At dawn, five tall, fat, and ferocious-looking Orc Slayers appeared at the place where Wiltok and his party separated. On the shoulders of each orc butcher sat two female shamans. They are Bald Er, the ten brothers of Split Rock, and his Split Rock Guards.
Chief Quel'n'Gara relied on ten brothers to manage the vast orc tribe, and he asked each brother to choose his own Rockguard.
The Rock Guard consists of butchers, fighters, and shamans who serve as bodyguards and assistants to the Ten Brothers. At the same time, the Split Rock Guard is also a selection and training mechanism for high-level half-orcs created by Quel'Engara.
Due to the abundant food and the lack of suppression by the Butcher and the Mother, the Rockguard Orcs usually develop very quickly. When the butchers and shamans of the Crackguard mature, Quel'n'gra will move them away and let the ten brothers train new butchers and shamans.
Bald Er's men have 4 butchers, 9 shamans and more than 60 orc fighters. His orc fighters are relatively powerful, while the shaman and butcher are newly promoted, and their physical and intellectual development have not yet reached full maturity. However, the butcher is after all a high-level orc with a life level of three. They are extremely powerful and have plenty of physical energy. Even the light-bodied Combat Shaman can bite the tail of Wiltok and others, while the orc warriors have long since been thrown away due to lack of physical strength.
"Elaine, come down."
Bald Er raised his left hand and roughly pushed away the shaman sitting on his shoulder. The female shaman screamed and rolled in the air, as if she was about to fall to the snow, but she suddenly shrank and turned around. As soon as her feet landed on the ground, she quickly rushed towards Bald Er, wrapping her limbs around his waist, and smiled proudly. Voice.
The shaman's movements were completed in one go, as smoothly as flying, showing amazing agility. Even orc shamans are known for their agility, and she is one of the best.
The Bald Ear has no ears or tusks, which makes it look particularly funny. In the eyes of orcs, looking funny is worse than looking ugly. But Bald Ear is a fifth-level butcher with a cruel mood, and his combat power is second only to Quel'n'Gara, so he is naturally favored by female shamans. However, Bald Ear is not interested in the wizened battle shaman. He was able to extend more grace to Elaine, allowing her to sit on his shoulders and endure her endless harassment. It can be seen that Elaine is a rare battle shaman, both personal strength and wisdom are enough to impress Bald Er.
The fifth-level butcher ignored Elaine hanging on him. He carefully inspected the traces on the snow, then raised his head, twitched his nose, and carefully sniffed the smell in the air.
"I smell death. Half-elves are dying in this forest."
"Is it the master's prey?" Elaine hugged Bald Er's neck and chuckled.
"No, that was death a day ago. My prey isn't here yet."
"Master, I heard from the barbarian slave girl in the plantation that there is a very scary monster in this forest called the Shadow Lurker. It is good at hiding and can even hide from the barbarian warriors' sense of danger."
"Well, it smells of death, but it doesn't smell of danger. This is more terrifying than danger... a very good battlefield." The bald-eared scarlet eyes shrank to the limit, showing bloodthirsty excitement.
"Master, we can wait for backup."
"Don't worry about the trash, they can't find it here."
"The chief said he would send barbarian raiders to help. I reckon they'll get here tonight."
"I can feel that the strength of the half-elf female is weakening. If I wait any longer, it will be meaningless for me to kill these prey... Let's go in now!" Bald Er's eyes showed a fierce look, carrying a huge ax and leading the way. The Rockguard walks into the forest of Shadowlurkers.
*********************
In addition to Sarah, there are only eight professionals left beside Wiltok, including the fourth-level dark hunter Max, the third-level shield guard Hack, a third-level swordsman, a third-level archer, and the rest They are all second-level swordsmen and second-level shield guards. The remaining half-elves have left the team under the leadership of Doctor Cole.
The half-elf who followed Wiltok was older and had been serving as an instructor at the training camp in Braun Town. Their professional levels are higher than those young people, and they have more adventure experience, but Wiltok feels that their combat effectiveness is not as good as that of young junior professionals.
The half-elves of the Disa Alliance always believe that the higher the level of a professional, the more powerful they are, but Wiltok does not believe in this concept.
What is the professional level?
It only shows that the professional has those innate abilities, but it does not mean that the physical and mental state of the professional is necessarily suitable for fighting. If a professional lacks competitiveness and desire to fight, and does not have enough willpower to control his emotions, no matter how high his level is, he will not be able to give full play to his professional abilities.
Sharp knives will rust if not used for a long time. Professionals who have served as instructors in training camps for a long time may not be the best fighters.
However, these instructors are now determined to break the boat, but it is not easy for them to gain Wiltok's approval.
Vertok had sensed Sarah's decline and his temper had worsened. The instructors tried their best not to provoke him and silently did what they were supposed to do.
The team walked deep into the forest, and Max, the dark hunter, suddenly discovered something unusual.
"Well, there's a situation ahead." He ran over and dug out a blood-stained sword from under the raised snow.
"There are some here too."
"...And here."
Several instructors worked together to dig out broken shields, leather armor fragments, crossbows, javelins and other weapons and equipment from the snow. At this time, the experience of the instructors came into play. They put the things they found in place, measured the thickness of the snow, calculated the time, and tried to restore the appearance of the battlefield.
"Emblems on the equipment indicate that these victims were members of the Iron Cross and Whistle Adventures."
"They were probably attacked last night. At least twenty-five people were killed. Others may have successfully broken through, but the bodies of the deceased were not found at the scene."
"This three-shot crossbow is a good thing and can still be used. I don't believe that the people from Iron Cross and Whistle Adventure Group would remove the body and leave this three-shot crossbow."
"The attackers were not barbarians, half-orcs, orcs, nor half-elves, but a large group of monsters... The bodies of the victims were dragged away by them to the east of the forest!"
"...It's a shadow beast."
Max put a broken shield back together, and it could be seen that the strong ironwood shield was swept by a sharp claw and split into four pieces, indicating that the claw had three toes and was particularly sharp.
Vertok often heard adventurers talking about shadow lurkers and shadow beasts in Braun Town. It was a hot topic, but there were more rumors. It wasn't until he went to the plantation that he learned more about the characteristics of the shadow lurkers from the old sage Myne.
The Shadow Lurker is a fifth-level giant monster, female. It weighs 5 tons, is extremely powerful, wears invulnerable scales, and has a pair of indestructible claws. It has three innate abilities: latent, violent, and swarming.
Lurking: The shadow lurker's scales are good at changing color. When it is not moving, it will blend into the environment, avoiding vision, hearing, smell, touch perception, and danger intuition, making it virtually invisible.
Fierce: The Shadow Lurker's strength is instantly increased by 100%, and the defense and resistance of the scale armor are greatly enhanced. Even medium-sized ballistae attacks are ineffective against it. The ferocity lasts for more than ten seconds, and the effect ends. The shadow lurker has a period of weakness for the same period, with its base strength reduced by 75% and the scale armor's defense effect reduced by 50%.
Swarm: After a shadow lurker builds a nest, it will attract a large number of male shadow beasts to its lair and accept its servitude.
If there are groups of shadow beasts here, there must be shadow lurkers!
"Okay. Our family of adventurers are not the only smart people." Max threw away his shield and said with a gloomy expression: "Slave trader Rhodes and Charlie from the Whistle Adventure Group also thought of escaping north to avoid the barbarian marauders. Chase. But they encountered groups of shadow beasts... Now is the season for shadow lurkers to lay eggs. Shadow beasts will eliminate all threats that break into their territory. In other words, Hurant's dragoons did not come here to capture them at all. Shadowlurkers! What did those bastards do? Where did they go?!"
No one could answer this question, and Wiltok was also confused, but Max did not hesitate for too long. His expression suddenly changed, he looked back, and hurriedly urged: "The enemy is catching up, let's go quickly!"
Heavy and rapid footsteps came from the forest, like dense drum beats, revealing invisible pressure, approaching quickly from behind.
The instructors of the Adventurer's House usually speak eloquently, but when faced with the enemy's surprise attack, they inevitably fall into chaos.
In the snowy forest, a tall, fat, earless orc butcher rushed towards us with a huge stone axe. He didn't hesitate when he saw the half-elf professional. A murderous smile appeared on his face. He suddenly jumped into the air and crossed a distance of more than ten meters. The stone ax in his hand turned into a black arc, scraping the cold air and making a shrill sound. With a roar, he chopped off Vertok's head!
At this moment, Wiltok's heart felt cold and empty, and the Qi of the battle breathing technique surged throughout his body. He raised his sheathed sword and pointed it at the bald-eared butcher. He raised his hand and the sword came out of its sheath, like a flying shot. The crossbow shoots at the enemy still in mid-air like lightning.
Martial arts are techniques used to even out the differences in strength, speed, size, and blood talent between the two sides, and to enable the weak to defeat the strong. The principle of martial arts is nothing more than exchanging time for space, and exchanging space for time.
Vertok awakened the Wolf's combat skills and gained insight into the secrets of the martial arts. He restored the memory of the original method of Wanxiang, and his martial arts level reached an astonishing height.
The swaying Qi machine stimulates internal potential and mobilizes external forces to form a tight whole, allowing Wiltok's will and strength to reach their peak. Even if the Bald-Eared Butcher's outward will to kill makes the half-elf professionals scramble, it will have no effect on him.
Since the will to kill cannot shake Wiltok's heart, then both sides must rely on their true strength to speak!
What about the fifth-level orc butcher?
So what if there are advantages in strength and size?
All mortal creatures can be killed!
This is a law of nature!
Wiltok firmly believed that with his current strength and skills, he could completely kill the idiot butcher who used the flying slash on him and had nowhere to use the force to change direction in mid-air!
However, Bald Er is a strong man who has mastered the Heart of the Mirror. He has meticulous control over his body and has reached the pinnacle of martial arts, even better than Wiltok's combat breathing method.
This gap is the gap between life and death.
Despite the spurting sword scabbard hitting his chest full of blood-rage power, Bald Er was not disturbed in any way, his speed did not slow down at all, and the ax containing powerful power struck down suddenly.
When Vertok threw out the scabbard, he had already counterattacked his opponent. The sharp alloy sword drew a bright semicircle of light in the air, slashing the Orc Butcher against the wind.
He has not personally experienced the damage reduction effect of the blood rage of the fifth-level butcher. Although the combat breathing method is superb, it is not as good as the heart of the mirror. The seemingly coherent and flawless counterattack is like an arrow that has been taken off the string and cannot be changed.
The result of the fight between the two sides could only be that Wiltok's sword hit the bald-eared butcher, and his head was hit by the opponent's axe.
At the critical moment, Sarah's big hands pressed Wiltok's shoulders and pulled him behind her. The heavy stone stick defeated the Bald-Ear Butcher's attack like a torrent and hit him hard on the chest.
"roll!"
As the fat cook roared, Bald Ear flew back like a cannonball and hit a big tree more than 20 meters away. The snow on the tree crown suddenly poured down.
The bald ears slid down the snowdrift, blood spurted out from the mouth and nose, and the bloody skin had turned back to earthy red. Sarah's blow knocked his blood rage back to its original form and cracked three of his ribs, but Bald Ear smiled happily.
He is cruel on the outside but timid and cautious on the inside. He followed Wiltok and his party, but because he was afraid of Sarah's intimidation, he never dared to make a move along the way. It wasn't until the team of half-elf escapees split, Sarah became weak again, and the bald-eared Rockguard had gained an advantage in overall strength that he decided to take the initiative. This tentative attack allowed Bald Er to determine how much strength Sarah still had left.
Several flying axes were shot out of the forest, repelling the group of half-elf professionals who were about to attack Bald Er. Four butchers and nine shamans took advantage of the situation and rushed into the battlefield, protecting the wounded Bald Er behind them.
The half-elf instructors were professionals after all. They were not hit by the long-range flying ax that could not change direction. They took out their crossbows and javelins to confront a dozen orcs with evil shapes.
Neither side took action, because the battle just now alarmed the shadow beasts in the forest, and a rolling wave of snow mixed with a harsh roar came from the east.
"Let's go, let's rush out!" Sarah shouted loudly, leading everyone to run northward.
The bald-eared butcher made a gesture to scratch Vertok's head, and also led the orcs to the west.
