Chapter Seventy-Five: Cooperative Hunt
November 28, 2014
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
Adventurers operate separately from armies. The fighting styles of the two are entirely different; the training of armies emphasizes offensive and defensive strength, while that of adventurers focuses on agility and evasion. Even a furious barbarian will have better evasion skills compared to a soldier trained in the army, as the latter is accustomed to large-scale team combat. An adventurer party typically consists of no more than ten people, most commonly employing a fighting style of five-person teams, which includes face-to-face resistance, guerrilla tactics, ambushes, and spell healing. The army’s combat style consists of a line of heavy infantry warriors armed with steel shields, and a small number equipped with powerful tower shields.
A skilled adventurer can recognize whether someone has a military background or has received military training just by observing their combat style.
Soren’s task is to scout enemy positions.
The adventurers were assigned to three teams; one was the recon team, consisting of thirteen wanderers and five rangers, all of whom were at least at second tier. The combat team was made up of warriors, rangers, barbarians, priests, and others tasked with clearing small enemy forces after the army crushes the main enemy, while also providing flank support to the army. Lastly, there were a few wizards, sorcerers, and druids, who were protected and operated alongside the army. Wizards rarely join armies, as they can earn more by doing anything else and lead a more comfortable life than that of army soldiers.
The expenses of hiring wizards would definitely drain the coffers of a prosperous city.
Therefore, it is most common to have a hiring relationship, paying a substantial amount to summon them when necessary. Before departure, everyone received a remuneration; Soren’s share was 30 Gind, ten more than other warrior professions. According to the rules of this world, anyone acting as a sentry, scout, or infiltrator can receive 50% of their pay in advance, as they face greater dangers and can also collect more loot after the mission is done.
Scouts are not merely tasked with simple reconnaissance; they are the vanguard in battle, and only seasoned veterans dare to assume the role of a scout.
Soren’s remuneration is 60 Gind.
The spoils of the cleanup mission are tallied after completion, while personal combat items from earlier battles belong to the individuals. The saying goes, “when the cannon fires, gold is plentiful.” Mobilizing an army requires more than just a piece of dispatch order; once the army departs, the military expenses double—all kinds of individuals, horses, and supplies require a significant sum of money, and in the event of battle casualties, a large amount of compensation is also needed. While it may not be like adventurers who can demand dozens or even hundreds of Gind at once, the cumulative expenses are still quite astounding. The day the army set out, White Horse City appeared invigorated, with many merchants voluntarily donating supplies and sending guard teams to follow along.
A two-thousand-strong army advanced majestically, more impressive than the tens of thousands Soren remembered; the city guard, numbering a thousand, was fully equipped with iron-clad armor, carrying shields, short swords, helmets, and hand crossbows. The five hundred heavy infantry were equipped with chain mail to half-plate armor, uniformly armed with steel shields, iron helmets, refined weapons, and two-shot heavy crossbows. Lastly, the elite among the elites, five hundred people included heavy infantry clad in full plate armor, completely wrapped in armor with only their eyes exposed, and wearing scaled gauntlets on their arms.
These heavy infantry were equipped with complex gear, wielding both two-handed swords and sword-and-shield combinations, and some even carried heavy crossbows.
Then there were the citizen soldiers of the nobility class, comprising honor citizens and knights, who were equipped with armored war horses, knightly armor, knight’s lances, small steel shields, and finely crafted hand crossbows. Each knight was accompanied by one or two squires, whose equipment matched that of the heavy infantry, cooperating with the knights in combat and following behind them to finish off enemies during group charges.
To be honest.
Even the equipment of the light infantry in the regular army of this world is configured according to the standards of medieval heavy infantry from the previous life. Moreover, the probability of having crossbow bolts in the army is extremely high, as they have undergone specialized training for powerful crossbow shooting. A regular army squad’s equipment and firepower can leave one dumbfounded; facing modern firearm units, as long as they lack heavy firepower weapons, they are bound to win.
………………
As a scout, Soren naturally needed to set off first.
The army’s advance is slow, with the south lacking quality war horses; heavy infantry are marching with loads exceeding twenty kilograms. The endurance of advanced warriors is formidable; although battles may not be prolonged, marching with heavy loads is effortless. Those who have not trained in martial arts are unaware of the physical toll of explosive states, often believing that carrying burdens for dozens of kilometers and sustained combat for half an hour or an hour is easy.
This is quite a foolish assertion.
Within martial arts, there is a saying called “issuing strength,” where one can sustain for one or two hours without issuing strength, but once strength is issued, physical energy rapidly declines within three moves.
If excessive exertion occurs, muscles can directly enter a state of over-fatigue, even leading to severe injury.
This state cannot be quickly recovered from.
When Soren activates his strength, he is in an extremely explosive state, with all his energy flaring out in an instant, consuming energy that exceeds a couple of hours of exercise. This is not the legendary “Qi,” but a technique that mobilizes the strength of all muscles and even the internal organs.
………………
Marching and camping.
The first day was not much different from what Soren remembered; on the second day, all scouts spread out in a net-like formation, the army continued marching along the road, and the adventurers received their tasks and split into small teams to enter the forest.
Soren’s figure moved through the dense woods, with a half-elf ranger behind him who worships the Forest Goddess.
The other is an experienced wild survivalist, possessing remarkable stealth and scouting abilities; though unable to turn invisible due to profession, his light footsteps and nimble movements are not inferior to those of wanderers. His age is hard to gauge, as half-elves live for one to two hundred years, but he looks relatively young, wearing a piece of hardened leather armor, with a longbow on his back and wielding a bone kn*fe as his weapon.
“There are werewolves!”
The half-elf ranger named Yas squatted down and examined the footprints on the ground, then parted the grass to look at other traces, speaking in a low voice: “There should also be some goblins and dog-headed men. This small problem can be handled by us; there’s no need to signal the main force.”
Since this is a cleanup of monsters, it is naturally required to plow through the entire area.
The scouts within the army have also spread out; wanderers are rare in the army, and army scouts are mostly ranger warriors.
Soren nodded quietly, glancing at Yas and asking: “Can you track their location?”
Tracking traces.
This is the forte of rangers; they are exceptionally skilled at tracking enemies in the wilderness, able to discern directions through footprints, traces, and scents.
“Piece of cake.” Yas chuckled and said, “Follow me. They aren’t far.”
The half-elf ranger drew out his bone kn*fe and then crouched forward; after tracking for several hundred meters, he would pause momentarily to inspect the ground’s traces. Some of the footprints had become very faint, but he still successfully figured out the direction. Their natural sensory ability made them intuitive; sometimes they could track without even traces, relying on intuition and experience.
Soon.
They discovered the first group of enemies.
It was a small pack of werewolves, numbering about ten, with three domesticated wolves and over a dozen goblin dog-head men captured as slaves and food reserves.
The half-elf ranger signaled to the sides, and Soren quietly nodded as he vanished into the shadows, approaching from the side.
The other side was also seasoned in adventure; this kind of battle was merely a matter of coordination.
Soren’s figure gradually approached through the shadows, making no noise. He slowly drew out the curved blade and stealthily moved toward the werewolves’ gathering place. This small group of werewolves seemed somewhat unusual; they must have survived after some killing, and there were no werewolf cubs among them, only adults.
The half-elf ranger waited for Soren to get closer, then leaped onto a tall tree with a gentle hop, reaching the branches within a second or two. The leaves rustled softly as Yas parted the foliage and took out his longbow, drawing an arrow from his back. Ranger’s quivers are specially customized; they carry only a few arrows, generally between 6 to 12, but they are all secured so that they won’t fall out during movement, and the arrow’s placement is fixed, ensuring that one can reach for an arrow in an instant.
——“Backstab!”
Soren’s figure emerged from the shadows, leaping three to five meters in an instant, the curved blade stabbing directly into the back of a werewolf’s heart.
One strike to k*ll!
The curved blade pierced through the heart, emerging from the front.
Swoosh.
An arrow flew, startling the werewolves in the gathering place, and the closest werewolf had just raised its bone hammer when an arrow pierced right through its chest, almost penetrating completely.
Longbow shot!
Soren twisted his body and slashed horizontally with the blade, forcing back a charging werewolf while also grazing its arm.
Swoosh.
A second arrow shot out, a bloody hole opening up in one werewolf’s thigh.
The half-elf ranger slotted the longbow back onto his back; his gear was specially made for quick weapon changes. He jumped down from the tree, kneeling on one knee to absorb the impact, and then pulled out the bone kn*fe from his waist, taking a deep breath as his chest rose.
Rangers are also melee professionists.
In an instant, Yas inhaled a large amount of oxygen, his pupils slightly dilating, shifting from a kneeling position into a half-crouch sprinting stance, and then he shot forward like a sharp arrow, the explosive speed even surpassing the gold medalist of a hundred-meter sprint from the previous life Olympics.
——Charge!
The half-elf ranger’s burst of forward momentum, mixed with inertia, drove him past the makeshift wooden barrier, bringing down the bone kn*fe in a sweeping slash that severed a werewolf in half. The two halves of the corpse thudded to the ground. He paused briefly to catch his breath, then rushed into the fray, blocking a surprise attack from another werewolf with his blade.
“These trash aren’t worth my arrows! Each one costs five Gind!”
The half-elf ranger grinned, slashing open a werewolf’s chest with one stroke while delivering a powerful kick to the enemy’s throat, explaining to Soren why he wasn’t shooting anymore. He was using top-grade wolf-tooth arrows, specially customized, which wouldn’t veer much off course due to wind or air. The two figures weaved in and out among the werewolves, swiftly taking down six werewolves and three domesticated wolves in just a minute or two. The remaining enemies finally felt fear and started fleeing. Soren pulled out the crossbow to sh**t, while the half-elf ranger grabbed a sharp wooden stick, took a deep breath, and hurled it like a spear at the escaping werewolf.
A piercing scream echoed.
The fleeing werewolf was pinned directly to the ground, and by the time Soren approached to pull out the stick, he had already crossbow-shot the remaining monsters.
The half-elf ranger picked up the stick, twirling it around before bringing it down onto the still-breathing werewolf’s head; the stick broke off a section, splattering a mass of brain matter, and a piece of the werewolf’s skull was knocked off. He turned to Soren with a smile and then discarded the stick, stating: “Let’s just clean up a bit. These are merely appetizers; the real deal is with those ogres; they’ve robbed quite a few merchant caravans lately.”
An easy battle.
The bond between the two had undoubtedly gotten much closer, at least they now understood each other’s strengths.
This is a Third Tier Ranger!
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