Mercenaries and Adventurers

Seeing the local caravans gradually catching up from behind, Knight Crow sped up his movements and shouted loudly to direct groups of militia teams to make the moves he needed.

As far as Keir could see, the various militia teams no longer moved counterclockwise around the carriages in the middle. The team paused for a moment, and then the team in front continued to move forward according to the current direction and position. Then the militia teams on the left and right moved hundreds of meters to the left and right, leaving a large space in the middle.

The militia team at the rear also gave way to the shouts of Knight Crow, chasing the companions in front.

Thus the rear of the carriage, where Baron Kendall was seated, opened.

A large number of various logistics carriages loaded with supplies are mainly walking on the business roads. Although it cannot be seen, the soil under the business roads has indeed been treated.

Or, because of the years of horse-drawn carriage crushing, this part of the soil is covered with weeds on the surface, but the soil underneath is pressed very firmly.

When the carriage walks here, there is no need to worry about the wheels suddenly sinking into some hollows or small animal caves covered by grass.

Seeing that the passage ahead had been opened to accommodate them, the local businessmen all had complicated expressions and asked their men to speed up and catch up to join them.

A part of the Baron's Guards Cavalry led by Knight Rumi acted as a pressing force and fell behind everyone.

In the distance behind them, among the tall grass that the army and caravans had never walked, there were grass swaying behind them from time to time.

Knight Rumi squinted his eyes, holding a short-throwing gun commonly used by the locals in his hand, and looked at the unknown thing falling behind them.

Seeing that there seemed to be only one or two tails following the thing, Keir was a little eager to try and wanted to go over and compete.

"Sir, let me take care of the monsters following us!"

He approached Knight Rumi and asked for a fight.

The baron's guards next to them looked at each other. None of these guards with excellent martial arts wanted to do this. After all, in a place far away from home, in addition to fighting for the safety of the baron, these personal guards who have families and businesses do not want to take this risk.

But Kil is different. Although the flying harpy monster is very troublesome, on the one hand, his adventurous thoughts are constantly swaying him. On the other hand, his body is also driving him to fight.

Defeat monsters and take their bodies to eat.

Looking at Kil, Knight Rumi was about to agree to let Kil, a young man with some strength, go over to fight, but the Bloodfangster next to him suddenly said: "I'm sorry, sir, I'm sorry for interrupting suddenly. But it's just my experience. We judge that the thing following us in the grass may not be the harpy monster that attacked the caravan before."

"How do you judge?"

Knight Rumi looked at the local caravan guard and asked directly.

"My lord, my lord. I have dealt with monsters like that before, and I have seen them attack caravans on the road many times. Generally speaking, they either take advantage of the strong wind blowing on the grassland to attack chaotic humans from the sky. The team should either find a place to hide in the tall grass next to the trade road in advance, wait until the people and horses pass by, suddenly jump out of the grass, grab the people and fly away."

As he explained, Bloody Fangster's body continued to sit on the horse and imitate the monster's movements as he spoke.

"If they are particularly courageous monsters and want to follow the caravan, they will not move the grass close to the ground like this. Instead, they will flap their wings and follow them. It is very easy to spot. After all, their wings It’s troublesome to move around in the grass.”

"Then what is following us now?" Kil asked.

Bloody Fangster hesitated for a moment, then judged: "It might be a prairie wolf, or some other beast that is on all fours."

Knight Rumi had no interest in ordinary wolves or wild beasts. Hearing this, he regretfully put away the short-throwing gun in his hand, waved his hand, and asked Kil to deal with it as he pleased.

He called to the baron's bodyguard and sped up to catch up with the carriage in front.

At the same time, groups of militia teams were converging towards Kiel from the left and right sides behind the team, gradually wrapping up the entire huge team.

Slowly, as the team moves and lengthens, the circular team as a whole is gradually turning into an upright olive. The two ends are pointed and the left and right sides are flat.

Although it was a pity that it was not a harpy, Kil still planned to see what was following them.

Therefore, he asked Bloodfangster to wait at the end of the team, and he would come as he pleased.

Tap, tap, tap.

The grass that had been repeatedly crushed by footsteps and wheels rotted into a ball of grass juice, but because the smell was so good, it was not annoying. Horse hooves trample on it, and the broken grass blades also provide good friction and support.

Kil took off the wooden spear that was stuck diagonally on the horse's back. He hadn't used this thing for a while. At this time, he held the two-finger-wide wooden spear in his hand and tucked it under his arm. He felt like he was looking for something again. It brought back some of the feeling of last winter’s fierce hunt with northern wolves.

"Let me see what it is."

Keir murmured.

Not far away, the things hiding in the grass obviously discovered the humans and horses heading towards them, and immediately became restless.

The grass trembled for a while, and then ran away into the distance.

Gere chased the fleeing beast, causing the grass to shake along the way, and gradually increased the speed of his horse.

But just when he happened to pass by the place where the beast stayed before, a group of shadows rushed towards Kil carrying the roar of the beast.

The thing suddenly jumped out of the grass, extended its sharp claws on its forelimbs, and hit Kil on the horse.

The cry of the beast is also quite strange. It is not the usual roar of wild beasts, but a rather sharp and harsh sound. It was like two iron pots leaning against each other, and people on both sides were constantly twisting the two iron pots, making a sharp and harsh noise.

The sound hit Kiel first, causing both Kiel and his horse to feel uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Kiel's horses are not of local breed. Their ears are smaller and not so flexible. Their hearing is naturally much worse than that of local horses.

This difference is naturally not as strong and sensitive as the local horse breeds, but at this time, Kiel's horse was uncomfortable, but it would not be a bad thing because of its sharp hearing.

Undeterred by the strange roar of the suddenly attacking beast, it threw its owner off the horse.

Kil mostly relied on his own will to suppress the mental discomfort caused by the strange screams. The closed helmet on the armor also provided a small amount of help.

boom! Stab——

With two consecutive sounds, the beast jumped up and pounced on Kil's body on horseback. However, the opponent's sharp claws clacked back and forth several times, but it failed to do anything to the full-coverage hard cowhide armor that Kil often wore.

It only scratched the windproof cloak that Kil wore outside his armor.

"Damn it!"

The beast hit him from the side. If Kiel hadn't hung his legs in the stirrups and yanked the reins with his left hand, he would have almost been thrown off his horse by this thing.

As soon as he stabilized his body and prevented him from falling off the horse, the beast next to him opened its bloody mouth and bit into Keir's neck with its foul-smelling mouth and sharp teeth.

" # !"

Along with the curse, Kil pulled the reins with his left hand and thrust it directly into the beast's mouth, using the strong armor of his arm to block the opponent's sharp teeth.

The strong hard cowhide armor directly jammed the beast's sharp teeth together. Kil's left hand suddenly opened, grabbed a slippery thing in the opponent's mouth, and squeezed it to death. While using his right hand to resist the scratching of the opponent's front paws with his elbow, he used skill to pull the spear held in his right hand from front to back.

Then he grabbed the part of the gun shaft behind the gun head, turned the sharp steel gun head, and sent it into the soft belly of the beast.

Poof——

Even though the beast even scratched Kil's arm with its hind paws, Kil was very strong and successfully stabbed the beast's internal organs with the spear head, then shook his right hand vigorously, allowing the spear head to destroy the beast's other internal organs. .

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

The beast's strength quickly decreased, but its big, foul-smelling mouth did not let go, even though its limbs were already loose and pulled down.

With no other choice, Kil had no choice but to pull out the tip of his spear, and then dragged the beast, which was half the size of him, onto the horse's back, barely able to take out his left hand, and drove the horse forward in pursuit.

"What is this?"

Only then did Keir have time to look at the beast in front of him.

It is a wolf-like dog-like beast with green hair all over its body. The difference is that the ears on its head are small and its mouth is abnormally large. The limbs are relatively thick and short, and they may look stronger, but due to their body shape, they are not really very strong.

With his left hand stuck in the beast's mouth, Gere carried it on his horse, still holding the spear in his right hand tightly, urging the horse under his crotch to speed up again and go straight to the swaying grass that had already run away.

There was a rustling sound in the swaying grass. Because of its short body, it was far from a match for tall horses in the grass.

Seeing that he was about to catch up, Kil lowered his body and aimed the spear in his right hand at the opponent's position to stab him from a distance.

The beast was not willing to sit still and wait for death. When the humans approached, it jumped out of the grass like its companion just now and rushed straight towards Kil on the horse.

But Kil's eyes widened, he saw the timing and the opponent's movements, and suddenly adjusted the position and angle of the spear head at this moment of staggered approach, a flash of silver light flashed, and then blood light flew up.

"Woo——"

The beast that was shot in the head by Kiel let out a final whimper in its throat, which was far less loud and exciting than the beast's cry just now.

There was a beast hanging on the head of the gun. Gill gritted his teeth and picked up the spear from the horse's head, propped it on the horse's back, then turned the horse's head and chased the large army.

-

Kil shook his left arm vigorously, and opened the mouth of the beast that had bitten his arm.

He looked at the palm of his hand and found that the beast's tongue had been turned into a ball of rotten meat by him, and it was softly pulled out of the beast's mouth that could no longer be closed after opening.

With his left hand free, Kil took off the other beast he had killed with a headshot from his spear.

He took out a piece of rope, tied the two beasts with big bloody mouths around their necks, put both ends on the horse's buttocks, and then Kil pursued the team.

When Bloodfangster saw the two beasts tied to Kilma's back, he suddenly realized: "It turns out to be this kind of beast. To be honest, this kind of thing is actually not easy to deal with. Two or three merchants with weapons in their hands." It’s not easy for team guards to kill them.”

Kil and Bloodtusk rode horses side by side, wiping the blood on their bodies with a dry cloth while talking: "Oh, apart from the fact that they suddenly make loud and disturbing noises, there's nothing special about them. "

The sharp teeth in the beast's big mouth look scary, but they only look scary. The bite force is not as strong as it looks.

Wipe the armor on the left arm. There are only shallow tooth marks on the surface of the hard cowhide armor. Then tap it lightly with a wooden stick and apply a layer of oil. The tooth marks will no longer be visible.

Bloody Fangster shook his head: "It is the ability to make loud noises that makes this kind of beast particularly difficult to deal with. A young guard with little combat experience and willpower will even be yelled at by this beast in his face, and he will even drop the weapon in his hand. Get rid of the guy who is eating. Even a skilled and experienced guard must put something in his ears in advance after encountering this kind of beast, so that he can fight this kind of beast head-on."

Kil laughed playfully: "Is it that exaggerated? By the way, does this beast have a name? And why do they have green fur?" Kil patted the fur of the beast behind him, and he was a little curious.

"Howling jackals, that's what they call them in the pub."

Bloody Fangster nodded and said.

"Howling little jackal?"

"As for why the fur is green, you will know if you go back and find water and scrub the fur of this beast. Their fur is actually gray and looks green, but it is actually just green grass juice. It will fall off as soon as you wash it. Therefore, some uninformed newcomers always think that the roaring jackal that has been in the rain and the roaring jackal in ordinary days are two different things."

Keir shook his head: "That would be too careless, wouldn't it?"

"Of course, I approached this thing carelessly, got yelled at, and had my neck bitten into pieces by this thing's big mouth while I was in a dazed state. Hum, I hear stories like this in taverns every year."

Seeing that they were approaching the carriage, Kil asked again: "By the way, why are they so bold to approach so many humans? Generally speaking, no wild beasts would boldly come to provoke such a large human team."

Along the way, Keir also heard many comments from the merchants accompanying him, saying that the larger the caravan, a single mixed caravan would be fine. The larger the caravan, the greater the chance of encountering wild animals when walking in the wild. Small.

Sometimes you won't even encounter a single beast along the way. At this time, monsters with some abilities dared to attack large-scale caravans.

As for small-scale caravans, or caravans with few people, as long as they are in the wild, they will never have a moment of peace.

Groups of young male wild wolves, one or two eyeless strong-antlered deer, or a brown bear or black bear, etc., will all go to harass small groups of human caravans.

The small group of wolves may be planning a premeditated attack at night.

The strong antlered deer simply divide large areas of uninhabited wild areas into their antlered deer territory. Humans that are not often encountered will be infringed upon their territory.

Male antlered deer often take the initiative to ram into human convoys. At that time, the tall antlered deer with horns on its head looked very dangerous.

Bears, on the other hand, are just like the bandits who intercept the road, relying on their rough skin and thick flesh to fight, and even extort food from small groups of humans on the trade road. If you don’t give it, you won’t let humans cross the border.

However, after encountering a large-scale human team, these beasts will hide early, and most of them will not even dare to appear in the eyes of humans.

Having said this, Kil naturally wondered why this beast, which he considered to be a weak beast, the roaring jackal, had the courage to follow the human team.

Bloody Fangster's face looked a little weird. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to tell Keir.

"This kind of beast usually uses its loud roar to stun small animals such as grass rats or long-eared rabbits to prey on. But the stomachs of this kind of beast never have enough food. Driven by hunger, they will actively follow human caravans. Later, after the caravan sets off the next day, we will run to the place where we camp at night to look for the remains of our human food."

Keir raised an eyebrow, feeling an ominous premonition in his heart.

"More often, when food scraps cannot be found, they will look for human excrement to eat. Just like the dogs raised by villagers in the village, they also eat human excrement."

Kil's face looked weird, and he took another look at the two beasts behind him, muttering that he would stop eating meat later and just plucking their fur.

Otherwise, if a person eats food, the roaring jackal eats feces, and then he eats the wild beast.

what is this?

An alternative cycle of rough 'matter'?

nausea!

You can't do it, you can't do it.

-

With the direct command of Knight Crow, soldiers were released to guard the surrounding area.

There was no attack from the harpy monster all afternoon, which puzzled Bloodfangster. He had never encountered such a thing in his previous experience.

It stands to reason that a huge number of harpy monsters will continue to appear around the caravan after it walks on the caravan. The caravan must continuously offer the sheep it is driving. These monsters do not need to After hunting and getting food, they will no longer pay attention to human caravans.

After all, although it is easy to hunt humans, humans will still resist.

But this afternoon, as far as Bloodfangster saw, when Kendall's army from the north spread out their formation, all the monsters that should have been appearing all the time disappeared.

Even in the afternoon, the same two strange winds as in the morning were blowing.

It's the kind of strong wind that makes it rumble when hung up, making it difficult to stand and move around.

Harpies like to hang out in this kind of weather. Even if they are not hunting, they like to fly on the wind.

But he didn't meet a harpy all afternoon.

Faced with Bloodfangster's worries, Kil was quite confident: "Don't worry, those monsters are probably not stupid. With so many armed human armies, what chance do they have of winning?"

Seeing that the other party was going to refute, Kil knew what he was going to refute, so he said it all in advance: "I know, I know, you will say that the harpy monsters have a natural advantage. They attack above our heads, and we have nothing to fight back." Power, right?"

Seeing that the young man had spoken before him, Bloody Fangster could only nod silently.

"That's true, but why do those harpies do this? They attack us, and we will naturally fight back. There will definitely be a fight. And I believe that the two knights will kill them all, even if they bring There’s been a heavy loss.”

"But if I were a harpy, I wouldn't do such a costly thing. After all, compared with some sheep that are protected from hunting, the survival of the race is more important, right?"

What Kil said made sense, and Bloodfangster couldn't refute it for a while.

He thought hard while riding his horse, and finally choked out a sentence: "But several knights in Guifeng Town also led many armies to attack the monsters, but they all died in the depths of the grassland in the end."

Kil just smiled: "We were just passing by, and we didn't intend to cause trouble with those monsters. We were passing by, just passing by."

Bloody Fangster breathed a sigh of relief: "I hope so."