Hunters
Led by Leishande, the Adventure Group charged down the hillside.
On the edge of the Pagisto Plateau, there are many narrow valleys like the one in front of us. The mountain ridges are almost all extensions of the surrounding mountains. After the snow on the mountain peaks melts, it gathers into streams that meander through the valleys. These streams are the life source of each valley.
All the vegetation is near the river and stream, and the closer to the river and stream, the greener it is...
Many mountain ridges are covered with exposed weathered rocks, which are carved with horizontal stripes by the wind in the valleys, filling the valleys with a tranquil and mysterious beauty.
In these valleys, there are almost no trees to be seen, and the few small trees that do grow are crooked and twisted.
It doesn't even grow as well as some low shrubs.
The highland argali sheep can leap back and forth on these rocky mountains, making them much more agile than the horses in the Adventure Group...
Leishande told the Adventure Group that there was a mine a few hundred kilometers away from the elven village, and he did not want the Adventure Group to go too far into the heart of the plateau. Apart from some high-level magical beasts, the greatest danger to the Adventure Group was the Elf Headhunters on the plateau, who were often supported by Mine Owners.
If you just want to wander around the Pagisto Plateau, it's best to take a walk around the mountainous area on the edge of the plateau.
Whether hunting magical beasts or gathering Magic Herbs, the mountains on the edge of the Pagisto Plateau are a good choice.
"Speaking of which, four of the elven children we sent to Rampart Town this time are from this village. We're staying here for the night to bring them news," Leishande said to Roy, picking up his water pouch, opening the lid, taking a sip of water to moisten his throat.
Roy felt that Leishande was leading everyone in circles on the edge of the Pagisto Plateau, but he figured he was probably doing it for everyone's safety.
The plateau was much larger than Roy had imagined, and the elves' settlements were very scattered. If it weren't for Leishande leading the way, Roy estimated that he would have had a hard time finding these elf villages in the mountains.
As everyone rode their horses up the hillside, they saw a white column of smoke rising from the distance.
Leishande's expression turned serious. Without saying a word, he gave the argali sheep beneath him a hard lash with his whip.
The argali suddenly darted forward, instantly leaving the others far behind.
Roy quickly led everyone to chase after them.
They ran for several kilometers before finally seeing the elven village that Leishande had described. However, one of the houses in the village had been reduced to ashes, and the rest of the houses were built of stone, with only the doors and windows smashed.
The village was in a mess; the fences had been trampled flat, and there were hoofprints of argali sheep everywhere.
Kaka, riding a griffin, arrived first and waited outside the courtyard of a stone house...
Woods followed Roy, and as they approached the village, he whispered to Roy, "I smell some blood, but it's very faint now."
Leishande rode his argali sheep and ran around the dilapidated village, calling out, but no elf came to answer.
Seeing Kaka waving to them in front of a small house, Roy rode over on his horse. The courtyard was littered with the corpses of more than a dozen Half-Elf, who must have been slaughtered together here. There were hardly any signs of a fight in the courtyard.
When Moira rode up from behind, Sabrina leaned over, hugged her, and covered her eyes with her hands.
"Don't look that way, Miss Tiffany. You and Moira can go look around somewhere else," Sabrina said to Miss Tiffany, who had caught up with them.
Miss Tiffany quickly pulled Moira away from the courtyard.
Leishande arrived at the front of the courtyard and walked in with a sorrowful expression. Looking at the elven villagers lying in pools of blood in the courtyard, he knelt down in front of a male elf, took out a handkerchief, moistened it with water, and helped him wipe the blood and mud off his face.
He must have been enraged and in great pain before he died, because his face was contorted. His fatal wound was on his neck, where his throat had been cut, but he also had several knife wounds on his body, and the tendons at his joints had been severed by the headhunters. He must have suffered some torture before he died.
"Bauer was also a very good hunter, skilled at hunting herds of Magic Antelope. I never expected him to die here."
Leishande's voice was deep as he dragged over the body of another elven lady and placed it next to the hunter Bauer. He continued, "This is his wife, Salena. Her Red Berry is the best, with a sour and wine-like flavor. They are the ones who entertain me every time I come here."
Leishande went on and on about each of the dead elves, and he actually knew them all.
"You know the names of every elf in this village?" Roy, somewhat surprised.
"Of course, we have a get-together every few months. Over the years... we've all become very close friends... sigh!"
Leishande sighed as he spoke.
He wiped the faces of the dead elves with a handkerchief, then went into a stone house and brought out some blankets. Roy, Woods, and Klayr came over to help, and together they wrapped the elves in the blankets.
Although he had been dead for some time, the body had not yet started to smell of decay.
There were hardly any decent trees in the valley, but there were many transplanted bushes in the village. Roy, Woods, and Klayr dug a row of pits next to the bushes, and then they worked together to bury the dead elves.
Leishande found some stones and used a dagger to carve a line of simple text on the flattest side of each stone. In addition to the names of the elves, the stones also contained brief biographies of their lives.
Everyone worked in the village for most of the day until it got dark, and then they chose to stay in an empty house at the entrance of the village. Roy and the others set up tents in the yard outside and did not stay in the low stone houses.
Miss Tiffany takes a bath every night; she is a Water-based Mage, so it's not a difficult task for her.
Sabrina and Moira picked a lot of Red Berry in the village, and Leishande somehow found a jar of berry jam. It tasted exactly as he had said, sour with a strong wine flavor.
The headhunters on the plateau began attacking villages, something no one had expected.
"It must have been those Elf Headhunters. No one else would do such a thing," Leishande said with certainty.
"How many elves live in this village?" Roy took a walk around the village before dark. There were at least twenty stone houses in the village.
"There are about fifty elves," Leishande said.
Roy breathed a sigh of relief; things didn't seem so bad after all. He said, "We only buried sixteen bodies; some of the elves may have escaped."
Klayr, sitting nearby, seized the opportunity to say, "They might have all been captured by the headhunters. Roy, I think these elves have only been dead for a short time. Should we chase after them?"
"..."
Roy looked at Klayr speechlessly.
Kaka hesitated for a moment, then whispered to Klayr, "To be able to slaughter an entire elven village in one go, these headhunters must be incredibly strong. What makes us think we can possibly chase after them?"
"We have to do something!" Klayr said, somewhat indignantly.
Moira nestled in Sabrina's arms, listening quietly to everyone's conversation.
This experience allowed her to see many things she had never imagined before. If it weren't for Miss Tiffany's constant encouragement, she might have reverted to her previous withdrawn state.
Moira opened her closed eyes suddenly, her clear eyes looking at a shadow on the side of the stone house.
The members of the Adventure Group did not need to communicate in any language. Everyone knew that Moira had an extremely keen sense of perception, and even the slightest sound could not escape her ears.
Woods and Roy stood up at the same time and walked towards the shadows on the side of the stone house...
"Who's there?" Roy took a few steps before trying to ask. Sure enough, the silhouette of a female elf emerged from the shadows, holding a spear in her hand. Roy and Woods were both on guard against the female elf.
"Uncle Leishande!"
The female elf called out to Leishande.
Leishande rushed over, holding a torch, and after seeing clearly what the half-elf woman looked like, he asked:
"Mulin, is that you?"
He brought the torch closer...
The female elf tucked her loose hair behind her ears, revealing a clean face.
Leishande immediately dropped the torch and hugged the female elf tightly, asking repeatedly, "Mulin, where are the other elves in the village? Are you with them? How did this place become like this?"
The female elf was dressed in simple handmade leather armor and held a spear in her hand; she appeared to be dressed as a spear warrior.
She said to Leishande with some shame:
"Yesterday morning a group of hunters came to the village. They barged into the village and started arresting people everywhere. We fought with them, but unfortunately we lost. The scene was quite chaotic. We took some of the village elves and left first, while Uncle Bauer and the others stayed behind to cover our retreat."
Everyone sat down again around the campfire. Roy noticed that she had linen bandages wrapped around her neck and bloodstains on her sleeves, indicating that she had also sustained some injuries.
"Right now, those hunters in the heart of the highlands are hunting us elves who live in seclusion in various villages. In order to fight against them, we have united with elves from several nearby villages. Uncle Leishande, you have been to Padesto City before. Can you contact the merchants there? We want to buy some weapons and armor. We need to arm ourselves and fight those Elf Headhunters to the end," said the female elf named Mulin.
"Even in Padesto City, it's probably impossible to find any merchants. The Silver Moon Elf army is now controlling resources in the Pattington Plane very strictly. Not to mention Padesto City, it would be extremely difficult to even get close to Rampart Town."
"Besides, what are you planning to use to exchange for weapons and armor?" Leishande explained to Mulin.
Mulin glanced around warily.
"They are Adventure Group from the Padesto City. They are all good young elves. They even helped me when I was down the mountain!" Leishande explained to Mulin.
Mulin then withdrew her wary gaze and said to Leishande, "We've been going from village to village, collecting some leather and herbs, but we just can't find any caravans."
Leishande hesitated for a moment, then said somewhat somberly, "I will try to find a way to help you with this."
"If you need the Silver Moon Elf army to intervene, I can help you make contact," Roy said, seizing the opportunity.
Leishande and Mulin exchanged a glance, but Leishande immediately refused, saying, "Forget it. If you can get some weapons and armor, that would be a help to us..."
Roy thought for a moment and figured that buying some magical weapons from the merchants in Castleton City should be achievable.
He actually wanted to help these elves, although he didn't have a good way to deal with the group of Elf Headhunters, but providing some necessary assistance to the elves in this village wouldn't be a problem, so Roy replied:
"If the quantity is smaller... that's still acceptable."
Mulin returned to the village this time to collect the bodies of the dead elves after the hunters left.
However, Uncle Leishande had already done everything she needed to do, and then she quietly left the village just before dawn.
The next day, Leishande led his Adventure Group away from the village and headed straight for the heart of the plateau.
He wanted to show Roy and the others the mines on the plateau as soon as possible so that the Adventure Group could leave quickly, since Roy had promised to help them get some magical weapons, Leishande was the obvious choice to receive them.
Leishande finally stopped wandering around the mountains. Kaka rode his griffin in the sky to scout the surroundings. He could see very far in the sky, especially in valleys where there were no trees to block the view.
The hunters didn't go far after slaughtering the elven village.
They split into several search teams, searching for other elven villages in the mountains.
One of the headhunting search teams was spotted by Kaka, who was scouting from the sky, when it stopped on the ridge.
These headhunters, all riding argali sheep, were incredibly conspicuous standing on the ridge...
Startled, Kaka quickly increased the flight altitude, turned around, and flew back to inform Roy.
On the grassy slope on the other side of the valley, Roy heard Kaka say that they had spotted a small team of Elf Headhunters ahead of him, and asked:
"Kaka, did you see how many headhunters were in their group?"
"Eight headhunters, each riding a argali, are coming this way..." Kaka replied.
"Kaka, you continue to monitor them, but be careful not to get spotted!" Roy said to Kaka.
"Understood!" Kaka rode the griffin into the sky and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Woods couldn't help but ask Roy:
"Roy, what do we do this time?"
"Since they've come to us, let's teach them a lesson. This time, we'll be the hunters and let them experience what it's like to be the prey," Roy said to everyone from his horse.