Katie walked briskly at the front of their impromptu squad. As a durable fighter with a longsword, it fell to her to be one of the frontliners, alongside a few other guys and girls from other teams. All of them were adventurers of the Silver rank who had had enough of that life. It was way too uncertain and the guild took way too much of their income.
If an adventurer wasn’t high-ranked they had to live in poverty. What’s funny is that not only did high-rankers get paid hundreds of times more than lower-rankers did, but the guild even taxed them less than half as much, worried that they would quit being adventurers if the guild dared rob them.
Her team, the Battle Sisters, joined hands with three other silver-ranked teams because one of them had a wolf-kin amongst their ranks who could guide them through the forest to the indicated Trial location. The tensions between the teams were high because the men asked for 25 silver coins for this service of theirs, an incredibly high amount for people of their means.
“How far are they, wolf-boy?” Alicia, Katie’s leader spoke up with an annoyed tone.
“We’re closing in on them.” Wolfie, the men named their slave scout as such, replied curtly.
“And you said they have a male that has a strong scent, right?”
“Yes. I’ve never smelled anything like him. He might be a warlock who is bound to a strange higher existence. Or a Druid who mated with some rare creature. I still think we should stop pursuing them.”
“No one asked for your opinion, mutt.” His owner shut him up with a growl.
Katie grimaced, not at all having a good feeling about this. However, the leaders were in agreement that they should surprise attack them. After all, now that they’ve abandoned the ‘right path’, they might as well begin killing and looting, or so they reasoned.
“Grrgh” A terrifying gurgling sound erupted from behind Katie all of a sudden, and as she spun around her steel heels, her eyes widened in horror. Alicia’s throat was ripped out by a feminine assassin who wore a skintight black attire, accentuating her generous curves.
Katie’s heart contorted painfully as the horrifying gurgle of Alicia’s last breath reached her ears. It happened too fast- far too fast. Her leader, the head of the Battle Sisters, was now falling over lifelessly to the ground in order to lie in her own pool of blood. The shock was overwhelming for the entire group as for a moment no one moved. How had they been outmaneuvered?
They were supposed to be hunting their prey, not the other way around! All of Katie’s lingering fears turned out to be right. Read more content on freewebnovel
“Wolfie!” one of the men from the other team bellowed with clear fury in his accusatory tone. “What the hell is going on? You said they were ahead!”
Wolfie, the wolf-kin scout stood frozen with eyes that were wide open due to shock. “I-I don’t know… They were ahead, I swear! I don’t understand-”
“You don’t understand?!” Ralke, Wolfie’s owner, snarled as he grabbed the wolf-kin by the collar and shook him violently. “Your nose is supposed to be infallible, and yet here we are, getting slaughtered!”
“I told you we shouldn’t pursue them…” Wolfie whimpered, but his voice was drowned out by the sounds of battle erupting all around them.
“Stop arguing you imbeciles! We’re under attack!” Katie yelled, then rushed towards the backline. Not only was the assassin with a lush dog-tail already moving onto her next target, but multiple enemies appeared out of thin air from behind them!
Katie’s stomach lurched. They’d been flanked- ambushed. Her mind struggled to process how the enemy had circled behind them so quickly and quietly, but then she saw it. In the distance, a swirling, ominous oval-shaped ‘something’ stood, and the attackers were directly rushing at them from that.
‘Just what the hell is that thing…?! A door?!’ Katie cried inwardly but had no time to debate any longer.
Chaos exploded in their ranks as a figure clad in black armor stormed into the backline with a monstrous axe cleaving through her comrades with merciless brutality. The sheer force of each swing sent blood spraying through the air as body parts were severed effortlessly with each cruel strike of hers.
The black-armored woman was a ruthless brute. Only her eyes were visible through her thin visor, but even from that Katie could tell that she was a wild menace who happily killed her physically weak allies. She moved relatively slowly but with great strength, hacking through anyone who dared to face her. Katie knew that she would be able to defeat this enemy in a duel, but her backliners couldn’t.
She had never seen anyone low-leveled fight like that, with such raw, violent hunger.
Beside her, a woman in crimson armor- it wasn’t hard to tell that it was a Fujimori exported armor and katana she was wielding- darted between the fray with her blade flashing as she cut down foe after foe with terrifying precision. Every movement was fluid, graceful, and fatal.
Unlike the axe-wielder, this one was a true professional, only using the bare minimum effort required to kill, with the smallest of movements so as to not leave herself open to any attacks. Against this one, Katie knew that she stood no chance in a duel. In fact, she would be utterly humiliated and defeated in mere seconds.
The backline was in shambles, their mages and archers falling one by one under the relentless assault.
Katie’s grip tightened on her longsword as her breath came in ragged gasps. “Everyone, follow me! Together we can-” but her words were cut off by another scream from behind.
A shadow flickered past her, and Katie’s blood ran cold. The assassin was already on her next target, moving with a speed and silence that sent a shiver down her spine. The dark figure slipped in and out of sight, assaulting Ralke, one of the other teams’ leader this time. He was a strong warrior, so he wasn’t as easy of a kill as Alicia, but her strange gauntleted claws cared not.
“[Piercing Strike] [Backstab]” The assassin intoned as she descended on the warrior who was still busy beating Wolfie up, aiming for his back. “Arggh!!!” a blood-curdling scream echoed over the forest as his armor, clothes, skin, and muscles were torn to shreds mercilessly.
Katie’s eyes darted around wildly, trying to make sense of the chaos. The enemy- whoever they were- was too fast, too coordinated. This wasn’t a battle; it was an execution. The ambush had shattered their formation, and now the backline was defenseless, overwhelmed by the relentless assault. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
“We have to regroup! There’s only a handful of them! Melee fighters with me! Ranged ones, get behind us!” Katie bellowed, eliciting a positive response as the remaining combatants did their best to follow the only voice of reason from their side.
‘Only’ 7 of them fell thus far while 3 more were busy fighting the other assailants, making Katie’s regrouping effort result in 14 combatants standing by her side.
Katie’s heart pounded in her chest as the ragged remnants of their squad huddled around her, forming a tight formation.