On the ground, bodies sliced in half at the waist kept piling up, but the monster showed zero signs of getting tired.
The human traitors surrounding it were running out of guts, becoming increasingly careful in their dodging, not daring to push forward, afraid of ending up like their buddies.
You couldn't blame them for being so chickenshit.
These traitors with Spirituality 1-7 had maximum attributes averaging only around 4.
Facing Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards with 9 Strength and 7 Constitution was like bringing a knife to a gunfight!
Every few seconds, a scream rang out as the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard claimed another human traitor's life.
The four people hustling over—Howell and the others—saw this scene and all looked grim as death.
"What kind of monster is this?!"
Wolf was the most worked up since those guarding this gate were his guys.
Every death hit him right in the gut.
No time to overthink it—he roared, his body rapidly expanding, eyes turning blood red, radiating an insanely violent vibe!
Instantly, he grabbed everyone's attention.
"It's the boss!"
"The boss is here!"
"Team up with the boss to waste this monster and get payback for our dead brothers!"
"..."
The human traitor grunts shouted excitedly, as if Wolf showing up would definitely put this monster six feet under!
"Die!"
After firing up his berserker mode, Wolf's health began tanking fast, but his Strength jumped by a full 2 points, hitting 7!
He was feeling pretty cocky now. When the skeletal monster seemed distracted by the other human traitors, he struck like lightning.
His body shot out like a bullet, creating a shockwave,
Going straight for the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard's back skull!
The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard felt the air pressure behind it, spun around, and held its greatsword horizontally for defense.
Wolf, rocking blue quality Iron Fist spirit equipment, slammed hard into the greatsword.
"Boom!"
After the massive collision sound, a figure went flying backward fast, eating dirt.
"Boss!"
"Even berserker Wolf, famous for being a powerhouse, got schooled!"
"..."
The human traitor grunts felt more fear creeping into their hearts.
"What's there to be scared of? It's just one monster! Don't give it chances for close combat!
Keep your distance and kite it to death!"
When morale was tanking, Stuart stepped up, coolly issuing a series of commands.
After watching just a few moves, he'd already spotted the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard's 'weak spot.'
Speed was pretty slow.
Besides, this was just 1 monster, while more and more human traitors from the camp were showing up...
Stuart's words got the human traitors' confidence back as they started using hit-and-run tactics.
Dozens of traitor Guardians took turns switching out, rock-solid blocking the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard's attacks.
Whenever their health dropped big time, they'd rotate out to chill in the back.
Traitor Watchers and Arcane practitioners in the distance continuously unloaded ranged attacks.
High-mobility Concealers harassed from the flanks.
Berserkers and Rangers waited for openings, planning to deliver lightning strikes when the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard got worn down!
Under the tight teamwork of over a hundred human traitors,
The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard could no longer easily waste human traitors like at the start. Its offense kept getting stonewalled and its health steadily dropped.
Seeing the tactics working, this pumped up the human traitors' confidence even more, and their teamwork became increasingly smooth...
"Cough cough! Damn monster!"
Wolf struggled to get back on his feet. He never saw it coming that this would be a strength-type monster, making him look like a total chump.
Spitting blood, he looked confused at Howell and the other two in the distance, who weren't jumping into the monster beatdown.
Instead, they were huddled around a corpse, looking serious and talking about something.
Wolf walked over and looked down.
It was the corpse just killed by that monster—a huge sword wound punched through the entire body, making the death look absolutely brutal!
He cursed angrily:
"Damn monster! I'll rip you to shreds in a minute!"
Then he asked:
"Did you spot some problem with this corpse?"
Stuart and Chapman looked at each other, saying seriously:
"Wolf, haven't you noticed this sword wound looks familiar?"
"Familiar?"
Reminded of this, Wolf pushed down his inner rage and forced himself to look carefully despite feeling sick.
Suddenly his expression went white:
"This... this looks exactly like the sword wounds on monsters in Castle of Agony!!!"
Seeing Wolf reach the same conclusion, Stuart and Chapman were both sure they hadn't seen things wrong.
One person might see wrong, two probably wouldn't, and definitely not all three would be mistaken.
"You're saying that monster wiped out all the monsters in the Dark Mist node Castle of Agony?"
Howell frowned deep, turning to look at the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard getting mobbed by human traitors.
Even with deliberate distance-keeping, most human traitors were still slower than the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard.
Every now and then someone couldn't dodge in time and got taken out with one sword strike!
"No, while this monster is seriously powerful,
It's still not enough to clear an entire Dark Mist node!"
Howell admitted that even she would have a rough time lasting this long under so many Psionics' attacks, and more scary, it still showed no signs of wearing down.
But that was a Dark Mist node—a place even she wouldn't dare mess with leading the entire camp's forces.
Stuart and Wolf nodded, totally agreeing with Howell's take.
But Chapman spoke in his gravelly voice, looking extremely uneasy as he voiced his guess:
"What if... there's more than just one monster like this?"
"What?"
"How could that be possible..."
All four looked seriously spooked...
Their eyes locked on the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard, trying to pick out more details.
...
On a small hill not far from the human traitor camp, Carlos held a metal tube to his right eye.
This was one of his small inventions from Ember City, crafted by commissioning artisans based on his past life memories.
An alchemical telescope that could see distant scenes crystal clear.
"Quite a shit show—a camp of several hundred people."
Every so often, notification sounds rang in his mind.
[Spiritual Essence +4]
[Spiritual Essence +7]
[Spiritual Essence +3]
...
These human traitors provided way more Spiritual Essence than monsters of the same spirituality level—killing 1 was worth killing 10 monsters.
However, similarly, if human traitors could kill non-traitor humans, they'd also score massive amounts of Spiritual Essence.
That's why they often attempted mass slaughter.
Because of this greed and hatred, even without a sense of justice, once you ran into them, Psionics would fight to the death!