In the northeast of Groney, there is a world-famous fortress for mankind: White Fort.

This castle forms the northernmost defense line of mankind, or in other words, the northernmost frontier of the civilized world. To the north, it is the chaotic force, which is usually called the range of activities of the barbarians.

From the map, the adjacent area of ​​the civilized world and the territories of the Chaos Force is a narrow plain. One side of the plain is a steep mountainous area and the other side is a barren desert. A river flows through here, opening up such a land suitable for cultivation and grazing. The White Fort is located right in the center of the plain.

Everyone knows that the White Fort has guarded the important road and protected the civilized country from the invasion of the chaotic forces. Over the past hundred years, this castle has proved its value to all mankind.

However, just as cannons cannot hit mosquitoes, White Fort can block the invasion of the huge Chaos Legion, but for a single pedestrian - even for a small group of troops - the entire northeastern border of Groone is an open road. Even if White Fort sends all its patrols, it cannot completely block the border. This is also why although White Fort is a key fortress to fight chaos, Garunas had to arrange three full lines of defense back then.

Not to mention that the White Fort has just recovered, its strength has not returned to its normal level. However, this is not a problem for the time being, because the Chaos Force has also suffered huge losses, and it will take many years to gather their strength to invade again.

From the White Fort east, there is a vast desert. If any human being could move along the desert, he could even walk all the way to the former vampire kingdom, Kalean, which has now been razed to the ground.

The junction of deserts and plains, or deserts, can allow people below a thousand people to pass through, but if there are many, the limited water sources along the way will not be able to meet human needs.

When the Blood Tooth Lord retreated, he probably walked through this path. In this way, he seemed to have taken a long way on the surface, but in fact he was able to successfully avoid the last hard battle.

While looking at the map, Ash Rufate played with the Chaos Helmet he picked up on the road, reasoning about what had happened before.

He was about to leave the desert. Along the way, he found about twenty corpses one after another. These people did not die for a long time, and several of them were wearing Chaos armor, with signs of terror on their armor. It can be seen that the cause of these people's death was due to the attack of old injuries. Even Chaos warriors, if the injury is not treated in time, the wound will become inflamed and infected, and they will die.

Inferred from time, he was already a long distance behind the Blood Tooth Lord's small army. These corpses at least pointed out the direction for Ash Rufate's search journey, indicating that he did not go the wrong way.

Ashu Rufate is now camping alone in the desert. Although he himself does not actually need rest—he does not need to eat or drink—but his mount needs to. This is why he must follow the route of the Lord of Blood Tooth, because there is enough water on this road to satisfy his horse.

In fact, Ashu Rufate could throw away his mount, leave behind travel equipment that is essential to ordinary people and worthless to him, and move forward empty-handed. This would make him move faster. But this approach is undoubtedly unwise - for his purpose, he must mix in the Chaos Tribe to inquire about information, so at least, he has to disguise himself as an ordinary human.

Judging from known information, the Chaos forces may be enemies of civilized countries, and they may worship evil gods, but they are not objects that cannot be communicated like green skins. On the battlefield, when the situation is completely desperate, the Chaos Warriors will also put down their weapons and surrender. Similarly, with a few exceptions (almost all of these exceptions are terror-harm warriors), the Chaos Legion will also accept the surrender of the enemy.

Their words, customs, habits, etc. are very different from those of human civilization, but no matter how big they are, they will not exceed the difference between humans and elves. In a non-war state, the Chaos Tribe is not an undetectable den. At least, some spies received their reception.

But no matter whether the Chaos Tribe is hospitable or not, they will definitely doubt it since they came from the south. But if they saw a very ordinary traveler, they might have changed their attitude.

It was already dark, and a bonfire was generated in the wilderness.

This wasn't done by Ashu Rufate on purpose. It was just a habit. He had a feeling that he had traveled alone for a long time, so he was very accustomed to and skilled in doing this kind of thing.

The bonfire in the wilderness may only be able to illuminate the surrounding ten steps, but it is enough for people around to see the existence of the bonfire.

...

A figure was moving quietly in the wilderness.

In the darkness, nothing is more eye-catching than the fire.

This is an area bordering deserts and grasslands, with almost no dangerous predatory beasts. There is only one kind of creature that can really pose a threat to humans: venomous snakes. But the temperature is still very low now, and even venomous snakes have not woken up from hibernation. Unless you accidentally step on them, you don’t have to worry about their fangs.

The moonlight briefly revealed half of his face in the clouds. On the ground, a stalker was standing on tiptoe. He was a man wearing leather armor, not tall and his leather armor was quite strange. Although it was leather armor, it seemed to be made according to the standards of armor.

Leather armor is cheap on the one hand and has a small impact on the flexibility of the body on the other hand, so it basically has a comprehensive protection position. Metal armor is a little worse in this regard. In order to facilitate joint movement and to reduce weight, the armor also abandons some parts while protecting important parts (these parts are protected by inner-lined chain mail).

However, the protection range of this set of leather armor is like armor. Many joint positions are not protected. And if you can observe carefully, you will find that the thickness of leather armor is also very low. If there is a well-informed person, he may see that this leather armor is not the equipment of soldiers, but the common protection of hunters. What it wants to fight against is not the metal swords, axes, hammers, but the minions of animals.

Of course, after all, it is just a piece of equipment for precautions. If a hunter fights with a beast, he will either be extremely lucky or have a poor level at all. Hunters who are good at hawk hunting, dog hunting or use traps do not wear such things at all.

It seems that in order to prove this identity, the shadow's waist can clearly see the short sword reflecting the moonlight. Neither the short sword nor the short sword are weapons to adapt to fierce battles. They can only be regarded as small weapons for self-defense or tools in daily life. Except for a very small number of assassins, they are indeed not the choice of warriors. However, for hunters, this is an indispensable weapon and tool in hunting.

Shadow was holding a crossbow. The crossbow had been stringed and a crossbow had been placed on the groove. As long as the trigger was pulled, the arrow would be fired out.

This is a medium-sized crossbow made of metal and wood. It is a military crossbow. It is a weapon on the battlefield. It is very powerful and can easily shoot through even the toughest animal skin. If it is shot into the vital points of this weapon, even a giant bear or a strong creature like a bison can be knocked down by one blow. Compared with fire/gun, the advantage of this weapon is that it does not make a sound, and the disadvantage is that it carries limited arrows. Compared with bows and arrows, this weapon does not require strict training, and because it is suitable for aiming, it is much higher in accuracy than bows and arrows. The disadvantage is that the shooting speed is relatively slow.

In addition to hunters, this is also the favorite equipment of wilderness bandits.

Caravans that travel through turbulent areas are usually equipped with relatively powerful guards. Therefore, bandits especially like to use crossbows to launch night attacks. They use this weapon to kill sentries silently and then launch raids, which can usually eliminate more powerful caravans while paying a small price. Of course, this thing is even better for dealing with lonely travelers. Even if they are invincible swordsmen, they will immediately become lambs that can be slaughtered when they are hit by the critical point.

But this one is obviously not a hunter. Because this one is clearly heading towards the bonfire, she holds the crossbow in her hand. The tiptoe clearly shows that this one is not planning to have a friendly and polite meeting with the traveler who raised the bonfire.

Before the moonlight fainted into the clouds, the last bit of light illuminated the shadow's face. It was a young, female face.

The distance between her and the bonfire was getting closer and closer, and she was getting more and more careful in her movements, doing her best not to make any sound. Although the effective range of this crossbow is 100 steps, in order to improve the accuracy, the closer the distance between the two sides, the better.

Now, she has discovered two things. The first is that the traveler who lights the bonfire is only alone, and the second is that there is a horse next to the bonfire. This makes her heart full of joy. There is no doubt that for her, this traveler is a fat sheep. Even if he has nothing on him (of course, this is impossible), this horse alone is enough.

As long as she has this horse, she can go back proudly. No one can accuse her of gaining too little.

The traveler was still sitting by the campfire. Maybe he was eating something? Or just staring there in a daze. What should I do if I do this? Go aim at his back and shoot it? Or wait until he falls asleep before taking action?

She picked up the crossbow and aimed at the other party's back. Damn, why are you wearing such a heavy cloak? Even if you are covered by this cloak, you can't accurately judge the other party's body position. His sitting posture is crooked or slanted...

Her fingers slowly tightened the trigger. No, she couldn't be impatient. She had seen the short spear and sword resting on the bonfire. If she failed to hit this blow, things might develop in the worst direction. The other party had a horse, and she couldn't escape.

With the short sword on her body, she didn't expect to fight against the other party's long sword or spear. Travelers who can move forward alone in this wilderness are undoubtedly strong men who have learned fighting skills.

Of course, if he was not a man - because he couldn't tell the difference between men and women when he looked at his back - it would probably be even more dangerous.

Wait a little longer... she thought. Then she saw the figure in front of the bonfire and stood up.

The girl excitedly picked up the crossbow. After standing upright, there was no problem with her prey. Although she was separated by the cloak, the human body must be in the middle of the cloak. She would not shoot in a crooked manner with fifty steps away from each other, she...

Then she heard a low and terrifying voice, "Who is there?"
Chapter completed!