Chapter 170: Act 104 – Luring the Snake Out of Its Hole (Part 3)
While Korkin had ulterior motives, Conrad and the low-ranking Dark Cleric of the Black Fire Cult were also sizing up the newly arrived lizardman. However, they found it somewhat unimpressive since these lower-grade reptiles all seemed to have the same face. At least to them, this lizard looked no different from the previous one.
Perhaps the patterns are different?
Hyeugil recognized his subordinate and asked, “Korkin, you returned sooner than I expected. Did you find the target?” Without resorting to the convoluted Cruz language, the lizardman bandit leader was quite articulate.
“Yes, boss,” Korkin replied, bowing his head fearfully.
His attitude did not arouse Hyeugil’s suspicion, as he had always expected his subordinates to hold him in awe. However, the bandit leader was slightly impatient, waving his hand and responding, “When did you become so hesitant, Korkin? Just say it, what did you see?”
“It’s like this, boss,” the lizardman officer swallowed hard, stammering as he spoke, “My men and I were attacked directly to the south, and we lost some personnel. The attackers seemed to be humans, fifteen in total, with two women and a young man leading them. They were very strong, and we were caught off guard, losing… four brothers…”
“Directly to the south?” Hyeugil was taken aback, seeming not to hear about the losses at all. “Are you sure it was directly south?”
Korkin was momentarily stunned; he had thought his boss would fly into a rage. But he quickly reacted and nodded vigorously.
“What did he say?”
Conrad, having grown impatient listening to the two lizards babble in their native tongue, realized something was wrong as Hyeugil raised his voice. He immediately grabbed the shoulder of the lizard.
Hyeugil brushed his hand away, scolding, “So it was directly south. That’s great, Donald, is your opponent playing hide and seek with us?”
“Southeast, directly south, southwest.” The Dark Cleric was taken aback. “This is highly unreasonable; there has to be a conspiracy here.”
“Conspiracy my foot,” the lizardman bandit chief cursed. “The situation is simple; the enemy has seen you. That so-called young man you sent to bite them has probably already been taken out, and those humans are fleeing south! Splitting into three routes! They are distracting us; I’ve seen this trick many times!”
“Impossible!” The Dark Cleric of the Black Fire Cult nearly jumped up. “My Cleric accompanied that guy,” he excitedly pulled out a crystal from his robe with his dry claws. “The crystal hasn’t shattered, indicating they are in no trouble at all.”
“Then your stupid Cleric is lost,” Hyeugil mocked coldly.
“Clerics can’t get lost? Are you insane, stupid lizard!” Conrad interrupted the lizardman, then turned to restrain the agitated Dark Cleric, angrily saying, “What’s with the impulsiveness! On this point, the lizard has a point; the enemy has discovered our intentions. They definitely won’t charge in again; it’s inevitable they will run, so we can’t just wait here.”
“What should we do?” the Dark Cleric asked, dazed.
“Of course, we chase them.”
“Chase them in that direction?” Hyeugil asked grumpily.
Conrad shot him a cold glance and replied indifferently, “If you’re called stupid, you really are. Are there just the three of us here? What about your subordinates? Of course, we split into three groups. Are you really afraid that a mere dozen of silver-ranked guards will take us apart?”
Hyeugil was stunned; he opened his mouth only to realize that the damned human wasn’t entirely wrong. “When do we set off?” he asked, his tone softening a bit.
“Immediately!” the Dark Cleric answered.
“No,” Conrad blocked him, “Wait until you and my men are ready; we’ll leave at night.”
“You’re too cautious, Conrad; that’s not good.” The Dark Cleric of the Black Fire Cult had the same concerns, especially since the lizardman cavalry’s reports hinted that the enemy was too alert. However, he muttered this under his breath. Hyeugil cast a diamond-shaped gaze at both of them, reminding them, “Don’t forget, this matter will count as half my credit.”
The two exchanged a glance filled with mild disdain, thinking, we’re not as shameless as you. However, the three prominent figures arguing above didn’t notice that the lizardman officer Korkin, with his head lowered and considered insignificant in their eyes, just quietly breathed a sigh of relief, wondering if that terrifying wizard would finally return the soul he had captured? What was said again? As long as he wasn’t dead by the time the moon came out, it meant that the soul was back in his body, right?
Korkin felt a little uneasy, wondering if that cunning human wizard wouldn’t go back on his word.
He shivered.
…
Night fell quickly—
Regardless of whether Korkin actually lost his soul due to the moonrise, Conrad and the others had already begun to act.
From several miles away, one could see the torches lit in the ruins below from the hills near the Silver Elf ruins; it was like a sea of fire. In fact, such a scene was not common, indicating that the lizardman bandits entrenched there must have something big going on—they were assembling. However, getting the raucous lizardmen to gather was not an easy task, especially when you had to reorganize over a thousand of them, many of whom lacked even a basic concept of left and right, which was a far grander undertaking.
About an hour later, another long line with torches appeared from the west, entering the Barrogan ruins. The scattered torches quickly converged, illuminating the sky in that direction.
At the same moment, four silhouettes stood quietly on the hillside—
“The Black Fire Cult has also assembled,” Brendel said softly, his eyes reflecting the flames.
“And Conrad’s men,” Sanford added from the side.
Brendel nodded.
“Are you so sure they’ll split into three groups, my lord?” the young man turned back to ask. “What if they join together? What if they see through our tricks?”
“There are no what-ifs.” Brendel thought to himself, Would I have a plan if there were any? If it was against those elite legions led by the genius commanders of Madara, my little tricks might not work. But given the quality of these lizard bandits, they would definitely not guess my intentions. I have one big advantage— I know how powerful they are, but they have only a limited understanding of me, based on the twelve silver-ranked guards described by Leidi.
Under such circumstances, neither the lizardman commander nor Conrad, the head of the card mercenary group, would ever expect that Brendel’s plan was to completely sweep them all—gaining a significant amount of experience. Forget about guessing; if Brendel were to tell them he wanted to take out a bandit group of over a thousand men with just a dozen silver-ranked warriors, they would probably think the young man had gone mad.
However, Brendel paused and replied, “Even in the worst-case scenario, they can only join together. But that’s still better than us charging in. Remember, they are the hunters, and we are the prey. In a hunt, it’s always the prey that determines the direction, not the hunters.”
The young man nodded silently.
The Silver Elf commander continued to stand coldly aside without speaking; at this distance, his strength had been greatly limited. Honestly, he couldn’t see much more than Brendel did from here.
The last person beside the three was the Merchant Miss—
Romaine’s perception of the distant, twinkling torches was far less instinctive than that of the others. On the contrary, she found those light dots somewhat beautiful. Gathering in the darkness and presenting themselves like a painting made of flames, they captivated her heart with their extraordinary beauty. However, Brendel hadn’t called her to admire fireworks; soon, the torches began to disperse and finally separated into three straight lines—
“My Lord, you guessed right!” Sanford’s eyes brightened, unable to suppress his excitement. However, his expression quickly dimmed. Brendel’s calculated confidence reminded him of Makarolo. If there were anyone among the Grey Wolves Mercenary who always had a way to lead them forward, it would undoubtedly be Makarolo, but unfortunately, that so-called ‘forever’ was just a one-sided perception.
Compared to the fluctuations in the young man’s emotions, Brendel remained entirely unfazed, for the drama of the night had only just begun. He pointed below and asked, “Romaine, can you see what the leading people look like?”
Both Sanford and the Silver Elf commander were taken aback—how could that be possible? The ruins of the Silver Elves were at least seven or eight miles away, and from the hilltop, the lights of those torches looked as dim as fireflies. Not to mention clearly seeing what those holding the torches looked like. But they quickly realized that the lady who had always been with them was no ordinary person, as Romaine immediately nodded, saying, “Of course! Um… the group on the far left seems to have a lizardman in the front, Brendel.”
“That’s the lizardman commander Hyeugil. Continue.” Brendel eyed Romaine, fully aware of her abilities. The last time in Ridenburg, she could see the Madara army several miles away even on a starless night, and now, with the moonlight and the brilliance of the torches, deciphering the appearance of the opponent was incredibly straightforward.
“And the group in the middle, leading is a human. A young man in leather armor… it looks like something strange is following him,” Romaine carefully described what she observed, and Brendel immediately said, “Conrad and the Earth Cleric; strange that they are together. Who leads the third group, Little Romain?”
The Merchant Miss nodded, focusing her gaze on the third group and describing what she saw.
“Wearing a robe? Black, with several red borders?”
“I can’t see clearly, Brendel.”
Brendel pondered for a moment, saying, “It’s a Dark Cleric of the Black Fire Cult; I didn’t expect there to be such a guy. It seems the one who cast a curse on Xi is this fellow. However, I don’t know his rank, but according to Leidi, it shouldn’t be more than mid-level.”
“Then, my lord, shall we stick to the original plan?” Sanford asked.
That was indeed a question.
Brendel’s initial plan was to eliminate the Earth Cleric first. But now that the Earth Cleric was with Conrad, charging in would lead to a tough battle. Of course, the tough battle was secondary; what worried him was not being able to keep them. If they escaped intact, it would be troublesome. After all, it wasn’t impossible—Clerics were at least level 50 bosses, equivalent to regular monsters around level 65. This meant that they had already mastered elements and were five levels higher than his Silver Elf Guardians at their peak. Coupled with a golden-ranked Conrad supporting from the side, capturing them wouldn’t be easy.
Moreover, the so-called luring the enemy strategy could only be effective once, as the opponent was not foolish enough to fall into the same pit repeatedly. Thus, he needed to maximize the gains in this round of effectiveness.
Brendel scratched his chin, feeling a bit troubled. What should he do? Taking out a lizardman or a Dark Cleric seemed inconsequential?
But wait, a Dark Cleric?
He suddenly thought of another issue—Oh no! That’s a Dark Cleric. What is a Dark Cleric? Isn’t that a dark-element Elementalist? Brendel nearly smacked his forehead; he felt like a fool for not realizing this sooner—if he could blow up a Dark Cleric, wouldn’t he end up with a lot of dark elemental crystals? Indeed, the Dark Clerics of the Black Fire Cult had been referred to as ‘penny-pinchers’ by players in past games because they would drop nothing but dark elemental crystals upon death. In a moment of habitual thought, he had completely forgotten that dark elemental crystals were precisely what he needed at this time.
Once he realized this, the young man felt as though a light had dawned on him. Taking out the Dark Cleric would cause Xi’s divine blood to temporarily suppress and lose control, wouldn’t that be adding a fierce warrior to his ranks?
Therefore, he immediately clapped his hands and stated, “No, we’ll go for the Dark Cleric first.”
Everyone was taken aback, not understanding why the young lord’s plan had changed so suddenly.
But Brendel patted the hunting dragon’s head, turning the beast around. He awkwardly laughed, “Plans sometimes have unexpected changes; that’s normal. Don’t worry, this won’t affect anything. For now, let’s return to the ambush point. I don’t plan to engage them here.”
…(To be continued. For details on what happens next, please log on for more chapters and support the author, supporting legal reading!)
