Ambush 2
After the rain, the sky over the Pagisto Plateau was crystal clear.
Luqi, the headhunting captain of the Sixth Search Team, wiped the cold rain from his face, stared at the rising stream ahead with a gloomy expression, and asked a headhunter beside him, "Has there been any new information from over there?"
He looked up at the clouds dispersing in the sky, then glanced at his men behind him wringing out their wet clothes.
A headhunter quickly approached Luqi and cautiously answered:
"Captain, the smoke column from the Third Squad hasn't appeared yet."
Luqi was known for his terrible temper, a fact known to everyone in the search team.
Luqi squinted as he stood up, took the reins of the argali sheep from the group member beside him, and said to the hunters around him, "Let's not wait any longer, let's go see what happened."
"Yes."
The headhunters dared not question it and stood up, leading the argali sheep and following behind Luqi.
They had to walk upstream along the stream to reach a shallow, gently flowing section before they could lead the argali sheep across the river.
Argali sheep are far inferior to warhorses in wading, but their advantage lies in their ability to easily climb cliffs and they are particularly adept at traversing Mountain Road.
The argali sheep live deep in the mountains of the Pagisto Plateau. The methods of domesticating argali sheep were originally left behind by the dwarves, but now there are very few elves left who possess this skill...
Having bypassed the swift-flowing stream, the headhunters rode their argali sheep along the muddy road.
After crossing two mountain ridges, the headhunters of the sixth squad arrived at the foot of a mountain ridge. This mountain ridge had fault cliffs on both sides, and it would be quite troublesome to climb over the cliffs. They could only find a mountain pass to go around it.
Luqi arrived at the mountain pass closest to the elven village and silently looked at the pile of rocks on the hillside.
The headhunter, who was walking at the front, suddenly pulled on the reins and stopped. He was the best ranger in the team.
Luqi shouted at the headhunter who had stopped ahead, "What's going on?"
The headhunter quickly pulled on the reins, turned back to Luqi, and replied, "Captain, there's a smell of blood up ahead!"
Luqi hesitated for a moment, then jumped off the argali sheep and squatted on the muddy grass to examine the hoof prints washed away by the rain. The hoof prints on the ground were very blurry after being washed by the heavy rain, but Luqi could tell that a search party had passed through here not long ago.
He looked again at the pile of rocks on the hillside and said to the headhunter beside him:
"A search team passed by here, probably in the rain. They're probably just ahead. Everyone, stay alert."
After saying that, he mounted his horse and continued on his way.
Less than two kilometers away from the headhunters of the Sixth Search Team, in a pile of rocks, Kaka was comforting the griffin.
In front of it was a freshly killed argali sheep. Kaka even skinned the argali sheep and cut off the lean meat from its thigh, placing it in front of the griffin.
This is his mount, and also his battle companion.
This adult male griffin is a big guy, even bigger than the Golden Armored Lion of the Elf Continent.
For the past few days, Kaka has been in charge of the Adventure Group's guard and sentry duties. The griffin opened its beak and licked the lamb leg with its scarlet tongue, occasionally letting out a low growl.
Kaka was carefully wiping the griffin's wings with a dry towel.
Roy moved closer, and the griffin stopped eating and growled at Roy, as if giving him a warning.
Kaka quickly went over, hugged the griffin's fluffy head, whispered a few comforting words, and let it continue eating.
Roy tried to move closer, but the griffin ignored him...
"Does everyone in your village own a griffin?" Roy asked Kaka curiously.
Kaka shook his head and said, "No... to be precise, in our village, every Beast Tamer has a griffin because they are easy to raise and can find their own food."
Kaka beckoned to Roy, signaling Roy to come closer.
Roy crouched beside the griffin and reached out to touch its soft wings. These wings weren't feathered, but rather fleshy like those of a bat. This was completely different from the Royal Eagle Lion of the Grimm Empire, which was covered in feathers, had a Bald Eagle 'Royal Eagle Lion head with a sharp beak, and bird-like wings.
The griffin squinted, licking the delicious lamb leg while observing Roy out of the corner of its eye.
Sabrina was behind a rock, drying Moira's wet hair.
Moira sat on a rock, and said in a low voice, somewhat dejectedly, "Sister, am I really useless?"
Sabrina leaned over and hugged Moira before saying, "How could that be? This is your first adventure. There's always an adjustment period. You've done very well so far."
Moira pouted, looking a little aggrieved, and said, "I've already participated in six field practice courses at the Elf Academy, and I've gotten excellent grades every time."
Sabrina patted Moira on the back, comforting her, "How can the academy's outdoor practice classes compare to an adventure trip! This is the real adventure trip."
Moira turned around, stared into Sabrina's eyes, and asked with some curiosity, "Sister, you just killed five headhunters, will you have nightmares tonight?"
Sabrina patted Moira's fair and delicate face and whispered, "No, after learning about the evil deeds they committed, even the last bit of concern disappeared..."
As a shapeshifting druid, Woods also needs to meditate to restore his mana.
He sat in a low-lying area of black rock, where he could observe the outside world through the cracks in the rock's edge.
He awoke from his meditation and just then saw the headhunting team gathered at the foot of the hill.
Woods quickly jumped down from the black rock, ran to Roy's side, and whispered to Roy:
"Roy, they're here!"
Roy quickly stood up and said to the members of his Adventure Group, "Everyone, prepare for battle."
Sabri quickly pulled Moira up, tied her hair back up, hugged her, grabbed the longsword lying to the side, and strode toward Woods.
Seeing a tear in Roy's thick leather shoulder armor, Sabrina seized the opportunity to ask:
Roy, how's your shoulder?
"It's almost completely healed, there's nothing serious!" Roy replied.
Miss Tiffany, carrying her staff, walked at the very back. At this moment, she couldn't help but say to Roy, "The weather has cleared up, so my Water Magic might be greatly weakened. So be careful later."
"Got it!" Roy replied.
Woods had already found an ambush spot and hid on top of a rock.
Roy began to bless all members of the Adventure Group with ' Strength Blessing ' and ' Wisdom Blessing ', even Leishande was not spared.
Having experienced the divine spell ' Strength Blessing ' for the first time, Leishande stared wide-eyed at Roy and asked, "How could this be?"
Roy chuckled, pointed to his chest, and whispered to Leishande:
"Because I am a Priest..."
Luqi led the headhunters into the pile of rocks and immediately sensed that the place was very messy.
He braced himself and carefully observed the movements around him.
The headhunters behind them also gripped their weapons and each took charge of a direction.
When we were down the hillside, the smell of blood was very faint, but when we got to the pile of rocks, the faint smell became clear.
Finding no Half-Elf corpse near the pile of rocks, Captain Luqi's mood grew increasingly heavy. After thinking for a moment, he decided to lead the argali sheep out of the area on foot.
Several headhunters behind him followed suit...
If it weren't for the third search team's signal to assemble, Luqi wouldn't have wanted to come this way at all.
He knew that the elves in the nearby villages had formed a fighting force against the headhunters. If it were up to him, he would have led a search party to the mountains immediately, instead of conducting a thorough search after attacking an elf village...
Woods hid behind a boulder. Last time, during the raid on the headhunting team in the rain, he transformed into a giant bear and knocked one of the headhunters unconscious.
Now that the rain has stopped, the headhunters' responsiveness has noticeably improved...
This time, Woods also jumped down from the top of the boulder, but the headhunter captain, who was holding the reins with one hand, calmly raised his head and slashed at Woods with a scimitar.
Woods transformed into a giant bear...
A sharp flash of light appeared, and a wound was slashed across the giant bear's chest.
Upon encountering blood, the giant bear became extremely ferocious. Ignoring its wounds, it opened its blood-red maw and bit into Luke's neck.
Immediately behind Luke, a demon wielding a scythe appeared.
Then the demon's phantom merged into Luke's body, and the ethereal Giant Scythe inexplicably appeared in Luke's hand...
Luke took half a step back, gripped his Giant Scythe, and twisted his body to strike.
This time, Woods clearly felt the killing intent. He quickly rolled to the side and narrowly avoided Luke's scythe.
The Adventure Group's ambush was easily thwarted. Sabrina saw the headhunter captain Luke chasing after Woods with a scythe in hand, so she quickly grabbed the Serugi Longsword and gave chase, the longsword firmly blocking Luke's scimitar.
Two Ice Bullet pierced through the rocky area and exploded right above the headhunters, turning into a cloud of ice powder that flew everywhere.
This thin layer of icy mist almost covered the entire battlefield.
At the same time, Kaka burst out of the clouds again and rushed down toward the area covered by Miss Tiffany's ice mist.
The griffin activated ' Iron Will ' to protect Kaka.
The griffin crashed down like a cannonball, creating a crater in the icy mist.
This resulted in two deaths and one injury among the hunters in the ice fog, while the other four hunters narrowly escaped Kaka's ambush.
Roy followed behind Sabrina, and the three of them joined forces to kill the headhunter captain Luqi.
Klayr, Moira, Leishande, and Miss Tiffany followed closely behind, planning to kill their headhunter captain before the headhunters could rush up.
This battle is far more dangerous than the one we just fought in the rain.
Nine men worked together to kill the headhunter captain. In Luqi's dying counterattack, they used their Giant Scythe to cut a gash in Woods' chest and rolled out from under the giant bear's two claws.
A meter-long wound appeared on the chest of the giant bear that Woods had transformed into, and blood gushed out from the wound.
Roy was horrified by what he saw. He only had time to throw out Hammer of Judgment before running to check on Woods' injuries.
The scythe in the headhunter captain Luqi's hand almost sliced open his chest, but fortunately, Woods's Earth Tyrant Bear and thick-skinned, so the scythe did not cause a fatal wound to Woods... Roy breathed a sigh of relief, poured a bottle of Life Potion into him, and turned around to throw himself back into the battle.
The experienced Leishande hid behind a rock and seized the opportunity to shoot an arrow at the headhunter captain, which struck the captain's left eye socket.
Miss Tiffany's ice gun exploded on Captain Luqi, nearly freezing him solid.
Even so, Luqi seemed possessed by a demon, completely disregarding his injuries, and fled towards the headhunting team with his scythe in hand.
His body moved with ghostly speed, and with only a few quick leaps and bounds, he returned to the headhunting team with an Fletched Arrow still lodged in his eye socket.
Before he could even stand up properly, a phantom, like a wisp of green smoke, emerged from a crack in the rocks beside him. It paused behind him for a moment before inserting a short sword into his spine at the lower back.
The headhunters saw an elven girl suddenly appear behind the captain and stab him.
Eager to prove themselves, the headhunters thrust their scimitars at Moira, Moira dodged and weaved in the flashes of the blades, narrowly escaping their onslaught...
Roy and Sabrina rushed towards Moira at the same time, shielding him from the headhunters chasing after him...
The elves in the elven village were unaware that just a few kilometers away, an Adventure Group had helped them fend off two headhunting squads.
After the battle over the pile of rocks ended and they rested for a while, Roy got up to bandage the wounds of the injured members.
Exhausted, all the members of the Adventure Group sat down to rest against the boulder, while the corpses of the headhunters lay in the mud and water among the rocks.
Roy's Adventure Group and the Highland Headhunters went through three battles. In the last one, everyone cooperated quite well and rushed up to kill the headhunter captain first. Even though everyone had made ample preparations, they still suffered some injuries in the battle.
Woods had the most severe injuries. He drank Life Potion and was treated with the ' Holy Light Art, so his injuries healed very quickly.
As darkness fell, Leishande led his Adventure Group away from the pile of rocks. Instead of heading straight to the elven village, they camped beside a cliff face and spent the night resting before finally reaching the elven village.
The elven village was now deserted, with only four abandoned stone houses and a pile of hay completely reduced to ashes.
In the small courtyard in front of one of the stone houses, there was a row of brand-new graves. There were no tombstones or trees in front of these graves, but instead some broken scimitars stuck in the ground. These were the weapons used by the headhunters.
Leishande was somewhat skeptical that the graves contained the bodies of the Elf Headhunters, so he used his broken scimitar to dig open a grave. When he saw that the bodies buried in the soil were indeed those of the headhunters, he breathed a sigh of relief and plopped down on a mound of earth next to him.