About 8 kilometers into the Swamp Marsh forest from the Pearl village had two more villages that came under Dorbank CIty. These villages were used as a checkpoint by the City Lord and also as a shelter where mercenary groups and hunters who go very deep into the forest stay for the night. For them going to the city or any other village in the outskirts of the forest wasted their time and also money.
Because those two villages are used as a vantage point in the forest where powerful Demon Beast usually hunts, they are attacked frequently by them. So as to protect that place, the City Lord has personally appointed dozens of soldiers from his personal army to defend that place with the cooperation of the hunters and mercenary groups.
The tax they have to pay is much less than any other villages because of how dangerous it is to live there but they still have to pay. Lindon with his guards made their way to one of the two villages which were 5 kilometers apart from each other.
Since there's the army of the City Lord and also the village head which is personally appointed by the City Lord, Lindon was very much polite towards them in the way of collecting Tax and also tried to form good relationship with them like he does every time he comes here.
Lindon had a little party with the village head that took the whole afternoon. Only by late evening were they able to leave to the next village 5 kilometers towards north direction. He made his group to walk faster and be alert on the way for any ambush by the Demon beast. They will reach the next settlement in about two hours but as it was getting dark, nocturnal demon beast which were more dangerous than normal Demon beast comes out from their day hideout to hunt.
Lindon and his group didn't want to meet any of those beast but they still did. Fortunately it was only a grade 5 panther, which was killed quickly. Two of the guards were slightly injured from the first attack of the Demon beast. They left the corpse of the panther just like that so as to not waste time or it will only get more dangerous as the time passes.
…
About 30 minutes from where Lindon and his company were going to pass, a group of 4 people lay in ambush for them.
They were none other than Donald, Jack, Theo and Joe. At the top of a big tree that was 60 to 70 meters from the ambush place stood another person perched on a branch of that tree from where place of the ambush can be clearly seen without any blockage. Alex was maintaining that position with Low grade Crescent Bow in his hand.
Julie and Meg were going to surround Lindon's group from the back and cut off their path of retreat with their arrows.
"Everyone get ready, they should be passing from here in this one hour." Jack said in low voice.
"They should be since Theo has confirmed their departure from the previous village."
"Yeah, first I thought they were going to stay there for the night. But then I saw them leaving, so I rushed here as quickly as possible. They should be here by now unless they met some Demon Beast attack on the way unlike I did." Said Theo.
After waiting another hour, they saw some people rushing from the path ahead with the help of moonlight. Every stayed hidden in their position, ready to strike after the first signal.
Alex also saw Lindon group making their way on that uneven path that people usually takes between these two villages. He quickly knocked two arrows on his graded bow ready to fire.
Lindon was actually behind two of his guards and in front of seven other guards. Alex had already locked onto him and fired at the right moment; just as Lindon arrived at the ambush point his instinct started to ring alarms in his head. As a reflex action Lindon tried to duck but he was a little too late in bending his legs as the arrows had already appeared in front of his head and chest.
Lindon could only contract his pupils and have a last thought in his head after seeing the arrows 'Master Archer' before they penetrated deep in his head and chest. This happened in only a matter of half a second not giving him enough time to even defend his body by surrounding himself with a curtain of Qi that may block or at least deviate the angle of the arrow that was going for his head.
The guards following behind were caught off-guard as they saw their leader being pierced by an arrow into his head penetrating all the way to the back. The strongest one in their group died so suddenly which brought a heavy blow onto their minds. In this moment, Jack and his group came out of their hiding place launching an unexpected attack on the stunned guards.
There were two guards who were in grade 6 of Body Tempering realm and also more experienced. Seeing that they were experiencing an ambush, one of them quickly ordered the guards to come closer and form a circle to deal with the ambushers.
"Who the fuck are you guys, don't you know we are the officers under City Lord. Stay back or your ending will not be good" One of the guards tried to stop the ambushers by giving them name of their backer.
Donald and Jack took on the stronger guards while Theo and Joe also took on one of the guards.
Lindon had 9 guards with him, in which he had already died and four of the strongest in that group were fighting Donald, Theo, Jack and Joe. The remaining five guards tried help their comrades but they were bombarded with arrows from the back and front.
The two strongest fellows saw that the situation was not on their side and they would all die if they stayed here so they screamed an order to scatter in different direction and bring help from the nearby village.
But Donald and his group were like maggots not leaving them any chance to make an escape. Whereas the other 5 guards had at least two or more arrows in their body by now and those arrow had now started to target the remaining four guys. Seeing that they were going to meet their end, the remaining guards started to fight with their life on the line.
With the help of Alex, Julie and Meg the remaining guards were quickly put to death.
"Alright quickly pick up the Tax money and leave before anyone comes here." Donald ordered but after changing his voice a little.
"Boss we have completed the mission that City Lord gave us by intercepting the tax collectors; this should be enough for our promotion."
"Less talk more work, we can't leave any clue of us being here, let these Dorbank Dogs run around like headless flies and fight among themselves"
Alex had already looted Lindon's body and escaped with everyone else leaving the dead bodies to be eaten by Demon Beast.
Just as their group left, one of guard who was supposed to be dead raised his head a little to check if
everyone has left after some time. He tried to stand up, but the pain in his shoulder made him grunt a little. He took out the arrow that has penetrated his shoulder and tied a linen cloth around the shoulder with his hand and teeth to stop the blood flow.
He picked himself up and checked if anyone else was alive, but he was soon disappointed that he was the only one. Fearing that some Demon Beast might come here smelling the blood, he ran back the way their group came from the previous village.
Alex smiled seeing this and informed everyone that their plan is successful and should leave this area quickly.