volume 2 - Chapter 74 (1/2)
TL: Well this is the first draft, not vetted for mistakes. I was kind of distracted by stuff recently, but you should see 4 draft amber sword chapters (including this one) + 3 draft TSTBGAM chapters over the next few few hours.
Edit: Okay, hopefully I copied the right chapter this time. The reason why there’s a mistake is because the original site had a numbering error. It literally skipped “chapter 66” and I have manually corrected each chapter, which kind of confuses me until I finally made a mistake with this chapter.
Chapter 74 – Night a.s.sault (1)
===================== Unknown POV ====================
“Here’s someone we know, Carles.”
A man wearing a black cavalier’s uniform watched the valleys from afar. The fire torches lit up the dark forest like stars in the sky. The Grey Wolves Mercenaries seemed to slumber as there were no sounds within the camps. The only noise within the forest were the rustling of leaves caused by the western wind that came from the sea.
[It sounds like a roaring tide.]
There seemed to be a creature bellowing deep within the mountain forests as the echoes spreaded out. Moments later, a giant monster emerged out from the trees with its immense claws dragging a female guard’s corpse.
She was also a scout that Brendel had seen in the afternoon, but she had turned into a lifeless corpse. The monster gurgled as the the orange flames s.h.i.+mmered; it was clearly displeased with the cavalier’s flippant att.i.tude.
“It’s not your place to lecture me, small one.”
The monster’s voice was raspy and broken, like a clockwork mechanism that had not been maintained.
It straightened its body and threw the corpse down from a cliff. The dead mercenary fell into a number of dense shrubs, causing many branches to snap loudly as she fell some thirty or forty feet. Despite the noise, the distance to the camp was too far away for anyone to hear the commotion, especially when there was a strong wind.
The cavalier frowned as he looked at his partner—
Then he saw a group of ghastly translucent spiders with poisonous green eyes screeching noisily as they pounced from the nearby trees…..
================= Brendel POV ===============
There was a cracking sound.
Brendel stopped what he was doing and located the source of the sound. He found one of his cards on the floor. WHen he turned it over, he saw the Wind Spider Spirits had turned grey, an indication that it had entered into the Graveyard.
His first reaction was not to mourn for the loss of it but quickly kept it into his pocket and extinguished his lamp, causing his surroundings turned dark immediately.
[That’s too fast.]
Brendel felt like he was slightly caught off guard.
The Grey Wolves Mercenaries had selected an ideal vale to avoid the winds and constructed tents there. Brendel suggested their forces to be situated further from each other to avoid suspicion, Even though Makarov and Buga felt surprised, they happily agreed. Brendel did not trust them, and they did not trust him either, thus the two scheming parties found this arrangement to be agreeable.
What Makarov did not expect was why Brendel wanted this arrangement; it was just so that he could run away in the middle of the night with an excuse.
The youth crawled out of his tent and immediately felt the hair on his bare skin stand up. Chablis was mired in deep fog in its area, and had high temperature during the day time with the temperature falling quickly in the night. Unprepared travelers would certainly find themselves to be chilled if they did not prepare adequate bedding.
Brendel shook off any intention to sleep and observed his surroundings. Human figures came in the form of shadows, and despite Brendel’s lack of vision training in the night, his high stats in perception allowed him to perceive things in clarity during the night.
[It seems like Makarov is only suspicious of us, but they don’t intend to harm us.]
After confirming that there was no one nearby, he slowly stood up. He was already dressed and ready for full combat. He wore a set of studded leather armor, with pouches attached to his belt as well as a longsword. In his hand was a backpack with necessary water and food. He quietly went over to a nearby tent and patted on the tent’s cloth. After a few seconds, a curious voice came from within:
“Brendel?”
“Romaine, why are you in here!” Brendel felt confounded as he had checked repeatedly that it was supposed to be Amandina’s tent.
“It’s a surprise!” She giggled with a little pride.
“Cut your b.l.o.o.d.y surprises.” Brendel growled.
Someone emerged from the tent, and he saw Amandina tying her hair while she stood up. She had an apologetic face, but Brendel knew that Romaine would have ignored her protests. He gave an audible sigh and apologized to her.