Liu Qian had no time to spare for the gaze of the nobles.
His entire attention was focused on the monster constantly lunging before him.
After several futile slashes, he gave up on the idea of a single killing blow and instead began to search for the monster's weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Just now, Gillian, relying on some combat experience, had the guards attack the monster's joints, and everyone else also vigorously attacked the monster's joints. However, even with injured joints, these monsters remained exceptionally ferocious and showed no decrease in speed.
Liu Qian had a flash of inspiration and no longer aimed for the monster's joints, but instead locked his target onto the monster's relatively fragile head.
One monster lunged again, its putrid breath almost spraying onto his face.
Liu Qian roared, no longer slashing, but pouring all his strength into his arms, thrusting his steel sword fiercely into the center of its pair of eerie green vertical pupils.
Pfft!
The dull thud of the blade entering flesh was accompanied by a sharp shriek. The sword tip precisely pierced the monster's eyeball, sinking deep into its skull. Thick, black, foul blood spurted from the eye socket, splattering Liu Qian's face, a sickening sight.
The monster twisted and convulsed wildly, its hooked claws scratching erratically.
Liu Qian gripped the hilt tightly, his body swaying with the monster's movements.
But he gritted his teeth, used all his strength to press down hard, and simultaneously cut horizontally.
The monster's neck was almost completely severed by the sharp steel sword, and its grotesque head lolled to one side, connected by only a bit of flesh. Finally, under the force of gravity, it completely broke off and rolled into the ashes.
The headless torso twitched a few times, then crashed to the ground.
This bloody and shocking scene caused the rhythm of the entire battlefield to momentarily halt.
Everyone saw a slave kill a monster.
"Attack the eyes! The eyes are their weak point!"
Gillian Lannister's roar instantly reawakened the struggling guards.
He himself led by example, seizing an opening and using the steel bracer on his left arm to forcefully parry a fatal claw attack.
He ignored the violent shock through his arm, surged forward, and with both hands, precisely drove the tip of his longsword into the monster's eye. The monster's head exploded with fluid, and it fell to the ground, dead.
This scene undoubtedly boosted the guards' morale.
They began to consciously coordinate, creating opportunities for their comrades to stab the eyes.
Soon, several more monsters were killed by precise combined attacks, falling dead to the ground.
However, the scales of victory had not completely tipped.
The number of monsters still held an overwhelming advantage, and more fatally, the slaves and sailors were almost completely wiped out. They lacked weapons and armor, and were like lambs to the slaughter before the monsters.
Piercing screams and the sound of flesh tearing constantly echoed, and the heavy smell of blood was almost suffocating.
"My lord!"
A guard, his face splattered with black blood, shouted to Gillian during a parry, his voice urgent:
"Give the extra swords to those slaves! Let them help, or we'll all be exhausted to death here!"
He was referring to the weapons left behind by the fallen guards on the ground.
Gillian's movements did not falter in the slightest. He swung his sword, forcing a monster back, but his blue-green eyes precisely locked onto the black-haired slave, Liu Qian, who was struggling to pull his sword, trying to retrieve a weapon from another monster's corpse.
Seeing the unusual calmness glinting in his eyes, Gillian felt a chill in his heart.
How would an Eastern slave, possessing such strength, wielding a sharp blade, and having witnessed his handling of the sick crew members and Lainede's subordinates, treat him next?
He instantly recalled some unpleasant things.
"No!"
Gillian's voice was unequivocal: "These maggots are only a burden and will only cause trouble. Kill all these beasts, our manpower is enough!"
Before his words finished, he had already lunged back into the monster horde, demonstrating his resolve with his actions.
The guards exchanged glances, a hint of struggle flashing across their faces.
But long-term training and strict hierarchical suppression made them choose to obey.
However, not everyone could completely suppress that faint flicker of compassion.
In the chaotic slaughter, taking advantage of the moment Gillian was entangled by two monsters and his vision was obstructed, several guards quickly threw their spare daggers from their waists or picked up discarded longswords, forcefully tossing them at the feet of the nearest slaves or sailors.
"Pick them up and fight these monsters with us!"
The instinct for survival overcame fear.
Several dying slaves and sailors unleashed their last strength, scrambling to pounce on the weapons on the ground.
Cold steel in hand, a faint glimmer of hope ignited in their desperate eyes.
They roared, brandishing their unpracticed weapons, and like cornered beasts, they lunged back at the monsters around them, using their lives to relieve a tiny bit of pressure from the guards.
Liu Qian, at this moment, was in a strange state of focus.
The process of personally killing three monsters not only gave him a more practical understanding of the power bestowed by Dragon Blood, but also brought a peculiar "feedback."
Each time a monster fell dead, a Dragon Spirit quietly merged into his body.
This essence was like a trickling stream, flowing into the "lake" in the depths of his consciousness that represented his magic limit.
0.08%... The number in his consciousness clearly flickered.
He had killed three, Gillian and his men had killed five.
Eight monsters provided a 0.08% increase in bloodline purity and an 800-point increase in magic limit.
If a monster could provide Dragon Spirit, the energy it contained was ten times that of those disgusting red maggots from last night.
This discovery delighted Liu Qian.
If he could continue to hunt these monsters, his bloodline purity would rapidly increase.
Just as he was calculating in his mind, a sudden change occurred!
"Whoosh—!!!"
A sharp shriek suddenly emanated from deep within the forest.
This sound was distinctly different from the chaotic roars of the monsters before; it was like a horn call.
All the monsters, who were furiously attacking, froze in unison.
A flicker of bewilderment crossed their eerie green eyes, and then they unhesitatingly turned, retreating in a panic into the dead tree forest at a speed even faster than their arrival. In the blink of an eye, they vanished without a trace, leaving only a mess of corpses on the ground.
Liu Qian leaned on his sword, breathing heavily, vigilantly staring in the direction where the monsters had disappeared, his heart pounding.
This sound was definitely some kind of command.
Was something behind these monsters, directing them?
A more powerful monster?
Or some unknown entity?
An absurd thought, yet one that sent chills down his spine, emerged.
Could it be humans?
However, he had no time to delve into the monsters' secrets.
Almost the instant the tail of the last monster disappeared into the woods, Gillian Lannister's cold voice already rang out.
"Surround these bastards!"
Clang!
The sound of metal scraping was perfectly synchronized.
The remaining twelve guards, though all wounded, displayed astonishing discipline the moment the order was given.
They moved swiftly, forming a tight encirclement, their sharp sword tips glinting coldly, pointed at the only survivors in the center of the battlefield.
Including Liu Qian, only five people remained.
Three slaves who could barely stand, two sailors covered in blood.
They all held the weapons they had just picked up, their hands trembling violently and uncontrollably.
They stood back to back, despairingly looking at the group of Lannister guards who had just been fighting alongside them, but now radiated killing intent.
Gillian stood outside the encirclement, his eyes icy cold.
His emerald eyes slowly swept over his guard squad.
"Which of you disobeyed my order and threw a sword to those scumbags? Step forward."
The faces of the four guards who had secretly thrown weapons instantly turned pale.
They looked at each other, their eyes filled with fear and struggle.
Under Gillian's cold gaze, which seemed to pierce their souls, they finally lowered their heads, and with hesitant steps, walked out of the formation and stood inside the encirclement.
"Pick up your weapons and kill those who accepted your pity!"