As a race with a short life span, death has always been a shadow that cannot be erased by any human civilization.
Youth and vitality will one day turn into dullness and decay. The veteran who once fought against a hundred will eventually die in humiliation at the hands of an opponent who would never lose in his youth.
Therefore, the emperors, princes, princes and nobles of Ligar in ancient times all struggled to seek the way to immortality. Many of them would rather sacrifice thousands of their people to touch the forbidden way in order to live forever.
But they don't understand that for short-lived species with rich emotions, longevity that seems to be a blessing is actually a curse.
Because everything will eventually become boring. When there is nothing in the world that can make your heart beat faster, everything has been seen a thousand times, so everything is "okay no matter what" and "it doesn't matter." What is the difference between this numb and empty but eternal "living" and "death"?
Perhaps as a counterexample to this concept, in the Crescent Continent where disasters are frequent and life is more perishable, a different philosophy, mainly spread among the samurai class, was born - life may not be long, but it must be long. Make your death beautiful and meaningful.
Just like the short-lived but gorgeous cherry blossoms, the petals that fall all over the sky at the moment of withering mean death but are also extremely beautiful.
A "beautiful death" is used to sublimate a short life. Compared with living in confusion, a meaningful death is the ultimate aesthetic pursued by samurai. The protagonist's heroic sacrifice is often an indispensable part of various martial arts legends.
Based on this cultural tone, in the eyes of some imperial literati who have accepted Kazuto's cultural output, Kazuto's warriors have transformed into extremely noble, fearless and extremely loyal warriors. They are romantic incomparable to the imperial knights who are greedy for life and afraid of death. exist.
And how different the thinking of people who have grown up under the influence of this kind of cultural education is from the people of Rigar? When the swaying group of undead, so numerous and invisible at a glance, walked out of the darkness, the Luoan girl clearly realized arrive.
"I'll stay, everyone, please retreat." First, Narumi, who had an injured arm, said this. He knew that his combat effectiveness had been greatly reduced, so he gritted his teeth and made this realization. Then Lao Qiao next to him stopped him: "You bear a greater responsibility than me, leave it to me."
Yajiro gritted his teeth and said nothing. Miss Doctor pursed her lips and looked at the group of samurai. Even Torataro was unable to speak for a long time because of their noble spirit of sacrifice. In such an awe-inspiring atmosphere, Mira was embarrassed. After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally decided to speak.
"That one can be beaten." A mercenary girl from a low-level background in Avenella cannot understand the aesthetics of the warriors on the other side of the ocean. As a highly discriminated Luoan, most of her life of more than ten years so far has been... Trying to overcome the odds and survive.
So she couldn't understand that these people would give up so easily on pursuing noble self-sacrifice before the situation reached its most desperate state.
Even though they may fight to the death, the end goals they pursue are different.
The adventurers fight to the death to seize even a one-thousandth chance of survival, while the warriors fight to give themselves a glorious ending.
But what kind of death is really gorgeous and gorgeous? Death is death, nothing is left.
I can no longer eat delicious meals or see beautiful scenery, experience the sense of accomplishment of completing tasks and getting paid, and can no longer learn more knowledge and see more people and things. I can't hear the laughter of my relatives and friends, and there is no possibility of making up for the regrets I have had. All that is left is endless emptiness and loneliness.
An ordinary Roan girl born in Rigar, even if she traveled with them and fought side by side, she might never be able to understand the noble warrior masters' pursuit of a noble death.
But there's another reason.
Her definition of despair may be much higher than even her age. She has been trained in swordsmanship day and night through self-discipline, hard work, and cultural influence, but she has always only stopped at Narumi and others in the high-walled compound of the Qingtian family.
Be more demanding.
Fatigue and predicament do exist. Although it may not have taken more than 30 minutes from the time Torataro went down the mountain to ask for help to the round trip and then entering the cave, the high-intensity continuous battles without rest are enough to make people lose their concentration.
But is this the first time this has happened?
From the moment you register and become an official adventurer, how many battles have you been able to win with complete certainty? How many times have we been in difficult situations and managed to get through them with just perseverance?
She couldn't understand.
He can still breathe and swing his sword. Although he is very tired from the continuous battles and the toxic environment, his mind is clear.
In this case, why should we consider who should be left behind and sacrificed? "This is naivety that lacks foresight and overall perspective." Maybe if she raised these doubts, Narumi and the others would refute like this - but as experts , aren't the fighting skills and military knowledge learned just for turning "naive ideas" into "reality"?
Why do they look like they are ready to give up without fighting to the death?
She couldn't understand that even if they were companions, because their cultures were so different, their first thoughts when facing this situation could still be very different.
And she wasn't convincing enough. Even if Mira said she could win, Narumi and Lao Qiao would still just remain silent.
After all, she is just a young girl. In the New Moon Continent warrior society where all men control the martial arts, even though she has proven her fighting ability, she still cannot avoid being looked down upon.
"We have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice." Although he did not say it directly, this common thinking of believing that he is all right because of his age was still conveyed through silence.
Being correct or not is not what people in high positions care about most. Authority is unquestionable. In addition to status, age is usually linked to authority and seniority. This is a rule in any industry. Even if young people are more talented and powerful, they still need to lower their heads and climb to a high position before speaking.
Mira knew this, so even if she felt that she couldn't understand it, she just stopped talking.
Fortunately, this awkward atmosphere of wasting time did not last long.
Because Henry is here.
"Back there, the sound of claws scraping the ground is the same beast as before, two." Joshua, who has excellent hearing, once again captured the sound of claws scraping the ground, and he directly reported the key message in simple language. When Ling heard this detail, it was as if she was trying to alleviate the embarrassment in the team, or she suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and immediately took out her notebook: "Ah! This is it."
"Although rock tigers are cats and are good at climbing rocks, in fact, because their claws need to be used for hunting, most of the time they use the meat pads to scratch the walls. The claws are contracted inside to keep them sharp - but that kind of weird beast Although the claws can also climb, they cannot be retrieved and cause severe wear and tear. This is more like a bear or a dog——"
She spoke at a very high speed: "Considering the various other characteristics and the appearance of most of the normal creatures encountered along the way, it can be considered that chimeras of multiple creatures will have contradictory organs due to different ecologies. ——”
Ling finished a long speech in less than 7 seconds, while the others put aside the awkward ideological conflict before and immediately organized their formations around the mithril weapons that could not be picked up and faced each other on both sides. Be on alert for incoming enemies.
"I don't understand. Is there anything related to our current situation?" Mira said bluntly, and Ling thought for a while: "Can you support the ground with your hands and hold the weapon with your feet?"
"Uh-" The Luoan girl was stunned for a moment, and then thought seriously for a while: "I can try."
"That's not what I mean." Miss Doctor immediately shook her head: "Just like if you want to break armor, you use a hammer, and if you want to cut things, you use sharp tools. Each part of a living thing also has its own clear purpose. Forcibly integrate these things into Together they may lead to conflict.”
"It's like a thin person who chooses heavy weapons, or a person who wears full body armor and tries to use an agile stabbing sword?" The white-haired girl understood Ling's meaning in her own way.
"That's probably it. Ready-made organisms have their own perfect coordination. It's not like a pieced-together individual whose parts may repel each other. This kind of irrational thing——"
"It does exist. It's stumbling over." Narumi looked at the undead slowly approaching with a pale face.
"Yes, but this kind of unreasonable thing is like a seven-skill lock that obviously cannot be installed -" Ling continued to explain. Her overly academic explanation made it difficult to understand the meaning and she became increasingly anxious - Henry next to her The following sentence was added at the right time: "We can only use brute force to keep them together."
"Black blood -" Mira suddenly thought of something. Almost every time something related to these things appeared, the sky would appear with a faint black snow.
And a long, long time ago, an outstanding magician once said that it was substantial magic power.
"I don't have the ability to maintain normal activities. It is held together by powerful magic." Henry concluded in concise language: "In other words -"
"When these things are thrown up, it means that whatever it is in this cave has been cornered."
The idea suddenly became clear. The beast that resembled the fusion of multiple beasts was obviously more powerful, but after one attack, it was replaced by a normal rock tiger. Some of the attacking creatures are flesh and blood and are normal beasts except for some behaviors. Some of them are bleeding black blood and have abnormal size and physical characteristics.
Trump cards and elites require magic power to be used. Perhaps the maintenance cost was too great, so I tried to use other things to stop the group before, but now after the earth spider, centipede, human-faced bird and rock tiger were all killed, the target had no choice but to force The elite combat power that had been lost before was invested, and even the samurai who died here in the past were resurrected and swarmed forward.
Morale suddenly rose again. Although many people did not fully understand Ling's explanation in just a few dozen seconds, they did understand Henry's final summary.
They were exhausted, but their opponents were also in a dead end.
Next, we return to a familiar link for samurai - the brave one wins when they meet on a narrow road.
The sage squatted down, and everyone watched as he reached out and grasped the mithril spear that even Galeva could not shake even with all his strength.
Then he forcibly lifted it up.
"..." Yajiro, who had tried it, looked at this scene speechlessly, but he didn't care too much and just held the knife tightly.
A weak light began to flicker, and even if it was forcibly held, the sage who was not a dwarf still could not gain the recognition of this weapon - it began to resist the object who intended to use it forcefully, and then condensed the runes that had lasted for centuries. The only remaining magic power——
——And this is exactly what Henry wants.
——He had no intention of using these weapons for normal use.
"Hiss-hoo-" The flashes of rune light gather, and forcibly holding a magic weapon that does not recognize you will bring severe consequences - many Rigar adventure stories and conflicts between mercenaries Word of mouth has told stories like this - spiritual weapons will choose their own masters, and those who are not qualified will use them by force.
It will make the weapon lose-lose in the struggle.
"Wha—!" Henry threw out the rune spear in his hand, and it plunged straight into the pile of undead. In the next second, all the remaining rune magic exploded in an instant, and the entire mithril spear was thrown away. When it exploded into two pieces, it also opened a large hole in the middle of the warrior's remains.
"Bang——Boom——!!" The shock wave in the cave made the group unable to open their eyes. However, when the group came back to their senses, they realized that this was not a substantial explosion - the explosion of magic power was not as strong as they thought. They were so big that for a moment, something like air flow passed through their bodies, but this was just the perception of the outside world by the magic power in the human body, not the actual air flow acting on the skin.
——But when facing the undead, the results were better than expected.
Normally speaking, it is almost impossible to stand and move without muscle connections. The reason why these remains from centuries ago can still stand is because magic has replaced the original ligaments and tendons of the human body to connect them. together.
Just like pulling the strings of a puppet, Henry's own magic wavelength does not match that of the original owner of the rune weapon. Under the conflict deliberately created by the sage, the conflicting magic powers break through the stability threshold of the rune, and the damaged rune will The magic power contained in the mithril leaked out and caused an impact.
It directly broke the puppet string that pulled the undead up.
But it's not over yet.
"How is this done?" Ms. Doctor's eyes shone. She was keenly aware that the sage knew the characteristics of the undead and thus skillfully performed such an operation, but now was not a good time to explain.
"Press up and divide the troops. Don't let these bones merge. The reason why such casualties can be caused is because the power is dispersed. But as more undead are broken, the opponent's strength will become stronger and stronger." Henry did not explain in detail, but quickly Orders were given underground.
"Understood." Narumi and others held their weapons, while Lulu was silent for a moment after throwing the stone with a sling, but it passed through the ribs of an undead that climbed up, and then picked up an extra spear. .
"Follow me, idiot, use your shield!" Mira shouted without hesitation. The various broken bones on the ground fell to the ground and made a "click-click" sound when she stepped on them. Centuries of time have made these remains more fragile. The skeletons have long been dry and brittle, and they are far less difficult to deal with than they seem. Mira hurriedly struck with the knife, originally just wanting to make a feint attack, and then cooperated with the slower Galeva to cover before killing. Mira cut a skeleton wearing broken armor into two pieces with one blow.
"Uh--" Even she herself was unexpected by this result. The brittle bones were forced to move by the magic power, but neither the mutual attraction nor their own strength was as good as that of a living person of flesh and blood.
The tall and powerful Galeva rushed over with a thick oak door weighing at least 7 kilograms and became the most damaging person among the group. His single sprint was enough to make several skeletons fall apart - but there was a peace agreement behind his back. Shua tacitly faced the strange beast with higher single combat power, but the sage reminded them without looking back: "It will end by crushing the skull. It will get up again. Don't go deep!"
He warned loudly and swung his sword at the same time, but the beast connected to the consciousness of the cave lord was very afraid of this tall man and immediately distanced itself before entering the attack range.
"Moving again!" Yajiro shouted. Many of the scattered skeleton warriors whose bodies were not completely broken started to move again after a while. The group of people who were too weak to easily overwhelm the opponent's front line immediately Find yourself surrounded. Fortunately, Henry's timely reminder made them understand what to do, slashing with swords, shields, and thrusting with daggers. Lulu even took out the stones collected as sling ammunition and smashed them directly.
The samurai's hard-earned skills have little effect in front of inhuman opponents. At this time, instinct and reaction speed have become the home field. They gasped and used any means available to push the skeletons away from themselves and their allies and crush the skulls to let the remaining magic inside escape.
However, damage is still inevitable. The broken weapons held by these warrior skeletons are still sharp enough even if they are rusty. Since they were not wearing enough armor, many of them had scratches. The young master even cut his hand on the edge of the broken armor when he grabbed the skeleton warrior's breastplate and tried to push it away in desperation.
Blood dripped down, and most of the physical strength that had been consumed for a long time elapsed quickly after breaking into the battle, leaving almost everyone gasping for air. The hot environment and the rising body temperature due to exercise caused the sweat and blood to wet the armor, clothes and even the handle of the knife. Yajiro's injured palm almost couldn't hold the knife because it slipped due to sweat, so he tore off a piece with a "tear" sound. The cloth quickly wrapped around the right hand holding the knife and tied the palm and the handle of the knife together.
The samurai's ritual duel ideas finally disappeared at this moment. All the rules, strict swordsmanship and footwork were not as effective as the violent instinct at this moment.
But their eyes are shining.
The mind is focused, not limited to the form and surface, breaking away from the routine steps of the technique but instead integrating the technique into oneself.
"Wha—!!" Narumi, who was sweating profusely and looking pale, stabbed out a spear and accurately penetrated the skull of a samurai skeleton. Before it completely fell apart, the samurai twisted the short spear and smashed it into a skeleton next to it. on the body.
"Crack - crack -!" Yajiro crushed the bones and swung a knife with one hand with his right hand tied to the handle of the knife. The knife hit the opponent's rusty helmet and a gap appeared, but he didn't care about it. This kind of detail, the moment the opponent was knocked off balance, the short knife held in his left hand accurately penetrated into the skull's eye socket, and then the tip of the knife was stabbed in with a forceful slap.
All superficial ritual performances have been stripped away, as well as all kinds of exquisite combat skills that require several steps to close the sword.
But their eyes are shining.
What is the true meaning of martial arts.
Defeat your opponents and survive.
It is overflowing with the surging power of life, and it is when one is placed in a desperate situation and completely strips away all unnecessary thoughts and abandons the baggage.
There is only one purity left.
"Fight to the bitter end!" Rarely, the usually calm warrior leader shouted these words loudly.
"Ah!!" Others responded in unison.
The battle situation in the two parts presented different situations. The battle between the people fighting the skeleton was fierce and anxious, but the two beasts encountered by the elite sage and the blind swordsman were always avoiding the battle.
"Tsk——" The successive failures made Joshua smack his tongue. Neither he nor Henry's speed was low, but the two beasts who had the advantage in the cave still managed to avoid most of their attacks.
"Whoops -" Henry's attack with the flying knife could only cause some minor injuries due to its lack of weight - the vitality of these beasts has been experienced before, and the only way to ensure the kill is to rely on a big sword and a long knife.
"Joshua, get back on guard——" With a "Crack——", the sage stopped, and Joshua also realized at the same time that the two of them were being lured into fighting with the other people behind the skeleton and the ones without. The fact that Aya's fighting abilities are out of touch with Torataro's.
Although it is doubtful whether the cave master possesses such wisdom, caution is still important.
"Roar——!" The two of them stepped back slightly, and the strong and agile beast immediately turned from retreat to attack.
"Tsk, you really guessed it right." Joshua's keen hearing became a more efficient sense than vision in the cave with insufficient light, and Henry's night vision was somewhat restored under the influence of the magic power emitted by the rune weapon. He quickly captured the two beasts running towards them - as well as the tentacles that were lying on the ground behind them and quietly approaching Miss Doctor and Torataro who were watching the battle nervously without making a sound.
"Hey——! Seize it!!" The sage threw out the last flying knife without hesitation and accurately hit the tentacle. "Ah——!" A tragic scream immediately sounded, and Ling was frightened. As he jumped and sat down on the ground, the sage turned around and lowered the tip of his sword to face the incoming beast. Joshua quickly rushed towards the doctor's side with a tacit understanding.
"Huh——" "Ha——!" While the one-meter-and-a-half-meter-long sword was swung horizontally across a wide range, the blind swordsman also raised his tachi high in the air at the end of his sprinting charge. He stabilized his posture to a completely vertical position and performed a vertical slash.
"Crack--" The big sword split open a savage beast, and then the front half of the sword tip smashed into the shoulder blade of the other end. Henry, who knew that the attack distance had reached the limit, forcibly twisted the hilt of the sword and bent the blade again. He slapped the beast on the body with the sword.
If the cut was made, it would only be a scratch, but on the contrary, the incorrect blade blade caused more like a slap damage, which stopped the beast's movements - this was all Henry needed, and after Joshua's stabbing, the beast was stunned. While cutting the tentacle into two upright parts and then cutting the cassock into pieces with three consecutive cuts, the sage rushed to the side of the beast whose movements were slowed by the attack and kicked it directly. on the belly.
"Ouch -" "Boom -" The beast was kicked directly against the wall and was injured one after another but still had the ability to move. However, two consecutive impacts caused it to break away from the high-speed state and gave the sage the opportunity to swing his big weapon. The time required for the sword.
"Roar-hiss" the roar of the beast suddenly stopped, and the huge head, which was like a combination of tiger, bear and wolf, fell to the ground with a "thud--", and the body without the head also fell to the ground instantly.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” The dark blue hair of the pale-faced Doctor Miss was stuck to her forehead. Her legs were trembling and she could not stand upright, and the tentacles that had cut off her head quickly retracted. "Wow - wow -" The stunned Torataro was still standing but lost consciousness. He was holding the weapon but could not use it at all.
"..." Henry, who returned immediately, glanced at the tentacle cut into pieces by Joshua - similar to the previous one, there were countless teeth in its open lips, but it was more attractive to sages. Notice some burn marks on the surface.
“It’s starting to get difficult——” Although he was blind, Joshua judged from the shouts and heavy breathing from the front that his companions who divided their forces to meet the skeleton were in a deadlock.
——Just like the puppet metaphor before, when an operator needs to operate dozens of objects at the same time, the accuracy of each action is definitely not as good as operating only one.
The skeleton warriors with weak combat effectiveness were quickly eliminated, but as the number decreased, the battle between Mira, Yajiro Narumi, Lao Qiao and others did not become easier.
On the one hand, destroying the skeletons consumes their physical energy. On the other hand, as the number of skeletons decreases, the movements of these skeletons become faster and faster.
The skeleton that was originally unable to parry even the Luoan girl's attacks gradually began to be able to resist their attacks firmly. The fragile bones began to emit a faint brilliance. In the end, even the skull's eye sockets were ignited with blue flames.
"Boom——!" After eliminating the besieging opponents, they switched from offense to defense. Galeva, holding a large shield, resisted the continuous attacks of the stronger skeleton warriors, while the others moved towards the sage step by step. and retreat in the direction of Joshua.
"There are 5 left -" The skeleton warriors with blue flames in their eyes were obviously different from the previous ones. Over the broken bones and broken weapons and armor on the ground, they approached step by step towards the group of people who were sweating and panting. .
But after the threat on the other side was eliminated, Henry and Joshua had their hands free.
"Thank you for your hard work." The blind swordsman said to the warriors. When they retreated and surrounded the incompetent Torataro and Miss Doctor, he and Henry crossed over to meet the last few elite skeleton warriors.
The undead roared silently, and under the condition of high magic concentration, the corpse's fighting skills were used in life.
But their best efforts to resist could not last more than 20 seconds in the face of the overwhelming combat advantage. Just like chopping melons and vegetables, Henry and Joshua cleanly eliminated the last enemy.
"Ha-ha-" Even the red-haired swordsman began to pant at this time, and the others who relaxed almost all collapsed on the ground. Most of them were decorated, and the iron armor was deformed and the leather armor was deformed. The armor's hard lacquer shell collapsed under the blow.
The wound was itchy and painful under the sweat. Although he knew that he had to clean the wound quickly, bandage it and regain his strength to move on, no one, including Mira, could move at this moment.
"Is it over?" The Luoan girl tilted her head, her white hair condensed with sweat hanging down, and she looked at her teacher and asked.
"There's probably one last one."
"When all my subordinates are used up, it's time for the main body to go into battle." Henry said this, and as soon as he finished speaking, a roar that seemed to be human and inhuman came from deeper in the mine.
"Roar ah ah ah ah -" It started out like a wild beast's roar, but ended up sounding like a woman's cry.
For some reason, there was a sadness in the voice, like the cry of a mother who has lost her child.
"Oh, evil, evil -" Torataro, who probably had the best preserved physical strength besides Aya and Henry, shuddered, and then immediately began to urge everyone sitting on the ground to get up: "Hurry up, Hui is still here - —”
"It's been taking so long." The anxious and helpless Torataro kept urging. Many of the exhausted and injured group of people frowned and showed their dissatisfaction, but at this moment they couldn't even talk to him. There is no energy or spare time to care.
"Huh--" He sat for a while, cleaned and tended to the wound, and drank the remaining water. He checked the armor and made simple repairs on some broken shoulder straps and other parts. The cracked breastplate on the front and back was repaired. Wrap a cloth belt directly around the waist and tie it with a tight knot. The damage to the weapon is not optimistic, but even a long knife with many holes can still be used. The back and other parts that are beyond your reach can be checked by your companions. After quickly finishing the arrangement and placing some items such as empty water bottles in place and unloading the unloadable load, the group rekindled the torches.
Keep going.
