Chapter 59: The Battle of Banjiu Village (Part 4): Victory and Burning the Parasitic Nest

Whoosh—

A green vine as thick as an adult's wrist was swung forcefully by the monster. Just by the sound of the whistling wind, Weier knew he absolutely must not be struck by any of these vines.

If hit even once, he reckoned his whole body would suffer a severe injury.

So, he performed an extreme "Iron Plate Bridge," arching his back to fall backward, while reversing his Sword in his right hand to use it as a support to hold up his falling body.

Afterward, he spun his body and retreated two steps, moving outside the range of the opponent's vine attacks.

"Careful! Don't block it head-on!" Weier shouted immediately, though it was meant for Sipulu, who was a step slower than him.

At this moment, Sipulu was holding his Battle Knife with both hands, attempting to decapitate the flowering monster with a forward-lunging slash. Sipulu heard Weier's warning and, knowing this comrade would not harm him, changed his attack target on the fly.

He slightly adjusted the direction of the blade, slowed his feet to stay grounded, and clashed against the monster's whipping vine as it swung back around.

"Mmph—" Sipulu gritted his teeth to keep from groaning, but he still stumbled back three steps. His Battle Knife trembled slightly—this was his hands shaking, and blood was seeping from the web of his thumbs beneath his gloves.

After just one clash, this Human Warrior deeply realized the gap in strength between Humans and the Monster.

"Careful, don't trade blows head-on!" Sipulu said.

With monsters swarming in from the surroundings, Weier immediately stepped forward to defend back-to-back with Sipulu. Although his palms were strained and injured, Sipulu still gritted his teeth, gripped his weapon tightly, and struggled to maneuver against the approaching monsters.

However, he could no longer unleash slashes capable of severing the monsters' limbs, and could only sporadically cut open the surfaces of their bodies.

Bawei snorted, refusing to believe it, and strode forward. He used the others around him to keep the monsters at bay, intending to sneak-attack the flowering monster directly from the side and rear. Bawei was also cunning; he didn't confront the flowering monster head-on, but instead attacked from behind.

But he did not know that the flowers covering the flowering monster's head and face, while not eyes, were far more useful than eyes; in other words, the flowering monster's field of vision was a 360-degree view with no blind spots.

Therefore, this sneak attack was not a sneak attack at all.

Bawei's Steel Two-Handed Axe went straight for the monster's lower back, but suddenly, a plant vine shot out from the monster's spine and forcefully stabbed at the axe in Bawei's hand.

Clang!

The axe was knocked flying by the great force. Bawei gritted his teeth and roared, kicking the monster hard just before being knocked back.

Bawei fell backward to the ground, then hurriedly rolled to dodge, avoiding the several vine lashes that subsequently whipped onto the ground.

When he stood up, Bawei looked at his hands and discovered that several of his fingers had been directly broken by the recoil force when he gripped the axe handle tightly as it was knocked away.

Gritting his teeth, Bawei cursed: "This %￥￥%!"

Although he was temporarily unable to participate in the battle, he still did not give up. Relying on the Heavy Armor Plate on his body, he turned sideways and used his shoulder to ram into the parasitic monsters entangled with the warriors; this move was actually very effective.

Although the monsters were strong, their body weight was their fatal flaw. With a single ram from the tall and heavy Bawei, they could be easily knocked over to the ground.

The surrounding area was in chaos, but no one could get close to that flowering monster. Weier and the other two had failed and retreated in turn, leaving the warriors who knew their strength was inferior to the three to focus on fighting the parasitic monsters in front of them.

At this moment, there was actually no one around that guy.

Jier shook his head as he watched: "Can no one take care of that guy? This is a great bounty just waiting to be picked up! If no one takes it, I'm going to take down all three flowering monsters in this Banjiu Village one by one!"

Hearing Jier's words, the crowd grew restless. That's right, these flowering monsters were usually surrounded by dozens of ordinary parasitic monsters, making them truly difficult to defeat. Now was the perfect opportunity, the best time to take this guy down!

"I'll do it!" A shop thug holding a Great Hammer—it was unclear if he had borrowed it from a blacksmith shop or a place where they shod horses—swung his two-handed Great Hammer left and right, knocking back the blocking parasitic monsters, and went straight for the flowering monster that was rooted in place.

"Good, a warrior who has temporarily joined in is willing to try." Jier stood in the middle of the open space in the Cunzi, undisturbed by any of the duels happening around him.

The warriors under his command did not want Jier to easily finish off their enemies, so they avoided getting close to Jier, and the parasitic monsters dared not approach the imposing Jier, actively keeping their distance.

Especially the Blue Axe that Jier was carrying casually on his shoulder; they felt fear whenever they saw that axe.

Up until this moment, the flowering monster that Jier had pinned to a distant farmhouse wall with a Metal Spear through its chest had still not managed to free itself from the Long Spear.

It could not break the Metal Spear that pierced its chest, nor did it want to destroy its own body. It attempted to move through the several-meter-long spear shaft to break free, but the spear that pierced its chest had shattered its spine—the key location for transmitting control signals. After being shattered by the spear, the flowering monster could only barely control its hands, struggling to hold the spear shaft one in front and one behind, forcibly dragging its body.

At this time, the flowering monster with its feet rooted in the ground had no support from other monsters, and it could not move itself; it was the perfect time to strike.

That shop thug who claimed he would challenge it was also a clever guy; he did not risk getting too close, stepping into the range of the opponent's vine swings. Five steps away from the opponent, the thug actually spun in place, which left Jier unable to understand the man's plan.

Then, the thug suddenly stood firm and threw, the heavy Great Hammer in his hand heading straight for the monster's body.

The direction was very accurate!

"Good!" Jier couldn't help but cheer. You know, anyone can spin and throw a two-handed weapon, but very few people can control the specific trajectory of a released weapon at the last moment, let alone accurately attack an enemy at a certain distance.

Fortunately, at this very moment, the enemy's position was fixed, which reduced the difficulty of this move to some extent.

The Great Hammer left his hand, emitting an unnoticeable whistling sound. Then, the monster struggled to parry, successfully using its own arm vines to deflect the incoming Great Hammer.

"What a pity!" Many people, including Jier, sighed. If this strike had hit the monster's body, the other warriors who still seemed to be fighting nearby would likely have turned around immediately and seized this opportunity to go up and kill the flowering monster.

But unexpectedly, the thug grinned: "Not a pity! It blocked this one, but what about the next?"

It turned out that this guy had a Leather Bracer on his wrist, with one end of a sturdy Rope attached to the bracer and the other end attached to the tail of the Great Hammer.

The thug pulled his right hand, the Rope went taut, and he pulled the landed Great Hammer directly back.

The length of the Rope connecting the weapon was also specially controlled by the thug; the excess rope was wrapped around his forearm, and the length of the rope was just a little bit extra, making it convenient for him to retrieve the weapon.

"Watch me do it again!" The thug picked up the Great Hammer from the ground, spun and swung the weapon again, and threw it with a sudden stop, hitting the monster steadily once more.

This time, the flowering monster retracted one of its arm vines, coiling it into a shape similar to a Round Shield, which just happened to block the thug's repeated throwing attack.

"Watch me again!" The thug wanted to try again, but the monster was not stupid. Its other free arm vine suddenly reached forward, the vine at the front like an octopus tentacle, easily grabbing the Great Hammer that had fallen to the ground.

It pulled backward, instead dragging the thug who was outside the attack range closer.

Seeing this scene, everyone knew this person was in grave danger. The Tusi Brothers immediately fired Arrows to provide cover, but the flowering monster ignored it, letting the large Large Arrows pierce its chest and shoulders. The vine on its right hand pulled the person closer, and the vine on its left hand was already raised high, ready to deliver a heavy lash at any moment.

With its strength, a single strike would be enough to shatter a human's head, and the shop thug without a Metal Helmet was definitely dead.

Just at this moment, a blue light flashed across the battlefield.

The chest of the flowering monster rooted in the ground was instantly struck hard by something. The force of this strike was so great that even some of the roots it had anchored in the ground were snapped.

At the same time, what made it feel even more terrified was that the Blue Axe embedded in its chest was currently irreversibly devouring the essence and energy from its entire body—its life force!

Visibly to the naked eye, the two thick vines withered, rapidly becoming thin and short. The green color, originally full of vitality, also began to turn withered, yellow, and shriveled, like a shrub that had been exposed to the sun for a long time without water.

And its plant-based body, which originally had astonishing strength, also became hunched, and was constantly dehydrating and shrinking. In just a few breaths, a flowering monster that many people on the scene could not take down was suddenly sucked by the axe into a shriveled, curled-up ball of plants.

"Sigh, everyone don't blame me. I didn't want to intervene either, but everyone seemed unable to take this guy down, and people were going to die. I don't really like seeing my people die in front of me. I had no choice but to act..."

Jier spread his hands, walked up with light steps, pulled the head of the flowering monster from the curled-up plant ball, and carried it on his shoulder.

Many warriors around looked at Jier with complex expressions. Jier also felt the awe, fear, awkwardness, and alienation in the warriors' gazes, so he reached out and pointed to the last flowering monster that had not yet broken free from the Long Spear: "Don't say I didn't give you a chance. Look, that's the last flowering monster. This guy is injured and can't move well. If you still can't take it down, then I'm out of ideas."

Provoked by these words from Jier, the Warriors immediately finished off the other parasitic Monsters they were entangled with, roaring as they charged toward the last flowering Monster that was isolated and helpless.

The group swarmed it, and in the end, no one knew exactly who had finished that fellow off, so they could only go by who was lucky enough to claim the Monster's head, allowing one lucky Warrior under Jier to receive this bounty offered by the Sasi Family for obtaining the head of the flowering Monster.

A moment later, all the Warriors and the Caravan Priests entered Banjiu Village; most of the Warriors rested after the fierce battle, while a small number of injured Warriors took off their equipment to receive healing through the Prayers of the Priests of the God of Agriculture.

Most people's injuries were not serious, but some fellows who had been hit head-on by the parasitic Monsters experienced numbness and clumsy movements upon contact with the Monsters' bodies, which immediately filled them with terror, fearing that they had been parasitized by the parasitic Monsters without even knowing it.

But the Priests of the God of Agriculture stepped forward to explain, which eased the Warriors' terror.

It turned out that the surface of the parasitic Monsters' bodies had many fine root fibers that were hard to notice without close inspection; after these things touched a human body, they would secrete some paralyzing toxins, causing the human body to lose sensation, pain, and control.

This was also the reason why people who were forcibly parasitized by some parasitic Monsters were unable to resist.

Fortunately, no one was unlucky enough to be parasitized on the spot by a parasitic Monster in this battle.

And because the Human side won the battle, the corpses of the unlucky fellows who died in the fight would not be taken away by the Monsters to become more parasitic Monsters.

Everyone gathered in the open space in the center of the Village—well, at least most people gathered here; many Caravan guards and shop thugs, seeing that the battle was won and there were no more parasitic Monsters in the Village, felt their hands itching as they faced the empty Village.

Seeing that no one was managing them, these people who had gathered temporarily gradually dispersed and ran to the surrounding Farmer households to loot.

They wanted to take advantage of the short time before the returning Villagers arrived to rummage through the Villagers' homes for valuables; whatever they found would be their own. After all, any missing items could be blamed on the already exterminated parasitic Monsters, as no one knew for sure whether those parasitic Monsters liked or needed human wealth and items.

At this time, Jier took Aoni and a portion of his energetic, uninjured subordinate Warriors to the place where the last of the parasitic Monsters in the Village were entrenched.

The aura of the Monsters here was not strong, but they were all gathered in the same house.

Before this, Jier did not know what this house was used for, but after he brought his men over, he guessed what this house was for from the familiar atmosphere.

"Damn it, this place is where those Monsters parasitize and breed. If I'm not mistaken."

Jier kicked open the house door, and what came into view was indeed just as Jier had thought.

The house was quite large; it seemed to have originally been public property of the Village, used for receiving outside merchants and travelers for trade. At this moment, inside the two-story building, human corpses that had been parasitized were hung everywhere from the railings on the ceiling.

There was no lighting in the room, and the places where light could enter had been blocked off, so the dark room was filled with human corpses hanging in the air, which immediately made the scalps of the Warriors behind Jier tingle.

"If... if I had known, I wouldn't have followed the Lord here..." someone said with a bitter mouth; they had only just managed to forget the parasitic Monsters that fused with flesh, and now seeing this highly shocking scene, they were all speechless and looked ghastly.

Jier muttered the name 'Hanging Ghost'; this was a nickname given to the parasitic Monsters by the human Bandits in the northwest of Sasi County who were colluding with them. On the way here, Jier discovered that the parasitic Monsters attacking Sasi County on a large scale were actually masquerading as a group of human Bandits to confuse outside communications.

At least those hateful, ignorant Bandits did not know that the ones they were dealing with were not humans, but a group of Monsters under the command of an Evil God that would occupy human bodies.

The Monsters' intention was obviously simple and easy to guess: to confuse the outside human society and, while cutting off the routes in and out of Sasi County, gain time for them to breed and grow.

Although Yemei Town subsequently learned that they were parasitic Monsters and then informed various gods through the Church's Prayer methods.

But until now, there was still no outside force supporting Sasi County.

At least Jier did not know of any at this time.

"This house is useless, burn it down!" Jier ordered.

As the door was opened, the outside sunlight shone into the dark house, and many of the corpses still hanging in the room began to writhe in the air.

Jier stood guard at the door, having his subordinate Warriors clear the area around the building to avoid the fire spreading to other surrounding buildings. At the same time, some parasitic Monsters that sensed something struggled and fell to the ground; the formal parasitization process had not yet been completed, but they rushed toward Jier at the door impatiently.

Jier took them out one by one with his spear, severing the limbs of these fellows who were swaying and struggling to walk, and threw them into the middle of the room.

After his men were ready, Jier moved furniture to block the building's main entrance and had the Warriors set fire from all directions of the house to ignite it.

"Those who are idle, don't just stand there; go find water wells and buckets in the vicinity and bring water over! We must prevent the surrounding buildings from being ignited!"

Jier commanded, and the Warriors began to move, discussing in low voices the hair-raising scene they had just seen.

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