training.

These people have to trek during the day, and can only conduct some temporary training on a small scale at night when there is nothing to do.

Although Kiir is very prestigious among the people, he does not have enough experience and organizational power to allow these people to transform into professional militia or soldiers.

"Forget it, you still have to let me go." After complaining, Kiel then ordered to the armed team protecting the middle of the team: "You should pay attention to the surroundings. The main task is to protect the people in the middle of the team. If the team is in danger before and after, If so, don’t rush over to support me, just follow my orders before taking action! Do you understand?”

The captain of the armed team next to him immediately shouted loudly: "Understood, Lord Knight! My team is responsible for protecting the people in the middle."

Seeing that he understood, Kil knocked the horse's belly fiercely and urged the blood-licking grass to run.

As he rode towards the front of the team, he loudly commanded the two armed squads in front: "Listen to the two teams in front, the one with the shield is in the front, the one with the bow is in the back, and the squad leader is in the middle! Don't run around, the person responsible for the battle will form a team of three as mentioned before."

With Kiel's command and the shield holders finally finding a fighting partner in the chaos, the front of the team finally formed a front and rear combat formation, and the two team captains responsible for close command were also red. Face retreated from the front to the back of the shield-bearing people.

Fortunately, they all wore leather helmets on their heads, so others couldn't see their blushing and rough faces.

The roar in the woods became more and more obvious, and even the people who were still on the road could hear it. They subconsciously slowed down and even wanted to stop and gather in a group, but the knight's order came again.

"People at the front, don't stop! Walk slowly! Don't crowd in a group! Please believe that the armed people on both sides are protecting you. Their shields and swords will make any enemy look good to you!"

"Also, trust me!"

I don’t know if the people believed in the two armed squads that were closer to them, or in Kiel. In short, when Kiel rode over, they gave up gathering in a group to protect themselves. After hesitating for a moment, they continued to move forward.

-

Kil was riding on horseback, looking far away in the direction of the noise. Soon, he frowned and made a discovery.

From a distance that ordinary people would not be able to see clearly and blocked by shrubs on the outside of the woods, two bow-wielding men wearing mottled cloaks rushed out quickly. The two people wanted to break out of the cover of the woods and come to the relatively open field beside the trade road.

But obviously the two people also saw the armed team on alert, so they immediately stopped and crouched down to hide in the dense bushes that were half a person tall.

"Um?"

The flexible movements in the woods, as well as the mottled cloak and the bow and arrow in his hand, immediately reminded Kil of a few months ago (Kiel's real time passed, but the actual outside world was only a few days ago.) and the two A powerful teacher who taught hunters how to fight.

"No, come again?"

Subconsciously, Kil flinched a little, not because he was afraid of the other party, but because the last experience of being trapped in the dream forest was really fresh in his memory. After all, no matter who eats mushrooms for dozens of days, they will shrink a little.

However, he soon realized that the roar coming from the woods was not from just two people, but from other 'crowds' following those two people.

The bushes at the outermost edge of the forest shook, and amidst bursts of roars, ten people rushed out with staggering steps.

These people shook their heads, stretched out their hands to push aside the bushes blocking the road, and on their legs, one knee of all of them was shot through by arrows. There was no hint of pain in the roars. It seemed that the injuries on the knees were not painful, but only greatly hindered these people's ability to move.

After rushing out of the woods, these empty-handed people wearing rags searched for a while, and soon discovered a large group of refugees on the trade road.

Immediately, excited shouts came out from the mouths of these people: "People! So many people! Hang! Hang! Dedicated to the Prophet! Join us for development!"

I don't know if they were too excited, but these guys immediately forgot the tasks assigned to them by their prophet before, and instead gathered together and rushed towards the trade route.

Kil immediately rushed out on horseback and killed these parasitized people who looked like humans but were not human.

"Is this a monster? It's up to you, Head Over Water!"

He turned around and pulled out a blue two-handed ax from the weapon rack behind him. Kil held the ax in one hand in his right hand and hunted with a long sword in his left hand, letting the blood-licking grass rush towards the ten people who were also rushing towards him.

The two sides are approaching each other, and the distance is getting closer quickly.

When they were about forty or fifty meters away, Kiel threw the ax vigorously with his right arm, heading straight towards the two current enemies.

The ax whirled and flew past, but when it was about to spin the enemy's upper body, the ax's flight path twisted upward, actively avoiding the charging enemy.

"You piece of shit!!!"

Kil cursed loudly and did not allow him to curse more. Ten enemies immediately avoided the front of the horse and jumped up from Kil's left and right sides.

Their hands were stretched straight forward towards Kil. In the wide open mouth, there were other slender and swinging root tentacles sticking out next to the tongue in the center, which was quite scary for a while.

Regardless of anything else, Keir punched out with his right arm and slashed diagonally with his left hand using the speed of his horse.

With a swipe of the sword, the enemy's head flew away from his left side.

The right fist he blasted hit the neck of the enemy closest to him, making a bizarre horizontal U-shape out of the originally straight neck. But in the next moment, other enemies rushed forward.

Kil's left and right legs were each held by an enemy, and three enemies climbed up on the back of the blood grass.

The strength of these people's hands was not small. Even if the war horses were running, they were not thrown away. After grabbing something, they climbed directly up. The two enemies on Kiel's legs opened their mouths full of roots and bit them directly, and then the teeth in their mouths violently collided with the metal plates on the greaves of Kiel's boots.

Amidst the clicking sound, some teeth were broken, and some roots were bitten off by his own bite.

"Damn it!"

Kil leaned down and used the end of the long sword handle in his left hand to hit the enemy's head directly on his left leg. He stretched out his right hand to grab the opponent's neck, lifted it suddenly, and tore off the opponent's right hand. A pair of arms with combat boots on their feet used force to smash horizontally towards the three enemies behind them.

"His ha——"

The three enemies who climbed onto the weapon racks on the horse's back possessed one another, and they were able to avoid the swing of the body of their companion who was used as a weapon. Then they kicked off their legs and rushed behind Kil.

With a pop, like a ripe apple smashed with a fist, the head of the enemy on Kil's left leg was directly smashed into the Tianling Cap by the moonlight iron weighted iron ball at the end of the long sword's hilt.

However, this person was different from the parasitized person that Keir had interrogated before. There wasn't much human brain inside his skull, most of it was just tangled plant roots. Being smashed open in this way gave the roots in these heads a new outlet to extend.

"What the hell!"

While shouting, Gil slammed his right leg into the belly of the war horse. The blood-licking grass protected by horse armor will certainly not be injured, but it can turn according to the strength through such instructions.

At this time, Keel bumped hard, and only on the right side. The blood-licking grass immediately understood what the owner meant.

It immediately picked up speed and swerved to the right.

At the same time, the centrifugal force caused two of the three enemies on horseback to fly into the air and be thrown off the horse. The enemy with the left leg was also pulled out of the stirrup by Kiel, raised his foot and kicked him. Get rid of.

But Kiel's troubles were not over. Of the three enemies who rushed towards him, two were thrown away, and the other one tightly wrapped his arms around Kiel's neck, and at the same time, his hands on his neck were wide open. , moving toward Keir’s face.

At such a close distance, Kiel could see the plant roots spreading out from the cracks in the other person's fingernails by lowering his eyes. At this moment, they were swinging like a fish's tail, trying to get into Kiel's face.

Kil was also startled. He threw away the enemy in his right hand and immediately grabbed the enemy's wrist with his backhand, which was about to cover his face.

But there’s still a left hand!

Regardless of anything else, Kil turned the long sword in his left hand upside down, stretched and pried it on the opponent's left arm and his own neck armor, forcibly using the principle of leverage to slightly pry the enemy's arm open.

During the brief stalemate, Kil could even feel that the back of his head was being bitten by the enemy's mouth. Of course, he knew that it was impossible for a human mouth to bite open a helmet made of steel, especially when there was still a gap between the helmet and the chest armor. It is protected by a neck armor made of metal armor.

But these enemies have neither knives nor swords in their hands, and their intention in the battle is not to attack the enemy with fists, feet and teeth, but to disgustingly use the plant roots extending from their mouths and fingers to touch the target's body. Parasitic infection control targets.

The stalemate was quickly broken. Kil was just anxious and failed to activate the life energy in his body. At this critical moment, he held his breath and exerted his strength, slightly adjusting the direction of the sword's blade with his left hand, from tilting it horizontally to vertically contacting the enemy's arm.

Then he exerted force and the enemy's left arm was completely cut off.

His right hand holding the opponent's wrist that was reaching for his faceplate also suddenly exerted force. With a crunching sound, Kil directly crushed the enemy's right wrist. The flesh and blood were accompanied by the broken bones and a little purple blood emerging from the center of the bones. All over Keir.

Throwing his right hand vigorously, Kil threw away the opponent's right palm, and then used his claws with his backhand. His open right hand accurately caught the scalp of the enemy who was still biting the back of Kil's head.

With a pinch of his fingers, the enemy's skull made a slight cracking sound. Kil then grabbed the opponent with his backhand and threw the enemy behind him in front of him.

"Drink——————"

The enemy's mouth was wide open, and a long tongue protruded from his mouth. Many plant roots like tiny tentacles also extended from the tongue, and they desperately extended towards Kil's face, which was only thirty centimeters away.

The right hand that grabbed the enemy's head exerted force, crushing the enemy's head like an egg bursting with one hand. At the same time, the long sword in his left hand slashed quickly, and then cut off the enemy's head from the neck.

With another wave of his right hand, he knocked the enemy's headless body off his horse.

"Huh... so dangerous."

Only then did Kil dare to exhale, and with the whirring sound above his head, Yueshui's head flew back in embarrassment.

He stretched his right hand toward the sky, and the handle of the ax immediately fell into his palm.

"See it clearly!! You can see it %% clearly! These things used to be human beings, but they are no longer human beings! Don't think that just because they look like a human being, they are counted as human beings!" "

Kil yelled at the axe, but Yueshui's head shook. It seemed that although he was a little embarrassed about what happened just now, he still didn't think he was wrong.

Even the several sealed monster heads and spider-shaped monsters on one side of the ax were winking and booing. I don’t know if they were booing the spirit of the ax, or because they felt that Kiel’s series of battles just now were lost. Style.

Kil was so angry that he threw the ax at the weapon rack behind him. Although he didn't aim, the ax honestly dropped into the weapon rack and got stuck.

He flicked the long sword in his left hand to shake off some of the flesh and purple juice stained on the sword, and then inserted it back into the scabbard on his left belt.

The next moment, Kil took out the all-steel double-edged spear directly from behind, turned the horse's head and killed the enemy who had been thrown off his horse before.

-

Without paying attention or knowing it, Kil rushed back and discovered that the humans parasitized by the 'flesh demon' were not only difficult to fight, but also had strong vitality. The enemy with a broken arm opened his mouth wide and staggered towards the refugee group like a beast more than a man.

The enemies whose heads were cut in half were killed as if they were nothing, and their movements were not affected. Even the "skylight" opened in these guys' skulls actually made the plant roots entrenched in the brains more powerful than their mouths. Convenient attacking position.

What's more, the last enemy whose neck was cut off by Keir just now had some thicker plant roots protruding from the broken neck, replacing the original head, and swaying towards it in the distance. Refugee groups continued their attacks. Even though this guy has no head and a pair of human arms, he doesn't seem to want to give up.

"No! Their parasite core must be destroyed!"

Only after seeing it did Kiel realize that the head, arms, and legs were all tools for the opponent's attack. The real core was the extra face on the torso.

"Be careful not to be knocked down by the enemy! The shield blocks the attack and chops off their legs! Then chop the body torso into pieces! Be careful not to be knocked down! The shield blocks the attack first, then overturns them and chops off their legs Then chop the torso into pieces! Archers! Shoot where there is a face on their torso! That’s their weak point!”

Kil shouted loudly, and when he rode through the enemy group, he thrust the spear body into the air, lifted the headless enemy into the air, and with another powerful swing, the gun blade flashed through and cut off the enemy's body. trunk.

In this way, even if the enemy is lucky enough not to damage the core of the parasite and has only one pair of legs or a headless torso with missing arms, it can't do anything.

Kil held the reins of the blood-licking grass with his left hand, turned left and right, and trampled the three slowest enemies with his horse. As long as the huge hoof of the war horse hit the torso once or twice, the enemy would be dead.

Even so, the fastest ones among these guys got into battle with the armed squad.

-

"Fire arrows! Shoot them in the body! Just like the Lord Knight told you!"

The captains of the two armed squads roared the above words.

The way Kiel took the lead in attacking the enemy previously shocked the armed people. After all, these enemies looked like poor farmers in the countryside with torn clothes, or desperate bandits, but no one expected such an enemy. He was actually able to tangle with the Kiel knight on a war horse, and climbed on the horse to fight with the knight personally.

Because Kiel's battle was some distance away from the people, they didn't know that these guys' attack methods were not fists and feet, but parasitic plant roots on their heads and hands.

As Kiel issued a reminder after a chaotic battle with those enemies, the armed people realized that these people were not ordinary people, but monsters that looked like humans but were not actually humans.

After all, a normal person whose head is cut off with a sword, and then a large number of root tentacles protrude from where the brain was originally, cannot be said to be human.

And when the beheaded enemy staggered towards them, although many people were frightened, the armed people also stopped being reckless.

Amidst the sound of whooshing, the young archers standing at the back of the team took the lead in shooting the arrows in their hands. The enemy's legs were held up by arrows shot by someone in advance. These enemies did not move fast and walked unsteadily.

Puff puff puff, most of the arrows hit the monster's chest. Two armed teams, each with four bow-wielding members, regardless of their respective shooting skills (definitely not as good as the professional hunters under Lanissa Knight), at least eight arrows can be shot out in one volley, aiming at one Enemy, the density of arrows is enough.

Even if half of it misses the target due to nervousness, the remaining half can still cause damage to the enemy.

"Shoot again! Release the arrow!"

One of the captains of the two armed squads temporarily commanded the archers, while the other commanded the armed civilians in close combat.

The second round of arrow shooting finally succeeded. The enemy was still the fastest running. His whole body was stabbed like a hedgehog. Finally, he didn’t know which arrow hit the human face somewhere on the enemy’s torso. The creature finally took the life of this enemy.

The enemy fell to the ground in the grass, which immediately boosted everyone's confidence in fighting.

However, the remaining four or five enemies who rushed over still fought against the armed civilians in close combat.