On the evening of the fourth day after the battle, when the soldiers turned over the last grassy slope, saw the well-arranged houses from a distance, and heard the cries of the sheep, it was difficult to describe their complicated emotions at this time.
In the past, this was just a village where I lived every day, and the scenery I saw every day, even the chirping of insects and birds was monotonous and boring. But when they left suddenly, experienced more than ten days of life-and-death battles and returned, the exhausted scouts discovered that this humble village was the warmest and most reliable place in their minds.
This is home.
Seeing familiar people, familiar things, even familiar cooking smoke rising from familiar houses, the uneasiness and vigilance that always exist in my heart will be gently let go at this time.
When the team returned, not many people came to greet them, and the simple villagers would not engage in any fancy ceremonies. The uncles and aunts just looked at these young people who had been away for many days and never came back, carefully counting their number, and after finding out that no one was missing , just continued to be busy with the work in hand with a smile on his face - as for what they did, in fact, not many people were worried.
The orcs in the five villages, including the two wolf cavalry squads and the last Sarota team, these 30 young people killed nearly 400 orcs in total, and successfully provoked internal friction between the two tribes . From a political point of view, such a feat can be called a "miracle" no matter from which point of view, but under Rody's order, no one mentioned anything about these battles to the villagers. When someone asked, they always answered "go to the grassland to do field survival training".
They brought back no spoils. Even food and tents were almost consumed, and seven or eight war horses were killed or injured—so no villager would doubt it.
That night, the team slaughtered a cow as a celebration banquet, and lit a bonfire on the school grounds. Everyone got together lively and had a solid meal. And "Political Commissar" Carter played a guest role as the "host" of the banquet, enlivening the atmosphere, singing and dancing, and the atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable.
The simple wooden cup was filled with ale, and the fresh and tender barbecue was overflowing with fragrance. Soderol could see the subordinates of Finks Village and the scouts of Nolan Village chatting and laughing without any barriers, smiling and toasting, Immediately, amidst the shouts of the soldiers, he went up and danced a cheerful dance, which caused a burst of cheers. Carter bluffed up to imitate, but he tripped himself to the ground, causing roars of laughter.
The bonfire reflected the warm orange light, and Ruger sat in the crowd holding ale, listening to the conversations of the soldiers in his ear, and the feeling of camping in the cold tent a few days ago seemed like a world away. He bit the beef in his hand, looked at the carnival scene of the soldiers in front of him, silently took a sip of the warm ale, but whispered words that others could not hear:
"Old fellows, I avenged you..."
I don't know what to think of, tears slid down his weather-beaten cheeks, making the soldiers on the side seem a little at a loss, but soon, the young recruit took the wine glass handed over by his comrade-in-arms beside him, and put it in Luge's hand. He replaced the empty cup, patted the veteran on the shoulder, and said loudly: "To Luge, to those brave seniors, cheers!"
Gulp down the wine, the cheers gradually dilute the sadness in my heart.
Rody sat on the ground with a flushed face—his chest was warm because he had never had much alcohol, and he looked forward in a daze. He felt that there were such a group of comrades who had come out of life and death, and his heart...was warm.
"Roddy! What are we going to do next?"
Carter excitedly represented the opinions of the masses, and asked Roddy who was sitting on the ground and looking at the sky.
"What else do you want to do? Get a good night's sleep! Wait for me to find some ways to earn money, and then I will pay more military pay and money. After the gold coins are divided, I will let you go to the town to find women!"
Messy words were yelled, and laughter echoed in the village. Roddy felt the world slowly spinning, but he let go of the vigilance he had been hanging in his heart, and just lay there among the carnival crowd... and fell asleep.
Some firewood was added to the campfire, and the singing turned into a whisper, and finally the snoring gradually sounded.
On the square, the scouts from Nolan Village, like Rody, gathered together and lay on the ground, spending their first night after returning home like this.
And...the most peaceful sleep they've had in a long time.
***
At the same moment when Rody and the others safely returned to Nolan Village, a bloody battle broke out on the other side of the Nehemiah Grassland that hadn't been seen for many years.
Black smoke rose, and what the flames brought was no longer warmth and tenderness, but destruction and massacre.
The battle between the "Hammer of Rohar" and the "Bloodspear" tribes caused thousands of casualties. Although the battles happen every year, the orc kingdom is not surprised by it and even enjoys it, but this year's war , but it is obviously unprecedented in scale—and the most important thing is that the "Hammer of Rohar", which had an absolute superiority in military strength in the past, was retreating step by step under the attack of "Blood Spear" this year. After fighting for more than two months, The flames of war were extinguished under the condition of being forced to give up a large area of territory.
Once such a rift is formed, there is no possibility of it being undone. It is obvious that Rohar will have to fight "Blood Spear" to the death in the past few years before he will give up. But what bothered Chief Rohar the most was not the loss of the battle, but the unexplained disappearance of his most powerful subordinate, the witch doctor Sarota.
The last place where the seventy-five wolf cavalry appeared was in the Cossack village. According to the villagers, the last battle of the witch doctor Sa Luota was to chase down the thirty-odd human scouts. In the end, they never came back, and they may have died in battle...
The orc who reported the situation was slapped and flew out of the chief's tent, and when he crawled back in a daze, he could still hear Chief Rohar's angry roar—
"Do you think I don't have a long head?! Seventy-five wolf cavalry! And Sa Luota! Did you lose your life by chasing more than 30 scouts like this?!"
Afterwards, of course, they couldn’t ask anything else. Five or six days later, after sending people to the Death Swamp to inspect and seven or eight people died, Rohar had to accept a fact...
I'm afraid this clever witch doctor... has really fallen.
Up to now, he and the chief of "Blood Spear" certainly knew that this war was started by humans, but it was useless to say anything at this time—are they all aiming at the humans on the other side of the grassland? This kind of thing is simply unrealistic for the orcs who only want to annex the opponent's pasture!
The battle has already been fought, the people are almost dead, the territory has been invaded, and most importantly, after fighting back and forth by themselves, they have beaten the family back more and more—the death of seventy-five wolf cavalry has already made He was in pain, but the most important thing was that after the death of the witch doctor Sa Luota, the combat power of the entire tribe was almost halved!
Rohar wished he could smash those cunning humans to pieces with a hammer, but then he realized that he didn't even know where they were...
The depressed chief thought so, but there was nothing he could do. He could only focus on how the tribe could regain its vitality as soon as possible—and he naturally didn't know that in the village that once belonged to Sarota, a young orc, Solemnly issued an oath to avenge the teacher.
Rody didn't realize that he had killed the mentor of Sauron, the future supreme ruler of the orcs, and he would not understand that the thin orc who fell in the death swamp would be the biggest mastermind of the entire orc invasion of Karen Kingdom !
And now, when "Sauron", the ruler who was once considered "brave and foolhardy" in the eyes of players, made the "Oath of Vengeance", history has completely embarked on a completely unpredictable path...
***
The rainy season is gradually coming to an end.
Since the scouts returned from the grassland, the atmosphere in Nolan Village has changed slightly because of the change in this group of soldiers. Maybe it was the numb young people who finally experienced the excitement and passion they had never experienced in their lives, or maybe it was Captain Roddy who made them the promise that sounded like a joke. In short, when the farmers got up early every day, they would see scouts running around the village, shouting strange slogans such as "one two three four" and "defend the motherland".
This is the young man, just like the rising sun, full of exuberant vitality.
At noon at the end of August, the sun was no longer scorching, and the breeze was already refreshing. The hottest summer days in Nolan Village have passed. With the resolution of the orc crisis, the soldiers' training programs have also begun to change—not raids based on horseback riding and hacking, but actual positional warfare , in order to be able to play a role with the highest efficiency in complex and changeable environments or certain copies one day.
And on August 27th, 8th year of the Elon calendar, after making a new short bow, Rody embarked on the road preparing to go to Holy City.
Everything is proceeding according to the plan he had made before: the raid of the orc kingdom raised the level to level 8. Although the composite short bow made at this time is not "excellent" but just blank equipment, its damage, arrow speed, The rate of fire is better than that of the horn bow before. Armed with such a weapon, Rody was going to visit Houlier City to see if there was a chance to kill Francis, the future "traitor", and bring the "Ginseng of Blasphemy" to try to treat the old Duke.
If all goes well, after these things are over, Rody can choose to arrange a good place for the scouts to hone, and he will start preparing for the "advanced profession" trial task after level 10.
Rody always does things like this, almost expecting and strictly implementing everything that can be planned-but when he is about to leave, he naturally has to say goodbye to these comrades who have experienced life and death together...
"Hey, I really should teach them to sing the first ten to the Red Army..."
After walking for three or four miles, when Luo Di looked back, he could still see those scouts still standing at the entrance of the village. Although he was moved, what he said was some irrelevant words.
In his previous life, he was used to being a ranger, and often no one chatted with him for a few weeks and last month, so the way of self-relieving emotions remained in this way. Silence for a long time will eventually make people a little bored. Roddy feels like the protagonist in the movie "Cast Away" who always chats with the volleyball "Wilson". Sometimes he talks to himself, but he is quite content It's fun.
Taking a deep breath, he looked at the vast blue sky above his head, and couldn't help humming in a low voice following the rhythm that automatically popped up in his mind: "As soon as I sent Lige's Red Army away, I crunched down the mountain..."
"Second gift—forget it, it's so fucking ugly..."
The sound of horseshoes echoed in his ears, and when the Forest of Whispering Whispers gradually appeared in front of him, he couldn't help but think of the last time he went to Hollier City.
It’s okay not to mention, but when he really recalled it, he kind of missed the thrilling escape journey with the duke’s daughter—especially the scene where Sally thought she was a dead soul and was scared to the ground, which almost became a part of his life. Unforgettable memories...Of course, maybe it was mainly because he was deeply impressed by the white and tender skin that Sally showed when she "disappeared" later.
What is she doing now? Was it a joy to fight with that brother of his? Hey... She is the only one who knows her identity in the noble class. As long as she doesn't reveal her identity and has the identity of "scout" as a disguise, it will be beneficial to do anything—that idiot Francis is probably dead You wouldn't have thought that I saved Sally, would you
With that in mind, the sky gradually darkened.