"Awooo!..."
"Whoosh!..."
"Awooo!!!..."
Shrill dog cries, mingled with dying whimpers, rang through the sky above the southern bend in the river. The killing in the wind was drawing closer too, so close that even the stench of blood drifted over. The Samurai and warriors on the Longships were far too familiar with such a smell; they could even judge the rough scale of the battlefield from how thick the reek was.
"Main God be my witness! The fighting to the south must be on no small scale! There have to be hundreds of men, maybe even a thousand!..."
Very quickly, the entire fleet went on high alert. Some warriors readied bows, some put on armor, and even the Hounds on the two ships growled low in their throats, as if sensing the battlefield drawing near.
"Keep going south! Move closer and take a look!..."
Whatever the case, they still had to take a look at the "excitement." In this northern land of dense forests, heavy with danger and frequent slaughter, if there were only three or five people, or a dozen at most, then one had to be careful in everything, avoid every slightly larger commotion, and not touch even half a bit of excitement. But with several dozen fighters, they could go a little farther; so long as they kept watch for riverside flats where large parties passed by, and for the small fleets only big tribes possessed, nothing too serious would happen.
As for now, the two chiefs had brought a full, packed force of two hundred armored warriors, along with three big ships that could move along the river, so they could take the initiative to edge toward the "excitement" and see whether there was a chance to take a share of the prey!
What? You say