Kazuto warriors who have always liked to think of themselves as ferocious beasts, when describing someone who is extremely talented in combat, often tend to call them some kind of natural warriors, who are born to know how to hunt like wild beasts.
But if these words were heard by mountain hunters who had actually seen and interacted with them and were more familiar with the beasts, they would probably sneer at these pretentious big men in the city - at least behind their backs.
Mortal beasts have inheritance. Although it is not in the form of words that humans can easily understand, educating offspring is more influential than words and deeds. Human parents often blame their cubs for being disobedient, but at this time Selectively forget or ignore the fact that you set a bad example.
Saying "You have to be a diligent and conscientious child" a hundred times is not as powerful as having a decadent and lazy look in front of your cubs every day. At this point, wild animals probably know how to parent better than many humans. .
Beasts do have stronger instincts and can learn to accept their innate skills more quickly.
But newborn babies still need their caregivers to teach them about the world. They will grow faster than humans, but they still need to grow up and they are by no means born knowing everything.
Those with brothers and sisters will practice and learn hunting skills from playing and fighting with each other; their parents will take them on easy paths and catch exhausted prey alive so that they can practice killing skills.
When they are kicked out of their homes and wander around as adults, they will use these skills to find their place in unfamiliar jungles, mountains, grasslands and even deserts.
What prey is easy to catch, and what smells are left by creatures that you can't afford to offend. They cannot speak, but their learning ability and knowledge are no less than any other living beings.
life.
It will move forward.
This is not a lifeless word that represents eternity and unchangeability. They are active and changing all the time. Therefore, even beasts will never be in the same state forever - they are naturally not born with everything and know everything, nor do they only have the same method until they grow old and die.
Despite the old West Coast saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks," even old tricks get better with years of use.
so.
When those abominable and unrecognizable aliens appeared around them, although they could not describe or explain it, everyone felt a sense of unhappiness from the bottom of their hearts.
It's like the sharp, piercing sound made by nails scraping against a rough surface; it's like when you are about to fall asleep but suddenly hear an unknown noise coming from under the bed. An unreasonable hairy feeling caused the camp to fall into an extremely harmonious silence. People who had stayed away from the cooking campfire because of the heat unconsciously moved closer. Our sage, who noticed what was probably happening, caught Got up Kramer.
"Ghoul." His simple words made Mira and others active.
The Luoan girl looked at Mithiya. She was not sure whether it was because of the exhaustion of the cart-pulling training or some other reason. The keen unicorn had not noticed the dangerous approach, which made her somewhat worried, but she did not take it seriously at the moment. A good time to keep in mind.
"Get in the car!" The torches wrapped in oilcloth were already prepared and could be accessed by opening the fixing strap. After being quickly distributed to everyone around by an ashigaru, the group of people who had developed a good tacit understanding lit the torches one after another when passing by the bonfire. Then Mira and the two warriors boarded the chariot, while the others climbed onto the chariot to gain a relatively high vantage point to draw their bows. The vanguard, armed with knives or spears, fanned out in front, using torches to provide visibility while also hindering the enemy's approach.
The great witch was quite impressed by the tacit understanding of such a mixed troop composition. She and the other witches gathered around the carriage. Although they have lost their divine power, they still pick up weapons and prepare for close combat when necessary.
"Where is it, teacher?" Mira asked the sage, but unexpectedly he frowned - the night vision ability granted by the druid spell could not detect the other party's existence, although there were indeed bushes here. Dense, but this has never happened before.
But a sage is still a sage after all, and after thinking about it for a while, he understood the reason.
Druid's dark vision ability is not omnipotent. It essentially applies a special eye mask through activating spells and runes, allowing human eyes to see previously invisible light, such as faint starlight and moonlight, and even The radiance of magical power that mortals cannot see.
The sage's eyes still have ordinary vision - perhaps the word 'ordinary' is not the right word for the same enhanced vision itself, but in short, he uses magic to illuminate the environment to see the surrounding scene clearly, which is actually the same as a mortal using firelight, There is no difference in the field of view obtained by sunlight and moonlight.
It's just that the magic that pervades all parts of the world is far more durable and more common than torches. The environment it illuminates is not as bright as the brightest moonlight or the sun on a clear day, but it is enough to allow those with this kind of vision to distinguish their surroundings.
But what if the other party has some ability to absorb magic power?
Starlight and moonlight are not very powerful under the dense forest, and the magic power here is quite weak. The people of Plaxia destroyed shrines and shrines and destroyed the nodes, so that the distinction between the inner world and the outer world was no longer clear. The consequences of this were a bit like opening a hole in the wall - they didn't know what would come out of it. They don't know what might have strayed in from outside.
The existence of magic in the wild is a bit like water. Most farmers who have irrigated fields or have a pond to raise fish fry and plant lotus know that when water is directed from a higher place to a lower place, if the distance allows, there is no need to move it with human or animal power. . As long as you try to divert the water through ditch pipes, it will automatically flow to the lower water level until both sides are level.
Magic also has a similar phenomenon. Although it is far less fluid than water and has many complex and unknown properties, it is true that this power will be weakened or enhanced due to the influence of certain factors.
High-level magicians, monsters, dragons, and individuals like these are like movable magnets. The longer they stay in an area for a longer time, it will be easier to condense magic power - although this length of time is beyond human imagination. A hundred years and a thousand years are the most basic units.
The accumulated magic power was like water passing through stone, but it flowed to the relatively barren shore due to the actions of Placia's people.
The weak magic power in this area is so barren that it is like searching for water in the desert. Even if the elf magician comes here, the power of magic released will be greatly reduced. If the human magician comes here, the success rate will be greatly reduced.
The result is that the senses that rely on magic are naturally weakened - such as the sage's night vision ability and the unicorn's ability to perceive surrounding threats.
Because of this prerequisite, Henry knew that the surrounding woods looked darker in his eyes, but also because of this knowledge, he failed to detect the approach of the ghoul at the first time.
The power of habit is powerful and terrifying. Once you become accustomed to something, you will often relax your vigilance about it.
Even he is still not exempt from vulgarity at this level.
But after noticing the problem, you just need to change the way you deal with it.
Mercenaries and adventurers often face sudden crises. They are not just good at fighting like knights and samurai. Adventurers are usually generalists. It is common sense to judge the situation and carry various countermeasures. Those who fail to do so will die. This industry is so cruel.
Under the feet of every adventurer who makes a name for himself are the corpses of thousands of fellow adventurers who were not cautious enough, strong enough, rich enough, or smart enough, who failed and perished in the same adventure.
Stories often hide the risks and only tell you the bright side, because the noble lords who cannot maintain a large army hope that someone will spontaneously solve the beast rebellion or explore unknown places for them, and the bards they hire are naturally only would preach the beauty of risk-taking and the great rewards—but let’s cut back on that.
If the outside world lacks magic power, it can be replaced by artificial means. Druid rune stones that store high concentrations of magic power can be used in two ways: one is to use it normally to stimulate the spell buried inside to release a high-level magic that has been arranged earlier. ; The other is more simple and crude, using external force to destroy the runes so that the energy escapes and turns into a pure concentrated magic mass.
The second way of use is generally an emergency use when the spell buried in the rune stone is not suitable for the current situation. Considering that one less rune stone was needed, this was quite a luxury, but they had no choice.
"Click" The hard special stone has fragile stress points because it is engraved with runes. Henry held it between two fingers as a support and then pressed hard with the tip of his thumb to destroy its outer shell, and the magic power inside immediately began to escape. , and before they exploded uncontrollably, the sage threw it toward the suspicious area ahead.
There was no earth-shattering sound like "Boom!", but there was indeed a faint burst of light. The magic power released back into the environment temporarily filled the vacancy. Because of the increase in magic power concentration, Mitya noticed the invading enemy, and it immediately screamed, and the dazzling brilliance of magic power in the sage's vision also disappeared. A large number of sharp black shadows appeared immediately one after another.
——The only explanation for this phenomenon happening is that they absorb magic power to avoid being illuminated by it.
Henry immediately realized that this was another ghoul that had been modified in some way, like a special individual such as a giant ghoul. These ones that could absorb magic were probably created specifically for magicians.
"Stop, don't go out." What does this mean? He reacted immediately and turned back to Mira who was about to ride on the unicorn chariot with the warriors and said this - these things are not necessarily aimed at them, it is very likely that they are actually targeted at the witches. The transformation was carried out, but the witch's power comes from the rune, which is a kind of rune stone-like item that is more unstable and emits magic power. But now they have exhausted all the talismans.
The sage himself cannot be a target. The rare disease he suffers from makes it impossible for even a huge amount of magic power in his body to be condensed into a spell like a normal magician.
So his magic is like the disordered energy that exists in the natural environment. Coupled with the powerful inhibitory effect of the Druid rune, if any magician tries to distinguish him from the crowd through magic positioning, he will basically fail.
It's not just that you have magic power that you can cast spells, because almost all creatures in the world have magic power. The necessary condition for becoming a spellcaster is to be able to use this power and condense it so that it can construct spells according to one's own wishes.
Using water as an analogy: Ordinary magicians or those with magician qualifications are like building dams through artificial labor to utilize water power - first they concentrate and restrain this power - and the second step is the spelling and chanting part. It's like building a waterwheel on a dam and connecting it to a grinding stone or beating machine to thresh grain or hammer dough.
The magic power must first be condensed before a complex spell can be released. The magic power of the sage is like the water vapor that exists in the atmosphere. Even if you collect the moisture in the atmosphere on a continent, the amount is greater than that of an ordinary stream, but it is too scattered and cannot be used.
It is precisely because of the important difference of 'whether it can be condensed or not' that if the ghoul is designed to keep a close eye on the magic holder.
They will definitely bypass the sage and go straight to the only shining magical existence after the witches lost their divine power.
Mira and Mitya.
"Then we can only stay here." After hearing Henry's explanation, although she understood the reason, she still seemed to have returned to the time when she first needed protection because she couldn't put it to use. The white-haired girl looked quite depressed.
But the sage shrugged: "It's enough for you to stand in the middle of the formation."
"It can come in handy and become the most valuable."
"Bait."
"What a terrible master." The Luoan girl gave him a roll of her eyes, and the warriors unloaded the two-wheeled chariot from Medea. The unicorn and the white-haired girl stayed in the formation because they were short of manpower. The unloaded chariot was turned over and used as a cover, and then several bags of arrows were placed behind it, as well as a spare bow and a large gun for close combat.
"Sir, is there any way for us to see those monsters too!" Narumi said, but Henry shook his head. The depressed Luoan girl remembered the lighting spell she had cast, but because of insufficient magic power, she tried several times to find it, but it felt like a flint that couldn't light a pile of straw, and she always couldn't succeed.
"The contracted formation, judging from the slender silhouette and the very low posture with the toes on the ground, is probably a type that is good at high-speed movements. Prepare broad-bladed arrows and armor-piercing arrows, because it is still not sure how good this type's skin defense capabilities are. ." The sage said to everyone, and the warriors who were now accustomed to listening to his opinions quickly sorted out the corresponding arrows.
"Forward, please be careful to avoid being injured by attacks. How to explain it? Their claws and teeth are extremely poisonous." Although they had fought against Saburo's crudely made and degraded ghouls when they were in the swamp village. Compared with other Crescent Continent colleagues, the samurai are rich in experience.
But these are obviously different.
"When chopping, make the wound as deep as possible. Their vitality is extremely tenacious. Aim for the limbs, amputation to restrict movement is the priority, don't pursue a one-hit kill, it is easy to catch yourself." Absorb the magic in the environment to avoid magic Detected by those with vision, but also targeted at magic holders. Such targeted transformation means that those behind it have the expectation that the mission will be fulfilled. And they indeed sneaked closer at a subtle moment, reaching a distance that a group of people could not easily get away from. All signs indicate that this is by no means a target that can be dealt with lightly - because the witches are inseparable from the ghost warriors.
Even if it was a sneak attack, the people who sent these things expected that they could compete with the strongest single combat group in the Crescent Continent.
Therefore, he warned again and again, just because he was worried that the samurai would become careless because of the similarity with their previous enemies, thinking that they could deal with them skillfully.
The sound of "rustling" came from outside the shrubs where the swaying firelight was difficult to illuminate. Although there had been several battles in the darkness, everyone still hoped that something would be able to illuminate the surrounding environment in one go.
"It's coming." The formation was impeccable, so the ghoul could only choose to break through forcefully. But now that he was close to this distance and everyone around him became quiet, the blind swordsman with his keen hearing could finally catch the sound of action.
"Crack-" The monster jumped up from the distance illuminated by the torch and came to them in an instant. The monster, which still had a human body structure but was as slender as a cheetah, quickly avoided the short spear thrusts of the two warriors. Even Joshua's sword missed because he misjudged the distance. It went straight to the Luoan girl and Medea in the center of the formation, until the big shoulder thrown by Henry pierced the back and ribs and was nailed to the ground. .
"Hiss..." The miserable scream was accompanied by a fierce struggle. The sage jumped over and kicked it, crushing its cervical vertebrae, and then picked it up with a big sword and threw it back out of the formation.
"Shoot an arrow at the corpse." To prevent it from pretending to be dead and throwing it away, the sage did not throw it too far, and it was still illuminated by the firelight. As he spoke, one of the warriors loosened his string.
"Pah!" The arrow effortlessly pierced one side of the thin torso and exited from the other side.
"It seems that he is a speed type, and defense is not his strong point." Narumi noticed this.
"There may be more than 15 in number. Keep the formation close to avoid being attacked by them using their speed to go around the back and sides." The magic power released by the rune stones has gradually begun to dissipate and integrate into the wider environment, and Henry's vision has become dark again , even he could only rely on firelight, otherwise he would not be able to accurately capture the target.
Under such conditions, fighting conservatively and taking a defensive posture may lead to chaos due to many reasons such as lack of vision, but it is also the only choice they can make.
We are at a numerical disadvantage, and our opponents come and go without a trace. The result of rashly taking the initiative to attack is very likely to be defeated one by one.
"So passive."
If the ghost warriors had not fallen into a coma, if the witches still had divine thunder, and if the magic in the environment was so rich that Mira could manage to create some kind of lighting, their situation would be quite different.
But sometimes combat is like this. There are no surprising tactics or special props that can tip the balance in one fell swoop.
We can only be steady and steady, try to avoid making mistakes, and preserve our own strength as much as possible while defeating the enemy.
