Chapter 25 Vantage Point

The merchant caravan has been traveling for two days now, the journey so far had been safe. They passed by farming villages and small towns on their way. There were occasional attacks from beasts but has been easily dispatched by the mercenaries. Bandit activities have been nil so far and they have five days more to travel. They already entered the Hummingbird forest, which spanned for hundreds of kilometer. This place was where most of the killings occur.

There were multiple roads available to cross the forest, the shortest and most dangerous was directly crossing the forest on a straight path which was only tens of kilometer from the middle where the strong beasts reside. Only a handful of merchants and travelers traverse this path. Most of them use routes that avoided that area, the farther the road was from the middle, the safer it was. The group chose a road that was nearing the edge of the forest, it was practically a safe route basing on their fighting power.

The sky was turning dark when the group prepared to camp again as usual in a forest clearing beside the road. Bonfire was started to ease the evening chill that seeped through their bones. Once the fire was started, the aroma of food being cooked lingered around the camp.

There was little to no contact at all between Eznho and the group which was also up to his satisfaction. After dinner, there were casual chats before everyone went to sleep and the mercenaries took turns on their night watch.

“Good night aunt Minchin,” Eznho gestured before going into his own tent.

“Good night little Ez,” Minchin replied and called it a day.

Eznho did not neglect his cultivation and continued to drink beast blood and practiced the Heaven-Seizing Breathing technique at the same time. He already drank one-fifth of the blood and somewhat got used to the pain which also tempered his will and determination.

.....

Howl of beasts could be heard echoing throughout the forest under the bright full moon while snow continued to fall. Embers from the bonfire were crackling while it struggled to maintain its dying heat.

The mercenaries on night watch were yawning, there have been no signs of attack since evening. Unknown to them, five pairs of eyes were staring at them from a distance, looking at them as if they were lambs ready to be devoured.

One particular set of eyes were like the eyes of an eagle, he was the scout.

“How is it brother Agila?” A nearly inaudible sound asked.

“So far, after tracking and observing them for two days, they only have one Halo cultivator. The others, we can take care of them as long as we use our cards right.” Agila replied in a confident voice.

Another voice spoke which sounded like their leader basing on his commanding tone.

“Alright, the magical grade crossbows that boss lent to us will be of good use for this mission. It will be more than enough to threaten him, as long as we do not insist on killing the merchant himself, I am sure they will abandon the caravan. Although the most important goods are held by that cultivator, the rest have still value. The boss has a big raid to do and even invited the Red Skull bandits to join him. This mission has been given to us as a test so we must prove ourselves. Our focus is to make the cultivator flee and the loot will be ours, as for the others, you know what to do. We should finish our mission as fast as possible and wait for the boss’ victorious return.” A vicious glint shone from his eyes.

He understood how these merchants think, as long as you do not force them on a cliff and give them an escape route, they will take it.

There was no need to answer as everyone understood the meaning. Five shadows jumped from the darkness going towards the caravan’s campsite.

.....

“Man, I’m so sleepy. Why the need for three people to stand guard?” One of the young mercenaries grumbled with sleepy eyes.

“Shut up Miller and do your job properly, you’ll never know when bandits or beasts attack. This is your first mission so you have no idea how brut....”

Xiu!

He suddenly stopped talking with eyes wide open. Miller was annoyed by the lecture but his sleepiness suddenly vanished when an arrowed pierced his comrade’s head.

“E....!”

Xiu! Xiu!

Before he could shout, two more arrows came from the dark without warning piercing him and the other mercenary that was not far from him. Unwillingness filled his eyes, it was his first mission. He had so many plans in life, but alas, not everyone gets to achieve their dreams. All he could do in the last second of his life was imagine himself living in luxury, then the world went dark.

“Enemies!”

The first to react was Dugsol and his shout reverberated throughout the camp startling everyone awake. He spread his soul sense but could not detect anyone within a thirty-meter range. The mercenaries immediately reacted and did not panic due to their experiences.

Xiu! Xiu! Xiu! Xiu! Woosh!

But upon exiting their tents, four arrows came flying targeting four people while another one went for Dugsol. This was not an arrow but a bolt from a crossbow made from special materials.

“Ahh!”

“Arrrgghh!

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Two of the mercenaries died immediately while screaming, one was seriously injured and the remaining one was able to dodge on time.

After sensing that the bolt was faster and had more power, Dugsol’s pupils shrunk and circulated his energy. A faint white energy surrounded him while making hand movements then stomped his foot which made the land surrounding him tremble.

Earth Wall!

A thick and solid earthen wall the size of a regular door rose from the ground in front of him. The bolt came with great momentum directly piercing the wall but its speed was cut in half after exiting on the other side.

“Hmmm?” Dugsol was startled but immediately circulated his energy on his palm and swatted the bolt away from him.

“Damn, is that a magical grade crossbow?” His face was ugly and brought out a circular metal shield and a machete from his spatial pouch.

“Dugsol, how is it?” Rio inquired nervously behind him.

“Stay behind me, the enemy is hiding in the dark, my estimate is that there is just five of them. They seem to have a magical grade crossbow but I can manage.” He replied with a serious face, magical grade weapons were not easily acquired for the likes of him. He only had one and it was his metal shield.

Another volley of arrows came but only managed to kill one of the mercenaries who countered an attack by blindly attacking where the arrows came from with their own bows and arrows.

Two bolts suddenly came for Dugsol instead of one,

“Bastards!” He had no choice but to directly confront the two bolts using his shield.

Clang! Bang!

The air seemed to vibrate while sparks flew and he was forced five steps backward.

“Piece of shits!” Being forced back by weaker enemies relying on magical weapons made him furious. He poured his energy on the machete and threw it to where one of the bolts came from.

“Ack!” A gurgling sound came from the nearby trees.

“Bastard!” A shout came from the dark with fury.

Dugsol felt good and brought out his last remaining machete. The exchange of attacks continued between the mercenaries and the enemies in the dark. Using their numerical advantage, some of them rushed towards the enemy’s possible locations.

Woosh! Woosh!

Two more bolts came whistling towards Dugsol’s position but to his surprise, the other bolt came from the side targeting the merchant.

Shit!

He threw his machete towards the bolt aiming for him and stepped sideways barely making the bolt going for Rio graze his shield which made it divert it’s trajectory.

Before he could react, two more bolts came aiming for both of them at the same time.

Motherfuckers!

He could not help but curse, their enemies were nasty.

Gritting his teeth, he made another earth wall to protect the merchant but this time it was two times thicker than the first one which was able to barely stop the attack. At the same time, he forcefully blocked the other bolt.

“Run!”

Dugsol immediately made a decision and picked up the merchant and carried him on his shoulder then dashed into the night, his and the merchant’s safety was the priority. After all, the most valuable goods that could be stored in the spatial pouch was with him. If they stayed any longer, they had a high chance of dying and he already used over half of his energy. He was just at the Halo stage after all and using elemental techniques utilizes a lot of his stored energy and the worst was he was just defending and was not able to properly attack.

.....

On the enemies side, their plan was to use only one magical grade crossbow out of the two they had. Although it was powerful, it uses resources that were too luxurious for them to casually use and they have limited numbers of it.

But when they attacked, they discovered that the enemy was a defensive type cultivator and even knew an earth elemental defensive technique which was out of their expectation, it was rare for Halo cultivators to have one. They had no choice but to use both crossbows but they were in for another surprise, the enemy was actually able to counter-attack and it came too sudden. Even though they had the advantage of ambush, none of them were Halo cultivators so the machete easily found it’s target.

Out of fury, they started to attack the merchant to pressure Dugsol. Their enemies were already closing in despite killing half of them so they had to force Dugsol back or they would have to retreat.

After a series of attacks, they finally managed to make the halo cultivator retreat and they started to fight with the mercenaries head-on.

Chaotic noises of fighting echoed around and the stench of blood started to fill the air. The fight did not last long, due to their accumulated experiences, the bandits won but out of the original five members, two died and one was injured.

“Damn it!” The leader was furious, the result was far off from their original plan.

“Argh! Dying is a part of our job, let’s just hope the goods are worth the losses,” He calmed after a while, this sort of things happened from time to time, it was not new to them.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

A shout filled with fury and hatred startled them which raised their guard. They determined where it came from and it was one of the tents, after listening carefully, it was a boy’s shout.

“It must be that boy who drives the carriage,” Agila spoke with difficulty. He was the one who was injured, an arrow struck his leg and his left hand had a bad cut.

“Tsk! Bob, go silence him,” the leader was irritated and ordered one of his chubby companion.

“With pleasure,” Bob answered with a sinister smile and walked towards the tent with his dagger.

.....

From Eznho’s point of view.

He was soundly asleep when he heard something that woke him up, then a shout came after.

“Enemies!”

He heard Dugsol’s shout that startled him and immediately went out of his tent then was overwhelmed with what he saw. Arrows were coming from the dark targetting the mercenaries and Dugsol. What particularly piqued his interest was how Dugsol managed to block the enemy’s attack.

It was his first time witnessing such a scene of chaos, while he was watching with shocked eyes, a bolt came towards him which was deflected by Dugsol using his shield. The bolt was somewhat slower but still had considerable speed, with Eznho’s agility, he easily dodged it and continued to watch. There was a faint excitement that was starting to rise inside him which is why his concentration was towards the men fighting.

“Ughh!” A light grunt came from behind him.

Oh no!

After hearing that sound, cold sweats started to come out of his pores and his face paled. He felt like he was starting to have a nightmare and did not want to think of something.

Please! No!

He was pleading inside and slowly turned his head as if he there was a monster behind. When his vision finally landed on Minchin’s tent, his heart raced like a horse running for his life.

A leg could be seen exposed outside of Minchin’s tent,

No!

Eznho screamed on his mind and immediately dashed towards the tent and opened it. What he saw made his world stop, Minchin was lying in a pool of blood. When he saw what caused it, he had the urge to rip out his own heart due to self-hatred and agony.

The bolt he dodged earlier pierced Minchin’s chest.

“Aunt!” He shouted and kneeled down and held her in his arms. She was barely conscious and her eyes slowly focused on Eznho. Despite the pain, she did her best to smile and held out his hand to touch his face. She tried to speak but no sound came out.

“I’m sorry aunt, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...” He could not control himself and started to sob uncontrollably.

Seeing Eznho like this, Minchin tried to maintain her consciousness and put her finger on Eznho’s lips but despite her determination, she already lost too much blood. Her hand slowly fell and lost consciousness.

“Nooo!” Eznho was flustered, out of panic and a confused mind, he pulled out the bolt which caused more bleeding that made him more anxious lost his focus. Out of frustration, he brought out the medicines he had on him and poured it on the wound and even attempted to make her drink some of it.

Her breathing became shallower and looked like she was going to die at a moments notice. Eznho did not know what to do and vented out everything with a shout.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”