Mercenaries and Adventurers

The next day, the two corpses were wrapped tightly on the rock platform on the top of the mountain. Each of them hung a small stone on the rope that bound the shroud.

The symbols and emblems of the gods are carved on the small stones. One of the gods of hunting is relatively simple, with only one side carved, while the other of the god of the dead has simple emblems of gods carved on all six sides of the square stone.

The young hunter who was on sentry duty with Keir last night was embarrassed to hang his clumsily carved stone outside, so he had to secretly stuff the one he carved into the shroud of the dead old hunter.

Several hunters, including Keir, were currently guarding the last wooden wall not far from the summit platform. They were a little nervous because they all felt that something was wrong with this rocky mountain since dawn.

It's not what happened to the northern wolves. Those stubborn beasts were still squatting anxiously behind the burning wooden wall, finally waiting for the cold weather to completely cool down the temperature of the embers after the burning wooden wall.

Because their wolf king is no longer here, they don't want their furry paws to be ignited and burned, so they can only wait for the ashes to cool down.

Kil nervously opened his visor, and then took out a piece of fine cloth from the thick bag on his belt. He wiped his face. Somehow, even though it was cold, he was sweating.

He didn't feel that the next battle would make him nervous. After all, he had experienced the battles these days. Facing those beasts, he was not worried at all.

But what is my body vaguely afraid of?

Not only that, behind the narrow wooden wall, everyone pointed to the mountains that could be seen around them. It was clear that no snow had fallen in the sky, and the temperature was extremely low, but a mist that should not have appeared had slowly started to appear at dawn, Appeared around this rocky mountain.

Those mist appeared contrary to common sense in this extremely low temperature weather. Not only did Keir feel that something was wrong, but the hunters also whispered about something.

However, after everyone speculated and discussed it for a while, they all felt that it was not consistent with the current situation.

Kil looked at the empty wolf skin hanging next to the stone. This tattered thing was affected by the battle between the female knight and the wolf king when the wolf king landed at the camp, and it looked tattered at the moment.

But even so, this thing can still float in the air.

But the thing that was supposed to be swaying regularly from side to side with the strong wind blowing high on the top of the mountain was now pulling on the rope in a weird circle.

Kil moved his face left and right. Judging from the cold wind blowing on his face, the wind here should be in the same direction at this moment. However, he turned his head and looked strangely at the empty wolf skin floating in the air.

Still feel weird.

Have a bad feeling.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

The continuous howling of wolves sounded, and the hunters listened attentively.

"It's a lot less."

"Really, there are so many Northern wolves, where have the other Northern wolves gone?"

The old hunter stopped the wild guessing before the battle: "Okay, no matter what, we have only one way to go and one thing to do. Pay attention, they are coming."

As soon as he finished speaking, a northern wolf with dark head and soles jumped over the remnants of the wooden wall and rushed over at a running pace.

The first ones were a few clever guys. After running out of the corner in front, they did not rush straight towards the wooden wall built by humans. They knew that as the first group of wolves, it would be difficult for them to achieve any effect in the early stage of human defense.

So these cunning and clever guys have been twisting their bodies left and right to avoid human arrows since they ran out.

The young hunters missed two arrows and were immediately stopped by the old hunter.

Then the three old hunters who had not released their arrows, the old hunter Tost, headed by the old hunter Tost, uttered a word, and then the three of them neatly set their targets on a northern wolf.

Without further communication, the three of them fired arrows at the same time. After spotting a flaw in the Northern Wolf's movement, the three arrows shot out, and all of them hit the Northern Wolf at once.

The northern wolf was really miserable. It was directly hit by three arrows in different parts of its body. The powerful arrows directly knocked it to the ground. It could scratch on the ground, but it could no longer get up. .

After that, the three of them followed this example without any further communication. Relying on their rich experience and skills, they knocked down two more northern wolves with two volleys.

The last northern wolf was running at the end. He saw the end of his companion in front early and immediately turned around and fled.

The old hunters put down their bows and each took out a few more arrows from their quivers with their right hands, showing off to the young hunters around them to learn more.

"Put it closer and then kill."

"Don't shoot in sequence, but fire in a tacit volley with your companions. But don't shout and fire. The northern wolves on the opposite side are not deaf. When they hear the shout, they will realize something and then change their movement state. .”

"And the so-called tacit understanding does not mean that the three of us have trained specifically to cooperate before. It means that we have each seen through the flaws in the Northland wolf movement, and we are confident enough that the other two companions must have also seen through the flaws in the Northland wolf movement. The wolf's flaw. Needless to say, when the time comes, just shoot the arrow naturally."

The three of them were quite excited, and it could be seen that although they said it was easy, the volley fired by one person just now was really not easy.

The three young hunters wanted to mutter something, but the new northern wolves rushed over in large numbers.

This time, it wasn't just a few scouts. Old and young Northern wolves were mixed with strong guys. They all rushed up, running and barking, under the command of a headless Northern wolf.

"Kiel!"

The old hunter in charge roared loudly, and Kil naturally knew what it meant.

He climbed to the top of the rock walls on both sides of the wooden wall. This is already the high point of the rock mountain. The rock passage originally covered by the mountain has gradually become closer to the height of the rock wall and has gradually become flush with it.

But Kiel is not just doing nothing. When he comes up, he activates the real defensive power here.

-

At the top of the mountain wall next to the wooden wall, there are gravels of various sizes in the corners of the protruding rock gaps. When Kiel built this place before, he found many stones of suitable sizes for throwing.

As soon as he rolled up, he immediately bent down and picked up a piece, then raised it above his head and smashed it towards the center of the rock channel in front of him.

call--

The stone fell and immediately broke the back of the northern wolf that was hit. As the northern wolf half howled, the stone the size of a human head bounced and landed on the nose of the other northern wolf behind him.

The dark nose was rubbed sideways by a stone, and half of it was scratched off with enough force.

This northern wolf fell to the ground in pain, holding its bloody nose in its front paws, rolling and twisting left and right in the sloping rock passage, regardless of how it would affect the attack of other northern wolves.

The stone rolled all the way down the sloping passage. Although it lost the strength when it was thrown, it still caused a lot of trouble for the Northland wolves.

And soon, as Kiel continued to throw stones from a high place on one side, the falling stones slowed down the northern wolves and blocked them in the rock passage.

The stone is not big, but the northern wolf running on all fours is not very tall unless it stands up. The stones that rolled down often either crushed their furry soles, or hit the front legs of the northern wolves during the rolling process.

Although there is not enough rolling acceleration distance, the force cannot break the front legs of the northern wolf, but being hit like this is like being kicked on the calf bone of a human, which is still very uncomfortable.

The stones that Kiel prepared were not very big, so bending down to pick them up and throwing them forward did not consume much physical strength.

Hunters are also shooting bravely. The young hunters kept in mind what the old hunters taught them just now, and specifically brought the northern wolves that were slowed down by the rolling stones closer. After they were confident of their aim, they pulled the bowstring hard and shot the arrow through. Shoot out.

The strength of the young ones is far greater than that of the old hunters, so even if the arrows they shoot fail to hit the vital points of the northern wolves, the force carried by the arrows can still directly knock the northern wolves over and prevent them from getting closer.

The fierce battle continued intermittently. Although a large number of injured northern wolves were hit by one or two arrows, none of them were fatal. They all took advantage of the new northern wolves to rush up and retreated secretly and howled in low voices.

Keir bent down to fish it out, only to find that the stones he had prepared for the pile were gone.

He immediately shouted: "Be careful, I have finished throwing stones here, I have to change to the other side!"

After saying that, without caring about anything else, he just held the edge of the rock wall with his hands and jumped behind the wooden wall below. Then he stretched out his hands and climbed up the rock wall as high as a person, and then he reached the high point of the rock wall on the other side.

He also prepared some stones here in advance. At this time, the Northern Wolf's offensive was in full swing, so he gasped for air and started doing what he had just done again.

But before he could throw two this time, the attack of the northern wolves in the passage below slowed down. In a wolf howl, all the northern wolves that could still move retreated back.

As soon as Kil lifted a new stone, he was stopped by the old hunter, asking him to save the few suitable stones on the top of the mountain.

It’s not that there aren’t a lot of scattered stones on the top of the mountain. There are stones all around here. Some are connected to the mountain, some are weathered by wind and sun, or they were broken into pieces by battles long ago. All kinds of stones are everywhere. .

It's just that a stone that's too big is very laborious to handle, and a stone that's too small won't have much impact, so Kil has tried it several times before to find the actual size that suits the power of the stone. And he found all the stones he saw as time allowed.

There seemed to be a lot of rocks, but in fact there were only two piles on the left and right rock walls. A pile has been thrown away just now, and several pieces have been thrown into the new pile on this side.

Seeing the Northern Wolf retreating, Kiel came down. Without his companions having to say anything, he immediately jumped off the last low wooden wall under the cover of his companions, and first killed all the Northland wolves that were still alive but injured or fainted in the rock passage.

Then he used the dagger on his waist to roughly cut out the intact arrow from the body of the northern wolf, and he held the arrowhead with a large piece of northern wolf meat in his hand. After collecting a handful, return to the wooden wall and let the hunters on the wooden wall handle it themselves.

Finally, he grabbed one end on each side of the northern wolf corpse, pulled the body two at a time under the wooden wall, and put it into the rope that the young hunter had dropped.

The young hunter will pull the body up, then turn around and throw it into the space under the wooden wall. Just like before, these hairy guys with weak fire will provide some fuel for the subsequent burning of the wooden wall.

Since the wooden wall of the last position was narrow and low, the space below could not accommodate many northern wolf carcasses.

Soon, the young hunter on the wooden wall expressed that there was no room for more boreal wolf carcasses underneath.

Kiel then asked them to stuff the corpses behind the wooden wall. If they couldn't fit them in, they wouldn't be able to use them as food supplies for the attacking northern wolves. He could tell that as the fighting lasted these days, the attacking Northland wolves were getting weaker and weaker.

This shows that there is a problem with the food supply of northern wolves. Many northern wolves do not have enough to eat. In this cold weather, they have been relying on the body's fat replenishment in the autumn to survive.

If the body is left on the ground like this, the Northern Wolf will definitely eat the body of its dead comrade to maintain its fighting ability. Although most intelligent animals will not use the corpses of their own kind, Northern wolves are not in this category.

According to old hunters, northern wolves are the kind of beasts that, when the situation is difficult, will devour pups and older peers to maintain the survival of the prime northern wolves.

In fact, Keir feels that in many cases, humans are not much different from northern wolves in these places.

-

Kil disposed of the Boreal Wolf carcasses close to the wooden wall. He could do nothing for the bodies that were too far away. They were no longer within the support range of the bows and arrows of his companions on the wooden wall. If the Boreal Wolf saw the flaw, he might Tangled up in them and unable to come back.

That's dangerous.

Kil returned to the wooden wall, then grabbed the rope handed down from above, pulled it with strength, and climbed up in one breath.

"Will they attack soon?" Kiel asked as soon as he came up.

The old hunter shook his head: "Probably not." He continued: "Those guys thought they trapped us on the top of the mountain. After this trial attack, they probably tested our defensive strength. We want to attack here by force. , naturally you have to pay more price.”

He exchanged opinions with the other two old hunters, and then analyzed: "If they urgently want us to die, then they will naturally gather more northern wolves, but if they just want us to die, or both I want us humans to die here, but we don’t want more casualties.”

He paused: "Then they will probably try to trap us to death and freeze and starve us to death here."

Everyone laughed when they heard this. Although the Northland wolves had a good idea, they didn't know that with the help of ropes, Keir had created an escape route from the top of the mountain down.

Everyone discussed and considered the number of arrows on the hunters, and decided that when the Northern Wolves attacked, Kiel would only need to throw the stones he had prepared before, and they would light the wooden wall, save some arrows, and then launch from the top of the mountain. Evacuate this rocky mountain.

According to the previous agreement with Knight Lanisa, they secretly met at another agreed place nearby.

They felt that as long as this last wooden wall was ignited, Knight Lanisa should be able to see it no matter what. After all, the nearby rocky mountain top is the highest point. As long as it is not too far away from here, they should be able to see things like torches or A flame like a lighthouse.

It was just that Keir pointed to the strange mist that appeared inexplicably under the mountain in the distance.

Around the rocky mountain, on the grassland between the forest and the mountain, and at an unknown height above the ground, there was some strange mist that appeared.

"Those fogs make me feel bad. After all, there shouldn't be water fog in such cold weather."

An old hunter squinted his eyes and observed carefully: "It doesn't look like ice fog."

The young hunter pointed to the thick clouds in the sky: "There is no snow in the sky."

The commanding old hunter touched the gray beard on his chin, thought for a moment and said: "Since something is wrong, let's make some changes. Let's evacuate now."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, but after reacting, they all acquiesced to the old hunter's words.

They all actually felt that something was slightly wrong.

This rocky mountain was originally created by aliens to launch wars. A tragic war broke out many years ago. Various traces here show that a war with countless casualties took place here.

Although the griffin knight who met by chance before said that there was nothing wrong with this rocky mountain, no one believed it, and the other party obviously didn't come here very often. If something strange and evil really happened here, the other party would not know about it.

But after all, people like Kiel and others have been here for so long, and they have fought and killed such a large number of northern wolves. No matter in any horror stories or adventure novels, something bad will happen here. matter.

Hunters realize that they can be useful in dealing with some wild beasts in the forest, or under the leadership of female knights, they can defeat some powerful monsters.

But those guys are all flesh and blood. Their bows and arrows and knights' swords can handle it, but they don't feel they can handle more things.

Although Keir was nervous and uneasy, he was a little eager to give it a try.

But considering that the current situation is unclear, the battle between Lanissa Knight and the North Wolf King has not yet decided the winner, and the outcome is unpredictable, he can only restrain his thoughts in this regard.

Everyone packed up their things and took all the things and tools they might need with them. Some more inedible items were hidden in the crevices of the rocks nearby. As for the more food prepared before, after everyone had eaten, they would Excess food is placed on the wooden walls and a fire is lit to burn it.

Of course, if you can't take it away, you can't leave it to the remaining northern wolves.

Kil's body was strong and powerful, and he naturally carried the dead young hunter on his back. Another young hunter, the strongest among them, carried the dead old hunter on his back.

He tightened the rope that wrapped the body, carried this companion who had fought side by side behind him, and followed everyone to the top of the mountain.

However, Kil turned his head and looked at the empty and broken wolf skin of the Wolf King floating around. After thinking about it, he told everyone that he wanted to take that thing away with him.