Chapter 4: Baton

The gnolls had no idea who they were chasing. They felt the presence from afar, a rough sound of someone running. They pointed at the broken branches from the shrubs and the scattered leaves on the forest floor, obvious traces left by their prey. Both Jarr and Gaff knew they were chasing a complete amateur.

Jarr and Gaff could only giggle as they leisurely followed the obvious traced left behind. Shortly after, they saw a young boy desperately running for his life.

“HAHAHA, How amusing!”

“Run faster, kid!”

As Jarr and Gaff saw the boy, they quickly charged and apprehended him. Without unsheathing their weapons, Jarr and Gaff beat the boy’s torso with their fists and legs.

An audible bone-crunching sound could be heard from the impact of each and every hit. Gaff stomped on the kid’s knee while Jarr stifled his screams. When they were satisfied both gnolls stopped as they unsheathed their swords to finish Hans off.

“Damn this is too easy.”

“Not fun at all.”

While the gnolls complained about how easy it was to catch him, Hans hobbled overusing everything he had and tried to run again.

The gnolls, at first, were bewildered when they saw Hans trying to run. He was heavily injured and it hampered his speed greatly. They calmed down quickly when they observed his movements.

Hans was running, or rather he wanted to think he was running. He felt pain for every step he took, the speed of his ‘running’ was far slower than his usual walking speed.

The gnolls still stood with their arms folded watching the fruitless effort of Han’s ‘escape’. They pretended to squint at Hans as if he was far away. Hans had only managed to scramble three meters from his original position. The gnolls pointed and jeered at him in laughter.

Although the gnolls don’t move from their last position, Hans doesn’t go that far. The gnolls still saw him from their line of sights. As they saw how desperate Hans was, the gnolls could only laugh.

“Hahaha, How funny!”

“Kid, did you think you can get away with that ‘run’? Hahaha!”

“Hey, I had an idea. How about we play hide and seek?”

“Great idea! We will close our eyes and count until ten!”

“Oi shithead. We will start now, try to escape while we close our eyes~~”

“Ten!”

“Nine!”

As the gnolls started to count, Hans gritted his teeth as he endured his pain. He ran again this time with his actual speed as he was desperate.

“Zero!”

When the gnolls open their eyes, Hans already moved far away. But it was not far enough for the gnolls as they could easily catch up with Hans.

“Got you again! Mwahahaha!”

“How surprising you could still run with that body. Kekeke”

The gnolls loomed over Han’s haunched body and cruelly flipped him on his back, sweeping his unsteady legs. This time blood gushed out from his mouth, his broken bones got worse. Even a simple move caused great pain. The heavy injury made his muscles feel numbed and his dislocated bones stabbed his inner organs.

“How about it? This time you want to give up right? Dying is better right?”

Gaff pulled Hans’s shirt as he playfully talking to the half-dead kid. Gaff doesn’t show mercy at all when he saw Hans badly beaten up faced. His broken nose, his falling tooth, and the bruised from his eyelids nearly closed his brown eyes.

Regardless, Hans stayed conscious. With his heavily injured mouth, he muttered as if he was complaining.

“I-It’s….N-Not…Fair”

“What?! I can’t hear you.”

“It’s... not fair.”

“Hahaha! How amusing, so how do I make it fair? This world is never fair.”

“M-More time….”

As both Jarr and Gaf heard Hans, they couldn’t help but laugh as they felt it was extremely amusing for a boy that couldn’t even move his finger to ask for more time to escape.

“Yeah, okay, right. This time we will give you sixty seconds. But don’t go too far or we can’t catch up with you~~”

“Let’s start now! Sixty!”

“Fifty-nine!”

Jarr and Gaff playfully gave Hans more time as they knew Hans couldn’t even move. As they counted the number downed to ten, they didn’t feel or hear any movement from Hans.

“Five!”

“Four! Hey, it’s not fun if you didn’t move at all you know.”

“Three! Whatever, I can’t wait to eat that brat’s corpse, I heard it is extremely delicious eating a corpse that’s tortured to death!.”

“Two!”

“One! Hey, did he die already?”

“Zero!”

“Hahaha! Now, time to play~~”

“.................”

As Jar and Gaff open their eyes, they didn’t see anyone. In front of them, it was supposed to be Hans lying on the ground.

Instead, nothing was around except a thick dark forest and traces of blood when they beat the kid.

They definitely beat the kid to a pulp, traces of blood were the proof. But they couldn’t find his trail.

The kid supposed to be heavily injured. He was supposed to be unable to move or moving in silence. The kid should have at least left a blood trail. But nothing was left behind. Only some traces of blood, a shirt, and a pair of pants.

Both Jarr and Gaff slit their eyes and gritted their teeth as they finally realized that they were fooled by the young kid.

“Grrr...We underestimated him!”

“Let’s find him, we are dead meat if he reaches the human’s army camp.”

******

Fifteen minutes had passed. But Jarr and Gaff fumbled frantically in the bushes, they were still searching for the young kid. They had searched everywhere around the human’s army camp perimeter and they had found nothing.

As cold sweat broke free from their foreheads, they shuddered when they imagined the punishment that awaited them. Their mistake may cause their army to lose, or at worst be annihilated.

Both Jarr and Gaff were elite scouts. Other than simple scouting they were also masters of finding hidden enemies and traps.

But after fifteen minutes, they failed to find a single defenseless young boy. As they reached a dead-end situation, Jarr and Gaff spoke with each other as they tried to comprehend the situation.

“ I hope he doesn’t reach the human’s camp.”

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“I don’t think so, we already checked. They were no traces of movement from the human’s army.”

“Shit, we didn’t find anything. It’s as if he vanished in thin air. Unless he went completely in the opposite direction, this….wait.”

“Don’t tell me…..why would he do that? Impossible.”

“No, it’s possible! That kid is not as simple as we thought!”

“Then we should go the other way, quick!”

*********

As the blood was dripping from his left lower leg, Crow's face gets paler. He used his sword to support his left body so he could remain to stand. He hadn’t moved, regardless he was alive.

He tried to remain conscious as he muttered everything on his mind. One could say it was some nonsense from someone about to die.

“Books….no one in the slaves rank could read books. I tried learning how to read but it was damn hard. Mud also from the noble family, but he was stupid like the rest of us.”

A normal human being couldn’t be heard Crow’s muttered. But Carf could hear everything as gnolls had sharper five senses.

“Heh, is this the infamous life flashback before death?”

Carf thought his other companion had an easy time catching Hans. He took his time so he could enjoy the moment before Crow died. Carf only stood still as he kept hearing Crow’s stories.

“That boy…..he knew how to read, for a goddamn five years old brat he sure knew how to speak well. He was a cry baby when he first entered the army, it took me a while to shut him up with my fist. But one day...he just stopped. It was around the time after I taught him how to use ‘silent step’. “

“Wait a minute, he knew how to use ‘silent step’? Then why did he escape like that?” Carf interrupts as he started to get confused.

Ignoring Carf's question, Crow continued his story.“Then I discovered it. He… read a book. A god damn book that nowhere to be found around the slaves rank. Books that only could be found in the heavily guarded high-rank officer’s tent! ”

Through Crow remarked, Carf finally realized something was wrong. Crow’s confidence wasn’t a baseless one. He’s not hesitant to throw away his life as he knew their side would win soon after he passed the baton to Hans. Crow grinned widely as he felt he already succeed in doing his part.

“Kukuku…..wasting your time with someone like me…..how stupid.”

“Pfftt! Then I will finish you off this instance!”

‘Bssh!’

The sound of the nearest bushes disturbed Carf from continuing his attack. He walked towards the sound he just heard as he was suspicious. As he found nothing, he turned back toward Crow.

The crippled kid was leaning his back on one of the trees. His panting showed how critical his condition was. He barely gripped his weapon with his right hand and his head looking down as if he could not lift his head anymore.

Carf thought he should finish him quickly so he could help his brethren to find the other kid. He lifts his weapon and dashed towards Crow to finish him off.

As Carf swung his weapon widely towards Crow, suddenly the crippled kid charged forward and stabbed the gnoll neck with his sword.

Shocked, Carf was pushed before he could retaliate. For a kid in critical condition, countering his attacks and push the grown-up gnoll was absurdly inhuman. Carf could only watch his supposed to be prey with his eyes widened as his life nearing its end.

Until his final moment, Carf didn’t figure out how Crow regained his strength. He did saw Crow’s panting and how weak he was wielding his sword.

But Carf didn’t know it was just an act. If he carefully observed Crow’s body, he would saw the kid was healed and the blood doesn’t gush out from his severed legged anymore.

Behind Crow, hiding in the darkness was Hans. Just after he intentionally made a sound to attract Carf's attention, he used ‘silent step’ to stealthily moved behind Crow and healed him with his magic while Carf looking the other way.

“You….don’t have to come back…” As his gaze looking at the small boy, Crow spoke as if he doesn’t need Hans helped.

“B-But, I can’t just ignore you as I passing this path,” Hans replied while looking straight at Crow’s face.

“What?! Aren’t you supposed to go back to the camp and inform them about the gnolls?” Crow retorted.

“If I went that way, they would easily catch me. I plan to inform the ‘Immortals’ instead”

Crow finally understood Hans's intention after he heard his answers. Running back to the camp was too predictable.

Although Hans could use ‘Silent step’, there was no way he could escape the gnolls once they get serious.

‘Fooling the gnolls was the only way’. Crow’s thought as he understood Hans's plan. “Then, you should be on your way.”

“Y-Yes.” After he replied, Hans vanished under the darkness as he continued to run.

Crow laid on the forest floor while grinning to his teeth as he thought. ' What with the short pant, he throws away his cloth so they won't catch his scene?'

******

To prevent unexpected ambushed from the enemies, the army usually placed their strongest division, the ‘Immortals’ to camp five kilometers outside the army main camp.

They were separated into smaller ten men squads scattered around the army main camped. This way, the ‘immortals’ would be the first to know if the enemies approaching and the army could be prepared in time.

Unfortunately, because the gnolls specialized in stealth, they were unable to notice the gnolls army and scout.

The ambush planned by the gnolls army would definitely hurt the army because the gnolls army could easily pass the ‘immortals’ in stealth and attacked the main camped straightaway.

Instead of went straight to the main camped, Hans decide to go in the opposite direction and informed the ‘immortals’ about the situation.

*huff* *huff*

“H-Help….”

After running non-stop as if his heart about to burst, Hans finally reached the camp. With bruises all over his body, a  torn out short pant and the life of his comrades. He accepted the baton passed to him and reached his goal.

It was the turning point of the war against the gnoll. And it was the turning point of the life of a slave name Hans XXII Golden Age, an ex-noble.

******