Cave Refuge

The onlookers were not fools, as they knew to mimic Robinson William by sending the matchmen who approached them flying far away.

Yet, those few matchmen that were not flung away had just created such a racket.

The people who could stay in the Hunting Group for a long time were no fools; the few people who were just engulfed by a massive vine ball looked unscathed after the vine ball receded, as if nothing had happened. If there was no trick to this, only a fool would believe it.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, those few people first moved their limbs. Although their movements were very stiff at first, they gradually became more fluid over time.

Once those people stopped moving erratically, Robinson William and the others from the Hunting Group immediately went on high alert.

However, instead of moving towards their position as Robinson William had guessed, they walked directly towards the large trees surrounding them.

Under their astonished gazes, those few people ignored the hindrance and merged into the trunks of those huge trees.

As they fused into the trunk, the large trees that blocked their path inexplicably swelled in size; the gap between two trees that was originally about two meters now halved to only one meter.

The people present were not fools either. Seeing this, they instantly understood the precarious situation they were in.

Before they could make further plans, the matchmen, whom they had initially flung away with their long sticks, regrouped and charged back towards them.

And this time, their charge was much faster than before.

At that moment, everyone had no time to think of other problems; the only thought remaining in their minds was to prevent the matchmen from approaching at all costs, lest they end up enclosed by the giant trees like the people before them.

Since the number of matchmen equaled the remaining members of the Hunting Group, everyone understood that in this battle, each person only needed to face one matchman.

Everyone had already witnessed the dire consequences of losing a battle, which was even more unbearable than being killed by enemies during the battle.

After all, dying in battle at most leaves a corpse, but failing in battle and being controlled by the matchmen meant merging into the tree trunks, and no one knew what the giant trees would do with their bodies later.

Without more contemplation, they already began clashing with the matchmen.

Concerned about not letting the matchmen come close, they didn't use their most familiar melee weapons; instead, they mainly fought with long sticks.

However, compared to sharp-ended melee weapons, long sticks had much less lethality in battle.

Crucially, despite the slim and slender bodies of the matchmen, they had a strong resistance to strikes.

Taking the matchman fighting Robinson William as an example, even though Robinson William had hit the matchman's joints multiple times with the long stick, the matchman stood up unaffected, continuing the fight as if nothing had happened.

After Robinson William had tried attacking every part of the matchman's body with the long stick, the only part left unscathed was the round head of the matchman.

Actually, other people had also tried attacking the heads of the matchmen in their battles, but although the matchmen seemed like puppets, their creator had also endowed them with instincts similar to humans.

When their heads were targeted, the matchmen would try to dodge or use other parts of their bodies as temporary shields to block the attack.

More critically, if someone actively attacked the head of a matchman and the matchman used its arms to defend, the Hunting Group members had to quickly withdraw their long stick after a powerful strike.

Otherwise, if they pressed down with force like they did with other creatures, vines would sprout from the arm that blocked the attack and climb up the long stick towards the bearer.

Once the long stick was entangled by vines from the matchman, they could forget about retrieving it. If they insisted on pulling back the long stick, they would face the same fate as those people before them.

Without the long stick, they would only have their most adept melee weapons to fight with, but melee weapons have a limited attack range. If they weren't careful and let the matchmen get close, they would end up as one vine ball after another.

Of course, in this battle, while some were unable to resist being turned into vine balls, others succeeded in counterattacking and killing their opponents.

Members of the Hunting Group who succeeded in killing their foes didn't just stand by after the battle; they actively reached out to help others quickly deal with the matchmen they were fighting.

However, just as they began to intervene in others' battles, two additional matchmen would break free from the trunk, and after leaving the trunk, they ignored the other survivors and directly charged at the survivor who had just intervened in another's battle.