Reconnaissance (1)
About forty kilometers north of Carnford lies Gray Wolf Valley, a remote, wooded hilly area.
Three hunters, dressed in typical Sauron fur coats and carrying bows, arrows, and knives, were carefully moving through the woods, searching for tracks of wild animals.
They belonged to a small tribe nearby that was dependent on the Sauron, and they regularly went into the mountains to hunt, supplementing the tribe's diet with meat and furs.
"Hey, have you heard?" a hunter with a scar on his face said in a low voice, "That Goldspur in Carnford to the south has been making quite a stir lately. It seems like a lot of people are heading north."
"Hmph, well done!" A burly hunter nearby spat and said dismissively, "One of my slaves recently died of illness, and we're short-handed! A few more Broomflower two-legged sheep will fill the gap!"
The last, slightly younger hunter, wore a worried expression. "I heard... those guys in Carnford are a bit strange. Last year, they apparently drove back the Great Chieftain's army of 100,000?"
"Pah!" The scarred hunter sneered, his tone full of disdain. "So what if they were driven back? They're just relying on their tough shells, hiding behind the city walls and playing tricks! Once they leave those crumbling walls and enter the forests of the Northern Territory, that's the domain of us Sauron warriors! Do you think they'd dare come out to their deaths?"
As he spoke, he casually lifted his foot, preparing to step over a clump of low bushes.
Just as his foot was about to land!
A slight click!
The scarred hunter's heart skipped a beat; he knew he was in trouble! But it was too late!
A carefully disguised rope made of extremely resilient mountain vines suddenly sprang up from under the fallen leaves, tightening with astonishing speed and clamping tightly around his ankle!
at the same time!
"Whoosh! Buzz!" Above their heads, a thick tree trunk that had been forcibly bent and cleverly secured by human force suddenly sprang back to its original shape with tremendous kinetic energy the moment the restraints were released! The ropes binding the top of the trunk instantly taut!
"Ah!" The scarred hunter only had time to let out a short scream before he was lifted upside down by an irresistible force, hanging headfirst about ten feet above the ground! His hunting bow also flew out of his hand.
This sudden turn of events happened in the blink of an eye! The other two hunters were stunned by this horrifying scene and didn't react for a moment!
"Whoosh--!"
In the instant they were stunned, a short, sharp Crossbow Bolt shot out from the dense canopy of a large tree to the side with a piercing sound! The arrow pierced the young hunter's throat with perfect accuracy!
The young hunter's eyes widened, a gurgling sound came from his throat, and his hands futilely clawed at his neck before collapsing to the ground without a sound, his blood quickly staining the withered leaves.
"Enemy attack!" The burly hunter finally reacted, shouting in terror as he frantically reached for his bow on his back.
However, a clump of dense bushes beside him suddenly shook, and a dark figure darted out like a cheetah! While still in mid-air, a flash of cold light shot out first—a sharp throwing knife!
"Thud!" The throwing knife pierced deeply into the burly hunter's right shoulder as he prepared to draw his bow! He screamed in pain, and the bow and arrow slipped from his grasp.
The dark figure landed without pausing, its legs suddenly exerting force as it lunged forward, pouncing on the burly hunter in the instant his movements were frozen in agony!
"Bang!" The two fell heavily to the ground. The shadowy figure straddled the hunter, his left hand tightly covering his mouth, while his right hand, holding a dagger, thrust forward without hesitation, piercing the hunter's heart with pinpoint accuracy!
The hunter's body convulsed violently a few times, his eyes filled with fear and disbelief, before he fell silent.
From the moment the first hunter triggered the trap and was hung upside down, to the instantaneous killing of his two companions within seconds, the entire process was breathtakingly fast!
The scarred hunter, hanging upside down, witnessed this short, nightmarish ordeal, and his blood seemed to freeze.
In just a few seconds, his two companions had become corpses, while the ghostly attacker slowly rose from their bodies, his blood-stained dagger still dripping blood.
The attacker was dressed in a gray-green outfit camouflaged with leaves and Cloth Strip, his face smeared with mud, revealing only a pair of cold, emotionless eyes that were fixed on him.
At the same time, on the nearby tree, a figure, equally well-disguised, glided down to the ground as nimbly as a monkey, holding a light crossbow that had been reloaded, the cold tip of the Crossbow Bolt aimed at him.
He stared in horror at the two assassins beneath the tree, like ghosts born from the mountains and forests, his throat dry, unable to utter a single word.
A few minutes later, silence returned to the clearing in the woods, with only the heavy smell of blood lingering in the air.
The Sauron hunter with the scar on his face, like his two companions, had become a gradually cooling corpse, lying face up on the thick layer of fallen leaves.
His eyes were wide open, pupils dilated, frozen in the extreme fear and pain of his impending death.
His throat was precisely slit open by a sharp blade, the wound gruesome, and blood stained a large area of the ground red.
Even more shocking were his hands; the bones of all ten fingers had been shattered by some heavy object, the skin torn and twisted into bizarre angles, clearly indicating that he had been subjected to a brief but extremely cruel interrogation before he died.
Clearly, the attackers extracted the information they needed from him before ruthlessly killing him.
Meanwhile, about a mile away from the scene of the massacre, on the shady side of a small, bushy hill overlooking the valley plain below.
Scouts Lucas and Felin lay motionless beneath the dense grass and low bushes.
They were covered with coarse burlap camouflage nets secured with Hemp Rope and sewn with countless fresh branches and leaves, and their soft hats were also filled with local weeds and branches, making them almost blend into their surroundings and difficult to spot even at close range.
Lucas carefully parted a few blades of grass in front of him, held up a rather old-looking but gleaming Monocular Telescope, adjusted the focus, and silently and slowly scanned the Sauron village built along the river on the plain below.
His lips moved slightly as he described his observations to his companion in a very low voice:
"The village has a simple wooden fence... estimated to be about two people high, with average defensive capabilities. Two entrances were observed, one to the north and one to the south, with the beginnings of watchtowers, but no permanent sentries were seen."