What is the difference between man and beast, and other civilizations where individuals live longer?

If you ask Henry Mayer, 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".

Most of our Luo'an girls, who are still immature, will say that they "think and learn", while the samurai and even Lulu from the Yi clan around her will probably attribute it to "tradition" and "spirit".

Kaleva and Aya should be summed up in "knowledge", but these are not lacking in races such as elves.

The elves are recognized for their magical prowess, possessing the Archmage of the kind of Archmage that no one has ever been able to do in humans, and the Dwarves are far more knowledgeable in forging techniques than ordinary humans, and their mastery of multiple alloys since thousands of years ago is enough to impress most of humanity to this day.

The engineering skills of the gnomes, the traditional martial spirit of the orcs, and all the answers of other people can be found in other races. Even beasts think and learn, hunters know that beasts with a keen sense of smell react to human tastes and need to hide downwind, and those who have been caught once and managed to escape are often not caught by the same tricks again.

So the answer of the sage is the future.

Elves pass on magic because "it always has been". Orcs follow ancient traditions that may have been around for thousands of years, refusing to change, and gnomes are able to craft airships that soar through the sky, which is why they can't see the human world beneath their feet for decades.

Perhaps only the dwarves who have the most contact with humans are still able to innovate.

But this is still passive, and the dwarves have been embracing new technologies for two or three generations—that is, hundreds of years.

Think about the future, look beyond the present, plan for the era when you are dead in a hundred years, and leave behind enough things to influence future generations. Cultivating capable people.

"I erected a brick, but I could already see the prosperity of this city-state hundreds of years later. ”

This is the romance and philosophy unique to the short-lived species, and it is precisely because of this that human beings are able to expand their tentacles. And this characteristic also allows them to use their knowledge to foresee the next step and seize the opportunity when facing opponents who are several times their size.

- surrounded.

Unlike the previous monsters, which seemed to be a mixture of multiple beasts, this time the hordes appeared with relatively "normal" creatures.

"It's a rock tiger. As the name suggests, Torotaro recognized the beast at a glance: "I always have a portrait of it in my house, and it is my father's favorite beast." ”

The orange fur rock tiger is smaller than the average tiger in Crescent Island, and is closer to the size of a leopard. Unlike the average tiger, which is good at hiding in bushes and grasses on flat ground, they use their relatively light and agile but very strong bodies to chase the goat, their main prey, on complex and steep mountains.

As a result, its limbs are shorter than those of the leopard, which is good at running long distances on flat ground, but this ability to move up and down the cliffs makes up for the lack 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, and Aya, who was a little nervous about her reminder, immediately noticed that all the rock tigers had exactly the same scars as those creatures before, as if they had been copied by someone.

"It's not good, there are eighteen of them. "The rock tiger, which was supposed to be a solitary predator, appeared on this scale, and was stuck in the middle of the aisle by a group of people who were caught in the front and back, although the two sides were not bottomless, but there was also a distance of several meters, and if they fell, they would inevitably break their legs and waist and lose their mobility.

People are not like the Rock Tiger, who can move quickly in such a place, and the best option should be to be defensive, but Henry instead asks the group to spread out and attack at both ends - this is the judgment of the sage with his knowledge and foresight of the future development of the situation.

"Draw your sword!" Henry briefly recounted his thoughts, and the group redistributed their weapons, and Yajiro and Old Joe, who had more complete mobility and experience, handed the short spear to Kaleva, the wounded Narumi, and the seemingly useless Toritaro.

They didn't let the shield go, because the mining passage itself was already very narrow, and the shield would block the view, and if a rock tiger tried to climb and attack them from both sides, they wouldn't be able to see it in time.

Kaleva was placed next to Lulu, the only long-range marksman, with a shield in one hand and a spear in the other to protect her from the incapacitated Aya, while the others rushed forward as a swordsman in front of the spearman and spearman in the back.

Although the "Roaring ——!" looked weird, the instinct of the beast still made these rock tigers let out a deterrent roar before attacking, and they were good at climbing and moving even faster than ordinary tigers on flat ground, which gave the group enough time to meet them, and the moment they rushed up, everyone immediately realized the correctness of Henry's judgment -

The big cat's attack is almost identical, running large and then swooping up and spreading its forelimbs in an attempt to bite the target.

This method is not only for humans, but when they stand up in an instant, they will have a large and easy to hit frontal target, and the range of movement is also very large.

- In other words, they are not like wolves that only attack with their snouts, and they can surround you with several horses at the same time - the rock tigers, which have never been social animals, have no cooperation, and the range of movement and movement space of each individual is so large that even if they gather in a group, there are not too many people to face at the same time.

It's like a swordsman's battle formation will always be sparser than a spearman, with the former needing space to swing his weapon, while the latter only needs to lunge forward.

"Drink, ——!" has already experienced many battles, and the little young master who is gradually familiar with this tension is holding a waist knife, and the moment the running rock tiger just stands up, he hits its Heavenly Spirit Gai with a simple and standard slash.

"Bang!", the long knife slashed the scalp of the rock tiger and cracked the skull, but the prey was the same tenacious goat, so the rock tiger with a thick head did not kill in one hit. The talisman long knife weighing only 900 grams was still not heavy enough, although it suffered heavy losses, it was not dead, at this time, Narumi behind him immediately used the length of the weapon in his hand to poke down at the rock tiger lying on the ground by him against Yajiro, the samurai leader accurately stabbed it in the back and pressed it to the ground, and on the other side, our Luoan girl immediately turned sideways and twisted her waist at the same time a knife from the side to the side to slash at the neck of the rock tiger.

She slashed in, but the hard bones and strong muscles prevented the knife from being perfect, so Mira immediately stepped on the back of the knife to help, but the knife in her hand slammed into the rock-carved path as she cut off the tiger's head and killed it completely.

"When—" There was a crack in the hard but relatively brittle Japanese long knife, but it was not the time to manage this, because the other rock tiger immediately pounced again.

Joshua, who was more robust and powerful than the two who were still teenagers and girls, heard the sound and discernment, and swung his knife while leaning over, and hit the abdomen with a blow from the longer and heavier knife in his hand, slashing the rock tiger that pounced on him in half, and then went up to knock the upper body of the severed rock tiger into the sides. The half-cut body of the rock tiger that fell heavily to the ground let out a final wail and struggled to lose its breath, while Old Joe on the other side also stabbed a rock tiger that had just climbed up from the side with his waist knife at the same time, and kicked it in the nose while twisting the knife to expand the damage, kicking it back down.

Almost all of the other fighting power is located on this side, and on the other side, it is our Sage and his mighty Kramer who single-handedly stops the rest.

With the five swords of one meter in full force in the open space and his own arm length, Henry's attack range was almost the same as that of the others with short spears. He alone covers all the space, and unlike a spear or axe that only has a sharp point of combat effectiveness, if the unfortunate pole hits the target, it can only inflict damage equivalent to a light blunt weapon or even break himself, the slender and sharp blade of the great sword is a lethal part. Slashing horizontally and vertically, none of the attacking rock tigers could take a sword from him, and they were only seriously injured.

Even the one who took the opportunity to climb up the support pillar next to him and tried to pounce from mid-air was replaced by the sage in the air with a one-handed sword, and with a dashing stroke, he cut it in half from his abdomen, and he himself avoided the gushing red blood and the internal organs of the rock tiger while moving forward, and changed to holding the sword with both hands, and another robe slashed open half of the head of a rock tiger that had just bent down and was about to pounce.

Only the head of the lower jaw was spurted with blood and was kicked open by Henry, he then stabbed the body of the next rock tiger with another sword, and then twisted the big sword like cutting paper from one side, and the tenacious beast still tried to inflict damage with its claws, but the sage relied on the plate armor on his body and directly hit it, and hit it against the body of the last rock tiger behind, and then took advantage of the fact that it was pressed by the corpse of the dead rock tiger, turned the tip of the sword downward, and directly pierced the jaw from the heavenly spirit cover, and twisted it hard, and the beast with bared teeth and fangs rolled its eyes and died of convulsions。

While Henry took out all the beasts like he was chopping melons and vegetables, the others were working together to kill the last rock tiger on the other side.

Smaller than the average tiger, the Rock Tiger is an agile and unexpected lone hunter, but due to its low weight, it lacks the ability to impact and is not like a wolfdog that can cooperate in groups. The numbers did not form a real advantage, so they took the initiative to attack, concentrated the forces of many people, besieged one by one, and chose the right method, and they were able to deal with this whole batch of more than a dozen beasts in a matter of minutes.

"The blood is red. "The girl was keenly aware of the difference between these rock tigers and the strange beasts before them, and although no one was injured and it seemed like a big victory, they also consumed a lot of physical energy. It has consumed part of its physical strength to walk up and down from the mountain and then enter the cave, plus after fighting with the insects, I went back to find reinforcements and came back, because I was in a hurry to save people and couldn't rest well, and many people were already out of breath at this moment.

The tension of the battle makes people feel refreshed, but in fact, when they come out of the narrow passage, they are already fighting with the cold stimulation of peppermint cream. At this time, it was night and the physical exertion had not been replenished, and the smell of rotten eggs that had been lingering since entering the cave was also dizzying, and after the battle was over, Narumi, who was already injured, stumbled and dropped the torch in his hand.

And it didn't matter, the torches that fell to the ground immediately let out a loud roar as if they had provoked some kind of reaction, and a fire burned below this side.

"What's going on?!Is it some kind of demon magic!" The frightened Torotaro directly let go of the short spear in his hand and shouted, while Henry and Miss Doctor, who were more judgmental and knowledgeable, thought that there was some combustible material underneath.

"Maybe it's the oil left over from the past. Aya said this, the raging fire covered the ground, burning the hair of the fallen rock tiger carcass and seemed to have caused damage to something, and a high-pitched scream was heard, which made the hair stand on end, it sounded like a human and higher than a normal human sound.

The strange feeling is only psychological, the air in the cave is already turbid and smelly, and at this moment there is a fire burning, and the feeling of heat and further lack of oxygen makes people almost faint - the correctness of the decision they had just made is now questioned, and they are once again faced with a choice:

Do you go further, or do you withdraw and try to find some more people and try to put out the fire before leaving?

Not to mention whether Ryunosuke's side will help, the great god and Ashigaru who stayed there have to take care of the sick and protect their own belongings and supplies - after all, the other party is a ronin after all - and they can't get out of the way, and if they go back again, it is estimated that they will not be able to come again with this physical exertion.

And according to the current dangerous situation seen inside the cave, the longer the delay, the more unlikely the chance of being dragged in.

Ryunosuke sensed the hesitation and silence of the crowd, and although his personality was very arrogant, he seemed to be extremely active when it came to Ahui.

I don't know whether it was driven by exhaustion and fear or whether it was true - perhaps both, he knelt down, kowtowed his head in a very low posture, and said with tears streaming down his eyes:

"Please, don't go. ”

The successive crises beyond his understanding and the combat effectiveness shown by his group made him realize his own powerlessness. Coupled with the departure of the old medicine master before, despair made him finally let go of the arrogance of the Chinese people, 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 attitude, and this kneeling posture is called the earth seat in Japanese culture, and it is the lowest posture that can be displayed. If he still rejects the other party in this way, then he is already expressing his disdain for the other party who is also a samurai, thinking that even if he is so low-voiced with the status of the other party, it is not enough to be taken seriously by himself.

Henry looked at the others, in addition to agreeing, it was basically acquiescence, after all, everyone has empathy, even if Torotaro has many objections, but the heart of the person he cares about is real.

Frightened, trembling, he didn't dare to come forward to fight, he knew that he couldn't do anything, but he still tried his best to find someone to help rescue him when the other martial arts disciples in his company were fleeing.

"Whew—" Mira looked at her long knife, which had several gaps in her face, and the tip of the knife was broken, and although there were still one-handed knives and small swords available, she was still a little uneasy.

Except for Henry, the weapons of the others were basically wearing out, but they still needed to move on, out of breath.

Time waits for no one, and the already hot summer months are even more unbearable at this moment with the nameless fires burning, so it's important to get out of the area in the first place, either way.