The old proverb "know yourself and know your opponent to win all battles", although it usually refers to the strategic level of the pre-investigation of the enemy army to specify a target, but it is still correct when applied to squad tactics and even individual combat.

The vast majority of human sword skills, and even other combat techniques, have been developed and honed with their own kind as imaginary enemies: there are a variety of skills for different weapon users, and there are still one thing in common: imaginary enemies are often humanoid opponents who are able to fight upright on all fours. Blocking grapples and exploiting weaknesses in the body's joints to attack – such skills have been honed for thousands of years.

But how can we be flexible in the face of enemies other than humans?

- Tentacles don't have limbs, and humanoid enemies with limbs can attack from all directions, such as the "m" shape in the Japanese script, and you need to resist vertical up and down, left and right horizontally, and at various angles, but this is not the case with enemies without limbs.

Their attacks are more vertical like the Raman number "I" with no other variations, but that doesn't mean they're any less difficult to deal with, as human opponents can't freely lie down and stand up and down — or you'll have an easier time killing them if someone does — while tentacles can freely rise and fall on the vertical axis, striking the ankles and calves and crotch to attack from undetectable positions.

So how to deal with this kind of training that is not the target of the past training - the sage speaks at this time, and the crowd listens attentively: "Aim at the center of gravity, get close to your companion, and several will come together." ”

Time was of the essence, and the language needed to be as concise and straightforward as possible. Henry's summary of several points may sound a little vague to the ears of laymen like Aya and Kaleva, but as a person with formal training, the exhausted main force of the team immediately realized the key to dealing with it under his prompting-

In swordsman fighting, the footwork of the feet is even more crucial than the kung fu of wielding the sword in the hand. If the center of gravity is broken and falls to the ground, it will be slaughtered like meat on a chopping board. The tentacles of the Cave Master, while terrifying and unusual, cannot be lifted into the air for no reason. Like a snake, no matter what height it intends to attack from, if it wants to stand up its front body, it must have a fulcrum that touches the ground.

- In other words, the moment the tentacle attacks, it stands on the ground to support the center of gravity of the front half of the body.

It doesn't move.

"Neutral guard, circular formation!" Narumi ordered, holding his torch aloft, and all the forwards, including the Luoan girl, temporarily placed their short spears on the ground and picked up their swords.

All of them took a defensive stance of holding their swords in both hands, lowering their center of gravity and lowering their weapons, and under the light of the torches, the glittering slender blades that stretched out from the periphery of the circular defensive array from above were like the lancets of the Nether Flower Seed, which is unique to the Moon Country.

"Shhh

The group with serious loss of physical strength took a circular defensive formation to properly prevent the opponent's attack intention, and the circular formation with companions on the left, right and rear allowed the swordsman not to worry about the tentacles attacking from other angles, and only needed to take care of the part in front of him.

Reduce the pressure on the defense, avoid excessive consumption of large movements, and avoid the possibility of being broken one by one. Remaining in the center of the formation, Kaleva and Lulu were instructed by Narumi to maneuver back and forth to fill the gap: if someone in any corner of the circle was overstressed, they would fill it as a reserve to assist.

"It's coming!" "There are no tricks or false shots, and in the face of the posture adopted by the group, the cave master, whether or not he has the intelligence of the same level as humans, can only try to crush their formation with saturation attacks.

But it's definitely not going to be easy.

Exhausted and his weapons broken, many of them have made great strides in their spirits after a series of bloody battles - the young master has clearly become decisive in his killing, and he will continue to fight even if he is injured even if he is injured. After years of martial arts, he really became a part of his body for the first time.

"Kill!" The three stout tentacles that were like snakes were flying together and attacked the group, and the one close to Mira and Yajiro stood up directly and pounced towards the head of the Luoan girl, but she ignored it, because she knew that the real killer below was the real killer, so one leaned over and swung a knife directly at the other two with a feint.

"Boom-poof——!" Mira managed to slash the huge head of one of the tentacles, but the long-waisted knife full of gaps failed to cut it off due to a serious loss of sharpness. The tentacles immediately began to retract towards the thick fog, and she quickly thought that there was no other way, so she had to pull out the knife, and the stinking tentacles of transparent body fluids spilled out with a trace of black, and quickly drained in the air, and the Luo An girl who withdrew the knife immediately cooperated with Yajiro, who forced back the tentacle that stood up with a vertical slash on the other side, and easily gave this extremely eye-catching target a horizontal slash.

"Snap ——!" The tentacles with thick human heads have no bones, so they are full of strong tendons, and the long knife that has been scarred has been cut in half, and this fierce thing actually directly opened its head full of fangs, intending to bite the knife-holding hands of the Luoan girl, she could only give up the weapon and immediately retreated, and then pulled out the Suomir war knife of Kaleva as a spare weapon.

"Hiss——!" The tentacle that withdrew some distance made a gesture that made the visible person's hair stand upside down at the maximum range that the torch light could reach—it used its flexible body to bend down? Then, the big mouth full of fangs dripped saliva and bit the waist knife that was still stuck on his body, and then pulled it out and threw it on the ground.

"When the boom buzzes—" The sound of metal colliding with long knives falling on the mottled stone ground? But Miss Luoan didn't want to recycle it at all.

"It's a trap. Yajiro next to him clutched his knife and said.

"yes? Extremely cunning. Sweat dripped down little by little, and the Luoan girl stared at the dense fog in front of her without moving.

Lost a knife? Only two tentacles were severely injured. This is the result of the defense on their side, and the other corners are not much better. Only the sage and the red-haired swordsman, who were the most skilled in swordsmanship, each severed a tentacle, and the others only dealt damage and repelled each other.

"What do you think, sir, you want to lure us deeper and break them down one by one?" asked the pale-faced Narumi panting slightly. Is this the end of it? Although the lord of the cave is not human, he has the wisdom of a human being, and there is no need to doubt it. Therefore, the samurai leader directly applied the thinking of the art of war to reverse the deduction.

"If that's the case, it's better to concentrate on attacking from one direction? In this case, in order to strengthen the response force in this direction, our formation will inevitably change. The sage replied without looking back.

"Again—" Joshua interrupted their discussion with a word, but this time the tentacles that quickly appeared were more cautious than before? They didn't even get close to the range of Henry's party, just wandering around the end of the light that the torches could reach.

"Tsk? The attack distance was figured out, cunning brute. "The once gentle Narumi, a samurai, has become relatively straightforward after fighting? Did he judge this? And the sage frowned, he looked down? It is found that the part of the tentacle that had been cut off by himself and Joshua is missing.

"Was the feint just to recover the severed parts? Old Joe, who was standing next to the sage, also noticed this, especially the one that was cut off by Henry? Because the attack distance of the big sword is matched with the height of the sage and the length of the arm, it is directly cut off by the waist. Such a big target disappeared in an instant, even if the ground was full of fog, the tentacles more than a meter thick with a human head were still not easy to lose.

"Recycling?" Aya's ears pricked up, she keenly noticed the word, combined with the fact that the earth spider, hundred-legged and human-faced bird she had killed before had disappeared after going up and down the mountain, and what she had seen in the past in the domain—

Almost in unison, Miss Doctor made the same judgment as the Sage: "It's stalling for time." ”

"If you want us to break our formation one by one after being disrupted, we should concentrate our forces in one direction, and this kind of attack from all directions and the injury will immediately retreat, proving that the purpose is not to cause damage at all. ”

"It wants us to stop here, these tentacles are just stalling for time. The sage held the great sword in one hand and reached back with the other.

"Huh?" Galeva, who was holding a large pile of torches, was stunned, and Henry slapped him with the back of his hand, pointing at the torch in his hand without looking.

"Ahh

"Woo-hoo-hoo-" At Henry's struggle, the torch that spun out made a high arc to illuminate the entire bottom of the towering cavern, and bounced off the other side of the mountain wall before it fell, and the group could see the huge and strange giant that was squirming like a mountain of flesh that was spilling a little bit of thick fog.

"Gash-" Lulu covered her mouth and lowered her head. The behemoth illuminated by the firelight in an instant had a folded belly that seemed to be magnified dozens of times by hundreds of pounds of fat, and the miserable white skin piled up on the ground was covered with thick cyan blood vessels, and they kept agitating to deliver nutrients to the plump and bulging structure like a warbler millet room above.

2k

The light of the torch that fell to the ground provoked a dramatic reaction, its transparent skin became translucent as if in response to the light, and a black silhouette of the plump ovary curled up in amniotic fluid like a baby's legs was glimpsed.

Although the "Snap ——!" was immediately destroyed, the brief moment before that was still enough to see the true face.

"It's so dark, like some kind of carapace. Mira said.

"This physique, like a ghost clan—" And Narumi, who had roughly estimated the size with his eyes, was drenched in a cold sweat.

"There are three heads. "The sage with the best eyesight accurately counted the number of targets before the shimmer of the ovary was extinguished.

"The smell is getting stronger. "Time passed little by little, and the smell of rotten eggs around me could no longer be concealed by the mint cream, which did seem to have something to do with some kind of process.

"Take the initiative. "Aware of the opponent's intentions, the tactics must be changed immediately.

"Joshua and I went first, and the others followed in close formation. As he spoke, the sage joined the red-haired swordsman who nodded and struck directly at the tentacles in front of him, and the Lord of the Cave, who seemed to realize that his purpose had been revealed after the torch was thrown, directly summoned all the tentacles to stop in front of them—which was clearly what they wanted.

"I'm afraid you won't be focused. The tacit understanding between the top swordsmen was silent, and the red-haired swordsman lowered his posture while the sage slashed horizontally at a high position and a large angle.

The two phases combined with a wrong body, like sharp giant scissors, directly cut the tentacles that were transferred and intercepted in front of them into three sections.

——!The tentacles splattered with bodily fluids disappeared directly into the cavern on the ground, and it was clear that the master of the cave, whose body resembled a huge succulent plant, had already dug his roots deep into the ore.

"Be careful with the ground. Henry squinted and glanced at the ground, his feet grinding back and forth to make a "rustling" sound, obviously this piece was looser than the nearby stone near the walkway, and the other side of the walkway was harder and difficult to drill, which should be the reason why the tentacles would drill out first and then get closer to them.

But when they get closer to the Lord of the Cave, they can come out of the hole dug in the ground and attack.

After a brief reminder, Henry and Joshua then rushed forward, severing several tentacles in the process, and when the followers came, Aya sniffed her nose and turned her head to the others, saying, "If you have any extra candles, cut a piece and throw it in." ”

She said this, but after burning for nearly an hour, in fact most of the supplies were consumed, at which point our Roan Maiden quickly opened the lid of the lantern, and then took the one-handed knife under her armpit, pulled out the knife, and sharpened a small piece of the burning wick.

"That's enough. Enduring the feeling of burning her hands, after Aya nodded, she threw it directly into the cave drilled out of her tentacles, and then kept shaking her fingers to try to cool down, and it was also at this moment that all the caves on the ground suddenly "——!snorted" and burst into flames.

"Ahhh

"It seems that the reaction to the burn is the same. The girl Luo'an, who shook her fingers a little unconscious, said, and then grabbed the knife and approached behind the two Henry in front of her with the others.

The moment of confluence, the huge Roshan illuminated again made many people feel the urge to vomit, and the twisted thing was more of some strange device than a living thing—the huge curved ribs of unknown creature bloomed high like petals, and the huge Roshan weighing several tons piled up on the mud floor was piled up like vomited internal organs.

It obviously has certain features — but it's not something that you have time to explore and think about —

"Ahui, Ahui!" said Torotaro, who was already at the bottom of the mine, but there were no living people to be seen from the captives.

“...... There were a few people who were arrested. Henry grabbed Torotaro's shoulder, and the pale face of the samurai family thought in a panic for a long time: "Three-"

"Ahh

"Do something, please, do something, whatever it wants!" Torotaro shouted almost in a crying voice, and the sage grabbed him by the collar and put him behind. The Lord of the Cave did seem to be running out of soldiers, and even his tentacles were so damaged that he didn't react even if he let the uninvited guests stand in front of him—and the Sage only watched for a moment, then raised his sword.

"You all stand back. He said.

Everyone understood what Henry was trying to do, and he aimed at the huge cyan veins that supplied blood to the ovary along the surface of his skin, and slashed down with his sword without hesitation.

"Ahhh——!!h A large pile of impurities and a foul-smelling black liquid poured down like a broken clay pot, and Henry was quick to dodge, but the others would have been too late to avoid it without warning.

The black liquid struggled on the ground as if alive and finally fell silent, and what flowed out of it were various biological organs - feathers and carapaces in addition to viscera, apparently the same creatures they had killed before.

"Whoa—nausea—" After running all the way to this point, I finally couldn't bear it, and several people, including Miss Luo'an, vomited under the stench and exhaustion, as well as the devastation of all this in front of them.

"It worked. "After the blood vessel-like part was cut off, the ovary above immediately dimmed and gradually shrank like a withered petal, and the petal-like gap collapsed and flowed out, and the part inside that was like amniotic fluid and egg white exuded the smell of rotten eggs that I had been smelling all along, and it was about to fall off Roshan's body as if it were crumbling.

"Is it Ah Hui? ”

"You can't see it when it falls. Henry ignored Torotaro and was about to repeat the work, when the whole Roshan suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar and then moved.

"Pop ——!", one of the flower-like ovary parts exploded directly, and the embryo inside fell to the ground, and then as the ground shook, a tentacle larger than before burst out of the ground.

"Ahhhh Miss Doctor, who was too slow to react, was picked up by Kaleva and rushed to the side.

——!!The short spear and the shield of Kaleva left on the ground were directly smashed, and the group that lost part of their weapons and large shields were also separated by tentacles.

"It canceled the cultivation of the other end and focused on only getting one!" Aya, who was picked up by Kaleva's waist, reminded loudly, and Henry and Joshua, who reacted immediately, attacked without hesitation.

"When !!—— dong ——!!!"

"What—the ghost—" The red-haired swordsman blurted out in confusion at the tingling sensation on the other side, and Kramer on the other side failed to deal the same powerful damage as before.

"It's Mithril—" Sparks flew, and in that moment the sage accurately judged the metal material that had been dented by him on the surface of the last tentacle. The rebound of the real slash on the metal caused the two most skilled swordsmen in the team to take a few steps back, and when the others raised their torches again, the tentacles that resembled the main stem of a flower were finally revealed.

It protected the last ovary, but even without the humanoid creature that was about to take shape like a ghost race, the tentacles in front of it that looked like a giant armored worm were difficult enough to deal with.

"This is supposed to be the main body, and the back part is just for cultivation, like the queen ant. Aya was still able to keep her composure, she observed.

"It's weird, this cold iron plate is fastened with nails, as if some intelligent creature had put it on. Old Joe noticed the strangeness of the tentacles with mottled armor plates all over his body, while Narumi looked at its scarred head that looked like a human but had several rows of teeth.

"It's a broken arrow, and a lot of scars. Yajiro stared at the tentacles that stood up more than three meters tall and firmly guarded the tentacles in front of the last ovary, constantly letting out a "hissing" roar to intimidate the group.

"Sure enough, the Earth Spider Clan and the vassal kings who used to be here used this thing as their opponents, but how to solve it. "The other side clearly intends to wait for the cultivation of the living force to complete, which gives them a chance to breathe, but this break comes at the cost of every minute and every second that the probability of victory becomes more and more slim.

"Get it for me. Both Henry and Joshua returned to the group, and the group joined again, and the sage handed Kramer his hand to his disciple.

"Teacher?" said Mira, holding the great sword that she now wielded with the strength she had, a little puzzled.

"Mithril is fire-resistant, and there isn't much fuel, and it's hard to get through the mouth, so there's no way. He pulled out his dagger, and the runes on his body lit up.

"Bang-" The tall body of the sage who jumped up exceeded the limit of what the giant tentacles could capture, and when the other party raised his head and opened his mouth to bite him, the sage fell, and then grabbed the end of the jaw of the giant tentacle with one hand as a fulcrum to adjust his body.

"Click!!" The moment the heavy, powerful jaw closed, the splatter made a dull sound, but by this time Henry had let go of his hand and slid down its entire vertically erected body, and then he grabbed the slight bulge on the edge of the Mithril plate with his hand, and took advantage of the moment the other party erected his body to tilt the dagger down through the gap.

"Whew—" He let go of his hand after taking a deep breath, and then clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it into the end of the dagger.

"Ahhhh

"Smack-" The whole piece of flesh was stirred by the shaking of the tentacle itself, and the moment the surface of the Mithril plate was loosened, Henry grabbed the edge, curled up, and then twisted his waist upside down, and stepped on the side of the tentacle head down.

He grabbed the dagger in one hand, stretched the armor plate open with the other, and then kicked his legs the giant tentacle.

"Tear the ——!" "Woo-" The scene that made the group feel extremely painful was staged in this way, about 90 centimeters long and 50 centimeters wide arc armor plates stuck to the skin of the tentacle monster and the muscles underneath were directly torn off, blood splashed, and it began to struggle hard because of the great pain, and the gap had been broken, Henry did not bother to go back to get Kramer, but directly took the dagger that had been bent after rough use and stabbed it directly into his arm.

"Poof. ”

The center, which was protected by armor plates and layers of muscles, was accurately destroyed by the damaged but still sharp dagger, like a puppet with a broken string, and the tentacles that were still struggling violently froze directly, and then fell to the ground with a bang as the sage drew his arm.

"Bang ————!!!" Blood and bodily fluids covered half of his body, and Henry shook his hand and dried his hand on the other half of his relatively dry clothes.

"When Qiang Qiang—" And the Mithril plate, which had been torn off and still had a bit of skin attached to it, finally fell to the ground due to weight separation.

Aya's guess seems to be correct, and the entire Roshan is deprived of life when the apparently thicker tentacle is killed at the same time as Henry walks over.

"Bang-" The last full ovary shrunk and drooped down like a withered flower, and the half-grown creatures inside fell to the ground with a large amount of amniotic fluid.

"Ahui, Ahui!" Tomataro, who was holding the torch, immediately rushed over after seeing the face in one of the shattered carapaces, like a smashed crab shell, he removed the carapace covered with holes and organic matter on the other's body, revealing his long-missed man with his eyes closed and pale.

"Ah Hui, wake up. Ignoring the dirt of the unknown liquid, Torotaro shook the other party vigorously.

"Don't push so hard, she's still alive. Mila who came over reminded me when she saw Ah Hui's chest bent together a short time after the carapace had been removed.

"Woo woo, great, great. And Torotaro hugged the maid who was covered in viscous body fluids.

"The one here seems to be dead. "The other servant on the other side is in a much worse situation. Under the shattered carapace, his body has begun to merge with strange organs, and the lower half of his body has turned into a humanoid monster covered with a larger carapace physique, and it seems that it is for this reason that with the death of the master of the mother cave, he has directly lost signs of life.

"Prepare to go back, finally. Narumi let out a long sigh, but it was just then that Joshua clenched his sword again.

"It's not over yet. ”

The sound of rustling came from the collapsed mountain of flesh, followed by the crisp sound of hard carapace clashing.

Then, a nearly three-meter-tall humanoid figure stood up from it.