Mercenaries and Adventurers

The young man who was tied to a fresh tree trunk and burned by the high temperature of the flames no longer tried to seek the rescue of his relatives. Instead, he cursed loudly at the refugees who were looming in the thick smoke. He cursed these people because no one came to help him. Cursing these indifferent ordinary people will eventually lead to the same death as themselves.

This series of curses and curses made many people emotional. Many people cast their gazes at Knight Kil and Priest Batal, and there was a faint voice of prayer that could not be heard clearly, as if they wanted the knight and priest to change their minds.

Kil couldn't hold his breath, and turned to look at Priest Batal, who was standing high beside him.

The priest shook his head slightly and said in a low voice: "That monster can't be burned to death in hiding like this. It will always be unbearable. The Kiel warriors will wait a little longer, believe me."

Kil swallowed, took a breath and nodded: "Okay, I believe you."

Then Kiel shouted loudly to everyone: "Please believe in me and the priest! Please believe in us."

Keir's voice was loud, far suppressing the curses of the young man who was burned by the flames, and the weak prayers of the young people in the crowd who sympathized with him.

The armed people in the armed team naturally believed in Keir. After all, they had just fought against the monster, so someone took the lead and shouted: "I believe you, Lord Knight."

Someone else shouted: "But it is not because of your strength and status, but because of your kindness in leading us out of the White Stone City Wall."

"We believe in you! We believe you will not harm us because we don't have any property."

"Yes, we only have this life that can't even be exchanged for a handful of copper coins."

"And you defeated so many bad guys along the way!"

The armed people, at least hundreds of them, shouted in unison: "We believe in you!"

Soon, as the armed people expressed their stance, the religious people in the team who believed in the God of Agriculture also shouted: "We believe in Priest Batar!"

"Yes, don't forget where the food you eat comes from! It is given by the priest himself to us poor people who have fled our hometown on behalf of the great God of Agriculture."

"Not even an iron coin!"

"How generous!"

"And every time the priest treats the wounded, he is so tired that he faints on the ground! I have been injured in battles with bandits, and I know that the priest is a good man!"

"It won't hurt us!"

More and more people raised their heads and looked at Priest Batal with burning eyes. Most of them were injured after setting off, or had a headache and felt uncomfortable and sought treatment from the priest: "We believe in you. !”

Kil's face on the top of the carriage was a little red, but Priest Batal had the experience of preaching in the village, so he was not shy and embarrassed when he praised and paid tribute to everyone, but instead puffed up his chest.

The priest noticed Kiel's discomfort, so he said: "Warrior, please hold your chest high. You should accept these trusts and compliments calmly."

When Kil heard this, he realized that this was true, so he puffed up his chest and stared intently at the young man in the flames this time.

-

Perhaps Priest Batal was right or guessed, or perhaps survival is the greatest instinct of life. The young man no longer cursed or cursed under the high temperature of the flames, but instead struggled and twitched abnormally.

The fire was blazing, and the smoke from the fresh wood gradually became less and less. More people could clearly see the young man in the center of the flames.

At this time, it was clear that he should scream in pain, but the young man just kept shaking his head and neck silently, and his face opened wide, showing a terrifying expression that made people feel horrified. The mouth opened to an angle that was impossible for normal people to reach, making all the people who looked over feel chilled all over.

It was as if they were no longer looking at an innocent young human being who suffered, but a monster that was almost human, but not human.

Then, as many people watched, tentacle-like plant roots poked out from the young man's open mouth, as if he was testing the outside environment.

Some people with sharp eyes noticed this and couldn't help but take a breath of air and quickly pulled their companions around to let them pay attention to the young man's mouth.

"what happened?"

"Goddess of Agriculture, look! This is terrible!"

"The knights and priests really didn't lie to everyone."

"Nonsense! What are they trying to deceive everyone for? When they broke into the bandits' lair a few days ago, Knight Kiel didn't care about the people who went with him and just rummaged through the bandits' trophies."

"Besides, what use are our lives to others? Anyone who understands knows how much we have delayed others and caused so much extra trouble along the way. Anyway, I would have left everyone and run away ”

Amid the discussion among the people, Sister Karl's cries stopped. After all, she was closer to the others. Looking at it from a close distance, there were more and more plant roots extending out from Karl's mouth. It's getting thicker and thicker, and it looks more and more terrifying.

When Karl's neck became thicker and his abdomen collapsed abnormally, it was an indication that something was about to come out of Karl's body.

Karl's sister could only cry silently at this moment, feeling sad for her brother's fate, and sorry for wronging the knights and priests. Some even cursed the two team leaders, themselves and their husbands because of their previous emotions. There are worries about future survival in it.

Her husband, on the other hand, let out a heavy breath, his palms no longer able to hold the hilt of the dagger, and his body collapsed to the ground limply. He stretched out his palm to his wife, and the two held each other tightly, as if they were comforting each other, or relying on each other.

More and more people noticed the changes in the young man from the comments of those around him. Everyone looked at the young man's thick neck and his mouth like a snake with horror. Not only that, a large number of slender plant roots also emerged from the young man's nostrils, eyes and ears. These things were quite afraid of fire, but they did not want to stay in the young man's body and wait to die. They gathered on the young man's face. They are entangled with each other, using thick and strong parts on the outside to resist the surrounding high temperature air, leaving the slender and fragile plant roots in the middle. The whole is in the shape of a hemisphere close to the mouth, ready to protect the one that is about to come out of the throat. thing.

The number of plant roots emerging from the young man's head and face was particularly surprising. Many people looked at the young man's head that had shrunk more than a circle, and then thought of the swollen head just now, and directly lowered their heads in disgust. Vomited.

Some timid women among the people even closed their eyes, turned around, and only listened to the comments of others around them to know what was going to happen next.

"It's out! The monster is out!"

"Oh, that's disgusting. If a monster burrows into my body, I hope my friends will just chop off my head and give me a good time instead of letting such a monster take over my body."

"Me too, I am a human being, even if I die, I am still a dead person. I don't want to be controlled by monsters."

"Thinking about it this way, the young man was begging for mercy and cursing just now, but was the person who shouted just now really the young man himself? Couldn't it be the sound controlled by the monster in his body?"

I don't know who asked this sentence, which suddenly silenced a large number of people around. Many people were trembling with fear at the thought of human beings being controlled by parasites.

-

At this moment, Kil felt that the situation was suitable. Just when he was about to make a move and couldn't hold it in any longer, Priest Batal stopped him: "Wait a little longer and let everyone see clearly what they were fighting against just now."

Kil exhaled, nodded, and waved to the blood-licking grass behind the carriage with his right hand. Although he did not speak, this small movement was sensed by a weapon.

That's what calling means.

Then a weapon trembled, bounced slightly from the weapon rack on the horse, and cut through the air directly into Kil's hand.

The long sword on his left waist shook, as if he wanted to fight, but was calmed down by Kil.

"You were unwilling to take action just now, so there's no problem now, right?"

Kil muttered something in a low voice, but the blue ax held in his right hand obviously heard it. The blue light on the ax expanded and contracted like breathing, and the monster heads on the side of the ax were chatting to each other in a voice that ordinary people could not hear.

Different from other monster heads, the spider-shaped monster that occupies a large area on the ax greedily holds Kil's arm. Even though it only sees cold hard metal, no one knows that it can clearly sense the metal. Below, even in Kil's body, was a power that originally belonged to him and was sealed.

That was its power, but now it was sealed in the body of a human like Kiel. The image of the spider-shaped monster trembled and wanted to do something, but in the end it did nothing.

Because the blue light emitted from the surface of the ax suppresses all the souls imprisoned inside the axe.

-

When Keir summoned the water-crossing head to his right hand, the foreign object that made the neck bulge of the young man in the fire had already reached his mouth.

And it's not just that thing. It seems that in addition to the core human face of the parasite, there are other things following behind, squeezing into the poor young man's neck, still making the young man's neck bulge and never return to its original shape.

The plant roots on the young man's face suddenly swelled, and something protected got into them. Then the large group of plant roots on the human face swung and grabbed the young man's head and face, and began to move towards the top of the head.

And on their moved mouths, a string of things firmly grasped by plant roots began to be pulled out of the young people's mouths one after another.

The people nearby immediately let out a cry of surprise, because a heart that was tightly bound by many plant roots was being pulled out of the young man's mouth by the monster. People with sharp eyes can still see fresh blood emerging from the heart and blood vessels torn apart by the monster, and some slender plant roots that bind the heart are greedily catching the squeezed out blood, and Continuously apply to the surface of other surrounding plant roots.

Apparently to withstand the scorching surrounding temperatures.

And when the plant roots covering the parasitic core climbed along the young man's head to the tree trunk, the plant roots dragging behind pulled out a new piece of human internal organs from the poor young man's mouth.

It simply couldn't bear to part with these fresh human viscera when it was escaping, dragging the family and mouth to extract them from the young man's body. It turns out that the shrinkage of the young man's abdomen was caused by the monster removing the internal organs of the parasitic human and intending to take them away.

"What now? I can't bear it anymore..."

Kil stared coldly at the parasitic monster that was still greedy even though it was escaping, and tightened the handle of the ax in his right hand.

The priest scanned the crowd below and found that people were either gnashing their teeth, scared to death, panicked, or looking at them expectantly. At this time, Priest Batal said: "Get rid of that monster, we have been delayed here for a long time."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Kil throw the blue ax in his hand forward, and at the same time he could hear Kil's shout.

"Is this thing a human or a monster? Give me the answer!"

I don't know who he is talking to.

The ax whizzed and spun in the air. What was extremely unusual was that it did not fly forward in a parabola as ordinary people imagined, but instead spun sideways and circled horizontally in the air.

The people all looked up at this scene, wondering what happened to the ax owned by Knight Kiel.

Kil also frowned and looked at the spinning two-handed axe, but before he could make a move, the monster's entangled mass of plant roots climbed to the top along the trunk, dragging behind it There was a bunch of human viscera, very scary and disgusting.

And Karl's sister, who saw this scene, cried so much that she fainted and fell to the ground. After all, it’s not like anyone can see the internal organs of their loved ones being pulled out of the mouth by a monster in front of them and not faint from excitement.

At this time, the water-crossing head, which had been flying in the sky for several times, paused in the air. The next moment, it rotated diagonally downwards and struck out. In an instant, it hit the connection between the plant roots where the monster was dragging the human internal organs.

With just one blow, he easily cut off the strong plant roots, and then with an upward twist, he lifted the screaming monster in the mass of plant roots into the air.

The next moment, the ax rotated rapidly and slashed towards the monster clump falling in the air, instantly destroying the monster's core body into a large number of fragments.

In the mist of lavender sap, the cut plant roots broke into pieces and fell to the ground. After a twist, they lost their lives. As the core of the parasitic monster, the parasitic human face was chopped into several pieces. The block fell to the ground.

Keir looked at a human face that was half the size of a palm, snorted and raised his hand, and after the ax was finished, it was thrown back into his hand.

A large number of internal organs that the young man had been pulled out by the monster fell into the flames, and were burned together with the body of the already dead young man in the gradually rising flames.

----

The team set off soon. While it was still afternoon, Keir hoped that the team could leave the mountains before dark, at least reaching the plain ahead. It would be best if we could reach the faintly discernible town in the distance directly at dusk.

However, the people in the team were obviously not paying attention to the fast journey. Everyone was talking quietly to their companions about the previous events.

As ordinary people in this era, most of them have seen the powerful village chief or leader in the village, trying out the kingdom's laws and executing some people who opposed them in the center of the village.

Some people have also witnessed the punishment of beheading or hanging on the execution wooden platform in the town.

But those are incomparable to the scene that just happened in front of everyone.

People discussed whether the young man who cursed them when the fire started was a monster or the young man himself.

People are talking about what will happen to the young man Karl after his death. Will he enter the underworld after death, as preached by the Church of the God of the Dead in the town? That horrible way of death. Is it the young man or the monster who goes to the underworld after death?

People were talking about how Priest Batal discovered and believed in the parasitic monster in Karl's body, and was he really unable to solve the parasitic monster?

People were talking about how Knight Kil's ax had never been used by him before, so it was very unfamiliar. But it seemed to be emitting blue light in flashes, which was not inferior to the knight's sword.

People are talking about which of the two weapons, which one does the Kiel Knight prefer? And which one is more powerful?

Some people say it is a blue ax. After all, it can fly around in the air and attack the enemy by itself. It is definitely more powerful and worry-free. Some people also said that seeing the Knight of Kiel carrying the long sword with him all day long, he obviously preferred this weapon.

Others said it was the all-metal heavy spear on the knight's horse, because I heard that when the bandits attacked at night when they first set out, it was that spear that finally defeated and killed a large number of bandits.

But in the end, when someone mentioned the battle that night, some people who had participated in the battle and survived to this day swore that those weapons were not the unique skills of Knight Kiel, nor was they his most powerful weapon. What's really powerful is the ornately decorated dagger on the knight's right belt.

That night when the bandits attacked at night, that dagger had shone brightly, defeating a larger number of bandits at the most difficult moment.

It's just that many people were panicked at the time. Except for the brave men who fought with sporadic bandits on the front line, few people knew about this powerful weapon of the Kiel Knight.

That might be a magic weapon.

In this regard, after hearing these topics discussed by the people while riding on the horse, Kil smiled helplessly. The 'Heart Fire' magic dagger is powerful, but what can be consumed is the magic power of the magic gems inlaid on the dagger.

Every time you use it, it's more like burning gold coins than burning magic power.

After all, Knight Crow, who was also worried about the consumption of magic weapons in his hands, once said that this kind of magic weapons can generally only be brought to big cities where magicians exist, and they pay magicians to instill magic power into them and replenish their energy.

And most of the time, you don’t come to your door with money, and they just charge you to replenish your magic power. Magicians are not short of money, at least most of them are not. To replenish magic power, you have to look at whether the magician is free and the relationship between the organization to which the magician belongs and the organization to which you belong.

For example, Knight Crowe said that the purchase and charging of Baron Kendall's magic props and magic weapons were done through the relationship of the Provincial Noble Council. After the Baron got connected with a certain magician many years ago, he relied more on his family knowledge and personal qualities to maintain a good personal relationship with a certain magician.

Therefore, it is easier than other nobles to collect magic props, UU reading www. uukanshu.com Even the eldest son of the baron has a set of magical weapons and props for self-defense.

As for Knight Crow, although he can also use the Baron's relationship to get in touch with the magician, he will mostly go to the Imperial Border Knights stationed on the northern border of Kendall County. , the old magician leader whom I met charged the magic power.

Money is not a problem in this way, but unlike Baron Kendall who works and lives in the capital of the Northwest Province all year round, Knight Crow cannot leave the city of Kendall at will and go to the Northern Border Knights' station just for such a thing. .

Although Kendall County is not very big, it would take several days to go back and forth, even if he was riding his monster six-legged war horse.

Given the relationship between Kendal and the provincial earls, this was clearly not possible.

The people were envious of Kiel's various powerful weapons, but as the owner of these weapons, Kiel was troubled by their maintenance and charging. Speaking of this, Geer was particularly satisfied with the blinding ability of the Church of the Sun God on the Long Sword Hunting. It can be recharged for free by just shining on the sun every day. It is indeed worth the high cost of buying it.

The best thing is that he has such a powerful and easy-to-use ability, but he doesn't have to be as deeply involved with the Church of Saturn. Kil still doesn't know anyone from the Church of Sun God. I heard that the Church of the Sun God was quite active before. Until something happened last year, the church shrank in strength and scale, and reduced its various activities in society.

Priests in other churches take this as a matter of course.

Quite strange.

Kiel had asked Priest Batal about this before, but since he had been stationed in the village to preach all year round, Priest Batal was obviously not very well-informed and didn't know about it.