Otherwise, if these two really managed to escape, it would deal a heavy blow to the morale of the elite Night Watchmen who are holding their ground in battle!
After all, anyone would think: “Damn it, I’m fighting to the death here, and these two just ran away.”
Once confidence is lost, I’m afraid Hamilton could fight to his last breath and still not be able to turn the tide.
However, just as Rein was about to launch an attack, Hamilton, who was a Knight, taught everyone a lesson on ‘what a Knight’s strength really is’!
Hamilton, wielding a sword and shield, quickly charged towards the rock monster.
Seeing the ‘little guy’ attack again, the monster immediately focused its attention on Hamilton and swung its over two-meter-long giant stone mace at him with great force.
Since there was no need to save anyone this time, Hamilton dealt with the rock monster’s mace attack in a completely different way.
Instead of backing away, Hamilton stepped towards the rock monster to face the incoming mace, avoiding the most powerful part of the mace head and, with a loud ‘bang’, blocked it with his shield at the center of the mace handle.
He took the rock monster’s strike squarely!
At the same time, Hamilton roared with anger, and after deflecting the monster’s mace with his shield, his longsword in his right hand delivered a horizontal slash at the monster’s thick neck.
“Clang!”
Sparks flew everywhere!
But Hamilton had Knight-level strength, far surpassing that of the three Bounty Hunters.
Although he did not break through the rock monster’s stony exterior with one strike, he shattered several blocky stones at its neck and left a sword mark several centimeters deep.
The monster roared in pain right away!
It became visibly more enraged, lifting its right foot high, ready to unleash that powerful stomp it had used before.
Hamilton’s pupils constricted. He struck the monster’s belly with a Shield Strike and, using the recoil from the shield, he rapidly retreated.
“Boom!!”
The rock monster stomped down heavily.
“Boulder Trample!”
A circle with a radius of about three meters centered on the monster’s foot collapsed more than ten centimeters into the ground, and all sorts of crushed rocks and clods of dirt were blasted over a meter high into the air.
Even those standing seven or eight meters away were having trouble keeping their balance.
After evading the monster’s strike, Hamilton pushed off with his right leg and quickly returned, wielding his sword and shield, to engage the monster in combat once again.
“Bang!”
“Ding!”
Hamilton was sent flying once more.
This time, Hamilton seemed a bit overwhelmed, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth!
But he also successfully deepened the original sword mark on the monster’s neck, exposing a different shade of gray-white beneath the rocky exterior.
This sight made Rein’s eyes light up!
Before, the plan in his mind wasn’t very certain, but now, it instantly came together with the last piece of the puzzle.
And seeing their superior demonstrate such power greatly boosted the morale of the elite Night Watchmen.
“Huh! Didn’t expect the sheriff of Flashgold Town to be so strong,” Endri couldn’t help but show a hint of surprise in his eyes.
“If that’s the case, then there might still be a chance to kill this Burrower Beast.”
After murmuring to himself for a few moments, he took out a pale yellow Beastskin Scroll from his bosom.
From its appearance, it didn’t seem much different from an ordinary parchment scroll.
However, as he chanted a strangely intoned spell, the next second, the Beastskin Scroll suddenly emitted a pale green light and then instantly turned to powder.
In front of Endri, a large mass of foul-smelling, pale green liquid abruptly appeared.
This caused Rein, who was nearby, to have a contraction of his pupils.
“Is this… a power from the mysterious aspect?”
“But why is this fellow only making a move now?”
“If he had acted earlier, the entire situation would have been completely different!”
But soon, Rein figured it out. The opponent must have judged that the scales of victory were tipping in favor of the Night Watchman and thus, the original plan to escape swiftly changed to ‘adding flowers to the brocade’ with a wave of their hand.
Moreover, judging by the pained expression on the opponent’s face, this scroll must be extremely valuable.
Got it! The opponent wants to gain the rights to divide the spoils of war!
…..
In an instant, many questions and speculations flashed through Rein’s mind.
“Acid Missile Scroll?” Hamilton, who was in the midst of battle, also noticed the anomaly and looked at Endri with surprise.
He recognized at a glance that the object used by the opponent was a Sorcery Scroll ‘Acid Missile’.
Almost simultaneously, Hamilton understood why the other had been reluctant to use it until now.
Immediately, Hamilton cursed in a low voice, “A Wizard Apprentice disguised as a Wandering Bard, huh? A bunch of delicate egoists!”
“Casting such a precious sorcery scroll without giving notice in advance so others could coordinate! What a pain in the ass!”
By the time Hamilton wanted to coordinate, it was already too late, and instead, he had to quickly move away from the vicinity of the Burrower Beast to avoid being splashed by the acid.
“Go!”
Endri’s face almost contorted in a spasm, seemingly exerting a great deal of effort to control the stinky liquid, which he directed straight at the Burrower Beast.
It seemed the creature had sensed the special energy fluctuation early on, periodically glancing in Endri’s direction.
So, when it saw the approaching mass of pale green liquid, it suddenly darted to the side with a flicker, narrowly evading the attack by a hair’s breadth.
The mass of pale green liquid, upon striking the tunnel wall, sizzled with intense corrosion.
Quickly, it melted a basin-sized hole in the rock.
The potency of this attack made even Rein take notice.
But unfortunately, the attack missed, otherwise the Burrower Beast would have been grievously wounded.
This made Endri so furious he was nearly pounding his chest and stamping his feet on the spot!
Rein thought for a moment and did not immediately draw the Fine Steel Greatsword from his back. Instead, he adjusted his position to circle behind the Burrower Beast, seized the opportunity, and quickly started charging.
Rein’s footsteps seemed slow but were actually quick. He continually adjusted his steps so as to always stay directly behind the constantly moving Burrower Beast.
As he was about to close in, Rein suddenly pushed off the ground, and the hard earthen floor of the mine showed a small depression.
At that moment, like a cannonball, he surged towards the back of the Burrower Beast’s head.
Rein silently invoked “Strength Burst” in mid-air, tensed his abdomen, brought his legs together, and stretched them out straight, aiming a vicious double-footed kick at the back of the Boulder Trample Beast’s head.
A 22-point Strength flying kick had already surpassed that of Hamilton, the official Knight, even exceeding the full-strength blow of a ferociously transformed jackal-man.
And the point of attack was the back of the Boulder Trample Beast’s head.
With that kick, Rein sent the beast stumbling forward, nearly causing its massive body to fall to the ground.
But the stone beast, true to its rock-hard defense, took Rein’s kick head-on, and with a shaky, slightly dazed head, used its hands to prop itself up, adamantly refusing to fall completely.
Rein then used the recoil to execute a 360-degree spin in the air and landed firmly on the ground.
Immediately after, he sprinted quickly to the side.
This move left Hamilton, Endri, and the other Night Watchmen bewildered for a moment.
All eyes focused on Rein, waiting to see how he would deal with the thick-skinned, immensely strong Boulder Trample Beast.
After all, knocking down and killing were two different concepts.
However, it seemed Hamilton vaguely understood Rein’s plan and immediately shouted, “Continue to throw the nets, pull the ropes!”
Thus, the group of red-faced Night Watchmen strained to pull the ropes together, attempting to disrupt the Boulder Trample Beast’s movements and delay its actions.
After shaking its head, the stone beast realized that it had placed its hands on the ground, causing its gigantic stone-headed maul to roll to the side. Just as it extended a finger to grab its weapon,
Rein was already swiftly sprinting in from behind.
“Leap Slash!”
He chopped down heavily on the Boulder Trample Beast’s right hand fingers.
Empowered by the immense strength of the core skill “Strength Burst,” Rein targeted the ‘delicate’ fingers.
“Crack!”
Rein severed four fingers in an instant!
The Boulder Trample Beast roared in fury, clearly in deep pain.
It appeared that even stone beasts felt pain in each finger!
Nevertheless, Rein’s strike further enraged the creature, which with a violent yank, toppled all the elite Night Watchmen who had been pulling the hemp rope nets.
The next second, several hemp rope nets were abruptly torn apart by the Boulder Trample Beast.
But just as the Night Watchmen were exclaiming in shock,
The Boulder Trample Beast suddenly saw its own large stone-headed maul hurtling towards it.
It paused, puzzled, for it had not even reached its hammer.
A muscular ‘little fellow’ was brandishing a gigantic stone-headed maul that was even taller than himself, striking the Boulder Trample Beast’s head fiercely.
“Boom!”
The beast, caught off guard, was sent staggering back three steps by the forceful blow.
Each step shattered the mine’s long-compacted ground, demonstrating how heavy and powerful the Boulder Trample Beast was!
But it also showed the incredible strength of Rein’s hammer strike!
Perhaps due to some specialization with hammers, Rein clasped the handle with both hands, still barely managing to grip the large stone-headed maul, yet he swung it as if it were strangely familiar.
He wielded this massive hammer with ease that belied the effort expected, yet its power was undiminished!
This spectacle instantly made all the Night Watchmen’s faces flush with excitement, they were thrilled to the point of nearly breaking into applause.
Let’s not forget, Rein was one of their own.
Hamilton watched with continuous admiration.
He had tested Rein’s strength and knew that Rein was not an official Knight.
But at the moment, Rein’s strength seemed even greater than his!
Could it be some inherent talent?
He would need to have a good talk with the young man Rein later!
“Boom!”
While the beast was dazed by the impact, Rein delivered another hammer blow right to the Boulder Trample Beast’s head, instantly stunning it.
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
…
After several more blows, the Boulder Trample Beast finally fell, collapsing onto its back.
“Bang”
A cloud of dust rose from the ground.
But Rein knew that the beast had merely fainted, not died.
He dropped the stone-headed maul and turned to pull out the Dual-Handed Greatsword planted in the ground nearby, charging straight for the beast’s head.
“Leap Slash!”
Rein leaped high, exerting all his strength, aimed for the deep sword mark left by Hamilton on the neck, and chopped down hard!
“Crack!”
The beheading was a success!
The Boulder Trample Beast’s body and head were severed!
Rein was also drenched in sweat, his muscles returned to normal, gasping for air, looking completely drained.
No wonder, this was the side effect of using ‘Strength Burst’ with full force, and now Rein’s muscles ached and his combat ability was significantly weakened.
However, it was then that Rein realized this Boulder Trample Beast seemed not an ordinary creature, but more like a silicon-based lifeform or perhaps an elemental creature.
The cut surface oozed no blood or anything like that, its body seemingly composed of different types of rock material from the inside out.
Then, the three-meter tall Boulder Trample Beast suddenly began to transform, a dull yellow glow gradually spreading over its body, then converging toward the chest.
The dull yellow glow started to cover the whole body of the stone beast and gradually thickened on the upper body, then concentrated on the chest.
The glow shifted from pale yellow to a dense yellow, and the luminosity intensified, eventually surpassing even the brilliance of gold.
“This… I didn’t expect it to actually appear!” Wandering Bard Endri’s eyes shone with blatant greed.