Wizard: I devour the stars with swarms of insects.

Now, facing the black spikes attacking from the front, everyone quickly took defensive and evasive action.

Some of the knights and guards in the group carried shields and stood at the very front of the group.

The black spikes struck the shield, making a clanging sound.

"What the hell are these things?!"

Holman is now hiding behind the shield of a knight.

Through the gaps in the shield, he saw numerous pink maggot-like creatures in the water ahead and couldn't help but curse.

"It should be the stuff secreted by that monster in front, or maybe it's from their mother."

Wayne said in a deep voice.

With a thought, I activated the [Honeycomb] intelligence and started the skill mode [Jing Yu].

Its own thorny tongues waved in front of it, forming a dense scarlet protective net that blocked all the incoming black spikes.

After firing for a while, the black "rain of arrows" gradually slowed down, and Wayne, with eyes like lightning, immediately made a judgment.

"After these things fire out their black spikes, there's a time interval; it seems they need to regrow. Hang in there, everyone. It should stop soon..."

As Wayne predicted.

Soon, as time went on, the dense "rain" of black spikes gradually slowed down, eventually becoming sparse and then stopping completely.

However, the undead that had been drawn by the monster's call were already right in front of them.

However, compared to those sharp and swift black spikes, these wandering zombie citizens were much easier to deal with.

"Senior Holman, follow me. The rest of you, cover us and hold off the zombies. We'll try to take down that guy in front!"

Wayne pierced the head of a nearby zombie with his thorny vines, then withdrew them and spoke to Holman beside him.

"Yes, sir," Holman said, then loudly ordered the other knights and guards, "Everyone, do as Junior Brother Wayne commands!"

"Yes, young master!"

So the knights and guards in the group surrounded the two of them, blocking them from the undead.

Then, Holman stepped forward, closely following Wayne, and the two approached the somewhat indescribable monster submerged in the puddles.

At the same time, Wayne was standing next to a knight who had just been caught in the midst of the pink maggots' "storm of black spikes" attack and had fallen to his death with a pierced neck.

Thorns pierced the tongue, and coiled up the longsword of the fallen knight.

It rotates at the shoulder, forming a "propeller"-like storm of iron swords.

The pink maggots in the water along the way were all chopped into pieces, their slimy corpses splattering everywhere.

At this moment, the two approached the monster.

Now, seeing the monster up close, Holman couldn't help but feel nauseous and wanted to vomit.

The monster before them was twisted all over, its body covered with scarlet cracks, revealing flesh and blood with sharp spikes inside.

The entire creature appeared indescribable.

Furthermore, they now seem to have sensed the approach of the two and felt threatened.

Its massive body writhed violently, revealing two thick, dark tentacles at the rear, covered with nodules and suckers.

It rose silently from the puddles beside it.

One gust of wind swept towards Wayne's waist, while the other swept towards Holman, who was a little further away.

Feeling the stench rushing towards him, Holman quickly dodged and gritted his teeth to unleash another [Hand of Exhaustion].

A phantom-like hand, seemingly composed of dark, thread-like traces, grasped the enormous, twisted monster in front of it.

However, after being hit, a faint layer of misty black particles spread across its body surface, seemingly negating the effect of [Weary Hand], and its movements did not slow down at all.

Furthermore, from one of the cracks, a thick, black spike suddenly shot out from the crimson flesh crevice, heading straight for Holman.

Holman suddenly ducked to avoid it.

Because of his short stature, he was quick enough to dodge it.

Holman's [Hand of Exhaustion] had no effect.

And noticing the black, misty particles that had just enveloped the twisted monster's body, Wayne's expression suddenly changed, and he said in a deep voice.

"That was... traces of energy particles? Damn, could this monster be man-made...?"

Wayne hadn't even had a chance to voice his thoughts.

At that moment, the leech-like, twisted monster in front of them, with its mouth covered in fine, sharp teeth, let out a roar.

Immediately afterwards, a teeth-grinding tearing sound rang out.

Four limbs with sharp, bony ends sprang out from the upper part of the twisted monster's torso and suddenly lunged at the two of them.

"Hmph!" Wayne snorted coldly, activating [Thorn Tongue] to send out blades to block the opponent's attack.

At the same time, the longsword at the end slashed towards the twisted monster's torso.

Pfft—!

One of the dark tentacles was cut in two, and a large amount of foul-smelling black slime splattered out.

The monster before them let out a roar of pain... or rather, it was unclear whether this indescribable monster even possessed the ability to feel pain.

Was he hurt by his own attack, or was it simply anger after being attacked?

Whoosh—!

The cracks on the leech monster's body suddenly split open.

Several sharp bone blades shot out from within, then converged simultaneously, forming a bone cage that strangled Wayne in front of him.

"Junior Brother Wayne!"

Upon seeing this, Holman's expression changed drastically, and he quickly began chanting a spell.

Even though his mental energy was already somewhat depleted, he bit his tongue hard and forced himself to use his mental energy to cast the sorcery spell "Weary Hand".

It was as if a giant hand, formed by dark, thread-like traces, was reaching forward.

However, just as it was about to reach the monster's surface, it was neutralized by the faint black mist particles emanating from it, rendering it completely ineffective.

"Damn it!" Holman cursed angrily, looking anxious.

At that moment, Wayne saw sharp bone blades and limbs coming at him from all directions, simultaneously strangling him.

The bone blade at the end was as sharp as a knife, gleaming with a cold light.

And because it was attacking from all directions—front, back, top, and bottom—at the same time, there was no room to dodge.

Even if he were to use the Hunter's Dagger at this moment, it would be too late.

Furthermore, whether one can avoid the closing bone blade limbs when "teleporting" forward is still uncertain.

"Damn it..." Wayne's expression darkened slightly.

I didn't expect this thing to retaliate so fiercely; I had no time to react in the midst of the hasty attack.

So at the last moment, he could only hastily urge the thorny tongues to retract and wrap around his body, forming a protective layer to safeguard his vital areas.

They pinned their hopes on being able to block such a fatal blow from the opponent.

"I just don't know if I can protect myself from the bone blades that this guy launches."

Wayne's face darkened as he sensed the increasingly close, sharp bone blade, and a sense of uncertainty crept into his heart.

Next, just as the bone blades were about to close in and attack him, the bone blades were about to encircle him.

Wayne glanced at the knuckles of his left hand and saw a strangely shaped ring.

Suddenly, something occurred to me, and my eyes lit up.

So, he quickly ran his fingers over the ring, activating the [Kiss of the Mad Serpent] ring with his mental energy.

At the same time, recalling the activation method that his mentor Morse had taught him, he whispered a spell.

"Ophidia Umbrae, Exsurgere et Venari (Ancient serpent in the shadows, awaken and taste the blood)..."

Then, with a whoosh... a thick black shadow spread out like viscous mercury.