Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 74 [Bloodshed to Destruction, Battle to Heaven]

The snow had stopped, and the howling wind carrying ice shards had disappeared, replaced by the roars of the corpse beasts, echoing under the frozen sky.

The savage warriors of Derkgon are made of twisted monster flesh and blood. The tendons of wild beasts are twisted into a rough and robust human shape in a terrifying way. Scraggly bony tracheas and sharp bone blades stick out haphazardly on them, forming the savage gladiator's body.

They wore cage-shaped blindfolds, as if adding a beast-taming visor to the structure of a gladiator's helmet—visors worn by ferocious beasts such as lions and eagles to obscure their vision, reduce aggression and bloodlust, and prevent tamed beasts from going out of control and accidentally injuring others.

However, these blindfolds obscured most of their vision, causing the Corpse Beast Gladiators to behave in a chaotic and frenzied manner.

They wore no armor made of Nether Bronze, only rattling Nether Bronze chains that hung down around their shoulders and necks like lion's mane, with bones torn alive from the bodies of monsters as spoils of war, forming cloaks of bones and Nether Bronze chains.

With a series of soft cracking sounds, the flesh-and-blood gladiators landed on all fours, and from the flesh at the ends of their limbs, long, blade-sized claws of dark bronze sprang out. The claws were curved, thick, and barbed, acting like meat hooks on the broad, skinless, fleshy lion paws. The claws dug deep into the ground, dragging their heavy, massive bodies forward with excitement.

Clatter! Clatter! The bronze chains carrying the spoils were dragged behind by inertia. The snow and grass were torn apart by the grappling hooks, grass clippings flew everywhere, and dirt and ice shards splattered, turning the once smooth ground into fragments with claw marks.

"Tear it apart!" the gladiators roared, "Tear everything apart!"

On the other side, Ansba's barrel-helmeted cavalry showed no fear and made no attempt to retreat. They charged forward with their lances raised high, their hooves thundering.

The Skeleton Warriors are the complete opposite; their bodies, composed entirely of skeletons, bronze-spotted fossils, and rusted bronze tree roots, have no flesh or blood. Their cold bones are silent and calm, with the aloofness of a monastery sculpture, and their hard, cold, and wooden forms shape the blade of their lances.

The ascetics made no war cries, only the rumble of horses' hooves, as if a thunderstorm was approaching.

The two lines of battle, like two opposing waves, appeared on either side of the area of ​​bushes and sparse rusted copper trees in front of the lake, colliding head-on on the land riddled with holes by catapults!

Clang! The fleshy, hook-like bronze claws clashed violently with the hammer-like lance!
As the first waves of the charge collided, amidst the ear-piercing metallic scraping sound, some of the flesh-and-blood gladiators were pierced and sent flying by the combat skills of the lances, but others, taking advantage of the speed of their run-up, leaped up and, like lions hunting rabbits, slammed the skeleton cavalrymen off their mounts!

To facilitate acceleration, the first wave of skeleton cavalry did not wear heavy bronze armor and had to rely on their fossilized skeleton bodies to withstand the attack.

The long, hook-like claws of dark bronze slashed viciously into the bodies of the cavalrymen, the half-human, half-lion claws embedding themselves deeply into their joints.

Bang! A terrifying, gunshot-like explosion echoed through the sky. Bloodied muscles swelled violently, and amidst the booming sound of gunfire, the bony tracheas on the tendons spewed out a cloud of blood and smoke, unleashing terrifying necromantic power. The giant bronze claws then ripped the limbs and joints of the skeleton warriors off!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Amidst a series of gunshot-like explosions, the Drogon gladiators were torn to pieces by the fallen skeleton warriors.

The scanner is now enabled.

[Biological Structure Detection: Pneumatic Tendon]

[The pneumatic tendons (and their associated air sacs), with their hollow tubular skeleton and associated tendon structures forming a one-way pneumatic valve, utilize a powerful respiratory system to fill the air sacs with compressed gas, releasing tremendous force at the moment the valve is depressurized.]

[Commonly used in industrialized biological slave labor and biological weapons.]

Only fresh, strong muscle can withstand the air pressure of a structure; the tendons of weak organisms or rotting tendons that have been dead for too long cannot create this structure.

The database has been updated.

[Burn to the "Artificial Life Sciences - Biological Structure Materials" content library]

[Lacking an organic psionic structure, the body is temporarily unusable.]

Nearly a third of the skeleton cavalry were knocked off their mounts. The remaining two-thirds wanted to continue charging, but the flesh gladiators roared excitedly. Amidst the cracking of pneumatic tendons and bursting blood mist, they hurled the fossilized limbs of skeleton warriors they had just broken off, smashing them onto the cavalrymen and their mounts' legs. The massive impact sent them sprawling.

The second group of cavalry consisted of heavily armored warriors in barrel helmets, their thick bronze plates covering them completely, making them appear almost like solid blocks of bronze. This is why they moved slowly and fell behind.

After they landed, they were pinned down by their broken-legged mounts, but because of their exceptionally thick armor, they were not seriously injured.

The flesh-and-blood gladiators rushed forward in ecstasy, but all they heard was a screeching sound. Their long claws failed to pierce the thick plate armor, leaving only deep claw marks on the surface.

The skeleton warriors, having lost their mounts, quickly adapted to the foot combat environment. They discarded their lances used in mounted combat and, like Ansba, slowly and deliberately drew their heavy greatswords from their backs. Amidst the staggering impact, the heavily armored barrel-helmeted warriors gripped their swords with both hands, swung the blades in a wide arc, and spun the greatswords, creating a bronze arc of light amidst the whooshing sound.

The broad and thick bronze greatsword was comparable to a blunt weapon. With its terrifying weight, the blade, carrying a sharp gust of wind, slammed heavily into the flesh-and-blood gladiators' bodies.

The immense impact interrupted their charge, smashing their bodies, and the subsequent heavy stabs and slashes damaged their limbs.

The pneumatic tendons and bones were smashed, and the air sacs inside made a whooshing sound, like the panting of a dying animal.

Bang! Bang bang! A series of explosive sounds from the pneumatic tendons rang out again, and the flesh-and-blood gladiators pounced forward. Suddenly, the heads under the helmets of the blindfolded gladiators tore apart, and their jaws were pulled out at an incredible angle like a python, revealing huge mouths with jagged fangs.

The jaws of the gigantic maw were covered with a dense array of dark bronze serrations, resembling the teeth of a shark. A tongue, like a spring, sprang from the throat, its fleshy tentacles tipped with dark bronze hooks, piercing the armor of the skeleton warriors and dragging them into its mouth.

Bang! Bang! Blood mist burst from the bony jet pipes around their mouths, and the pneumatic tendons in their jaws were activated. The powerful instantaneous bite force slammed into their armor with the ferocity of a pneumatic hammer, instantly creating dozens of neat, tooth-shaped dents.

The serrated teeth scraped against the plate armor, producing a piercing, teeth-grinding sound. The flesh-and-blood gladiators had completely transformed into beasts, their shark-tooth maws biting fiercely into the armor of the skeleton warriors. Amidst the frantic, vibrating sawing sounds, the serrated teeth gnawed cracks into the bronze armor.

The scanner is now enabled.

[Biological Structure Inspection: Vibration Cutting Saw Teeth]

The vibratory cutting saw teeth (and their associated bone-like grooved tracks and tendons), with specialized shark-shaped teeth, are longitudinally fixed to a bone-like grooved track that can saw back and forth. Before contact with the target, the bone-like track locks in place to facilitate cutting. After contact with the target, the bone-like track teeth are driven by the tendons, vibrating at high frequency to saw back and forth, achieving a rapid cutting effect.

[Commonly used in industrialized biological slave labor and biological weapons.]

The database has been updated.

[Burn to the "Artificial Life Sciences - Biological Structure Materials" content library]

[Lacking an organic psionic structure, the body is temporarily unusable.]

Under the frenzied tearing of the giant maw, the thick bronze armor gradually crumbled.

The skeleton warriors swung their fists, forged from a mixture of ghost copper and fossils, slamming them repeatedly into the gladiators' jaws. The bone rails shattered, and blood and ghost copper shark teeth splattered everywhere. The sawing stopped, but the armor was already riddled with wounds.

The skeleton warrior tried to lift his greatsword, but the opponent's claws were already aimed at his neck and joints. The brief moment needed to swing the sword was fleeting, more precious than gold; it was too late to grip and swing it.

It raised its heavy barrel helmet and slammed it hard against the blindfolded gladiator's helmet. With a loud thud, dark blue sparks flew everywhere, and a buzzing echo reverberated from inside the helmet. Both of them were momentarily thrown off balance, staggering back two steps, before swinging their fists and claws to tear at each other.

The heavy bronze gauntlets gripped the flesh-and-blood gladiator's neck, while the brutal claws dug into the skeleton warrior's joints.

Two massive undead giants rolled across the ground, which was covered in claw and sword marks, and the sounds of hammering and desperate beatings echoed above the battlefield.

With a chilling cracking sound, one of the skeleton warrior's arms was broken off, and one of the gladiator's shoulder bones was ripped out.

"Good! That's more like it!" Deckon roared from beneath the blindfolded gladiator's helmet. The gladiator used his intact arm to grip his broken arm and shoved it into the gap in the skeleton warrior's armor! With a series of loud bangs, the [Pneumatic Tendon] in the broken arm was forcibly activated. Unable to withstand the air pressure, the fractured bone exploded instantly. The shattered bone fragments blasted through the skeleton warrior's roots, and fossil fragments blasted out of the Nether Bronze armor. The brutal flesh explosion destroyed the skeleton warrior's body.

Bang! With the sound of pneumatic tendons exploding, the gladiator pressed down on the shattered body of the skeleton warrior, his two bronze claws clasped together, slamming down like hammers!

The bronze barrel helmet was dented from the impact, but the flesh-and-blood gladiator did not stop. He clenched his claws into a heavy hammer and continued to smash it down, one blow after another, until the petrified bone inside the helmet was smashed into pieces and the barrel helmet turned into a crumpled piece of bronze.

This was no longer a well-organized battlefield confrontation, but a pure, savage brawl, a frenzied fight between ferocious beasts. There were no tactics, no skills, only pure, savage strength colliding with each other, fists, teeth, claws, headbutts, tearing at each other with fury.

The relatively narrow battlefield was at a disadvantage for Ansba's cavalry; their skeleton horses were knocked aside, and they didn't have time to swing their greatswords. The skeleton warriors were dragged into the realm of beasts by the flesh-and-blood gladiators, forced to fight each other with their fists and smash each other's heads with their hammers.

This is the tactical style of the Decogon – as the fiercest beast, all it takes is to lure other enemies into the beastly realm, and then defeat them in their area of ​​expertise.

Tactics, skills, traps, and tools all become meaningless when you're being punched in the face at close range or having your neck twisted and joints broken. Here, there's only the brutal fighting of wild beasts, only the most primal and savage monsters tearing each other apart.

The battlefield had turned into a gladiatorial arena. In the chaotic brawl, Ansba's troops were unable to utilize the advantages of heavy cavalry in the narrow area with many obstacles. Their relatively slow movements also made it increasingly difficult to cope with the frenzied attacks of the flesh-and-blood gladiators, and they gradually began to lose ground.

*Snap.* A soft sound.

With a flash of light, the long bronze scimitar severed the neck of one of the flesh-and-blood gladiators.

Dozens of corpse hunters, treading on bronze ice blades, glided across the frozen snow, their rotting claws gripping long curved swords half-hidden behind their backs, slowly advancing in the style of Supar swordsmen.

*Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!* The blades flashed repeatedly as the slender blades in the [Frenzied Dance Stance] wove together a net of sharp blades, slashing towards the flesh-and-blood gladiator's body.

However, amidst the clanging and clattering sounds, the thick chains of dark bronze on the gladiators' bodies, which held the bones of their spoils, actually acted as chainmail, absorbing most of the blade's strikes.

The few successful hits only left a few scratches on the hard tendon surface.

The lion-like claws lashed out, attempting to tear the corpse hunters apart, but the hunters did a backflip, using the [Battle Dance] ability to dodge the blows of the giant flesh claws.

“What are these skinny things?” Decogon’s voice rang out from under the blindfolded gladiator’s helmet. “Boring dodging around, boring sneak attacks, boring tactics and strategies.”

“Let me tell you, the new Samael, you do things as stiffly as a corpse, as rigid and boring as a stone.”

"Maximizing interests, negotiating alliances, planning strategies, and worrying about the future—these are all things that only cowards who are preoccupied with thinking about when they will die would do."

"As the cursed dead, we not only do not fear death, but we yearn for it. Shouldn't we empty our minds, fully experience the feeling of being alive, and enjoy the revelry of this cursed life?"

"A ghost, wanting to experience the feeling of being alive again, can only fight, fight like a primal beast, feel the warm blood flowing over its cold body, feel the warm abdomen slowly warming its cold gauntlets."

"Only fighting and killing, frenzied, mindless fighting and killing, is bloody and full of life."

"I don't care what you're thinking, but I won't think about anything; I just want to clear my mind."

"As long as I have enough corpses to use as killing tools, this world will be my bloody paradise."

Several flesh-and-blood gladiators lowered their bodies, slamming their fists into the ground, their tendons beginning to bulge—

Bang bang bang bang bang bang! Amidst a series of rapid explosions, hundreds of bone spurs burst out from the bone jet pipes all over his body, like powerful air guns!
Caught off guard, the Corpse Hunters barely managed to spread out two or three flying bone spikes with their [Blade Reversal Stance] before their bodies were pierced by the bone spikes.

The thick bone spikes pierced through the rotting muscle and shattered the joints of the corpses.

Rahador waved his hand, and the remaining scythe-wielding corpse demons excitedly swam out of the lake.

Flying undead, created by the fusion of fish skin and swim bladder flesh, hovered in the sky, swung their bronze blades at the ground.

Rahadu's wild laughter echoed from the fortress on the island in the middle of the lake not far away. "Well done, my big ally!" he shouted.

"The only reason you haven't been beaten up by me is because your troops are too weak. It would have been more fun to fight Ansba," Dekgon growled. "The fog is annoying and boring. It's cowardly behavior, no different from being dead."

"Now that it's snowing and the fog is gone, once I defeat Ansba, I'll tear your rotting little snakes apart, dismantle your body, and hang your little winged helmet on my waist as a groin protector."

"Huh?" Rahado was taken aback.

A flesh-and-blood gladiator grabbed the skeleton fossil that had just been dismantled and threw it at Rahador, which clattered and hit Rahador in the face.

"Hahahaha!" The little undead in the helmet of Prange was leaning against the wall, laughing so hard he was doubled over.

“You’re next, Mud Spirit.” After a loud bang, another piece of skeletal fossil was thrown over, knocking the helmeted ghoul back into the fortress and landing with a thud on Rahador’s breastplate. “Your Great Swamp is frozen, isn’t it? After you tear Rahador apart, you’ll be next.”

“You didn’t tell me about the situation with the Decagon,” Samael whispered to Ansba through the bell-shaped helmet rotten root ball.

“I didn’t know that Decogon would be coming,” Ansba replied.

“Didn’t he ally with Rahadol?” Samael asked.

“Does Rahadur think so?” Ansba asked. “Dekgon doesn’t ally with anyone. He just comes because he feels he can beat and tear people apart—he might show up anywhere he can beat and tear people apart.”

"Is that why you didn't get any infantry combat techniques from me?" Samael asked.

“I admit I should have asked you to exchange some infantry combat skills beforehand, instead of exchanging all the undead and corpses for cavalry combat skills,” Ansba admitted. “Without a mount, [Charge Slash] and [Charged Impact] are useless.”

"But there's no point in saying it now, it's too late. The Decgons are difficult to deal with in any terrain outside the open plains."

“Perhaps we should retreat and fight again in my Graymos Field. In that environment, the cavalry can break through the Decgon’s flesh-and-blood gladiator lines without turning into a chaotic brawl zone.”

“No, there’s no point in hiding,” Samael said. “Besides, there’s still time—my troops will deal with the Decogun forces to buy time. You can change your troops’ combat skills, reorganize them, and prepare to provide support.”

Another group of corpse hunters leaped, somersaulted, and dashed across the chaotic battlefield of beast fighting.

The agile movements provided by [Focus on Steps] and [War Dance] allowed them to traverse the chaotic, roaring battlefield, attracting the attention of the gladiators.

Taking advantage of the moment when the beast gladiators were distracted, a squad of sword-and-shield corpse knights advanced swiftly. The shoulder and elbow techniques of the [Lion Hunt Gladiator] knocked down the massive flesh gladiators—the combat skills specifically designed to counter large beast-like enemies shone brightly at this moment.

clang!clang!clang!
The sound of sword and shield striking each other echoed in the cold sky.

(End of this chapter)