Chapter 10: Silent Approach

A group of eight people carefully hid behind the hillside, waiting for the best opportunity.

The sky gradually darkened, and the trolls who had been hunting outside brought their prey back to the camp one after another, and a bonfire was lit in the camp.

Except for a few trolls standing guard outside the camp, the rest of the trolls were resting around the bonfire. In the corner, some trolls dressed in grey linen were preparing food.

At the largest bonfire in the center of the camp, several trolls wearing leather armor and carrying axes at their waists were hunched over, surrounding an old troll wearing a wooden mask.

One of the taller troll warriors respectfully reported today's harvest to the masked troll: "Lord Toby, today we captured eighty highland spiders and twelve velociraptors, and collected spider poison sacs and leather. In addition, we captured nine highland velociraptor cubs and several velociraptor eggs."

Toby is the leader of this hunting team and a troll witch doctor from the Deadwood Clan. He wears a white wooden voodoo mask and has long, emerald green hair that falls messily behind his head. Two huge tusks protrude from his mouth, giving him a particularly fierce appearance.

After listening to the troll warrior's report, Toby slowly nodded, looked at the trolls sitting around him, and said, "This time, I am leading the team. Spider poison sacs are our priority. Our compatriots in Jinta´lor have some conflicts with the Evil Branch Clan. They need these poison sacs to brew holy medicine to increase their strength. And we also need to bring the prey back to Deadwood Village. The cubs at home need more meat. Since the Trollbane family's cub, named Danath, appeared in the human army, the number of our successful attacks on human villages has been greatly reduced. The chieftain needs our hunting team to hunt in this area to alleviate the tribe's food pressure."

"My lord, why don't we attack the human farms and kill all those red-robed humans? Not only can we eat them, but we can also get the crops and livestock from their farms." "Yes, my lord, Trollbane is our mortal enemy. We should kill him and tell the humans that it's not easy to mess with trolls." "Kill humans and eat meat, eat meat!"

Listening to the noisy shouts of the warriors below, the warrior who had reported earlier was secretly furious. He glared angrily at the trolls who were shouting the loudest and roared, "Shut up, all of you! The temporary truce with the humans was decided by the chieftain and the high priest. It's not your place to talk. Shut up. Keep listening to what Priest Toby says."

This great warrior obviously had great prestige among the trolls. With just one sentence, he silenced all the trolls. The trolls who had just said they wanted to go to war and eat humans also retracted their necks and squatted down.

Witch Doctor Toby cleared his throat and said, "The truce is only temporary. The evil branch of the Hinterland tribe is too crazy. When they offered a blood sacrifice to the gods, they captured people from our Deadwood tribe and the Evil Tooth tribe as sacrifices. Fighting the evil branch of the tribe has absorbed most of our tribe's energy. When we have time, we will teach the humans a lesson."

As a witch doctor and one of the few spellcasters in the tribe, Toby is considered a mid-to-high-level figure in the tribe and knows much more than these soldiers. Not only did the friction with the Evil Branch Tribe attract the attention of the Deadwood Tribe, but the tribe also had other big plans.

Toby then instructed the troll warrior, "Atadin, our hunting mission is almost complete. The main task now is to capture live prey for sacrifice. The tribe needs live animals to sacrifice to the lord Shadra."

Galen and his companions did not know that there was a level-seven warrior in the troll team. He was a troll who had scattered outside hunting and returned to the camp after dark.

However, this did not stop their surprise attack plan. Near midnight, Galen and his men were ready to take action.

The night was dark, the moonlight in the sky was blocked by clouds, and only a sparse light shone on the Arathi Highlands. The group smeared the previously prepared herb juice on their bodies, then dispersed, with Galen, Omar, and Varokar in the front row, and five guards behind, slowly approaching the troll camp with the light on the high ground.

In the troll camp, only the largest bonfire in the center of the camp was still burning, with occasional crackling sounds of burning wood. Most of the trolls have gone to their tents to rest. The camp is very quiet, and only snoring can be heard. Two troll headhunters, carrying spears, stood guard on both sides of the camp.

The dense grass of the Arathi Highlands provided them with good cover. Galen crawled forward in the grass and stopped when he was almost a hundred meters away from the camp. As planned, it was Omar and Varokar's turn to act.

On both sides of Galen, Omar and Varokar also stopped at roughly the same distance. Omar took out a military crossbow from his waist, carefully placed an arrow on the crossbow arm, and slowly drew the string together. When he was ready, he made a "croak, croak" sound imitating a frog's call.

On the other side, Varokar prepared the crossbow in his hand and aimed at the troll sentry less than a hundred meters in front of him. When he heard the "cu-cu" signal, he responded with "croak, croak," then silently counted to three in his mind, squeezed the trigger with his finger, and the crossbow arrow shot out with a whoosh.

After hearing the sound of crossbow arrows flying from both sides, two sentries in the troll camp had a crossbow arrow pierced into their necks. Then, with two dull thuds, the bodies of the two troll sentries fell onto the grass like rags.

At this moment, in a tent in the center of the troll camp, the sleeping troll warrior Atadin suddenly opened his eyes, quickly got up, rushed out of the tent, saw that two sentries had fallen, and immediately shouted, "Enemy attack!!" Then he turned back to the tent, grabbed his axe, and rushed out.

The shrill roar immediately alarmed the trolls resting in the tent. Some of them immediately got up, grabbed their weapons, and rushed out of the tent, while others stuck their heads out of the tent, watched with sleepy eyes as others got up, and only then rushed out after realizing what was happening.

The purpose of Galen and his men was to raid the camp, but they did not expect that there would be such a vigilant soldier in the camp. Although they did not achieve their goal, they were less than a hundred meters away from the camp. When the troll Atadin roared that the enemy was attacking, Galen and his men knew that their plan to raid the camp had failed. They had to retreat or force their way through.

Galen stood up without hesitation and drew the two-handed sword he carried on his back. He glanced to the side and saw that Omar and Varokar had also stood up like him, dropped their crossbows, and drawn their weapons. Then he shouted, "Brothers, follow me and charge!"