The old proverb says, "Know yourself and the enemy and you will be victorious in every battle." Although it usually refers to the prior investigation of the enemy at the strategic level to designate a target plan, it still remains correct when applied to squad tactics and even individual combat.
Most of human sword skills and even other combat skills are developed and honed using the same kind as imaginary enemies: among them, users of different weapons have various skills branches to deal with - but they still have one thing in common, that is, imaginary enemies are often A humanoid opponent fighting upright with all limbs intact. Blocking, grabbing, and attacking by exploiting the weaknesses of the human body's joints—such skills have been honed for thousands of years and have been perfected.
But how should we adapt when facing enemies other than humans?
——Tentacles do not have limbs. Attacks from humanoid enemies with limbs can come from all directions, such as the "meter" shape in the human character. You need to resist attacks vertically up and down, left and right, horizontally and at all angles, but The same cannot be said for limbless opponents.
Their attacks are more vertical like the Raman number "I" and have no more changes in other directions, but this does not mean that the difficulty of dealing with it is reduced, because human opponents cannot freely lie down and stand up - or in other words If someone does this, you can kill the opponent more easily - but the tentacles can freely rise and fall on the vertical axis, attack the ankles, calves and crotches, launching attacks from positions that are difficult for people to detect.
So how to deal with this kind of target that was not targeted by past training? The sage happened to speak at this time, and everyone listened carefully: "Aim at the center of gravity, get close to your companions, and several of them will cooperate together."
Time is tight and the language needs to be as concise and straightforward as possible. The several key points that Henry summarized sounded a bit vague to the ears of laymen like Ling and Galeva, but as people with formal training, the exhausted main staff of the team immediately realized the key to response after his prompts - —
When a swordsman fights, the footwork of his feet is even more important than the skill of wielding the sword in his hands. If your center of gravity is interrupted and you fall to the ground, you will be slaughtered like meat on a chopping board. Although the tentacles of the Lord of the Cave are terrifying and unusual, they cannot rise up against common sense for no reason. Just like a snake, no matter which height it plans to attack from, if it wants to stand up its front body, it must have a fulcrum that touches the ground.
——In other words, when the tentacle launches its attack, the center of gravity of the front half of the body is supported on the ground.
It won't move.
"Second position, circular formation!" Narumi ordered, holding the torch high. All the forwards, including the Luoan girl, temporarily placed their short spears on the ground and picked up swords.
Everyone took a defensive stance of holding the sword with both hands, lowering their center of gravity and lowering the weapon. Under the light of the torch, when viewed from above, the shining slender blades protruding from the periphery of the circular defensive formation looked like something unique to the Moon Country. The ghost flower is the lanceolate of the other side flower.
"Hiss--" A tentacle is not a big threat because it lacks the ability to attack from multiple sides. Of course, the Lord of the Cave uses as many tentacles as a group of snakes to try to attack from multiple angles.
The group of people, who were seriously depleted of physical strength, formed a circular defensive formation to prevent the opponent's attack intention. The circular formation with companions on the left, right and behind allowed the swordsman to not worry about tentacles coming from other angles, and only needed to take care of them. Just take care of the part in front of you.
Reduce defensive pressure, avoid excessive consumption of large movements, and avoid the possibility of being defeated one by one by fighting alone. Galeva and Lulu, who stayed in the center of the formation, were given instructions by Narumi to move back and forth to fill the gap: once someone in any corner of the formation became too stressed, they would serve as a reserve team to fill in and assist.
"Coming!" Without any tricks or feints, facing the posture adopted by the group of people, all the cave master could do, regardless of whether he had the same level of intelligence as humans or not, was to use saturation attacks to try to crush their formation.
But it won't be easy to achieve.
They were exhausted and their weapons were damaged, but after the continuous bloody battles, many people had made great progress on the mental level - the young master had obviously become more decisive in killing. In the past, he would get his arms cut by second-rate bandits because of panic. Even if you are injured, you will still continue to fight. After years of mastering martial arts, he truly became a part of his body for the first time.
"Kill!" Three thick tentacles that were free like snakes attacked the group of people in unison. The one close to Mira and Yajiro stood up directly and rushed towards the head of the Luoan girl, but she ignored it. Because he knew that the one below was the real killer, he leaned over and swung his sword directly at the other two with a feint attack.
"Pfft-puff-!" During the attack, Mira successfully chopped off the huge head of one of the tentacles, but the long-waisted knife full of gaps failed to cut it off due to the serious loss of sharpness. The tentacles immediately began to retract towards the thick fog, and she quickly thought that there was no other way but to pull out the knife. The smelly tentacles' transparent bodily fluids with traces of black spilled out and quickly drained into the air, and she withdrew them. The Luoan girl who took the sword immediately cooperated with Yajiro on the other side who used a vertical slash to push back the erected tentacle, and then gave the extremely eye-catching target a horizontal slash.
"Pa—!" The tentacles as thick as a human head had no bones, so they were just strong tendons. The scarred long knife cut in half, and this ferocious thing actually opened its head full of fangs to bite the Luoan girl. Holding the knife in both hands, she could only give up the weapon and immediately retreat, and then pulled out Galeva's Suomir sword as a backup weapon.
"Hiss——!" The tentacle that retreated a certain distance made a move that would make the hairs of those who saw it stand on its head at the maximum range where the light of the torch could shine - it used its flexible body to bend down? Then it was covered with The sharp-toothed mouth was dripping with saliva as he bit down on the waist knife that was still stuck on his body, then pulled it out and threw it on the ground.
"When the clang buzzes -" the long knife that fell on the mottled stone ground made a sound of metal collision? But the Luoan girl didn't want to retrieve it at all.
"It's a trap." Yajiro next to him said, holding the knife tightly.
"Yeah? Extremely cunning." Sweat dripped down, and the Luoan girl stared at the thick fog in front of her without moving.
Lost a knife? Only caused serious injuries to two tentacles. This is the result of their side's defense, and the other corners are not much better. Only the sage and the red-haired swordsman, who had the highest attainments in swordsmanship, cut off one tentacle each, while the others only caused damage and repeled each other.
"What do you think, sir? Are you trying to lure us in and then defeat them one by one?" Narumi, who was pale, asked with a slight breath. Has the matter come to this? There is no need to doubt that although the Lord of the Cave is not human, he has human-like intelligence. Therefore, the samurai leader directly applied the thinking of the art of war to conduct reverse deliberation.
"If that's the case, should we focus the attack from one direction? In this case, in order to enhance the response power in this direction, our formation will inevitably change." The sage answered without looking back.
"Here we go again -" Joshua interrupted their discussion with one sentence, but this time the tentacles that appeared quickly were more cautious than before? They didn't even come close to the attack range of Henry and his party, just within the light that the torches could shine. End wander.
"Tsk? The attack distance has been figured out, you cunning beast." The once gentle Narumi, the samurai master, has now become relatively straightforward after the battle. He judged this? The sage frowned, He looked down and found that the tentacle part that he and Joshua had cut off before was missing.
"Is the feint just now just to recover the severed part?" Old Qiao, standing next to the sage, also noticed this, especially the part cut off by Henry? Because the attack distance of the big sword matches the sage's He was tall and his arms were long, so he was cut off at the waist. Such a big target disappeared in an instant. Even if the ground was covered with fog, the tentacles, which were more than a meter thick and long, were hard to miss.
"Recycling?" Ling pricked up her ears. She noticed this word keenly. Combined with the fact that the earth spiders, centipedes and human-faced birds she killed before disappeared after going up and down the mountain, as well as what she had seen in the domain in the past -
Almost in unison, the doctor and the sage made the same judgment: "It is delaying time."
"If we want our formation to be disrupted and defeated one by one, we should concentrate our forces in one direction. This kind of attack from all directions and retreating immediately after being injured proves that the purpose is not to cause damage at all."
"It wants us to stop here. These tentacles are just for delaying time." The sage held the sword in one hand and stretched his other hand back.
"Huh?" Galeva, who was holding a lot of torches, was stunned, and Henry slapped him with the back of his hand and pointed at the torch in his hand without looking.
"Ah!" The burning pain in his cheek made Leng Tou Qing, who had breathed in too much stench, clear his mind a little. He handed a torch to the sage, and the latter immediately bent his entire body to a great extent.
"Huh-huh-huh-" With Henry's effort, the torch flew out and drew a high arc, illuminating the bottom of the entire towering mine and hitting another person. The mountain wall on one side then rebounded and fell, and the moment it fell, the group of people were able to clearly see the strange, huge, squirming thing like a mountain of meat that was leaking out of the thick fog bit by bit.
"Ugh—" Lulu covered her mouth and lowered her head. The behemoth that was illuminated by the fire for a moment had a wrinkled abdomen that looked like a fat man weighing several hundred pounds that had been magnified dozens of times. The pale skin piled on the ground was covered with thick cyan blood vessels, and they kept stopping. The ground beats and delivers nutrients to the plump and bulging structure above like a millet ovary.
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The light of the torch falling to the ground triggered a dramatic reaction. Its transparent skin became translucent as if responding to the light, and the plump ovary was like a baby holding its legs and curling up somewhere in the amniotic fluid. The black outline was thus able to be glimpsed by everyone.
"Bah!" Even though it was shot out immediately, the brief moment before that was still enough to see the true appearance clearly.
"The color is so dark, it looks like it has some kind of carapace." Mira said.
"This physique is like that of a ghost clan——" Narumi, who roughly estimated the body shape with his eyes, was sweating.
"There are three heads." The sage with the best eyesight accurately counted the number of targets before the faint light from the ovary was extinguished.
"The smell is getting stronger and stronger." Time passed bit by bit, and even the mint ointment couldn't cover up the smell of rotten eggs around him. This seemed to be related to some kind of process.
"Take the initiative to attack." Once the opponent's purpose is detected, the tactics must be changed immediately.
"Joshua and I go first, and the others will follow in a tight formation." The sage said, and together with the red-haired swordsman who nodded, he directly attacked the tentacle in front of him, and it seemed that after the torch was thrown, Realizing that his purpose had been exposed, the cave lord directly mobilized all his tentacles to stop them in front of them - this was obviously what they wanted.
"I'm afraid you won't concentrate." The tacit understanding between the top swordsmen requires no words. The red-haired swordsman lowered his posture while the sage slashed horizontally from a high position and a wide angle.
The two phases combined with a staggered body, like sharp giant scissors, directly cut the tentacle that was transferred to intercept in front of it into three pieces.
"Hiss—!" The tentacles spewing body fluids disappeared directly into the cave on the ground. Apparently, the cave owner, whose body resembled a huge succulent plant, had already penetrated his roots deeply into the ore.
"Be careful of the ground." Henry glanced at the ground with squinted eyes. When he stepped on it and rubbed his feet back and forth, it would make a "swirling" sound. Obviously, this stone was different from the stone near the walkway and was looser. The stone on the other side of the walkway was harder and difficult to drill. hole, this should be why the tentacles drilled out first and then approached them.
But when they get closer to the cave lord, they can come out of the hole dug in the ground to attack.
After a brief reminder, Henry and Joshua rushed forward, cutting off several more tentacles in the process. When the following people came over, Aya sniffed her nose and turned to the others: "There are extra candles. If so, cut a section and throw it in."
She said this, but after burning for nearly an hour, most of the supplies were actually consumed. At this time, our Luoan girl quickly opened the lid of the lantern, then put the one-handed knife under her arm, took out the knife, cut a small piece and burned it. candle wick.
"That's enough." After enduring the hot feeling, Ling nodded and threw it directly into the cave where the tentacles came out. Then she kept shaking her fingers to try to cool down. At this moment, all the caves on the ground suddenly suddenly They all screamed "Chi--!" and burst into flames.
"Ahhhhhh--" A scream that seemed inhuman and inhuman came, followed by a roar like an earthquake.
"It seems that the reaction to being burned is the same." The Luoan girl said that her fingers were numb, and then she picked up the knife and approached the two Henrys in front with others.
The huge mountain of meat that was illuminated again at the moment of merging made many people have the urge to vomit. This twisted thing was more like some kind of weird instrument than a living thing - the huge curved ribs of an unknown creature were like petals. It bloomed high up, and the huge mountains of meat weighing several tons piled up on the muddy ground were piled up like spitted out entrails.
It obviously has some function - but it's not something I have time to explore and think about at the moment -
"Hui, where's Hui!" Torataro shouted loudly. It was already at the bottom of the mine, but there were no living people who had been kidnapped.
"...How many people were arrested in total." Henry grabbed Torataro's shoulders, and the pale-faced martial arts disciple thought for a long time in a panic: "Three--"
"Ah!" He immediately realized something and raised his head to look at the shimmering and translucent ovary.
"Do something, please, do something, no matter how much money you want!" Torataro almost cried out, and the sage grabbed him by the collar and put him behind. The Lord of the Cave seemed to have no troops left and even his tentacles were severely injured. He allowed this uninvited guest to stand in front of him without any reaction - but the sage just observed for a while and then raised his sword.
"You all stand back," he said.
Everyone understood what Henry wanted to do. He aimed at the huge cyan blood vessels along the surface of the skin that supplied blood to the ovary, and struck with his sword without hesitation.
"Ahhh——!!" I don't know where the vocal organ is located, but the scream sounded again, and a huge hole was opened in the huge meat mountain in front of Kramer's unparalleled power. A large amount of impurities accompanied by the smelly black liquid poured onto the ground like a broken clay pot. Henry dodged it nimbly, but if he hadn't been warned in advance, others would probably not have had time to avoid it.
The black liquid struggled on the ground as if it was alive and finally died out, and what flowed out were various biological organs - in addition to the organs, there were also feathers and carapace. It was obvious that they had been beheaded by them before. Creatures to kill.
"Ugh - ugh -" After running all the way, they finally couldn't stand it anymore. Several people, including the Luoan girl, vomited under the stench, exhaustion and the devastation of everything in front of them.
"It really works." After the blood vessel-like part was cut off, the upper ovary immediately dimmed and gradually shrank like a withered petal. The petal-like gap collapsed and flowed out, which was like amniotic fluid and like egg white. Part of it exudes the smell of rotten eggs that I have always smelled, and is about to fall off Roshan's body.
"Is it Ah Hui?"
"Just wait until it falls and you can see for yourself." Henry ignored Kotaro and was about to continue repeating this kind of work, when the whole mountain of meat suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar and started to move.
"Pa—!" One of the flower ovary-like parts exploded and the embryo inside fell heavily to the ground. Then, as the earth shook, a tentacle larger than before sprang out from the ground.
"Ahhhhhh-" The terrifying tentacle about one meter in diameter roared and struck directly at the group of people. The group of people who had vomited happily did not care about their own vomit on the ground and directly rolled and flew to avoid it. Miss Doctor, who reacted too slowly, was picked up by Galeva and rushed to the side.
"Bang bang——!!" The short spear and Galeva's shield left on the ground were directly shot to pieces. The group of people who lost part of their weapons and large shields were also separated in various places by the tentacles.
"It has canceled the cultivation of the other end, and is concentrating on only cultivating one!" Ling, who was picked up by Galeva, reminded loudly, while Henry and Joshua, who reacted immediately, did not hesitate to do so. launched an attack.
“Dang!!!——Boom——!!!”
"What - ghost -" The numbness of the hand made the red-haired swordsman blurt out in confusion, but Kramer on the other side failed to cause as much damage as before.
"It's Mithril -" Sparks flew, and at this moment the sage accurately judged the metal material embedded in the last tentacle that he had dented. The rebound of the full-strength chop on the metal shocked the two men with the highest swordsmanship in the team and took a few steps back. When the others raised the torch again, the full view of the tentacles, which were thick and short like the main stem of a flower, was revealed. It finally appeared.
It protected the last ovary, but even without the giant ghost-like humanoid creature inside that was about to take shape, the tentacles that looked like giant armored worms in front of it were difficult enough to deal with.
"This should be the main body. The back part is just for nurturing, just like the queen ant." Ling was still able to remain calm as she observed.
"It's weird, this cold iron plate is fixed with nails, as if some intelligent creature put it on." Old Qiao noticed the weirdness of the tentacles on the mottled armor plate all over his body, while Narumi looked at it. The head was scarred like a human but had several rows of teeth.
"It's a broken arrow, and there are still a lot of scars." Yajiro stared at the three-meter-tall arrow that stood firmly in front of the last ovary and kept making a hissing roar to intimidate the group. tentacle.
"Sure enough, the Earth Spider Tribe and the vassal kings here used to use this thing as their opponent, but how on earth are they going to solve it?" The other party clearly planned to wait for the cultivation of living forces to be completed, which gave them a chance to breathe, but this kind of rest time is At the expense of the possibility of victory becoming slimmer with every passing second.
"Get it for me." Henry and Joshua both returned to the team, and the group joined together again, and the sage handed the Claymer in his hand to his disciple.
"Teacher?" Mira held the big sword that she now had the strength to wield, and was a little confused.
"Mythril is fire-resistant, and there isn't enough fuel. It's difficult to poke it in through the mouth, so there's no other way." He took out the dagger, and then the runes on his body lit up.
"Bang——" The tall body of the sage who jumped up exceeded the limit that the giant tentacles could catch. When the opponent raised his head and opened his mouth in response, the sage fell down and then grabbed it with one hand. The end of the giant tentacle's upper jaw serves as a fulcrum to adjust the body.
"Click!!" The moment the heavy and powerful jaw closed, saliva spattered and made a dull sound, but at this time Henry had already let go of his hand and slid down its entire vertically erected body, and then he used his hand He caught the tiny bulge on the edge of the mithril plate, and took advantage of the moment when the opponent raised his body to tilt the dagger downward and stab it through the gap.
"Huh..." After taking a deep breath, he let go of his hand, then clenched his hand into a fist and punched the end of the dagger hard.
"Ahhhhhh--" The painful tentacles began to roll with alarming force, and the sage tightly grasped the dagger that was deeply embedded in the strong flesh and allowed it to struggle and swing without falling-- He even used his own weight and the opponent's swing to cause the dagger to stir back and forth under the mithril plate, causing greater damage.
"Pa-" The whole piece of flesh and blood was smashed by the shaking of the tentacle itself, and the moment the surface fixed by the mithril plate loosened, Henry grabbed the edge and curled up, then twisted his waist and turned his body upside down. Stepping headfirst onto the side of the tentacle.
He grabbed the dagger with one hand and spread the armor plate with the other hand, and then kicked hard on the giant tentacle with his legs.
"Tear off——!" "Ugh——" A scene that made everyone watching felt extremely painful was staged bloodyly. The curved armor plate about 90 centimeters long and 50 centimeters wide adhered to the tentacle monster's skin and The muscle below was torn off directly, blood spattered, and it began to struggle hard due to the great pain, and the gap had been broken. Henry did not bother to go back to get Claymore, but directly held the dagger that had been bent after rough use. He stabbed it directly with his own arm.
"Pfft."
The center located under the protection of armor plates and layers of muscles was accurately destroyed by the damaged but still sharp dagger. Like a puppet with its strings broken, the tentacles that were still struggling fiercely froze. Then the sage He pulled out his arm and fell to the ground.
"Bang————!!!" Blood and body fluids covered half of his body, and Henry shook his hands and wiped his hands on the dry clothes on the other half.
"When Clang Clang——" At this moment, the mithril plate that had been torn off and still had a little skin attached finally fell to the ground due to the weight separation.
Ling's guess seemed to be correct. When Henry came over, this obviously thicker tentacle was killed and the entire meat mountain lost its life.
"Crack-" The last full ovary shrank and hung down like a withered flower, and the half-cultivated creature inside fell to the ground with a large amount of amniotic fluid.
"Hui, Hui!" Torataro, who was holding the torch, immediately rushed over after seeing the face in one of the broken carapace. Like a smashed crab shell, he smashed the opponent's carapace full of holes and organic matter. After removing it, what was revealed inside was the person he had missed for a long time with his eyes closed and his face pale.
"Hui, wake up." Regardless of the dirt of the unknown liquid, Torataro shook the other person vigorously.
"Don't use so much force, she's still alive." Mira, who came over, reminded Ah Hui when she saw her chest rising and falling after the carapace was removed for a short while.
"Uuuuuuuuah, great, great." Torataro hugged the maid who was covered in sticky body fluids.
"The one here seems to be dead." Another servant on the other side was in a much worse condition. Under the broken carapace, his body has begun to fuse with strange organs, and his lower body has turned into a larger humanoid monster covered with carapace. It seems that it is for this reason that with the death of the master of the mother cave, He also lost all signs of life directly.
"Get ready to go back, finally." Narumi sighed, but at this moment Joshua clenched the sword again.
"It's not over yet."
A rustling sound came from the collapsed mountain of meat, followed by the crisp sound of hard carapace colliding.
Then, a humanoid silhouette nearly three meters tall stood up from it.
