Chapter 837: Lumber Yard Circumferential Battle (Part 3)

Seeing that the battle here was under control, Jier did not intervene; he steered his horse around the perimeter and rode forward to find the Baron Heir.

Letting Tianxuecao trot for a while, Jier also took the opportunity to stab to death three parasitic monsters he encountered that had strayed from the main monster force, and soon, he arrived at another battlefield ahead where movement and combat were ongoing.

On the wide, flat field outside the Lumber Yard, the neighing of humans and horses resounded; the parasitic monsters that had occupied human bodies also let out loud roars that far surpassed those of wild beasts.

It was impossible to tell how the parasitized human bodies could emit such inhuman sounds.

Three merchant carriages carrying people were speeding along, transporting the Baron Heir, five Refining Qi soldiers of the Sasi Family, and four Church Priests, respectively; they were fighting bravely, and as each weapon was swung, they all let out various battle cries.

The Baron Heir kept shouting things like "For the honor of the Sasi Family," while the heavy steel axe in his hands danced left and right, hacking off the vine tentacles of the parasitic monsters that approached his carriage.

At the same time, he did not just stand at the driver's position to fight; because his carriage cargo box was empty, cunning parasitic monsters would often seize the opportunity to accelerate and leap into the cargo box from behind the carriage. At these times, the Baron Heir Bell-Sasi had to vault into the cargo box behind him and nimbly finish off the monsters.

The carriage carrying the soldiers was treated as a primary target by the parasitic monsters; although these Refining Qi soldiers of the Sasi Family were well-equipped, each wearing expensive iron armor and an iron helmet and wielding a sharp axe, compared to everyone else present, they were the weakest group.

A dozen or so parasitic monsters ignored the fact that the soldiers' carriage was still speeding along, surrounding it from all directions and leaping over; some lunged at the pack horses pulling the carriage, while others held wooden sticks broken off from who knows where, roaring as they thrust them into the carriage wheels. Still others gripped the edge of the cargo box with one hand, while their other hand abandoned the human wrist and palm, sprouting large amounts of plant vines to lash out at the human soldiers inside the cargo box like whips or flesh flails.

Amidst the inhuman roars of the monsters, several soldiers fighting on the merchant carriage also roared as they fought. They knew Young Master Bell could not make it over in time, so amidst the monsters' surrounding attacks, they could only rely on themselves.

"Eat my axe!"

At the rear of the cargo box, the tallest and sturdiest Refining Qi soldier roared and swept his axe horizontally; it looked wild, but this horizontal sweep stayed tight against the rear wall of the cargo box, not only severing the writhing vine roots lashing out randomly but also precisely hacking off the fingers of the parasitic monsters that were gripping the rear wall of the cargo box.

Plant sap and dark red human blood splattered everywhere, and the severed fingers rolled around inside the carriage; as the carriage sped along, they rolled back and forth, back and forth, before being trampled and crushed by the soldiers' iron-clad boots.

Immediately, two or three monsters at the rear fell off in frustration, left far behind the speeding carriage.

Besides the soldier roaring and fighting at the rear of the cargo box, although the fast-turning wheels on both sides of the cargo box helped block the parasitic monsters, the monsters, which feared no pain and did not care about the damage to their parasitized human bodies, still managed to jump onto the carriage from there.

Although most parasitic monsters that did this were caught in the wheels and thrown off, they came one after another, and the monsters still managed to grab hold and climb up.

Therefore, the two soldiers here had to constantly push the climbing parasitic monsters back off the carriage. Because space was tight, these two had to stand back-to-back, fighting with an axe in one hand and a short sword or Dagger in the other.

The axes could not be swung with the wide, sweeping motions of the big guy in the back; they could only hold the axe high and then bring it down heavily, or prioritize thrusting with the secondary Dagger or short sword in the left hand before following up with a chop from the axe in the right hand.

This was how they drove off the parasitic monsters climbing onto the carriage from the sides.

Meanwhile, at the front of the carriage, the driver screamed in terror, as from time to time, a parasitic monster would gauge the direction and distance and leap over from the front side, attempting to knock him off the carriage.

Fortunately, there was a Refining Qi soldier beside this driver protecting him; whenever a monster approached, this soldier would use a shield in one hand and an axe in the other to knock the lunging monster off the carriage.

Because this was not a traditional contact battle on the ground but a simple skirmish during the carriage's movement, it was difficult for the soldiers to completely kill these parasitic monsters. Therefore, despite them knocking the parasitic monsters off the carriage every time and hacking and severing the monsters' limbs, due to the special abilities of the Flesh Demon parasitic monsters, these monsters often climbed back up quickly after being knocked off.

Furthermore, on the wounds of the parasitized human bodies, many plant roots would sprout from inside the body to help repair the damage.

Or they would directly use swaying root tentacles to replace the missing parts.

During the next fight, they became even more difficult to deal with.

Of the five soldiers, the last one was not on the carriage but was riding on the two pack horses pulling the carriage at the front. This soldier was carefully lying prone on the leather straps here, defending against parasitic monsters that wanted to attack the horses.

However, even though this soldier was very careful, the limited leather straps between the two horses that could be used for leverage made it difficult for the soldier to maintain balance, let alone protect the two pack horses.

"Watch out! Another one is coming!"

The soldier standing at the driver's position still had the energy to observe the front during the fight, and upon discovering that another parasitic monster had set its sights on the horses, he hurriedly warned his companion ahead.

"I see it! I see it! Stop rushing me—"

The soldier responsible for protecting the pack horses shouted back in dissatisfaction, but there was no help for it; at this moment, half of his leg was hanging in the air with no leverage, while the other half had to be curled up and placed on the leather straps connecting the horses, and both his hands had to be placed diagonally on the back of one horse to keep himself as balanced as possible.

But even so, he could not free up a hand to hold a weapon.

Seeming to have noticed the human soldier's predicament, the parasitic monster running relatively toward them from not far in front of the carriage let out a loud cry and began to run with long strides, heading straight for the front of the carriage.

The target was precisely the two sturdy pack horses pulling the speeding carriage.

Although crashing straight into them like this would likely result in being knocked over by the horses and then trampled by the carriage, the parasitic monster did not care at all; after calculating the distance, it accelerated and lunged over, immediately grabbing the neck of one of the pack horses.

"Damn thing!"

Right beside him, that soldier cursed, then used his right hand to brace his body and maintain balance, before taking a Single-handed Axe from his left waist with his left hand and reaching out to hack at the parasitic monster.

But that parasitic monster laughed, swung its body, and kicked over.

With a squelch, the axe shattered half of the monster's parasitized human foot, but the parasitic monster's laughter grew even louder.

"Still laughing!!!"

The soldier tried his best to reach out while maintaining his balance and swung another axe, but the monster kicked over again.

But this time it was different; from the place where the foot was severed, the parasitized human body rapidly extended many thick vine tentacles. This stuff was quite sturdy; the soldier hacked at it with an axe, only mincing a small portion of the root tentacles, while more tentacles grabbed the side of the soldier's axe in reverse, fixing it in place.

As the parasitic monster swung its leg, the axe in the soldier's hand was ripped out of his control in two moves.

After all, the strength of a hand gripping an axe handle could not compare to the strength of a human leg.

"Damn it—"

The soldier had not expected this and lost his weapon due to a moment of carelessness. He wanted to snatch the weapon back, but he did not expect this parasitic monster to use its foot like a hand; those strange, disgusting vine tentacles curled back onto the axe handle, and after gripping the axe, it immediately swung it out.

"Whoa—"

This axe strike landed on the back of the pack horse; although the wound was not large, it still affected the speed at which this pack horse was running.

The carriage slowed down as a result.

"Quick, kill that guy! Don't let it hurt the horses pulling the carriage!"

The soldier at the driver's position roared.

"I know! Stop rushing me!"

The soldier between the two horses gritted his teeth and said; the next moment, he took a deep breath, then used his hands and feet to gain leverage and leaped up, lunging straight at the back of the injured pack horse.

The parasitic monster gripping the neck of this pack horse swung a leg, and the axe struck the soldier's waist side after a sharp clash of metal.

Sparks from the metal collision and blood splattered everywhere, and after a muffled groan, the soldier hugged the parasitic monster's leg tightly, threw his body, and used the weight of his armor to drag this parasitic monster off the carriage together.

"Bulo!!!"

The soldier at the driver's position shouted, hurriedly turning to look behind the carriage at his companion's situation.

That soldier and the parasitic monster fell off the carriage together, and the next moment, both guys were trampled by the galloping hooves, followed by the iron-clad wheel on one side of the carriage rolling over them.

After the carriage jolted twice, the soldiers saw that the soldier named Bulo and the parasitic monster had both been pressed into the soft ground by the carriage.

However, it seemed that because the ground in this area was too soft, even after being trampled by the hooves and rolled over by the wheels in succession, neither of the two guys had died; they were just both embedded deep into the soft ground with most of their bodies, unable to move.

The soldier fell unconscious, but he held onto one of the Monster's legs in a death grip.

The Monster had one of its arms crushed, while its other arm struggled to pull itself out of the ground, then slammed down heavily toward the unconscious soldier's head.

Bang.

The Monster had considerable strength; even though the soldier was wearing an Iron Helmet, this blow caused blood to seep from the unconscious soldier's nose and mouth.

At this moment, the Monster's arm raised up again.

Whoosh—Crack!

Before the Monster's fist could fall, a Long Spear suddenly flew in, piercing the center of the Monster's arm; then, like a heavy axe, the Gun-blade sheared the entire arm of the Monster in two as it passed through.

The Long Spear then drove deep into the ground.

The Monster turned its head to look in the direction the Long Spear had been thrown from, then let out a loud shriek.

A Human was riding a horse, charging toward it.

A lethal killing intent was enveloping it, filling it with terror.

The Monster wanted to flee, but most of its body was embedded in the soft ground; while it wasn't impossible to get out, it would take some time, and it was likely too late.

Furthermore, one of its legs was still being held tightly in the arms of the unconscious Human soldier, leaving it unable to move.

It swung its right arm, but the arm bone had been crushed when it fell from the carriage by the kick of a Pack Horse; normally this wouldn't be a problem, as it could just let the vines inside the arm replace the bone, but the crushing had destroyed not only the arm bone of the host body but also the internal vine tissue in that part of the arm.

With no other choice, the Monster had to extend new vine tentacles from the stump of its left arm to use as a final weapon for battle.

Jier accelerated on horseback to charge up, and because he had thrown his Long Spear to sever the Monster's arm, he jumped off his horse upon closing the distance, landing with a boom. Using his momentum, his boots carved two deceleration tracks over a meter long into the soft ground; as he came to a stop, he was right in front of the soldier and the Monster.

The Monster's severed arm surged with meter-long vine tentacles, which it swung as a weapon, but Jier caught them with his left hand; ignoring the vines as they coiled back around his arm, he leaned forward and struck with his right fist, blowing the Monster's entire face apart with one punch.

Then, taking advantage of the moment the Monster lost its ability to observe through the host body, he ripped open the dirty, foul-smelling clothes the creature was wearing and found the Monster Core—a parasitic human face—located on the left side of its torso.

This thing suddenly opened its previously shut eyes and let out a scream from its tiny mouth, but the next moment, Jier reached over with his right hand and, without a word, forcefully tore into the body, pulling out the entire Monster Core that had been controlling the long-dead Human body.

The vines wrapped around his left hand immediately lost their strength and went limp; Jier didn't even look, just squeezed his right hand, crushing the still-screaming and struggling parasitic face into fragments.

A pleasant, fresh scent of plants immediately dispersed, accompanied by the smell of soil churned up from the ground, and Jier let out a breath.

He then carefully dragged the soldier from where he was embedded in the ground nearby.

A quick glance revealed that the soldier hadn't just fallen unconscious; he had even stopped breathing.

This gave Jier a great shock; he hurriedly removed the soldier's slightly deformed Helmet, revealing a young face only a few years older than Jier's own at the time.

The face was covered in mud, likely from being pressed into the ground earlier, and blood was still seeping from the nose and mouth. But fortunately, Jier took out a piece of Linen Cloth used for wiping his Long Sword, and after wiping the soldier's nose and mouth, he found that the soldier was still breathing, albeit very weakly.

But just as he laid the soldier flat on the ground, the soldier's breathing immediately became intermittent.

Jier slapped his own forehead, and the next moment he unfastened the soldier's armor so that it would no longer hinder his breathing. Under normal circumstances, robust soldiers would not have their breathing hindered by the weight of armor, but with the combination of unconsciousness and injury, it was hard to say.

It was then that Jier realized that compared to the heavy blow the Monster had dealt to the soldier's head, the real danger to the soldier was the wound on his waist where an axe had cut through his armor.

"Isn't this his own axe?"

Jier found it strange; how did this soldier's weapon end up in the Monster's hand—er, no, on the Monster's foot—and cause him such a severe injury?

The wound was deep, and now, after being jostled by Jier, blood was continuously flowing from it.

There was no other way; Jier looked up, and not only had the Baron Heir's carriage driven far away and out of sight, but the carriages of the soldiers and Priests had also followed the group of Monsters into the distance; they would only return after circling the Lumber Yard with the Monsters.

Jier was powerless to treat the injury; he could only use the soldier's own clothes to wrap tightly around the waist wound to stop him from bleeding to death. As for battlefield treatment, that would have to be left to the Priests to figure out.

Jier waited anxiously for a while; it wasn't that he hadn't considered putting the unconscious, injured soldier on his horse to actively search for the main group, but the soldier's condition was poor, and his already weak breathing could barely be sustained with the slightest movement.

With no choice, Jier had to leave him on the ground and call back the Tianxuecao to wait for the others to return.

It didn't take long before the neighing and shouting of men and horses came intermittently from the other side of the Lumber Yard, and the sounds of the Monsters had quieted down a little; clearly, in the process of moving and fighting, another portion of the Monsters had been dealt with.

Jier had sharp eyes and was the first to notice that the situation was slightly different. Unlike before, the Baron Heir was now standing in the carriage, engaged in a one-on-one duel with a Monster holding a blade.

The two were exchanging blows within the cramped cargo bed of the carriage, though the fight wasn't intense; while fighting, they were also commanding their respective subordinates.

Jier saw that, unlike the previous dispersion, the various carriages had now regrouped and were moving while engaging the remaining Monsters.

The vehicles were either following one another or driving side-by-side; soldiers and Priests had moved onto other vehicles, while even more Monsters had climbed up, using the vine tentacles extending from their hands and feet to swing and leap between the carriages.

"What is this? Is everyone playing at being acrobats?"

Jier said, speechless.

However, he could also see that the situation of the group in the convoy was not very good; the main reason was that the two Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead were not putting in much effort, and while the other Priests and soldiers could handle a small number of Monsters, they were overwhelmed when faced with dozens of Monsters swarming them.

The two Priests of the Sun God Church were restricted in their movements; they couldn't unleash the power of their high-heat Jiao Shi Chang Zhang, fearing that throwing them would ignite the nearby Lumber Yard, and they were also afraid of setting the carriages they were riding on on fire during close-quarters combat.

As for the Priests of the Church of the God of Wealth and the Priest of the Agriculture God, they were currently scattered and fighting alongside the soldiers; although the situation was not ideal, it looked like the Monsters were having a hard time taking them down.

Whenever a Monster broke through the soldiers' blockade and climbed onto a carriage, the Priest of the Church of the God of Wealth would flick a glowing coin, striking it heavily and knocking it off the carriage.

And the soldiers fighting alongside the Agriculture God Priest would constantly receive stamina-restoring crop seeds from the Priest; they didn't need to eat them, as simply touching them would imbue their bodies with the Divine Power of the Agriculture God. If it weren't for the fact that none of the soldiers held Faith in the Agriculture God, these Divine Powers might have been able to play an even greater role at this time.