Ch. 34 - Death's Warning Bell

Explosivewolf struck with ferocious force, and inertia became his price to pay.

With the greatsword still gripped in his hands, before he could fully discharge the momentum, the last remaining goblin in front of him had no choice but to draw the shortsword from its waist, aiming to stab his abdomen.

"[Fire Bolt]!"

A scorching flame shot past Explosivewolf's shoulder and pierced into the goblin's eye.

It shrieked in pain and was about to do something more when Explosivewolf, having steadied himself, beheaded it with a single stroke.

From deep within the forest, more goblins howled and roared, attempting to swarm forward.

But the mercenary company behind them moved first, charging into the woodland and holding the camp's perimeter, clashing with the creatures in bloody melee.

Tang Qi, who had been observing from the cargo wagon, stood up slightly and poked his head out.

Since the three prisoners hadn't been assigned positions within the camp, they were only affected by the stray arrows.

"Wiping out this band of goblins seems to be just a matter of time."

"From your tone, don't tell me you were actually hoping they'd fall to a bunch of goblins?"

Black Snake's mouth showed no mercy, but inwardly he couldn't help but view Tang Qi with a bit more respect.

If this bard hadn't given advance warning, with his own limbs shackled, the indiscriminate arrow volley just now might well have struck him.

But it wasn't as if he had 'discovered' the arrow volley either.

That expression looked exactly like...

Precognition?

Tang Qi remained uneasy, crouching beneath the overturned cargo wagon as he pondered:

"Scattered goblins would naturally only be fit for extermination.

But scattered as they are, they shouldn't even be attacking this camp—

Don't look down on goblins as less than human; even kobolds know to gang up on the weak."

"Rua?"

Due to the long sentence and rapid speech, Kuru hadn't caught all the words.

But he felt like he'd been insulted somehow...

Black Snake smacked his lips, acknowledging:

"Leave it for them to worry about. That guy called Explosivewolf has some skill. I remember his mercenary company even participated in the defensive battles against the southern orcs."

"How does he compare to you?"

"What gives him the right to compare to me?"

"Truly worthy of someone who walked out of the Great Wasteland."

As Tang Qi spoke, he hurriedly picked up the backpack that had fallen to the ground when the ox cart overturned.

Black Snake hesitated: "What are you planning to do?"

"Pick your locks. If something happens, I can still have you take the front."

"You're not actually hoping a scoundrel will follow the rules, are you?"

"No. But I know that with just you alone, there's no way to leave the forest—you definitely can't see through the mist's illusions."

"You say that as if you could."

"Mm-hmm?"

"You really can?"

Tang Qi's ambiguous attitude made Black Snake uncertain.

Watching as the other man took a chisel from his backpack and applied it to the shackles binding his own legs, Black Snake smirked.

"Clang"—sparks flew.

The leg irons remained perfectly intact.

Black Snake couldn't help himself: "Stop making me laugh."

Tang Qi felt embarrassed inside but kept his expression unchanged:

"Expecting a bard to do manual labor—aren't you confused about something?"

"Then you might as well save your energy. Otherwise, by the time you laboriously break open the shackles, the goblins over there will be dealt with too. And then they'll fit me with even sturdier ones, add an escape charge on top, and you can guess how many years I'll be serving that Melade bastard?"

Tang Qi couldn't help but say:

"What if it's not just a few goblins? What if it's an entire tribe..."

Black Snake denied it quite decisively:

"How could there be an entire tribe?

With the mist here, this woodland is destined to be unsuitable as a settlement or garrison.

In Dawnmist Forest, walking corpses and ghosts are actually more common than goblins—"

Before he finished speaking, the sound of wind rose by his ear again.

Tang Qi's spine immediately went cold, and [Alertness] compelled him to shift his position to the side.

The moment he moved aside, an arrow with carved barbs shot through the wind from behind him, heading straight for Black Snake's forehead!

"Fuck off!"

This left Black Snake almost no time to react, forcing him to twist his torso violently while leaning against the cargo wagon.

"Bang!"

The arrow embedded itself in the cangue locking his hands, missing his left ear by barely an inch.

Black Snake nearly cursed out loud.

But then he realized this arrow's trajectory was completely different from the previous volley.

It clearly came from right in front of them!

"Thud, thud, thud—"

A massive shadow revealed its form from within the white mist.

Looking from afar, its gait was unsteady, but walking on the muddy ground, even the distant Black Snake could feel a powerful tremor.

"Damn your jinxed mouth! Can anything good ever come out of it?"

Arrows shot again from the distance. Tang Qi grabbed the bewildered Kuru ahead of time, throwing its small body to the other side of the wagon with one hand while using the other to vault over:

"Since when did reasonable analysis become a jinx?"

Black Snake had nowhere to go, but fortunately his form was agile enough. Using the cangue as a shield to block the arrows, he looked exactly like a porcupine.

But he knew there was no time to worry about his appearance right now—

"ROAR!!!"

A crude, furious roar reverberated through the forest.

Immediately after, two similar roars answered from the direction of the camp.

Before the mercenary company—

Two giants, each standing seven feet tall with thick necks wearing steel collars, burst through the billowing mist and charged madly toward the camp.

They smashed through everything blocking their path, including sturdy trees and goblins accidentally trampled underfoot.

The blood and flesh of their companions splattered across their thick legs, which looked like tangled tree roots.

Their corpulent bellies were covered in scars and pustules. Their long noses inhaled and exhaled the mist, and the slightly curved spiked clubs in their hands came crashing down hard before the mercenary company!

"BOOM!!!"

Beneath the thunderous impact came the agonized wail of a young mercenary who couldn't react in time.

He was a recruit who had only recently joined the mercenary company.

This meant he lacked experience.

And it became deadly poison in this moment, sealing his fate.

That club sent his helmet flying, along with his skull, which caved in and exploded in a spray of crimson.

"[Grease]!"

The situation suddenly turned critical. Starshine had no choice but to chant arcane words, forcibly warping the ground beneath another approaching troll's feet, causing the damp earth to spew forth a pool of pitch-black sludge.

That sludge was exceptionally slippery, covering ten feet in all directions.

The second troll slipped without warning, crashing to the ground with a "boom."

It tried to struggle, only to get the slippery grease smeared all over its body, making it extremely difficult even to stand up.

Explosivewolf was able to catch his breath. He quickly retreated to his mercenaries' side and roared.

"It's trolls! Everyone, form up!"

Explosivewolf didn't understand.

These ugly giants whose brains were filled with nothing but appetite shouldn't appear in Dawnmist Forest, a place where the dead outnumbered the living—

They couldn't stomach those putrid corpses.

Yet it was truly happening!

"If I'd known this trip would encounter so much damn trouble, I should've refused it from the start!"

Now he had to consider demanding additional compensation from that Lord Merle hosting a ball in his mansion when they returned to Longgold City.

And the third troll was attempting to flank from the other side of the camp.

Right before the three prisoners!

It even had two identical heads.

Without giving Black Snake a chance to curse, it stumbled forward toward him, its spiked club crashing down.

"BOOM!"

The wagon's flour sacks were smashed to smithereens, the exploding powder nearly blending with the white mist.

Tang Qi's [Alertness] gave him foresight, forcing him to grab Catherine's borrowed small lute and his own backpack and dive forward.

Events changed too rapidly—he could barely remember how many times [Alertness] had saved him.

But only now did he realize what this feat granted him wasn't just the gift of precognition.

There was also inescapable fear—

[Alertness] made his perception of danger extremely acute.

But that sensation like needles pricking all over his body, the heart palpitations—they had accompanied him until this very moment.

Making his body shake uncontrollably!

His hands trembled so much he could barely hold onto the items in his grip...

Even lying on the ground, he could hardly move!

This was completely different from the sensation in the kobold cave from before.

He understood—this was [Alertness] transmitting its signal to him.

A well-trained goblin army.

Three trolls with voracious appetites serving as 'slaves'...

These were existences that shouldn't appear in Dawnmist Forest, and the fear brought by this crisis was overwhelming.

To him, it was like the tolling of death's warning bell!

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