“Good!” Elijah said as he clapped his hands. “So, its settled. Your group will continue to find the locations of the enemy and we’ll take them out.”
Currently Elijah was standing in a triangle formation with Elder Jamal and Justin. In the center was a map drawn in the soil by Elder Jamal to help show what they discovered during their scouting. The map started with a large circle symbolizing the village.
From there, Elder Jamal drew a line to a smaller circle that symbolize the clearing they were currently in. It took Elijah, Justin and the village warriors over two hours to travel to the clearing from the village. Along the line between the village and the clearing there were several lines drawn in the soil that branched out to different spots. These spots were the areas where Elder Jamal and the others found natural resources.
Obviously, trying to find the natural resources by using the poorly drawn map in the soil would be very difficult. Thankfully, the villagers already had a system in place for sharing information. Justin and the other villagers would have no problem locating the exact areas containing the natural resources.
“Are you shore we shouldn’t help out?” Elder Jamal asked. “Some the natural resources are in areas occupied by beast groups. Last time we looked there weren’t any astral beast or any other tier one creatures, but many things could have changed overnight.”
“Right now, we need to continue scouting the forest,” Elijah replied. “We might not be able to obtain all the natural resources, so we should focus on locating as many of them as we can and then selecting the ones that are the most useful to us. As for any astral beast we might meet, Justin and I will be more than enough to handle any that come our way.”
Elder Jamal gave Elijah a look before asking, “Aren’t your senses damaged? Although you have astral sense, you are still in an injured state. I’m not sure the two of you will be able to defeat an astral beast without any help.”
“Who said we don’t have any help?” Elijah waved the spear he was holding in his right hand.
Currently Elijah was using his new spear, the Dominating Battle Spear, as a walking stick. When he left the village, he had it on his back and felt like a total badass. Sadly, nature disagreed and bullied him until he decided to bring it down from his back.
Despite his best efforts, Elijah kept getting his weapon tangled up in vines and knocked around by the occasional low branches. Elijah was disappointed that his cool look failed, but he quickly got over it. One look at his spear was all it took to get Elijah’s heart racing with excitement.
The spear itself emitted a type of battle presence that made Elijah want to use it against a powerful enemy. It also had a dominating presence that meshed well with Elijah’s Supreme Will talent. Elijah was eager to see how the combination would affect his enemies.
When it came to the appearance of the Dominating Battle Spear, it actually looked ordinary. The shaft of the spear was made from a type of black wood and extended slightly above Elijah’s head. The spear head at the top had a width that was close to double the thickness of Elijah’s forearms and was slightly greater in length.
Elijah wasn’t told what the exact material that were used to create the spear were. However, the spear head had a silvery metallic gleam and was razor sharp. The black wooden shaft was heavy, but Elijah had no problem comfortably wielding it with his current strength.
“I don’t think one spear will be enough,” Elder Jamal said.
“Even if it’s not enough to win, it at least gives us the ability to run away safely,” Elijah responded. “Don’t worry we’ll be fine.”
“Fine then,” Elder Jamal relented before ordering the hunters to move out. Of course, Elijah made sure they all received a quest before they left.
Following in his footsteps, Justin gathered the warriors and commanded them to march. Elijah had already discussed how they would explore the areas that Elder Jamal located. The only thing left to do was execute the plan.
…
Ten minutes of running and two minutes of walking brought Elijah and the others to their first area. The area was a clearing with a large tree in the center. The tree towered over the other nearby trees in the forest and emitted a significant amount of astral energy. It was clear that the tree was a treasure.
Sadly, Elder Jamal wasn’t able to confirm what the specific aspects of this treasure was when he first scouted. There were dozens of hyenas surrounding the tree and Elder Jamal didn’t want to risk attracting their attention by getting too close. At the moment the hyenas were all laying down, relaxing under the shade of the large tree. Although they looked peaceful at the moment, Elijah knew they would quickly become violent after he entered the clearing.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Well, Justin, you’re in charge,” Elijah said. “What’s the plan?”
Justin nodded and took a deep breath before he addressed the warriors. The plan was simple and straightforward, but that wasn’t a bad thing. The simpler the plan the lower the possibility for things to go wrong. Plus, they were only fighting against beast, so there was no need for anything complex.
Once Justin finished going through his plan he looked back at Elijah for confirmation. Elijah didn’t say anything. He only silently looked back at Justin and waited for him to begin the attack.
Elijah didn’t have to wait long. After a few seconds passed, Justin tried to ask Elijah for his opinion. However, Elijah simply shrugged his shoulders and didn’t give any advice. Justin finally took the hint and began moving everyone into position for the attack.
Could Elijah have given Justin a minor piece of advice? Of course, he could have. However, doing so would have been working against himself.
From the way Elijah saw things, what he needed at the moment was a person capable of leading the village warriors into battle. He hoped that person could be Justin, but that wouldn’t happen if Justin was always looking for Elijah to tell him what to do. Elijah hoped that his silence would instill confidence, and even better, competence in Justin.
The battle begun with a rain of arrows. Justin and the other warriors began the fight with their warrior jobs active. The hunter job gave more bonuses to archery and fighting in the forest, but the warrior job gave bonuses to archery as well and it gave bonuses to other forms of combat.
Arrows rained down on the hyenas and they immediately began to laugh. They weren’t actually laughing, but the noise they made sounded like laughter. That noise contained their fear, alarm, and served as a warning to the other hyenas.
Justin and the others continued to attack from the forest for more than a dozen seconds as the hyenas ran around in confusion. Although the hyenas were lacking in intelligence they weren’t lacking in physical abilities. The hyenas speed allowed them to dodge most of the arrows that came after the initial surprise attack and kept them from receiving too much damage.
Once the hyenas adjusted to the surprise attack, it didn’t take them long to locate their attackers. The villagers weren’t discovered by the entire group of hyenas right away. Instead, a few hyenas discovered the warriors first and charged at them while the remaining hyenas took note of their movements and quickly followed over a short period of time.
Seeing dozens of beast charge at them was an alarming sight for the villagers, but it was actually a good thing. Since the hyenas were directly attacking them, it was easy for them hit them with their arrows. They were able to bring down more than a dozen hyenas before they managed to cross the space separating them.
“Draw your sword,” Justin commanded.
Although Justin commanded the warriors to draw their swords, not everyone had a sword. There were axes, hammers, sabers and other types of weapons that were passed down to them. Their village currently didn’t have a way to create new weapons, but Elijah hoped to change that after the natural treasure hunt.
Using his Supreme Astral Sense talent, Elijah was able to keep track of everything on the battlefield. He stood behind his warriors and watched as they changed their weapons in a quick and orderly manner. Also, he paid attention to the hyenas’ physical characteristics, their total numbers and their levels.
Hyena Level 50
Hyena Level 42
Hyena Level 49
Hyena Level 39
Hyena Level 45
Fifty-three hyenas continued to charge at the warriors after Justin commanded the warriors to change weapons. The levels of the hyenas varied, but the majority of them had levels between forty-two and forty-eight. Other than their level, there were very few ways to tell them apart.
All of the hyenas were the same height as a man when they stood on four legs. They had a mixture of green and brown fur, dark brown eyes, sharp claws and even sharper teeth. With his Supreme Astral Sense Elijah was able to see how the hyenas’ claws dug into the ground as they rand and the saliva that dripped from their bared fangs.
Of course, this was only the visual aspect of his talent. Elijah was able to hear the low grows and pants of the hyenas racing toward them. He could feel the texture of their fur and sense the power of the muscle undeath.
If Elijah wanted to, he could even take in the smell of the hyenas, but there was no need for Elijah to torture himself like that. He already experienced what it was like to be assaulted by the smells of other peoples’ bodies as he walked around the village. Elijah quickly mastered how to stop using specific senses when he used his talent.
“Lift up your shields and prepare to defend,” Justin commanded.
Elijah thought this command was a bit to wordy, but now was not the time to comment. The hyenas were rapidly closing in and an intense period of close combat was about to begin. The warriors had their shield in one hand and a weapon in the other.
As the hyenas were about to rush at the warriors Elijah had a feeling that something was wrong. He didn’t know what it was, but Elijah knew it would be wrong to ignore this feeling. He readied his spear and prepared for something to go wrong.
Bang!
Unfortunately, Elijah’s feeling was correct. The hyenas slammed into the shields of the warriors and knocked the warriors down and on to their backs. Their sharp claws dug into the armor and flesh of the warriors on the ground as they trampled over them. Their momentum pushed the hyenas at the front forward, despite their attempts to stop, and put them on direct course toward Elijah.