Chapter 23 Two reasons
Translator: Tchu
Editor: ArKain
After inspecting the goblin tribe more carefully, Shaar found that the entire tribe had 164 young and old goblins. According to Shaar’s experience as a hunter, all the wounds on the corpses were fatal and he noticed that these goblins tried to resist, but were unable to form an effective counterattack against their enemy.
A lot of goblins also tried to escape, but looking at the hoofmarks surrounding the tribe, it seems that the guys who attacked the goblins had much better maneuverability than the goblins and did not let a single goblin escape.
There were several goblins that tried to escape over the mud wall, but were shot and killed on it.
Pulling an arrow from a corpse, Shaar checked its weight.
Armor piercing arrow?
His eyes immediately lit up. This arrowhead was made of a high quality metal and with a specially designed shaft emphasizing the ability penetrate the enemy’s armor. In Primal Wildfire Town, only the stronger mercenary groups had such arrows and even then, they would only use them when encountering strong enemies.
However here ……the attackers here, unexpectedly used such precious arrows to kills lowly goblins??
High quality weapons, ruthless, high mobility and each strike was lethal….
Moreover, in one quick swoop they slaughtered over 100 goblins and did not leave a single living witness. This kind of attitude was rare in the wilderness of Primal Wildfire. Perhaps only several well-known vicious black tribes would do something like this in Primal Wildfire.
However, ……Even those black tribes would not waste their energy slaughtering a few goblins – These goblins were as poor as a group of beggars. Robbing them was the least profitable thing you could do unless you are interested in the goblin’s various suspicious looking sun-dried meat.
Walking along the perimeter of this tribe, Shaar suddenly stopped and closed his eyes to think for a moment. The hooves mark on the ground, the bloodstains, the footprints and the corpses all seemed to be randomly placed, however Shaar quickly noticed a subtle clue in his mind.
Those hoof prints and the distributions of these goblin corpses immediately reminded Shaar something that he read a long time ago.
It seemed ……similar to the descriptions in the old man’s rotting yellow book collection.
Shaar opened his eyes and made a dignified hillbilly expression. He carefully made a tour inside the tribe again and reorganized the thoughts in his head to get a clearer picture.
(Twenty people, no most likely around thirty and all cavalry. There were some archers with profound archery techniques among them. They divided into three teams, one team blocked the main entrance of the tribe, broke the front gate and went inside to kill, forcing these goblins to jump over the wall and scatter in all directions in order to escape. The other two teams waited on their horses and seized the opportunity to kill the goblins who tried to climb over the mud wall. They killed a few of them with their arrows and then ran down the rest with their speed and slaughtered them. These people had excellent weapons and their martial arts clearly exceeded ordinary mercenaries.
Furthermore, they had excellent horse-riding skills!
(This could be determined by how they were able to gallop over this medium sized mud wall.)
(Less than 30 people had slaughtered more than 100 goblins. There were no casualties on their side and they did not let any goblins escape. I am afraid that even the famous black tribes in Primal Wildfire do not have such well-trained combat tactics. Those fierce black tribes were powerful, but could not execute this kind of fast operation in such an organized manner.)
The more Shaar thought about it, the more a sense of oppression took his breath away and he was forced to take a few deep breaths to suppress this uneasiness.
“How, how is it?”
Watching Shaar coming back, the Pitiful Creature was already nervous to the point that she could not stand still. Her face was deathly pale, her forehead poured out cold sweat and she quickly asked Shaar.
“What did you expect, all dead.” Resting his axe on his shoulder, Shaar saw the Pitiful Creature’s pathetic look on her face: “Huh? Why’s your face so white?”
“Eh……my wound hurts a little.”
“Why’re your legs shaking?”
“Um…..A little cold.”
Shaar looked at the Pitiful Creature with a serious look and suddenly cracked a smile. He walked towards her with big strides and extended his big hand to firmly touch the Pitiful Creature’s head. Rubbing her hair until it was all messy, he started laughing and said: “Getting afraid? Haha, relax, as long as I’m here, you’ll be all right. You are my soso and I won’t let anyone touch even a hair on you.”
Looking at this hillbilly’s worry-free appearance, the Pitiful Creature was at first a bit annoyed, but soon Shaar’s laughter started to affect her and she could not help but feel a warm feeling in her heart despite the fact that Shaar made a mess of her hair.
This hillbilly……Can probably protect me……
Compared with the anxious Pitiful Creature, the goblin prisoners did not have the slightest trace of panic or pity when they saw that this tribe was butchered.
It was just the opposite, these fellows even grinned in front of the ruins and soon started to burst out laughing.
Goblins ……are really from a race that loved internal strife and malicious joy.
“Aren’t they worried?” The Pitiful Creature could not understand their behavior.
“They’re always like this. A goblin’s favorite thing is to see their kindred in unfortunate positions even if it’s from the same tribe, let alone seeing another tribe being slaughtered.” After Shaar finished his explanation, he walked towards the goblin warrior who was laughing the loudest, kicked it and gestured with his axe.
Mr. Princess immediately walked towards them holding his chin high and his belly sucked in. Still bullying the weak while relying on his newly gained position, he shouted several times and drove these goblin soldiers forward.
Under Shaar’s orders, their group did not walk far and camped across the river bed near the goblin tribe.
Acting like a vulgar hillbilly, Shaar started beating and scolding the goblin soldiers and forced all the transporting work and lighting a fire to his “soso”. After spending a long time with him, the Pitiful Creature started to notice a small trace of falsehood in Shaar’s behavior – although this hillbilly cursed and laughed a lot, occasionally his eyes flashed a look resembling a wild beast. When night was upon them, Shaar sat at the riverbed to observe the soulless tribe ruins at the opposite shore. He would squint his eyes and radiate a strange sharpness from them. When he turned his head to look at the Pitiful Creature, his calm expression would take the Pitiful Creature’s breath away!
“Hey……” Shaar looked at the Pitiful Creature’s face: “Stay alert tonight, since we might have to escape at any moment.”
“？？？”
The Pitiful Creature became startled, her hands were trembling and she suddenly dropped water bag on the ground.
Shaar smiled, but his eyes emitted a serious look. He pointed at the opposite shore and talked in a casual tone: “Those guys may have not gone too far. I saw from hoofmarks that these people divided into several groups after they slaughtered this tribe. I am very worried that we might run into these people. Although I don’t know who they are, but from their style of handling their business, I can tell that if we run into them, it’ll certainly not be a happy matter.”
“Then, then why are we still staying here?” The fear in the Pitiful Creature’s voice could not be concealed: “Why did you set up camp so early today?”
“Because here should be safest for now.” Shaar thought for a moment and his voice was very confident: “Those fellows just butchered everything here and aren’t likely to return for a while.”
While talking, Shaar took his charred pitchfork and pierced several pieces of wolf meats. Sitting down next to the Pitiful Creature, he started roasting the meat on the campfire and handed a piece to her: “Eat, no matter what, being able to eat is something to be happy about.”
Finishing his sentence, he made a gesture towards another campfire beside them where currently Mr. Princess was acting like a prison warden while scolding the goblin soldiers. Until now, Shaar did not mistreat the goblin captives again and even gave them a big piece of wolf meat to eat. However, even with a big piece of meat, the dozen goblins could only nip on it twice each because of their high number.
“Perhaps we should not take these goblin captives with us.” The Pitiful Creature thought for a moment: “If we walk by ourselves, we are less likely to be spotted and encounter them. Even if we do encounter those people, it would be easier to hide if it is only the both of us.”
Bursting out laughing, Shaar gave the Pitiful Creature a ridiculing look and sighed: “No matter who you are, if you can unexpectedly avoid those guys in Primal Wildfire, then god’s definitely watching over you. I can already tell you that these fellows are some highly trained professional killers who are exceptionally skilled in butchering stuff. Although I don’t know who they are, possibly a powerful bandit or thief group, maybe some military deserter or a crowd of rebels. Even perhaps a group of mercenary soldiers who like violence. No matter who they are, these fellows are all veterans! In case we encounter them, don’t count on the chance that we can evade their eyes. If they notice our trail, those veterans can easily track us and catch up to us. Therefore I need to take this group of goblin captives with us.”
“Why?”
“Two reasons.” Shaar smiled, took a bite out of the roasted wolf meat and said ambiguously: “First, if we run into these butchers, these goblins can attract their attention, and perhaps create an opportunity for us to run away. Second ……If we are very lucky and don’t run into those people and we find that dragon in time, these goblins can also become a large group of bait – this would be an advantage to you.”
The Pitiful Creature looked at one these “soso” and sighed in her heart while she confirmed something once more: Although this fellow was a hillbilly, he was absolutely not a simple and honest country bumpkin.