Ambushed

"Fuck you!"

New Star could no longer maintain what little dignity he had.

Flushed with humiliation and anger, he could not help pulling out his wand.

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

Tang Qi, by contrast, was now the calm one.

"We still have to face a trial and Lord Mel's punishment.

Young Master Melard was just planning to give me a job...

So if you want to attack, please aim at him."

Black Snake's mouth twitched.

Seeing Tang Qi's shameless behavior, New Star wanted nothing more than to blast both bastards in the head with a Fireball—

Unfortunately, he had yet to learn it!

Tang Qi also had a point. After weighing it carefully, New Star decided it was not worth it.

All he could do was get away from that incessant mouth and leave in a fury.

"You'll pay for this!"

"You really are a respectable Scholar. Even your threats are so feeble," Tang Qi replied.

"Go fuck yourself!"

"Rua!"

Watching New Star seethe helplessly, Kuru felt the satisfying relief of getting some payback.

Tang Qi exchanged a glance with Black Snake.

"Looks like we work pretty well together."

Black Snake felt that even with the long cangue still resting on his shoulders, he might finally get a good night's sleep.

"I knew it. With that mouth of yours, there's nobody we can't drive away."

"So did you really bring some treasure out of the Great Desert?"

"I suggest you stop asking. Haven't you heard the saying—curiosity killed the cat?"

"I'm a person, not a cat."

"I've heard enough of your bad jokes."

Their brief alliance ended. After laughing for a while, Black Snake returned to his earlier languid demeanor.

Unable to pry out any more information, Tang Qi could only sort through what he knew—

So was that party of adventurers Kuru scavenged from wiped out because they had no tools to see through illusions?

No.

Kuru had mentioned that the adventurers were already extremely weak when he found them.

The fog was only a contributing factor.

Before the fog disoriented them, they must have encountered some other danger...

Something capable of breaking up a full party could not possibly have been as simple as a few walking corpses or Goblin bandits.

Just as Tang Qi's sense of danger deepened, he felt his hairs stand on end again...

It was very similar to what had happened not long ago.

"Poet, your hands are free now anyway. Why not sing a few lullabies so I can sleep better?"

Black Snake's voice rang in his ears, yet seemed to become an echo, gradually growing muffled and slow.

For an instant, Tang Qi felt as though time had stopped.

His five senses were sharper than before, his vision clearer.

Even the campfire flickering at the edge of his vision seemed to slow.

The mist drifting through the forest, formed from tiny droplets of dew, pressed against his hairs with even the slightest brush against his skin, bringing a prickling itch like needles.

His whole body began to heat up, yet his mind was remarkably calm—

"Something's wrong."

"What's wrong?"

Seeing Tang Qi frozen in place, Black Snake could not resist trying to kick him.

But Tang Qi seemed to foresee his movement.

The instant Black Snake raised his leg, Tang Qi's entire body contracted as though shivering. He rolled onto the ground, pressing himself against the wagon's enormous wheel—

Thud!

"Hey, I haven't even kicked you yet!"

Was this Poet trying to frame him?

Was he really that much of a coward?

Just as Black Snake was about to laugh in surprise, he heard Tang Qi shout almost at the very instant he rolled beneath the wagon's sideboard:

"Get down!"

Whoosh—

That faint sound of something cutting through the air came next, threatening to pierce Black Snake's eardrums.

He could not tell where it came from, but past experience told him it meant nothing good.

Almost without thinking, he moved, kicking his bound legs hard against the wagon's sideboard and tipping the entire wagon onto its side.

But the wagon's crossbar was fastened to the old ox, dragging it down into the mud as well.

It struggled to rise, rocking the wagon that sheltered the prisoners.

Then, in an instant, a series of thunks came from the overturned wagon's underside, as though something were being nailed into it.

The old ox gave a muffled groan, struggled briefly, then fell silent.

"Rua!?"

Kuru had been thrown to the ground too, but with the wagon shielding it, it cried out and pointed behind Tang Qi.

Looking back, Tang Qi saw several crudely made arrow shafts bristling with carved barbs, embedded at uneven angles in the wet mud—

Just as I thought!

This sense of danger was no different from the previous one.

It was not Black Snake who had made him feel threatened.

Rather, under the effects of [Feat: Alertness], he had sensed the danger lurking in the dense woods—

The first time had warned him. The second had let him evade it.

"Ambush! Ambush!"

Beside the distant campfire, Explosive Wolf's roar was as powerful as ever.

He had already drawn the greatsword from his back and identified the direction of the attack.

"Everyone, ready your weapons!"

"Yes!"

They were well-trained Mercenaries.

Even throughout Dragon Gold City, they had made a name for themselves.

After a brief moment of panic, they immediately regained their composure.

Seeing the few short figures concealed in the thick woods and dense fog in the direction the greatsword pointed, they immediately recognized their attackers.

"Goblins!"

The ugly, short enemies with yellow-green skin had already drawn their bows to the full.

The arrows whistled through the air in unison, their shrill cries like the screeches of birds and beasts. They stirred the white fog, soared into the sky, then fell indiscriminately across the camp—

The well-trained Mercenaries would not be caught by this scattered rain of arrows.

The pampered young master, however, was nowhere near their caliber.

Even when he saw the arrows overhead flashing with silvery light as they plunged toward his face, his corpulent body could do nothing but tremble!

"Young master!"

Hus shoved Melard by the shoulder. Faced with danger, he had no time to preserve noble dignity and threw himself into the mud with Melard in his arms.

"Hus, Hus..."

Melard had nearly struck his head on the ground, but the brief dizziness gave him enough time to recover his senses.

"Are you all right?"

"Thank you for your concern. I'm perfectly fine."

For a human, once one passed the age of fifty, many things began to feel beyond one's strength.

Fortunately, as the family's chief steward and the caravan's leader, Hus regularly practiced martial skills for self-defense, leaving him even fitter than Melard.

"Young master, they're only Goblins. Let's fall back for a moment and let the Mercenaries deal with them."

Once his brief fright passed, Melard also realized these Goblins were nothing to worry about.

He nodded slowly, then hurried to take shelter near the pitched tents.

As the most common danger in the wilderness, these scattered humanoids commanded little respect.

Adventurers traveling outside would feel the day had been wasted if they did not kill a couple of Goblin highwaymen.

But contempt did not mean carelessness.

Explosive Wolf, at least, understood that on the eve of every departure from the city, he had to steel himself for the possibility that he would never return.

Only then could he come back safely in triumph.

"[Great Step Sprint]!"

New Star never let his guard down in battle. As he chanted, a handful of earth floated into the air and scattered over Explosive Wolf's plate armor.

The latter immediately roared and charged forward, dragging the massive blade in his hands.

It was hard to imagine how, clad in full plate armor, he seemed entirely unimpeded and could still run like a tiger or wolf—

In scarcely a breath, he was about to reach several Goblins still trying to draw their bows.

As he planted his feet, his iron boots scraped across the ground, kicking up mud toward the Goblins' eyes.

But just as the mud reached the corners of their eyes—

His blade swept past with a howl.

Squelch—

Scarlet blood sprayed through the air, instantly overwhelming the flying mud.

Where the blade passed, three Goblins were cleaved in two.

"I'm not done yet!" he roared.