Act 15: The Battle for the Lumberyard

Nearly an hour has passed since entering the forest.

The sound of bows and arrows came from the woods, and soon the mercenaries shouted and swarmed up and dragged several corpses out of the grass - large, pale yellow creatures covered with tumors, their heads resembling a large malignant tumor, nostrils and eyes not visible from the smooth surface, as if they lacked facial features. But beneath the folds of skin are thousands of olfactory and auditory organs, allowing them to be hundreds of times sharper than humans in the dim and even pitch-black underground—but the mercenaries soon discover that the creatures are dead, and the arrows have only superficially wounded them, but each of the cavemen has a fatal wound in their chest.

Some of the injuries were from back to front, some from front to back, and the wounds were charred and black, all of which were penetrating wounds. As if someone had stabbed a large hole in the chest with a thunderbolt, a handful of mercenaries recognized this peculiar wound made by the 'dragoons', turned the disgusting creatures over, and then looked back in awe at the young man who was slowly walking on his horse.

Brando watched condescendingly as the cavemen opened their large mouths full of fine teeth like sharks, and the blood that spilled from the corners of their mouths was pale green, unlike the warm-blooded creatures on the surface - these creatures that lived in the lowest strata of the Jogan base were actually lizards, and if he could, Brando would prefer to surround these bandits from the underworld in the winter, as they would customarily shrink during the cold season. Unfortunately, the tight schedule didn't allow him to do so, and besides, the weather was already getting cooler, not for the best but at least not for the worst. At his signal, the mercenary fiddled with the cavemen, who had been dead for a long time, and let him see the monster clutching the stiffened claws of the spear.

"It's the lower strata of caveman society," Tiger Sparrow replied, looking at the corpses, "It seems that they have left the elite in the inner circle of the defensive line, and the further we go in, the greater the resistance will be." ”

Brando nodded, but he didn't say it was actually good news. Creature levels increase from the outside in, which is a natural distribution of monsters in Amber Sword in the past, as is the case in most traditional games. This shows that these troglodytes did not constitute a complete military organization, and simply said that they were not an army, but a tribe or some other way of forming a troglodyte settlement.

One of his biggest fears before attacking was that the cavemen entrenched in the Bearman Forest were a military organization of cavemen who had come to the surface from the Underworld, possibly as part of a plan to invade the surface of a large tribe or even an underground city, which was not uncommon in Vaynd. Sometimes the inhabitants of the underground will also spy on the resources of the above-earth world, although the resources underground are much richer, but the survival of the fittest is also more cruel. Another possibility is that the troglodyte army suffered defeat in the Underworld and fled to the Underworld to survive, but either one was much easier to deal with than the loose tribes.

A normal monster area.

Brando's mind set the caveman of the forest. The corpses they have found so far are the inferior cavemen who act as scouts in the outermost part, and possibly the caveman warriors and the 'Kamuru', which means 'warrior' in underground language. Players used to call them elite cavemen, non-commissioned officers-like characters with the strength of the pinnacle of black iron. It can be said that in addition to sacrifices, it is the strongest combat power of cavemen.

But there is nothing to fear for him.

The mercenaries quickly sifted through the area like a net, finding a total of more than twenty corpses, consistent with Brando's experience. These corpses showed that most of the cavemen who were attacked had not had time to react, and their lives burned out in a very short moment under the attack of the Silver Tier power. The Wind Spirit Spider comes from the Wind Elemental Plane - Storm End, and although its own strength is not as strong as that of Black Iron, its ability to control the flow of air is unmatched, and it is undoubtedly a natural opponent for cavemen who rely on their sense of smell and hearing to distinguish danger.

The eyes scattered around the forest were plucked out one by one, and Brando's march through the jungle with the hundreds of mercenaries led by his Grand Master Juta, Fern and Clenthia was more than expected—hundreds of warriors marched cautiously between the silent woods of the afternoon, rustling on the bright green ferns, and even the abrupt 'click' of the dead branches that some had accidentally stepped on. Fortunately, when the warriors looked up nervously, they saw some unnamed birds fluttering their wings from the forest.

But compared to warriors and swordsmen, the mages who are protected from the crowd are even more incredible. As is customary, they must be the first target of those who have a cold shot and a secret arrow - anyone understands the importance of a mage on the battlefield. However, for these spellcasters, who are no more than full-fledged wizards, and most of them are apprentices, their ability to protect themselves is disproportionate to the value they show on the battlefield, as if they themselves knew that they were one of the Scouts' favorite targets.

Another target is the commander in the army, but it is often not as easy to get by as the low-level caster.

So these mercenary mages are used to being attacked; Raids, sneak attacks, cold arrows, especially in jungle battles are commonplace, almost everyone has had the experience of being injured, and I have seen many companions die in front of them because of such attacks, and even I myself have had the personal experience of hovering on the edge of life and death. But this qiē was nothing compared to the strangeness of today's encounter, the rumored troglodyte scouts seemed to have disappeared, and watching the sunlight after noon spill through the gaps between the leaves and fall among the silent woods, these magicians even wondered if this was a public trip or something else?

But of course not, they had all seen the corpses of the cavemen before.

This qiē can only be attributed to the magic of the young lord, and it is even rumored that he is a high-level summoner, and may even exceed the boundary between gold and silver. However, for wizards, since this mystical skill was taught to mortals by the Silver People, respect for the strong has become a deep-ing-ed habit - not to mention the Charr under his wing, and the two gold-level wizards are privately called the Council of Two by the magicians among the mercenaries. Because in the custom of the artisan wizards Buga, the wizarding council symbolized authority and the power of the leader - and thus Brando's prestige was unconsciously established among these spellcasters.

But as Brando watched the mercenaries with swords, halberds, or longbows, shields, and staffs habitually scattered in small formations across the meadows, he felt no sense of accomplishment in his heart. Although the results of the Wind Spirit Spider were amazing, this qiē was not without a price, he was silently calculating the cost of spells: almost an hour had passed since he entered the forest, and it had cost 13 Earth Elementals just to maintain the Holy Sword card and an attack charge. He checked his elemental reserves, and at this moment, the earth elemental pool with a volume of 32 blocks was already empty, and there were only 7 blocks left.

Brando frowned, and immediately sent for the guide to be called.

The ragged man came to him, raised his head and saw that the young man's face was not very good, and he thought that he had done something wrong to make the other party unhappy, and asked with some anxiety: "My lord, is there something wrong?" ”

"How much longer?" Brando asked, slightly agitated. With five minutes left, he had to forgo the next upkeep cost to return the Sacred Sword card to his library, as he had to set aside the cost to show the card again, and the real battle would be left until the night or even the early hours of the morning.

When the guide heard this, he first breathed a sigh of relief: "It's coming soon, my lord, you can see it by bypassing that forest." The sawmill was built in the middle of the river valley, and I—" Before he could finish his sentence, there was a cooing sound in front of him, which was a predetermined signal, and Brando looked up and immediately saw the mercenaries in front of him stop and crouch on the spot. And he saw the warriors at the edge of the forest turn their heads in this direction, and then gestured to him.

Brando recognized the gesture - spotting the enemy.

However, the Wind Spirit Spider has not yet reacted, nor has it produced an empirical hint, suggesting that there may be a large number of enemies, and the Dragoon system may not be able to kill in one hit - so it hibernate according to his second-order orders. Brando was slightly startled, and immediately turned over and dismounted and walked in that direction. Seeing his lord dismount, the three of Yuta, Fern and Clenthia also glanced at each of them and climbed off their horses and followed, followed by Tiger Sparrow, Akane and Roman, and in the end, the merchant's eyes were not a little cautious, but full of cautious curiosity.

The woods thinned out, and Brando soon came to the edge of the woodland.

"My lord," the mercenary shouted respectfully as he noticed Brando's approach, and he glanced back just in time to see his former head of the regiment, Clensia, nodding to him.

Without saying a word, Brando's trees formed a slope in front of him, and below the slope was the valley that the guide had mentioned—the lumberyard of Fir City was built on the river's edge. Originally, there was only a clearing of land and a few wooden houses, and a large sawmill, but now it was clear that it had changed its appearance, and the cavemen had turned it into a fortress. They built stone and wood along the river beach, and they also built watchtowers, and behind the walls were faintly visible crypts made of earth and stones, and Brando counted the number and deduced that there were probably more than two hundred cavemen living in this place.

"So many, it's tricky." The red-haired mercenary captain looked behind her and frowned. She looked at Brando, fearing that the latter would order them to force their attack.

But Brando looked at the troglodytes patrolling along the riverbank, each led by a caveman with crimson skin. Those are Muruk, if they rashly attack the other party, they will probably retreat into the fortress and waste the advantage of the surprise attack. He looked back at Antitina and the Tiger Sparrow, and replied, "What do you think?" ”

"Use the old ways of our mercenaries." Tiger Sparrow replied.

"The old way?"

Brando looked up.