The dark swampy jungle smelled of mildew everywhere, and countless trees grew twisted and grown, like huge arms struggling desperately, pushing their canopies high and competing with their own kind for the little sunlight left at the top of the dense forest. The python-like vines were so tight that the sight of them suffocated at the sight of the tall trees. Countless poisonous insects and beasts lurk in the depths of the forest, launching deadly attacks on every outsider who invades their territory. Every step on the surface of the mud churning with rotting bubbles could be a deadly trap, and the mud pools were like greedy mouths, eager to devour every body that fell into them—not even the bones would spit out half of them.

In such a treacherous jungle, even any living person who walks out can proudly claim to be a "survivor", and we still trude forward without stopping, struggling and slowing towards a valley between two peaks.

This valley is the gateway to the Gravel Fortress and the first goal of our adventure. The group of Rotten Ones who cut off the road that Major Gutierrez spoke of is entrenched here, and we have no choice but to accept the request of Chief Hondos to help him complete the task of "destroying the Rotten strongholds" first.

The conditions of the mission are twofold: first, kill the leader of the beast bones and skeletons in the valley, "Ghoul the Eater" Falk; Second, to ensure that the Hondos chieftain is not killed by the corrupt.

In my opinion, these two conditions are simply contradictory.

Yes. These beast bones and skeletons in the valley are indeed not easy to deal with, but with the fighting ability of the five of us, it is not too difficult to eliminate them all. However, because of the presence of this Greenskin Chieftain, I feel that the difficulty of this task has simply increased exponentially.

"Be careful, there are eight skeletons ahead......" Nocturne in B flat minor waved his hand for us to stop, and he pointed to the two closest to us and said to Ding Dingxiaoge. …… Warlock, use the Shadow Arrow to lure the first two over, be careful not to attract too much, I'll attack everyone. The warrior is ready to go to the top, the paladin ......"

Very good plan, if everything does what the bard said, it won't take three minutes. We can completely scatter and destroy these eight corrupt ones and kill them all. But......

"Oh, this is not yours, go back to where you are supposed to be!"

A rough shout shattered Nocturne's ingenious plan. Then we could only watch as the half-orc chieftain, who was wearing only a bucket skirt from top to bottom, screamed and threw himself into the pile of skeletons, and then succeeded in getting himself surrounded by eight beast skeletons as quickly as he could.

In this grim situation, the orc's brave and belligerent bloodline erupted in the body of Chief Hondos. In the siege of the Beast Bone Skeleton. His Excellency had no fear. He shouted at the robbers who had invaded his homeland and driven his tribe from their homes. On the one hand, he launched a complete counterattack, showing his heroism and martial bravery in a pure and wild way.

He struck a ......

…… Left straight punch?!

It seems that I have greatly underestimated the rough and wild traditional culture of the orc race. Under the ferocious assault of these skeleton bandits. Instead of using a weapon to rely on or powerful magic, the chief of Hondos swung out a pair of fists the size of a sand bowl and smashed them into the enemy in front of him with extraordinary bravery, producing a stunningly brilliant result:

“-2-3-3-4-2-5-2……”

A long string of bright red single digits floated high above the Chief's "Iron Fist" skull, and he lost seven lives at most - and this was the result of a critical hit - which was a very encouraging feat.

Please, Lord Hondos, you are also a forty-eighth-level high-level shaman, can't you fight with the same skill as a sapient being?

I wonder if the green-skinned chief felt the complaint in my heart, but as soon as I thought about it, he made a rare use of his magic skills—he had added more than two hundred lives to himself with the spell of "Soul Blessing", which was probably the only skill he had ever understood and applied magic, and then he swung his fists at his foe again in vain.

"What is this bastard doing? Who does he think he is? Is boxing champion Tyson? Seeing that his plan had gone to waste, Nocturne in B flat minor looked viciously at the back of Chief Hondos and gritted his teeth.

Boxing champion Tyson? Is it a high-ranking warrior monk in which temple?

"Tyson, the boxing champion, is much better than him......" Ding Ding Xiaoge's face was full of disdain, "...... He won't even bite his ear ......"

"Now that I know why I'm asking you for help with this mission, right?" Niu Wanwan said bitterly, "I've been killed by him three times here." ”

Complaining is complaining, and in order to complete the task, we must not watch the chief of Hondos being dismembered in front of us by a group of beast bones and skeletons.

"Paladins and druids, don't worry about anything, give the chief life with all your might!" Nocturne in B-flat minor commands loudly, "...... The Warlock first uses the 'Mist of Weakness' to reduce the Skeleton's attack and then summons the Servant Demon to the Warrior, and the Samurai goes up to draw as many skeletons as possible......"

After assigning their respective tasks, the Confucian Bard drew his short sword and rushed forward, and at the same time a desolate war song sounded from his mouth:

"Are you hungry ~ panic ~ hey, hey, if you are hungry ...... panic"

Niu Million was about to release the healing wave magic to the chief of Hondos, when he heard this war song after just a few syllables, and was immediately choked and coughed:

"Uh...... Ahem, little song, you can't put one on it

The Battle Song? ”

Ding Ding Xiaoge just released a "fog of weakness", and when he heard Niu Million's emotion, he immediately rolled his eyes at him disdainfully:

"Don't you think this is already his most normal war song......

This is a "Song of Activity", which can significantly increase the recovery speed of nearby comrades' health, mana, fighting spirit, and other attributes.

I don't know why this warsong, which at first glance sounds quite appetizing, would have such a wonderful effect. But I soon figured it out:

If a person has a strong appetite, the speed of the body's metabolism will probably increase.

It's not a good idea for us to use this kind of war song at this time - our battle has just begun, and there is no loss of vitality, mana, or fighting energy, and using this restorative war song now actually doesn't help us at all.

However, the object of this war song is not really us, but the besieged chieftain of Hondos. His foolish recklessness quickly paid him the price—the combined attack of eight beast bones and skeletons was not so easy to resist, only for a short moment. Chief Hondos' health is less than a third of his health and is still decreasing at an alarming rate. At a time like this, it would be a great success for us to be able to restore a little more life to this reckless orc.

The same applies to the "Mist of Weakness" spell: it greatly reduces the attack power of enemies within the range of the Mist, effectively slowing down the health reduction of Chief Hondos. Bought us time to rescue.

Niu Million and the Fairy Descend did not waste this precious time, and they scrambled to throw all kinds of recovery spells onto the head of the boxing flow orc shaman. Divine magic and natural magic came one after another, reflecting the old face of the Chieftain of Hondos half white and half green. In the interplay of these two bleak rays of light, the health of the Hondos Emirate finally began to bottom out and turn a profit.

A tall skeleton swings its battle axe. Trying to sneak up on the orc chieftain from behind. But he didn't succeed, and a long sword that shone green and poisonous stopped in front of him, and parried his attack in time. Immediately after, the long sword jumped nimbly. Before he could react, it swept heavily over his ribs. More than eighty-four points of life force flew out of his skeleton body, and he opened his mouth wide in anger and made a "click, click" sound. I turned all my attention to the warrior on the other side of my body, holding a shield in my left hand and a sword in my right hand—me!

I'm not interested in getting tangled up with him. Turning his face, he slashed at each of the three skeletons' backs. Then he retreated far away. I'm not worried at all that I'm going to be able to attract these four skeleton monsters - with the principle of prioritizing attacks on the most damaging enemies, my slash will obviously do more damage. If the chief of Hondos wanted to keep these skeletons with two fists. I'm afraid I'm going to have to work hard for a while.

The four skeletons of the beast bones that I had attacked immediately abandoned their original targets and chased after me with their battle axes. It was only then that I had the first chance to get a closer look at my opponents.

Compared to the skeleton-type monsters we've seen before, the "Beast Bone Skeleton" here looks very different. They were all undead warriors of about level 50, with thick and hard bones, a somewhat rickety back, a slightly flattened forehead of their skulls, but a very prominent jaw, and two particularly thick teeth exposed from the jawbone. They are all armed with heavy tomahawks with missing blades, and their fighting style is very rough and fierce.

I knew it would be hard work to fight four monsters of my rank at the same time, but the danger of this battle was beyond my expectations. Holding my shield in my heart, I flicked off a tomahawk that had struck me in the left chest, and my right sword swept across the thigh of a skeleton. His bare leg bones were hard and slippery, and the force of the long sword slashing on them was so hard that I felt a very reluctant touch from the hilt, and then I saw that the skeleton monster's vitality had only suffered a faint loss of sixty points.

Fighting these skeleton monsters, my weapons are really at a loss. There are many piercing-based attacks in the longsword skill, but skeletons are almost completely immune to piercing attacks; The main additional attribute of my "Rattlesnake's Wind Splitter" is toxin damage, but these rotten people have quite high resistance to toxins.

At this moment, I even miss my own saber "Red Mountain Ripper" from a long time ago, although its level is not high, and its various attributes are also very low, but the jagged blade that can deal tear damage is simply the world of these skeletons. Whenever the attack is successful. The feeling of being cut down with a big saw always gives me a refreshing touch, and this is the thrill of battle that this sword can never bring me now.

As I silently complained about the weakness of my weapon, a sharp pain came from my back. I only felt as if my flesh was being torn apart by a pair of hard palms, and even a strong pain was churning outward from every sweat pore.

"Ah......h The battle axe in his hand was already rusty, but now it was dripping with blood.

The pain didn't overwhelm me, it made me more sober. My mission is not to destroy these four skeletons alone. Instead, I must try to contain them, so that my comrades can destroy the remaining four as soon as possible, and ensure the safety of the Hondos Chieftain. The longer I hold out, the smoother their fight will be. The sooner they will come to my aid.

After figuring out this truth, I struggled to take another blow in the chest

I poured a large bottle of "Concentrated Life Essence" into my mouth, and I cheered up my spirits with a mouth full of garlic flavor.

Returning to the warband, I became more cautious and conservative, focusing more on defense, shielding my whole body from vital points. And there is no rush to take the initiative. While none of the four skeletons were fatally damaged, they struggled to find an opportunity to inflict heavy damage on me. In this way, our battle has reached a stalemate. No one can knock out the enemy in a short time.

If it goes on like this. The situation will be more and more favorable to me. And I carry a lot of advanced life potions with me. With their help, even if it's just me. is also fully capable of slowly wearing down the four fierce monsters in front of him.

However, the danger of fighting lies precisely in those seemingly safe moments. In the fight between life and death, the slightest negligence can cause a fatal mistake.

At this point, I made a mistake!

A terrible mistake!

As the battle reached a stalemate, the magical fog that hung around us thinned out. As this layer of demonic fog dissipated, the battle axes of these "beast bones and skeletons" became as heavy as a blow. Every time my shield resisted the oncoming tomahawk, it was like catching a meteorite that fell in the air, and the tremendous impact shook my arm and I retreated. My defense against these tomahawk strikes is getting weaker and weaker, and even when I use defensive skills, my health is always reduced by tens or even hundreds. Before I knew it, the strong onslaught of these skeleton monsters had upset the balance, and I could no longer make up for the loss of life with potions alone.

"Mist of Weakness" is Ding Ding Xiaoge's "Mist of Weakness", this spell has exceeded the time limit and cannot reduce the enemy's destructive power.

The scales of victory had gradually tilted in favor of the four hideous-looking white bone monsters in front of me, and the only thing I could do was to hold on.

Just when I was about to lose my support, a green figure with a top body ** and muscles suddenly rushed in front of me from the oblique stab, and a wild combination of punches landed on the head of a skeleton, hitting his jaw "lala" and sounding as if it was about to fall. In the end, the green figure, apparently carried away by the frenzy of the battle, jerked its forehead forward, slammed into the skull's sleek skull, and ......

A red number "-15" floated up from him~, and he immediately fell into a brief coma......

This is the first time I've seen someone knock themselves out when they "head hammer" someone attacking someone. It turns out that even the solid head of the orc chieftain Hondos is no harder than a bare skeletal skull.

My heart was relieved - saved!

I certainly didn't feel safe because of the presence of Chief Hondos. With this guy's average lethality of three lives per punch, by the time he kills all four skeletons, I'm afraid I'll already be the fifth skeleton monster.

However, his presence is a signal: the other four beast bones and skeletons have been eliminated, otherwise he would not have gone far to challenge the enemies around me.

Since he is here, will my comrades-in-arms be far away?

Sure enough, a warm healing wave shone on my tired body, injecting me with new vitality.

An ancient and majestic war song sounded, stirring my chest and greatly increasing my attack power: "Little cabbage...... Leaf yellow, ah......"

A flash of green magic light struck a skeleton to my left, and several thick rattans suddenly leapt out of the ground and wrapped tightly around the skeleton's anklebone, preventing him from taking another step. Then, a beastly roar shook the jungle, and a huge black bear ran out from behind me, swinging a pair of huge bear paws and slamming it down on the skeleton's body.

A palpitating black shadow struck forward from the right rear, knocking out more than one hundred and twenty points of the life of the other beast bone skeleton. Immediately after, an otherworldly demon with black heavy armor on its upper body, blue fangs, a thick mace, and its lower body shrouded in a black mist, and no legs and feet came out and entangled with the skeleton.

The two remaining skeletons are no longer a threat to me. I immediately switched from defense to offense, wielding the sword in my hand and slashing at it. Slash, Slash, Storm Strike...... I no longer spared my fighting spirit, and ruthlessly applied one powerful attack skill after another to these two monsters. The sword grinded against the bones with a piercing grinding sound, like the frightened moans of the two skeleton monsters......

"you!" I retracted my sword and kicked it out, kicking the last skeleton into a pile of broken bones. This is the end of our first encounter with these Rotten.

I looked down to pick up the loot that had fallen from the monster and looked back at my comrades. Although we didn't suffer any casualties in this battle, now that their vitality has been halved or their mana has bottomed out, it is conceivable that the battle they just had just now will not be easy.

"Take medicine for those who should take medicine, drink water for those who should drink water, let's hurry up and rest before leaving." Nocturne in B flat minor sits on a stone and takes out a "croissant" from the quilt to increase vitality, reminding us of the Tao. He shoved the bread into his mouth and took a bite......

"Well, this is not yours, go back to where you are supposed to go......"

A rough and heroic shout came from not far ahead.

"***......" The bard looked ahead blankly, and let out a faint scolding sound from his mouth stuffed with bread, and the bread crumbs sprayed all over the ground......