The next morning began just like any other. Leo just woke up when Una and Nina returned each carrying a freshly hunted deer. No one mentioned yesterday’s events and even though Leo was curios, he didn’t dare to pry and focused on making a breakfast while trying to figure out of ways to make it seem more fancy even though they were in the middle of wilderness.
Afterwards everyone ate, the group proceeded westwards at their regular pace, but before noon Lana stopped and dropped the sack she carried, and lazily stretching said with a yawn, “Damn, I’m hungry! Can we finally have a breakfast?”
Before Leo got confused by her uncharacteristic behavior, he suddenly found himself being mercilessly thrown to the ground, but when he lifted his head he almost fainted from fright.
Some distance away Una, Tia and Nina were spread out covering behind trees. The bows they normally used to hunt wildlife suddenly transformed into terrifying killing machines and making loud ‘boom’ sounds sent out one arrow after another.
After he was enslaved, Leo once tried to pick up one of those bows and almost dropped it in surprise realizing they were as heavy as his Cleaver while these tree ladies casually used them to hunt. In addition, the difference now was that they didn’t use their ‘regular’ arrows, but longer and thicker ones – over three and a half feet long and a half inch in diameter.
In order to shoot out the arrows, which some people could use as spears, the three madams rapidly drew their heavy bows in beautiful full moon shape and the release of the bowstrings was followed up with the loud sounds, similar to explosions. It alone would’ve been fine, but approximately hundred fifty yards away there was a squad of soldiers charging their way and every arrow that left one of the three bows instantly took someone’s life.
The terrifying part was that when an arrow hit the person not only did they die miserably – if their torso was hit, it was left with a palm sized hole, if their head – it instantly exploded, but to those few unlucky who were hit in a limb – it was torn off in a bloody fashion. What made the scene even worse was the fact that the shrill and ear piercing sound that arrows made came only after they hit the target indicating the loss of another life that already had happened.
The three angels of death with their bows were only a part of the dreadful scene that opened before Leo’s eyes. He was knocked to the ground only a moment ago, but when he raised his head Lana was already at the enemy lines. He could barely discern her blurry figure flying through the ranks of attackers and mostly recognized by her huge two handed sword that bloomed fountains of blood with every swing. Her powerful style dominated the whole battlefield and Ruta and Vida covering her from the two sides were almost unnoticeable.
Leo lied on the ground and stared at the scene for twenty-odd breaths when Tia’s shout brought him back to reality.
“F*ck! I’m out!” She seemed to be really angry.
“Me tee! Use the regular ones!” Una shouted back.
‘Right! They had only one stack of those weird arrows each!’ Leo realized watching the three archers switch to the normal hunting arrows.
Of course, they were similarly proficient in using those, but the problem was that the resistance the small group displayed only gave them an advantage in the beginning. Because of their numbers the attackers still held their ground and even managed to encircle Lana. At first it seemed strange that Ruta and Vida suddenly disappeared, but few moments later Leo guessed where they went.
Their group wasn’t the only side who had archers in their ranks. The attackers similarly tried to clench victory using the ranged attacks and the whistling arrows that flow over his head was the reason for Leo to still remain glued to the ground. But few moments after Lana was surrounded, cries of agony flew from further away indicating both Ruta’s and Vida’s locations. The reason for the two leaving Lana’s side was to actually take care of the most annoying enemies.
For Leo this was a strange experience. He could’ve understood the difference in strength if his seven companions were Core foundation stage cultivators fighting against Foundation establishment foes. But there was no cultivation system in Dreadlands because one simply couldn’t cultivate Qi! How come seven people could go against tens, maybe even a hundred opponents? Yes, wit and courage were important, but everyone could use similar tactics since this was no science of alchemy and it was not that hard to think of ambushing the ranged fighters.
At the last thought Leo’s feet grew cold and he glanced over his shoulder only to see several attackers sneaking from behind. They were already less than fifteen yards away and obviously prepared for the final charge when the hateful male-slave ruined everything.
“Watch! Back!” Leo shouted.
His vocabulary was not as extensive as he wished, but it was enough to attract the attention for his three masters who threw a glance over their shoulders and a heartbeat later three attackers fell to the ground, pierced by arrows. It was simply impossible for them to miss from this distance, but unfortunately it was also impossible to take another shot because even though few comrades fell, the rest of the attackers charged in melee.
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Fortunately none of them were helpless without a bow and soon Tia and Nina found themselves defending against two while Una held her ground against three enemies.
Seeing ‘his’ side was about to loose, Leo slowly got on his fours, dropped the Cleaver to the ground and then silently dashed towards the ones who were trying to surround Una.
His idea was simple. It was fine while everyone ignored him during the big skirmish, but if the seven masters lost, he would’ve been killed right after and maybe even tortured before that. In addition, all seven seemed to be good friends and if one or two died, there was a chance he would’ve been blamed and killed or simply executed out of anger.
No one expected the small and weak looking male-slave to do anything since most of the fight he had lied in moss, covering in fear. Thus when he flew in and kicked two Una’s attackers in the back this part of the battlefield froze still for a split moment.
Only when two dreadful cracking sounds of spines breaking registered in everyone’s heads, they realized what happened, but the head of the third Una’s attacker already left the neck it previously was attached to. Purely out of instinct she cut it off while her opponent abruptly halted and now the next part went smoothly.
Leo didn’t join the rest of the fight, but the three ladies had cooperated for years and easily dealt with the remaining four ambushers. Right after they picked up bows again and thinned the lines of those encircling Lana and it didn’t take long until there were only seven people remaining on the battlefield.
‘Right! Goddess!’ Leo realized he hadn’t seen Anna, but he wasn’t the only one.
Lana loudly whistled and few heartbeats later her younger sister arrived, clearly in a bad mood.
“Don’t give me that face!” Lana laughed and hugged her, ignoring the fact she was bloodied all over and now her younger sister looked the same, “It’s good you didn’t have to leave!”
Leo wasn’t completely certain it was the case, but from the looks of it goddess was not allowed to take part in fights. Ruta’s words also confirmed it.
“Sorry, kiddo. We each have our orders. You can only blame yourself for your quick legs.”
“Sis, you’re bleeding!” Anna ignored her and stated the obvious.
“No big deal.” Lana was still laughing. Apparently the adrenaline was still pumping through her veins, “It’s all superficial.
Then she released her sister and became serious, “Alright! Everyone! Who needs bandaging – take care of yourselves and each other. Uninjured – quickly search them. Not only we need to recover arrows – we need to verify how they knew or guessed our route and who ratted us out.”
The three archers and Anna were the only uninjured, but while Anna refused to comply and tended to her sister’s wounds, the rest began to search the bodies of attackers. Leo was not sure what they were looking for, but using the common sense he followed the suit.
Only now he realized that every single attacker was actually a woman. Obviously it kind of made sense in Dreadlands, but for someone who had lived in a realm where everyone was equal and their rights depended on person’s strength, it felt strange.
Suddenly Leo had another revelation. Actually this realm was just like any he had been to in his life, except the men were much weaker compared to women thus had no rights! If they were strong enough they could just overthrow the ruling system or change it. Or maybe there was a country or a continent in this realm where the situation was different?
But then he got a migraine from too much thinking and focused on the task at hand.
There were not that many things Leo could find on the attackers. Besides few coins and arrows he couldn’t find anything useful. These women were all warriors and didn’t carry any jewelry or other valuables and probably their weapons were their most prized possessions.
“Got something!” Leo heard Tia’s shout from the other side of the battlefield and everyone dropped what they were doing and rushed over there, “Looks like it’s their leader. This was most likely delivered by messenger bird.”
“What is it?” Anna impatiently asked watching Lana read a small note Tia just gave her.
“Sigh, this doesn’t tell us anything.” Lana said shaking her head in disappointment and passed it over.
“Well, it seems someone ordered this troop to get ready.” Anna said after reading it, “Can we tell how long they’ve been here?”
Lana took a deep breath, then thought for a bit and said, “Around ten days.”
Seeing Leo’s stupefied expression she snorted, “Soldiers have to pee and take sh*t, don’t you think? How in the world I would’ve sensed their presence otherwise?”
Leo was far from being fluent in Dreadland’s dialect, but he understood as much and only could scratch his head in amazement. When he stealthily tried to sniff the air, he could only smell pines and blood, but the nose of this lady was comparable to that of a hound.
When everyone returned to their previous tasks, Leo began to remove the arrows from the former leader of the attackers. She was a dame of a heavy build and was lucky enough to not get hit by any of the monster arrows, but instead it took five regular ones for her to fall. He carefully cut them out one by one ignoring the gore he was covered in and then went over her possessions one more time. He found a sack of coins that he added to the ones he already gathered from the others, but just as he was about to leave and get to the next corpse, he noticed a golden glow around the leader’s neck.
Curious about the first piece of jewelry he saw in this world, Leo carefully took it off and it turned out to be a strange amulet of an oval shape. It didn’t seem to be anything special, at least while still covered in blood, therefore he splashed a bit of water on it and froze in shock.
In his palm Leo was holding a golden beetle that looked just like the one elder Willis showed in the picture before their departure to Dreadlands realm. Both the size and shape fit perfectly and the peculiar horn indicated this amulet was crafted in the form of the dark-crimson horned beetle the expedition was sent out to find!
“Hpmh!” Leo heard Vida snorting not far away, “Men! Only attracted by shiny useless things!”
“Sorry!” Leo quickly recovered from daze.
Obviously he didn’t need a golden toy, but the real thing and after spending this much time in Dreadlands this was the first clue he found. Or course, it all mattered only in case he ever got back to the sect, but Leo’s understanding was that since he was not dead yet, there was a chance.