Motley's terror is unlike anything players or even NPCs have ever witnessed before.
Although Ed had been mingling in the border regions of the Tree Worship Church for several months, he had actually recruited every individual above the Low Tier he encountered into his own ranks, without ever having the chance to fight.
Therefore, he had never witnessed such an outrageous fighting style Motley.
It's no exaggeration to say that even a fully-formed Bennett would lose half of his health with that heavy blow from the alchemical golem, but it didn't even break through Motley's basic defenses.
This Grand Knight Commander seems to possess some kind of special mechanism, making it difficult for the priests and players currently besieging him to easily break through his defenses and inflict damage. It's unclear whether this is due to the symbiotic plants or if this ability is simply a common trait among those who have reached the Middle Tier of the Tree Worship Church...
Faced with the combined attack of a dozen priests and players, Motley immediately started spinning the "windmill."
The tall, muscular Grand Knight Commander swiftly drove back the enemies around him, and the weapon he used, needless to say, was Yiden, which had been torn into two pieces, one large and one small.
The old man, torn in two, had his internal organs spun violently and thrown out, leaving all sorts of indescribable substances scattered on the ground. His body was still being held by Motley, who used it to knock down any approaching enemies.
This horrifying scene was something that not only the players involved in the battle, but even many locals had never witnessed before—a scene so terrifying it would give them nightmares.
Those priests who could only live in the White Wax Town Church Dungeon cried out inwardly at this sight.
Although they had been killed countless times by the Soul Returner, each time their bodies reached their limit, vines would devour them and repair them.
Those Soul Returner assumed this meant victory, and apart from the initial group, the newbies rarely engaged in acts of torture or desecration of corpses (unless they encountered a spawn archer).
But the man before him was completely different. The Grand Knight Commander didn't care how many priests had died in the border town; he only knew that of all the people here today, only he could leave alive.
As for others, besides choosing to become his enemies, it seems they can also choose to become his weapons...
In comparison, even the one who imprisoned them here for eternal atonement seemed benevolent.
It's true that happiness is always relative. Everyone usually criticizes Ed for being inhuman, but now that they see Yiden being tossed around like a weapon, they all think that life imprisonment isn't so bad after all.
With these reflections, the priests began to have second thoughts without realizing it, and their previously orderly movements became visibly scattered.
The composition of the forces besieging Motley below was roughly one to one between the Soul Returner and the priests. So when half of them began to waver, even the players with unwavering morale found it difficult to carry the team on their own.
Seeing that the priests were about to be defeated, Ed immediately activated the power leveling mode.
He pressed his palm against the stone wall beside him, quickly reconnecting the Parasitic Boston Ivy that linked to the bodies of each Dungeon priest, and pulling out new "threads" from them.
Slender vines, like silk threads, wrapped around his ten fingers, allowing him to manipulate the priests' battles at any time through simple thoughts and movements.
Ed's fingers danced lightly in the empty space before him, and the priests below froze in unison, their scattered movements vanishing without a trace.
In that instant, Motley felt a strange force connecting his scattered enemies together.
Although their actions involved coordination, they still needed basic verbal and eye contact to achieve their goals.
But looking at his enemies now, all adopting the standard Holy See sword stance, Motley knew they no longer needed that signal.
Who is manipulating these people?
Motley regained some of his sanity from the rage, feeling the Boston Ivy around him that didn't belong to him, and sensing the direction of the Psionic Energy flowing within them.
He suddenly looked up, his eyes catching sight of the one-eyed boy manipulating the puppet in the darkness.
It's you!
Motley casually tossed Yiden aside, then, with his right hand ripped open, he pulled at his left armpit and tore off the tattered combat robe.
He stretched out his right arm and casually tossed his priest's robe to the ground, as if issuing a challenge to Ed above him.
Ed understood his meaning and conveyed the message to the Soul Returner.
The moment Motley threw down his coat, a long health bar appeared below the view of every nearby player, accompanied by dark green cursive text:
[ Azure Barrier - Rotten Soil Knight - Motley, Current Remaining Health: 100%]
What was exposed to everyone was a body that had undergone a very obvious Alienation. Motley's muscular upper body was now covered by thick bark. The rough, grayish-black bark had twisted and intricate patterns on its surface, forming armor-like structures on important areas such as the chest and abdomen. Only a few patches of dark green remained at the edges.
A silver lance was still stuck in his abdomen, piercing through his body. The bark-like armor tissue had surrounded the wound and stopped the bleeding, but Motley hadn't had time to pull it out.
Ed raised an eyebrow at the sight. The armor in this world was truly diverse: Bennett's Blood Corpse armor, Motley's bark armor, the Dragonborn's scale armor, and even armored beings like Xilǐ'er who had come back to life...
My physical body seems too Fragility. Although I can reshape my body through the Root Kingdom to achieve a near-resurrection effect, strengthening myself is definitely the only way to go...
Thinking of this, a hint of greed, similar to that shown by Motley before, flickered in Ed's eyes.
Your symbiotic plant is great, but it'll be mine from now on!
"Whoosh!"
The longswords of more than a dozen priests made a perfectly synchronized sound as they attacked Motley from all directions.
Ed wasn't that stupid. Facing a heavily armored warrior like Motley, choosing to confront him head-on would be pure suicide, especially since these dozen or so priests were all of Lower Low Tier strength.
Ed didn't want any of his men to die, not even some priests serving life sentences.
He wasn't concerned about these people's lives; he simply viewed the people in the Dungeon as the property of the Second Holy See.
Motley killed everyone here. Does this mean the Gloomy Sanctuary Dungeon will never be open again?
That would be a loss for players who joined later, and that's absolutely unacceptable.
Guided by this concept of protecting property, Ed multitaskingly assigned a special task to the panel where the person hiding in the corner was taking pictures of their [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ].
"Huh?"
The player who was filming enthusiastically made a sound of doubt, then chose to accept the quest and began to quietly use vines to collect the bodies of Yiden and several other dying priests from the edge of the battlefield.