Sparks flew from beneath the Stone-Drilling Monster’s crotch, but regretfully, they could not breach its defense.
Clearly, this common weak spot in humans was not applicable to the Stone-Drilling Monster.
However, most creatures do not enjoy being chopped at their groin, and it seemed that was universally true.
In an instant, the Bounty Hunter’s action infuriated the Stone-Drilling Monster.
The monster swung its massive stone maul high above its head, aiming a heavy blow at the Bounty Hunter between its legs.
“Boom!”
Dust flew up, and the shock made everyone tremble.
The Bounty Hunter had already leapt to the Stone-Drilling Monster’s back, chopping at its knee joints and back with his axe.
“Clang clang bang bang!”
What a commotion!
Seeing this, the other two Bounty Hunters exchanged glances, both spotting joy and hope in each other’s eyes.
This Stone-Drilling Monster was indeed tall, strong, and defensively powerful, but it was not agile.
As long as they could exploit this Achilles heel, they could eventually grind the Stone-Drilling Monster down to death.
With this in mind, the two Bounty Hunters coordinated with the first to attack, circling the monster’s legs, ceaselessly aiming for its knees.
Sparks scattered nonstop and debris continued to fall, revealing a light grey color different from the surface rock material.
This immediately brightened their eyes.
The situation seemed to be overwhelmingly positive!
Yet this made the Stone-Drilling Monster extremely angry, and after a roar, its entire body seemed to grow slightly larger.
The creature raised its right leg high, paused slightly as if gathering strength, and then stomped down towards the ground with the speed of lightning!
Rein had been observing this completely unknown monster from the sidelines.
But as soon as he saw the monster’s power-gathering move, he narrowed his eyes, suspecting that the three Bounty Hunters were about to suffer!
At that moment, Endri shouted a warning, “No good, it’s ‘Boulder Trample’, get out of the way!”
“Thud!!”
A tremendous force erupted from the center of the ground where the Stone-Drilling Monster had stomped, spreading outwards like waves at great speed.
It was as if a stone had been thrown onto a calm lake, rippling the surface.
Only now, the lake’s surface was replaced by the ground.
Even Rein, standing over ten meters away, felt the ground shake violently; it was as if he were standing on a soft piece of dough that was constantly undulating and quivering, making it hard for him to stand steady.
One could only imagine the plight of the three Bounty Hunters who were much closer!
Although the Bounty Hunters had begun to flee, the shockwave was faster and wider, throwing them to the ground.
At that moment, the three of them turned pale with shock.
Fighting such a creature was like dancing on a tightrope; needless to say, the consequences of falling down and losing control of their bodies were imaginable.
Sure enough, a massive stone maul came crashing down from the sky.
In an instant, a Bounty Hunter was flattened into a paste, with limbs, organs, and blood splattering in all directions.
Literally, a meat paste!
A nearby Bounty Hunter, splattered with a face full of blood, turned ashen with fear and immediately tried to scramble away.
But it was too late!
The next second, he was hit in the midsection by the massive stone mallet, now swung once again, sending him crashing against the tunnel’s rock wall, turning into a mush of gore.
The leading Bounty Hunter’s face was now etched with terror and disbelief.
His expression hardened, he once again attempted the same trick, sliding under the Stone-Drilling Monster’s crotch to escape to the other side.
“Whoosh!”
He slid through successfully!
A smile broke out on the Bounty Hunter’s face as he rushed towards the others.
“Watch out!” the people shouted.
“What?”
“Why do they all look so horrified?”
“It shouldn’t be! The Stone-Drilling Monster isn’t agile enough to catch up.”
The Bounty Hunter couldn’t understand and glanced back in confusion while running at full speed.
Only to see a huge shadow charging towards his forehead.
“It’s over!”
“Damn it! It can throw too!”
“Smack!”
Like a fly being smacked, the scene unfolded before everyone’s eyes.
As it turned out, the Stone-Drilling Monster had just hurled its maul, which weighed hundreds of pounds, at the fleeing Bounty Hunter with full force!
Directly smashing him into a meat pancake.
At this point, all three Bounty Hunter brothers had fallen in battle!
It wasn’t that the others watched idly as the trio died, but rather that the situation went from very promising to total annihilation in less than ten seconds.
It was certainly beyond everyone’s expectations!
Rein sighed softly in his heart, noting that the three Bounty Hunters were clearly driven by greed.
Had they succeeded, they indeed would have been entitled to a lion’s share of the value of the ‘Heart of the Stone Monster’ as per usual practice.
Regrettably, they had underestimated the strength of a Boulder Trample.
Now it seemed that even a true Knight, if not careful, could fall in an instant when facing a Boulder Trample, let alone the far inferior three Bounty Hunters.
Seeing the grim fate of the three made most of those present shudder with fear, and to say they weren’t afraid would be a lie.
Fortunately, Hamilton had also somewhat recovered by this time.
Only his steel shield was almost twisted into a pretzel, and the left hand that held the shield was obviously more seriously injured, the armored gauntlet was even deformed at this moment, a testament to the immense Strength of the Boulder Trample.
Looking around, Hamilton quickly judged that continuing this way would not do.
The might of the Boulder Trample was astonishing; just two blows had driven him back and then effortlessly slaughtered three Bounty Hunters, its ferocious and invincible momentum reaching its peak.
They had to dampen the creature’s sharpness!
In addition, the tunnel at hand was too narrow; their entire team was stretched out like a long dragon, with one end blocked by the Boulder Trample, unable to surround it and harness their numerical advantage.
Hamilton grabbed the mine supervisor, who was pale as death, by the collar and roared, “Where in the mine is there more space?”
“There is… there is!”
“The branch… There’s a minecart transfer station at the branch!” Facing Hamilton’s fierce gaze, the pale-faced gold mine supervisor snapped to his senses and hastily pointed in the direction.
“Night Watchman, fire arrows, everyone retreat to the branch!” Hamilton shouted.
Because the Elim Mine was so old and rich in gold deposits, there were several old tunnels that had been mined for gold, and the branch where several tunnels intersected was the minecart transfer station.
Rein nodded slightly in agreement with Hamilton’s decisive decision, very much approving of his superior’s choice.
He remembered the branch from his entrance.
It seemed to be the meeting point of two or three old and new tunnels. As he had passed by earlier, Rein had glanced over and, with the aid of his Dark Vision, could nearly see the area’s size clearly, close to a hundred square meters.
Clearly, fighting there would certainly be better than sticking to this narrow tunnel.
With Hamilton’s leadership, the elite Night Watchman’s previously panicky expressions gradually faded, replaced by orderly arrow fire as they began to coordinate and retreat while shooting.
“Ting ting dang dang!”
Although the Night Watchman’s archery skills were quite exquisite and their arrows sharp, they still couldn’t breach the Boulder Trample’s ‘monstrous’ defensive power.
The flurry of arrows could hardly cause any substantive damage to the Boulder Trample.
Therefore, the Night Watchman instinctively aimed at the creature’s eyes, forcing it to cover them with its arms.
So, the arrows had at least a decent disruptive effect.
Meanwhile, this allowed the entire team to retreat in an orderly fashion while engaging in battle, eventually reaching the minecart transfer station at the branch.
However, many of the keenly observant Night Watchman noticed that the Boulder Trample’s body seemed to have swelled slightly more than before.
Moreover, its movement and attack speeds had also increased a bit from earlier.
This gave Rein cause for concern as well.
“Is this Boulder Trample’s strength actually increasing as the fight goes on?”
“Truly monstrous indeed!”
At this moment, the Wandering Bard Endri, who stood next to the viscounty pale Schmidt, whispered, “As soon as there’s an opportunity, follow me and we leave immediately.”
“This Boulder Trample seems to have awakened a furious talent, and even if we all attacked together, we might not withstand it.”
“Soon, Hamilton and these Night Watchman will suffer heavy losses.”
“Manager Schmidt, make sure to stick close to me for a quick escape!”
“Alright… alright!”
Having been intimidated by the Boulder Trample, Manager Schmidt quickly agreed upon hearing Endri’s words, grasping at it like a drowning man clutching at a straw; as someone usually in charge of the viscounty’s internal affairs, he was rather unaccustomed to such perilous situations, and he momentarily felt helpless!
As the Boulder Trample was slowly lured into the widest part of the tunnel—the minecart transfer station—the tide of battle quickly turned.
In the relatively open space, the seven or eight still combat-capable Night Watchman finally managed to encircle the Boulder Trample and, together with their leader Hamilton, assault it from all sides.
Rein at this moment was still observing for any weaknesses.
Apart from the eyes, which were an obvious weak point, to be honest, the Boulder Trample’s body was nearly covered from top to bottom with hard, thick layers of rock, leaving no obvious vulnerabilities exposed.
“Cast the net!!” While engaging the Boulder Trample’s attention upfront, Hamilton quickly commanded.
Instantly, three or four hemp rope nets were thrown onto the monster.
But due to the vast disparity in strength, even when three or four Night Watchman strained with all their might to pull on one end of the net, the Boulder Trample still managed to grab and toss it aside with a single swipe.
Meanwhile, Endri and Schmidt had already snuck to the minecart transfer station’s exit, looking ready to flee at any moment.
Rein certainly noticed this scene.
“As expected, all the ‘smart people’ from the County Town are thinking of escaping first when things look bad,” he mused.
Stop them?
Rein shook his head slightly; doing so would be of no use in changing the current situation.
Now, he had a tentative plan in mind, but he wasn’t yet certain of its effectiveness.
However… time could no longer be delayed; he had to act!