The standoff between humans and Blood Corpse lasted only a moment before turning into a large-scale melee with a shout of "Honey Crab!"
Inside the narrow cave, the humans' teamwork reached an unprecedented level. Although the knight's armor was just a tattered set, it became a shield at this moment.
He stood in the center of the cave, brandishing his longsword, and began the most exhilarating windmill stunt in history.
Under his cover, the other players launched an orderly attack, quickly inflicting effective damage on the Blood Corpse.
However, the Blood Corpse inside the cave hall were like layers upon layers of an onion. Whenever the frontline Blood Corpse were almost wiped out and on the verge of collapse, a new Blood Corpse team would be sent to replenish them, keeping the battle line at the entrance of the cave hall from beginning to end.
Unseen by the players, the Blood Corpse, who were not involved in the battle, were dripping their blood into the enormous coffin in the center of the cave.
"I can't hold on any longer! Someone, come quick!"
"I parried the bite of a Blood Corpse with my weapon," [ Gill's Cuisine ] shouted.
At this moment, they had no time to spare, and faced with the ever-reinforcing Blood Corpse, they were already contemplating dying in battle.
Even if it means death, these guys must be killed as many times as possible, and... they are clearly performing some kind of special ritual. If the ritual succeeds, the entire main questline may be greatly impacted.
"Hold on, we're almost there!"
Soon someone replied with "[ Gill's Cuisine ]", and just as everyone was about to fight to the death, a sigh suddenly came from the noisy cave.
That wasn't the sound one makes when feeling down; rather, it sounded more like someone unconsciously taking a deep breath as they wake from a long dream.
But... why is a single inhalation sound so clear?
The players, their hair standing on end, were shocked to discover that the Blood Corpse that had been fighting had stopped fighting at some point, allowing their weapons to slash and stab them, and they no longer reacted even after they died.
Those Blood Corpse who had not yet joined the battle all knelt on both knees, pressing their backs to the lowest possible position.
Without their obstruction, the players were able to see the coffin in the center of the cave and the mostly destroyed, incomplete array below it.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the coffin lid began to slide outwards, quickly revealing the upper half, where an elderly man dressed in a well-tailored suit, with half-white hair, sat up straight.
After exhaling all the air from his lungs, he slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were blood-red, but unlike those of a typical Blood Corpse, they did not carry endless confusion and chaos.
His eyes swept over the crowd, and the old man spoke calmly, but in a strangely pronounced royal language:
"Humans, what year and era are we living in now?"
"Take this sword!"
The hot-tempered knight charged forward in a flash, his greatsword slashing towards the old man's neck with a wave of energy.
The withered fingers drew a soft arc in the air, and the three Blood Corpse kneeling on the ground died instantly, turning into a mass of fleshy pulp that writhed and coalesced before surging up inexplicably.
Its flesh and blood, along with the sharpest bones in its body, grabbed at the knight who was cleaving down with force, like a large hand covered in spikes.
The giant hands made of bone and flesh skillfully clamped down on the knight's waist, dissipating the immense force of his downward strike.
Seeing the danger, the knight changed his slash to a thrust, thrusting his sword forward with all his might, but it stopped just a finger's width away from the old man's throat.
This feeling is like a nobleman displaying his elegance.
The giant hand shook twice, and the knight's longsword was flung to the ground.
To everyone's astonishment, a sound of metal armor twisting and deforming rang out, and the knight's struggles quickly turned into muffled thuds of flesh being crushed Shattered.
Clang.
A tattered suit of armor, crushed into the size of an apple core, lay on the ground, its flesh still churning and writhing from the immense pressure it had been under.
However, the Knights have completely disconnected.
All of this happened in less than two breaths. The stunned players immediately realized the situation: they had indeed encountered a wild BOSS, and judging from its arrogant demeanor, it seemed to be planning to fight them while sitting in a coffin.
"Aaaaaah!"
Faced with the terrifying enemy, several players let out unintelligible roars, abandoning all the tactics they had learned before, and charged towards the enemy in the center of the cave in the most primal way, brandishing their weapons.
The old man sitting in the coffin stretched out his left hand and, with just a flick of his finger, the three Blood Corpse on the left side of his coffin instantly died, transforming into another giant hand made of flesh and bone.
Two giant hands seemed to grow from the ground, their lower ends gripping the ground tightly, while their upper ends, under the old man's command, calmly fought against all the enemies in front of them.
[ Gill's Cuisine ] quickly realized the seriousness of the problem. If he had only thought it was a tactical issue when the knight died, then when the old Blood Corpse used its constantly expanding and contracting muscles to catch his all-out spear throw in mid-air, he fully realized the difference in strength between the two sides.
From beginning to end, the old man simply extended the index fingers of his left and right hands, sometimes lightly tapping in front of him and sometimes tracing them in the air, like a frustrated painter or a conductor standing alone in a concert hall.
We can't win.
He discovered this objectively existing fact.
The next second, he was grabbed around the waist by a giant hand, and his feet were instantly lifted into the air, reaching a height of two or three meters above the ground.
Bone and flesh crawled across his body like reptiles, quickly evolving into a restraint that only held his head and neck, and then ceased all movement, as if they had confirmed his harmlessness.
One by one, the squad members fell in battle, the dull sounds of flesh exploding reaching his ears. [ Gill's Cuisine ] realized with despair that he was now powerless to resist, and could only verbally warn his remaining teammates to be careful of attacks from all directions.
But it was all in vain. The battle in the cave was over, and two giant hands suspended the two survivors in front of the coffin. Coincidentally, the two survivors were [ Gill's Cuisine ] and [ Western Sharpshooter ].
The old Blood Corpse's actions were like seizing the enemy's commander first, then defeating them one by one when the enemy was leaderless, while the poor commander could only watch helplessly as it all happened, leaving behind tears of regret before dying.
Do you understand the kingdom's language?
Looking at the two surviving people in front of him, the old man asked in confusion:
"I'd like to ask, what year and month is it now?"
"Pooh!"
Spitting onto the coffin lid in front of the old man, [ Gill's Cuisine ] glared angrily at the enemy who had defeated him:
"Go to hell!"
"Puff."
The headless corpse fell to the ground. The old Blood Corpse stretched out its blackened fingers and wiped away a smear of blood from its face, then gracefully brought its blood-stained fingers to its mouth.