Chapter 107: A hysterical ambush down to the most minute details
One had to say, Trunks was truly familiar with the terrain of this area. He was like another magical creature when he was on the back of his manticore. He had extraordinary abilities to begin with, add to that the help from the manticore, and his overall knowledge of the entire terrain, he was a top notch expert in every sense of the word.
If it hadn’t been for surveillance from Han Shuo’s original demons, the group would’ve been at a loss on how to deal with Trunks’ attacks. They would’ve surely suffered serious casualties in the dark of the night. After all, none of the seven adventurers present, including Han Shuo, would be able to take many of Trunks’ attacks if they fought him alone.
However, with complete end to end surveillance from the original demons, all this had changed. Originally the hunter, Trunks would possibly become someone else’s prey for the first time.
“He’s coming.” Han Shuo, sharing the same tent with Odysseus, suddenly opened his mouth.
Odysseus didn’t express too much curiosity with regards to Han Shuo’s remarkable perception. He only grasped the longsword in his hand tightly after hearing Han Shuo’s words and stared at him, “How should we handle this?”
“Don’t worry, Trunks is currently observing us. Let’s go into action when he makes his move.” Han Shuo closed his eyes and crossed his legs, opening his mouth in explanation.
Trunks was as agile as a monkey on several trees surrounding the area. He leveraged the pliable branches to pile up boulders between several trees and didn’t make any noise. No one could’ve noticed him within the darkness.
There was still a bit of distance between the manticore and the camp. It was now slowly circling the tents. As an animal exceedingly adept at hunting down prey, he was a hunter with quite a lot of patience, just like Trunks.
Trunks slowly landed on a tree above the tents of Han Shuo and the others. He looked down coldly at the tents below him, as if debating how to proceed.
He held a few small stones in his hands, sending two of them flying towards the tents, landing softly into the nearby bushes with a light sound. Several startled shouts rang out from the tents as Han Shuo and Odysseus abruptly walked out of the tents, investigating the area that Trunks had created a disturbance in with the little stones.
The manticore purposefully made a sound at the same time from the other side. Gordon and another swordsman looked at each other and headed in the direction of the manticore when they exited their tents. The two mages and archer remained where they were, observing the surroundings with alert eyes and guarding the area to provide backup for the others.
Just as Han Shuo and Odysseus had arrived at where the stones had created the noise and Gordon had also left with the other swordsman, Trunks suddenly made use of a pliable branch to swing over towards Gordon and the two others. It looked like he planned on taking care of Gordon and the two others first.
“Let’s go.” Han Shuo said lowly and circled around with Odysseus, approaching Trunks from another direction.
Gordon and the two others proceeded with slow footsteps, their gazes full of caution as they continuously patrolled and searched the bushes around them. The manticore was lying in wait in the shrubs ten meters away from them, and would immediately attack without warning as soon as the two drew closer.
Making use of the branches to swing back and forth, Trunks magically didn’t emit any sound and didn’t reveal any part of himself. He slowly drew closer to Gordon and the other, appearing swiftly above the two people’s heads.
A crossbow suddenly rang out at this moment. It appeared all the more ear piercing in the dead of the night. As he was swinging between the branches, Trunks suddenly discovered that this crossbolt was aimed at him and was incredibly astonished and shocked.
He didn’t have any purchase for his feet as he was swinging back and forth, and could only twist his body to land on the ground in resignation. At the same time, the two mages and the archer, who should’ve been standing guard near the tents, abruptly miraculously appeared, with a water dragon, a bolt of lightning, and three arrows suddenly flying in his direction.
Halfway through the air, Trunks had no way to stop his body from falling. He defended himself with great difficulty as snow white fighting aura flared out from his broadsword, but in his haste, it was apparent that Trunks had taken some hits. Although he could chop Nia’s three arrows in half, he was hit by the lightning blow and took the water dragon to the chest. He fell into the thick growth of shrubs after emitting a low grunt.
“Third tree on the left and five paces in front of you, attack!” Han Shuo suddenly called out calmly.
Several rounds of attacks were fired, their target was the newly landed Trunks. Several rounds of attacks abruptly landed after Han Shuo’s soft exclamation. This time, Trunks evaded the attacks from the two mages, but a random shot from the completely invisible Nia just so happened to stab right into Trunks’ butt.
A painful wail suddenly sounded as Trunks obviously hadn’t found his bearings yet. He changed directions after crying out and attempted to attack them from another side, but Han Shuo continued to call out his location and the others sent their attacks crashing down, miraculously always where Trunks was.
“What’s going on?” Suffering from the barrage of attacks, Trunks had never been more depressed in his life than he was today and finally could help but start cursing.
Trunks had always been supremely confident in his ability to conceal his movements and ambush others. He’d never felt that anyone could see through his movement within the Dark Forest. However, he was coming off worse for the wear for the first time in facing an adventurer group with mediocre ability. He was always drowned by attacks no matter how he shifted and dodged, and he’d suffered from not so light injuries after a while.
The manticore, that’d been lying in ambush, finally couldn’t restrain its impatience when it saw that its master’s method didn’t seem to be working. The manticore sent shrubbery and grass flying as it ran, and a tree as thick as a man’s waist fell with a thud when its sharp claws slashed downwards. Its presence and momentum was astonishing to the extreme.
“The manticore is coming, attack!” Odysseus called out loudly as the three swordsmen suddenly spread out and blocked the manticore’s path forward.
A portion of the attacks that had been targeting Trunks all along now split up and changed their target to the manticore charging over with utmost speed. Except, the manticore was tough and its speed was as fast as lightning. All of the group’s attacks actually landed on thin air, with only the arrows shot out from Nia connecting with the manticore, but not causing much damage.
At this moment, a cold-faced Han Shuo started manipulating the Demonslayer Edge according to the Law of Refining Magical Treasure. A beam of purple light suddenly shot out, drawing a beautiful arc through the empty air of the night sky. It suddenly stabbed towards the manticore’s back. As a level one magical creature, the manticore noticeably felt the approach of danger and then very agilely evaded the Demonslayer Edge’s first attack.
At the same time, Trunks revealed himself as he limped and staggered out from the distance. He raised his broadsword with fury and approached the two mages and Nia, attempting to combine efforts with the manticore’s strength and kill everyone present with no reservations whatsoever.
“Ignore the manticore, concentrate your attacks on Trunks.” Han Shuo suddenly called out, causing the two mages and Nia to abruptly change direction and continue attacking the swiftly approaching Trunks.
Of Odysseus and the two swordsmen, Gordon was sent to Nia’s side as the remaining two rushed towards the manticore and started using fighting aura to attack it. When Odysseus approached the manticore, the fighting aura that he’d gathered to its peak was destroyed with a slash of its claws. Odysseus himself was sent flying far into the distance. The other swordsman took advantage of the opportunity to stab the manticore, but he only left a small cut on the manticore and rather further enraged it instead.
The furious manticore raised his claws and attempted to smash the swordsman near him to death. At this moment, the purple light that’d disappeared briefly abruptly reappeared to suddenly stabbed at the tail of the manticore.
The manticore sensed the danger and dashed forward with a leap. The swordsman closest to it barely managed to hold onto his life, but although the manticore had dodged in time, the Demonslayer Edge had already sliced down its back and the frigid Mystical Spellfire surged into the manticore’s body.
Madly furious roars suddenly emitted from the manticore’s mouth. Since Han Shuo was manipulating the Demonslayer Edge, he could feel its wrath. He immediately focused all his attentions on manipulating the Demonslayer Edge, attempting to kill it where it stood.
“Damn it, you dare hurt my companion!” The limping Trunks had an arrow sticking out his butt. He was dripping wet due to the water dragon attack on his chest. Because he’d also been electrocuted, part of his hair was burnt and his original bearings had completely vanished. Blood also trickled unendingly out his mouth. He appeared completely bedraggled.
“I’m even going to harm you, much less than your pet.” Han Shuo said after snickering coldly, the Demonslayer Edge still doggedly hanging out the back of the manticore.
A shrill whistle suddenly sounded from Trunks’ mouth. When the extremely maddened manticore heard the whistle, it immediately retreated and ran off into the distance. Trunks looked hatefully at those assembled after his sharp whistle and also fled swiftly in a direction opposite to the manticore.
“You stay where you are, I’ll go after him.” One had to take someone’s life when they were down. Trunks was obviously heavily injured and Han Shuo naturally knew how to take advantage of an opportunity. When he saw Odysseus, who had been sent flying by the manticore, crawl up from the ground spitting blood with no danger to his life, he immediately chased in the direction that Trunks had fled.