Everyone quickly followed Hughes, charging north.
Yarn and Yaka both had a look of surprise in their eyes.
Although they didn't know the specific abilities of Hughes, this Bloodline Knight, they could infer a thing or two from his current performance: it should be an ability to mimic the aura of a monster, but they didn't know if it would still be effective in front of a monster.
"Where is it?"
As the ruins of the building complex drew closer, Burton asked in a hushed voice.
"I've only seen it in this direction," Yarn lowered his head, not daring to look directly at Burton, and said softly.
Although Burton was slightly annoyed, he didn't say anything more.
He also knew that a third-tier monster was far from what ordinary people could handle, and even Bloodline Users above the third-tier had to be careful, so it was normal for Yarn not to dare to get too close to the ruins of the building complex.
"Armored Demon Rabbits build their nests underground. See if there are any openings leading underground around here."
As Burton's words fell, everyone's eyes involuntarily turned to the ground around them, beginning to search for the burrow.
Unlike Yarn, who was still guessing whether Hughes's ability would work in front of monsters, Burton knew very well that Hughes's ability could at most only confuse those monsters that had no brains or simply relied on scent to distinguish enemies. It had absolutely no effect on third-tier monsters or some smarter second-tier monsters.
Therefore, the most urgent task was naturally to find the Armored Demon Rabbit's burrow as soon as possible.
Third-tier monsters are Lord-level monsters, and their nests usually do not allow any lower-tier monsters to enter. Therefore, as long as they successfully entered the burrow, Burton knew that half of their plan for this trip had succeeded.
"Found it!" a soldier shouted, "Over there!"
Everyone looked and indeed saw a sunken pit in a large area of ruins not far away.
The pit was over two meters in diameter, sloped downwards, and its walls were uneven, with very clear and typical excavation marks.
But Burton's eyes lit up: "This is it!"
With that, he had already taken the lead, surpassing Hughes, and rushed towards the pit with all the soldiers, while not forgetting to instruct: "Hughes!"
"I understand, Lord Burton," Hughes immediately nodded in agreement, and at the same time, he whispered to Yarn and his son, who had fallen behind everyone else, "You two hurry up and go down to protect Lord Burton. If he dies, we all die!"
Yarn and his son, who had long suspected Burton's identity was not simple, naturally had no objections at this moment. They just hurriedly followed behind Burton and his group of soldiers, and then quickly entered the pit.
However, Hughes did not follow them down. Instead, after sliding down a certain distance, he changed the scent on his body again.
If the previous scent was only a slight peculiar smell, then this time, the scent emanating from the gray mist around Hughes became putrid, mixed with a strong earthy smell: somewhat like the smell of a rotting corpse mixed with decaying vegetation.
However, when Yarn and Yaka slid out of the range covered by Hughes's gray mist, they found that the scent emanating from the pit was much stronger than the scent from Hughes's gray mist. This instantly gave Yarn a guess: perhaps Hughes's Bloodline ability was to assimilate the scent of the surrounding environment to confuse the enemy's perception and judgment.
The few of them slid down, and after an unknown amount of time, they finally reached the bottom.
The surrounding visibility was dim, almost imperceptible, but a rapid yet orderly sound of footsteps quickly echoed in their ears.
Yarn knew that this was the thirteen soldiers forming a formation.
His evaluation of Kingdom Army soldiers was higher than that of noble private soldiers because Kingdom Army soldiers had an astonishingly high demand for discipline. This was why these Kingdom Army soldiers could quickly form a formation and take corresponding defensive measures even in a dark environment where nothing could be seen.
After a few more seconds, a faint light finally appeared, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.
A glow-in-the-dark bottle.
The glow-in-the-dark bottle contained a fluorescent liquid refined primarily from luminescent mushrooms and glow-in-the-dark grass. The bottle itself was opaque and black, so usually nothing could be seen. But once thrown and shattered, the liquid inside would quickly splash out and begin to emit a soft glow in a very short time, without irritating creatures that could not tolerate strong light due to brightness issues, making it very suitable for underground combat environments.
At this moment, after more than a dozen glow-in-the-dark bottles were shattered, the entire burrow was covered in a dim glow, and everyone's vision instantly became clear.
And the first thing they saw was the almost countless bones of various creatures within this burrow.
There were both animal and human remains.
Almost all the soldiers' faces instantly changed, but their strong psychological fortitude prevented them from vomiting on the spot.
Each of them held a crossbow with an armor-piercing arrow dipped in some kind of black liquid.
Burton also took out his weapon at this time, a broadsword.
Everyone began to move forward in the burrow. If they encountered a dimly lit area where they couldn't see clearly, they would throw a glow-in-the-dark bottle, ensuring that the visibility throughout the entire burrow became clear.
"Father?" Yaka, who was following behind these people, whispered.
But Yarn did not answer, only nodding slightly first, then shaking his head slightly.
Yaka then closed his mouth.
Burton just assumed Yaka was a bit nervous, so he spoke, "Don't worry, these soldiers all have armor-piercing crossbows, which can directly pierce through the iron armor on the Armored Demon Rabbit. The strongest point of this third-tier monster is that it relies on the iron armor on its body to charge recklessly, but that's only for other foolish monsters. Our human race has long had many ways to deal with these monsters."
Along the way, Yarn and Yaka had also seen Burton commanding these soldiers to deal with the first and second-tier monsters. His methods were even more decisive and effortless than their father and son's, so they naturally knew that what Burton said was true.
"Ah—"
A sudden scream, accompanied by the sight of a soldier flying horizontally in front of everyone, resonated simultaneously.
The soldier who crashed into the stone wall of the burrow had his chest armor completely caved in, and his body was deformed in multiple places, clearly indicating that he could not possibly be alive.
At this moment, everyone suddenly realized that a calf-sized monster had appeared in the burrow at some unknown time.
Its entire body was a metallic grayish-white, with short forelimbs but thick hind legs, and its eyes were deep black.
It was this creature that had suddenly burst out from an undetected corner, directly knocking the soldier flying. When it stood upright at this moment, everyone was astonished to find that this rabbit-like monster was over two meters tall.
"Scatter and fire!"
Burton roared, simultaneously charging forward with his broadsword: "You…"
He was about to ask Yarn and Yaka to assist from the side, but he only saw Yarn, as if scared silly, turn and rush into the darkness without looking back. This made him curse under his breath, but there was nothing he could do. At this moment, he could only be glad that the initial plan for hunting this Armored Demon Rabbit did not include anyone other than himself and the six soldiers.
The other twelve soldiers, upon hearing Burton's words, immediately began to disperse.
These people had very clear divisions of labor.
Several of them directly threw glow-in-the-dark bottles at the Armored Demon Rabbit, ensuring that even if it ran back into the dark area, its tracks could still be seen; the others raised their crossbows and, with a pull of the trigger, fired their armor-piercing arrows.
In an instant, the Armored Demon Rabbit was pierced by six or seven armor-piercing arrows.
For humans, one of these armor-piercing arrows would be enough to tear open a terrifying, bloody wound, but when they struck the Armored Demon Rabbit's body, they only left a few insignificant blood holes and could not completely penetrate its body to leave gruesome wounds, but this still caused the Armored Demon Rabbit to let out a painful roar.
After one round of shooting, these soldiers immediately began to replace their arrows and re-string their bows.
However, those few soldiers who had not participated in the first round of shooting but had chosen to throw glow-in-the-dark bottles now took on the responsibility of defensive support. They quickly raised their crossbows and initiated the second round of shooting, buying time for their comrades to reload their arrows.
At this moment, Burton finally charged in front of the Armored Demon Rabbit.
His heart slightly relaxed.
Because he knew that he had passed the most dangerous moment—his family had a Bloodline of a sixth-tier Bloodline User, so the path to Bloodline advancement had long been determined, and they naturally understood the Armored Demon Rabbit: the most dangerous moment of the Armored Demon Rabbit was its initial, unexpected charge when it first appeared, because no one knew which direction it would attack from while hidden in the darkness, so even he could very likely be targeted and severely injured on the spot.
But once the first charge attack was dodged, the Armored Demon Rabbit would stand upright as if asserting its dominance, creating a deterrent effect.
This might be effective against other lower-tier monsters and ordinary people, but it clearly had no effect on him and the soldiers he brought, so this was also their best first attack opportunity.
However, if the Armored Demon Rabbit felt pain at this moment, it could easily enter a berserk state, because it would interpret such an attack as a provocation to its status as a Lord-tier creature.
To prevent the Armored Demon Rabbit's second explosive charge attack, Burton deliberately divided the soldiers into two groups: in the first round of attack, several people were not responsible for attacking, but for throwing glow-in-the-dark bottles at the Armored Demon Rabbit. This would both pinpoint its location and provide defensive support during the interval when their comrades were reloading their arrows, interrupting any potential second explosive charge from the Armored Demon Rabbit and buying him time to get close.
Now, Burton's soldiers had achieved this.
So Burton also rushed in front of the Armored Demon Rabbit, raised the broadsword in his hand, and then fiercely brought it down.
Amidst the scattering sparks, the Armored Demon Rabbit's head suffered a heavy blow from Burton. Although this blow did not sever the Armored Demon Rabbit's head, the Armored Demon Rabbit felt a dizzy spell due to this instant heavy impact, even feeling a momentary blackness before its eyes, and the entire rabbit became sluggish.
Burton's eyes suddenly lit up. He quickly raised the broadsword in his hand, and his gaze became exceptionally focused at this instant. His entire demeanor became remarkably different, gaining a sense of awe-inspiring ferocity.
The next moment, Burton exhaled loudly, and the broadsword in his hand suddenly gleamed, its downward strike appearing as several overlapping images.
Combat Skill 【Guillotine】!