Chapter 256: Act 23 – Expansion (4)
Antinna listened to the distant sounds of birds flapping their wings in the forest, feeling a chill creeping over her.
Yuta stood beside her; the two women, one large and one small, were silent as they leaned against the wooden wall, facing the cold moonlight.
Who knew what dangers lurked in the darkness? She could imagine the sight of cave dwellers leaping forward in the forest—striding boldly, their heavy steps cracking the dry pine branches with sharp ‘crack’ sounds, soon revealing themselves from the dark woods, closing in on the lumber yard.
The cave dwellers had first appeared from the direction of Graham’s Mountain, numbering around thirty, just like the group from the afternoon. The mercenaries’ scouts were clearly no match for them, but fortunately, the female mercenary band leader had anticipated this, sending cavalry to ensure that at least they could retreat from the forest.
The cave dwellers closely pursued this small group of cavalry, knowing these humans would retreat back to the lumber yard, hoping for a chance to rush in and wreak havoc if the humans inside opened the gates to help their kind.
But Yuta would not make such a basic mistake. She immediately ordered the mercenary crossbowmen on the wooden fortress outside the lumber yard to unleash a rain of arrows to block the cave dwellers, while allowing their own cavalry to enter through the gates.
The crossbowmen released the tension from the bowstrings, a volley of white lines shot out from the wooden fortress surrounding the lumber yard.
The well-aimed crossbow bolts struck the cave dwellers’ formation like an invisible whip, scattering them. However, the actual effectiveness was questionable; Antinna watched as those hit fell to the ground only to quickly rise again, with only five or six actually staying down.
She couldn’t help but gasp. Although she had fought these creatures from Jotungrund earlier, her distance alongside Romaine had obscured the clear sight she now had.
In any case, once they saw no opportunity, the cave dwellers quickly retreated after leaving behind five or six corpses.
“That’s a scouting party,” the female mercenary band leader noted, watching as the cave dwellers withdrew into the forest.
“So this is the first batch of cave dwellers that have appeared since the afternoon,” Antinna said softly. “If they hadn’t gathered, these might be cave dwellers from a nearby lumber yard. It seems they haven’t actually assembled.”
“How do you know that?” Yuta turned back, surprised that the young girl had come to her conclusion so quickly after asking her a question just a moment ago.
“The guide we brought from Firburh said that even on horseback, it takes nearly half a day to get from the horse’s foot clover lumber yard to here.” She reasoned, “I can tell those previous cave dwellers weren’t as fast as a horse.”
“Vanguard,” Yuta replied.
“They probably know we’re not many,” Antinna responded. “After letting so many escape in the afternoon, it’s impossible for them to hide their strength.”
However, the two clearly did not dwell on this matter; they knew they had no chance of capturing the enemy in the afternoon. In fact, if not for Brendel’s tactics, it would have been almost unbelievable for them to claim victory.
But soon, they stopped their conversation.
They noticed that after the cave dwellers’ scouts retreated, their vanguard quickly emerged from the other side of the forest—around a hundred cave dwellers advanced along the riverbank, keeping parallel to the wooden walls surrounding the lumber yard.
“What are they doing?”
A face popped between the two—the Merchant Miss, her wide eyes resembling two sparkling black gems, blinked and leaned forward, curiously watching the long line of cave dwellers outside.
“Surrounding us,” Antinna said, knitting her brows. “It seems they plan to wait here for other cave dwellers from the nearby lumber yard to join them.”
“Do they look down on us? Hmph!” Yuta observed the line of cave dwellers on the riverbank, feeling a surge of eagerness. “Should we let Husher lead the cavalry to charge?”
She thought that opening the gates to strike back at this moment would surely yield significant benefits.
But the noble girl watched as the cave dwellers slowly advanced along the riverbank, steadily turning the lumber yard into an island, and it was impossible for her to feel no tension. Still, she collected herself and shook her head: “No need.”
“Huh?”
“If they’re looking to surround us, it at least shows they won’t be attacking for a while, which aligns with our expectations, doesn’t it?”
“Weaken their strength a little, it would make defending easier later,” Yuta stole another glance at Antinna; the latter’s composure and calmness left a peculiar impression on her—but the mercenary band leader shook her head once more: “But that’s true; we might still have to face a thousand of these guys or more. A hundred more or less doesn’t really matter, and even with this number, we can’t guarantee we’ll wipe them all out…”
She seemed to be convincing herself as she muttered.
Antinna didn’t respond, but in her heart, she thought: A thousand? She silently shook her head; Brendel had told her that the number of cave dwellers active in this area was over three thousand, if not more.
However, the larger their number, the slower their assembly would be. She estimated that by late night, the cave dwellers attacking the lumber yard would likely exceed more than half of that number. All that was left was to hope that they were, as Brendel said, not good at ground assaults in the surface world.
She appeared a bit anxious, but on the other hand, Brendel had truly never boasted.
The silver moon rose higher between the mountains and fields.
As moonlight filled the valley, Brendel finally spotted his target. He squinted, seeing among the cave dwellers a few towering bear-like goblins surrounding a thin cave dweller shaman. Though they vanished in the crowd almost instantaneously, he had marked their general location.
The time was already past midnight.
He promptly reset the “Rochal’s Market” card, then once again laid it horizontally, six wealth flowing into his treasure. After doing this, he glanced down once more at the assembly of cave dwellers regrouping in the silver valley below—it was an astonishing number, with three factions forming a front and back. He guessed that at least more than half of the cave dwellers in this area were stationed underground in this lumber yard.
Looking at the dense spears, Brendel couldn’t help but frown.
The bad news was that he and Xi had to find a target among this large army; even though both possessed tier one golden strength, maneuvering freely among the hundreds or thousands of black iron creatures still seemed a bit farfetched.
The good news was that at least it was easier than wandering in circles through the winding tunnels dug by the cave dwellers. Brendel recalled a time of youthful impulsiveness when he and companions in the game, like Xi, would charge heedlessly in; the difference was that now he was here to prevent that red-haired girl, while back then, no one had stopped them—
Of course, the result was that they got lost for almost a week.
He stood up and beckoned to Xi, who was sitting to the side, bored.
“Follow me.”
“Are we making a move?” The red-haired girl was taken aback.
Brendel nodded.
The two silently slid down the slope, the dense growth of maple trees hiding their figures—but that seemed somewhat unnecessary—the cave dwellers relied not on sight, their acute hearing allowing them to catch even the slightest footfalls from hundreds of meters away.
But that was only true for ordinary people.
As Brendel and Xi emerged from the forest, it was the few bear goblins at the edge who first noticed them. The hefty creatures, wielding maces, were clearly surprised by the sight of a man and woman; they rarely experienced such a situation, and initially took some time to figure out how to handle it with their limited intellect, but soon let out a low growl.
The growl echoed throughout the valley.
‘Clang—’
Brendel cut a flying mace into two with a single strike, tilting his head slightly to let the two halves fly past him.
Then he raised his head again: likely realizing that its attack had missed and guessing the opponent’s strength, the cave dwellers and bear goblins began to stir. The message spread like wildfire among these strange creatures, but the transmission of information required time, and the reaction took even longer.
But Brendel had already calculated the distance between him and that cave dweller shaman, gently flicking the middle finger of his left hand against the sword’s edge, leveling the sword, and drawing a long silver line from left to right.
The wind pressure released from the blade first swept past the bear goblins—like a scythe cutting through the tall grass—these large creatures fell like straw men, severed at the waist, blood gushing forth.
It even knocked over a large group of cave dwellers behind them.
This strike terrified the cave dwellers from below. Although the divisions of power between Jotungrund and the surface world was not exactly the same, the strength of a tier one golden warrior was enough to create a stunning effect wherever. The cave dwellers immediately let out a horrified shriek, which to Brendel sounded like meaningless noise and wails—then they all retreated, drawing back like a receding tide away from him.
This was even more exaggerated than in the game.
Though there was also morale in the game, it certainly did not extend to such extremes. Brendel was surprised by the effect of his single blow; even he was taken aback, but it was a good thing as he quickly pushed forward in the direction the cave dwellers were retreating.
Xi followed closely behind.
At that moment, the shaman Tagib within the army finally noticed these two sources from the chaos. It shook its uniquely large cave dweller head, initially filled with anger and dissatisfaction toward its subordinates.
How could such two humans disrupt the troop it had painstakingly assembled?
But it quickly realized that the two humans were approaching its direction! And at an extremely fast speed! It understood this from the feedback of the sound waves it emitted; within a few moments, the distance between it and the two had closed by dozens of meters.
This was not a good omen.
Tagib panicked.
(PS. I believe everyone feels as frustrated as I do right now.)(To be continued, for more details, please log on; for more chapters, support the author, support legitimate reading!)
