The Lord of the Cave, a title that the group acquiesced to when Narumi said it, seems to have lost his available soldiers, as Henry had speculated. Although there were still a few remnants of the bats, they did not appear for a few minutes after the crowd continued on.

As the heart that "banged" during the fierce battle gradually calmed down, the sequelae of continuous high-intensity battles began to be revealed one by one. Although most of the wounds were only scratches that were not too deep and had been treated, the continuous swing of the sword also caused the muscles in the arm to ache.

The fingers that clenched the weapon too hard were so stiff that it was difficult to let go of them. The muscles of the forearm twitched uncontrollably, because of overconsumption, and even cramped when the knife was retracted and sheathed, and he froze in place and stood holding his breath for a long time.

Not only the Luo An girl, but also Yajiro next to him and even Old Joe. Old Qiao originally wanted to make a joke and say that he was getting older, but when he saw that others were like this, he had to scratch his cheeks and give up.

The muscles and skeletons were screaming, and despite the large number of people sharing the pressure and actually adding up to less than an hour, the creatures they had killed in a row during this time were probably more than most Japanese samurai could not have achieved in their lifetimes.

Constantly moving back and forth, slashing, stabbing, tapping, kicking or pushing away opponents. Although the time is short, the intensity of the exercise is not high. The tension and beating heart that had been in the middle of the battle had obscured it all, but now as it slowly subsided, the unstoppable fatigue made the eyelids start to fight and get heavier and heavier, and the limbs seemed to be tied to heavy lead balls, and every movement required a lifetime of strength.

The most serious is the young master, because he cut the palm of his right hand in order to push away the samurai undead. The wound was not deep but very narrow, and as an important weapon, such an injury was enough to reduce the combat effectiveness even if it did not injure the tendons.

The human hand is a very fragile but important part, it cannot withstand too much damage but cannot be avoided because of the needs of combat. The Rigars, who valued hand defense, invented many types of sturdy hand armor, but their use came at the expense of dexterity and increased weight. Most of the hand armor that mercenaries can afford is simple in structure, combining two or three iron plates together to form a simple protection style, but this kind of hand armor often affects the flexibility of the wrist and the tiger's mouth, which will cause a certain obstacle to the sword.

Wearing them for an unskilled person may actually hinder their movements—for example, if their armor gets stuck in their sword and fails to block—and they die. For this reason, combined with many other reasons such as weight, price, maintenance, and carrying, the vast majority of Rigal adventurers prefer to use the gauntlets on their swords for blocking rather than relying on hand armor.

The West Coast Levy Militia and the Empire's regular infantry on the East Coast generally used improvised hand armor, as their primary weapon as line infantry was a long-pole weapon rather than a sword, which was customary for mercenaries in skirmishes. In large-scale infantry battles, spears and other weapons are often cut off by the opponent's large axes or halberds and heavy chopping weapons along the poles, so the protection of hand armor is more important.

The samurai of Crescent Island had to take care of both riding and shooting bows, so the armor on their hands was lightened like other parts of Japanese armor. The trade-off is that the armor they use can only protect the back of the hand and half of the thumb, making them vulnerable to injury when attacking at close range.

Although Yajiro actually injured his own palm, which is difficult to protect with iron armor, in general, the fact that they were injured this time was still related to the lack of armor protection.

Aside from the huge hybrid beasts, if the attack power of the skeleton soldiers was not replaced, they could actually be completely harmless under the premise that the armor was perfect and heavy. But there are no ifs in this world, and they made the decision to replace them with light equipment, and now they are in this situation again. Instead of spending energy on "assuming a better situation", it is better to try to achieve as good a result as possible with the existing combat effectiveness.

Henry took note of the fatigue of the others, and as they continued on, the veins seemed to be more concentrated, and the roads began to merge, and they turned to the terrain of the deep valley carved into the side of the cave wall. With only one side to defend against possible enemies and the fact that the crowd was a little exhausted, the Sage changed the formation of his team.

He and Joshua, who were relatively well preserved and were at the peak of their team's combat effectiveness, pulled a little distance in front, while Galeva, an empty and powerful stunned young man, cooperated with the experienced Narumi to defend against flank and tail attacks. The rest of the relatively tired people are stuck against the wall in the middle, not on the front line of the battle, and they are warm and energetic.

In addition, the whole team slowed down, and although Torotaro showed great dissatisfaction with this, he had to bow his head and stop saying nothing after the sage said, "You can run and see for yourself."

No matter how self-centered and self-centered, he can still realize his powerlessness. It is said that people from samurai families will have some changes in their hearts after the battle, but compared to the samurai of the Qingtian family who were born in the more chaotic domain, perhaps the samurai children of the major states under the command of Shinkyo are more deserted than imagined.

The country has not been at war for too long, too long. The overly large samurai population consumes a lot of resources, and Shinkyo seems to have a large group of samurai, but in fact, as seen along the way south, how much combat power can be exerted is erratic.

The Chinese in power were more focused on political struggle and factional unity, and they inevitably moved towards civilianization. And although the nobles theoretically needed to hone their skills day and night, most of the upper nobles also let them go with the flow in the absence of a visible threat.

Just like the management of the territory, the military power belongs to Xinjing after all, and what you have trained hard is your own strength, but the army you have cultivated is not nominally owned by you.

So not many governors or prefectural governors would be willing to put in such a big effort - there may be examples like Ryunosuke, but his presence is actually very embarrassing.

If Xinjing does not issue a directive and there is no imminent threat nearby, and the local Chinese expend manpower and material resources to strictly train the army, in this case, Xinjing will not only not be grateful, but may suspect that you have the intention to rebel.

Because the emperor is far away, even if it nominally belongs to Xinjing, it is the local leader who pays and communicates with him every day. Many samurai were nominally loyal to the emperor but in fact had a high level of loyalty to the local Chinese, which led to the question of whether these people would be loyal to Shinkyo or choose to follow the Chinese if they had rebellious intentions.

After Ryunosuke left office, he took a large number of people with him, and these people would rather become ostracized ronins than follow the original prefectural order. In fact, this can be regarded as a suspicion of raising troops to rebel, but they call themselves ronin, and they justify themselves as "temporarily unable to find loyal Chinese" and fool the past, without clearly rebelling and having a certain combat effectiveness, so the local Chinese people also turn a blind eye and let them be in this gray field.

Combining this series of factors, a person like Torotaro, who is a noble son of a samurai family but actually has a worrisome combat effectiveness, was also born in this environment.

People are afraid of being famous, pigs are afraid of being strong, and inactive waste is not only happy to live freely, but also to live a long time.

So as soon as they arrived in Zhangzhou, the heavily armed Qingtian family warriors were ridiculed for watching too much of "The Legend of Wu Yong" and treating themselves as heroes hundreds of years ago.

The only fighting power that can be counted on is the samurai of the Aota family who accompany them all the way from the domain, and Torotaro may be considered brave compared to his companions who stayed in place, at least he still has the courage to enter.

But this is already the result of his best efforts. Yajiro and the other samurai of the Aota clan from the domain lacked only experience, and they had a good physical foundation after rich and rigorous training. And the appearance of Torataro's fine skin and tender flesh makes people very suspicious that he will sprain himself because of his lack of strength when he wields a knife.

To some extent, if it is really a last resort, perhaps Miss Doctor, who is a head shorter than Torotaro, is an object that can be relied on.

Although she has no strength and no training, she has great mobility and a strong will.

- Words go back to the original place.

After walking a little further, the group gradually realized that this was a spiral road carved into the mountain wall. Judging from the fact that there were no other forks in the area that could be illuminated by the firelight, this was probably the bottom of the mine.

It was the Mithril or Gold Mine that formed vertical and branching veins here that made this way of excavation, and the ground here was very vast, but just as the group was about to move on, Joshua in front of him raised his fist.

"Something isn't quite right. He couldn't tell why, but his keen senses sensed something.

The weary people of the Honjin kept applying mint cream in an attempt to beat their spirits, perhaps because the rich smell masked the smell around them - but Henry was unaffected.

"......" the sage frowned, the rancid smell at the bottom of the cave was like substance, he lowered the torch and moved closer, and suddenly a small flame was lit with a "snort!" The sage burned out quickly, not as raging as the Narumi torch had fallen before.

"This—" The moment the large flame ignited, the surrounding stench like mist was also illuminated, and the end of the walkway was already overwhelmed by the drifting mist, which at first glance looked thick and about a meter high.

"Whew—whew—" The sage tried to wave the torch again, but the currents only sent the mist back and forth without igniting.

"It seems like you have to get very close to light it. He said this, and Miss Doctor slipped out of the protective ring, and she reached out to grab it, then rubbed it with her fingertips to feel the wetness.

"It's supposed to be something that can be burned, but because it's at the bottom of the cave, it's very humid, and the heat causes fog to form. Combustibles are mixed with water, which is very high in moisture, making it relatively difficult to ignite. Aya analyzed: "Just in case, it's better to raise the torch high." ”

She said this, and the girl looked at the sage and stopped.

"I wonder if magic can it. Mira apparently tried to use her previous lighting magic again if the torches were risky, but the sage shrugged, "Then you should let it go." ”

"Bad sir. Magic is tied to energy, and Henry, who knew she was too tired to say such things, made Mira roll of the eyes, but Miss Loan continued, "I'm thinking, that black one." ”

She didn't finish because she knew her teacher would understand.

"No, not yet. He shook his head: "Not everyone can take advantage of it. ”

Mira was silent, her knowledge of magic and magic was still relatively limited, but looking at her tired companions around her, and perhaps a hint of wanting to prove herself, she still wondered if she could do more.

"Keep walking. "But there's not much time to think about it right now. After handing the torches to the taller members of the group and lifting them in a tiring position to avoid igniting the mist and setting themselves on fire, the group walked down the road.

They had just stepped into the huge surface at the bottom of the mist-filled cavern, and several free tentacles began to approach the group under the cover of the thick fog.

"Get ready for the fight. The stout tentacles could not be silent, and the group that immediately noticed the movement drew their weapons again.

The muscles of their forearms were sore and their fingers were stiff, and they tried to relax, but they couldn't change the fact that they couldn't exert as much as they had before.