Chapter 195 - A Marsh Battle - II (2/2)

Soon, the party reached a location and stopped and started to clear the beasts by moving laterally. The land there was already under water for more than 2 feet and covered the legs of most players. He decided to disguise as another assassin that he saw when they were moving and joined among them as a scout to get a closer and better look. He noticed that half a kilometre ahead was an entrance of a cave half submerged in water. He guessed that it was at least three or four feet deep. He was sure that it was the destination of the group.

There were a few assassins who were already moving towards the cave and they were checking the area for beasts. He joined them and moved a few hundred metres towards the cave when he saw something that surprised him. Right outside the cave there were small black rock like structures from which water bubbles came out at fixed intervals. Sometimes a burst of water like a waterspout were also seen. As he saw them, he immediately realized that these were not natural occurrences but the very things that he had been searching for.

The knuckers tend to dig pits in the water where they lay with just their snout above water. These were part of the description that he heard of the knuckers in his previous life. He chose one at a corner and went closer to examine and confirm it.

[Knucker] (Elite monster)

Level 20;

HP: 50000/50000;

It would be considered a very high HP for a level 20 beast by most based on the other monsters, but Balthazar knew that any dragon related beast would have a better life rating and stats than other beasts. Still, he also felt doubtful in his ability to handle one now. Moreover, he could clearly see that there were five beasts in vicinity. There could be a few more in the cave which he couldn't see clearly.

He was sure that he wouldn't be able to do much against them. He had to look for another location for a knucker. Species like knuckers from dragon lineage tend to be rulers of the place they were in and had high intelligence and would use proper cooperative tactics. They would also have high physical defence and magical resistance. Attacking this place was suicidal. He doubted that even with the big team taking on five knucklers would quickly pile up the casualty count.

He quickly made his way away from the cave and towards the rest of the players. He joined the rest of the players and began to converse with a few other players whom he found out to be from the guild to get a better idea of their plan.

After a couple of minutes, he realized that they planned to get into the cave and the only thing they have was a few more of the barrel bombs which they were counting on to get rid of more monsters that might attack when they enter the cave. It could be considered a reasonable approach as the number of beasts near them were quite low. The presence of the knuckers had the other beasts to maintain a certain distance from the location. They had no clue about the beasts that were guarding the cave, and all this was just a precaution as Karma had to get an egg from the cave and he was already informed that a formidable entity guarding the cave.

Realizing that they were about to do something a lot more stupid and reckless than the previous time, he began to move towards the back of the group to go into stealth and go back to the town. He managed to get to the end when people started to shout in alarm.

”A level 20 beast. Level 20 beasts run,” started shouting one of the assassins and a second later he was sent flying towards the side by a stream of water coming off from one of the knuckers. As it stood up one could see that it was long and serpentine in shape with four thick legs. It was like the langstonia except for a long neck and long tail each of which spanned for at least 2 metres while its body was another two metres long. The head had a pair of tusk protruding out of a long snout like that of a dragon with frills by its neck and a pair of long fin like structures on its back between its limbs where there should have been wings for a dragon.

The sudden appearance of the knucker and the flying player put everyone on alert. Before they even began to fire their attacks, another head popped out of the marsh a few metres beside the first and began to roar and spout streams of water from its mouth attacking a few other scouts who were close to the area. It was followed by another three necks popping up.

Balthazar quickly ran away in the opposite direction before any of the attacks would come his way. He ran a certain distance and went up a tree to stay in stealth. Though the knuckers had legs they didn't use them as much as the fins on their back. The glided along the top surface of the water with help of the fins. They were faster than the other beast and players and used their limbs, tail and neck to smack away all the players who went to scout the area near to the cave in a minute.

During this time, the long-distance attackers had released their attacks to save their companions, but it was of no use other than irritating the beasts. The attacks of these players who were at level 16 or below didn't even cause much damage and the knuckers followed up with water attacks which had a very long range. After a few seconds of individual attacks, the five knuckers even joined to form a line and put their necks at the surface of the water while beating their fins causing a large wave to form and move towards the players.

This was an attack that even Balthazar hadn't heard of. He had heard about the difficulties in fighting a knucker and their weak points, strengths, description and habits, but he had never heard of them fighting together. It probably did happen in his previous life, but people would have probably kept it a secret of he failed to know of it as he joined the game quite a lot of time after the marshlands were conquered by the players. It was new and he was amazed by it.

When the players saw it, they tried their best to evade the large AOE attack. Even the fae players that had kept themselves secret realized that there was no point in hiding further and tried to escape by pulling off their cloak and using their wings, but the wave just grew in size and struck them too. It was about 10 metres tall and blocked all attacks by the players and swept them back causing them damage as it pushed them back for a hundred metres easily.

Balthazar was really glad that he had decided to retreat, else he would also be among the players who were struggling to get up. The wave was enough to kill 5% of the players assemble there. After the wave attack the knuckers through a few more water stream attacks before going back towards the cave and submerged themselves underwater. The attacks knocked down everyone. Even Karma, Kiriti and the other members of Valhalla Raider and Ardent Ronins were soaking wet and lost more than half their health. If the knuckers didn't retreat on their own there definitely would have been more causalties.

This attack not only demoralized the independent players, but even the members of the guild had no intention of continuing further. They gave up on the spot and began to channel their hearthstones to get back to safety.