Alas, not reaching the High Tier of Plant Compatibility is indeed too limiting.
Marba sighed inwardly. As a demon who had roamed the Holy City of the Theocracy for countless years, he had heard of the power of the three cardinals. It was said that each of their abilities was extraordinary, and it would be difficult to combine their abilities with the characteristics of plants if one did not know this beforehand.
However, if Marba is indeed a High Tier, then he wouldn't be able to completely impersonate her.
Thinking this, Marba's right hand once again transformed into a heavy hammer, and with a powerful swing, it struck Motley's waist with a sound like the air exploding.
In that instant, he unleashed a powerful force, which, although still within the Middle Tier range, had surpassed the level that Marba could possess.
Motley felt a sharp pain in his waist, and a surge of blood instantly rushed to his throat and brain.
Although his body was completely covered by beech bark, such a strong impact still had to be borne by his entire body.
The sudden increase in local blood pressure made Motley's eyes almost bloodshot, and at the same time, a large amount of blood rushed into his brain, making him feel dizzy as well.
How did he suddenly become so fast?
This person was just on par with me a moment ago, so why did they become so much stronger after just one glance?
In just a few rounds, he went from having a slight advantage to being on the defensive.
The immense impact forced Motley's body to twist to the left. He tried to struggle to his feet, but his large frame felt incredibly heavy, and he knew it would take him about half a breath to get up.
Marba's speed is much faster than that.
The dark "gun" muzzle became clearer in Motley's vision. After delivering a heavy blow with his right hand transformed into a hammer, Marba leaned back and raised his left hand, aiming the ready-to-fire gun at Motley's head.
From the muzzle formed by those five fingers, forty jets of black bullets were ready to blast Motley's head into watermelon pulp.
Seeing this, Motley knew he could no longer rely on dodging to fight off the attack, so he stopped moving and instead focused on manipulating the beech wood attached to his body.
Motley didn't like wrapping his head in Resilient Beechwood during combat, believing it would slow down his reaction time.
But now, the consequences of not wearing a helmet are becoming apparent, and Motley has no choice but to desperately activate his Symbiotic Tree, trying to at least Alienation a mask to withstand the first wave of impact before his skull is blown apart.
Having already secured victory, Marba completely ignored the struggling Motley, turning her gaze to the Wild Hunt priests in the distance, her eyes now looking in different directions.
He was recording; he wanted to memorize the appearances of all the Wild Hunt priests so that if he found people with the same face, he could determine how long their resurrection cycle was.
Ordinary people certainly couldn't do this, but Marba could, or more precisely, Duma could. Don't be fooled by the fact that there were over a hundred Wild Hunt members in front of him. When Marba was mixed up with the demons and leading the allied forces, he could even call out the names of many Goblin soldiers in order to boost morale.
This certainly had its advantages. Upon learning that their commander actually remembered their names, the Goblin were all excited and charged towards the enemy with howls.
But precisely because of this, the downside of doing so became apparent: none of the Goblin whose names were remembered by Duma survived.
Marba's eyes had already recorded the appearances of more than twenty Wild Hunt, while the launcher in his left hand had reached its limit of charging.
He didn't even glance at Motley; he merely used his peripheral vision to confirm that the man's head was pressed against the muzzle of the gun before pulling the Aberration without hesitation.
"Bang!"
A tremendous roar echoed across the battlefield, mingling with shouts of battle and cries of agony, Spread to every corner of Valhalla.
In the final moments, Motley managed to Alienation a thick mask from the Symbiotic Tree, but even so, the blow still caused him to suffer a fractured and dented facial bone. Although he didn't die immediately, he collapsed to the ground, his vision going black.
Marba knew that this tough-skinned opponent wouldn't die so easily. Killing such a resilient member of the Tree Worship Church was actually a very difficult task, and he didn't have that much time now.
The legion commander dropped the hammer in his hand, and with a flick of his right hand, a wooden awl about the length of a forearm appeared in his hand. The awl emitted a strange fragrance, and its material was naturally the Life-Claiming Camphor tree, a symbiotic plant of Marba.
With a backhand flick, the wooden spike, imbued with immense force, pierced through Motley's chest and emerged from behind, pinning him to the ground.
Before long, the toxins in the Life-Claiming Camphor tree will kill him, and Marba will not need to do anything further.
Having dealt with Motley, Marba returned to his position as legion commander and began to give precise command to his Holy Crusaders.
He called out the names of each squad leader precisely, directing them to work together to kill the enemy in front of them.
In the time it took to deal with Motley alone, the Wild Hunt's numbers had already decreased by about a third, while Marba's men had not suffered too many losses, with most of them still forming small teams to fight against those reckless enemies.
This battle situation was not unexpected for Ed. The priests who made up the Wild Hunt were not essentially the Holy Crusaders. Although they were ruthless in combat, they did not have the training experience of the regular army that the enemy had.
After exhausting their initial, reckless courage, the priests had to admit they lacked effective countermeasures against these well-trained enemies.
However, that's not important. Ed released these heinous priests from the church Dungeon for two reasons: first, to intimidate some resentful prisoners, and second, to test his own strength.
At Low Tier levels, he could only spread Parasitic Boston Ivy over an area the size of a church, which is why he converted the church into Dungeon.
After reaching the Middle Tier, he was able to expand this ability to a wider range.
Standing behind the castle window, Ed's fingers twitched slightly, and yet another dead priest was pulled into the ground by the tiny roots of the Parasitic Boston Ivy.
Amidst desperate wails, his body was reassembled in less than ten seconds. Apart from some irreparable cracks caused by repeated Shattered, it was practically brand new. However, upon seeing himself restored to his whole form, the priest descended into near madness, shouting incoherent nonsense like "Let me die! Let me die!"