The Attack Begins

After checking the weapons and armor, we leave Azalea village through the north gate to meet the scout who notified the command regarding the Pigmen group as they are still being followed by him.

It took us only thirty minutes to meet the scout and I am a little surprised to see Tariq, my sister's boyfriend who is the scout. I am a little confused and worried.

'When did he move from the Local Security Force to the Defense Corp?'

'Does my sister or my mother even know about this?'

'What is he doing as a scout when he is an archer with the Lightning element?'

These were the few questions that came in mind when I see him here, but I controlled myself before asking them as it is his decision and life, not mine.

I look at his face which is as surprising as mine is. He didn't expect to meet me here, as a trainee from the Obsidian Shadow, just like how I didn't expect him to be here as a scout.

"Alex?" He asks me with surprise in his voice to which I just nod saying "Hello" as I didn't want to talk as I will start asking questions which I am trying to hold.

"You have joined the Obsidian Shadow? When?" He asks again, which thankfully Jack interrupts asking "You two know each other?" To which We both say "Yes" together.

"Good, That is Vimal whom I will be protecting, you take care of Alex." Jack says to us with a smile knowing we will watch each other's backs since we know each other. He continues asking "Where are the Pigmen now? How many are they?" Without giving us time to respond to his previous protection allocation.

"They are to the north of here, we can catch up to them in about twenty minutes if we walk a little faster." Tariq says and gives us the full report on the Pigmen group we are about to intercept.

According to the report they are armed with low grade weapons and they are all in Low-E grade with their leader being High-E, but there are about eighteen of them which will be difficult to handle. It will be hard for us except Jack. All of us including Tariq are in Low-E grade, so the battle will be for Quality vs Quantity due to the high grade weapons we have.

Now, I regret for not getting a shield along with the katana which will be very helpful in defense against the humanoid Pigmen we are about to face and I have nothing to defend with except the Ice Armor which I am not sure will be effective against them.

I just walk along with the others deciding to give my best with what I have as the regret has no medicine to cure or heal and I put it to the back of my mind to focus on the task at hand, to eliminate the Pigmen group that are moving towards the village.

As per Tariq, they are moving in a zigzag way to throw the humans off and moving very slowly to avoid any detection from the sounds they might make while moving at their regular speed which proves their intellectual is better than the normal animals and the monsters I have battled against till now.

We walked a little faster as the Pigmen are moving close to the village and will reach within an hour if uninterrupted. Because of this, we were about to reach their location in twenty minutes and I am shocked to see they are walking in a single file with coordination and discipline. They are not making any sound while moving.

It is a good thing Tariq already predicted this will be the place they will be going through, or it would have been very difficult for us to find them.

They are all wearing armor that covers their entire body except their face which is like pigs with pink skin. They have tusks from their lower jaw that go till their nostrils. Their eyes are covered with a visor from the helmet that is attached to their armor.

I am a little confused to see why they are called Pigmen as their faces looks almost like a boar which is more muscular and stronger than the pig. Who am I to question their naming skill? I named my first weapon 'Red Blade' just because it's blade was red.

Tariq and Vimal looked at each other before nodding and taking out their bows to start the attack. Our plan was to attack the front and back of their formation with the archers while I will go to the middle along with Jack to keep their focus on us as much as we can.

Tariq and Vimal start shooting the arrows at the same time distracting the Pigmen that are at the front and back of the single file formation. They immediately break the formation and spread with a meter distance between each of them in every direction without any orders from their leader as if it was pre-planned.

I can see confusion in some of their faces which makes us believe they did not plan on getting exposed before they do what they came here to do. This clearly shows we have the advantage of surprise attack as they also do not know if they are surrounded or getting attacked from a single side, thanks to the dense forest.

ARGHHHH

ARGHHHH

Myself and Jack start running to the center of the formation shouting like barbarians to get their attention and it was partially success as we were able to get the attention of a few Pigment while the others still look at the surroundings to check if they are surrounded.

Jack goes straight to the leader who is at the center of the formation with a greatsword in his hands. The archers start shooting at us which is defended by Jack using his shield. I dodge a few arrows which he can't defend and keep pushing forward with the same speed we started running.

We covered the fifteen meters distance between us in a few seconds and see two pigmen with short swords and shield coming towards me while their leader along with two others goes towards Jack.