The Bell of Death

The Explosive Wolf's forceful charge became his undoing due to the momentum.

With his greatsword still in hand, before he could fully unload the force, the last remaining goblin before him, forced to draw a short sword from his waist, was about to stab into his abdomen.

"Flame Arrow!"

A scorching bolt of fire pierced the Explosive Wolf's shoulder and shot into the goblin's eye.

It let out a pained cry, and before it could do anything else, the Explosive Wolf, having stabilized his stance, cleaved off its head with his sword.

Beyond the dense forest, more goblins shrieked and roared, attempting to swarm forward.

However, the mercenary group behind them moved first, charging into the woods and holding the line at the edge of the camp, engaging them in a fierce battle.

Tang Qi, who had been observing, stood up slightly from the overturned cart, poking his head out.

Since the three of them, the prisoners, were not placed within the camp and were instead only caught in the arrow rain:

"Wiping out these goblins seems like only a matter of time."

"Judging by your tone, you don't actually expect them to fall to the goblins, do you?"

Black Snake's words were sharp, but inwardly, he couldn't help but look at Tang Qi with a bit more respect—

If not for the bard's early warning, with his limbs restrained, he might very well have been hit by the indiscriminate arrow rain.

Yet, he didn't seem like he had "discovered" the arrow rain.

His demeanor clearly suggested...

Precognition?

Tang Qi was still uneasy, and he pondered from beneath the overturned cart:

"Scattered goblins would naturally be surrounded and annihilated.

But scattered like this, they shouldn't even be attacking this camp—

Don't underestimate goblins; even kobolds know to gang up on fewer opponents."

"Rua?"

Due to the sentence's length and speed, Kuru couldn't catch all the words.

But he felt like he had been scolded...

Black Snake smacked his lips in agreement:

"Leave it to them. That one called Explosive Wolf has some skill. I remember his mercenary group was involved in the defense against the southern beastmen."

"How does he compare to you?"

"What makes you think he can compare to me?"

"As expected of someone from the Great Desert."

Tang Qi said, quickly picking up the backpack that had fallen to the ground when the ox cart overturned.

Black Snake hesitated, "What are you doing?"

"Unlocking you, so you can take the lead if something happens."

"You don't expect a scoundrel to follow the rules, do you?"

"No. But I know you can't leave the forest on your own—you definitely won't see through the illusions of the mist."

"As if you can."

"Oh really?"

"Can you really?"

Tang Qi's ambiguous attitude made Black Snake hesitate.

Seeing the other man take out a chisel from his backpack and begin working on the shackles binding his legs—

Clang! Sparks flew.

The shackles remained intact.

Black Snake couldn't help but say, "Don't make me laugh."

Tang Qi felt embarrassed but kept a straight face:

"Asking a bard to do manual labor, are you mistaken about something?"

"Then you'd better save your strength. Lest by the time you painstakingly break the shackles, the goblins over there will be dealt with—

And then they'll give me a more secure set of restraints and add an escape charge. How many years do you think I'll have to serve that Merad?"

Tang Qi couldn't help but say:

"What if it's not just a few goblins? What if it's an entire tribe..."

Black Snake flatly denied:

"How could there be an entire tribe?

With the mist here, this forest is destined not to be suitable for settlement and habitation."

In the Twilight Forest, zombies and ghosts are actually more common than goblins--"

Before he finished speaking, the sound of wind rushed past his ears again.

Tang Qi's spine chilled. His Alertness urged him to shift one position to his side.

As he sidestepped, an arrow with barbs, whittled from a branch, shot out from behind him, whistling past his shoulder and heading straight for Black Snake's forehead!

"Screw you!"

This left Black Snake with almost no time to react. Leaning against the cart, he could only forcibly twist his waist.

"Bang!"

The arrow pierced the long shackles binding his hands, barely an inch from his left ear.

Black Snake almost cursed aloud.

But then he realized that this arrow's trajectory was completely different from the previous volley--

It clearly came from the front!

"Thump, thump, thump--"

A massive shadow revealed itself from the white mist.

From a distance, its steps were unsteady, but the way it walked on the muddy ground sent a strong tremor to Black Snake, who was far away:

"Damn your crow's mouth, what good things can come out of your mouth?"

Another arrow shot from afar. Tang Qi grabbed the bewildered Kuru ahead of time, tossing its small body to the other side of the cart with one hand, and using the other to vault over:

"Since when did reasonable analysis become a crow's mouth?"

Black Snake had nowhere to go, but fortunately, his body was agile enough. He used the long shackles as a shield to block the arrow, looking like a hedgehog.

But he knew there was no time to care about his image right now--

"Roar!!!"

A rough roar shook the forest.

Immediately after, two similar roars answered from the direction of the camp.

In front of the mercenary group--

Two giants, seven feet tall with thick necks adorned with iron collars, broke through the overflowing mist and charged towards the camp.

They smashed through everything in their path, including thick trees and goblins carelessly trampled underfoot.

The flesh and blood of their companions splattered on their thick, root-like calves.

Their plump bellies were covered in scars and sores, their pointed noses sucked in the mist, and the slightly curved mace in their hands smashed down right before the mercenary group!

"Boom!!!"

Beneath the deafening sound was the wail of a young mercenary who couldn't react in time.

He was a new recruit who had joined the mercenary group not long ago.

This meant he had little experience.

And it had become a fatal poison--

That blow knocked off his helmet, crushing his skull along with it, spraying scarlet blood.

"Grease Spell!"

The situation suddenly became critical. Xin Xing had no choice but to chant an arcane spell, forcefully distorting the ground beneath another approaching troll, causing a pool of black swamp to erupt from the damp earth.

The swamp was particularly slippery, spreading over a ten-foot radius.

The second troll, not paying attention, slipped and with a "boom," the entire creature fell to the ground.

It tried to struggle, but instead, the slippery grease coated its entire body, making it extremely difficult to even get up.

Explosive Wolf gained a moment to breathe and quickly retreated to the side of the mercenaries, roaring:

"It's trolls! Everyone, form ranks!"

Explosive Wolf didn't understand.

These ugly giants, with nothing but hunger in their minds, shouldn't have appeared in the Twilight Forest, a place where there were more dead than living--

They wouldn't be able to stomach those rotten corpses.

But it had indeed happened?

"If I had known we'd encounter so much trouble on this journey, I should have refused it from the start!"

Now he had to consider asking Lord Mel, who was hosting a ball in his mansion, for more compensation after returning to Dragon Gold City.

And the third troll was attempting to flank from the other side of the camp.

Right in front of three prisoners!

It even had two identical heads.

Without giving Black Snake a chance to curse, it stumbled towards him, its mace smashing down with a roar.

"BOOM!"

The flour sacks in the cart shattered, the exploding powder and white mist nearly merging into one.

Tang Qi's [Alertness] allowed him to foresee the danger, forcing him to grab the small zither Catherine had lent him, along with his own backpack, and dive forward.

Things had changed too quickly; he could barely remember how many times [Alertness] had saved him.

But only now did he realize that this specialty offered him more than just the gift of foresight.

It also brought inescapable fear--

[Alertness] made his perception of danger extremely acute.

But the prickling itch all over his body, the palpitations, had accompanied him all the way until now.

Making his body tremble uncontrollably!

His hands shook so badly he could barely hold onto the items in them...

He was even too paralyzed to move after falling to the ground!

This was completely different from how he felt in the kobold cave before.

He understood that [Alertness] was sending him a signal.

A well-trained goblin army.

Three ravenously hungry troll "slaves"...

These beings, which shouldn't exist in the Twilight Forest, the fear brought by this crisis.

To him, it was like the tolling of death's alarm bell!