Mercenaries and Adventurers

"That's it." Kil gestured with both hands holding an ax: "Didn't I have a very powerful blue ax before?"

Everyone nodded: "There is such a weapon."

Immediately afterwards, Kil patted his head: "The fierce battle at the entrance to the rocky mountain made me seem to have a, um, how should I say, spiritual connection between my weapon? feel."

The young hunters still didn't know what Kiel meant, but the old hunters thought of something from the legends they had heard all their lives: "Is it difficult to say that you have a spiritual connection with your blue ax? Or is it? A connection of fate? Or does the weapon have a soul?"

Kil quickly waved his hand, indicating that he didn't know clearly: "I don't know either. I just can vaguely sense the location of the weapon in my mind."

"This is incredible, even the knights don't have this ability!"

"It's not certain. Maybe you didn't tell us. After all, we hunters have no qualifications to know the news about this knight."

"Knight Crow must have such abilities and weapons! After all, he is so powerful. He is an elite knight who returned from the Kingdom Knights."

The hunters started talking one after another, but were quickly stopped by the old hunter Tost.

"Okay, let Keir finish."

He continued: "Kiel, if what you said is true, what does it mean? Where is your weapon?"

Kil quickly explained that the ax had been embedded in the Wolf King's body since it accidentally attacked him.

"In this way, the current location of that weapon must be the current real-time location of the Wolf King."

All the hunters looked at each other, and then said in unison: "Then what are you waiting for? Kil! Lead the way!"

"Ah?" Kil was surprised. He didn't expect that it would be so easy to convince everyone.

-

No one said much, and Kil led the way. The team immediately changed direction and moved quickly towards the depths of the forest.

Everyone left the traces left by the Northern Wolf and quickly turned in another direction. On Kiel's side, he not only relied on the position provided by the vaguely spiritual weapon, but also stopped after walking a kilometer or two and relied on the empty wolf skin of the Wolf King to correct his direction.

Everything was fine at first, both pointing in a certain direction in the endless forest.

But soon, while taking a break during a routine march, he suddenly discovered that the empty wolf skin of the Wolf King was not consistent with the spiritual position of the weapon.

There was a difference in orientation between them that was clearly discernible in his mind.

Licking his lips, Kil's face turned a little red. This situation was something he had not expected.

"That." He spoke in a low voice.

The old hunter Tost, who was putting the clean snow on the ground into a water bag, said: "What's wrong, Kil? Has the position of the Wolf King changed again? In fact, the position has changed for the better, which means that the Wolf King is still being chased by the Lord Knight. Among them, the situation is favorable to us."

The others nodded in agreement and their faces became relaxed.

Lifting the visor of his helmet, Kil looked at the three old hunters and said, "Well, the situation may have changed."

"?"

No one spoke, but the atmosphere immediately became the same as the surrounding season.

"It's like this. I just suddenly discovered that the wolf skin of the Wolf King is the same as the position of the ax that I perceived in my mind. Well, there is a slight deviation. They have always been in the same direction before!" Keir said urgently. Say it all in one breath.

After hearing what Kil said, everyone's expressions were not as bad as he imagined.

The young hunter was more confused, while the three old hunters looked at each other, and then the old hunter Tost said: "Well, then let's not worry about the wolf skin that should be burned, and just go to you." The weapons are in good position."

Another old hunter next to him continued: "Compared with the things on the cunning northern wolves, I think weapons that can kill them are more reliable."

"That's right." All three young hunters said.

Patting his face with his hand, Kil let his face look normal, breathed a sigh of relief, and then pointed in a direction in the forest.

In that direction, there are some trees that are slightly larger than elsewhere. The difference is that on the trunks of those trees, there are some old claw marks left by beasts with huge claws.

An experienced hunter will know at a glance that this is the territory mark left by the forest black bear, which is basically the highest level beast in the forest.

Everyone stood up and came closer.

An old hunter walked up to the tree trunk, pointed at the claw marks that he could not reach even if he jumped, and said directly: "It is a female bear of a huge black bear in the forest."

He then kicked a few slight claw marks on his chest: "And there are at least two little bears with them."

Without him saying anything else, everyone immediately took out their weapons and held them in their hands. Kil also took out his sword and shield and prepared for battle.

Kiel took the lead, and everyone slowed down this time and moved forward in battle formation.

The originally quiet and tense atmosphere was broken by the old hunter who had previously judged the big black bear in the forest. He said seriously: "The big black bear in the forest has excellent hearing and sense of smell. If the location indicated by Kiel is in its territory, I don’t think that guy can sleep anymore.”

After hearing his words, everyone relaxed their breathing and no longer put down their steps lightly.

Soon, everyone passed through the claw marks of trees arranged in a circle, and soon came to a relatively open place.

There was a bear den there formed by the fall of several relatively close large trees. On the ground in front of the bear den was a wide patch of ground where the ice and snow melted and then froze together again.

What was not good was that there were large and messy footprints on the surrounding snow, as well as the bodies of nearly ten recently dead northern wolves.

"Oops!"

I don’t know who said this, but it immediately expressed everyone’s mood at the moment.

Everyone didn't see any danger, so they made a half circle and came to the front of the bear den. The messy situation here lets everyone know that they are late.

No one said anything about Kiel. After all, Kiel led them here in a straight line with almost no turns in the middle. If they were still following the traces of the wolves slowly, they would probably not be able to get here so quickly if they were slow at one step or step at a time.

After approaching, the hunters immediately started investigating.

"There is something in the bear's den, but nothing alive."

"Oh, it looks like he is the owner here, but he is dead. Only the Wolf King can solve it so neatly."

"Let me take a look at the dead northern wolf. This one was killed by a punch. It hit the forehead, and the brains were knocked out. It must be the northern wolf killed by Knight Lanissa. This one looks uninjured, and sure enough , I can find by touching it that the bones in the middle of the body are broken, and there are scratches on the fur from the gauntlets. It was also thrown to death by the knight."

"The others are similar, but there are no traces of weapons. I don't know what these northern wolves are thinking."

"Look at this, this is the mark of the paw of the Wolf King. The Wolf King, the Lord Knight and the wolves all had a conflict here not long ago."

They were monitoring the scene, and Keir noticed a place where his spirit pointed directly.

Next to the place where the front of the bear cave melted and then refrozen, a huge thing with a blue face was emitting a blue hidden light, and there were several vaguely visible monster heads floating on the surface of the axe.

Kil walked straight over, and the few things he couldn't see clearly were grabbed by the long limbs that suddenly protruded from the axe, and then dragged back to the axe.

His eyes widened and he immediately looked at the young companion next to him: "Did you just see it?"

"What? Oh, your ax? Your ax looks like it has no handle, but the ax head is intact. If you go back and install a wooden handle, it can be used again." The companion gestured to Keir to find a carpenter, and then give it to a carpenter. The weapon is reattached to an ax handle.

Kil didn't say anything. He suddenly realized that what he saw just now might not be visible to his companions with the naked eye. It seemed like that thing could only be seen by himself, he estimated.

The ax didn't seem to have any damage, at least the blade was still sharp. There were signs of being burned by the high temperature around him. Kil immediately thought of the scene he had seen before. After thinking about it carefully, he understood what was going on.

The Wolf King gathered part of his wolf pack here, and after fighting against Lanissa Knight, he somehow managed to force the weapon out of the wound.

The wooden handle of the ax was gone, which was as expected by Keir. The Wolf King's blood has a very high temperature and releases a lot of heat when it comes into contact with the air. It only took a little guessing to know that that thing must contain very strong energy.

Seeing that the head of the ax was partially intact, Keir wanted to put it away. Although it is useless now without the ax handle, it will still be very powerful if it is repaired later.

Especially after Kil liberated the inner power of the axe, he established a spiritual connection with it.

Although I still don't know what to do, I think I'll go back and contact him more, maybe we can figure out what's going on.

He bent down and touched the surface of the axe. As if sensing the owner's touch, the bright blue light that had been emitting from the surface of the ax suddenly disappeared and retracted into the inside of the ax.

This change did not scare Kil. He dug his fingers into the place where the ax handle was originally inserted, trying to grab the ax and carry it with him.

As a result, my fingers immediately felt a high temperature.

He was startled, took out his fingers and stuffed them into the snow beside him. Then he took a look and found obvious burn marks on the thick cowhide gloves.

"Huh?" He felt strange, so he turned at an angle, lying on the ground and looking at the groove where the ax handle was originally inserted.

I found that somehow, an unknown blood with a dark red color was entrenched in the pit.

"What's going on?" he said to himself.

Then he grabbed other parts of the ax with his hands and carefully picked up the heavy ax, which was at least thirteen kilograms.

Facing the gray sky, Kil finally saw that there were indeed those things inside. It looked like the blood of the Wolf King that had not completely burned itself inside.

And the blood is a little strange in color.

Very different from what he had seen before. When he rescued Lanissa Knight before, the Wolf King's blood was obviously bright red, and he looked very energetic and powerful. Not only does this blood not burn, but its color is so uncomfortable to look at.

The motionless, uncoagulated, unburned dark red blood seemed to contain something disgusting.

Although Kil felt something was wrong, his curiosity still took over. He touched his body, found a small wooden shallow bottle, moved it to the pit, turned the ax upside down, and let the blood flow in.

Not only was the color of the blood wrong, but it was also as thick as broth that had been left out for a month in the summer.

The small amount took a while to drain out.

Strangely enough, the blood should have released all the energy contained in the blood immediately after leaving the Wolf King. After the clean power was completely released, nothing would be left.

But this thing not only no longer releases heat when it comes into contact, it even seems to know what Kiel is doing. It seems to be cooperating with Kiel's movements and slowly and peacefully flows into the wooden bottle.

The wooden bottle did not burn due to heat, it only felt slightly warm to the touch.

Through the small mouth of the wooden bottle, Keir discovered that after the unknown blood entered, it stayed at the bottom of the bottle, and it would not flow no matter how much the bottle was shaken.

He felt strange, but now was not the time for this. He put away the wooden bottle, grabbed a handful of snow, and wiped the entire ax up and down.

Then he found a rope from the remaining supplies that everyone carried, and wrapped the rope around other places where the ax had no sharp edge. Finally, he asked his companions to tie the ax to the place where the armor originally hung behind him.

-

"Then what should we do now?" A hunter asked, not only to Keir, but also to the old hunter Tost who could make arrangements.

Everyone saw the scene where Kiel put away the blade of his axe, and knew that he could no longer rely on Kiel's mental induction weapon to guide everyone.

But fortunately, an old hunter found the traces of Lanissa's knight's horse, and these traces were obviously in the same direction as the Wolf King and the Northland wolves.

And after careful observation by the hunter, he was excited to discover that the hoof prints left by Lanissa's knight's horse were left later. Many horse hoof prints overshadowed the paw prints left by northern wolves.

This shows that Knight Lanissa is chasing the Northern Wolf and the Wolf King.

"Huh, this shows that although we are late, at least we have not missed the key battle." Old hunter Tost finally set the tone.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

So, they had two options next.

The two old hunters, except Tost, hoped to follow the traces while they were not far away.

But Kiel still recommended that everyone use the empty wolf skin left by the wolf king to indicate the location of the wolf king. He believed that they all moved forward on foot, and their traveling speed was originally slower than the horse-riding Lanissa knights and the Northland wolves and the Wolf King, not to mention that in the winter, they had to wade through the accumulation of rain in the forest. When snow comes, the speed becomes even slower.

If they continue to chase like this, they will only be farther and farther away from each other. When the crucial battle comes, they will definitely not be able to catch up.

Maybe the wolf king who defeated the knight will meet the wolves head-on, and the sheep will fall into the tiger's mouth.

Kiel said straightforwardly that they wanted to make a difference and use a force that could deal with the Wolf King and the Northern Wolf in the key battle that would definitely take place in the future. Only by chasing the Wolf King's whereabouts would they be able to A glimmer of hope.

Otherwise, not only would they not be of use in the future, they would have to go back home right now and return to the sentry tower camp outside the forest to wait for the Lord Knight to return. Or return to the previously agreed upon water pool and wait there obediently for this winter's crusade to end.

After all, Knight Lanissa suffered a serious injury that she said was insignificant, and there would definitely be no more crusade this winter.

The hunters thought for a while, and in the end the young hunters all supported Kiel's plan. They would definitely not be able to do anything by following the traces of the wolf pack honestly. If they wanted to help the Lord Knight fight, they had to rush ahead.

The old hunter Tost, who had been silent all this time, finally made the final decision. Although they, the old guys, were worried about the Wolf King's floating wolf skin, they could only give it a bold try at this moment. Maybe good luck would favor them, who knows? .

Keir thought silently: "Good luck will always come to those who take risky actions, because prudent behavior does not like good luck."

-

They did not go into the bear den, although they believed that the Wolf King could definitely kill the big black bear in the forest. After all, they were not on the same level of strength. But don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of the worst. If the big black bear in the bear den, which looks like a big forest, is not completely dead, there is really no need to go down and suffer a disaster.

The crowd did not follow the traces of the wolves and horses, but turned in another direction and walked towards the forest.

At this point, every time Kil walked for a while, he had to stop and reconfirm the direction of the Wolf King.

Because he found that the floating empty wolf skin was constantly changing its direction slightly. This shows that the Wolf King is constantly moving, and not moving in a straight line.

Are you trying to avoid Knight Lanisa chasing after you?

He doesn't quite know.

But he understood that if he really caught up with the Wolf King later, they would still have to stay away for a while.

The strength of these people can help Lanissa Knight to provide support and cooperation, but it would be terrible if they really meet the Wolf King and the wolves head-on.

It belongs to you for free.

At this moment, they were far away from the surroundings of the rocky mountain. The rocky mountain was completely invisible, but through the thick clouds in the sky, they could still see the reflection of the firelight on the top of the mountain at the bottom of the clouds.

Every time Kil confirmed the position, he asked everyone to take adequate rest, because the faster the position indicated by the empty wolf skin changed, the closer they were to the Wolf King.

This is dangerous.

Suddenly, a gasping wolf howl came from the direction indicated by the wolf skin.

The distance is getting closer.

Kil turned to look at the old hunters. Although the old hunters looked serious, they shook their heads: "It's not the howl of the Wolf King. Strange, it's not even the howl of the Northland Wolf."

Kil and everyone were ready to fight. Although he was not the Wolf King or the Northern Wolf, judging from the way the opponent paused and then approached them in a straight line.

The other party is not kind.