Chapter 68 – Ambushed (End)
The final end of the battle was the annihilation of all the bugbears by the two squadrons.
Only, not the slightest iota of a smile belonging to victors was shown upon everyone’s face.
The atmosphere within the chamber was even of an unprecedented crisis. Even when people conversed, it was done softly, seemingly afraid of startling the already passed souls. Six dead corpses. Six mutilated corpses. Symbolically laid out. Placed in the centre of the room. Placed in front of everyone.
Because of the lack of a big enough cover, at this time, what covered the six bodies were only a few clean pieces of clothings. Even though the clothes couldn’t completely cover up the six bodies, it at least covered each of the blood soaked faces; eyes full of grievances1.
As Adventurers, death was forever something that accompanied them. And the Death God was even resembling their reflections in general; inseparable from them.
Maybe they would even say that death was not at all scary. But an insignificant joke of a death was what troubled their hearts the most2. Their constant battling, constant fighting, constant completing of each mission, was on one hand for the money, and the other hand, wasn’t it to have the taste of increasing their own capabilities. Was it also not for the sake of having a day, where themselves could become a great Adventurer, allowing their own parents, allowing their own family, all to have glory in themselves.
As for the present, there were six people dead. They had died from the sudden surprise raiding of the bugbears. There were even some that were amidst of dreams, there were even those that didn’t know who had murdered themselves. There were even those that had eyes wide open, watching their own bones break and muscles twisted helplessly by the wooden club striking themselves. Because they still didn’t have enough time to to muster a response, the beckoning of the Death God had already descended upon their bodies.
Blood. Constantly flowing on the ground. Because the death of the 6 people was quite miserable, thus, for the sake of letting each Warrior leave the mortal world with as intact of a human body, Rumont couldn’t avoid but use thread and needles to connect their smashed limbs back together.
Only, even if this was done, the clothes that covered their bodies, still had blood constantly seeping out. All those that laid on the ground still had blood flowing.
Fresh red blood. Flowing by in front of everyone. Afterwards, it slowly dried up. Blood reeked the air, constantly spreading from within the chamber room. It was pungent, yet under the current restrained atmosphere, who would be bother with it.
Everybody all seemed to have a giant boulder constantly weighing upon their hearts, hindering its beating. This kind of suppressing feeling made them even have troubles with breathing.
As it were, death amongst an Adventurer’s squad wasn’t something that never appeared. Only, such an uncomfortable death was not something everyone could presently accept.
If it was a death during battle, then dying was just dying.
But these 6 fellows were almost all amidst of slumbering and without the slightest of guards; all dead at the hands of bugbears. This kind of death, even as Rumont saw it, was difficult to accept. After all, within the 6 people, there were even 2 that he had once treated and saved. Though their relations weren’t as deep as Nick’s or Fafnir’s, they still yet had among them the certain feelings of a comrade-in-arms.
Of the 6 people that passed away, 4 were members that belonged to Lancas’ squadron, the other 2 were men of Howard’s squad.
Looking at the capabilities of the two squadrons, the martial skills of the men from Lancas’ squadron were even higher, yet because they pretty much died asleep; even a few people had taken off their footwear, they completely couldn’t put up one iota of defense.
Thus, amidst the raid of the bugbears, Lancas’ squadron had the most disastrous of sufferings, having 4 completely dead.
Commander Lancas of their own squadron, the youth that always had a slight smile, also had a gloomy expression on his face has he looked over the corpses of his own team members; unknown of what he was currently thinking.
Similarly, Commander Howard’s complexion was even so gloomy it seemed that water could be squeezed out of it. He was always a leader that earnestly took responsibility of the team. Experiencing such an event this time also made him enter a silent and uncommunicative state.
And apart from the 6 people that died, the casualties of the 2 squadrons were made of numbers of more than half of the total.
While Rumont treated his teammates, he was inwardly alarmed. Fortunately his perceptions were usually sensitive. His keen senses once again saved him from the approaching dangers.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been 6 people on top of the ground, but instead 7.
“Sukhar, move a bit, have a good look at the current situation.” at this time, the last to be completely treated by him was again the Archer.
Seeing that the great man had sure enough stood up, moving completely as he was told, Rumont’s face immediately displayed a smile. Seeing him smile, Sukhar also smiled back.
“I saw the situation just then. This time you performed quite well eh. Not only did you kill the enemies bravely, in addition you also saved your own team members. Truly well done! Later, you’ll definitely become a great Warrior!” knowing that Sukhar wasn’t great with words, and had always received the exclusion of the teammates from Lancas’ squadron, Rumont didn’t dare to pat him on the shoulder, only encouraging him.
Sukhar forced a smile: “actually, I was also hit by a bugbear. But I only suffered a small flesh wound, thus I was fortunate enough to save people……as for becoming a great Warrior……”
Sukhar’s face was showing an expression of recollection: “honestly, my dream is to become a Sniper. I’ve been fond of archery ever since I was small, but because I grew up slow-witted, people would frequently laugh at me when I was learning archery. A lot of people had advised me to head towards becoming a Warrior, only I really do enjoy the bow and arrow. I believe one day that when I hold it, I’ll be able to perfectly send my arrows in any direction to my desired target. Just thinking about such a beautiful feeling makes me exceptionally happy. Later though, when I really became a professional Archer, many people thought it was inconceivable……”
Probably because he was thinking back about the toxin matter that happened afterwards, Sukhar’s expression began to sadden: “later, problems arose with my fingers. I could no longer pull the bowstring unhindered. For the purpose of living, I couldn’t help but do various kinds of jobs. Only, without the former letting me endlessly increase my power, this kind of feeling is really too painful. Up to this point in time, I honestly haven’t touched my bow for two years already, neither going on ventures. Up until I heard about how the magical beast forest outside of Ricca town could possible have the herbs to cure my injury, did I once more rouse my faith, again undertaking a venture……”
During Sukhar’s process of confession, Rumont had actually played the role of a listener from the beginning, he would only occasionally raise a few questions; inserting a few words. The rest of the time, he would just listen. Hearing the other party speak of his former dreams, speaking of former setbacks.
Rumont was actually rather fond of this person, thus, he was showing quite a bit of special consideration towards the bowman; Rumont had always tried to avoid contact with Lancas’ squadron members.
“Alright, no need to think too much, your injury just got better. You currently still need to first rest a bit, we still have quite a bit of busy matters tomorrow.” seeing him display a tired attitude, Rumont promptly got up and spoke. The counterpart also returned grateful smile before closing his eyes in taking a rest.
When Rumont returned to the side of Fafnir and the others, he had discovered that the two squadron Commanders were discussing something. The Commander of the other squadron, Lancas, who Rumont had always disliked, was beaming a smile while heading towards him.
“Your treatment techniques are pretty good. Thank you for the care towards my squadron members.” Lancas went to Rumont’s front, smiling.
Rumont inwardly sighed inside, while outwardly he returned: “no need for thanks, aren’t we teammates currently? No need to be polite when we’re among the same team.”
“That so? Then that’s good.” Lancas said the words softly, before turning his body around, and again looking for Howard for a discussion on some matter.
“That guy. Seems to always give people a type of nerve jolting sensation. Rumont……Rumont, what are you looking at?” seeing him depart, Fafnir whispered softly.
In the end, seeing a lack of a response from Rumont, he lifted his head and found that Rumont’s vision was just gazing fixedly at the corner of the stone chamber. And at that place, it was devoid of anything.
“Nothing.” Rumont just brought his senses back before shaking his head.
And at this time, the Commanders of the two squadrons had settled on temporarily not leaving. Even though they had encountered the abrupt raiding of the bugbears in here, yet post-combat, a good half of the people were all sporting injuries. And although the they had been treated, they still needed to rest and recover.
Presently, the skies hadn’t brighten still. It was still a dark night within the forest of magical beasts. Fatal dangers could be encountered at anytime. Thus, they temporarily couldn’t in anyway, leave from this location.
And for the safety of everybody, the two squadron Commanders had decided to immediately conduct a thorough inspection of the stone chamber. After all, when the bugbears attacked, the door of the chamber had been firmly shut; the bugbears did not seem to have entered from the outside.
Since they didn’t come in from the stone door, in that case, the sole possibility was that within the stone chambers, there was still another passage that lead to another area.
Without inspecting how the bunch of bugbears that had somehow entered, it was incapable of guaranteeing everyone’s safety. Consequently, different to the casual sweeping at the start, this time, the two squadron members practically underwent the scouring of the stone chamber floors.
“Say Fafnir, is this place a bit off?” Rumont questioned Fafnir who was by his side while using his hands to feel the walls.
On the wall in front of him, the faded image of a Goddess was engraved vividly and lifelike, smiling and gazing at everyone. In fact, this kind of imagery was displayed all around within the stone chamber. However, because there was no colour painted, without therefore looking carefully, you basically would not be conscious of it.
Fafnir nodded, before watching in puzzlement as Rumont endlessly used his hands to feel the engraving upon the wall. “The walls are all packed with this, what’s so strange about it?”
“I don’t know either, it’s just, I always get an odd type of sensation from this image. Who knows though.” Rumont casually responded. Afterwards, he carefully and cautiously placed his hand atop of the engraved hand.
Engraved in the hand was the carving of a key. It wasn’t big, and was protruding out slightly. Because it’s size wasn’t big, when it was within the engraved hand, without carefully looking, the key could be easily missed.
Pata4. Once Rumont’s finger came into contact with the key.
Shortly, a burst of frigid cold air was blowing up from below. It could be seen, by his and Fafnir’s side, that two large stone slabs was silently and unhurriedly opening towards two directions.
Afterwards, an enormous entrance had appeared in front of them.
1. [死不瞑目 – died with eyes opened.]↩
2. [耿耿於懷]↩
3. [神射手 – Marksman/Sharpshooter/Sniper. I’m basing this off Fire Emblem, Archer -> Sniper]↩
4. [啪嗒]↩
Bo~ 
Thanks!
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