What are the differences between humans and beasts, and other civilizations in which individuals live longer?
If you ask Henry Meyer, who has seen a lot, traveled a lot, and gone through a lot of ups and downs, he will probably answer you with the word "future."
Our Luoan girl, who is still immature, would probably say "thinking and learning", while the warriors around her and even Lulu, who was born in the Yi tribe, would probably attribute it to "tradition" and "spirit".
Galeva and Ling should be summed up in "knowledge", but in fact, races such as elves are not lacking in these.
The elves' attainments in magic are recognized. They have a great magister that no one among humans has so far known, who can fight an entire cavalry alone; and the dwarves' outstanding knowledge in forging technology is also far beyond Ordinary humans, the various alloy technologies they have mastered thousands of years ago are enough to amaze most humans.
The engineering technology of the dwarfs, the traditional martial spirit of the orcs, and all other people's answers can be found in other races. Even beasts can think and learn. Hunters know that beasts with a keen sense of smell will react to human smells and need to hide downwind. Those who have been trapped once and successfully escaped will often not be caught in the same trap again.
So the sage’s answer is the future.
Elves will pass on magic because "it has always been this way." The orcs follow ancient traditions that may have existed for thousands of years and refuse to change; the dwarfs can make airships that soar in the sky, and it is for this reason that they cannot see the changes in the human world below them that have occurred in the past few decades.
Perhaps only the dwarves, who have the most contact with humans, are still able to innovate.
But this is still passive, and the time for dwarves to accept new technologies is two or three generations - that is, hundreds of years.
Think about the future, look beyond the present, make plans for a time hundreds of years from now, even when you are dead, and leave behind things that can influence future generations. Cultivate capable people.
"When you put up a brick, you can already see the prosperous city-state hundreds of years later."
This is the unique romance and philosophy of short-lived species, and it is precisely because of this that humans are able to expand their reach. And this characteristic also allows them to use knowledge to foresee the next step and seize the opportunity when facing opponents several times their own.
——Surrounded.
Unlike the previous monsters that looked like a mixture of multiple beasts, this time the creatures that appeared in groups were relatively "normal" creatures.
"It's Iwatora." Torataro, who could tell from its name, recognized this beast at a glance: "I have a portrait of it hanging in my house. It is my father's favorite beast."
The rock tiger with orange body hair is smaller than the average tiger in Crescent Continent, closer to the size of a leopard. They are not like ordinary tigers who are good at hiding in shrubs and grasses on the plains and ambush them. Instead, they use their relatively light and flexible but very strong bodies to chase goats, their main prey, on complex and steep mountains.
For this reason, compared to leopards that are good at running long distances on flat ground, its limbs are stubbier, but this ability to move freely on cliffs makes up for the shortcomings of long-distance running, allowing it to appear in unexpected places.
"There are arrow scars." Lulu, who was born as a hunter, immediately noticed that the surrounding rock tigers had scars near their right ears. Aya, who was already a little nervous at this reminder, immediately noticed that all the rock tigers were similar to those before. They are the same creatures, with identical scars, as if they were copied by someone.
"It's not good, there are eighteen of them." The rock tiger, which was supposed to be a solitary predator, appeared at this scale. The group of people were attacked from both sides and got stuck in the middle of the corridor. Although it was not bottomless on both sides, , but there is still a distance of several meters. If you fall, you will definitely break your legs, hurt your waist and lose your ability to move.
People are not able to move quickly in such a place like Rock Tiger. The best choice should be to defend, but Henry instead asked the group to spread out and attack from both ends - this is how the sage relies on his own knowledge and understanding of the situation. Judgments made with foresight for future development.
"Draw the sword!" After Henry briefly described his thoughts, the group redistributed the weapons. People with relatively complete action abilities and experience, such as Yajiro and Lao Qiao, handed the short spears to Galeva and the injured Narumi and Torataro who seems to be useless.
They did not let Galeva carry a large shield to go forward, because the mining channel itself was already very narrow, and the large shield would block the view. If there were rock tigers trying to climb up from both sides and attack them, they would not be able to see it in time. arrive.
Galeva was placed next to Lulu, the only long-range shooter, holding a shield in one hand and a spear in one hand to protect her and Ling, who had no combat ability, while the others moved away from the middle and directly attacked in the posture of the swordsman in front and the spearman in the back. Leap forward.
"Roar——!" Although it looks weird, the instinct of the beast still makes these rock tigers let out a threatening roar before attacking. They are good at climbing and their speed on the flat ground is not even as fast as that of ordinary tigers. This is The group of people were given enough time to attack, and the moment they rushed up, everyone immediately realized the correctness of Henry's judgment——
The attack methods of big cats are almost the same. They run quickly and then pounce with their forelimbs spread out in an attempt to bite the target.
This method not only gives humans a large and easy-to-hit frontal target when they stand up for a moment, but the range of movement is also extremely large.
——In other words, they are not like a pack of wolves that only attack with their snout, which can surround you with several of them at the same time.——Rock tigers, which have never been social animals, have no cooperation, and the range of movements and activities of each individual The space is so large that even if they gather in groups, the number of people facing them at the same time will not be too many.
This is just like the battle formation of swordsmen will always be more sparse than that of spearmen. The former need room to swing their weapons, while the latter only need to thrust forward.
"Drink——!" The young master, who had experienced many battles and was gradually familiar with this sense of tension, held a waist knife and hit Iwatora with a simple and standard chop the moment he stood up. Its Tianling Cap.
"Bang!" A heavy blow with the long knife cut through Iwatora's scalp and cracked the skull. However, the prey was an equally tenacious goat, so the Iwatora, which had a thick skull, was not killed in one blow. The long protective sword weighing only 900 grams was still not heavy enough. Although it suffered heavy damage, it was still alive. At this time, Narumi behind him immediately used the length of the weapon in his hand to reach past Yajiro who was standing in front of him and stab him down. On the rock tiger on the ground, the samurai leader accurately stabbed it in the back and pinned it to the ground. On the other side, our Luoan girl immediately turned sideways and twisted her waist while slashing the rock tiger's cervical spine from the side with a knife.
She slashed in, but the hard bones and strong muscles prevented the knife from cutting completely. Mira immediately stepped on the back of the knife to help, but while cutting off the head of the rock tiger, her hand The knife inside also hit the road carved in the rock hard.
With a sound of "Dang-", a gap appeared in the hard but relatively brittle Kazuto sword, but it was not the time to care about this now, because another rock tiger immediately pounced on him.
Joshua, who was stronger and stronger than the two still young girls, listened to the sound and recognized the position. He leaned over and swung his sword with the longer and heavier tachi in his hand. He hit the abdomen with one strike and cut the attacking Iwatora in half. Taking advantage of the situation, he pushed upwards and knocked the severed upper body of Iwatora into the two sides. The half-section of the rock tiger that fell heavily to the ground let out a final whine and struggled to make no sound. At the same time, Old Qiao on the other side stabbed the mouth of a rock tiger that had just climbed up from the side with his waist knife. While twisting the knife to increase the damage, he kicked its nose and kicked it back down.
Almost all the other combat forces are located on this side, and the one who single-handedly stopped the others on the other side is naturally our Mr. Sage and his incomparably powerful Kramer.
The 1.5-meter sword can be fully used in the open space. With his personal arm length, Henry's attack range is almost the same as that of other people holding short spears. He covers all the space by himself, and unlike spears or axes that only have combat effectiveness at the tip, if unfortunately the pole hits the target, it can only cause damage equivalent to a light blunt instrument or even break itself, the sword is slender and sharp. The blade of the sword is full of deadly killing parts. He slashed horizontally and vertically, and none of the attacking rock tigers could be seriously injured by his sword.
Even the head that took the opportunity to climb up the support column next to it and tried to jump down from mid-air was cut in half by the sage in mid-air, holding a sword with one hand and raised vertically from the abdomen, while he himself was trying to avoid it. While opening the gushing red blood and Iwatora's internal organs, he moved forward in a circle, holding the sword with both hands, and slashed open half of the head of an Iwatora who had just bent down and was about to pounce.
The head with only the lower jaw left spurting blood was kicked away by Henry. He then stabbed the next rock tiger's body with a sword, then twisted the sword and broke it out from one side like cutting paper, and the tenacious life force The beast still tried to cause damage with its claws, but the sage used the plate armor on his body to directly hit it, pushing it over and hitting the last rock tiger behind, and then took advantage of it being pressed by the body of the dead rock tiger. At that moment, he turned the tip of the sword downwards and penetrated the chin directly through the Tianling Gai. Then he twisted it hard, and the beast, which showed its fangs in a grin, rolled its eyes and twitched to death.
While Henry was chopping up melons and vegetables to deal with all the beasts, others were also working together to kill the last rock tiger on the other side.
Rock tigers, which are smaller than ordinary tigers, are agile and unpredictable lone hunters. However, due to their lighter weight, they lack impact capabilities, and they cannot cooperate in groups like wolfdogs. The numbers did not create a real advantage, so they took the initiative to attack and concentrated the power of many people to attack each beast one by one. Choosing the right method, they eliminated the entire group of more than a dozen beasts in a few minutes.
"The blood of these is red." The Luoan girl keenly noticed the difference between these rock tigers and the previous weird beasts. Although no one was injured, it seemed like a great victory, but they also consumed a lot of physical energy. . Walking up from the bottom of the mountain and then entering the cave and climbing up and down had already consumed part of the energy. In addition, after fighting the insects, I went back to find reinforcements before coming back. Because I was in a hurry to save people, I couldn't take a good rest. At this moment, many people were exhausted. Already out of breath.
The tension during the battle made people feel energetic, but in fact, when they came out of the narrow passage, they were already relying on the cold stimulation of the mint ointment to boost their spirits. It was already night and his physical energy had not been replenished. The smell like rotten eggs that had been lingering since entering the cave was also dizzying. After the battle, he relaxed slightly and Narumi, who was already injured, staggered. He actually dropped the torch in his hand.
It didn't matter if it fell. The torch that fell to the ground immediately roared loudly as if it provoked some kind of reaction, "Chi!" and a raging fire ignited below this side.
"What's going on?! Is it some kind of magic!" The frightened Torataro let go of the short spear in his hand and shouted, while Henry and the doctor, who had better judgment and knowledge reserves, thought that there was something below. Combustibles.
"Maybe it's the oil left over from the past." Ling Ru said. The raging fire covered the ground and burned the fallen rock tiger body hair. At the same time, it seemed to have caused damage to something. A sharp scream came, It makes people's hair stand on end. It sounds human and higher than what normal people can make.
The weird feeling is only on the psychological level. The air in the cave is already turbid and smelly. Now there is a fire burning. The hot feeling and further lack of oxygen make people almost faint - the decision they just made is correct at this moment. They began to be questioned again, and they once again faced a choice:
Should we advance further, or should we withdraw and try to find more people and put out the fire before leaving?
Let's not talk about whether Ryunosuke will help. The great gods and ashigaru who stay there have to take care of the sick and protect their own property and supplies - after all, the other party is a ronin after all - and they can't get away. If they If we go back again, we probably won't be able to do it again just because of the physical exertion.
And according to the dangerous conditions currently seen inside the cave, the longer the delay, the slimmer the chances of survival for those dragged in.
Ryunosuke noticed everyone's hesitation and silence. Although he was very naughty and arrogant, he seemed to be extremely active when it came to issues involving Ah Hui.
I don't know whether it was due to fatigue and fear or because he really felt this way - maybe both. He knelt down, kowtowed his head in a very low posture and said with tears streaming down his face:
"Please, don't leave."
The successive crises beyond his comprehension and the fighting power displayed by his group made him realize his own powerlessness. Coupled with the departure of the old pharmacist, despair made him finally let go of his Chinese pride, but on the one hand, it also proved how much he cared about Ah Hui.
"Let's go." Narumi was the first to express his stance. This kneeling posture is called Dogeza in Kazuto culture, and it is the lowest posture that can be displayed. If he still refuses the other party after this, then he is already expressing his contempt for the other party who is also a warrior, thinking that the other party's status and status are not enough to be taken seriously by him.
Henry looked at the others. In addition to agreement, he basically acquiesced. After all, everyone has empathy. Even if Torataro has many things that are objectionable, his care for the people he values is true.
Fearful and trembling, he did not dare to step forward to fight. He knew that he was powerless, but he still tried his best to find someone to help rescue him when other martial arts disciples who were traveling with him were running away.
"Huh -" Mira looked at her long knife with several gaps and a broken tip. Although there were one-handed knives and small swords available, she was still a little uneasy.
Except for Henry, everyone else's weapons basically showed some wear and tear, but they still needed to move forward despite being out of breath.
Time waits for no one, and the already hot summer with the unknown fire burning is even more unbearable. No matter what, you must first leave this area.
