--On The Main Road somewhere In Yodan--

.

'Whoo! Whoo!'

'Creeeeekkkk!'

'Crook! Crook!'

'Awoooooooo!'

The songs of several night creatures played in tune with one another.

The owls, crickets, frogs and even the mighty wolves all howled out throughout the night.

The velvet starry sky gave off a cool blueish ray of light that highlighted those below it.

In the dark forest just close to the main road, 2,000 men were all lurking in the shadows with their weapons at hand.

"Captain, all the men are in position."

"Good!

It's been 2 hours since the scouts deliver the message.

So the enemy should be here any moment now.

Remember, we can't leave anyone alive.

More importantly, we must bring our target head to the simple if we want to remain alive after today.

We have way more men than they do.

So there's no excuse for failure."

"Understood Captain."

Captain Shai watched his subordinate run off before looking at the roads again.

Soon, his eyes lit up.

They're here!

.

Tudup! Tudup! Tudup!'

On the main road, several horses could be seen advancing at a steady pace.

The black stallion horses calmly carried their passengers across the isolated roads.

It was currently midnight, and most towns and cities officially closed their gates around 11 P.M.

So almost no one who had a home around these parts would be out at this time.

Again, the closest city, town or even village was a day away.

That said, only those travelling towards faraway places should be out now

'Tudup! Tudup! Tudup! Tudup!'

As the horses advanced, within one of the carriages, 2 men were currently sitting in silence.

One was calmly reading a Baymardian book, while continuously nibbling on biscuits.

Both were travelling alongside 5 Carriages, 15 Wagons that had cooking supplies, food and other supplies, as well as a total of 800 knights on horseback.

Everything was going smoothly until soon, some of the men screamed and fell.

'Thup! Thup! Thup'

"It's an ambush!

Quickly, protect his majesty!!'"

'Sling!'

The moment the knights saw the rain of arrows, they quickly raised their shields and unsheathed their swords.

"Everyone, get in formation.

Hurry!!"

The leader quickly took charge of the situation without haste.

'Dodododododododododod!'

The rain of arrows bounced off the shields one by one.

So far, they only lost a handful of men due to their rectangular formation.

Surprisingly, they held on like so as if waiting for something.

Captain Shai frowned in confusion.

What were they trying to do?

Why weren't they at least shooting arrows through the formation towards them?

Shai felt uneasy all over.

Something wasn't right.

.

Shai's gut feelings were indeed right. 

But before he could crack his brain on it further, like magic, a loud thunderous sound clapped through the air.

'Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!'

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The ghastly cries of many men echoed throughout the forest.

And those who were within close range from the attack either died or got brutally injured.

Shai flew back towards the tree behind him.

"Ugh!"

What was that?

He remembered that he was standing there perfectly fine.

And in a split second, he saw a yellowish cloud that blew him away forcefully.

He looked around and saw that many around him were either leaning on a tree or rolling on the ground a little bit further behind.

Some even had others 2 or 3 others on top of them.

Was it black powder?

No!

They had personally scouted the area before setting up here so how could someone sneak large barrels here?

Moreover, black powder doesn't produce such thunderous sounds.

So what was that?

Shai's face was completely distorted as the more he advanced.

As their leader, he had to see the overall situation and quickly make plans.

So he cautiously advanced towards the attack regions to see what the hell was going on.

But all he met was a bloody forest with shattered tree parts, dead bodies, separated body parts and brutally injured wailing men.

"Ahhhhh!

Someone help me."

"No!

How can I loose my legs?

No!

Tell me this isn't true!"

"Am I dying because of a piece of tree wood?

No, I can't die now when I havent even taken down a single enemy yet.

No! This is so unfair.

I can't die now, I cant for now, I..."

(×∆×)

The entire scene was too gruesome and something that Shai had never seen before.

He gripped his sword and stood there silently before gritting his teeth in the end.

The night sky is clear with no chance of rain.

So this wasn't lightning.

Again, there was no way that this came from black powder.

And he was sure that his targets weren't expecting his surprise attack.

So this can only be caused by a natural disaster.

That said, they still had to be careful just in case he was wrong.

Nonetheless, he knew that he had to take out the target today or the temple would take care of him instead.

With that, his mind quickly went to work.

.

The forest region is somewhat hilly here.

So right from the start, Shai had divided his team into 3 groups that all stood at different distances from the target.

Those very close to the roads were the warriors.

And after them were the archers, who were hidden at an elevated angle.

Finally, following the archers was the backup team composed of both warriors and archers.

Of course, Shai stayed with this group while watching everything unfold.

But now, the entire second group were either dead or brutally injured since the explosions went off by them.

As for those in the 1st and 3rd teams, they were only lightly injured and we're pushed back by some strange force.

Even though they didn't have any body parts dislocated, some still sprained their ankles, arms and so on.

One shouldn't forget that shattered tree parts, and rocks were flying all over the place at incredible speeds.

So some of them got hit a little harder than the rest 

The event still greatly impacted them and raised some level of fear since they individually came up with so many theories of what was going on.

But before they knew it, their targets who were previously in formation with their shields, all charged towards them like crazy.

"Everyone, charge!!!!!"

"Yahhhhh!!!"

Their target had become the hunter.