Mercenaries and Adventurers

The angry curses of the dwarves kept coming from the trunks of the big trees behind him. Although Kil could not understand those dull dwarf vocabulary, he could easily understand that the dwarves were not praising him just by listening to their tone. .

"Really, it's obviously you who attacked me, but each of you feels it makes sense. Wow - that's outrageous."

Kil led the blood-licking grass and ran quickly on the forest road, trying to use his height and long legs to get rid of the dwarf chasing behind him. This had some effect, and the dwarves kept cursing, but as the distance between them grew longer, their voices gradually became smaller through the obstruction of the woods.

Just when Kil breathed a sigh of relief, the road under his feet turned a U-shaped bend according to the sparse distribution of trees. Originally, the distance between him and the dwarves was increasing, but as he walked, the distance between him and the dwarves became smaller. The straight line distance gets closer.

Through the distance where the road cannot be built but can be seen with the naked eye, Kil and the three dwarves chasing him stared at each other with big eyes.

"￥￥%%~!"

The dwarves let out a cry of surprise, pulled out the heavy throwing guns they carried, and threw them through a row of relatively dense trees.

Kil was startled, but the accuracy of these dwarves was not good. All three spears plopped into the trunk of the tree and penetrated deeply. He quickly moved to avoid becoming an easy target.

The dwarves cursed in unison in annoyance, realizing that they could not hit the human knights if there were trees in the way, so they did not take the road in the forest, directly crossed the row of big trees, and took a shortcut to pursue Kil.

This suddenly brought the distance between Kil and the dwarves closer.

"What the hell!"

The road in the forest ahead is still one bend after another. Before, Kiln didn't think it was too troublesome. After all, it only allowed him to walk a few more steps. But now that there were pursuers behind him, Kiln felt that there were dwarves under his feet. The roads built have a lot of curves.

"They must have done it on purpose! I can guarantee they did it on purpose!"

Kil muttered, realizing that this was not going to work. As long as he made another big turn, the dwarves would definitely catch up with him.

Since you will be caught early or late, it is better to take this unfavorable situation into your own hands.

Thinking of this, Kil slapped Blood Licker's neck hard and whispered: "Wait for me behind the big tree in front, and be careful of their spears!"

After saying that, he turned around and stood still, holding a spear in both hands, facing the three dwarves who were chasing him.

The war horse neighed, then ran forward behind the tree, secretly stretched out a huge horse head, and peeked at the battle between the owner and the enemy.

"Come, dwarves, fight me!"

Kil shouted, and the three dwarves on the opposite side were also unambiguous, and fired a volley of heavy-throwing spears.

Woo—

The sound of three spears piercing the air connected together, tearing the air between the two sides, and flew straight towards Kiel's current direction.

Kil stood up straight, and his legs moved to the right the moment the dwarves took action. His eyes were fixed on the three thrown spears, and he used intuition and experience to see the approximate flight path and landing point of the three thrown spears. .

Then he waved his hands, and the steel spear tip broke through the air, swinging with huge force, intercepting and knocking away a heavy-throw gun with the most dangerous flight path.

Clang—

The sound of metal colliding exploded in the air, and tiny fragments of sparks and metal also exploded and scattered in the air.

As his body sank, Kil's feet were knocked back several centimeters by the force of the impact on the solid surface of the ground, but his entire body remained stable in a fighting posture.

The other two missiles missed the target, passing through the position where Keir had just stood. After landing, they hit the ground with a large number of sparks that flipped and bounced to no one knows where.

The three dwarves took a breath of cold air. Unexpectedly, none of their powerful spears could hit this human enemy. The leading dwarf touched the last heavy-throwing spear on his body, hesitated for a moment, and then asked his companions behind him: "Where are the others? Didn’t you follow?”

One of the companions turned to look back, while the other sighed: "It's just the three of us, what? Are you scared? We have a long tail."

"Bah, watch me chop off this human's feet with an ax and avenge the Iron Fist!"

"Hey, hey, 'Iron Fist' is probably not dead, right? Revenge or something."

Having said that, the three dwarves automatically formed a cleaning team to clean up the creatures in the underground caves during mining. They formed an inverted triangle fighting team, two in front and one behind, and walked towards Kiel with cautious steps.

Kil took a deep breath. He saw the two dwarves in the front row walking slowly with a distance of one and a half meters apart, holding a shield in one hand. The dangerous metal one-handed ax was held in his right hand, hiding behind the shield.

The shield was big and wide, and the weight was unknown, but its defensive power was something that Kil had already seen with the same type of defense just now. It was actually able to block a spear from him on horseback head-on. Although it could only block one shot before being scrapped, it was outrageous enough.

Due to their height, most of the two dwarves' bodies were hidden behind the round shields, with only half of their heads wearing metal helmets exposed. The only places that could be hit were a pair of small eyes exposed on the upper edge of the shields. .

It's quite difficult.

He somewhat understood the tricky feeling of fighting against his previous enemy, Kiel.

Don't all these dwarves have metal armor? If there is no good way, it will not be easy for him to deal with any of them.

But his intuition told Kil that compared to the two shield-holding dwarves in the front row, the dwarf walking behind them was the real danger. After all, he is also protected by metal armor, and it is not easy to hurt him just by wielding a one-handed weapon.

The dwarf walking behind had a heavy-throwing gun handed to him by his companion in each hand, and there was another one in the leather bag behind him. This was the real dangerous guy. Being hit by a heavy spear within this weight and distance, Kil estimated that he would most likely be penetrated directly. As long as it hit the torso, his life would be immediately lost.

So, what to do?

-

There was no time for Kil to come up with a solution, and the two dwarves in the front row quickly approached.

When they were some distance away, the two dwarves were more cautious. And when the distance between the two parties was only a few meters, they suddenly accelerated, using the dwarf's short legs, rushing towards them at high speed.

"%%!"

Shouting in a dwarf language that Kil couldn't understand, the two dwarves cooperated, one holding a shield and the other holding a sharp ax in his right hand and striking straight at Kil's knees.

"Oh, don't even think about it!"

Kil whispered, then pointed his spear at the neck of the attacking dwarf.

Although the dwarf's armor is thick, the neck position is movable after all, so the defense is much weaker than other parts, and large and thick metal armor cannot be installed. There is no additional protruding neck guard on the upper edge of the breastplate.

But Kil's movements were not slow, and the dwarf holding the shield next to him also reacted quickly. He turned his steps and stood in front of his companion.

The somewhat damaged spear point poked a bulge on the dwarf's shield, and amidst the unpleasant sound of metal deformation, fragments of the crystal scattered.

Only then did Kil realize that the dwarves, like chrysanthemums, placed some hard crystal minerals on the surface of their shields.

Although this thing is dusty and inconspicuous, its hardness is indeed outstanding.

The spear was intercepted by the shield, and the dwarf holding the ax immediately found the right moment to rush forward. Before the ax hit Kil, Kil could hear the excited laughter coming from under the opponent's helmet.

"laugh?"

With a move of his hands, Kil directly blocked the dwarf's ax with the barrel of his spear. You know, the barrel of Kil's spear is made of all metal. It has always been regarded as a burden and useless. Most of the time, it can only be used as a fitness equipment. This double-edged metal spear finally came in handy.

The dwarf's ax only made a dent in the gun shaft, and even a small piece of the ax blade in the dwarf's hand flew off.

This made the dwarf's smile immediately change its tone.

"That's why I laugh!"

After saying these words, Keir kicked out with a low kick.

There's nothing I can do about it, the dwarf's height is really a bit too short.

boom! He kicked the dwarf firmly on the upper part of his chest.

Kil's feet were numb from the shock, as if he had been kicked on a solid iron block. The dwarf didn't fare well either. He flew backwards one meter and lay on his back on the soft leafy ground in the forest.

Not even a single word of humming could come out of his mouth, but his vision went dark and his chest felt tight, as if he had been hit by a supporting wooden pillar in a mine, and he could only make a small hissing sound from his mouth.

I don’t know whether I’m exhaling or inhaling.

But before Keir could be proud, a dangerous heavy-throwing gun attacked him insidiously.

Just a little, just a little!

The projectile just grazed Kil's left shoulder and bounced off, bringing up a cluster of sparks that roared towards the woods behind him.

Covered in cold sweat, Kil put away his contempt and quickly took a few steps back to adjust his position with the dwarf using the throwing gun.

The dwarf, who happened to be holding a shield and mainly responsible for defense, became his tool. Kil adjusted his steps so that the shield dwarf stood between him and the spear-throwing dwarf. If the opponent moved to the left, he would move to the right. If the opponent moved to the right, he would move to the left.

This made the dwarf holding the throwing spear curse loudly.

Kil didn't understand and didn't know what the dwarf was cursing. On the contrary, the shield-wielding dwarf whom he used as a shield couldn't stand it and turned around to curse his companions behind him.

Right now, Kil really didn't expect that there would be such a good opportunity in the battle. He instinctively seized this opportunity to counterattack, and unexpectedly thrust the spear in his hand into the ground, using it as a pole for pole vaulting. He directly used his legs to jump up, and when he was in the air, he used his arms to jump over the head of the shield-holding dwarf.

The dwarf holding the shield felt his head go dark, and then he saw the human knight behind him.

"￥￥#!"

He screamed, but it was too late. In mid-air, Kil released his spear and drew his sword to slash the dwarf at the rear.

The dwarf was so surprised that he forgot to fight. Looking at the human being slashed at him with his sword from mid-air, he wanted to pull out the shield he was carrying behind him, but it was too late. So he could only hold the heavy-throwing gun in his hand horizontally in front of him, hoping to block the blow.

Clang—pop!

The long sword made of demonized material did not disappoint Kil. He slashed open the heavy-throwing gun held by the dwarf as a defense in his hand.

But it doesn’t stop there.

After cutting off the weapon in the opponent's hand, Kil's long sword continued to chop down, from the front of the opponent's helmet, the front of the breastplate, to the armor on the abdomen and the short skirt. It exploded with sparks all the way, cutting and shattering the opponent's armor. The armor pieces and metal connectors were attached, and centimeter-level cuts were made on the thick metal armor pieces.

The sword finally struck the ground, and the soft, rotten leaves absorbed the final force, and the hot friction on the blade caused a smell of green smoke to emit.

"call!"

Kil exhaled the breath in his chest and looked up at the dwarf in front of him.

Unexpectedly, the dwarf took two steps back, sat down on the ground, and looked at each other at close range. Kil saw the dwarf's eyes from the letter on the opponent's helmet.

Those were a pair of horrified eyes. Until now, the dwarf had not been able to recover from the near-certain murderous intent. His eyes were wide open, his breathing was rapid, and his mouth was trembling and he couldn't say a word.

Kil felt a little pity. These dwarves were really like tin cans. If they were human bandits, the sword just now could have cut the bandits and their weapons in half.

Just as he was about to take two steps forward and raise his sword to stab the opponent through the gap in the dwarf's armor, he heard the sound of fully charged footsteps approaching quickly behind him.

Kil didn't turn around to look, it was too late to be at such a close distance. He jumped out sideways, rolled briefly on the ground for half a circle, and then half-crouched on the ground to look over.

It turned out that the dwarf he had just jumped over with his pole hit him with his shield.

He missed Kil, and the opponent didn't slow down and rushed directly to his companion who was still stunned and had not recovered. Probably because he knew that he alone was no match for the human knight Kil, after thinking for a moment, the dwarf actually shouted loudly.

"@@#!@@#!￥￥@@#!"

Kil was stunned, wondering what this guy was shouting?

Soon the shouts and responses of other dwarves sounded from one direction in the forest, and they began to approach here.

"Damn it! What a scumbag. I thought I could be eaten by three people, so I didn't call for help. Now that I think I can't fight, I started calling for support, right?"

Kil was so angry that his nose was crooked with anger. He deliberately killed these dwarves, but these dwarves were all like tin cans. They did not have heavy two-handed weapons or armor-piercing weapons, and it was quite difficult to fight.

Every second of delay here, the other dwarves coming for support will get closer.

After thinking about it, Kil gestured to the dwarf in front of him, pulled his throat a few times with his hands, cursed an asshole, and then turned around and ran away.

The dwarf holding the shield was obviously frightened. When faced with Kil's curse, he didn't curse back in human language. He just called for the supporting dwarf to come over.

Pulling out the metal spear stuck in the ground, Kil ran towards the forest road, whistling in his mouth, calling for the blood-licking grass, pulling the reins and running quickly on the twisted forest road. .

-

I don't know what happened, but the dwarves didn't continue to chase.

Kil couldn't guess what they were thinking, and could only use malicious thoughts to speculate whether the dwarves wanted to gather strength elsewhere?

Block him outside the forest? Or is there something dangerous in the valley outside the forest? or…

Kil narrowed his eyes and braced himself.

Now that he had left the dwarves who were hindering him behind, Kil completely started running on the road, and the armor all over his body made an exaggerated collision sound, while the blood-licking grass moved its legs and feet easily and happily, following its master lightly. behind.

And wondered why the owner was running on the ground instead of riding it and moving quickly as usual.

Could it be that the master finally realized that he was very heavy? He knew that it was very hard for him to carry him on his back. The war horse thought so and shook his head happily.

The big trees in the forest began to become sparse, and it was already noon. The sunlight above passed through the obstruction of the big trees, casting slightly slanted beams of light into the woods.

And Kil also passed two bridges on the forest road built by the dwarves. The river under the bridge began to have some unpleasant bitter taste. Even the big trees close to the black and gray river were more dense than other big trees in the forest. Thin and lower, growth is sluggish.

Light gradually came out from the place where the sight was blocked by the trunks of the big trees. Without anyone's explanation, Keir guessed that this dangerous forest was about to be broken through by him.

"Quick! Haha, quick!"

Kil shouted happily.

"Let me see what's in the valley protected by the dwarves!"

The light is getting closer and brighter.

The forest, which was silent without the chirping of birds or insects, seemed to be becoming noisy. These natural sounds were like a pair of hands waving towards Keir, constantly beckoning him to come over.

But after less than one day and one night of experience, Keir already missed the noisy sounds of nature.

Ah, even if it was the chirping insects under the grass blades, the buzzing buzzing on the wild flowers, the noisy quarreling of birds, or the roar of beasts demonstrating in the distant mountains, he was eager to hear it, eager to have these things fill his ears.

He was almost driven crazy by this dangerous forest.

It was okay after the battle with the dwarf. After knowing where the danger came from, he even relaxed a lot. What frightened him the most was the suffocating silence after he stepped into the forest that was filled with thick white mist at midnight last night.

It was a strange environment with no extra sound except for him and his horse.

He even wished that the big trees in this forest could talk to him.

Well, this may not work. The last time he encountered a moving tree, it really left a memory that Kiel was reluctant to recall.

"Hurry, hurry!"

"Ha, my friend, follow me quickly! There may be fresh grass you like in the valley!"

Amidst the clanging sounds of armors, Kil led the horse and trotted out of the forest.

-

What appeared in front of Keir's eyes was an open, vast valley among the mountains.

The forest seemed to have been cut by an invisible blade, and stopped spreading just under Kil's feet. Behind him is a tall, deep and silent forest, and in front of him is a large open wilderness grassland.

No, it cannot be called a wilderness. There are clusters of wild flowers and lush green grass everywhere. Not far to the left, on the ground backed by a high mountain, there is a small mound of rock like a tomb. On the far right side, there is a small pond. A small river flows out of one end of the pond, and spreads in a winding way on the grassland, and flows into the forest.

Further away, there are neat patches of farmland, and people seem to be working on the farmland. Behind the farmland is a village with scattered buildings. Keir noticed that there seemed to be two different types of houses in the village.

Farther away at the other end of the village, a wall made of wood and stone suddenly stood up, completely blocking another forest connected to the other end of the valley.