Having received training in the Holy City's Holy Crusaders for a period of time, the old steward had a certain understanding of most of the tactics used in this world.
In this world where individual strength is paramount, even real battlefields often devolve into small-scale battles of many against one or many against many, making individual bravery extremely important.
But the level of cooperation these guys displayed was truly unprecedented.
Although these young men were completely different in height, weight, and strength, they still gave him the illusion that he could beat anyone.
With all his years of experience, he found it surprisingly difficult to pinpoint the enemy's weakness in a short period of time!
Whenever he focuses his attack on one person, the others will seize the opportunity to launch a sneak attack on him.
Although the attack wasn't fatal, he had already sustained more than a dozen bloody wounds within minutes.
Just as he was getting angry and was about to use other moves to teach these guys a lesson, a long knife wound appeared on his back with a flash of cold light.
Bright red blood stained his gray-white clothes. The old butler cried out in pain and turned around, looking at the young man who had stabbed him hard in the back with a knife.
"You... disregard chivalry, using numbers to bully the few..."
An angry growl escaped his throat.
The young knight riding a prosthetic Hoofed Beast and wielding a bloodstained weapon snorted:
"What do you know? Instructor [ A Huan ] said we are all knights of the new era."
"That's right, a knight of the new era."
Another Gungnir chimed in:
"Our chivalrous creed is teamwork, you idiot."
These words seemed to break through the old steward's last line of defense. His face turned from red to white, and he wanted to say something, but he found that the Gungnir had no patience to listen to him and began to speed up towards the cave entrance.
At the tunnel's exit, a woman who appeared to be in her thirties had climbed out, her cold eyes scanning her surroundings as she tried to find a way to leave safely.
"Master, please leave quickly!"
The old butler, who was already lying on the ground, instinctively called out, and the effect was obvious—everyone looked at the woman who had just stepped out of the cave.
Upon hearing this foolish statement that so clearly revealed the position of the leader, the group of Soul Returner returned to their hometowns couldn't help but chuckle.
"This is the archbishop?"
A player who had just emerged from the Teleportation Tree heard this and immediately joined the group of Soul Returner charging towards the battlefield.
However, Luorui'er seemed completely unconcerned about having her location exposed by the butler. After realizing that everyone around her was looking at her, she became even calmer.
Delicate buds stretched out from her collar, cuffs, and even ankles, growing continuously in the air and emitting a subtle fragrance.
The [ Forget-Sorrow Mint ] that [ Ginseng Rooster ] and the others obtained was ultimately just the seed of the mother plant, and its medicinal effects were nowhere near comparable to the one on her body.
Now, she has turned her symbiotic plant to its maximum intensity, so much so that if she were given even a little more control over her body, she would begin an irreversible Tree Transformation process.
A delicate fragrance wafted into everyone's nostrils— Gungnir, the Soul Returner, and even the servants and guards lying on the ground.
Everyone's eyes were bloodshot at that moment, their breathing became rapid, and their eyes seemed to focus only on the person who had just emerged from the tunnel, while everything else no longer mattered.
One side wanted to attack, the other wanted to defend; [ Forget-Sorrow Mint ] brought everyone's strongest emotions to the extreme.
The medicine took effect quickly, and the servants who had just been knocked down stood up again, like puppets, and came to Luorui'er's side, surrounding her in the center.
Meanwhile, Gungnir and the Soul Returner were slowly tightening their encirclement, trying to use their numerical advantage to completely trap them.
Surrounded by layers of people in the very center, Luorui'er looked around expressionlessly, then reached out and removed the flower pinned to her chest.
It was a pure white Lycoris flower, though in another world it has a more widely known name—the Red Spider Lily.
Luorui'er held the seemingly delicate spider lily in one hand, and with the other hand, he took out a ceremonial dagger engraved with the Fitz Family crest from his waist.
She plunged the dagger into the palm of her other hand, watching the blood seep out and gradually rise along the flower stem, watching the snow-white spider lily turn completely blood red.
The long-dried flowers were Vitality at this moment, and a "scent" that was completely undetectable by the sense of smell and was close to the realm of Psionic Energy began to spread rapidly in the surroundings.
Luorui'er bent down and planted the flower in the soil beneath his feet. After taking a deep breath, he suddenly shouted:
"Kill these traitors!"
"Yes!"
The servants, now Vitality, responded in unison, while the Soul Returner echoed back defiantly:
"Capture Luorui'er alive! Raze Black Pine City to the ground!"
"We swear to protect the patriarch with our lives!"
"Kill!"
In the woods, the two groups, their eyes bloodshot, clashed head-on, unleashing a bloody melee.
The Gungnir were dragged off the backs of the Hoofed Beast, but they continued to fight even though their armor was completely destroyed.
The players were indiscriminately attacking any enemy marked with a red tag in their field of vision, completely forgetting that these guys would be of great use in the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant.
The already severely wounded servants fought with their last breath, using their fists when their weapons were broken, branches when their fists were broken, and tree trunks when the branches were broken...
When the [ Ginseng Rooster ] emerged from the tunnel exit, this was the scene that greeted its eyes.
The blood, reeking of tree sap, stained the land a dark red, and the servants who were fighting the players had all turned into Tree Transformation, their mutilated bodies and bloodshot eyes proving that they had completely lost their minds.
Beside these tree-men, there were already dozens of dead Soul Returner, and the Gungnir were mostly missing limbs, yet they continued to push their bodies forward.
Seeing this scene that had completely crossed all lines, [ Ginseng Rooster ] immediately realized something was wrong.
He looked down and shouted loudly into the cave:
"Does anyone have the seeds for a temporary Root Network? I need to set up the network immediately to contact Boss Ed."
"I have!"
[ Dragon Roar Egg Yolk ] squeezed past a few people around him and tossed a whitish seed into [ Ginseng Rooster ]'s hand.
[ Ginseng Rooster ] treads the seed into the already soft ground. The seed greedily sucks the blood from the soil, and the grayish-white roots break through the seed coat and begin to Spread rapidly underground.
He could sense that the temporary Root Network was bringing everyone together, and that it was trending toward connecting to the overall root network of the Second Holy See.
Another wave of the Soul Returner surged out of the cave, attempting to forcibly halt the excessively bloody battle before them, while [ Ginseng Rooster ] paced back and forth, anxiously awaiting a response to Ed's calls.
According to the game's mechanics, given the level of trust between him and Ed, the other party should be able to respond.
In the forest, everyone was busy with their own affairs, and no one noticed that in a mud puddle, a blood-red spider lily was turning into dust.