Winter nights are always so long.
The first ray of light did not arrive until about six or seven o'clock, and with its arrival, the ghouls who had been watching the surroundings all night seemed to have realized that their advantages of no longer having the cover of the night had been lost. , chose to evacuate.
They had reunited five hours ago and returned to the camp.
Henry's calm and careful command contrasts with the immature and ghoul-like behavior of a puppet. It is only natural that the human side successfully achieves the goal of rendezvous. And when the teams on both sides merged, with more heavily armored paladins and hardcore mercenaries defending, with the help of magicians and long-range hands, and with the clear lighting of the huge bonfire, the ghouls had no chance of making a comeback. .
The remaining hours turned into an excruciating tug-of-war before dawn.
There was no real contact between the two sides, they were just testing each other out. Ghouls were wandering around like gophers, popping up and missing a few crossbow shots before hiding again.
There is no real confrontation or fierce battle, but these things have not left, and you can't let go and have a good rest. After a sleepless night, everyone had big dark circles under their eyes, their nerves were tense, tired and sensitive, and several people who had auditory hallucinations and hallucinations appeared. If it weren't for the magicians led by Horno and Camilo to use their magic To maintain the magic power, I am afraid that the witch will take advantage of it.
The feeling of every minute and every second has never been so clear, and they felt it firsthand with words such as living on pins and needles and so on.
Many people raise their heads from time to time, and look up to the sky every few minutes in anticipation of dawn, but the winter nights are too long, so they are often disappointed and lower their heads again.
After the merger, the number of people increased, and it became a feasible option for some people to take shifts and rest. But no one was big enough to sleep in this situation, so they all had to hold on until dawn when the ghouls retreated, finally breathing a long sigh of relief.
After one-third of the relatively energetic people, including Henry and Erica, Horno, Camilo and others, stayed on guard, the remaining people could finally rest and recuperate.
They must not be able to move forward any further on this day. It will take them quite a while just to regain their mental and physical strength to avoid collapse due to excessive fatigue.
People were a little worried at first. Although Henry said that the well-behaved witch would not send ghouls to attack during the day in order to preserve her strength, they were still a little unsure.
It’s just that fatigue is real after all. After relaxing and feeling at ease, less than a minute after closing my sore eyelids, the sounds of even breathing and snoring began to appear in the camp.
The sage led several scouts on horseback to the outskirts of the camp. They spent about half an hour making a large circle. The traces of the ghouls extended far away. They did not take the risk to see how far they had retreated. , but it is indeed far away.
"Find some empty pots, unused iron spoons and hemp ropes." He said to the scouts. They were experienced and immediately understood what Henry wanted. Anyway, they no longer had fresh ingredients, and those who chose to leave only brought a small amount of cooking utensils with them in order to travel lightly. Therefore, even though it was already the minimum equipment, there is still a lot of redundancy left.
The strong wind blowing from all directions has stopped, and there is no living thing around except them and the ghouls. In this kind of silence, the sound of metal collision can be heard for a long distance. Using them as a supplement to the warning can also relieve some of the pressure on the tired eyes of the guards.
Even a relatively energetic person is quite tired by this time. The bonfire that had been burning all night had become much smaller now, and the smoke from the firewood gave each of them a choking smell. People put the uneaten dipping sauce in a pan and heated it on the fire, and then had a not so rich breakfast of dry bread and hot water.
Time passed by, and after eating something hot, my mood relaxed a little.
The fatigue has not really eased, but there is still much to do.
Inspecting the battlefield and inventorying personnel and supplies were top priorities. The numbness and laziness brought about by the long and boring journey had made them almost attacked by ghouls. Now there was no room for any sloppiness.
The final result in terms of losses of personnel and equipment was a relief. Although the initially missing sentries could not be found in the end, in the subsequent confrontations due to the immature timing of the ghouls to distance themselves, under the perfect armor protection There were no real casualties among these elite veterans.
This alone is enough to make excellent armor worth paying a high price for.
Compared with ordinary civilians and low-level mercenaries, the entire team with a high armor rate would at least not be easily disemboweled when faced with ghouls with sharp teeth and claws. Their claws and teeth are difficult to break through steel plate armor. Even if they rely on their strong limbs to impact and leave considerable scars on the armor, armor and shields are meant to be beaten.
The only targets that the ghouls can attack are the relatively lightly-armed crossbowmen, hunters, and magicians, but these lightly-armed professions are well protected by the heavily-armored warriors. Witches are still immature in tactics and do not understand that sometimes they have to pay a price to kill the enemy. This is something to be thankful for. Otherwise, their losses at this time would be even greater.
But even without heavy casualties, they even achieved greater success from a partial perspective. Together, the two parties killed a total of 69 ghouls with zero casualties, which was even a brilliant record. But overall, they lost.
Because killing the ghouls is not the real purpose of their coming here, and this is the enemy's camp.
Even a conservative estimate of the small town of Scotti is now one or two hundred kilometers away. In addition, not all people supported it when they set out before. Reinforcements and aid materials are unlikely to appear, and even if they do, they may not be able to make it in time.
They are isolated here and even nature is working against them. They cannot get supplies, not to mention the terrain and weather are very uncomfortable.
Every extra day they stay here consumes an extra day of supplies, and every time a ghoul is killed, they consume an extra point of energy. Time is their enemy, and immersing themselves in the glorious results of fighting the ghouls and consuming unnecessary energy will only cause the really important things to be postponed again and again.
The all-night fighting had to cancel the whole day's journey today. Originally, they should have had to find a way to cross or bypass this swamp. But warriors need to rest. According to the legend of the Northland Skings, the berserker myths of fighting continuously for several days without sleep often end in death from exhaustion. This is a price they can't afford. Courage and perseverance come in handy sometimes, but they don't have to be used every time they encounter difficulties.
Lack of sleep not only affects the body, but also the state of mind. Long-term mental stress will make the whole person paranoid and over-excited. Once they get into this death circle, it is only a matter of time before the remaining two hundred people collapse.
By maintaining good physical fitness and mentality, they can cope with the next crisis.
The first batch of people who fell asleep woke up around ten o'clock at noon. Five or six hours of deep sleep was enough for people who were used to sleeping in the open air. The security personnel were now helping to heat up some soup. After making bread, I ran to the tent and fell asleep.
The sun, which was blocked by cotton-like clouds, continuously shed gray light. Our Mr. Sage, who didn’t even have dark circles under his eyes, did not go to rest with the others. He sat next to the bonfire, and Mira, who was rubbing her eyes, came over and took a cup of hot tea mixed with water. Adolphus, who had been resting for a few hours next to him, had his breastplate fixed on the side. The leader sat down. There was only a shallow scratch on his gorgeous armor. It was obvious that the ghoul tried his best but could not really get close to the paladin.
"The plan has been postponed for another day." He said this nonchalantly, and Henry said calmly, "Yeah." He took a branch and poked into the fire to allow air to circulate among the charcoal below.
"Maybe there will be more." The sage said: "I walked around and the swamp is bigger than we thought. It is impossible to go around it and it will be difficult to go through it."
"..." Adolphus turned his head and looked at the darker sky further east. The witch was obviously in that direction, and they could only choose to pass through here.
"I'll probably come back tonight," Henry added. He didn't specify, but everyone who could hear him knew what he meant.
"She is testing, learning, and verifying the correctness of her new knowledge."
"This is still an optimistic idea." Henry put the branch next to him, then turned his head, glanced at Horno and Adolphus, and then at Mira.
"The ghouls did not seize the opportunity to attack. Although this prevented the battle from ending, the stalemate that entered was only unilaterally disadvantageous for us."
"They had a chance, she, they had a chance to defeat us but they didn't take it. But what if-"
"Just saying what if."
"What if her purpose is just to consume us, make us nervous, tired, restless, irritable, and cause divisions in the team, instead of slaughtering us all?"
"You mean the witch showed mercy?" Stephen, who had just woken up, said this shirtless in the weather below ten degrees, and took a big bite of the pancake after he finished speaking.
"...Why would she do this?"
"Why did she keep us—"
"Because there is something she wants in the team, or rather, someone." The elf's voice sounded from the side. People turned their heads and looked at her. Horno's expression was a bit complicated, and it was difficult to describe it in words. The tangle made her small brows knitted together.
No further explanation was needed, everyone knew she was referring to herself.
"Can this be used to one's own advantage?" Adolphus said, and his inhumane statement made our little Mira frown. This paladin minister is obviously a person who can do anything to achieve his goal. Although the Luoan girl understands rationally that she must use everything available to have a chance to win at this time, she just doesn't like it very much. The other party reacted decisively and used Horno as a bargaining chip.
Adolphus's way of thinking reminded her of Constantine. Although the two had quite different careers and backgrounds, they had something in common in this so-called way of thinking of "making the best use of everything". of.
If it can be used, they won't care even if the target is a living person.
——Since he can do this to Horno, what guarantee does he have that he won't do this to you when you are in that position?
The girl's thoughts were pulled back by the sage's next words.
"This is not the most important place." As always, Henry looked deeper and further than everyone else. He looked directly into everyone's eyes. Both Horno and Adolphus avoided the calm but powerful eyes. Glorious gray-blue eyes.
"The point is, assuming this is all her plan."
"Then witch."
"I'm afraid he is no longer the naive and innocent individual we thought."
He said this, although it was still just speculation and reasoning.
A faint uneasiness began to linger in everyone's hearts.
So far, they have been able to win because the witch is immature. She does not know how to mobilize troops and does not understand human strategy and wisdom. Sora had huge power in his hands but only knew how to put it all into it. Although this had caused enough damage, it still could not compare with the results that could be caused by careful use.
They are desperately trying to catch up and seize the time because they are worried that the witch will evolve and learn to become more mature, but what if her progress is much faster than people think?
"She shouldn't be able to...I mean, there is no one around her to teach her, only instinct -" Filippo, who woke up late, joined the discussion, and the young man stood up With messy black hair, rather than saying that he really felt this way, it was better to say that he said this to make himself feel at ease.
“How do traveling circus trainers teach animals to perform behaviors that go against their natural habits?”
“If you do it wrong, you will be punished, but if you do it right, you will be rewarded.”
"The so-called fighting methods and fighting skills of human beings so far are actually nothing more than summed up in this way. She experienced a painful failure, so she changed. And anything she finds that she can continue without having such a painful experience again, She will definitely continue."
"All I'm worried about is whether this is due to the instinct and sensitivity of immature people."
"Or she has reached a critical moment and needs to delay us for another day or two."
"Otherwise, don't you think that the ghoul's attack came a little late?"
"..."
"The previous encounter with the undead was accidental, just because these meatless things are too slow. The earth dragon is obviously not under her command. In half a month, she had countless opportunities to send ghouls to attack us, but Even when there were disagreements among the team and deserters started to leave, the witch didn’t show up.”
"until now."
"We are indeed approaching her location and her sphere of influence."
"But if this is not a passive defense of self-defense, but if you realize that you have reached a critical moment and want to buy time-"
Henry didn't say any more. The words were enough here. Silence echoed next to the bonfire. The mercenaries and paladins behind him were still busy with various matters.
"That's really the case."
"That's not good..."
Among the busy sounds coming and going, only Adolphus' sigh sounded by the campfire.
