The successive annihilation of two groups of fishmen warriors meant that the ‘backbone’ of this small Evilfin fishmen tribe had been broken.
After a brief rest, Captain Weilun started directing the final battle.
However, this time, no matter how Matteo lured them, the remaining Evilfin fishmen would not leave their camp to pursue him; instead, they seemed to harbor a faint fear of Matteo, who was alone.
“What should we do?”
“Just charge in! The remaining fishmen seem to be all weak and sick.”
“We can’t just charge in; we need to move in from the riverbank and encircle the fishmen camp!”
“Alright! Then let’s move quickly and drive them into the forest from the shallows.”
“Yes, and then kill them one by one.”
“…”
Rein’s recent battle had completely buoyed the morale of the Night Watchmen.
Everybody was chipping in with suggestions, and in the midst of their many voices, the rough plan was completed, with Captain Weilun barely getting a word in.
However, Weilun didn’t mind at all but instead nodded with a smile again and again.
It had been a long time since he had seen his squad this spirited.
As the captain, Weilun found it hard to believe that all this was triggered by a young man whose lips were still downy with youth!
To have such strength at such a young age was no small feat!
After the plan was set, the elite members of the Night’s Watch quickly began to act under Weilun’s command.
Rein took the lead, his Dual-Handed Greatsword swinging with a continual whooshing sound, as they rapidly advanced along the riverbank, cutting straight through.
It was like a sharp knife slicing along the riverbank, separating the fishmen camp from the stream.
And right behind Rein were ten Night Watchmen wielding bows and arrows.
They followed behind Rein, continuously drawing bows and shooting arrows, driving the fishmen deep into the forest.
Most of the fishmen remaining in the camp were old, weak, or sick. From the moment Rein and the others appeared, the whole camp fell into chaos. Few had the courage to resist and most were frantically running without choosing their paths.
Any slight hesitation could result in the fishmen’s death under the sharp arrows of the Night Watchmen.
Thus, this fight encountered hardly any resistance and was akin to a swift breeze sweeping away the leaves, utterly defeating the remaining fishmen.
After the panic, the fishmen that fled into the forest realized that it was a dead end as well.
Not to mention anything else, just the fierce beasts lurking in the Nightingale Forest would consider them as food and devour them completely.
So, these scattered fishmen could only choose to run back toward the stream from the forest, where they were once again faced with a barrage of arrows.
The elite Night Watchmen killed these returning fishmen one by one.
In the end, the fishmen who truly managed to escape into the river were few and far between.
By this point, the small Evilfin fishmen tribe was completely doomed.
Even if a handful of fishmen managed to flee, they were no longer a concern. Without a tribe and settlement to rely on, the remaining isolated fishmen were likely to become prey to other beasts soon.
In the dense and overgrown Nightingale Forest, the roles of hunter and prey could switch far faster than one might imagine!
[Your skill, Giant Bear Sword Technique, has improved; Experience +49]
[You have gone through a battle; Night Watchmen Professional Experience Points +15]
Since the intensity of this battle was very low, almost like sweeping away fallen leaves with an autumn breeze, the Experience Rein gained was also much less.
Of course, this was all expected.
While Rein was checking the system messages, the Night Watchmen were not resting, but were quickly starting to loot the battlefield for spoils, heads bowed.
Although the weapons of these Fishmen were crudely made, sometimes one could find quite a few good items among them.
Once, someone had killed a Fishman and discovered that it was actually carrying a piece of Mithril ore the size of a fist; that person made a fortune on the spot.
So, after the Fishmen had been completely eliminated, the Night Watchmen began to search for battle loot.
“Rein, don’t just stand there, come help!” Captain Weilun called out to Rein with a smile and a wave.
Truth be told, it wasn’t that Rein looked down on the Fishmen’s poor weapons and equipment.
Rather, Rein believed that, as this was his first time participating in a Night Watchman squad’s battle, it was more beneficial for him to show restraint concerning the loot to integrate better into the team’s collective.
Seeing Rein’s expression, Weilun immediately guessed something and laughed heartily, “Haha, Rein, do you think the battle loot each person picks up belongs solely to themselves?”
“That would be total chaos!”
Rein’s brow furrowed, could there be some etiquette involved?
“Uh, Captain Weilun, isn’t it that way?”
“Of course not, the distribution of battle loot is carried out according to regulations. Otherwise, those who get injured and can’t pick up any loot would be at a huge loss,” Weilun explained.
“Fairly distributing battle loot is a tradition of the Night Watchmen, which, after long practice, has gradually been improved upon and formed into specific rules,” Weilun briefly explained to Rein the loot distribution rules of the Night Watchmen.
“….”
Rein nodded continuously as he listened. He hadn’t expected that there were actually intricacies involved just in the distribution of battle loot.
For instance, in the loot distribution rules of the Night Watchmen, thirty percent was handed over to the Empire, and the remaining seventy percent was allocated to individuals.
Within this remaining seventy percent, there were detailed rules regarding rewards for those who performed exceptionally in battle, the proportion of loot distribution based on different combat roles, the pricing of enemy weapons and equipment after the battle, and even how much compensation one should receive for having an arm severed on the battlefield.
However, no matter how one calculated it, Rein had been incredibly instrumental in this battle and could almost directly claim half of the total amount of the seventy percent of the battle loot.
After much searching, nearly half of the loot found by everyone turned out to be his!
This suddenly made Rein, who had come to the realization, feel a bit embarrassed, so he quickened his pace and began searching the Fishman camp.
The corpses in the valley had been thoroughly searched earlier, and now it was mainly the Fishman camp area.
Rein stepped into one of the stilt houses and found it contained only numerous clay pots and dried fish, the entire house reeking of a strong fishy smell.
This made him involuntarily furrow his eyebrows.
Perhaps this fishy smell was a rare delicacy for the Fishmen, but for humans, it was somewhat unbearable.
Rein casually rummaged around and could say he found nothing of value.
So, he quickly left and moved on to the next stilt house.
“Huh! This stilt house seems quite a bit larger.”
Rein noticed the difference as soon as he entered; since the stilt houses all had a conical appearance, the larger size wasn’t easy to distinguish from the outside.
But one could tell the difference once inside.
This stilt house had a lot more furnishings, and in one corner, there was even a worn wooden box.
Rein’s eyes lit up immediately, and he used his greatsword to pry open the box, revealing a glint of shine within. There were a small amount of gold and silver coins, a piece of green agate, three or four pieces of magnetite, and a nugget of gold?
Rein picked up the supposed gold nugget with delight, but as soon as he held it, he felt that the weight was off—it was clearly too light!
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be just a high-quality piece of brass ore.
Rein was greatly disappointed at this discovery.
Since the wooden box was beginning to rot and was too heavy to carry conveniently, Rein took the coins one by one and placed them in his pocket and packed the green agate and others into a large cloth bag.
“Huh! What’s this?”
Suddenly, Rein discovered that in the half-empty wooden box, beneath several larger pieces of magnetite, there was a fist-sized, slightly luminescent mysterious ore.