Troll pursuers

The Troll Rogue did not want to die, much less go to the grave with Yu Lin Bloodhawk. So, after using an item to break free of the freezing magic, he hurriedly raised his weapon to block. Unfortunately, having to dispel the freezing magic first left him too little time. Before he could put any strength behind the dagger in his hand, Yu Lin Bloodhawk's saber had already cut halfway through his neck.

If he had not tried to block and had instead fought Yu Lin Bloodhawk to the death, thrusting his dagger straight at him, Yu Lin Bloodhawk would certainly have died. Of course, he himself would also have lost his head. But there were no ifs. The Troll collapsed in disbelief, bitterly unwilling to accept his fate.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk was shaken by the close call, too.

If he had not made that split-second decision and struck with all his strength, there was no telling how things would have ended. He had only cursed like that to steady his rattled nerves.

The four elven soldiers now emerged from their hiding places. Everything had happened in a flash. It took far longer to describe than it had to happen, and by the time they reacted, the fight was already over.

One soldier picked up the Troll's dagger, then searched his body. He found a round, flat wooden magic item that looked like a tag.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk guessed that this was probably the magic item the Troll had used to escape the Freezing Trap, but he had no time to examine it. He did not know whether there were more Trolls nearby.

"Fall back, now!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered quietly.

Though the four soldiers were recruits, they understood the gravity of the situation. They gave slight nods, then swiftly retreated along the route they had taken.

Now all the Jungle hunting experience they had gained from the old hunter came into play. The soldiers put everything they had learned about finding their bearings, concealing themselves, and moving quickly through the Jungle to full use. Those skills had originally been meant for pursuing lynxes wounded by tranquilizer arrows, but they worked just as well for running away.

How had a Troll ended up here? Yu Lin Bloodhawk no longer had the luxury of pondering that question. As he fled, he kept a close watch behind him for any more Trolls pursuing them. All his attention and tightly stretched nerves were devoted to those two tasks.

The five of them ran tensely for a long stretch. Once they had put some distance behind them without seeing any pursuers, they gradually began to lower their guard. Yet even though they were panting with exhaustion, none of them dared slow down.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk finally understood what it meant to wish his parents had given him another pair of legs. Only when his life was threatened could he truly feel that desperate longing: an intense desire to keep living, and an equally intense fear of death.

After running another long stretch, the five began to slow down.

It was not that they did not want to run faster. They had simply exhausted too much of their stamina and needed a breather to recover. People were not machines, after all. A machine could keep running as long as it had fuel. A person could not!

Yu Lin Bloodhawk still felt a powerful sense of unease. He did not understand why, but it felt like an instinct warning him of danger.

"Brothers... we can't rest too long... we need to get back to Suncrown Village quickly," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said between heavy breaths, keeping his voice low. Even he could hear the fear and tension in his own voice.

The recruits all nodded silently.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk did not know whether they felt the same way, but that intense sense of danger kept him on edge. He repeatedly glanced behind him, his pointed ears pricked for any unusual sound from the rear.

After a while, the five had recovered some of their strength.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk was just about to urge them to hurry when a faint lynx growl came from behind them.

His heart jolted in alarm. He raised a hand to stop everyone, then signaled for silence.

At the sight of his reaction, the four recruits immediately tensed up. They stopped and crouched, not daring to breathe loudly, all eight eyes fixed on Yu Lin Bloodhawk.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk was tense as well. He held his breath and listened for movement behind them. Another faint growl sounded. This time, he was absolutely certain he had neither imagined it nor misheard.

It was a lynx's growl.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk was not foolish enough to think it came from a lynx merely passing by, much less that the hefty lynx he had wounded had come looking for revenge. These had to be pursuers-Troll pursuers! He was almost completely certain, because the Trolls had Beast Tamers among them.

They caught up so fucking fast! Yu Lin Bloodhawk cursed inwardly, his mind racing to find a way out.

He was sure that if they were tired, the pursuing Trolls had to be even more exhausted. How could they chase so relentlessly without getting tired? Were they robots or something? The problem was that, if the Trolls could catch up despite the enormous head start they had, they would very likely intercept them before they reached Suncrown Village.

Any Troll scouts capable of penetrating deep into elven territory would be formidable opponents, certainly not something the five of them, mere rookies, could handle.

His earlier kill had been nothing but dumb luck. Wild mobs? If anyone now told him wild mobs were pushovers, he would beat them until their own mother could not recognize them. Damn it! Could wild mobs serve as scouts? Could they penetrate deep into enemy territory?

"Brothers!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk lowered his voice. "We're in trouble. There are Trolls chasing us."

The four recruits had been waiting for his orders. Their faces tightened at his words, and they gathered around him.

"The four of you, take the same route back to Suncrown Village. Run as fast as you can," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said quietly. "I'll stay behind and draw them away."

"Captain, that's too dangerous for you," a recruit said anxiously.

"There's no other choice. Someone has to draw them away, or none of us will escape." Yu Lin Bloodhawk shook his head.

"I'll draw them away!" one recruit volunteered.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk gave him a long look. He admired the recruit's courage. At the same time, this scenario felt all too familiar. Before, he had only watched other people act it out in movies and on television. Who could have imagined that today he would become the leading man in that same familiar scene?

He shook his head at the soldier. Honestly, he was not trying to play the hero. He simply had no confidence in this recruit. Sometimes courage alone could not make things turn out well. Better to trust himself than someone else.

If that soldier had been Sylvanas instead, Yu Lin Bloodhawk would not even have waited for her to speak. He would absolutely have said first, "My queen, you cover the retreat. I'm running ahead." But if Sylvanas really had been here, would he even have needed to worry about these Troll pursuers? He probably would not even have had the chance to ask her to cover their retreat.

"Stop arguing. We're running out of time, and every second counts." Yu Lin Bloodhawk stopped the soldier who was about to speak. "I

"will draw them due north. If I reach the main road before they catch me, I'll run straight along it toward Suncrown Village. From here, follow our original route back to Suncrown Village as fast as you can. Find the guards there and ask them to send reinforcements. Whether I survive will depend on how fast you can run. Remember, run! Keep running! Don't worry about anything else!"

The soldiers were about to argue again, but Yu Lin Bloodhawk shot them a fierce glare and snapped, "Why aren't you running? Do you want me to die?"

The soldiers exchanged looks, gritted their teeth, then turned and ran for all they were worth. Soon, they vanished into the Jungle.

As soon as they disappeared, Yu Lin Bloodhawk quickly set an Immolation Trap where he stood. At present, he only knew two traps: Freezing Trap and Immolation Trap. One ice, one fire, and neither had much actual killing power.

His Freezing Trap could only freeze an opponent for twelve seconds. His Immolation Trap could only inflict minor damage, causing little more than some trouble.

With his current meager mana, he could not pour enough magic into his traps to strengthen their effects. But the Immolation Trap he was setting now was not intended for the Trolls. He felt certain that their ability to pursue so closely had something to do with a Beast Tamer among them.

He did not need to inflict much damage on the Beast Tamer's precious pet lynx. Giving it trouble would be enough to buy him time to escape. Beasts were not people. A person could overcome minor difficulties and remain determined to pursue a target. A beast could not. Even a little trouble would send it leaping and flailing around for a while.

That was the advantage of an Immolation Trap. It could not inflict much real damage, but it could cause ongoing trouble. Once a target touched it, the magic would cling to its body and flare up at intervals, exhausting itself after a total of five bursts.

An Immolation Trap essentially released five bursts of immolation fire on its target. The damage dealt by those flames depended directly on how much mana the trap's creator poured into it. With enough mana, it could burn a person alive. Unfortunately, with Yu Lin Bloodhawk's current meager mana, he could not even burn a rabbit to death. Against something as large as a lynx, it could only cause a little trouble, barely hurting it at all.

After setting the Immolation Trap, he ran a considerable distance due north. He set another Freezing Trap among some bushes, then returned to a spot exactly a bowshot away from the Immolation Trap. Hiding behind a large tree, he quietly waited for the Trolls to arrive.

His Troll brothers were obliging fellows. They did not keep Yu Lin Bloodhawk waiting long before appearing in his field of vision.

Damn it! They're really hot on my heels. If only a beautiful elven girlfriend would chase me like this. Instead, it's a bunch of ugly Trolls coming to kill me, Yu Lin Bloodhawk cursed bitterly to himself.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk's guess had been exactly right. There was indeed a Beast Tamer among the Trolls. It was that Beast Tamer's pet Ghostclaw Lynx that had followed their scent and led ten Trolls after them.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk counted them carefully.

There were five Great Axe Warriors, three Javelin Throwers, one Rogue, and one Beast Tamer among the Trolls. He inwardly sighed with relief. Thankfully, there was only one Rogue and one Beast Tamer. Otherwise, his chances of survival would have been slim indeed.